Philosophy

Rare is the yogic text or scripture that does not extoll Om as a method of Self realization. You will find there that Om is sometimes referred to with synonyms, such as “Pranava” – sound of the prana; “Udgita” – uprising song; “Shabda” – primordial word; or “Nada” – subtle sound. These readings indicate that Om itself is a universal teacher of the enlightened state.

The core View of both Trika Shaivism and Dzogchen is that the natural, unconditioned state of alive awareness is available to be directly known and more consciously embodied. This alive awareness has many names: God, Shiva Nature, flowing presence, instant presence, and so on. All of these names are pointing to the the fundament of our existence: omnipresent awareness and energy.

Individual human beings are at war with themselves for one simple reason: they are internally divided, and these divisions are not compatible. They do not cohere.

Jeffery is a Religious Studies scholar of Hinduism.

Rod is an author and yoga teacher.

The feminine is revered not only in the embodied forms of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati, but the qualities of Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati, also known as the gunas- tamas, rajas and sattwa. Her force is measurable in the inertia of our gross body: the dense, hungry, woundable layers of flesh and bone. She is also present in the agitation of prana: circulation, breath and thought waves. She is also sattwa or harmony, in the delicate balance of stability in the midst of change we call yoga.

The Shiva Sutra declares “Prayatnah sadhaka” (2:2) : A seeker is one who makes an effort. The effort is about extracting enlightenment from the heart of each circumstance. We learn a repertoire of physical and mental alignments with reality that tap an uplifting free flow of energy, and to release the maladjusted positions that block or inhibit it.

Jay is a cross-cultural philosopher and scholar of Buddhist philosophy.