I had the wonderful opportunity to study one of the foundational texts of Tantra, the Shiva Sutras, with my teacher Paul Muller-Ortega. He pointed to the theme of “samdhane” from the first chapter of the text, that I have found so useful. The word “samdhane” has the verbal root “dha” in it, which means “to place or put.” “Sam” means “with” or “together,” so samdhana means putting together, drawing something together, joining, uniting.

From what I learned from Paul, and contemplating the text, this concept of samdhana encapsulates so much of what our practice is about. My understanding of this concept of alignment is that it manifests in stages, and in all the different levels of our life.

When we take a step toward aligning with the highest through our practices, that intention accelerates an already set-in-motion movement toward alignment. It makes sense that a primary purpose and result of our meditation practice is to connect with the highest, the source of everything, and that from which everything manifests. But taking it back on step: there must have been some prior impulse within you, some seed that seeks the light, that encouraged or urged you to seek that connection in the first place.

And having heeded that impulse, that call to connect with your innermost self, the practice of meditation sets into motion the establishment of that connection. Through the practice of meditation, your awareness traverse the depths of consciousness to its source. This absolute source place is the root matrix from which everything comes into being in the relative world, which we see on the physical surface of our life.

Connecting with that source place of creating and manifesting energies sets in motion another aspect of samdhane. Our life at the surface begins to reflect and resonate with the source. On a practical level, we begin to experience that flow of creativity and manifestation rearranging our lives on its many levels. We find our desires, our thoughts and our actions, aligning with the highest such that aspects of our life that are more occluding, less supportive of the highest, begin to drop away, to be replaced by what is more affirming and supportive of the highest.

While this is an automatic result of our practice, it is a process, it is not instantaneous. It may take some time for the connection and alignment to come fully into fruition, as there are obstacles that must first be removed, all our old pain and patterns must be addressed in some way.

I see this process unfolding within myself in ways that are both delightful and painful. In my everyday life, I see more loving and compassionate responses arise naturally. I don’t have to force a kinder response, it is as if I am unable to do otherwise.

Yet because this process is still unfolding and evolving in me, at other times I see myself enacting old reactive patterns. But what happens now that I’ve been meditating a while, is that most times (sadly, not always…yet!) I immediately detect my misaligned pattern before I actually enact it. The pain of misalignment has become greater than any satisfaction from enacting old patterns that no longer serve.

So these teachings on samdhane indicate that initially our meditation practice allows us to align with the highest place from which all activity unfolds. So that unfolding of activity naturally begins to line up with the highest possible in any given moment. In this way, our entire life begins to be rearranged so that it is reflective and supportive of the highest.