Kriyā Śakti: The Power That Moves the Universe Is in Your Breath

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IN THIS EPISODE

If you watched the universe from the outside for even one moment, all you would see is motion, from stars forming, to cells dividing, the breath rising and falling. Tantra has a name for whatever is doing all of that: Kriyā Śakti, the divine power of action. And here's the teaching that changes how you practise, the force moving the cosmos is the same force moving your breath right now.

In the final part of our series on the three śaktis of the Trika system of Kashmir Shaivism, we explore how desire (icchā) and knowledge (jñāna) complete themselves in action, why prāṇāyāma is a way of consciously participating in the creation of reality, and the question this teaching is designed to dissolve: is the spanda inside you, or are you inside the spanda?

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✦ What Kriyā Śakti is - the energy through which consciousness moves from intention into manifestation, the third of the three śaktis alongside Icchā (desire) and Jñāna (knowledge)

✦ How the three śaktis map onto sankalpa work - the feeling, the words, and the practice that brings intention into form

✦ Why noticing your breath is noticing the universe expressing itself through you - from the cycles of the breath to sunrise and sunset, seasons

✦ Kevala Kumbhaka - the spontaneous suspension of the breath as the maturity of prāṇāyāma practice, and how it offers a glimpse of the source of action

✦ Why oxygen levels barely drop in the first minutes of a breath hold (1–2%) - it's the perception of no access to air that creates the stress

✦ Vāta doṣa as the Kriyā Śakti of Āyurveda - the force governing all movement in body and mind

TEXTUAL REFERENCES

✦ Spanda Kārikā - opening teaching: "We praise that Śakti who is the source of all manifestation, by whose vibration the universe arises, and into whom it dissolves" - spanda, the pulsation that is consciousness in motion (Spanda Kārikā 1.1, where the universe arises and dissolves "by the opening and closing of the eyes")

✦ Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, Sūtra 2 - "By her own will, she unfolds the universe upon her own canvas" (svecchayā svabhittau viśvam unmīlayati)

✦ Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali 2.49–2.51 - when steadiness of posture is achieved, prāṇāyāma becomes the regulation of inhalation and exhalation; the fourth prāṇāyāma "transcends the domain of internal and external" - kevala kumbhaka

✦ Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra (112 meditation techniques), Saundarya Laharī, and the Nārada Bhakti Sūtra - "when the lover and the beloved become one"

TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE

✦ Start where Āyurveda starts: align one daily rhythm with nature this week - wake with the sun, or eat your main meal at midday

SHARE & CONNECT

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We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.

HARI OM