Consciousness is Everything is Consciousness
One of the most important wisdom teachings within the nondual Tantric tradition is the Śiva Sutras. They are a compendium of the declaration that Consciousness is everything, and that we have the means of knowing that, called upayas or practices.
Weaving through that entire ancient text is the understanding that Kuṇḍalinī is the means. It is the arousal, awakening, and liberation of Kuṇḍalinī within an individual that enables that person to know that Consciousness is everything. Kuṇḍalinī is the power of Consciousness that has expressed Itself as us and therefore has the inherent ability to know Itself within our own awareness.
The Śiva Sutras begins with a bold statement: Consciousness is Everything. Then, one of the first sutras continues: Consciousness, or Chit-Śakti, is the energy of Consciousness Itself, the capacity of self-awareness.
Consciousness has two, non-separable aspects—Śiva and His power, Kuṇḍalinī-Śakti, through which He generates all things. All that is manifested is known within Himself, like images in a mirror. The entire Śiva Sutras start from that singular statement, Consciousness is everything, but it goes on to say that inherently, everything is Consciousness.
It is Śakti, the power of Consciousness to know Itself as Consciousness, that is really the operative dynamic of that revelation. And it is the energy of knowing that is awakened and liberated within the individual, who is none other than the individuated expression of that same Divine Consciousness.
The nondual tantric discussions affirm that you can never separate Consciousness and Śakti. We come to know ourselves as that Consciousness through the energy of Vimarśa Śakti, self-reflective capacity. The highest realization of self-reflective capacity is Consciousness and Energy, knowing Itself as Consciousness and Energy — as one thing, not two.
How Consciousness Unfolds in Us
The Upāyas outline the progression of Self-knowledge, unfolding within Itself, and that means unfolding within our own awareness. This is described as a non-linear progression, which is what everyone experiences in their practice. We experience “I’ve really got it,” and then, whoops, we’ve lost it. That's the non-linearity.
We find it, and then we bounce out of it. We find it, and we then may intentionally run away from it when something is revealed that we didn't think was true about ourselves. And perhaps we’d rather avoid knowing about our limitations. But understand this: There is no part of you, including all your warts, ugliness, and all your most sublime beauty, that is not Consciousness.
Sādhana is the means by which we discover that singularity of Consciousness and Energy. The extraordinary gift is the recognition that everything that we feel, everything we think, everything we reject, is Consciousness in a contracted form. So everything you feel is valid, but this limited aspect of yourself is also the portal for coming to discover the field of Consciousness in which all those energies are dancing.
When we get caught in tension, we can use our breath to tune in to a deeper place. Like blowing up a balloon, we can blow energy back into that contraction by taking a breath—by breathing into the fear, doubt, emotion, rejection, guilt, shame, to reveal the one Source of it all. In the same way, we can even go beyond a transitory experience of happiness or elation. So, without denying anything, we have the Śiva Sutras pointing to the extraordinary declaration that everything you feel is a portal to the uncontracted state, because within everything is Consciousness.
Kuṇḍalinī Devours Contracted Energy
Kuṇḍalinī is an energy that’s like Pac-Man, rising through all the channels within us and consuming the density and debris. A lot of what it consumes is thought-construct, which binds us to limited awareness, which means a limited capacity to know ourselves.
In other words, Kuṇḍalinī consumes ego, which is a contracted state of consciousness that only knows itself and demands that it's separate from its own source. As Kuṇḍalinī rises, it purifies the channels in which it is ascending. It’s throwing out the boxes of junk and debris that we've been collecting for years, and, at the same time, revealing to us exactly what we’ve been hording. This is the very stuff that we hold on to, thinking: this is what makes me who I am. Well, of course it makes you who you are—but that’s exactly what creates the obscuration of who you really are.
Consciousness doesn't exist without Its power to be conscious. And most importantly, without Its capacity to know Itself as Consciousness. The miracle is that if it's true of the Divine, must be true in you because there is no separation between you and your Self. This reality is expressed by Śivoham, which means I am that; I am Śiva.
The power of self-reflective capacity is this: when you find yourself having forgotten who you are, do your conscious work. Tune in to Śakti through your breath and let Her energy clear out the inner debris. Your sādhana is the vehicle for unfolding the miracle within you, but you must use it. That is how you cultivate the capacity to know your Self.
You have already been selected in Śiva and Śakti's lottery to win the grand prize. Do not let yourself forget that, especially when something arises that leads you to forget it, and you wind up bound in your own mind and tensions, with your awareness contracted because of the problems you face.
Take a breath, follow that breath, and at the end of the in-breath, hold it in pause. You're not grabbing, you're just holding it in pause, which is really letting go. And notice how that pause becomes longer. And then as you exhale, at the end of that out-breath, notice the pause again. In the stillness of breath you’ll find the infinite, the eternal—and you will discover that Consciousness is everything.