Bhairava: Schools of Thought

[Guest guest]

The following from Gurubhakta Markandeya was received and is submitted

here:

 

-------------------------

 

The following is a conversation I had with a dear brother in Shiva,

who

had some questions regarding Buddhism, Vedanta, and Trika. The

following response from myself is in regards to his question of the

difference between nihilism and transcendentalism and how it applies to

Trika.~Markandeya

 

Nihilism is the Buddhist view that the void, Shunya is the Supreme.

Vedanta, on the other hand, holds that there is a Supreme Being, full

of the Light of Consciousness, but with no activity. The world is

therefore illusary.

 

In the end, it is Trika that guides the jiva through the experience of

the void of Buddhism, into his essential realization of his nature as

identical with the Transcendent source (atma vyapti of Vedanta), and

beyond these two, to the expansion of that essential realization to

include all of existence in all its varieties as nothing less than the

glory of the Supreme, the expansion of His divine Shakti. In the Trika

view, Shiva is not only full of the Light of Consciousness, but

possessive of Absolute and completely Independant Free Will. This makes

Shiva not the victim of an indefinable Maya, but rather, Maya is the

result of His own independent Free Will, full of both the Light of

Knowledge AND Action. This is Shiva/Shakti.

 

The Absolute, for the Shaiva, is the Supreme Light of Consciousness

which illumines all things, full of Knowledge AND Activity.

 

For the Buddhist, the world is 'something' that arose from no-thing.

There is a first primal misconception, the original conception, and

from that the pain of experience arose in the Nothing, which is

perpetuated by a continuous stream of samskaras, thoughts which link

one to other in an endless self perpetuating stream of pain and

delusion.

 

For the Vedantin, the Ultimate is not a return to nothing, but a return

to the Supreme Transcendent Brahman, pure Light of Being. All of 'this'

is merely illusion for the Vedantin.

 

For the Buddhist, enlightenment comes when one is established in the

Void and the world is annihilated.

 

For the Vedantin, enlightenment comes when the world is Transcended,

negated, and only the knowledge of the Pure Transcendent Brahman

remains.

 

Trika absorbs both of these.

 

Buddhism Trika holds that the Void which Buddhists experiences is truly

there. In fact, the Void is the means that Shiva used to detach his

Absolute Awareness from Himself. It is that moment in creation which

His Shakti seemingly disconnected itself from itself, like a computer

rebooting, and when God came back from the 'reboot' he was ignorant of

His all encompassing nature. This is how he has the multitude of

'experiences.' This is how the totality comes to enjoy unlimited

particularity. This moment of separation of Consciousness from complete

Awareness of itself is called Anashrita Shiva, that first primal moment

that Shakti or dynamic Awareness seemingly becomes 'separated' from the

Absolute Consciousness and expands into an infinitude of limite

'things' seeking the whence and where of their nature and having a

marvelous journey along the way. In the final analysis, says the

Shaiva, this marvelous play, this epic drama happening on infinite

levels and from infinite angles is merely the blissful sport of the One

Absolute.

 

This is the secret of the Tantric doctrine. Shakti and Shiva are never

really separate at all; it is only a seeming separation. This power to

do this is called Maya Shakti or Shivamayi. Absolute Consciousness

(Shiva) is no longer Absolutely Aware (Shakti), and the Shakti which

has by Her own Free Will contracted into the Kundalini which is the

mother of all Creativity and resides as the individuated awareness or

individual, is no longer Aware of Its Absolute Consciousness.

 

For the bound soul, he is not fully aware (Shakti) of his Absolute

Consciousness (Shiva), and he is not Conscious (Shiva) of His Absolute

Awareness (Shakti).

 

So for the Shaiva, the Void of Buddhism is the merely the first step

back towards the Absolute.

 

How, says the Shaiva, can there be an experience of the void as the

Buddhists contend, unless there is an unchanging absolute Experiencer

or Experient to experience the void? The void, says the Shaiva, is not

the Absolute, it is merely the first step of Absolute

Consciousnes/Awareness creatively contracting Its Unity Consciousness,

and expanding into a reality of diversity consciousness. Likewise, in

the return of the jiva back to Shiva, the void is the first step

towards withdrawing from this experience of diversity of objects, back

to an expansion of the Absolute Awareness of Consciousness that is

whole and complete...Consciousness which is wholly Aware.

 

For the Shaiva, the void is merely the lack of objectivity, the first

move back towards the Ultimate, of which the void is a real part of and

dependent on.

 

Vedanta Now, as for Vedanta, the attainment of the essential Self,

called Atma vyapti is also a very real and legitimate step towards the

Absolute. However, stopping at the point of negation of the world is a

fatal flaw, according to the Shaiva yogi. Atma vyapti is necessary as a

step, or a phase, of destroying the ignorance of the mind. This, in

Trika, is called bauddha ajnana, or the ignorance of the mind as the

personal center or self. Atma vyapti is merely the removal of this

bauddha ajnana. This is where the Vedantins proclaim enlightenment, but

for the Shaiva yogi, it is only the necessary predecessor to the final

aim, which is the removal of paurusha ajnana. Mere removal of Bauddha

ajnana only lands the yogi in blank abstactions, such as real and

unreal, etc...For the Shaiva, the mind must first be cleared of

ignorance and established as being in non-difference with Shiva (atma

vyapti) before the final beatitude can be accomplished, which is the

expansion of this Shiva realization to include all of existence (Shiva

vyapti).

 

Atma vyapti is the removal of bauddha ajnana; Shiva vyapti is the

expansion of that essential realization of Self to its original glory,

which is all-inclusive.

 

For the Shaiva, individual effort is acknowledged as the way to Atma

vyapti, as is maintained by the Vedantists through vichara (enquiry)

viveka (discrimination) and vairagya (dispassion). However, the final

beatitude comes only through divine agency. This act of grace, imparted

by Shiva through the agency of the Guru or by direct divine

intervention, is called Shaktipat, and the result is the expansion of

the essential realization of the jiva as Shiva to include all of

existence. This is Shiva vyapti, this is moksha or mukti in the Trika

of Kashmir.

 

Gurubhakta Markandeya