Select quotations from The Doctrine of Vibration, by Mark Dyczkowski
Liberation is essentially freedom from the opposites of good and evil, thus the adept who seeks it must break through them to a higher state of expanded, inebriated and blissful consciousness that, unaffected by them, encompasses both.
The man blinded by ignorance (Maya) and bound by his actions (karma) is fettered to the round of birth and death, but when knowledge inspires the recognition of his divine sovereignty and power he, full of consciousness alone, is a liberated soul. (p. 17)
The Doctrine of Vibration stresses the importance of experiencing Spanda, the vibration or pulse of consciousness. The mainstay of the Doctrine of Vibration is the contemplative experience the awakened yogi has of his true nature as the universal perceiving and acting consciousness. Every activity in the universe, as well as every perception, notion, sensation or emotion in the microcosm, ebbs and flows as part of the universal rhythm of the one reality, which is Siva, the one God Who is the pure conscious agent and perceiver…Man can realize his true nature to be Siva by experiencing Spanda, the dynamic, recurrent and creative activity of the absolute.
Spanda is the inner universal vibration of consciousness as its pure perceptivity. Common to all the Spanda systems is this liberating insight into the nature of the outer recurrence of reality through its manifest forms as an expression of its inner freedom and inherent power.
This approach is contrasted with that of monistic Saivism, which establishes that reality can be one and undivided only if it is understood to be a creative, infinite absolute that manifests itself actively through the finitude and transitoriness of phenomena perpetually changing in consonances with the absolute’s activity. Thus we encounter Spanda in its most fundamental form when we deal with the Saiva solutions to the problem of relating the finite to the absolute – a problem common to all absolutisms. It is Spanda, the inscrutable pulse of consciousness that moves and yet moves not, that changes and yet remains eternally itself, that ensures that both manifestation and the absolute, its unmanifest source, form part of a single process which passes freely from one to the other in such a way that both poles are at the same level and equally real. (p. 24)
The absolute is Siva Who is universal consciousness and man’s authentic nature (atman) Who, reflecting on Himself, actively generates and discerns His own manifestations. (p. 26)
The light of consciousness not only illumines and makes manifest all things – it is a living light which, reflecting on itself, is an infinite, self-conscious subjectivity.
Oneness is the coextensive unity of both duality and unity. They are equally expressions of the absolute. (p. 37)
“The whole system (of Advaita Vedanta) is based on renunciation and elimination and thus is not all-embracing . . . By accepting Maya to be Brahman, eternal and real, Brahman and Maya [in the Tantra] become one and coextensive. (p. 37, -Gopinath Kaviraj)
The integral nature of the absolute allows for the existence of the world of objectively perceivable phenomenal along with the pure subjectivity of consciousness. The two represent opposite polarities of a single reality. (p. 38)
Nothing can exist apart from the Absolute; not merely in the sense that only the Absolute exists, but also that nothing exists separated from it…The world, in other words represents a level of manifestation within the Absolute which in the process of its emanation must, at a certain stage, radically contrast one aspect of its nature with another to appear as the duality and multiplicity of manifestation.
The way taught in Kashmiri Saiva doctrine is transcendence through active participation. Not freedom ‘from’ but freedom ‘to’. Desire is not denied, but accepted at a higher level as the pure will or freedom of the absolute. Desire is to be eliminated only if it is desire ‘for’ rather than desire ‘to’. Matter cannot sully the absolute, nor is it unreal. Freedom is achieved by knowing ‘matter-unreality’ completely; ignorance of the spirit is ignorance of the true nature of matter. From this point of view ignorance is failure to experience directly the intimate connection between the infinite and the finite, thus justifying an active participation in the infinite-finite continuum. (p 39-40).
True knowledge…is to know that the apparent opposites normally contrasted with one another, such as subject and object, unity and diversity, absolute and relative, are aspects of the one reality.
[Contrasted with Advaita Vedanta]
The Vedantin’s way is one of withdrawal from the finite in order to achieve a return to the infinite. This process, however, from the Saiva point of view is only the first stage. The next stage is the outward journey from the infinite to the finite. When perfection is achieved in both movements, that is, from the finite to the infinite and back, man participates in the universal vibration of the absolute and shares in its essential freedom. Thenceforth, he no longer travels ‘to’ and ‘from’ but eternally ‘through’ the absolute, realized to be at once both infinite and finite. The highest level of dispassion is not attained by turning away from appearance but by realizing that the absolute manifests as all things. The absolute freely makes diversity manifest through its infinite power. The wise know that this power pours into the completeness of the All and in so doing, flows only into itself. Standing at the summit of Being, the absolute is brimming over with phenomena. The streams of cosmic manifestation flow everywhere from it as does water from a tank full to overflowing. Replenished inwardly by its own power, it emerges spontaneously as the universe, and makes manifest each part of the cosmic totality as one with its own nature. (p. 40).
The Absolute oscillates between passion to create and dispassion from the created. This is the eternal pulsation – Spanda – of the Absolute.
The Vedantin who distinguishes between duality and unity, saying that the former is false while the latter is true, is under the spell of Maya – the ignorance he seeks so hard to overcome. All forms of relative distinction, even that between the dual and he non-dual are due to Maya; none of them are applicable to the uncreated, self-existent reality, free of all limitation.
“We neither shun nor accept anything that manifests to us here in this world. If you wish to be supported by the view that favors all then resort to the doctrine of Supreme Unity, the great refuge you should adopt.”
Dualism is not an incorrect view of reality although it corresponds to only one of the levels within the absolute.
Rather than reject all views as incorrect because they are not completely true, the Kashmiri Saiva prefers to accept them all because they are partially true. System builders are all equally concerned with reality, but are like children of feeble intellect who have not yet reached the supreme summit of the absolute, the experience of supreme Oneness. (p. 43).
Consciousness is more than the awareness an individual has of himself and his environment; it is an eternal all-pervasive principle. . . It is eternally and blissfully at rest within its own nature, free of all association with anything outside of itself. Free of all craving for anything and independent, it looks to none other but itself.
As the supreme subject who illumines and knows all things, it is called the ‘Great Light’ which is uncreated and can never be taught.
Not only is consciousness absolute, it is also divine. It is Siva, the Lord of the universe. As the authentic identity of all living beings, consciousness is the supreme object of worship, the true nature of Deity. Consciousness is God and God is consciousness by virtue of its very nature; omnipotence, omniscience and all the other divine attributes are in fact attributes of consciousness. (p. 44-45)
Consciousness is not a passive witness, but is full of the conscious activity through which it generates the universe and reabsorbs itself at the end of each cycle of creation . . . Both dynamic and creative, this divine power is Spanda – the vibration of consciousness. (p. 45)
Interiority is the keynote of both Kashmiri Saiva metaphysics and practice: it is a doctrine which maintains that everything is internal. Everything, according to this view resides within one absolute consciousness. . . The ultimate experience is the realization that everything is contained within consciousness. (p. 46-47).
…Consciousness contains everything in the sense that it is the ground or basis of all things, their very being and substance from which they are made. (p. 48)
This ‘God of consciousness’ generates the universe, and its form is a condensation of His own essence. By boiling sugarcane juice it condenses to form treacle, brown sugar and candy which retains its sweetness. Similarly, consciousness abides unchanged even though it assumes the concrete material form of the five gross elements. The same reality thus abides equally in gross and subtle forms. Consequently, no object is totally insentient. . . All things are pervaded by consciousness and at one with it and hence share in its omniscience. (p. 50)
Advaita Vedanta understands the world to be an expression of the absolute insofar as it exists by virtue of the Absolute’s Being. Being is understood to be the real unity which underlies empirically manifest separateness and as such is never empirically manifest. It is only transcendentally actual as ‘being-in-itself’. The Kashmiri Saiva position represents, in a sense, a reversal of this point of view. The nature of the Absolute, and also that of Being, is conceived as an eternal becoming, a dynamic flux or Spanda, the agency of the act of being. (p. 52)
Liberating knowledge is gained not by going beyond appearances but by attending closely to them . . . No ontological distinction can be drawn between the Absolute and its manifestations because both are an appearing, the latter of diversity and the former of 'the true light of consciousness' which is beyond Maya and is the category of Siva.
Those who have attained the category of Pure Knowledge above Maya and have thus gone beyond the category of Maya, see the entire universe as the light of consciousness. (p. 54)
Although all manifestation always occurs within the subject, it appears to be external due to the power of Maya which separates the individual subject from his object. This split must occur for daily life to be possible. . . The emergence from, and submergence into, pure consciousness of each individual appearance is a particular pulsation of differentiated awareness. Together these individual pulsations constitute the universal pulse of cosmic creation and destruction. Thus, every single thing in this way forms a part of the radiant vibration of the light of absolute consciousness. (p. 57)
The ‘Light of Consciousness’ is always new and secret, ancient and known to all. . . This light is the shining of the Absolute, it is not an impersonal principle. It is the living Light of God, indeed it is God Himself, the Master Who instructs the entire universe. Siva is the auspicious l am, Who illumines all things. (p. 60-61)
God being one communicates His unity into every part of the world and also unto the Whole, both unto that which is one and that which is many. He is One and unchangeable in a superessential manner being neither a multiplicity of things, nor yet the sum total of such unity. . . He is a unity in a manner far different from this. . . He is indivisible plurality, insatiable, yet brimful, producing, perfecting and maintaining all unity and plurality. (p. 61)
If the mystic is to traverse the boundary between the transitory and the eternal, he must die to the profane condition. He must depart from a world devoid of light to be reborn into the higher, sacred state of enlightenment, into a world he recognizes to be full of light. The result is an increase in consciousness; that is, the previous condition is augmented by formerly unconscious contents. The new condition carries with it more insight, which is symbolized by more light. It is a vision of the world radiant with the light and life of the divine reality within all things, and yet beyond them. The most profoundly satisfying experience possible is the recognition that the light of one’s own consciousness is all things . . . This Bliss is not like the intoxication of wine or that of riches, nor similar to union with the beloved. The manifestation of the light of consciousness is not like the ray of light from a lamp, sun or moon. When one frees oneself from accumulated multiplicity, the state of bliss is like that of putting down a burden; the manifestation of the Light is like the acquiring of a lost treasure, the domain of universal non-duality. (p. 62)
The universe, Light and Self are one.
The playful desire of Consciousness is the cause of the diversity between perceiver, perceiving, perception and the perceptible.
The Self is the knower, and is represented by Fire (Agni); the Universe is the known, and is represented by the Moon; Light Is the Means of knowledge, and is represented by the Sun. (p. 65)
Pure consciousness is equivalent to absolute freedom. (p. 66)
The perception of an object may be real, but it is always perceived as a reflection within the mind and senses. An outer world may indeed exist, but the form in which it appears is always as a reflection, never as the original object. (p. 67)
The creation of reflections within the mirror of consciousness is spontaneous, like play. In the Spanda tradition, the power of consciousness that plays the game of manifestation is personified as the Goddess Spanda. Consciousness is the fecund womb from which all things are born and in which they ultimately unite to rest blissfully. The Goddess is therefore not just the power of consciousness that generates the cosmic reflection, but is also the mirror in which it appears. Thus it is the Goddess Spanda Who is the Lords power of freedom, that although undivided, displays on the screen of Her own nature all the cycles of creation and destruction. She reflects them within herself in such a way that although they are one with Her, they appear to be separate from Her, like a city in a mirror . . . Therefore, the Supreme Being is always one with the Spanda principle and never otherwise. (p. 68)
The Light of Consciousness knows itself to be the sole reality and so rests in itself, but not as does a self-confined, lifeless object. It enjoys perfect freedom and is satisfied in the knowledge that it is all that exists . . . In it, all the powers of the Absolute merge to form its uncreated ‘I’ consciousness (aham) . . . By contemplating its own nature, consciousness assumes the form of all the planes of existence from the subtlest to the most gross. (p. 70)
Awareness is the oneness of the unlimited vision of the All. Lack of awareness results in incomplete vision and divides the All into parts, each separately seen as a specific ‘this’ (idam) contrasted and distinguished from all that is not. Turning away from the unity of self-awareness, we become obsessed with the part and ignore the Whole. But when awareness rests in itself and contemplates its own nature it sees itself as the pure subject that unfolds as the unity of all things. This awareness can therefore be said to have two aspects (the internal and the external). (p. 70)
Awareness serves to relate objectivity with subjectivity in such a way that the object ultimately comes to rest in the self-awareness of the subject. In reality, reflective awareness is always awareness of the ‘I’; it never objectivizes even when, in the form of the awareness of ‘this’, it reflects upon the object. The experience we have of things existing outside consciousness is due to a lack of self-awareness. The awareness of the object is never ‘out there’; it is registered and known within the subject. All forms of awareness come to rest in the subject. (p. 71)
Three energies emanate within Supreme Consciousness: will (supreme), knowledge (middling), and action (inferior). . . . Spanda is the powerful wave energy released through the act of self-awareness which carries consciousness from the lower contracted level to the supreme state of expansion, freeing the unawakened from the torments of limitation and awakening them to the fullness of universal consciousness. (p. 75)
In the supreme state – that is the ‘inner’ reality of consciousness – there is no difference between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’. (p. 78)
It is Lord Siva alone Who, by virtue of His freedom, playfully gives rise to the subject and the object, the enjoyer and the enjoyed, which are the basis of every activity in this world of duality. (p. 78)
When the power of awareness gives rise to a sense of separation between subject and object with all the consequent limitations it imposes upon itself, it is called Maya. As Maya it veils consciousness and obscures the individual subject’s awareness of its essential unity. While non-dualist Vedanta maintains that Maya is an undefinable principle that gives rise to the cosmic illusion of multiplicity falsely superimposed on the undivided unity of the Absolute to appear in diverse forms (p. 79).
The creative freedom of the Absolute and its deluding power of Maya are identical. When the power of consciousness is recognized to be the spontaneous expression of the Absolute made manifest in the variety of forms it assumes without compromising its essential unity, it is experience as the pure vibration (spanda) of its freedom. If, however, the cosmic outpouring of consciousness is felt to consist of diverse and conflicting elements, the same power is called Maya. The field of operation of the freedom of the Absolute is the kingdom of universal consciousness, while that of its power of Maya is the world of transmigratory existence. (p. 79)
As consciousness is the source and basis of all appearances, it makes time manifest as well and hence cannot be affected by it (p. 83).
By veiling His undivided nature, Siva appears as the diverse play of multiplicity (p. 85).
The Supreme Lord is the light of the Absolute. Concealing His own nature, by the glory of His free will alone, He rests on the plane of objectively definable knowledge and makes phenomena manifest as if separate from His own nature (p 85).
The contracted state, corresponding to the withdrawal of previously emitted diversity, is itself the expanding awareness of the unity of consciousness. Conversely the expanded state indicative of forthcoming diversity, is itself the contraction of the awareness of the unity of consciousness (p 86).
Thus, the expansion and contraction of consciousness are brought about by Siva’s pulsating power, which is simultaneously identical with both. They are the internal and external aspects of the same energy. Similarly, cosmogenesis and lysis do not essentially differ:
Cosmic lysis (pralaya) corresponds to the state of Siva’s power in which external objectivity is predominantly withdrawn. It is the unfolding of the innate nature which corresponds to the emergence of a state of unity and the withdrawal of diverse multiplicity. Therefore we maintain that lysis is the same as the genesis and that genesis is also the same as lysis. (p. 86).
The Kashmiri Saivite agrees with the Vedantin that everything appears just as it is without any real change occurring in the essential nature of the Absolute. (p. 87)
Consciousness spontaneously evolves through a series of stages ranging from the most subjective ‘inner’ states of Siva-consciousness to the most ‘outer’ or objective forms of awareness. The process of descent into matter is a progressive self-limitation of consciousness. (p. 88)
…”the Lord feels a playful desire to veil His own nature and appears in the order of descent...” (p. 88).
The two phases of the pulsation of consciousness from inner to outer and outer to inner are equivalent, respectively, to the processes of self-limitation or coagulation of consciousness and the dissolution of the gross into the subtler forms of consciousness. They represent the sequence of descent into matter and ascent into consciousness. As consciousness descends, its manifestations become increasingly subject to the power of natural law and so progressively more conditioned. Conversely, as it ascends it frees itself, step by step, of constraints until it reaches its fullest manifestation as the absolute beyond all relativity. Therefore, from one point of view, we can think of the process of descent as a movement into the fettered condition and the process of ascent as the movement towards liberation. This is how it appears to those who have not realized the true nature of the pulse of consciousness – Spanda – in its two phases. For the enlightened, however, these movements represent the spontaneous activity of consciousness. Creation is the manifestation of difference within the unity of consciousness through which it immanentalizes into its cosmic form. Destruction is the reverse of this. Diversity merges into unity and consciousness assumes its transcendental formless aspect. These two aspects represent, respectively, the lower (apara) and supreme (para) forms of Siva. (p. 89)
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We can distinguish between two moments in the movement of the will (of the absolute). The first is the initial state of tension or intent and the second when it goes on to develop into a conscious desire for a specific object, discursively representable at the individual level of awareness. At this stage the object of desire appears to be projected outside the subject who desires it, although at the universal level their essential unity remains unchanged. In reality, it is the subject who is always the object of his own desire. But insofar as the subject is now caught up in the object he desires, the first moment is, from the point of view of practice, more important. So for the rest of this section we shall devote our attention to it.
Prior to their manifestation. All things reside within consciousness in a potential form just as in a peacock’s egg, we find all the peacock’s limbs with its feather large and small, colors and patterns. In the state of involution all things mingle with one another in the all-embracing egoity of Siva’s nature. When consciousness evolves out of itself to become the diversified universe of experience, this pre-existent potential is actualized. In this way differentiated awareness pours out of the body of undifferentiated consciousness, heralded by a subtle stress or vibration of aesthetic delight set up in its causal matrix. This is Spanda in its purest form, free of all differentiation. Bhagavatotpala defines it accordingly: “This pulsation (Spanda) is consciousness free of mental constructs. It is the state in which the Supreme Soul actively tends towards manifestation. It simultaneously operates everywhere although the Supreme Soul is in Himself motionless."
At this stage all the powers of the Absolute are active and merged in the unity of the bliss Siva experiences contemplating His own nature. Subject, object and means of knowledge form a single undivided whole, like the clay ball a potter is about to fashion into a jar. It is the matrix of all cosmic vibrations, both of the physical order and the extra-physical or metaphysical. In this state of consciousness is like a seed swelling to bursting point, abounding with infinite possibilities. Somananda explains:
When a waveless stretch of water becomes violently agitated, one may notice if one observes carefully, an initial tension (which forms within it) just when this begins to happen. When the open fingers of the hand are clenched into a fist, one may notice at the outset of this action a slight movement. Similarly, when the desire to create begins to unfold in consciousness, at rest tranquil in itself, a tension arises within it.
This initial instant is as fleeting and full of energy as a lightning flash. Preceding the spatial-temporal continuum of the lower or immanent level of consciousness, it is not a moment fully set in time. The subtle influence the power of time exerts on the, as yet, unclearly differentiated objectivity made manifest at this level serves as a link between the eternal and the temporal, the unmanifest consciousness and the manifest universe. He who pays close attention to the initial welling up of desire when it is especially intense is afforded an opportunity to realize the fullness of consciousness by merging into the force of his intention. As Utpaladeva puts it:
Here during the initial movement of the will, worldly men who desire to ascend to the plane of ultimate reality can experience in this way the entire aggregate of energies.
In states of heightened psychic intensity all the powers operating through the mind and sense are suddenly withdrawn into the pulsing core of one’s own nature, just as a tortoise contracts its limbs in fright, and the continuity of mental life is suddenly broken. The ordinary man, hopelessly distracted, is carried away by this flood of energy. The yogi, however, master of himself, can by the sheer intensity of this energy penetrate through the flux of his feelings to the firmly fixed vibration of his own nature. He must learn to do this the instant fear arises in him or when he begins to feel depressed or disgusted, no less than when he is confused and wondering what to do. Equally he must try to penetrate into the source of the vitality which intensifies the activity of the senses during the ecstasy of love or of joy at beholding a beautiful object or seeing a close relative after a long time. Overcome with the awe of self-realization, the yogi intuits the intense feelings welling up inside him as aspects of the aesthetic rapture of consciousness in which all emotions blend together like rivers in the ocean of his blissful consciousness. The Stanzas on Vibration teach: Spanda is stable in that state one enters when extremely angry, extremely excited, running or wondering what to do.
The alert Yogi (prabuddha) reflects upon his own nature and in so doing instantly penetrates into the initial tension of the will during these heightened states of emotivity. The instant they arise he is elevated beyond his conditioned state of consciousness and so is never entangled in them. The unawakened, however, overcome by Maya, falls a victim to these states believing mistakenly that his many perceptions and actions are independent of the universal pulsation of his own authentic nature. Thus in order to achieve the direct intuitive insight that they are grounded in the universal movement of consciousness one must desist from the tendency, engendered by one’s lack of self-awareness, to make distinctions between the functions of consciousness to will, exert itself, know and act, etc. In this way, the yogi discovers that they are all aspects of the one undivided pulse of consciousness. (p. 92-94)
There is no gulf between the created and the uncreated creator:
Nothing in reality, although an object of knowledge, ceases to be Siva: this is the reason why meditation on this or that aspect of reality bestows its fruit. (p. 106)
The Doctrine of Vibration declares that there is no state in word, meaning or thought, either at the beginning, middle or end, that is not Siva. To utter any word is, in reality, to intone a sacred formula. Every act is a part of Siva’s eternal cosmic liturgy, every movement of the body a ritual gesture (mudra), and every thought, God’s thought.
By what path are You not attainable? What words do not speak of You? In which meditation are You not an object of contemplation? What indeed are You not, O Lord?
The ultimate object of worship of any theistic school differs not from the Spanda principle. The diversity of meditation is due solely to the absolute freedom of Spanda (p. 106)
Siva is the perfect artist Who, without need of canvas or brush, paints the world pictures. The instant He imagines it, it appears spontaneously, perfect in every respect. The colors He uses are the varying shades and gradations of His own Spanda energy and the medium His own consciousness. The universe is colored with the dye of its own by the power of Siva’s consciousness. (p. 107)
Ultimately, it is Siva’s freedom alone which unfolds everywhere as all things. (p. 110)
This freedom is also the inherent nature of the Self – man’s authentic identity. (p. 110)
In order for Siva to manifest as the diverse universe, He must deny His infinite nature and appear as finite entities and “what could be more difficult than to negate the light of consciousness just when it is shining in full?” Thus, negation or limitation is a power of the Absolute. Sakti is the principle of negation through which Siva conceals His own undivided nature and becomes diverse. (p. 111)
As the source of diversity, Sakit is the Absolute’s creative power of Maya.
The Sphere of Siva-Consciousness:
5 Attributes: Omnipresence , Eternality, Freedom of Will, Omniscience and Omnipotence
5 Powers: Consciousness, bliss, will, knowledge and action
5 Cosmic Functions: Create, Maintain, Destroy, Conceal Himself, Reveal Himself
3 Creative Energies: Maya, Differentiated Entities, Time (change and becoming) (p. 112)
Once the ignorance of Maya has been overcome, the yogi recognizes his oneness with Siva by the power of his own self-awareness (p. 115)
The harmonious union of these three planes are Bhairava’s supreme glory, the radiance of the fullness of His power which fills the entire universe. Together, this triad constitutes the Deity’s universal experience.
Pure consciousness is the universal space or Great Sky which embraces all the spiritual extensions which make room for the unfolding of every configuration of experience. Called the ‘Sky of Siva’, the ‘Abode of Brahman (brahmasthana) and the ‘Abode of the Self’, it is at once Bhairava and the supreme form of Sakti, equally consciousness and its contents. In a sense, everything, including consciousness, is empty. As Abhinava says: The dawn sky, though one, appears radiant white, red and blue, and the clouds accordingly seem various; so pure, free consciousness shines brilliantly with its countless forms, though they are nothing at all.
Sakti represents the all-encompassing fullness of the Absolute, the ever-shifting power of awareness actively manifesting as the Circle of Totality. Siva is the Void of Absolute Consciousness – its supportless and thought-free nature, Integral and free, Siva, the abode of the Void, dissolves everything into Himself and brings all things into being. (p. 119)
When all supports have fallen away, the yogi experiences the Void of the primal vibration of the Absolute as a single, undivided mass of consciousness. The rays of the Wheels of his powers, both physical and mental, are drawn into the vibrating emptiness and the yogi is plunged in the direct actuality of the Present. He thus frees himself from the tyranny of the flow of time from the past to the future. (p. 120)
The Voidness of the vibrating power of consciousness, manifest when all diversity disappears, should not be confused with an empty ‘nothing’. The universe of diversity is not annihilated, but recognized to be one (p 121).
We experience this creation and destruction, this ceaseless coming and going, as binding only if we fail to recognize that everything abides within the light of consciousness. If we realize that all this is merely the play of the power of consciousness – the rotation of the Wheel of Energies – the world no longer appears to us to be Samsara.
It is Siva Himself, of unimpeded will and pellucid consciousness, Who is even now sparkling in my heart. It is His highest Sakti Herself Who is ever playing at the edge of my senses. The entire world glows at one with that bliss of I-ness. Indeed, I know not what the word Samsara refers to.
In our failure to contemplate the Lordship of our own nature, consciousness generates thought forms which rise and fall as the wheel of Energies rotates and we are caught in the seemingly endless wandering from birth to birth. All thought is Samsara, there is no bondage except thought. Trapped by thought on the periphery of the movement of the Wheel, we lose hold of the inwardly unchanging nature of reality and are entangled in the fickle, transient and diverse nature of its outward appearance. Conversely, when through an act of self-awareness, the restless movement of the mind is quelled and thought turns in on itself, the yogi realizes the true nature of Samara to be the Wheel of Energies and is no longer bound, even in the midst of the change and diversity of the world.
The cycle of cosmic creation and destruction:
1) The initial exertion that arises within the body of the absolute that leads to its transformation into the universe
2) The actual manifestation of the universe within the absolute
3) The relishing or reflective awareness of the appearing of the universe within consciousness
4) The destruction or withdrawal of the universe back into the absolute when it resumes pristine form as the radiant, Undefinable power of consciousness.
The yogi can, by close attention, observe the movement or Spanda of the Wheel of Energies in the course of each act of cognition, as it moves from the center or Heart of pure consciousness out to the periphery, where it becomes manifest as sense objects. In this way the yogi comes to realized that all is contained within, and generated through, the cycle of consciousness. Every sound, taste, smell – anything he then perceives – occasions in him a profound state of contemplative absorption.
The nature of consciousness is such that there is again a new creation, for such is the activity of the Goddess of Consciousness. He who every instant dissolves the universe thus into his own consciousness and then emits it is eternally identified with Bhairava.
In the center, Siva is free in the greatness of the Wheel of Energies: He is not a slave of its operations. Fully Awakened, He sees and contemplates its movement and effects in all of life’s daily activities. The individual soul, bound by the Wheel of the world and of the body, is liberated the instant he discriminates between himself as the embodied and the ‘body-world’ he lives in. By experiencing the entire universe ranging from Earth, the grossest, to Siva, the subtlest, he recognized that he is Siva, the pure ‘I’ consciousness which eternally delights in the play of the Wheel.
But when the mind of the fettered is firmly established in one place, then generated and withdrawn by him at will, his state becomes that of the universal subject. Thus he becomes the Lord of the Wheel. (p. 126).
To become Lord of the Wheel and be liberated, the yogi must become one with the absolute, identified with the power residing in the space of the Heart of consciousness. The yogi who grasps the true nature of the Absolute need not know or practice anything else, not even contemplation of the Wheel of Energies.
The unfolding of the Wheel of Energies confers upon the yogi the enjoyment and bliss of cosmic consciousness. When the Wheel contracts, the yogi’s individuality fuses with pure consciousness and he experiences its unconditioned freedom. In these two movements yogic powers are conferred by the particular waves of energy of the universal vibration of consciousness which is the source of liberation…
This liberating realization issues from a state of uninterrupted absorption in the vibration of consciousness both in the ecstasy of contemplation with the eyes closed and when the yogi has risen out of it to regain the more normal waking consciousness which for him is transformed into a state of contemplation with the eyes open. Thus, whether his eyes are open when awake, or closed when sleeping or meditating, the yogi merges with the pulsation of consciousness which moves like a fire-stick between these two poles generating in him the brilliance of enlightened consciousness. (p. 127)
The Wheel of Energies can function in two opposite ways. It can either be the source of bondage for those deluded by Maya, or else represent the powers the enlightened achieve through yogic practice. (p. 128).
For the unenlightened, the Supreme Goddess (of the root of consciousness) is the source of diversity and, as such, She is the potential cause of bondage – the reverse of Siva’s state of unity and freedom. For the enlightened She is the power of awareness which runs counter to the normal course of transmigratory existence. For them, Vama (the Supreme Goddess) represents the spiritual energy latent in man when it awakens and illumines his consciousness. Her powers lay hold of and throw down from a great height the essence of diversity and bestow the perfect oneness of unity in the midst of multiplicity. (p. 130)
By recognized that ‘I’ (aham) is Siva and that this ego is not that of the fettered soul, we realize our identity with Siva and are liberated. We must stick to the abiding conviction that our authentic ego and Sankara are identical. To have an ego is not in itself harmful or bad: O Supreme Lord, although I have understood that pride is vain, even so, if I do not measure the expanse of my own nature by the pride of thinking, ‘I am made of You,’ all joy comes to naught. (p. 134)
Without mind our field of awareness would be flooded with thousands of indiscernible sensations.
Manas (the mind) selects and isolates specific sensations from the mass reflected in the intellect. (p. 135)
The inner and outer senses are aspects of the vibration of consciousness and, as such, are the channels through which consciousness becomes manifest as the world of perceptions. By its Light, he ultimately realizes Siva’s ubiquity as all things and that this is, in fact, his own presence everywhere. (p. 138)
The yogi seeking enlightenment must undergo a complete conversion or reversal of perspective. To know as man knows is the very essence of bondage, freedom is to know reality as God knows it. (p. 138)
The yogi who perceives that all things are like the limbs of his own body plunges in the divine awareness that: ‘I am this universe’ (aham-idam). Bondage is a false identification with the physical body and liberation a true identification with the cosmic body. Thus the split between subject and object is healed and the yogi perceives reality everywhere, as an undivided unity in which inner and outer blend together like the juices in a peacock’s egg.
Once the tendency to see external objects ceases and limitation is destroyed, what remains in the body apart from the nectar of Siva’s bliss? Thus seeing and worshipping the body night and day as replete with all the categories of existence and full of the nectar of Siva’s Bliss, the yogi becomes identified with Siva. Established in that holy image (linga), content to rest in his cosmic body, the yogi does not aspire to any outer Linga, to make any vows, travel to the sacred sites or practice external disciplines. (p. 141) (India is in you)
We must rid ourselves of all attachment, of all sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’, however painful this may be, and thus acquire a new, transfigured body, not made of matter but of the spiritual essence of consciousness. (p. 142)
All duality is burnt away and consciousness rests tranquil, firmly fixed and free of the waves of cosmic manifestation. (p. 143)
The perfected yogi…makes the Vow of a Hero to see all things, however disgusting or attractive, with an equal eye, aware that they are all manifestations of consciousness. He carries in one hand the sacred staff of awareness with which he smashes the body of his own ego to pieces. In the other hand, he bears the skull bowl of the portions of the universe which appear in the purview of his sense, white with the light of consciousness (p. 143-144).
All Tantric traditions, including those of Kashmiri Saivism, teach that the senses, along with the body, should be venerated as manifestation of the sacred power of consciousness which emits them as the sun does its rays. (p. 144)
The Supreme Lord and inner master of the Circle (of Energies) is the universal subject Who, endowed with the sacred power of the senses, is seated in the Heart of consciousness within the sacred abode of the body, and there playfully rotates the wheels of their powers (the deities of the senses). (p. 144)
When the island of embodied consciousness has been destroyed and submerged into the ocean of pure consciousness, the senses perceive reality in a new, timeless mode. (p. 146)
Although self-absorbed, the yogi is never abstracted from the world. In fact, by being constantly mindful of himself, he sees and hears with greater clarity and understanding, and, with his senses and mind thus actively in touch with the world, his meditation matures and becomes perfect. (p. 146)
May the outpourings of the activity of my senses fall on their respective objects. May I, O Lord, never be so rash as to lose, even for a moment, the joy of my oneness with You, however slightly. (p. 147)
The yogi can take pleasure in sense objects; indeed he is specifically instructed to do so, if he maintains an awakened, mindful attitude and does not just blindly follow his natural inclinations as does an animal with a bare minimum of self-awareness. The pleasure we derive from physical objects is, in reality, the repose we enjoy when the activity of the mind is momentarily arrested and delights one-pointedly in the source of pleasure….This yogi is no hedonist. He is free of the false notion that the body is the Self and so does not crave for the pleasures of the sense, although he does not make use of them as spring-boards to project him beyond the realms of physical, transitory objectivity into the eternal sphere of consciousness. (p. 147).
Sweet song, a pleasing picture, the sight of a beautiful woman, all these are full of a ‘juice’ which the senses relish or ‘taste’ and which, like food, feeds consciousness with delight and wonder. The senses are the organs of this tasting and a state of aroused consciousness is the fruit. (p. 147)
The sound of pleasing music, the smell of incense, a gentle caress, etc. can all arouse the subject from a state of inattentive indifference and stimulate the Heart of consciousness to pulsate more intensely with the subtle movement of awareness and bliss. This movement, or arousal of the vitality of consciousness, is the unfolding of the power of awareness which inspires the aesthete with wonder and delight….The yogi, fully centered on the aesthetic object, his thoughts and senses stilled, becomes one with it and consciousness turns in on itself to realize its eternal pulsing nature as a divine aesthetic continuum, vibrant with vitality.
Wonder is the essence of life. To be incapable of wonder is to be as dead and insensitive as a stone. We live and enjoy the vitality of consciousness to the degree in which we are sensitive to the beauty of things around us….The yogi at first practices to penetrate into this state of wonder through the medium of objects more easily pleasing and then, as he makes progress, he learns to discern that same sense of wonder in himself even when confronted with the foulest of things or in times of great trouble and pain. (p 149)
Siva is the seer, the poet Who writes the plot and is, at the same time, the Self who plays all the roles. (p. 149)
The delight the yogi takes in the things about him transcends the pleasures of the hedonist or even those of the most refined aesthete. For although all aesthetic experience is a glimpse into a different, supernal order of reality, the yogi alone can maintain this awareness constantly. The moment of aesthetic delight is for him both the result and the essence of an attitude which can only be adequately described as religious. (p. 15)
At the lower, contracted level of consciousness, the senses are expressions of the limited powers of knowledge and action of the fettered soul. At the higher, expanded level of consciousness, the senses express the pure awareness and freedom of the Absolute. (p. 152)
To grasp reality in its completeness, we must go beyond the partial representations of thought and speech. To experience the primordial source and basis of all things, we must pierce through the outer periphery of through and plunge into the Center, to discover the instant in which though, and with it, the sense of diversity, initially emerges. (p. 147)
Mindful of the eternal joy of his inner strength, the yogi must give up all desire for the fleeting moments of petty pleasure he may glean from outer objects. He must even give up the desire to achieve enlightenment and a reality which can never be realized through a personal act of will. In short, he must die to himself in an act of profound faith and adoration to find rest in the supreme reality free from the binding dichotomy of means and objectives – the reality of his perfected effort. (p. 154)
Doubt (about one’s true nature) is the source of every spiritual ailment. A man in doubt about his true nature, and the path to follow by which he may come to realize it, is constantly overcome by difficulties. Due to ignorance, the deluded man is in doubt and thus suffers the cycle of birth and death. Caught between conflicting alternatives, the mind shifts from one to the other becoming more entangled in its own thoughts as it does so. Doubt thus contracts consciousness sullying it with the turbulence of confused thinking. At once both the root of the ancient tree of transmigration and the first sprout of its seed, doubt deprives man of the innate bliss of his own nature. Like a thief it steals away the wealth of true knowledge and reduces man to an imagined state of poverty in which he feels hemmed in on all sides by constraints and limitations. Ignorance and its sister, doubt, are the essence of all impurities which sully consciousness. To the degree in which the yogi is cured of this ailment, names the lassitude of doubt, his true nature becomes manifest, just as raw gold when heated is freed from dross. When the yogi recognizes the all-powerful expansion of his consciousness, he is projected beyond the realm of relative distinctions between virtue and vice. Thus overcoming all doubt as to what he should or should not do, he penetrates into the pulsing Heart of Bhairava’s consciousness….Then the soul realizes that his true uncreated nature is universal agency and perceiving subjectivity and so he know and does whatever he desires. (p. 155)
The impurity of individuality: Due to this impurity, the individual soul fails to recognize his all-embracing fullness and is disturbed by his craving for experience based on the unreasoned assumption that he is incomplete and in need of something outside himself.
The impurity of Maya: Due to this impurity he perceives diversity everywhere.
The impurity of Karma: Comes into play when the individual, deprived of the freedom and knowledge of unconditioned consciousness, acts in his limited way prompted by desires and fears for his personal gain. Disturbed by these three impurities the soul cannot find rest in himself. When he manages, however, to overcome their disturbing influence, he experiences the pure vibration of consciousness and through this recognition realizes his essentially omnipotent and omniscient nature. (p. 156)
Merging the senses in the center, between the upper and lower lotuses of the Heart in the void of the Heart, with mind unwavering, O Fair One, attain the Supreme Bliss. (p. 157)
The yogi, with the greatest respect and devotion for the reality now unfolding before him, must learn to unite these two forms of absorption (with eyes closed and eyes open) and experience the underlying unity of his consciousness which pervades both simultaneously from the Center between them. By the practice of introverted and extroverted absorption and by being firmly fixed in the Center which pervades both simultaneously, having laid hold of the fire-stick of their two-fold emanation with all thought fallen away, the circle of the senses expands instantaneously. (p. 157-158)
If you project the vision and all the other powers of the senses simultaneously everywhere onto their respective objects by the power of awareness, while remaining firmly established in the center like a pillar of gold, you will shine as the One, the foundation of the universe. (p. 158)
With one’s aim inside while gazing outside, eyes neither opening nor closing – this is Bhairava’s Mudra kept secret in all the Tantras. (p. 158)
The Doctrine of Vibration teaches that liberation can only be achieved by first withdrawing all sense activity in introverted contemplation to then experience the ‘Great Expansion’ of consciousness while recognizing this to be a spontaneous process within it. (p. 160)
The best of yogi’s, who has achieved a state of complete absorption even when risen from meditation, inwardly vibrating like a drunkard in blissful inebriation from the after-effects of the nectar of contemplation, sees all things dissolving in the Sky of Consciousness like a cloud in the autumn sky. He plunges repeatedly within himself and become aware of his identity with consciousness by the practice of introverted contemplation. Thus even when he is said to have risen from absorption, he is one with his experience of it. (p. 160-161)
Free of all hopes and fears the enlightened yogi sees all things as part of this eternal cosmic game, played in harmony with the blissful rhythm of his own sportive nature at one with all things. (p. 166)
Everything arises out of the individual soul and he is all things. Being aware of them, he perceives his identity with them. Therefore there is no state in the thoughts of words or their meanings that is not Siva. It is the enjoyer alone who always and everywhere abides as the object of enjoyment. Or, constantly attentive, and perceiving the entire universe as play, he who has this awareness is undoubtedly liberated in this very life. (p. 166-167)
According to the Doctrine of Vibration, only liberation in this life is authentic liberation. Liberation after death in some form of disembodied state free of all perceptions and notions of the world of diversity is not the ultimate goal…The suspension of all mental and sensory activity, which takes place in the introverted absorption of contemplation with the eyes closed that leads to identification with transcendent consciousness is complemented and fulfilled by the cosmic vision had through the expansion of consciousness that take place in contemplative absorption with the eyes open. (p. 167)
At the end of countless rebirths, the yogi’s psycho-physical activity which issues from ignorance is suddenly interrupted by the recognition of his own nature, full of a novel and supreme bliss. He is like one struck with awe and in this attitude of astonishment achieves the Great Expansion of consciousness. Thus he, the best of yogis, whose true nature has been revealed to him is well established at the highest level of consciousness, which he grasps firmly and his hold upon it never slackens. Thus he is no longer subject to profane existence, the abhorrent and continuing round of birth and death, which inspires fear in all living beings, because its cause, his own impurity, no longer exists. (p. 179-180)
The fettered soul is like a dancing girl who although wishing to leave the dancehall is collared by the doorkeeper of thought and thrown back onto the stage of Maya…..The yogi must rid himself of thought. As thought-forms decrease, pure thought-free awareness is strengthened until the yogi is fully established in a state in which the relative distinctions conceived between entities dissolve away. (p. 194)
Impurity is a state of seeming separation from consciousness. The yogi who has freed himself of all false notions comes to realize that the true nature of consciousness can never be sullied or limited by any object appearing within it. This is the realization the ancient sages achieved through a direct intuition of reality free of intruding thought-constructs, but kept secret in order not to confuse the worldly. Similarly, in reality nobody is ever bound. It is ignorance to believe bondage exists and to contrast it with a conceived state of liberation. If the Self is one with Siva, how can it be either bound or released? Nothing essentially distinguishes those who are bound from those who are free. The difference between their states is merely conceptual. Pure consciousness bides free of all such distinctions….Thought-constructs obscure consciousness and misguide the individual soul. Those who are bound are convinced that they are dull witted, conditioned by Karma, sullied by their sin and helplessly impelled to action by some power beyond their control. He who manages to counter this conviction with its opposite achieves freedom. (p. 194)
Bondage, the binder and the bound are in fact one. It is Siva Himself Who freely obscures His own nature. Siva binds Himself by Himself. Concealing and revealing Himself, Siva plays His timeless game. (p. 195?)
Yoga is the quelling of the fluctuations of the mind. Yoga removes the latent traces of differentiated perceptions born of the impurities which contract consciousness. This is achieved by uniting all the elements of experience together in the wholeness of activity of consciousness.
The yogi falls when he is distracted but when he attends carefully to his pure conscious nature, he realizes that every aspect of his state of being, including the forces that lead him astray, are one with the pulsing flux of his own consciousness and so cannot affect him. (p. 215)
The yogi must resist the temptation to rest content with the miraculous yogic powers he acquires in the course of his spiritual development. (p. 216)
Although a yogi’s body and mind continue to function as before, they are like mere outer coverings which contain, but do not obscure, the mighty, universal consciousness which operates through them. The yogi’s body is the universe, the sense the energies that vitalize it, his mind Mantra, the rhythm of his breath the pulse of time and his inner nature pure, dynamic consciousness. Raised above all practice, and hence all possibility of falling to lower levels, the yogi realizes that he has always been free and that his journey through the dark land of Maya was nothing but a dream, a construct of his own imagination.