Sunyata Satchitananda

Priest of Eros and Beauty

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"What does your name mean?"

Sunyata Satchitananda

"Sunyata," (Sanskrit) generally translated into English as "Emptiness" or "Voidness", is a concept of central importance in the teaching of the Buddha, as a direct realization of Sunyata is required to achieve liberation from the cycle of existence (samsara) and full enlightenment.

Sunyata signifies that everything one encounters in life is empty of absolute identity, permanence, or 'self'. This is because everything is inter-related and mutually dependent - never wholly self-sufficient or independent. "Emptiness" or "Voidness", is a characteristic of phenomena arising from the fact (as observed and taught by the Buddha) that the impermanent nature of form means that nothing possesses essential, enduring identity. All things are in a state of constant flux where energy and information are forever flowing throughout the natural world giving rise to, and themselves undergoing, major transformations with the passage of time.

The Great Emptiness or Void is the great potential out of which all things come. This is an emptiness which is at the same time not different from the kind of reality which we normally ascribe to events; it is not a nihilistic emptiness that undermines our world, but a "positive" emptiness which defines it. It is from this place, this pregnant void, that seeming miracles are created, that synchronicities unfold, and that the wonder and magic of physical reality is formed. It is the feminine creative force that births all-that-is from the darkness of her womb. There is stillness in the void—and wisdom—if one listens. Out of stillness comes inspiration, passion, and creativity..

"Satchitananda," (Sanskrit) is a compound of three Sanskrit words, Sat,
Chit, and Ananda meaning True Being, Pure Consciousness and Bliss respectively.

SAT is truth. As such it is the destroyer of falsehood, delusion, deceit and illusion. It leads us from the unreal to the real, out of the veil and into clarity and consciousness of our true state. SAT restores us from a limited, constricted, and separate states of consciousness, to our authentic boundless and natural state of unobstructed beingness. This leads to the merger of pure beingness and absolute subjective experience with pure consciousness and absolute objectivity—a felt sense of divinity.

Chit is consciousness. It is thus one of the integral ingredients
toward waking up out of slumber and forgetfulness and into our true nature, our uncontrived/unconditioned true and natural self, a divine Being.

Ananda is absolute bliss. Here all tension, stress, obstruction, bias, distortion, perturbation, conflict, and disturbances have been let go of, surrendered, removed, and purified.

Shakti and Shiva are reunited in one's own countenance. One reflects and acts as a the natural transpersonal spontaneous extension, conduit, and expression of divine presence of, divine love and wisdom reflecting the "reality" of "ALL OUR RELATIONS".

Ananda (bliss), contentment (santosha), peace (shanti), or nirvana are not goals, but rather a spontaneous result and expression—a natural aspect of this transpersonal relationship without a separate subject/object. It thus symbolizes the Great spiritual objectless relationship-integration -- the
realization of the Great Integrity where the Great Beingness and Infinite Mind
are experienced as a living unity in the present as Great and Sacred Presence.

"My name is a reminder to me of
the all-connectedness and
divinity each individual shares."

The Void

We fight with the void and are then defeated
not because the void is stronger than us
but because it is not.

Now stand up and fight with the empty space of the room
so that you can know and taste
the whole stupidity of the human mind.
And then sit down and laugh at yourself,
and as the laughter dies down
be silent and search within,
and then you will come to know a deep mystery:
the mystery that the void is not only without
but within also!

—Osho