Kashmir Shaivism · ≈800–850
Vasugupta
Source of Trika · Spanda · The Shiva Sutras
The one to whom, as the story goes, the revelation appeared carved upon a rock. With him the written tradition begins.
The essence of the teaching: Consciousness – Chaitanya – is your very essence, not an attainment. The mind turned outward is the bondage; that same mind turned toward its source is freedom.
Transmission
The story tells that Shiva appeared to Vasugupta in a dream and pointed him to a rock at the foot of Mount Mahadeva. There he found the Shiva Sutras carved into the stone – brief as a blow. The first of them declares: consciousness is the Self. Not a part of you, not a quality – your very nature. He showed that one and the same mind both binds and frees. Turned outward, toward things and desires, it weaves its nets. Turned toward its source, toward the one who is aware – it dissolves them. The discerning power of consciousness is the key: wherever you turn your attention, that you become.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
The tradition
Kashmir Shaivism
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