Trika, the Kashmir Saiva Essence, by Tej Raina, is an excellent book that clarifies this school of wisdom. Kashmir Shaivism, also known as Trika Tantra, is the triad of Siva, Sakti and Nara. Siva is pure consciousness. Sakti is infinite potency, the manifestation of everything, consciousness in action, energy. Nara is empirical existence, individuals (Jeeva).
In Trika Tantra, everything is manifested out of pure consciousness (Siva), being indeterminate and transcendental. Trika Tantra recognises non-dual consciousness as the supreme reality. We recognise non-dual consciousness through awareness, being aware of the true self as Being. We assert this being through the expression I AM, where I represents ‘me’, my entity as body-mind, and AM is the essence, awareness of being. “Awareness is (our) true (self) essence.” (Siva-Sutra 1-1, attributed to the sage Vasugupta)
Sakti, potency, is immanent and transcendental, dynamic consciousness, and has three aspects; Gana, Kriya and Iccha. Knowing that ‘awareness is the true self’ is Gana. But Gana also refers to structures and confines places on empirical existence, whereby every manifestation has intrinsic knowledge of how it operates, called awareness-existence, that allows for differentiation. This is knowing.
Kriya is the potency of action. Right action (Kriya) fuels our knowing (Gana), which in turn strengthens our will (Iccha). Iccha is transcendental will, without which there could be no spiritual practice. It is the desire for devotion (Bhakti) and spiritual growth, the power to sustain our bhakti practice, and to transform worldly desires into the greater desire for union with the divine (the true self).
This is Bhairava; bha (Gana), ra (Kriya), va (Iccha). This reflects the three aspects of the practice of Kashmiri Shaivism, the three Upayas that can bring us back to a recognition of the divine, the true self; Jnana, Kriya and Bhakti.
In Trika Tantra, Kashmiri Shaivism, we, empirical individual beings (anava / Jeeva), are immanent existence of dynamic consciousness (a part of Nara), divine experiments. However, in our bondage, due to believing we are a separate self, due to Maya-tattva (Shakti projecting itself through difference) we experience wants, likes and dislikes, and attachments, turning us into perpetual suffering victims (difference leading to delusion).
In Kashmiri Shaivism, the starting point for practice to break the bonds of the ego and attachments, taking us back to the true self, pure consciousness, is action (Kriya) and gathering of knowledge (Gana/Jnana), which strengthens our will (Iccha/Bhakti) to become “a Sambhava-aspirant, who truly deserves Saktipata”.
But what are these actions we take to start with?
1. Bhakti, devotion and especially surrender, where we stop fighting inside ourself, remembering who we are, divine / pure consciousness.
2. Gana, taking in knowledge from ancient scriptures (seeds), gurus and teachers, and sewing these seeds of knowledge. This is the elevator to pure consciousness, to remembering who we are, which directs our actions.
3. Kriya, actions taken with knowledge, such as Asanas (you are the body, the body of divine / pure consciousness), Pranayama (to increase our life force, especially working on retention of the breath for long meditations), and Meditation (especially with the use of Mantras which centre the mind, taking you to deeper states). This is not the yoga of action, but yoga in action.
See also Pink Tantra | How to live life through tantra yoga
Bringing it all together
The Saiva wisdom of Kashmir has been passed down orally through thousands of years, although written texts date from about the 8th century A.D. with the writings of Vasugupta, and later through the writings of Somananda, Utpaldeva, Abhinavgupta, Kshemraja, Bhaskara and Varadaraja and others. There are three kinds of writing. Agama (believed to be direct revelation handed down as Sutras), Spanda (elaborated and interpreted doctrine), and Pratyabhiga shastras (discussions, arguments and counter-arguments).
The emphasis is on direct experience of the true self, pure consciousness, through the triad practices of Bhakti, Gana (Jnana) and Kriya.
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