“The round shape of our head emulates heaven. The square shape of our feet emulates earth. Heaven has the four seasons, the five movements, the nine divisions, and the 366 days. Human beings have four limbs, five organ (zhang) systems, nine orifices, and 366 joints. Heaven has wind, rain, cold, and (summer) heat, while human temperament has ‘taking’, ‘giving’, joy, and anger. Our gallbladder functions like clouds, the lung like mist, the liver like wind, the kidney like rain, and the spleen like thunder. All of these are the union of Heaven and Earth made manifest within the human being.” ~ The Huainan Masters (Huainanzi): JingShen Xun, 120 B.C.E..

Ninth Night of Navratri (Goddess-celebration of Nine Nights in Hindu and Tantrik Traditions). The final night of journey, night of Goddess Siddhidatri. Siddhi means ‘perfection’, ‘accomplishment’, ‘attainment’, and Datri means ‘Bestower’. The Goddess of Great Perfection. She is also known as Prajñaparamita, “the Perfection of (Transcendent) Wisdom” or Mahamaya or the “Mother of all Buddhas.”

She is the ultimate nature of all sentient beings which is pure, all-encompassing, primordial bliss or naturally occurring timeless perfect-clear-light of bliss.

“Love never sleeps, nor even rests,
nor stays for long with those that do.
Love is language that cannot be said,
or heard.” ~Rumi

“You can hold back from
suffering of the world,
you have permission to do so,
and it is in accordance
with your nature,
but perhaps this very holding back
is the one suffering
you could have avoided” ~ Franz Kafka

“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope,
for hope would be hope for the wrong thing.
And wait without love. For love would be love,
of the wrong thing.
Yet there is faith.
But the faith and the hope and the love, are all in the waiting.
And the darkness shall be the light
and the stillness the dancing.” ~ T.S. Elliot

Satcitananda – Sat (Truth), Cit (Mind), and Ananda (Bliss). Truth that dissolves mind so we can experience great bliss.

 Eigth Night of Navratri (Goddess-celebration of Nine Nights in Hindu and Tantrik Traditions). Night of Goddess Mahagauri, ‘Maha’ means ‘Great’ and ‘Gauri’ means ‘pure and clear light’. the Great Awarness of Clear Light. The Stillness of mind and dissolution of ‘I-ness’ leads to the realization of Mahamudra.

“Mind without projection is mahamudra.
Train and develop this and you will come to the deepest awakening.” ~ Mahasiddha Tilopa

“Many lamps are lit in the house,
But the blind are still in darkness;
Sahaja is all-pervasive
But the fool cannot see what is under his nose.
Just as many rivers are one in the ocean
All half-truths are swallowed by the one truth;
The effulgence of the sun illuminates all dark corners. ” ~ Mahasiddha Saraha

“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,
There is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense.” ~Rumi

Seventh Night of Navratri (Goddess-celebration of Nine Nights in Hindu and Tantrik Traditions). Goddess Kalaratri, ‘Kala’ is Time or movement and ‘Ratri’ is Night or Dissolution or Death. The Great Awareness of Kali when awakened, destroys the worst form of fear, that is, the fear of death and also our destroys delusion of separation. Our sense of separate-self , the ‘I-ness’ is dissolved. We learn to ‘let go’.

Letting go and holding-on are both in the mind… it is possible for our awareness to guide mind down one path… a space of clarity, love, and stillness. This meditative-state of non-discriminative awareness is also called nirvikalpa samadhi by Patanjali in Yogasutra. One can ‘clearly see’ love and happiness in every heart.

Ramakrishna Parmahansa was known for his love of Kali and this Great Awareness was completely awaken in his heart. He could ‘see’ the love in the most angry, and fearful hearts. A woman came to Ramakrishna and said, “because of the death of my son, whom I loved so much, I have lost my faith and love for God. I don’t feel any love of God and I am in distress. Please, help me.” Ramakrishna, said “do you have any grandchild?” “yes, I have a grand child and love him very much.” “He is your God, feel the love of God through him”, replied Ramakrishna. He was able to ‘clearly see’ through her anguish and distress that there was still ‘love’ in her heart.

“When I grasped the hint of Love,
I banished ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ from me.
I was cleansed within and without.
Now, wherever I look, the Beloved pervades.
Ever new, ever fresh is the spring of love!” ~ Bulleh Shah

Sixth Night of Navratri (Goddess-celebration of Nine Nights in Hindu and Tantrik Traditions), night of Goddess Katyayani – “the One who cuts through”. She is the “awareness” that transforms our demons (anger, fear, grief, hate, jealousy, narcissism, etc..) and demi-gods (runaway desires, aspirations, and hopes that consume us) into dew-drops in the garden of our consciousness, so we can become whole.

“It is wonderful you demons came today.
You must come again tomorrow.
From time to time, we should converse.” ~ Milarepa

“Milarepa returned to his cave after gathering firewood, only to find it filled with demons. They were cooking his food, reading his books, sleeping in his bed. They had taken over the joint. He knew about the teaching of the nonduality between self and other, but he still didn’t quite know how to get these guys out of his cave. Even though he had the sense that they were a projection of his own mind- all the unwanted parts of himself- he didn’t know how to get rid of them.
So first he taught them the dharma. He sat on this seat that was higher than they were and said things to them about how we all are one. He talked about compassion and emptiness and other key Buddhist teachings. Nothing happened. The demons were still there. Then he lost his patience and got angry and ran at them. They just laughed at him. Finally he gave up and just sat down on the floor saying, “I’m not going away and it looks like you’re not either, so let’s just live here together.”
At that point, all of them left except one. Milarepa said “This one is particularly vicious.” (We all know that one. Sometimes we have lots of them like that. Sometimes we feel that’s all we’ve got.) He didn’t know what to do, so he surrendered himself even further. He walked over and put himself right into the mouth of the demon and said, “Just eat me up if you want to.” Then that demon left too. The moral of the story is, when the resistance is gone, so are the demons.” ~ Pema Chodron

“I’d rather be whole, than good.” ~ Carl Jung

the fifth Night of Navratri (Goddess-celebration of Nine Nights in Hindu and Tantrik Traditions). Goddess Skandamata – Mother of Great Warrior Skanda . A warrior never gives up and is single-minded focused on the goal. Inner-transformation, the path of love, is not for the faint-hearted. When our personality (the veil) starts to dissolve and life starts to turn upside down then we must accept heart-ache, failure, loss, and rejection. We must be willing to be compassionate, kind, patient, enduring, gentle, and warm towards ourselves and everyone else. We have to keep growing our awareness without closing our heart.

“The only offering you can make is your increasing awareness.“ ~Lalla

“The essence of warriorship, or the essence of human bravery, is refusing to give up on anyone or anything. We can never say that we are simply falling to pieces or that anyone else is, and we can never say that about the world either…. It is up to us. We can save the world from destruction.” – Chogyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrio

The 4th Night of Navratri (Goddess-celebration of Nine Nights in Hindu and Tantrik Traditions). Fourth is the night of Goddess Kusmanda. ‘Ku’ means ‘a little’ or ‘early stage’, ‘K’ is also the first alphabet of Sanskrit; ‘Usma’ is warmth or heat experienced at the beginning of fire; and ‘Anda’ means egg or seed.
Three words (Ku+Usma+Anda) symbolically imply beginning of transformation at mental, emotional and physical level. Tonight is the beginning of inner-transformation. Inner transformation can only happen if we let go our preconceived notion of “what is good or bad for me”. We have to “let go” everything we think we are and let Love transform us to who we truly are.

Ritual worship and offering to the Buddha is futile;
Where conscious effort and striving are present
The Buddha is absent. ~ Mahasiddha Kukkuripa

“Let yourself be silently drawn
By the stronger pull of what
You truly love.” ~Rumi

The 3rd night of Navratri (Hindu Goddess celebration of Nine Nights), the night of Goddess Chandraghanta – ‘Chandra’ means Moon and is symbolic for ‘Sweet and peaceful light of Compassion’. ‘Ghanta’ means ‘Bell’, symbolic for ‘Primordial sound of Great Awakening and Wisdom’.
Tonight is the time to fill our hearts with compassion and kindness for our own suffering, and for the suffering of all beings in all worlds. Awaken the Goddess of Sweet Wisdom within and become aware of who we truly are. What is more spiritual than finding our own ‘Truth’ and uncovering the light of love and compassion that hides behinds the veil of our personality?

“When all the knots of the heart are released, then the mortal becomes immortal.” ~ Katha Upanishad 6.15

“Reverence to the Sushumna Nadi,
to the Kundalini,
to the nectar born of the Moon,
to the state in which mind is dissolved,
reverence to the Goddess, the Great Shakti,
who is the ‘Self’ of consciousness.” ~ Hatha Yoga Pradapika

 Second night of Navratri (Hindu Goddess celebration of Nine Nights), the night of Goddess Brahmacharini – ‘Brahma’ means, “One Creator of all and everything” and ‘Charini’, is “one who surrenders in devotion”. Tonight is the time to awaken the Goddess of Devotion in our hearts and surrender to ‘One’ who dwells in all beings.
Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti –  ”Truth is One, sages describe ‘That’ in many ways.” ~ Rig Veda.