Kashmir Shaivism · ≈1000–1050
Kshemaraja
Disciple of Abhinavagupta · Pratyabhijna-hridayam · Spanda-nirnaya
The one who compressed an immense system into the twenty sutras of the Heart of Recognition. The most direct way into the tradition.
The essence of the teaching: Consciousness itself, by its own free will, unfolds the universe within itself – and the same consciousness gathers it back in. You contracted yourself into a small self on your own; by that same power you can unfold into fullness.
Transmission
Kshemaraja took his teacher's vast tantric system and compressed it into twenty brief sutras – the Pratyabhijna-hridayam, the Heart of Recognition. He said: consciousness, free and self-dependent, creates the universe upon its own screen, the way a city is reflected in a mirror – without losing its unity. You yourself, by your own power, contracted boundless consciousness into the cramped feeling of I am this body. But that same power of freedom is able to unfold you again. Recognize that the perceiver in all perceptions is one, and the limitation falls away of itself. This is no distant labor, but a turn of recognition here and now.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
The tradition
Kashmir Shaivism
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