(Kundalini, Shaktipat, and the awakening into Dharmakaya)
The Bhagavan, or Blessed One, as Blessing Power (the Sambhogakaya, or Clear-Light Energy, or Dharma Cloud, or
The Serpent King is another name for Kundalini, the “Coiled One”—and when the final, Heart “coil” is “straightened” by the Blessing Power (or Clear-Light Energy) of the Blessed One, then the bodhisattva morphs into a Buddha, a Tathagata who dwells timelessly in, and as, the Dharmakaya, universal Mind, or Awareness.
The Blessed One equates Mind-awakening with the tenth and final stage of Buddhahood, known as the Great Dharmamegha. This is likewise the final stage of Self-realization in Patanjali’s yoga system; hence Buddhism coincides with classical Hindu yoga at this point.
To the spiritual cognoscenti, the Dharmamegha (or Dharma Cloud) is the culmination of Shaktipat, meaning the unobstructed descent of Anugraha-Shakti, the Holy Spirit, or Sambhogakaya, as the Blessing Power that transforms a bodhisattva into a Buddha, a Blessed One. When this Clear-Light Energy unites with contracted Mind, or Siva (Alaya-vijnana, or citta), in the Tathagatagarbha (the womb of the Buddhas, which is an analogue for the Hindu Heart-cave, or Hridayam), then Mind shines freely as Bodhicitta, or Siva-Shakti.
(Cittamatra vs Vijnaptimatra: world as real manifestation, not projection)
Unbeknownst to Red Pine, Mind (the Alaya, the Unborn Substratum) is a metaphysical “Substance,” and the world is the objectification or manifestation of this Mind. This point of view, called Cittamatra (or Consciousness-Only), is in diametrical opposition to Red Pine’s point of view, called Vijnaptimatra (or mind-only), which sees the world as nothing but ideas, with no Reality or realities behind them, reducing all dharmas (or things) to mere mental projections, or representations, of one’s individual mind. External objects, however, are not, as Red Pine asserts, perceptions of one’s own mind. If you believe that the computer you’re using now wouldn’t exist just as it is after you stop perceiving it, you have evicted yourself from reality.
tradition), KS views Maya (phenomenal reality) as real, rather than an indeterminate illusion. Because Advaita Vedanta regards manifest existence as unreal, its “nonduality” does not qualify as true nonduality.
The KS schema or system consists of 36 tattvas (constituents or principles) which provide a map [see Diagram 1] of unmanifest Reality’s descent into, and through, the manifest dimensions of Maya. [See Tattvas in the Glossary for summary definitions of the 36 tattvas.] Unmanifest Reality, Being-Consciousness, personified as Siva, the Single Existent, became/becomes all existents, while not being implicated by any of them. Because all existents stem from boundless Siva, appearing and disappearing in Him, the Kashmir Shaivism system is nondual, as the totality of the universe is contained within, and derives from, Him, the One Mind, or Being-Consciousness.
While Siva and Shakti (as Siva-Shakti) are the Divine Being itself, Sadasiva, Isvara, and Sadvidya describe the Divine Being’s (or Mind’s) intradivine “Mental transformation,” as it morphs from acausal God into creator God, ready to roll out the universe.
Then, as Sadvidya (Kriya, or Kriya-Shakti), the Creator God, Siva, the Immeasurable One, “Acts” by “measuring out” His space-time universe (Maya).
At this point, it should again be pointed out that Siva, of His own “Volition,” for His own “Sport,” contracts/cloaks Himself to create His “Play” of Maya. Moreover, although Siva seemingly limits Himself, in Reality, He remains illimitable, never implicated by His seeming Self-limitation. Tattva (12) is Purusa, the individual subject, contracted into a point (anu) of self-awareness in the midst of Infinity. It is the Divine Person, Siva, cloaked as an empirical person/experient.
Until our present discussion, I hadn’t pondered why KS and Samkhya have Akasha (tattva 32) being produced from sound, Sabda (Shabda) tanmatra (tattva 27), nor had I bothered to check if anyone else agreed with my POV regarding Akasha’s position in the tattva hierarchy. Upon Googling the subject, I found an article, “Akasha (Space) and Shabda (Sound): Vedic and Acoustical Perspectives” by M.G. Prasad, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, which provides enlightening information on the “evolutionary” (really involutionary) order of the elements:
The meaning of the statements is as follows: from that verily, from this self (Atman) is Akasha (space) born; from akasha, the air; from air the fire; from fire the water; from water the earth; from earth the plants; from plants the food; from food the man. It is given in the above statements that the production of elements begins from the all-pervading Atman (Brahman). Then the first element Akasa is born, here akasha refers to absolute space (which is mistaken for vacuum). This most subtle element akasha is qualified by sound as its property or guna.
When, in bookstores in the early 1990s, I encountered the SUNY series of books on Kashmir Shaivism, edited by Professor Paul Muller-Ortega, I was blown away by the profundity and esotericism of these texts. Thanks to these texts (especially The Philosophy of Sadhana and The Doctrine of Recognition), my understanding of the En-Light-enment project expanded significantly, particularly as it pertained to Shaktipat, nonduality, and Mind (or Consciousness)-Only metaphysics.
MY RESPONSE: The practices Wallis describes are sakti (and not Sakti) practices because they pertain to stepped-down cosmic energies (including prana) and not to pure Spirit, or Clear-Light Energy, which is Sakti, the Force-flow of Consciousness Itself (Siva). In truth, the only true Sakti practice is that of conducting and merging with the Spirit-Power (or Current) of Consciousness. Wallis, however, fails to differentiate between saktis (which are created, or manifest, energies) and Sakti (which is uncreated, or unmanifest, Energy).
(The Heart-locus and the mechanics of Self-realization)
The Heart is a synonym for the Self (Divine Being-Awareness), and the Self, in an embodied human, can only be Realized (or Recognized) in, at, and through the Heart-space (or Heart-locus), which is felt-experienced two digits to the right of the center of one’s chest. This is the “place” where universal Consciousness intersects (and outshines) individual consciousness. Hence, the immanent Heart (Hridayam) must be distinguished from the heart cakra (anahata)—but Wallis fails to do this. To reduce the Heart to mere “awareness” (uncapitalized), as Wallis does, is to misrepresent the Heart. And one doesn’t “place one’s mind in the Heart.” What occurs yogically is that the mind and sprouting vasanas, or habit-energies, which Wallis mistakenly equates with samskaras (the psychical seed tendencies that concatenate into and “sprout” as vasanas), are literally, via intense Shaktipat, sucked into the Heart-center (or Hridayam-locus).
Unbeknownst to Sadhguru, who is not a true Sat Guru, but an un-en-Light-ened pop guru pretending to be one, Shiva (or Siva) is Consciousness (or Mind) itself, and Shakti is Siva’s Spirit-Power, or Light-Energy, and not “that which is not.”
I’ll now summarize real Kabbalistic yoga: Kabbalah means “to receive.” And what one receives in genuine Kabbalistic yoga, which mirrors Tibetan Dzogchen and the true Christian Eucharist, is the en-Light-ening Power of Now—Shakti, the Holy Spirit, or Sambhogakaya. The union of a yogi’s soul (or consciousness) with this Spirit produces Awakening, Self-realization. Kabbalah has also been described as the “work of integration,” which means being integrally, or immediately and unobstructedly, present, so as to be a fit vessel for receiving and uniting with the Blessing Power from on high that transforms the Kabbalistic yogi into a Blessed One.
(Ain Sof Aur as Siva-Shakti: the unmanifest positive ground)
I reject the idea of these “three veils of negative existence.” I contend there is but a single “positive” veil, or Matrix, or Womb, or Source, prior to the Four Worlds and the Tree of Life—and it is Ain Sof Aur, which, rightly understood, is the same Divine Being-Consciousness-Energy as Kashmir Shaivism’s Siva-Shakti. I contend that Ain means no-thing, not nothing or nothingness. In other words, Ain signifies God not as a thing, but as the unmanifest Divine Being (or “Thing”-in-Itself) from which all manifest things derive. Although the (unmanifest) Divine Being, or Existent, is formless (empty of manifest content), it is not emptiness, because emptiness, like nothingness, is a non-existent with no ontological status. In contrast, the Divine Being (or Mind) has supreme ontological status; hence it is the Supreme Being. Ain Sof signifies God as limitless or infinite, meaning outside space and time. And Ain Sof Aur denotes God, the Divine Being (or Mind, or Consciousness), as limitless Light-Energy (or Spirit-Power); hence it is equivalent to Siva-Shakti—spaceless, timeless Being-Consciousness-Energy.
Adam Kadmon is not an emanated or created dimension, or “world,” hence he should not be considered the fifth world. Rather, he is the personification of the Absolute, Ain Sof Aur. As such, he is an analogue for Shaivism’s Siva, the Divine personification of Being-Consciousness, the One Mind.
Those interested in the subject of etheric physics should check out Ken Wheeler’s YouTube channel Theoria Apophasis and his book Uncovering the Missing Secrets of Magnetism.
Ervin Laszlo’s book Science and the Akashic Field is also must-reading on the subject. But I want to emphasize that although I recommend Wheeler’s channel and these books, that hardly means I agree with everything they say.
Tsimtsum, from my perspective, is the same Self-contraction and Self-limitation as sankoca in Kashmir Shaivism, whereby Siva-Shakti reduces Itself to, and “hides” Itself in, its multi-dimensional creation.
The Magician is the Tarot card that best correlates with Keter/Pluto. I see the Magician as Lord Siva doing his “Dance.” The worlds (and everything in them) are built on Consciousness, reflecting Keter “magically” intersecting creation. An En-Light-ened mystic who has severed the Heart-knot (and is one with Siva) is a master-magician, a Siddha with siddhis who can, via his Plutonic consciousness-power, “initiate” (or Spirit-baptize) others into Siva-Consciousness.
Once the empty cup, or Holy Chalice, is filled, Da’at (or “She”) is revealed as the inseparable Divine Consort of Keter/Siva (or “He”). The popular occult image of Jesus seated in the Holy Chalice (or Grail) reflects the “birth” of the Christ/Son resulting from this Divine Union/Holy Marriage.
The Moon/Yesod represents subconscious emotions and feelings. When en-Light-ened by the flow of Spirit, Light-Energy from above, Moon/Yesod transmutes into the Feeling of Being, which is Beatitude or Bliss. Earth/Malkhut is the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. When mankind, the God-appointed stewards of our planet, freely, en masse, channel Divine Light-Energy, then Heaven and Earth will be united. But don’t hold your breath waiting for this to happen.
Hegel, considered by many to be the most important philosopher since Kant, was a theologian devoted to philosophy as a means to disseminate gospel on God’s work in the world. In a lecture, he preached: “Philosophy has no object but God and so is essentially rational theology and, as the servant of truth, a continual divine service.”
In his The Doctrine of Recognition, A Translation of Pratyabhijnahrdayam with an Introduction and Notes, Jaideva Singh writes, “The Universe is nothing but an opening out (unmesa) or expansion of the Supreme or rather of the Supreme as Sakti [Shakti].” Exactly. And because I champion this view, while the current big-name promoters of nonduality and metaphysical idealism don’t, I feel moved to counter their static Consciousness-Only arguments by providing a dynamical Spiritual (or Shakti-based) explanation of the descent of the Divine Mind into, and as, manifestation.
Spira is all Siva—but Truth is Siva-Shakti, not just static Awareness. Moreover, unlike Adi Da and Ramana Maharshi, he never ventures into esoteric anatomy, ignoring deep subjects such as the function of the Heart and the Amrita Nadi in the Self-realization process.
How do you define “Holy”? Only the Godhead, the Trinity (or Trikaya)—timeless, spaceless, unborn, immaculate Consciousness-Energy—is Holy. When we speak of It as transcendent, It is Father; when we speak of It as immanent, It is Son; and when we refer to It as Energy (which links the Father and the Son), It is Spirit. The Holy One, the Godhead, is in the world, but not of it. The Holy One is ever nondual because His “three dimensions” (Father/Dharmakaya, Son/Buddha, Spirit/Sambhogakaya) are intradivine; hence there is no dualistic “other” in the Godhead, but simply the three principal aspects of the “three-in-one” Deity, or Mind. Nothing manifest (or born) is Holy, because everything created is compounded and subject to decay. Created objects (such as temples, holy books, and divine artifacts) can allude to the Unmanifested, the Uncompounded, but they themselves, as temporary appearances in space-time, are not truly Sacred, or Holy.
Unlike Eckhart Tolle, a fogged-out pop guru, I am an authority on the Power of Now, which, unbeknownst to Tolle, is a synonym for the Holy Spirit and yogic Shakti. Moreover, the Now is not the present moment (as Tolle would have you believe), but the timeless Supreme Source and Presence, which is Mind (or Consciousness).
(Practical instructions for plugging into the Divine Presence)
Experiment with these instructions and use the ones that best enable you to plug into the Divine Presence, the Now, and pull down Divine Power, the Power of Now. Although I have numbered the recommendations, be advised that they overlap and intertwine and do not have to be practiced in the order in which I present them: 1) Sit upright, but relaxed, on a chair, bench, or meditation cushion. 2) Establish what the Buddha called “self-possession.” In other words, feel yourself as the whole body, and then be consciously present as the whole body, the whole psycho-physical being. Randomly focusing your attention on your third-eye area and hands will enable you to coincide with your body, and thereby heal the body-mind split. When you consciously inhabit your whole body—and are wholly, or integrally, present to the whole (the totality of existence)—you are in proper position to receive and conduct the Power of Now, the Force-Flow from above. 3) “Gaze” into empty space. If you are “self-possessed,” this “gaze” will amount to being whole-bodily present to (or in direct relationship to) the void. As soon as you become aware that you have retracted from your “position” of conscious connectedness to (or single-pointed focus on) the void, simply reassume, or attempt to reassume, your “stance” of holistic at-one-ment. To this end, you can randomly use an enquiry (such as “Avoiding relationship?”) to instigate your resumption of communion with the void. When the void begins to “shine,” it is experienced as Divine Presence. When the Power of the Presence pours down upon you, then “emptiness” has morphed into Spirit, and your “gaze into space” has transmuted into empowered Divine Communion. 4) Randomly focus your attention on your breath by being in direct relationship to your breathing cycle. When the breath “comes alive” as prana-shakti, or palpable intensified life-energy, simply remain present to it. Your communion with the breath cycle will transmute into true, or infused, Divine Communion when the prana-shakti morphs into Divine Power—the great Shakti, or Holy Spirit, poured down from above. 5) Totally relax your body (including your head) and utterly let go of your mind. Once you can connect to the Shakti, you will directly experience that letting go intensifies the Force-flow (or pressure) of the Spirit-current. Be an empty cup, ready to be filled with Divine Elixir from above. When you experience the Benediction, the Divine downpour, remain motivelessly present to it. Your searchless beholding of the Shakti will enable you to spontaneously merge with it.
This Ohm’s Law-Eucharist correlation, which I call the “Electrical Spiritual Paradigm (ESP),” equates Holy (or Divine) Communion with “plugged-in presence,” reception of the Holy Spirit with “pulled-down power,” and self-surrender with “perfect poverty.” In electrical terms, plugged-in presence is voltage, pulled-down power is amperage, and perfect poverty is ohms (relative absence of resistance). If this seems intimidating, ungraspable or too abstract, relax; it will all become clear as you continue through the book, which explains the analogy from multiple perspectives. Once you grasp the Electrical Spiritual Paradigm, you’ll marvel at its simplicity and elegance. More importantly, you’ll understand—from a scientific-energetic perspective—how to connect to the Divine and channel its electrical-like Power, the Holy Spirit.
Yes. The Holy Spirit is the electric current (amperage); Holy Communion is the electromotive force (voltage); and ego-resistance is the resistance to the flow of the current (ohms). Ohm’s Law applied to Eucharistic spirituality tells us that the intensity of the Holy Spirit-current is directly proportional to one’s Holy Communal (or relational) force and inversely proportional to one’s ego-resistance to the inflowing Holy Spirit-current. Once you’ve been baptized by the Holy Spirit, you’ll be able to palpably and viscerally experience the seeming reality of Ohm’s Law in Eucharistic spirituality.
Mahamudra: The Great Seal, Symbol, and Gesture. And the “Great Gesture,” or yogic “Holo-Act,” is uniting the son light (the nirmanakaya) with the Mother Light (the Sambhogakaya), which yields realization of the Father (the Dharmakaya).