Recognition
Śaiva aphorisms, contemplative verses, practices and commentaries.
Trika, and the recognition textsAnuttarāṣṭikā, Bhairavastava, Bodhapañcadaśikā…
- AnuttarāṣṭikāEight verses on the Anuttara, the Supreme beyond which there is nothing: no crossing over, no practice and no path lead into what is already the case, so rest just as you are and enjoy your own lordship of the universe.
- BhairavastavaTen verses of praise to Bhairava as one's own Self: the whole universe shining as made of him, the fear of saṃsāra falling away, and a closing verse that gives the date of the hymn.
- BodhapañcadaśikāFifteen verses on consciousness, written to be grasped easily: Śiva is the one light in which both light and darkness appear; his Power is never apart from him, as burning from fire; bondage is not knowing this, release is knowing it.
- Īśvarapratyabhijñā VimarśinīUtpaladeva's verses on "recognising the Lord" as one's own self, carried whole inside Abhinavagupta's commentary, in four divisions: knowledge, action, scripture, and the summing-up of the levels of reality.
- KramastotraThirty verses in praise of the Krama goddesses, among them Sṛṣṭi, Raktā, Saṃsāra, Mahākālī and Manthāna: the emission, relish and withdrawal of all things as the Goddess's own cycle, with a closing verse that gives the date.
All 17 textsThe first 5 only
- Paramārthasāra"The essence of the highest truth" in 105 verses: a disciple bewildered by birth and death asks his guru, and Abhinavagupta retells the old answer in Śiva's light — the levels of reality, and freedom as knowing oneself as Śiva.
- ParāprāveśikāKṣemarāja's short prose treatise that sets out the tattvas one by one, beginning with Śiva, with their defining marks: the Supreme Lord as prakāśa whose own nature is vimarśa, and his will, knowing and action unfolding into the universe.
- Parātrīśikā LaghuvṛttiAbhinavagupta's short commentary on the Parātrīśikā: the Goddess asks Bhairava how the anuttara, of itself, gives the Kaula accomplishment, and the answer is taken through the letters and the mantra to the rite of worship.
- ParyantapañcāśikāFifty-two verses on the Word as the heart of the all-pervading Lord: Bhairava and Bhairavī as that of which even being and non-being are made, and the powers gathered between its beginning and its end.
- PratyabhijñāhṛdayamKṣemarāja's short manual of the Recognition, twenty sūtras with his own commentary: consciousness as the free cause of the universe, bondage as being bewildered by one's own powers, its reversal, and lordship over them.
- Śiva SūtrasSeventy-seven aphorisms that begin "consciousness is the Self" and set out three ways to it: through Śiva, by sudden recognition; through Śakti, by working with the mind; and for the individual, through body, breath and mantra.
- Śivadṛṣṭi (selection: Āhnika 1 and the lineage of Āhnika 7)The first chapter of Somānanda's Śivadṛṣṭi with Utpaladeva's commentary: Śiva as the one Self in all things, the tattvas as his own body and the world as his emanation; with the closing verses on the line of teachers.
- ŚivastotrāvalīUtpaladeva's twenty hymns to Śiva, 449 verses, most of them spoken to him directly: the poet's longing for the Lord, his joy in worship, and his recognition of the Lord as his own Self and as the whole world.
- SpandakārikāFifty-three verses on spanda, the subtle pulse of consciousness: the same awareness moves through waking, dream and sleep and never leaves its own nature, and to catch it in a moment of surprise or joy is to find Śiva.
- StavacintāmaṇiBhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa's hymn to Śiva, with Kṣemarāja's commentary on every verse: Śiva who performs the five acts, his powers, and the devotee's longing and refuge in him.
- Tirumandiram — Selected Non-Dual VersesTwenty-three verses chosen from Tirumūlar's Tamil Tirumandiram of three thousand, grouped under five themes: "the unknowing say love and Śiva are two" — love itself is Śiva, and the self is Śiva.
- Vijñāna Bhairava TantraThe Goddess asks Bhairava what his true nature is, and he answers not with doctrine but with 112 ways of attention — the pause between breaths, a sound fading, the open sky, a moment of joy, emptiness — each opening onto him.