Shiva is the void of infinite space, the eternal lover, the one who asks that we face the immensity of the dissolution of the mind into consciousness as, through his practice, all unmet emotions, unrecognized thoughts and perceptions collapse to their source. To approach Shiva, and be held in union with him, many things have to come together at the right time and in the right place. Grace, wonderment, and safety all play a role . The experience cannot be contrived, it is a matter of faith that allows us to trust it will happen when it will. In the internal moment of dissolution, a psychological maturity is necessary to be able to see with ruthless honesty things "as they are and in of themselves". This level of relentless, honest vigilance allows us to move through the distortion of seeing things the way we want them to be, the way we have always seen them. With ruthless honesty, we are asked to uncover to the bare essence to be seen with no regard for the personal "I", no security for the "I", nor any defacement or degradation. The simple realization is that the individual "I" is not oriented toward seeing clearly, and has no place here.

Shiva celebrates the mundane and the shadowy places of existence, of ourself. He dances with ghosts, those shadowed, disembodied emotions and uninhabitated identities that haunt us, drawing them out of the corners of our being. Through this recognition, the unclaimed feelings and emotions can be heard and felt, recognized and allowed to dissolve into space. As Shakti entices and engages, Shiva waits to be enticed. To allure Shiva from his mountaintop, a certain quality of devotion is necessary. A pure and sweet longing for Shiva must be present, and met by an equally pure and sweet longing for sahaja, the "self" born of the void. An appreciation for the nature of dissolution is necessary as well, as the appearance or experience of Shiva turns to the seeming absence. In this cycle, the understanding of Lalla comes; the knowing that everything in samsara gets lost. The "self" born of the void, the unadorned self, understands this loss as part of the cycle of existence. This "hopelessness" is the end of clinging to form, the end of hope. We see hope for what it is, the inability to meet and feel things as they are. At the end of form, there is Shiva. In naked loss, there is Shiva. In this state, we can be in the union of Shiva and Shakti. He is the absence, not us. He is the lover, we are the beloved. He can come to us. In relationship with Shiva, we experience love without attachment, we embrace the mundaneness of the complete surrendering of the "I".

The Shiva Heart Practice draws us to the white light of the Shiva void; ullasa sahaja The Parvathi Yogini Practice fills us with the spanda of form arising from space. In Shiva, there is no differentiation. In Shakti, there are many differentiations, and choice is implemented to open to possibilities. When merged, these bring us to the union of space and form, the nondual state of mahamudra, the summation of love. To stabilize the peacefulness of this state, we must be aware when the tension of being the "I" arises, when the division to subject/object propagates a "seeming" loss. By noticing the moment the contraction starts, and watching for the doing that takes us out of the state of being, we can choose to rest in the state of being. Shakti will never prevent our experiences, and Shiva will never hold us in the void. It is by our choice to fully experience everything as it arises that we rest in this union, this ultimate totality.