Bhairava: Schools of Thought

12-22-2000, 10:56 AM

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