there’s a whisper that lives inside you.
a pulse.
soft, ancient, alive.
maybe you’ve felt it in stillness.
in dance.
in love.
in heartbreak.
it doesn’t ask you to escape the world.
it asks you to feel everything fully—and then see through it.
that whisper?
🌿 a homecoming
Kashmir Shaivism is a non-dual (advaita) spiritual philosophy that emerged in the beautiful, sacred land of Kashmir ( my hometown ) around the 8th–9th century CE. Unlike many other paths that emphasize renunciation, Kashmir Shaivism is a path of recognition (pratyabhijñā): recognizing that you are already divine.
It’s a way of seeing. A way of remembering who you are.
It was born in the Himalayan valleys of Kashmir, around the 8th century—when mystics weren’t trying to escape life, but to melt into it so deeply that they could taste the Divine in everything: pain, pleasure, shadow, light, touch, thought, breath.
It says:
You are not broken.
You were never separate.
You are Shiva—consciousness itself.
The world is not a distraction. It’s a mirror. A playground. A love letter from you to you.
At its heart, Kashmir Shaivism teaches that:
“everything is shiva. you are that.” tat tvam asi (तत् त्वम् असि)
This tradition invites you to fully engage with life—with your body, your desires, your breath, and your awareness—not to escape it, but to see through it and realize the infinite consciousness that pulsates behind all things.
✨ Core Principles
1. Paramashiva: The Ultimate Reality
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The universe arises from Paramashiva—pure, infinite, vibrating consciousness, who is both transcendent and immanent.
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Paramashiva is not separate from the world. The world is His own dance, a creative expression (Spanda).
2. Spanda (Sanskrit: स्पन्द)
Means: vibration, pulsation, quiver, or throb
But not just any vibration—it’s the first stir, the primal movement that comes before creation. It’s not physical. It’s existence becoming aware of itself.
Think of it like this:
Before any thought, before form, before time—there’s a pulse.
Not of a heart, but of Being itself.
It’s like the universe taking a breath.
🔹 “Everything is alive with spanda…”
Kashmir Shaivism says:
Consciousness is not static. It moves. It dances. It feels.
This movement—this trembling aliveness—is what creates the world.
It’s how Shiva (pure awareness) becomes Shakti (creative expression).
That feeling when you suddenly realize something,
the flutter before a kiss,
the pull to create,
the shift when you’re fully present—that’s spanda.
So when we say:
“Everything is alive with spanda,”
we mean the entire universe is pulsing with consciousness.
Every leaf, every sound, every silence, every moment is not dead matter, but alive with intelligence.
Your emotions, your desires, your breath, your body’s movements—all are expressions of that sacred vibration.
You’re not separate from it. You are it.
You feel it in that tiny moment before a breath,
in the shiver behind a song lyric that hits too close,
in the way you move when no one’s watching.
Spanda is life saying,
“I am here. I am You.”
Shiva and Shakti: The Power of Awareness
- Shiva and Shakti are not two. Shiva is pure awareness, and Shakti is its power to manifest.
Shiva is pure awareness
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Still. Boundless. Silent.
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The open sky behind all experience.
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He is the witness, the formless presence that holds everything.
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He doesn’t do—he is. Pure being. Pure consciousness.
Shakti is the power of awareness to express itself
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She is movement, creation, vibration, thought, emotion, body, energy.
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She is life happening.
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She is the throb of sensation in your chest, the cry, the orgasm, the wind, the wave.
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She is the manifest world—but also the power that brings it into being.
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Everything you experience is Shakti—a play of energy, form, and feeling.
🌺 But here’s the key: they are never separate.
Shiva without Shakti is pure stillness, unmoving.
Shakti without Shiva is wild energy with no center.
They complete each other.
But not like opposites.
More like essence and expression.
Like fire and its heat.
Ocean and its waves.
Word and meaning.
Body and breath.
In Kashmir Shaivism, this is the core revelation:
The Divine is not just up there or far away.
The Divine is within—not just as the watcher, but as the one watching, the one dancing, and the dance itself.
When you close your eyes in deep meditation,
and feel the still presence—that’s Shiva.
When you cry from heartbreak or ecstasy,
and your chest burns and your breath trembles—that’s Shakti.
Both are sacred. Both are you.
🧬 In You:
You have a Shiva side—your stillness, your wisdom, your grounded knowing.
And you have a Shakti side—your movement, your intuition, your fire, your feeling.
To awaken fully is to reunite them.
To let the awareness of Shiva hold the aliveness of Shakti in your body, your heart, your life.
And then everything becomes practice:
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dancing,
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crying,
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journaling,
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making love,
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saying yes,
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saying no,
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drinking chai with reverence.
All of it becomes a remembering:
I am Shiva, aware of all.
I am Shakti, expressing all.
I am the One, dancing as Two.
4. Recognition (Pratyabhijñā)
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Enlightenment is not becoming something new; it’s remembering who you already are.
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Through awareness, breath, mantra, movement, and love, you can recognize your own divinity.
5. The Body is Sacred
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The body is not a trap—it is a temple.
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Every sensation, breath, and desire can be a doorway to the Divine.
🧠 Key Texts
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Śiva Sūtras – Aphorisms revealed to sage Vasugupta. The foundation of the tradition.
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Spanda Kārikās – Teachings on the subtle vibration at the heart of existence.
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Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam – “The Heart of Recognition,” a poetic summary of the path by Kṣemarāja.
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Tantrāloka by Abhinavagupta – A vast and luminous manual on tantra, yoga, and non-duality.
🌄 Practices (Sādhana)
Kashmir Shaivism is deeply experiential. It offers both silent and embodied practices to awaken consciousness:
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Vigyan Bhairava Tantra – 112 direct methods to enter the Divine (through breath, senses, emotions, sound, etc.)
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Meditation on awareness itself
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Mantra and subtle sound
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Breath (Prāṇa) and inner energy
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Touch, movement, love, and presence
All of life becomes sacred practice.
💠 What Makes It Unique?
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It is radically non-dual—even thoughts, emotions, and “impure” experiences are seen as divine manifestations.
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It integrates tantra, yoga, philosophy, art, and embodied living.
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It offers freedom through awareness, not repression.
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It sees the world not as illusion (like in some Vedantic paths), but as real and divine—Shiva’s own creative joy.
a way back to your body, your senses, your power, and your Self. a reminder:
You don’t need to escape the world to find God.
You are God.
The world is God.
And love is the bridge.
🪶 The Architecture of Reality
The mystics of this tradition mapped out 36 tattvas—building blocks of reality—starting from the most infinite (pure consciousness), all the way down to the grit of matter.
Right in the middle of it all is Maya—not as something evil or fake, but as the power that allows the Infinite to forget itself just enough to play this wild, messy human game.
Through Maya, Shiva chooses to become you,
just so one day, you’ll choose to remember.
🧡 The Path of Recognition
The main practice in Kashmir Shaivism isn’t renunciation or denial.
It’s recognition (pratyabhijñā).
To remember, not learn.
To return, not run.
Through breath, sensation, awareness, mantra, touch, and pure presence, you slowly peel back the veils until you can look in the mirror and say with full-body knowing:
📚 The Sacred Texts (aka love letters from the ancestors)
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shiva sutras – The core revelations of awakening, gifted in a dream to the sage Vasugupta.
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spanda karikas – The poetry of the pulse.
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pratyabhijñāhṛdayam – A gem from Kṣemarāja that says: You don’t need to climb a mountain. You just need to remember what’s already beating inside you.
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tantrāloka – A firestorm of wisdom by Abhinavagupta. Tantra, yoga, devotion, non-duality—all woven into one vast map of liberation.
🕊️ this isn’t about transcending your body
It’s about descending into it.
becoming so deeply human that you circle back to the universe.
the sacred isn’t elsewhere.
it’s in the ache in your chest.
the warmth of chai in your hands.
the way your breath catches when you dance.
“Stop running. You’re already home.”