Q: Is Trika (Non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir) only one school or is it composed of several schools? A: What everybody calls “Trika” now, i.e. Non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir, is the result of the formidable task accomplished by the greatest Master of Trika of all time: Abhinavagupta. Abhinavagupta is said to have lived for 50 years […]
Removing elementary doubts (Part 7)
New doubts cleared: How can one help the world? Before helping the world one must understand what the world is. One cannot help if he does not know the nature of the world. The world is a residual manifestation of the Power of the Self. In the case of a limited person, the world appears as […]
Removing elementary doubts (Part 5)
There are still more doubts to be cleared: Why does the word “love” rarely appear in your teachings? Because that word has been so misused that it has practically lost its real meaning. It has almost as many meanings as there are people in this world. Diversity of opinions is never conducive to Final Liberation […]
Spiritual teacher and disciple (Part 2)
So, the spiritual aspirant has finally found a genuine spiritual teacher. What is next? He has to ask the spiritual teacher’s permission to be his disciple. This is generally bypassed in the West. People frequently access Yoga through Haṭhayoga (the most insignificant type of Yoga). They call Haṭhayoga “Yoga” out of sheer ignorance. It is […]
Spiritual teacher and disciple (Part 1)
In the vast majority of cases, a “spiritual teacher – disciple” relationship will have to take place for the Self to reveal Himself. Very, very few disciples are able to realize Him on their own (with no teacher). They realize Him without a teacher because they are very advanced spiritually from their very birth. As […]
Learning to think rightly (Part 3)
Is the soul the same thing as the Self? Yes and No. In higher levels of consciousness the answers to the questions are always in the form of “Yes and no… and why not, something else too”. This cannot be understood by a lower intellect that always wants “Yes” or “No” as an answer. When […]
Learning to think rightly (Part 2)
Confusion reigns supreme among ordinary people and many spiritual aspirants. The power of ideas and concepts is beyond understanding. A stupid but powerful idea could shake the world to its very roots. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of foolish ideas and concepts all the time around. Even spiritual aspirants fall very often prey to ridiculous […]
Learning to think rightly (Part 1)
In the case of those who attained spiritual enlightenment, they can understand each other perfectly. They have no problem with understanding the Self and His Power because all of them do realize Him. Problems arise when one of those people has to explain the truth about the Self and His Power to a person who […]
Adapting the ancient teachings to the modern times (Part 3)
In this article I will explain some apparent mysteries which bewilder most of people in this world. A usual characteristic of the limited individuals is that they are confounded by any nonsense created in the mind of other people. Then, limited individuals argue with each other. They are addicted to disagreeing with the rest of […]
Adapting the ancient teachings to the modern times (Part 2)
The Self is the most important thing in everybody’s life. Without Him and His Power, the limited individuals and the rest of the universe would not have come to exist ever. If one is not properly conscious of the Self, he will be always in trouble despite the circumstances, time, place and such. Limited individuals […]
Adapting the ancient teachings to the modern times (Part 1)
Before undertaking a discourse about this subject, let me explain to you what a liberated or enlightened person is. There are two types of final liberation: Getting final liberation and retaining the physical body. Getting final liberation and discarding the physical body. This difference is only exists from the viewpoint of someone watching the liberated […]
Self – Power of the Self – limited individual (Part 5)
Until the Self is realized or apprehended as He is essentially, one is always in trouble and not perfectly happy. In my last post I stated that the limited individual is the Self “gone crazy”. What did I mean by “gone crazy”? I did not merely mean to say that the limited individual is the Self gone crazy because […]
Self – Power of the Self – limited individual (Part 4)
Summing up the teachings now: The Self is inconceivable and beyond the reach of all limited beings. He dwells perpetually devoid of space, time, form and so on. The Power of the Self is also inconceivable like the Self. The first act of the Power of the Self is giving the Self the perception that […]
Self – Power of the Self – limited individual (Part 2)
I told you in my previous posts that I would dissolve your ignorance about the scriptures little by little by giving you their essence. In order to define what a limited individual is, I will quote aphorism III, 1 of Śivasūtra-s (a very important scripture): “The individual Self (is) the mind||1||” “Limited individual”, “limited being”, “conditioned […]
Self – Power of the Self – limited individual (Part 1)
The Self is inconceivable. The Self cannot be described in any way. The Self is without any name. One has to use words or expressions such as “Self”, “Highest Reality”, “God”, “Lord”, “That”, etc. in order to deal with Him. And since the Self can be masculine, feminine, neuter or even something else, you can […]
Spiritual ignorance – Part 4
I said that there are three ways to get right knowledge: direct experience, deduction and testimony. A person who has dissolved his ignorance about the scriptures but lacks direct experience of the Self is a theoretician. Why? Because he has all the time to resort to the processes of deduction and testimony in order to […]
Spiritual ignorance – Part 3
I will speak about the second aspect of spiritual ignorance now: Lack of direct experience There are three ways to get right knowledge: direct experience, deduction and testimony. When someone has no direct experience of a particular subject, he can resort to deduction (reasoning with his intellect) or testimony (scriptures, others’ teachings, etc.). If one […]
Spiritual ignorance – Part 1
Spiritual ignorance is the source of all your problems. You may blame other people for your problems, you may blame weather for your problems, you may blame the movements of planets for your problems, you may blame destiny for your problems, you may even go to the extent of believing that some dogs barking all night […]