According to Kashmiri tantra, in general, everything is consubstantial with God, everything is only begotten by Him, everything is Light from Light; samsaric existence is deliberately diminished in the lower layers of divine ontology so that the drama of this action is real, and not visible, as the real sufferings of Christ were. Kenosis in Christianity occurred only once, when God "humiliated Himself by assuming the form of a slave..." [Phil. 2:7], whereas in Shaivism Ishvara does this constantly, incarnating in all things, and all things are his only—begotten wife — Shakti (might), she is Tripurasundari ("splendor of the three worlds"), she is Lalita — "playing", she is Kali ("black")…
Kashmir is very beautiful, and some pundits believe that this has influenced the philosophical currents of the region. Beautiful landscapes make us wonder if their creator really wants us humans to renounce such a delightful work of art, the best of all possible. Is the world worth repeating over and over again in various modifications? From the point of view of Kashmiri Shaivism, this game is beautiful, and the problem of living beings is that they become chips on the playing field, forgetting that the only Player is their own primordial consciousness. The world is not a nightmarish hallucination that needs to be eliminated as soon as possible, as some followers of Advaita Vedanta believe, but a beautiful, witty and wise game, as Kashmiri Shaivites think. Being monists, they do not deny the real existence of prakriti (matter), but say that procedural materiality is the other side of the Absolute; this material side appears in the form of Shakti, the feminine principle, which is the cause of all movement, development and life. Her body is the whole cosmos, the wind is Her breath, the rivers are Her veins, the sun and moon are Her eyes, the ocean is Her bladder. Every body is her body. Matter is just another form of absolute consciousness, which does not detract from its significance. Shiva without Shakti is an immobile Absolute, contemplating only his own consciousness, but in the same consciousness there is suddenly a place for the endless creation of various worlds. God was not mistaken when he created these worlds, because through them he expresses his power — this is what the philosophers of beautiful Kashmir say. A human being who has fully realized the divine nature of his consciousness does not dissolve into emptiness, does not disappear, but expands to the size of the universe, gaining total power, the opportunity to be everything in general, and in this state the realized Consciousness, identical to Shiva and Shakti, enjoys. It manifests itself in everything that exists. And the more beautiful and full life is, the more the radiance of the Absolute is in it. Therefore, Kashmiri philosophers are convinced that life should be made brighter, more intense, even passions and pleasures can be manifestations of the Absolute, as some Shakti devotees believe. But do not confuse Kashmiri tantrics with unbridled hedonists, because sins ultimately kill the fullness and beauty of life, rather they give rise to slander life. Dependence does not combine with power, so it is not at all about indulging primitive needs, but rather that the highest form of asceticism does not deny aesthetic pleasure. A person who sees the one divine consciousness in everything sees it even in sexual intercourse. In Kashmiri Shaivism, sex and drinking wine may be part of worship rituals, but passions must be purified, just as poison is purified to make medicine. One can purify oneself and attain Shiva consciousness by avoiding passions; one can place passions in the space of mystical ritual and meditation — then they will become means of purification.
Kashmiri Shaivism has developed techniques of spiritual medicine, they use very strong, dangerous medicines that are not suitable for everyone.
The Kashmiri Tantric does not deny the path of asceticism, but believes that the whole world should be justified, not just guna sattva, because the divine game is structured by three Gunas; but this does not mean that the tantric plunges into passion and ignorance, he just uses microdoses of poisons to get rid of the disease of duality faster. As in the case of body drugs, it is also possible to easily get poisoned here. Therefore, tantra is considered a dangerous path.
Today, the philosophy of Kashmiri Shaivism and Tantra are even more relevant than in their heyday, as they attach great importance to the world in its most diverse manifestations. Kashmiri philosophers loved the material world and its aesthetics, and did not at all claim that the diversity of life only seduces and destroys a person, rather considering this opinion, widespread in India, to be blasphemy, since this world is a living unfolding of divine power, this world is the most beautiful woman, the greatest love.
There is an opinion that the West is consumed by the passions of the flesh, that the West is material and the East is spiritual — this view has long been recognized as colonial. And if we take a closer look, we will see that the modern civilization, born of the West, does not like matter, but only uses it. Modern man has completely immersed himself in virtuality, he no longer knows how to distinguish birds by their voices, does not know plants, and is afraid of wildlife. And is it worth saying that modern man does not worship the great Shakti, that is, this material cosmos full of passions, power and diverse beings, but destroys it? How can such people be called materialists if they destroy the diversity of matter, guided by abstractions? Our entire economy, markets, and industry are all products of a mind that knows nothing about the holy beauty of life and the divinity of the flesh.
Metamodern theorists use the principle of oscillation to describe the processes taking place in modern culture. The various spiritual pursuits that are common these days get along with the deep-rooted cynicism of the postmodern paradigm, which we still have not overcome. This fluctuation forms new forms of aesthetics and irony. As heirs of the fascinating twentieth century, we are wavering and pulsating, because spirituality and axiology occupy us no less than the chaos of postmodern relativism.
The philosophers of Kashmiri Shaivism considered the oscillation between matter and spirit to be the ontological basis of the universe. Spanda is a vibration that arises from the constant interconversion of Shiva and prakriti. In Kashmiri Shaivism, the absolute subject and all the diversity of the world are simply different ways of being the Supreme. The low-quality Absolute, wishing to manifest its power, unfolds in the form of the Universe. He exhales himself in the form of a multitude of diverse worlds and beings, and then absorbs everything back into the state of nirguna, in which Consciousness is identical to itself, not divided into subject and object, but then Shiva again generates the cosmos with the help of Shakti, the feminine basis of all that exists. Passing from unity to multiplicity, from multiplicity to unity, the Absolute vibrates. This same spanda vibration is the source of any consciousness: in any experience there is a subject and an object that do not exist without each other, being two sides of a single reality. Maheshwara is transcendent and immanent at the same time: he is Being, Consciousness and Bliss manifested in all things.
According to Hinduism, man is an infinitely powerful being capable of rising above the gods. Now it is obvious that our power is manifested in the power over various material substances. Shakti loves games, being the essence of the great world game. The problem is that the human game of civilization seems to have become ugly: we destroy forms that we did not create, make landscapes ugly, and water and air useless, like harmful asuras.
One day, the sages gathered on Mount Kailash to worship Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati. Everyone performed a ritual circumambulation around the divine couple. But rishi Bhringi was so focused on Shiva that he had no desire to bypass Parvati. Noticing this, Parvati sat on Shiva's lap, which made it difficult for Bhringi to get around Maheshwara alone. Undaunted, Bhringi assumed the form of a beetle and tried to fly between them. Enraged, Parvati cursed the sage, he became physically weak, which is why he was unable to support his body. Taking pity on Bhringi, the gods gave him a third leg so that he could stand up straight. This old Indian parable seems extremely relevant, because the entire modern civilization is like a third leg: we have created props, various types of material redundancy, having lost our true connection with matter.