“Our strongest resistance is the resistance to ecstasy because we sense that to succumb to it we must abandon all certainly, abandon what we have put so many years into constructing. We must abandon our philosophy of life. Our beliefs, our ideas, even our concept of the void, even the concept of the absolute or of Shiva stand in the way of ecstasy. It is relatively easy to abandon fashionable ideas. It is much more difficult to give up philosophical or religious concepts. One proudly proclaims oneself an atheist, believer, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, tantrika. The divine can’t be grasped in this manner. What is the difference between an atheist and a believer? Nothing. They are two sides of the same coin. It isn’t a matter of believing or not believing. It is a matter of communicating with the nature of ones mind. It’s like diving into a lake. Too often, we want to loose ourselves in the conceptualising of the teachings as they unfold to us, and without realising it we build a coat of armor against the divine. The most subtle teachings must be abandoned along the way. The tantrika’s courage is in letting go of the teachings once they have been absorbed. Even the Tantras aren’t worth any more than the skin abandoned on the stones by a moulting snake. When one is constantly changing there comes a day when the consciousness rests on nothing. Then awakening occurs. Only total abandonment of the mental can open us to the divine.”

Daniel Odier quoting Devi in "Tantric Quest"

Great quote Mal. Cheers, I'am off to jump into the cool abyss.

Spent a week or so re-reading that book and handwriting the teachings of Devi that I found most salient in a journal. I found it to be a very interesting exercise and wound up with a much better understanding and appreciation of Kashmir Shivaism. I must give credit to Michael (thelearner) for bringing up the ancient tradition of handwriting teachings that are important to us. He mentioned this in a post months ago and I decided to try it.

Tantric Quest is a great read, glad you are enjoying it.

Thanks for posting that it was a good book

It's funny you should say about the handwriting. I usually toss books through the scanner when I want to quote them. But when the weekend made me remember that passage I felt it would be good for me to type it out by hand.

My handwriting is usually illegible, a constant thread in my dream journals is "must write so that I can read this" Works for a page or two then I go back to scribble