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.

Happy for No Good Reason,

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.

Among many others, I draw on the ideas of two spiritual teachers I should mention. One is my friend Douglas Harding, whose unique and inimitable approach sheds light on the Self as Consciousness, which is pure Kashmir Shaivism. The other is the enigmatic 20th-century teacher G. I. Gurdjieff. I met his teachings in my earliest days as a spiritual

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

To heal the contraction in his navel, he tries to act well in all situations and come into harmony with the higher power. To heal the contraction in his mind, having discovered its cause in the misuse of language, he tries to bring his thinking into alignment with his highest good. To heal the existential angst in his heart, he tries to transcend

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

Turning to the Shaivite tradition proper, this is not an historical survey. In Kashmir around 1100A.D. a number of schools of Shaivism were operating: the Krama School, the Kula School, the Pratyabhijna School, the Spanda School and undoubtedly others. Each had their own point of view and emphasis, though they agreed broadly on central issues.

Shaivism does not recognise the concept of sin. That which separates us from God is ignorance. Far from thinking of a human being as a fallen creature, Shaivism holds that in our innermost being, each of us is divine.