Raja Choudhury – The Dance of Shiva and Shakti

Take your meditation off the cushion and into your everyday life…

Activate your senses as portals to the dance of Shiva and Shakti within you to catalyze your moment-by-moment awakening.

Discover ancient, experiential practices to access your highest consciousness in your everyday life — uniting your energy (Shakti) with the vast consciousness of the universe (Shiva).

What You’ll Learn In The Dance of Shiva and Shakti

In The Dance of Shiva and Shakti, Raja Choudhury will guide you through the poetic writing and blissful mysticism of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra and teach you in-depth techniques and practices for awakening moment-by-moment in your everyday life. Raja Choudhury will be your guide, companion, and friend in this quest for your true non-dual nature that uses the dualities within you as a dance of Shiva and Shakti to liberate you with each breath.

Module 1: Introduction
The Dance of Shiva and Shakti

We’ll begin with an introduction to the concept of Shiva and Shakti and the origins, practices, and history of Tantra and Kundalini, Kriya, and Laya Yoga as well as the Sri Vidya and Maha Vidya schools of Shaktism. We’ll explore the writings of the Rudra Yamala Tantra and Vigyan Bhairav Tantra from Kashmir Shaivism and see how this syncretic mystery school and the scriptures written in the 9th century integrated Yoga, Tantra, Shaivism, Shaktism, and Buddhism in an unusual way to give us a mystical manual for living the meditative life while fully immersed in everyday living.

By taking excerpts from the scriptures, Raja Choudhury will give you a roadmap for the next 11 weeks and guide you through some of the techniques you can embrace to awaken expanded consciousness.

Module 2: The Breath of Shiva

All great Tantric and Yogic wisdom begins with breath. To understand the in-breath (Prana), and the out-breath (Apana), and all the stages in between can lead to pure awakening. It is understood that in order for the mind to break through to the superconscious realms, the seeker must dramatically increase their Prana and then all will be revealed. This is the foundation of all Yoga and Tantra, and in particular the awakening of the Kundalini. The first part of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra emphasizes Shiva teaching Shakti about the breath and how to awaken using it.

Module 3: The Peacock’s Feather & Other Inner Magic

Visualize energy flowing up your spine like lightning bolts or the heart blissfully spinning like a peacock’s feather. In this module, you’ll be guided into the subtle Nadis or energy channels in the body, and see how you can visualize and affect awakening through imagining lightning bolts in the spine, as lotus petals opening, as letters forming garlands and sounds, and as colors. The next segment of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra takes us into the mysteries of the Sushumna Nadi, Kundalini, the Third Eye, and the Heart Center for awakening.

Module 4: The Inner Sounds of Bliss

If we can listen carefully, our inner senses can become highly tuned, and soon we become observers of every movement and sound within. In this module, you’ll be guided into the subtle art of inner listening, sound, and vibration. You’ll learn how to generate frequencies inside yourself that will not only awaken you but transform your life. As we explore verses 14 onwards of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, we’ll master the subtle art of listening completely.

Module 5: The Vast Fullness of the Void

Experiencing space inside and outside of ourselves is not a normal part of everyday life — training this perceptual awareness is a key path to awakening. In this module, you’ll discover how to sense and experience space around you and inside your being. You’ll learn about the layers or sheaths of your consciousness and how you can expand your awareness from little “me” to vast cosmic awareness just through observation. You’ll discover the vast void that is everywhere around us and also deep inside of us, how everything arises there, and how it is the true nature of bliss.

Module 6: The Joy of Sensuous Being

Experiencing joy and bliss in every experience of life is a meditation on higher consciousness. Imagine the joy of meeting old friends, savoring a delicious meal, listening to music, making love, or feeling a cool breeze or a sunrise or an ant crawling up your arm, or anything that give you pleasure. Or anything at all, from cutting vegetables to walking in nature. Experience everything fully and dissolve into the feeling. This alone will awaken you. In this module, you’ll discover how to experience bliss consciousness in the simple pleasures of life.

Module 7: Inner Sky, Inner Light & the Weightless Feather

Can you become as light as a feather and experience complete freedom from the body and the burdens of life? Can you experience a feeling of sunshine and blue skies even when all is gloom around you? Can you feel good when everything else seems to be falling apart? Can you experience death and be reborn free? In this module, you’ll explore how simple meditations can instantly make you feel light, spacious, and full of possibility, and free from the dualities and polarities of life.

Module 8: The Art of Letting Go in Deepest Desire

Is it possible to let something go just at the peak of your desiring it? Can you let go of anger, envy, lust, greed, and pain just at the point they seem to be ready to explode? Yes! In Tantra, giving up something does not mean suppressing your desires or hatred and anger. It means exploring them until you are near the point of fulfillment and then in that joy, just letting go! Sounds crazy but it works! Raja Choudhury will explore the idea of what letting go really means, and teach you techniques to help you let go at the tipping point of peak experiences, whether good or bad.

Module 9: The Power of Desire & Middle Pillar

Desire is the most powerful force in the universe. No sexuality, no creativity, no war, no anything can manifest without desire. The question is, can you become an alchemist and learn how to play with, control, manipulate, and use your desire to manifest any reality you want? The art of stopping all thought and transmuting desire into awakening is a subtle art, and can only be done if we see things as they really are. In this module, you’ll learn how to awaken the middle pillar in your being. and see all dualities, polarities, and divisions as just two aspects of the same thing — and in this realization you will awaken.

Module 10: No Me, Everything NaMaHa

How far can you expand your consciousness? Your awareness? Can you feel the pain of another? Can you imagine what it means to be limitless? To flow with the universal flow and see all as you? In this module, you’ll learn how to dissolve your boundaries and become a more universal being. The more limited we are to “I” consciousness the more we miss the flow of the I AM within us. The dance of Shiva Shakti is all about limitlessness beyond all dualities and how, step by step, we can transform our identities from little old “me” to “everything.” This is the meaning of NaMaHa, a Sanskrit word literally translated as “not about me.”

Module 11: Who Am I

The most important question we can ask ourselves in this life is, Who am I? Am I this body? Am I the energy force field around and inside me? Am I the mind that plans and dreams and loves and hates and tries to make this life work? Am I the subtle intuitive mind observing everything, feeling deeply, and wanting to be more human, kind, compassionate, and loving? Am I those moments of bliss i have glimpsed, and why can’t I experience them all the time? is there more? Is there a level of consciousness where I can experience the bliss of complete universal awareness and transcendence while living in this body and finding inner peace?

So many questions! We’ll explore these profound questions as we come to the end of our journey and the beginning of wisdom.

Module 12: Conclusion
Living With the Union of Shiva and Shakti

In this final module, we’ll trace our journey back from the Universal Self of Shiva Shakti back to the breath that started it all, and then see how this set of meditations is a profound manual or guide book for how to live your life completely.

Raja Choudhury will help you draw a map of how to work with these profound discoveries in your everyday life to become a deeply sensing human being who has realized that your true nature is Shiva Shakti — and that you are only playing a drama in all these wonderful dualities, both in beauty and in darkness. You’ll learn how to become whole again along the middle pillar, reconnect your Shakti at the base of your spine with Shiva at your Third Eye, and then once again dance in the union of Shiva and Shakti while being completely amazing in every part of your life.