Thank you so much Richard. I am learning a great deal from you and a number of other people on the forum. I asked both you, and Emptybill, two questions over on the e-mail I sent from Emptybill's reply. If you have the time please read it and see if you can cast some light on those two questions. Thank you again! Cheers Bill
From: richardjwilliamstexas <willy...@yahoo.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 8:27 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: How to pronounce the mantras William Parkinson: > Shiva is the static consciousness that pervades all > things, while shakti represents (envisioned in > feminine form) the dynamic form of consciousness... > The answer lies in the relationship of the Sri Vidya tradition and Kashmere Saivism. In the Shankaracharya tradition, Shankara was born at Kaladi, where he was a sort of child prodigy linguist, at an early age. Shankara went to study with Gaudapada, and then subsequently travelled to Kashi, and then to the Upper Kashi, where he founded the Jyotir Math and composed his commentary on 'Vedanta Sutra' and 'Bhagavad Gita'. Shankara then traveled to Kashmere where he got the Sri Yantra and took it to Karnataka where he placed it on the altar and called the place Sringeri, after the Shakti. It was at Sringeri that Shankara composed the 'Ode to the South Facing Form' and the 'Saundarylahari'. According to Theos Bernard, Kashmere Saivism teaches that conciousness alternates between two phases, rest and action. You can easily see the relation to TM practice when you consider that this is almost exactly what MMY said at Squaw Valley! The phase of transcendental rest is called 'Pralaya' in Sanskrit, which has no first beginning, therefore no primal cause. The world of matter is only another form of conciousness. The Vedanta doctrine contends that there is only one ultimate reality which never changes; therefore the manifest world is an 'appearance' only, Maya. Kashmere Saivism contends that there is only one reality, but it has *two aspects*. The manifestation, Maya, is real. This is based on the argument that the effect cannot be different from its cause. However, according to the Siva Sutra, human logic can never construct an unassailable monism; the final proof can be had only by the experience of yogic samadhi, attained through mantric meditation. Centering - An excerpt from the 'Bhairava Tantra', translated by Swami by Laksmanjoo: 7. Devi, imagine the Sanskrit letters in these honey-filled foci of awareness, first as letters, then more subtly as sounds, then as most subtle feeling. Then, leaving them aside, be free. 14. Bathe in the center of sound, as in the continuous sound of a waterfall. Or, by putting fingers in ears, hear the sound of sounds. 19. Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audible as feeling deepens into this silent harmony. Read more: http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/centering.htm
