On “continual recollection” – II
By constant practice the manifested universe
Lalleśwarī
gets merged in the universal self.
The world of name and form gets merged in the
vastness of the void as one homogenous whole.
This, O Brahmin, is the true doctrine.
At the end of the first installment of this essay I quoted verse 64 of the 29th Chapter of Abhinavagupta’s magisterial work, Tantrāloka:
Nāh-am-asmi na cānyo’sti kevalāḥ śaktayastvaham|
Ityevaṁvāsanāṁ kuryāt-sarvadā smṛti-mātrataḥ
“I am not, neither does another exist; I am only powers (or “energies”).’ He should, in every circumstance, as a result simply of recollection, maintain that attitude of mind.”
What are we being directed to recollect here? The verse seems to be saying that self-identification is a mistake – that what we mistake for our sense of “I-ness” is, in actuality, a collection or cluster of powers or capacities – Śaktis.
The first point I want to stress is that, unlike European accounts of mind, Indian models do not consider thoughts and emotions to be separate categories. Nor is the Cartesian mind-body divide so prevalent in Western thought present – at least not in the same way. In Classical Sāṃkhya for example, the dualistic divide is between two domains – puruṣa – the transcendental self, and prakṛti – nature – which encompasses the body, the senses, cognition/emotions. Liberation, from this perspective, is the progressive disentanglement of the self from materiality – leaving the soul shining forth in absolute solitude, freed from desire, emotion, and attachment. Anyone familiar with the practices of Patañjali’s Yogasūtra will recognize the idea that yoga and meditation require and aims for a withdrawal from the world of sensory distractions.
The tantric perspective is rather different. Neither the senses, emotions nor desire are hindrances to liberation. In point of fact, they are central to the very process of liberation. A verse in the Mālinīvijaya Tantra says:
“The cause of both bonds and liberation are the senses: this is what the wise said. Fettered, they lead to bonds, freed they lead to liberation.”
Rather than restraining and silencing emotion and sensory stimulation, the nondual tantric traditions seek instead to intensify the passions and sensory capacities as aids to liberation. They are recognized as powers (Śaktis), and they simultaneously operate as cosmic powers; the capacities which give rise to livings beings; and the capacities through which the practitioner can achieve liberation, via the methods of the three upāyas (means) – which I’ll get to later. The senses are divinized and worshipped as goddesses of consciousness in Abhinavagupta’s glorious dehasthadev atācakrastotra, the “Hymn to the Circle of Deities Located in the Body”. (see this post for related discussion).
The two most encompassing forms of Śakti are, as I noted in the first part of this essay, Cognition (Jñānaśakti) and Action (Kriyāśakti). In order for individuals to experience the world, three other Śaktis have particular significance. These are cognition (jñānam), memory (smṛtiḥ), and differentiation (aphonanaḥ). It is through knowledge or cognition that we understand the seemingly ‘objective’ world; memory provides the organization and continuity of experience and gives rise to the empirical sense of selfhood, and differentiation enables us to experience entities and objects as separate to us. All of these capacities emerge out of absolute consciousness (theistically identified with Śiva).
Consciousness is intentional or reflective. Whilst the objects of contracted consciousness, to ordinary awareness, appear as separate and distinct, from the highest perspective, consciousness is aware of itself and its own projections.
Utpaladeva, in his Īśvara-pratyabhijñākārikā expresses this idea as:
“The man blinded by ignorance (Māyā) and bound by his actions (karma) is fettered to the round of birth and death, but when knowledge inspires the recognition of his divine sovereignty and power (aiśvarya) he, full of consciousness alone, is a liberated soul.” 1
Regarding the power of memory, Abhinavagupta states:
“The followers of scripture maintain that memory, which is enlivened by mantra, etc., is like a wish-fulfilling gem which is capable of bestowing all powers [siddhi]. Thus [it has been said]: “Memory itself, taking on the nature of contemplation [dhyāna], etc., is the wish-fulfilling gem which manifests your Lordship.” 2
And:
“In the Triśirobhairavatantra, before the extraction of the mantras, it is explained: “Memory is the remembering which is there from the beginning of all things, and actually has the nature of mantra. It effects the apprehension of the essential nature of the object of cognition.” Memory generates the essential nature of, and colours all things in multiple forms which abide everywhere. It is the attainment of one’s own nature and ultimately has the nature of consciousness. it resides within the manifestation [of everything]. Therefore one should know that it is called Supreme Being [sattā parā].” 3
Memory organizes experience, and gives rise to the attachments of the empirical self; our sense of personal identity that is attached to identifications (“I am a man, I am thin, I have been a child” etc.). Yet at the same time, it is through recollection, that the limited individual may remember their identity as divine consciousness. It is through the contracted powers of intention, cognition, and action that liberation can be achieved. Here, icchā (often translated as “will”) does not refer so much to individual intentionality, but to Śiva’s intention to create. Somānanda, in his Śivadṛṣṭi, makes a distinction between the fully expressed icchāśakti, and a prior form – an undifferentiated stirring; a ripple in consciousness if you like, a desiring without object or horizon.
Memories, for Abhinavagupta, are both representational and emotional – we not only remember persons or events as cognitive representations (i.e. as words or images) but as emotions. All experiences leave traces in the mind which are latent. They may be activated – for example by walking into a room and experiencing a sudden rush of sadness – without being fully brought into self-reflexive awareness.
The relationship between memory and mantra requires some explanation. The Sanskrit term śabda denotes both sound and word – in India, the importance of the audible word entails that language has not been divorced from its acoustic, embodied aspect. Language itself has been considered divine from as early as the Ṛg Veda. Not only are words bearers of meaning and communication, but also syllables and individual phonemes.
The Śāradā-Tilika-Tantra says: “And now we speak of [the goddess] with the body made of the alphabet, who makes intelligence in the universe possible. If this [alphabet] did not exist in perceivable form, the whole world would be without life … [When one prays to her, one thinks to oneself:] I turn to the white-shining three-eyed goddess of language … on whose face, shoulders, breast, belly and feet are distributed the 50 letters [of the alphabet].” 4
Śakti is simultaneously cosmic and embodied, but also is present as sound – as language.
To be continued…
Sources
Mark Dyczkowski, The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Shaivism (Motilal, 1989)
Nil Kanth Kotru, Lal Ded, Her Life and Sayings (Utpal Publications, 1989)
David Peter Lawrence, Rediscovering God with Transcendental Argument: A Contemporary Interpretation of Monistic Kashmiri Śaiva Philosophy (State University of New York Press, 1999)
André Padoux, Vāc: The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras (State University of New York Press, 1990)
Annette Wilke, Oliver Moebus, Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism (De Gruyter, 2011)
Notes:
