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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.
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.
AI Summary
Nonduality and Mind-Only Through the Prism of Reality by L. Ron Gardner presents key insights from the Yoga tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
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