Spanda Karikas - for Jonesboy

[Bindu*]

Jonesboy.

As you are interested in the Kashmir Shaivism texts.

Here is Spanda Karikas by Kshemaraja. Prime disciple of
Abhinivagupta.


http://cincinnatitemple.com/articles...-Pulsation.pdf

It's a text meant for the practical application of the teachings in the Shiva sutras scripture.

[Divine Consciousness]

Awesome... Spandan means pulsating, spanda one can feel pulsation when it throbbing. spanda means vibration.

Many time while I am doing mediation, feel spandan through moving of dhyana, (moving of focus, attention and entire concentration as per technique).

I downloaded this ebook and will read in my times.

[Bindu*]

Nice Divine Consciousness....

Glad you may enjoy it too.

I said in above post that Ksemaraja was the source of the text.

That is wrong.

He wrote an excellent and widely acknowledge
commentary on spanda karikas which is part of the book posted
here. Ksemarajas commentary is called Spanda-nirnaya .

The originer of the text is Kallata

Shiva Sutras and Spandakārikā[edit]

Dating from around 850-900 CE, the Shiva Sutras and Spandakārikā were the first attempt from the Śākta Śaiva domain to present a non-dualistic metaphysics and gnostic soteriology in opposition to the dualistic exegesis of the Shaiva Siddhanta.[6] The Shiva Sutras appeared to Vasugupta in a dream, according to tradition. The Spandakārikā was either composed by Vasugupta or his student Bhatta Kallata.

One of my teacher calls the text itself a kind of Guru.
Which purpose is to reveal the Light and take away the
darkness of the student.

[Bindu*]

Here is an online commentary on the sutras as well...posting the first sutras below;


http://lovebliss.eu/spanda-k-rik-s.html

Spanda Kārikās


1) We praise that Shankara, who is the source of all forces and by whom, in a mere twinkle of the eye, the universe springs forth or is absorbed.


"Shankara" means the Absolute.
"Twinkle of the eye" is a translation of "unmesa", which can also mean "coming forth".



2) The pure nature of Him, from whom this universe comes into existence, is not obstructed anywhere.



"Him" refers to Shankara, the Absolute.



3) One's own innate spirit remains untainted through different states, like waking, dreaming, etc., where divisions occur.



After having having praised the Absolute as the source of the cosmos, the text turns to the individual person and states that he arises out of pure being ("one's own innate spirit").



4) States of consciousness such as I am happy, I am miserable, I am attached, etc. clearly all depend on a primal state on which they are strung together.



"Strung together" like beads on a string should be understood in the sense that the primal state of pure being not only supports the relative states, but that the relative states have indeed sprung from the primal state.



5) That is the highest wherein neither pleasure or pain exist, nor where cognizable objects or cognizer exist, but which is not the ignorant state either.



It is important to understand that this highest state is not a dull blankness, it is vibrant life (Spanda) and is your Self. From this Self pleasure and pain, as well as cognizable objects and cognitions, will be witnessed. One will not be caught up in them.

.................................................. .........................................

[jonesboy]

Very cool stuff and thank you.

Here let me add some resources. I took some of this from another post where they were looking for practical KS techniques.

This website has a nice introduction into Kashmir Shaivism.

http://www.universalshaivafellowship.../#.WZR_Cq2ZM0o

http://www.ishwarashramtrust.com/tea.php?a0=b



PRINCIPLE FORMS OF MEDITATION
Our Masters have indicated that there are two principle forms of practice of asana pranayama: Chakrodaya and Ajapa Gayatri.

Ajapa Gayatri:
Ajapa Gayatri is anusandhan along with the slow and silent movement of the breath. The inhaling and exhaling should be so slow and so utterly silent that even he who is breathing cannot hear his own breath. You are to maintain continiously refreshing full awareness in the centre of two breaths while breathing in and out slowly and silently. You must maintain full awareness at the point where the inhaling breath reaches its completion, the birthplace of the exhaling breath and so also you must maintain awareness at the end point of exhalation, the birthplace of inhaling breath. The practice of Ajapa Gayatri does not allow the missing of a single breath. Your awareness must be breakless, continiously refreshed and must be fixed in the centre of two slowly and silently moving breaths. The settling in asana through Ajapa Gayatri is extremely difficult. To practice Ajapa gayatri you should “ball your fists, clench your teeth, tense all the muscles of your body but conquer your mind”. This is the advice of Sage Vashistha to Lord Rama. He tells him that he must first conquer his mind and then only practice ajapa gayatri.

Chakrodaya:
You must maintain awareness which is continually fresh and new, filled with excitement and vigour, in the centre of the two breaths. You are to breathe in and out slowly but in this case with sound. In the practice of chakrodaya, you must inhale and exhale in long breaths.the longer the breath, the less space it occupies, the quicker the result. In chakrodaya, the breath has to be inhaled and exhaled by the through the throat and not by the heart which could be very dangerous and deadly procedure.
Through practice of this gross movement of breath is refined and with passage of time, becomes more and more subtle. At this point begins pranayama.
Turya
Turya is neither wakefulness , dream not the deep sleep. In reality, it exists in the junction between any of these three states. When you enter into the state of turya, the five organs of action are rendered powerless and cease to function. Turya does not concern himself with external occuring around him. This is the full state of pranayama. In the state of turya, you perceive mentally thepresence of five subtle elements. Hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell. You must ignore them completely and settle deeply into your own one pointed awareness. This settling is called pratyahara. It is the winding up of the external world and entering into the supreme internal world. And when the breath enters into the central vein(sukshama nadi) and is thereby annhiliated, at this point in your journey , meditation ceases. This state cannot be concentrated upon. It is held automatically. Old ladies generally say “ let me have the power to do where there is nothing to be done.let me have the power to contemplate where there is nothing to contemplate"
This unification of individual God Consciousness and Universal God Consciousness leads to that supreme state where God Consciousness is experienced without break and in all states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. This is supreme state of fullness while in the body and is called jagat ananda.

Here is a lecture given by Mark Dyczkowski, it's mostly about chanting Om, but it touches on many subjects, such as Vijnanabhairava tantra and Kashmir Shaivism generally, although the content given here (except for verses from Vijnanabhairava and Spandakarikas from his book) is mostly Upanishadic, still a great deal of knowledge, most of which is hard to obtain even for gods in many kalpas... I mean, hard to find anywhere else on the web.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ftGeQkvlwI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OmBhlWrrGc


Of course when it comes to practical side of Shaivism then Vijnanabhairava is a no-brainer. Just be careful to pick Swami Lakshmanjoo or Jaideva Singh edition (or both) and not Osho or Lorin Roche edition as they are not real Vijnanabhairava.


Some links that you might also find helpful:

http://tantrikstudies.squarespace.com/blogpage/
a homepage of Christopher Wallis, he seems a bit "New Agey" to me, but in his book and blog posts he also presents many practical sides of Shaivism and he certainly knows the tradition well

https://www.sanskrit-trikashaivism.c...glish-home/100
some Argentinian guy who claims to have had a spontaneous initiation, I can't assess validity of many things on this site though

http://www.anuttaratrikakula.org
homepage of aforementioned Mark Dyczkowski, whom I don't need to introduce I think, he has lots of courses and some free info too, really priceless IMO, his reading list is also great, working my way through titles that I've missed (Aspects of Kashmir Shaivism is a gem really)
http://www.shivashakti.com
everyone knows this site I think but gonna post it regardless, Mike's translations and articles are mostly centered around Shaktism (particularly Kalikula and Śri Vidya), nevertheless he has a great deal of information there, some very hard to obtain and his abstacts and translations are really neat, he has a section on Shaivism too

https://oxford.academia.edu/AlexisSanderson
another scholar of great importance, he used to have his website with various texts, translations and papers but here is most of what was there anyway, if not more, you can find real gems on academia.edu, for example "The Yoga of the Malinivijayottaratantra" by Somadeva Vasudeva

https://kyoto-u.academia.edu/SomadevaVasudeva
https://univ-lille3.academia.edu/JuditTorzsok
https://saivatantra.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGK...tkt5Ph7YvKAFWQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIR...-Ubi0IxIEUx51A
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKY...JRWaM_dfi_BnxA


You can also of course just study Tantraloka in it's entirety and get to know Tantra from Abhinavagupta Himself. Anyway - I'm most curious about the self-initiation into Trika described by Ahinavagupta in his 4th chapter of Tantraloka.

http://www.sutrajournal.com/a-thousa...-jeffrey-lidke

Also check out more stuff from Sutra Journal, they aren't exclusively about Shaivism (not even exclusively about Tantra) but there are some gems there, like this one article here which concisely presents the life and subsequent ascension of Abhinavagupta who was an incarnation of Bhairava.



Another really valuable article from Wallis:
http://www.tantrikstudies.org/blog/2...on-the-chakras

Speaking of which - if anyone would be interested in Kundalini and chakras in Kashmir Shaivism tradition then the best book on the matter is "Kundalini: Energy Of The Depths" by Lilian Silburn.



Also, "Born of the Yogini's Heart" by Paul Muller-Ortega is worth reading, it's somewhere on the web. It's a short article but very illuminating regarding the "cavern of the heart" metaphor in Shaivism.



But well, it's not really practical per se, nevertheless it does contribute to understanding of the system.

http://www.ishwarashramtrust.com/mal.php

Here are all issues of Malini journal, published with blessings of Swamiji.

[jonesboy]

Originally Posted by Bindu*

Nice Divine Consciousness....

Glad you may enjoy it too.

I said in above post that Ksemaraja was the source of the text.

That is wrong.

He wrote an excellent and widely acknowledge
commentary on spanda karikas which is part of the book posted
here. Ksemarajas commentary is called Spanda-nirnaya .

The originer of the text is Kallata





One of my teacher calls the text itself a kind of Guru.
Which purpose is to reveal the Light and take away the
darkness of the student.

I have found that most of the KS texts have very strong transmissions in them.

[Shivani Devi]

Namaste.

All of this is awesome! Thank you to Bindu and Jonesboy. <3

I have previously just only briefly skimmed the Spanda Karikas, although I have studied Vijnana Bhairav Tantra in depth and also read Tantraloka by Abhinavagupta.

I was 'The Necromancer' in another forum-life, Jonesboy and hence why I didn't reply to your PM yet...because you already know me...what is in my mind and heart....so I didn't do it just yet.

Suffice to say, I haven't been reading much. Last night I found a set of tabla in the back of my brother's music store...sitting under a pile of stuff...

I got it out, started to tune it...matched my brother playing harmonics on his electric guitar with tabla harmonics...showed him how to do eight beats within a single beat, how to tap and stretch the skin...he was like "no way! I didn't know you could play the tabla!" I followed that with "I bet you I can do a lot of things you had no idea I could do" and started singing Rudrashtakam in Sanskrit along with playing tabla and his jaw just dropped.

Then, one of my brother's music students started following my tabla lead on the zither and my brother switched from electric guitar to the theremin.

We did a three-piece shiva kirtan right then and there for Tabla, Zither and Theremin with me singing Shiva prayers in Sanskrit and them joining in chanting "om" and "om namah shivay" on the chorus and my brother is like "we should so be recording this!" but we didn't record it.

He was like "next time we will record it" but then I was like "yeah, but it will lose it's authentic 'spur of the moment" sound then. lol

Aum Namah Shivaya

[Bindu*]

Thanks a lot Jonesboy for the many great links here !
Many sources which I have not seen before.

Been traveling so haven't had time until now to look closer into it.

I feel a great inspiration to keep up the studies of this great tradition of Kashmir Shaivism. I feel also that this knowledge and canon will keep increasing and growing in the spiritual society. It is a body of knowledge whose time has come for a renaissance I think. The tantric wholeness vision of seeing the world as an expression of the highest reality, not to be rejected is needed now.

Thanks again...will probably comment more about it here...

[Shivani Devi]

Namaste.

I've been off studying the Spanda Karikas by Jaidev Singh for the past week. Good stuff in there.

I've also been studying the collective works of Pandit Gopi Krishna on the nature of Kundalini.

Om Namah Shivaya

[jonesboy]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Namaste.

I've been off studying the Spanda Karikas by Jaidev Singh for the past week. Good stuff in there.

I've also been studying the collective works of Pandit Gopi Krishna on the nature of Kundalini.

Om Namah Shivaya

Anything stand out to you?