Śiva Sūtras: Opening to Absolute Consciousness

The text that is broadly considered to be the founding text of Kashmir Shaivism is the incredibly timely text, the Śiva Sūtras (SS). The SS, which was composed by an author named Vasugupta, is considered by the tradition to be a “revealed” text, or āgama.

In the “Śiva Sūtras Summer School”, we will be engaging with this important work as a foundational text of yoga philosophy. The SS is fruitful text for modern yoga and meditation practitioners who are seeking a context of knowledge that helps to situate the experience of individuality within a broader picture of what reality is all about.

It provides an inspiring narrative of how one can cultivate meaning in this lifetime in a way that resists being reduced either to familiar modes of religious doctrine or to the assumptions of cosmic meaninglessness that are characteristic of a prevailing relativistic worldview.

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Those who take this course will:

• Learn how the non-dual Tantric traditions are incredibly applicable to modern householder life,
• Study the way Reality organizes itself, according to the emanationist cosmology of Śaiva Tantra, and compare this view to other accounts of how reality functions,
• Discover why we should think about this text as the most central text of yoga philosophy,
• Engage with what the central yoga practices are that are connected to the tradition behind the Śiva Sūtras,
• Consider who some of the key non-dual philosophers are, and where their perspectives overlapped and diverged,
• Study the comprehensive philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism,
• Become educated on the relationship between the non-dual Tantric traditions more broadly and the philosophical tradition known as the pratjabhijñā,
• Incorporate a recitation of the SS into your practice over two weeks to help you begin memorizing these sūtras for your own reference and practice,
• Be able to name and describe what makes Kashmir Shaivism different from other yoga traditions, and 
• Live the SS in your life and begin to align with the profound meanings communicated within it.