The Three Hungers | A Creation/Love Story

MYTH & MYSTIC • POETRY • TANTRA

​Once and forever, in fact before time, the heart of the universe was singular and all alone.
There was no thing–no matter, no color, no shape–just the formless expanse of infinite bliss.
Without form, it was unbound. Beyond movement and measure and sound.
No limitations and no constraints, the heart of the universe was absolutely free.
This ocean of fertile emptiness at the center of nothing
(and beyond the beyond)
has been called Paramashiva, which means absolute auspicious stillness.

This auspicious stillness
(the motionless heart of the universe)
​lacked nothing because it had nothing to lack.
There existed no subject for an object, and no object to track.
There was no one to know one, and nothing to know.
There was no with-ness, no witness, and nothing to show.
And there, at the silent center of no-thing, there arose the first hunger
– the inexplicable desire to become.

It was the urge to experience be-ing, to dance the dance of self-exploration.
The heart of the universe yearned to be conscious; to know itself as someone because
There can be no dance without a dancer...

The First Hunger | The desire to become

​The first hunger to become
appeared as an impulse, a shakti, a manifesting power and the will to create.
From that impulse arose a pulsation like the tick/tock of a cosmic clock, turning singularity into duality:
silence and sound,
dark and light,
past and future,
day and night,
subject and object in conscious flow.

There was someone to be known, and someone to know–a dancer, a witness, and a glorious show.
The desire to become is the desire to be with;
to be in dynamic relationship.
Because it takes one to know one.
So the story of creation is the first great Love story:

​The one absolute reality, hungry to witness itself, became two:
the divine duality, Shiva and Shakti.

The Second Hunger | The desire to be known

Shiva is the formless field of infinite potential, holding space for the creative power.
Shakti is that power–creative energy in motion.
Together, they dance in the delight of their separation.
Their impulse to become became pulsation; became continuous vibration; then
through the music of the Universe
became creative emanation, as all things poured forward from the One.
Weaving a web of sounds and shapes and colors, Shakti becomes–Herself–a mandala of patterns and sensation.
She becomes and she becomes and she becomes again, without end...through the dance of desire and realization.
And all of this becoming brings more delight and inspiration.
It is the creative power of universal consciousness at play.
It is the triumphant display of boundless potential taking form for the sake of being known.
It takes one to know one.
It takes two to make a third.
Through the manifesting power of the cosmic word, Shakti informs the infinite forms of the myriad and countless things. She is the sun and the sky, the vast cosmic sea. She is the moon and the shadow of memory. She is the atmosphere and the ocean. She is the spark and soot of the fire. She is every word and every thought: every song and every bone. She is all things manifest and all things waiting to be shown. She is the source of the second hunger; she is the desire to be known.

That is why you are here,
to step beyond fear
and make yourself known.

The creative power of the cosmos, in her play, hungers to be realized in the most unique way.
She wants to be known as you.
Bound by sound and form and sensitivity, Shakti stands (as you) at the threshold of reality and revelation. She peers into the empty void and calls into the heart of the universe:
“Who am I?”
In the silent way of auspicious stillness, Shiva answers: You are. You are the Soul Artist.
You are the music of the cosmos–the dancer and the dance.
Your own creative impulse is the evidence: You’re the beautiful consequence of a long chain of unfathomable sonic glory.
You are the whole, entire story.
You are the seed that was planted, and you are the fruitful show. You are the knower and you are the one whom the knower wants to know.
You are the very heart of the universe, standing at the threshold of revelation, looking back at itself in wonder. After eons of unfolding and myriad expression, you are here. Look through the mirror of your third eye and you will see: 

“You are me.”

The Third Hunger | The desire to be One.

You will see me in the empty space, between the moon and sun.
You will see me and know that you are me and we are one.
Formless in the womb and returning to the tomb, you are the eternal witness in the void.
I am the fear inside your heart’s desire; the terrifying darkness beneath the sacred fire.
I am the peace and the freedom you most crave.
You will discover me in waves of striking stillness,
under the blaring chaos of the human chorus.
You will know me as the unstruck sound of nature’s rhythmic song; and meet me in the field, beyond all judgements of right and wrong.
You will know me when you know the Love before beginning and with no end:
With the passion of belonging, with the touch of skin to skin; in the face of a new baby, and with a lover’s death; at the center of the turning wheel, with every passing breath.
When the groundlessness of everything makes you feel alone–you’ve roamed cycles of creation, and your still looking for your home.
Once the truth of your existence forces you to face the end, and you’re clinging to the edges and you’re searching for a friend...
As you scatter your love’s ashes, when you fall onto your knees. When the war is far from over, but you hear the heart-felt pleas of longing.
They say, “When can we finally be one?”
You will yearn to remember who you really are, beyond your limitations, sensitivity and scars. After countless stars have come and gone, you will crave eternity.
Because I am that and because you are me,
you will know the mystic hunger: the desire to be free. –the desire to be One with the One reality.
So go into the wild, and you will find me there, with the sacred river flowing through my loosely knotted hair. I’ll be sitting in deep silence at the summit of your heart.
Inside the still point, at the epicentre of the dance, my skin smeared in ash.
I’ll be wearing tiger’s skin and the wings of a crow.
You will see me and you’ll know: I am the freedom that you seek.
And I have been with you, right inside you, every single step of the way.
The peace you ultimately crave is, in fact, your rightful home.
Wake inside the dream to find you’ve never been alone.
You are the Love beyond all opposites.
Your Love will reunite us with a numinous kiss into a sacred marriage of timeless bliss. At which point, you will return to the absolute freedom of auspicious stillness.

You will be gone, gone, gone,
(beyond the beyond).
​And I will be no-thing without you.

​So then, we will begin, again.