October 8, 2020

The next attribute or activity of Consciousness is vibhūti, which is translated here as “pervasive power” or “extraordinary magical power of Consciousness.” Magic and pervasion are interesting words to reflect upon in this context.

Pervasion is the process of spreading through or of being present and perceived in every part of something. It means nothing is unaffected or unconsidered. Magic is the ability to trick the senses into believing something that defies understanding. Our mind, eyes, etc are persuaded to believe that human bodies are cut in half and rabbits are pulled out of hats during magic shows despite knowing that this is impossible. And yet, we are drawn into the mystery of magic.

Perhaps that is the key element here; magic is inherently unexplainable. It invites us to set aside our mental ideas of what is or is not possible and pulls us into wonderment. This might be completely analogous to the invitation the Universe gives us in this embodiment. We could move through each day with the sensory delight and wonder of a magic show. How does the beauty and destruction of the natural world manifest? While we understand much about the processes of nature through the scientific lens, there is also a deep perplexity here. The natural world, filled in sensory stimuli, provides an ever-present invitation to drop into wonder, to turn off the need to answer the questions of the mind and to simply examine the world around us with curiosity and enthusiasm.

Wonder, camatkara in Sanskrit, is considered one of the highest states of Consciousness by certain non-dual Tantrik lineages. It is the experience of amazement at the raw and vivid beauty of the entire manifest world, from the most exalted to the most base.

The Tantrik sages suggest that when we drop the need to intellectually “know” and we cultivate a greater connection with the inherent wonder of existence, we find a magical surprise. The entire Universe, they state, is completely pervaded by the Divine. The fabric of existence molds each and every entity from the same matter; nothing is left out. As a result, we can understand that nothing is more “godly” than something else. Everything is equally pervaded by divinity and so we can find god in any moment, any object, each being we encounter. Properly attuned to this understanding, wonder and awe naturally tune us into the majesty of the Divine and we find Her soaked into the fabric of our lives.

When we invite this concept into daily life, we find that we are not going to become more god-like if we behave in certain ways but not in others. We find that we are equally divine regardless of our physical characteristics, inherent tendencies, thoughts and feelings. Grounded in this understanding, we can relax into acceptance of all that we are. Virtuous conduct then is the offshoot of this total acceptance and not a prescription needed to eradicate aspects of our being.