Legend has it that Kashmir Shaivism was born when the ninth-century Kashmiri sage Vasugupta had a dream of Lord Shiva. In it, Shiva told him that the world had lost its way and needed a restatement of the true teaching. If Vasugupta would go to a certain large rock and touch it, the rock would roll over and reveal the teachings beneath it. The sage

Just as in Western art there seems an eternal polarity between the classical and the romantic sensibilities, or in Nietzsche’s terms, the Apollonian and Dionysian, so too, Indian spirituality has its own polarity: Veda and Tantra. Perhaps these two represent two chambers of the human heart or the two hemispheres of the human brain.

While the historical facts are obscure and debatable, the Vedic culture is associated with the Brahmin caste and, in the popular mind, with the lightskinned, Aryan settlers from the north. At the same time, Tantric culture is originally associated with the dark-skinned, Dravidian peoples who were disenfranchised by the Aryans. There is great debate

Sadhana is the movement from being a contracted individual back to our essential divine essence. It is the return home, from jiva to Shiva. This aspect of Shaivism includes contemplations and meditative techniques.

Shaivism takes an extraordinarily detailed look at language. While describing bondage, Shaivism says that language, misused language, is bondage, there is no other. You cannot say that a dog or a cat is bound; only a human being is bound. He is bound not by chains but only by language, by his own thoughts, his own idea of himself. This is the

Shiva’s will, Shiva’s love, Shiva’s wisdom, Shiva’s bliss, Shiva’s activity, even Shiva’s language, all become limited in the process of contraction. Hence, a student should know something about how Kashmir Shaivism looks at contraction. We are the end product of the process of contraction: the limited individual soul, the jiva. Shaivism says that

O Lord, how fruitful can this neuter Brahman be without the beautiful female of Your devotion which makes of You a person? (Bhatta Nayaka) The Kashmir Shaivite masters did not reject the world. They were not elitist. Their emphasis was on love and devotion. At the centre of Kashmir Shaivism is the opening of the heart to the divine Shakti. The

Spanda has to do with energy: the spanda teachings point to the divine energy that is present or potential in every moment. The spanda yogi tries to enhance his experience of Shakti.

Here is the ultimate Tantric view of the world: nothing has to be done, nothing has to be attained. Everything is already perfect. The Self is already realised and can never be anything but realised, since it lies behind every thought, every breath, every moment and every experience of life. Everything is Shiva and Shiva alone.