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The Tattvas of Kashmir Shaivism
How God becomes Man
9 Jan 2007
The Tattvas of Kashmir Shaivism
To understand the descent of Man from God is to understand the means of his return. Tattva ( tat=that, tva = ness ), means category, truth, the essence of things, reality or principle, the essence of each stage of creation. Each school of Indian Philosophy has a number of Tattvas as fundamentals in its system of thought. Advaita has 2 Tattvas, Shankhya lists 25 and Kashmir Shaiva has 36, for example. Even in Christianity, one can consider the Trinity as being 3 Tattvas; Father, Son and Holy Ghost/Spirit. Each is a fundamental aspect or category of God. The ‘Word’ is also a Tattva, since in Christianity, God spoke the Word and thus created the universe, so the Word of God is a form of Shakti, in Hindu terms.
So, by the absolute free Will of God, He began to fall asleep, per se, and by which He created images of Himself as the Shakti Tattva ‘Maya‘, the manifested universe, and of Man, who thinks he is awake but in truth is asleep. It is the power of Shakti as Concealer, that Maya draws the mists of forgetfulness. She does this as a series of cloaks over emminations or projections of His true Self, like sheaths. By involution of this Citi-Shakti a dream of the diverse, differentiated universe and of Man as Cita-Shakti, the small, limited, separate mind and soul is created. In His slumber he dreams for an eon, an epoch, until again, by His perfect free Will, Shakti the Revealer awakens and begins Her awakening process, the ascent from the dream to rejoin Shiva. The Human appears to be falling asleep but in truth is awakening. Merging, the separate, small, limited soul becomes Ultimate Reality once again.
Here are the Tattvas in the order of their relative distances from the Ultimate Reality, ie., Parama Shiva:
THE PURE OR NON-BINDING TATTVAS:
1. Shiva Tattva - highest mind, ego-less, pure ‘I’ consciousness
2. Shatki Tattva - highest ego-mind, ‘I am’ self-referral.
The 3 Orders of the Pure Way
3. Sadakhya - The higher ego-minds’ ability to self-refer as ‘being’.
4. Aishavara - experience & experiencer, as a unity, are poles as in a magnet.
5. Sad-vidya - experience and experiencer immerge separate from unity.
6. Maya - the imposer of Time, Space and Form. Separation of Subject and Object, eg. The illusion that self and things exist and are separated and individual, ie., formation of mental constructs, ie., names, nouns, verbs. The Great Veil. The All-Experiencer becomes sleepy.
THE IMPURE OR BINDING TATTVAS:
Shakti as Maya and the Gunas. Maya is the producer of Purusha and Prakriti.
7. Purusha: The 5 Kanchukas of Purusha, the limitations of the bound, separate, limited soul, the end or the beginning of transcendental experience within a limited soul, the lower ego-mind, which interprets the emotional experiences of Prakriti:
8. Niyati
9. KAla
10. Raga
11. Vidya
12. KalA
13. Prakriti - the emotional body, the emotive consequence of the 3 psychic factors. It is the general source of all the five Kanchukas, as well as of all that follows below, consisting of the 3 Cognitive-Behavioral features being Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, but held in mutual neutralization or supreme equipoise.
The 3 psychic (mental) factors, - mental & psychic experiences as individual souls.
14. Buddhi
15. Ahankara
16. Manas
The 5 powers of perception, (Buddhindriyas or Jnanendriyas) - our sense organs and sensory receptors.
17. Hearing
18. Feeling-by-touch
19. Seeing
20. Tasting
21. Smelling
The 5 objectifications of perception, (Tanmatras) - our sense organs and sensory receptors.
22. Sound-as-such
23. Feel-as-such
24. Color-as-such
25. Flavor-as-such
26. Odor-as-such
The 5 powers of activity, (Karmendriyas) - our physical experience of the internal environment.
27. Voicing or expressing
28. Handling, operating as with the hands
29. Locomotion
30. Rejecting and discarding
31. Resting and enjoying passively/ recreating
The 5 physical orders, (Bhutas) - our physical experience of the external environment.
32. Ethereality (akasha)
33. Aerality (Vayu)
34. Formitivity (Agni)
35. Liquidity (Ap)
36. Solidity (Prithivi)
To recap, Shakti is indeed Bliss, Joy, Love as well as Perfect Will and the Powers of Revealing, Concealing, Maintaining and Destroying. When Shakti takes a nose-dive downward through the Tattvas, it is a process of cloaking or sheathing by Involution. The great intrigue and practical interest is when She takes an upward turn; The Ascension. How to unravel the knots, awake, draw back the veils of mist….climb back up the Tattvas by Personal Evolution? This is where the role of May as action and self-effort paradoxically is an aid to our own salvation. But for all our self-effort and preparations, it is only the grace-bestowing power of God, ultimately, that removes key limitations to the soul, allowing us to continue up the Tattvas. This key event is called Shaktipat. In Christian terms, it is the event that leads to proclaiming that one is ‘Born Again’. To learn more about Shaktipat and how to prepare for it, the different levels of yogas, etc please visit www.ibasi.org and check out the readings in the Teachings and Archive pages.
~ Devi Nostrumananda
Copyright 2007-8. IBASI All Rights Reserved. Contact IBASI for permissions.
Devi Nostrumananda
International Bioenergetic Arts & Sciences Institute (IBASI)
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