Shaivism Quotes

“ASANA

Now I shall instruct you regarding the nature of asana or seat. Although by 'asana' is generally meant the erect posture assumed in meditation, this is not its central or essential meaning. When I use the word 'asana' I do not mean the various forms of asana’s such as Padmasana, Vajrasana, Svastikasana, or Bhadrasana. By 'asana' I mean something else, and this is what I want to explain to you.

First let me speak to you about breath; about the inhaling breath-apana, and the exhaling breath-prana. Breath is extremely important in meditation; particularly the central breath-madhyama-pranan, which is neither prana nor apana. It is the center of these two, the point existing between the inhaling and exhaling breaths. This center point cannot be held by any physical means, as a material object can be held by the hand. The center between the two breaths can be held only by knowledge-jnana – not discursive knowledge, but by knowledge which is awareness. When this central point is held by continuously refreshed awareness – which is knowledge and which is achieved through devotion to the Lord – that is, in the true sense settling into your asana.

On the pathway of your breath maintain continuously refreshed and full awareness on and in the center of breathing in and breathing out. This is internal asana. (Netra Tantra)

Asana, therefore, is the gradual dawning in the spiritual aspirant of the awareness which shines in the central point found between inhaling and exhaling.

This awareness is not gained by that person who is full of prejudice, avarice, or envy. Such a person, filled with all such negative qualities, cannot concentrate. The prerequisite of this glorious achievement is, therefore, the purification of your internal egoity. It must become pure, clean, and crystal clear. After you have purged your mind of all prejudice and have started settling with full awareness into that point between the two breaths, then you are settling into your asana.

When in breathing in and breathing out you continue to maintain your awareness in continuity on and in the center between the incoming and outgoing breath, your breath will spontaneously and progressively become more and more refined. At that point you are driven to another world. This is pranayama." (Netra Tantra)

After settling in the asana of meditation arises the refined practice of pranayama. ‘Pranayama’ does not mean inhaling and exhaling vigorously like a bellow. Like asana, pranayama is internal and very subtle. There is a break less continuity in the traveling of your awareness from the point of asana into the practice of pranayama. When through your awareness you have settled in your asana, you automatically enter into the practice of pranayama.

Our Masters have indicated that there are two principle forms of this practice of ‘asana-pranayama’, i.e. cakrodaya and ajapa-gayatri. In the practice of ajapa-gayatri you are to maintain continuously refreshed full awareness-(anusandhana) in the center of two breaths, while breathing in and out slowly and silently. Likewise in the practice of cakrodaya you must maintain awareness, which is continually fresh and new, filled with excitement and vigor, in the center of the two breaths – you are to breathe in and out slowly, but in this case with sound.
― Swami Lakshmanjoo”
― Swami Lakshmanjoo

“In our trika saivism kundalini which is that internal serpent power existing in the shape of a coil is divided into three ways. The supreme kundalini is called para kundalini. This kundalini is not known or experienced by yogins. It is so vast and universal that the body cannot exist in its presence. It is only experienced at the time of death. It is the heart of Shiva. The whole universe is created by para kundalini, exists in para kundalini, gets its life from para kundalini and is consumed in para kundalini”
― Swami Lakshmanjoo, Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme

“Your thinking mind touched the fire and you burned yourself. I wanted this day to be an experience of total contact with the tattvas for both the body and the consciousness. There is only one way to receive the transmission. When I tell you to do something, do it immediately, without the least wavering of thought. That's it. Learn. Open your heart and act. Thought stops action. It perverts it into a calculated gesture stripped of all its grace, all its efficiency. To come back to an action that went wrong makes it worse. That's only to sink deeper into the mental. Remorse paralyzes, hesitation eliminates beauty from action, thought shrinks from the world."Devi seized my hand and, with lightening speed, flattened it against the coals. I let out a cry and instantly withdrew it. There wasn't a single mark on it or any sensation of burning. The coals, nevertheless, had been crushed under my palm. Devi looked at me with a sort of serene and mysterious half-smile that gave her face a full, radiant expression."Now you have touched the tattva of fire.”
― Daniel Odier, Tantric Quest: An Encounter with Absolute Love

“One day, I asked her what distinction she made between the Tantric Shivaic teaching, which sees consciousness as the receptacle of the universe, and Tantric Buddhism, which rejects consciousness as an illusory form. It was the debate between the Self and the Selfless that had mobilized great energies and had been the subject of polemics and councils, and grounds for mutual condemnation and rivalry”
― Daniel Odier, Tantric Quest: An Encounter with Absolute Love

“The local seers, the rshi, easily identifiable by their dreadlocks or matted hair, and being dressed in nothing but bark. They filled their days in meditation or uttering mantras to find spiritual release. In the early mornings, these rshi walked to the villages in the valley to collect rice, betelnuts and vegetables the villagers shared with them because, after all, the spiritual welfare of the whole valley depended on these devout worshippers.  They continued through forests of lush foliage that protected them from the beating sun. Later, when the sun lost its strength, Prapanca and his two servants followed a narrow, steep path into the hills. They were getting closer”
― Herald van der Linde, Majapahit: Intrigue, Betrayal and War in Indonesia's Greatest Empire