Yoga of Synthesis in Kashmir Shaivam

Author(s): S S Toshkhani
Publisher: S S Toshkhani

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process of manifestation of all finite appearances within the infinite light.” “The selfreferential capacity of consciousness”, he adds, "lies at the basis of the yogic sādhanā. The techniques of Tantric meditation employed by the tradition engage this essential characteristic of the very nature of consciousness”. XXI
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES
All these schools were in fact contiguous and later got absorbed in the Trika or Triadic school in spite of having their intrinsic individual characteristics. It was actually Abhinavagupta, Shaivism's greatest philosopher and theologian, who synthesized them together within the Trika and shaped them into a coherent, well reasoned and integrated theological system together with their doctrines and practices and brought them under the rubric of what is today known as non-dual Kashmir Shaivism. Originally Trika was an independent system with its roots in the Tantric tradition and had such inclusiveness about it that it was said to encompass all the teachings of the Siddhānta, Vāma and Bhairava Tantras. Realizing its potential, Abhinavagupta, who called it Anuttarakulatrika, made it the focal point of his integral monistic vision which presents the relationship of the transcendental and the phenomenal as aspects of the same totality. All non-dual schools of Kashmir Shaivism have now come to be identified with Trika which is called so because its conceptual framework consists of several triads or threesomes. The primary triad comprises of the three goddesses Parā, Parāparā and Apară representing various levels of Reality. The most significant triad is that of nara (conditioned individual human being seeking liberation), Shakti and Shiva whose interrelationship it seeks to explore:
Nara-Shakti-Shivātmakam trikah
“The Triadic school is coloured by yogic mysticism (absorption into an undifferentiated awareness) and so calls itself the Yogic School", writes Paul E. Murphy.xxii