Lord Shiva is in charge of destruction, a powerful responsibility which may confuse those who don’t know much about him. He is an important example of celibacy, but has many wives and children. He is in charge of annihilation, but believes there is no death and no one to be killed. He is responsible for dismantling creation, but practices formlessness. These contrasts are his lesson to the world: that no objects or opposites exist. Shiva’s devastation has little to do with things; he chooses instead to destroy the ego. Any pretense that there are “things” must be smashed.

Everything we see has been created. Everything we feel or believe exists because we make it so. To follow Shiva’s example you must “destroy” these things. Rather than a harmful or violent act to extinguish all you know, instead realize there is nothing created and no one to harm. Anything that exists can have a contrast: light for dark, alive for dead, celibate for promiscuous. The contrasts are not what separate us from truth, but it is the belief and act of creating them that does so. Shiva encourages us to stop creating and destroying. Just be.

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