Thursday, September 25, 2014
Bhuvaneshwari: Goddess of Infinite Space
Bhuvaneshwari: Goddess of Infinite Space, She Whose Body Is the World
Sally Kempton and Ken Wilber
Audio, 11 minutes
"Bhuvaneshwari is the Goddess whose body is the space of infinite possibility. She is ananda—infinite, creative wisdom/love. She's the matrix, the eternal mother energy who spins the universe out of her own body the way a spider spins a web—and then lives in it. As an energy you touch in meditation, Bhuvaneshwari is akin to the Buddhist goddess Prajna Paramita, the perfection of wisdom, the vast awareness who spirals out and draws you into herself, fully alive to the paradox that form and emptiness are one, that all forms are essentially empty, and that emptiness contains infinite forms. You can't fully realize this without the goddess's permission. Since she herself is that paradox, she holds the key to your recognition of it.
Bhuvaneshwari is a wonderful goddess to access in meditation, guaranteeing you that even in the most formless state of awareness, you'll feel a subtle, motherly embrace. When you invoke her presence in meditation, she can gather you into a space that feels like a vast, spacious, cosmic womb. Bhuvaneshwari's subtle meditation presence is formless, detached, an oceanic awareness that you can float in. It will hold you, support you, and renew you. When I want to practice letting go of anxiety or fear, it's often Bhuvaneshwari whom I invoke. Her spaciousness seems to swallow whole whatever needs to be cleared. You can offer her whatever you're holding onto: guilt, loss, emotional upheaval, or just an excess of thoughts. She will take it in, dissolve it, and offer it back transformed. She is the cosmic womb, the great expanse within which all things are held, and out of which they are born."
From Awakening Shakti by Sally Kempton
In this 13-part Goddess Returns series, acclaimed teachers Sally Kempton and Ken Wilber discuss one of the most powerful ways we can reconnect with a crucial aspect of feminine wisdom that has largely been lost in today's world: by invoking and internalizing the energetic qualities of eleven different Hindu goddesses.
As a way to honor the sacred feminine, Integral Life will be publishing discussions of each of these goddesses over the next couple weeks, with a different "Goddess of the Day" featured every few days.
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