Yoga of Synthesis in Kashmir Shaivam

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

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(contemplative envisioning), varna (movement of phonemes in the breath), and sthānaprakalpana (mental projection of the support of the ritual) is known as änava,"x
Dhyana: Bhutashuddhi or "purification of the elements" invariably precedes all these practices of anavopaya, the body through it being homologized with the macrocosm so that it qualifies for divinity to make its presence inside it. Dīkshā or initiation by the spiritual guide is another essential feature of Shaiva spiritual discipline. Of the five practices that characterize the upaya, dhyāna or meditation is regarded as the highest, focusing as it does one-pointed attention on identity of the individual self with the consciousness pervading the universe. One of the most common anavopaya meditative techniques consists of contemplation of "dissolution of the individualized self into. transcendental self", called layabhāvanā. In this process the gross tattvas are resolved into subtler tattvas, the physical reality being resolved imaginatively into the senses, "then the senses into the mind, and the mind into the personal self" till the yogi "finally arrives at the transpersonal self', as Swami Shankarananda describes it. Through it", writes Dyczkowski, "the progressive differentiation of consciousness from its causal, precosmic form to its phenomenal manifestation is reversed."lxxii
Abhinavagupta describes in Tantraloka a meditative practice in which the yogi recognizes that the various objects of the senses are "identical with the wheel of supreme consciousness" (samvicchakra). The wheel, as it emerges from the senses in its totality, "cognizes in its own totality as present within the objects of the senses", and in this manner dissolution of all the separate and finite objects in the wheel of consciousness takes place, even the residue or latent impressions being dissolved. xxiii
As the yogi continues to meditate on the samvicchakra or the wheel of consciousness, it is appeased and thus calmed and pacified. He can now practice within himself Shiva's ãosmic powers of creation, maintenance and dissolution of the universe, becoming virtually Bhairava himself. He meditate on the anuttara, then on four, five, six, eight spokes of the wheel, six, fifteen spokes and gradually on sixty-four, hundred, one thousand spokes of the wheel. He can even meditate on any number of spokes for the
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