09/12/2020 The Trika-Krama Synthesis of Abhinavagupta – Saiva Tantra – Krama-Trika synthesis of Abhinavagupta

Saiva Tantra – Krama-Trika

synthesis of Abhinavagupta

About Gallery Recommended reading and cited references

The Trika-Krama
Synthesis of
Abhinavagupta
AbhinavaGupta is the seminal gure in the story
of Kashmir Saiva Tantrism. His genius was to
synthesize hundreds of seemingly disparate
Tantras (scriptures). By the year 950, the many
Tantras had shared themes, practices, and
vocabulary, but not much doctrinal agreement,
coherence, or systematic thinking. Near the end
of the 10th century, AbhinavaGupta wrote his
magnum opus, Light on the Tantras (Tantraloka)
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and in this and other associated works he

created the theological structure that makes
sense out of the vast and diverse corpus of the
tantric tradition. He was able to demonstrate
that there is a single, coherent View (darsana) of
reality that can be derived from them.

This View can be summarized by the organizing

equation 3+1, which I will explain below. Almost
everything about Abhinava and his synthesis
can be derived from this model and this is not
surprising, for the model is provided by the very
name of the school of tantra with which he is
most associated: the Trika or “Trinity,” whose
central teaching is that the triad of the
individual soul (Nara), Shakti, and Shiva are, in
reality, three expressions of an undi erentiated
unity, the timeless ground of all Reality, known
as the Heart of Being.

In every experience, there are three factors: 1).

the thing known or perceived, 2). the means by
which it is known, and 3). the knower. These
three are expressed in every sentence that
articulates conscious experience, even the most
basic, such as “I see a pot.” But the three factors
of experience are, upon deeper investigation,
realized as three aspects of a dynamic process
by which Consciousness re ects on itself in the
form of an apparently di erent and distinct
object of awareness. They are the three
owering buds of a single root, as it were, and it
is language that fools us into thinking that there
are really three separate things. This is why
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spiritual practice MUST go beyond the realm of

language and the mind, since that realm
conditions us to experience dualistically.

Similarly, the three primary powers of

Consciousness-in-form, those of Willing (iccha),
Knowing (jnana), and Acting (kriya), are to be
understood as the expression of the
fundamental ground in which they inhere,
which is – to approximate in words – formless,
autonomous Consciousness, blissful through
reposing in itself (cidananda). The ultimate
ground is your ever-present true nature, the
Deity-Self revealed by the scriptures, whose
primary purpose is to point you to its
realization. Abhinava’s powerful articulation of
this ultimate truth was stunningly captured by
Alex Sanderson’s
Sander summation of deity through
Abhinava’s eyes.

(Deity is) the absolute autonomy of a non-

individual consciousness, which alone exists,
containing the whole of reality within the bliss of
a dynamic “I”-nature, projecting space, time, and
the interrelating uxes of subjective and
objective phenomenon as its content and form,
manifesting itself in this spontaneous
extroversion through precognitive impulse
(iccha), cognition (jnana), and action (kriya) as
the three radical modes of an in nite power.

There are three di erent means to liberation –

focused on body, heart-mind, and spirit
respectively – that bring one to the realization of
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precisely the same ultimate reality because they

derive from and are rooted in that very reality,
the nameless Fourth, which simultaneously
transcends them and yet is present in them,
constituting their essence.  In every example of
the 3+1 pattern, the +1 is the same, it is the One
that gives rise to all the triads.

We can also see this pattern in Abhinava’s

interpretation of the Spanda, which is a lineage
of teachings that refer to the innate dynamism
or vibrancy of Consciousness. It is the dynamic
core of the Light of Consciousness, which
creates the pulsating appearance of movement
that is ultimately motionless. By meditating on
the spanda, one penetrates through the Shakti
state to the non-dual ground (+1) in which the
triad of individuated Consciousness (Nara),
Shiva, and Skati, which coincide in
undi erentiated reality. All three modes are
expressions of the non-dual ground, the
nameless Fourth.

Some see reality as inherently dualistic – that

distinction is ultimately real (the bheda view).
They do good works and worship a separate
almighty God that they hope will bless them
with His grace. Others see distinctions that are
subsumed within a greater unity, with
distinction and unity having equal weight in
experience (the bhedabheda view). They
cultivate spiritual knowledge and relish
beautiful things as a vibration of Consciousness.
Still others see completely non-dualistically, that
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is, seeing di erence as unreal or only very

super cially real, with unity absolutely dominant
in experience (the abheda view). They reject all
practice, subtle and gross, and dwell in the
immediate, intuitive insight of the transcendent
“I” nature. So, where does the +1 come in? This
is the key to understanding the ultimate
consummation of tantric philosophy. You see,
the non-dual view just mentioned excludes the
dualistic view, seeing it as simply wrong. It is not
an all-inclusive non-duality, and it lends itself to
transcendentalism, a major pitfall of the
spiritual path. Therefore, Abhinava presented a
View called paramadvaya, “the supreme non-
duality.” This view includes both duality and
non-duality as valid experiences and levels of
perception. Non-duality transcends duality, but
the “supreme non-duality” transcends the
transcendent. How can we understand this
paradox? The supremely non-dual nameless
Fourth is simultaneously transcendent and
immanent: it englobes, includes, and emanates
as ALL these di erent views. It is the all-inclusive
Heart of reality, the dynamic power of
Consciousness (cidananda), which articulates
every possibility, becomes everything, and yet is
no-thing.

In the dualistic orthodoxy (the Siddhanta sect),

worship of the linga (stone idol representing
Shiva) is taught, with the intention of coming to
see it as embodying the whole universe; but in
the Kula and similar systems, linga-worship is

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forbidden, so that one may come to see the

universe as one’s own body. But here in the all-
inclusive (way of supreme non-duality) what
reason could there be for requiring the ritual or
forbidding it? – Abhinava Gupta, the Tantraloka.

No practice is speci cally enjoined, because it is

not a guaranteed means of access to Siva (for a
given individual), and no practice (even a
dualistic one) is speci cally prohibited, because
it can do nothing to divine or diminish that
(divine) Reality. For the Lord is all-
encompassing, so injunction and prohibition are
merely di erential constructs within his nature.
They cannot compromise that nature itself. –
Abhinava Gupta, Tantraloka 4.271-2.

He is essentially saying that no single practice

can be universally enjoined or prohibited for all
practitioners. Each person must have a
committed practice, but each practice must be
carefully tailored to that person’s constitution,
psychology, and desired goal.

Here (i.e., on this “level” of practice) there is no

purity and no impurity, no dualism or non-
dualism, no ritual nor its rejection, no
renunciation and no possession…all the
observances, rules, and regulations (found in
the other Tantras) are neither enjoined or
prohibited in this way. Or, everything is enjoined
and everything is forbidden here! In fact, there
is but one commandment on this (higher path),
O Queen of the Gods: the yogi is to make an
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e ort to steady his awareness on reality. He

must practice whatever makes this possible for
him. – Malinivijayottara Tantra.

We have seen how the 3+1 pattern applies to

the phenomenology of experience, to the
primary powers of Consciousness, the
methodology of practice, the primary lineages,
Spanda practice, and the nature of reality.
Abhinava had a powerful motivation for
articulating this pattern: it is, in essence, the
fruit of synthesizing the two primary traditions
that he inherited – the Trika and the Krama.
Initiated into the radically non-dual Krama as a
young man, but attaining the nal goal through
the grace of a master of the Trika, he was
obviously compelled to integrate the teachings
of both into a greater harmony.

There are three goddesses of the Trika that

embody the three aspects of experience:
Knower, Knowing, and Known (they also
embody the powers of Willing, Knowing, and
Acting, which correspond to these three). These
three are seen, in the Trika/Krama synthesis, as
emanations of the Supreme Goddess,
sometimes known as Matrsadbhava, which
means both “the essence of all mothers” and
“the essence of all knowers.” She is also
identi ed by Abhinava as Kali Sankarsani, and
this is the name of the high goddess in the
Krama tradition. She is the Nameless, timeless
ground, the ultimate all-consuming Power of
Awareness into which dissolution itself
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dissolved. She is called the Fourth, for She is the

ground of the threefold process of Creation,
Stasis, and Dissolution that applies to all things.
She is the ultimate emptiness, the no-thing-ness
that is simultaneously complete fullness.
Integrating Her into the theology of the Trika
provides the +1 of the 3+1 pattern.

Central to the Krama is the worship of the

phases of Awareness in the form of the twelve
Kalikas or emanations of Kali. Abhinava argues
that these twelve goddesses arise through the
con uence of the three aspects of experience
(where knower, knowing, and the known = the
three Trika goddesses) with the four phases of
the Krama: Creation, Stasis, Dissolution, and the
Nameless ground. Putting them together, we
have (3×4=12) he twelve Kalikas.

We are multiplying the three aspects of

experience by the four sequential phases
(krama means “phase”). For example, the rst of
the twelve Kalis is Srstikali, and her essence
expresses the creation (or rather emission) of
the object of experience. The second is
Raktakali, the persistence of the object of
experience. And so it goes, all the way to the
twelfth Kali, who is the Nameless ground in
which the Knower dissolves. Thus the series of
twelve also constitutes a map for the involution
of consciousness to its nal resting place, the
mind’s faculties having been withdrawn into the
individual subject, the individual subject having
been withdrawn into  the transcendent Subject,
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and that having been withdrawn into non-

subjective pure Awareness (the twelfth Kali).
Abhinava considers the twelve Kalis to be the
primary circuit of power (sakti-cakra) in the
analysis of Awareness’ innate power of self-
expression. All other circuits or deities are to be
seen as condensations or ampli cation of this
primary circuit.

Abinavagupta kaula Saiva Tantra

Trika

Abhinavagupta

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