TANTRIC

APHORISMS
Sayings from the Great Sages
of Kashmir Shaivism

Awareness IS the Self.

Awareness, Shiva, is the soul of the world.

The Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta

Thus identifying individual awareness with

universal awareness and attaining divine
bliss, from where or from whom should
one get scared?

The Shiva Sutras

For the Yogi who has attained the state of

Bhairava [simultaneous awareness of their outer
and inner experiencing] the entire world [outer as
well as inner] is experienced as their body.

The Shiva Sutras

Meditate on ones own body as the universe,

and as having the nature of awareness.

The Vijnanabhairava Tantra

The Yogi is always mindful of that witnessing

awareness which alone is the subject of
everything, which is always a subject and never
an object.

Vijnanabhairava Tantra

Whether outside or inside SHIVA [pure awareness] is

omnipresent.
The yogi should contemplate the entirety of open space
(or sky) as the essence of Bhairava [Shiva].
Meditate on space as omnipresent and free of all
limitations.
Meditate on the skin as being like an outer wall with
nothing within it.
Meditate on the spatial vacuity in ones body extending
[outwardly] in all directions of space simultaneously.
Meditate on vacuous space above and vacuous space
below.
Meditate on the bodys matter as pervaded with space.
Meditate on ones own self as a vast unlimited expanse.

Vijnanabhairava Tantra

One should, setting aside identification with

ones own body, contemplate that the same
awareness is present in other bodies than ones
own.
He whose awareness together with the other
senses is merged in the interior space of the
heart, who has entered into the two bowls of the
heart lotus [diaphragm], who has excluded
everything else from consciousness,acquires the
highest fortune, oh beautiful one.

SHIVA is the Self shining in all things,

all-pervasive, all quiescent
Awareness.
May the SHIVA in-penetrated into my limited self
through his power, offer worship to the Shiva of
the expansive Self the concealer of himself by
himself!

Somananda

Just like the beloved, who after much insistence,

stands in the presence of the maid in love, but
though he is there before her does not give her
any pleasure until she recognises who he is as
he seems just like other men at that moment
so for humanity the Self, who is yet the Lord of
the World, cannot manifest its own glory until its
qualities have been brought to light.

Utpaladeva

The wishing tree of Self-Awareness, with its mighty

branches, standing full-grown in the region of the
Heart, has the loveliness of Experience for its
flowers, and the festive splendour of unimpaired
Bliss for its fruits.

Utpaladeva

How wonderful it is that although only one

sound, that is, SHIVAs name, is always on
the tips of their tongues, yet [His]
devotees can taste the ineffable relish of
all the objects of the senses.

Utpaladeva

Having made itself manifest, awareness

abides as both the inner and the outer.

The visible world is the body.

Utpaladeva

With ones intent inside while looking outside,

eyes neither opening or closing this is
Bhaivaras [Shivas] Mudra kept secret in all the
Tantras.

In the two conditions, the inner and the outerhe

whose ultimate intent is internal and whose vision
is
directed
outward
attains
the
highest
realisation.

Kshemaraja

Immersing himself in the supreme reality,

clearly aware that awareness is in all things,
[the
Yogis]
awareness
vibrates.
This
throbbing pulsation [Spanda] is the Great
Pervasion [Mahavyapti].

Kshemaraja

Every appearance owes its existence

to the light of awareness.
Nothing can have its own being
without the light of awareness.

Kshemaraja

 the being of all things that are recognised

in awareness in turn depends on awareness.

Abhinavagupta

 the power of space is inherent in the soul

as true subjectivity, which is at once empty of
objects and which also provides a place in
which objects may be known.

Abhinavagupta

The Shastras [teachings] and Agamas

[scriptures]
proclaim
with
reasoned
argument that it [awareness] is free of
thought-constructs and precedes all mental
representation of any objects.

Abhinavagupta

Just as a man who has been ill for a long time

forgets his past pain completely when he
regains his health, absorbed as he is in the
ease of his present condition, so too are
those who are grounded in pure awareness
free
of
thought-constructs
no
longer
conscious of their previous [fettered] state.

Abhinavagupta

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.

Abhinavagupta

Just as an object appears directly to one

whose eyes are open without the
intervention of mental cogitation, so for
some, does SHIVAs nature.

Abhinavagupta

Not
grounded
in
anything,
this
[awareness] is not Energy, the Great
Goddess; nor is it God, the power-holder,
because it is not the foundation of
anything. It is not an object of
meditation because there is none who
meditates nothing to meditate on.

Abhinavagupta

The yogi should abide firmly fixed in his own

nature by the power of expanding awareness
relishing
the
objects
of
sense
that
spontaneously appear before him.

Abhinavagupta

Bhairava [Shiva] is he whose light shines in

the minds of those yogis who are intent on
assimilating time into the eternal present of
awareness.

Abhinavagupta

The Power that resides in the

Heart of Awareness is Freedom itself.

Abhinavagupta

A Yogi can enter another persons body

without leaving his own.
The Gurus consciousness is activated
in the disciples consciousness thus
initiation that bestows liberation is
given.
So gracious is he that, by transferring
his own nature to those whose
awareness is pure, they become one
with him at his gaze.

Abhinavagupta

There are dull-witted people who are

confused
themselves
and
throw
the
multitude of creatures into confusion.
Having thus seen creatures who are simply
carriers of the burden of Gurus and their
blind followers, I have prepared a trident of
wisdom in order to cut asunder their
bondage.

Abhinavagupta

Since this doctrine is a deep secret,

I am not delineating it clearly.
He who is interested therein may
read the tantras [treatises].

Abhinavagupta

Some may be able to speak, but if their

awareness is obscured, they are unable to rise,
unaware as they are, to the level of the
experiencing subject who understands what has
been said. They only grasp the outer successive
[sounds] of what the other person says and thus
can only repeat it parrot-fashion An
understanding of meaning presupposes that
they have caught hold of their own power of
awareness, - by attaining the autonomy of
Absolute [Divine] Subjectivity.

Abhinavagupta


Victory to the ancient Guruswho are
faultless pilots through the turbulence of
the waves of the sea of sacred texts.

Abhinavagupta

In You, the Supreme, who transcends the

abyss, You without beginning, the unique
one who has penetrated the secret depths,
You who rest in everything, You who are
found in everything
in You,
SHAMBU [Shiva], I take refuge.

Abhinavagupta

Listen: neither accepting nor rejecting

anything but just sharing joyfully in
everything, being as you are.

Abhinavagupta

He, whose hands, feet, mind, learning,

religious austerity and conduct are well
balanced (restrained), enjoys the fruits
of pilgrimage (even without going
there).

Abhinavagupta

That person is Abhinavagupta who remains aware

in the course of everyday activities, who is present
in the objective domain as well as in the
subjective, and dwells there without limitation. He
sings the praises [of divinity] without ceasing to
concentrate on the powers of knowledge and
activity. He is protected by this praise even though
he lives under the pressure of temporal affairs.

Jayaratha

I bow to Lord Shiva, Vasugupta,

Somananda, and Utpalacharaya,
Lakshmana (Gupta), Abhinavagupta and
Kshemaraja.