MahaPrakasha: the light of the Spirit
MahaPrakasha!
In the tantric vision, the universe is seen as a product of the Divinity, which remains present within it. We would “only” need to grasp its present omnipresence to be freed from its bonds.
We do not do this because ignorance prevents us, but this ignorance is itself the work of Siva, who veils his own omnipotence (see the first chapter of Abhinavagupta's TantraLoka). So what becomes important, whatever place is given to rites, practices and metaphysics, is mystical experience, which remains fundamental!
Abhinavagupta starts from ignorance (ajnâna) to assert that it is the sole cause of human bondage and unhappiness, and therefore that liberation is knowledge, that is, the (mystical) experience of the supreme Reality, Siva, pure Light-Consciousness (prakasha).
This absolute, Siva, is pure Light (prakâsa). He is also Consciousness (samvit), an absolutely free consciousness, always in action.
This essentially living, dynamic, dazzling, free aspect of the divinity, fundamental to the Trika, is that of the energy (sakti) through which Siva acts.
It is found in living beings, capable of willing and knowing, endowed with senses and animated by “breaths” (prâna).
This divine energy has three aspects, present together but in a hierarchy. First there is icchâ, a term generally translated as will or desire, but which rather designates a primary, non-discursive impulse, an intense and spontaneous movement. Icchâ is the first movement towards manifestation, the creative (emanating) impulse arising in the divinity: it is this movement that the yogin must rediscover and live on the path of Siva, sâmbhavopâya.
Then comes jnâna, the energy of knowledge, which is awareness of what has been willed or desired, the mental realisation of the original impulse. A global knowledge, it is lucid but not discursive, or more exactly, it tends towards non-discursiveness by going beyond conceptual dualities (vikalpa) and by grasping reality directly. This power of purified thought comes into play above all on the path of knowledge (jnanopaya), also called sâktopâya, the path of [cognitive] energy. Finally there is the energy of activity, kriyâsakti, which, says Abhinavagupta, is in essence knowledge, because it consists in realising, in making concrete what has been willed and then known.
If we were in grace, we would have nothing to do…
So it is the most intense grace, which we need only let act, without being able to speak of a path at all. Then follow spiritual impetus, then intellectual efforts, then mental ones, and finally the ritual and bodily efforts needed to reach absorption in the divinity: ever-increasing and more numerous efforts the further we are from the Principle and the weaker the grace.
The problem is that only beings who receive the most intense grace receive this illumination. It is so strong that it can cause the immediate death of the body. If they survive this rapture, the one liberated in life will live for some time longer the marvel that has been revealed to them, but they are so absorbed in it that they can hardly carry out the ritual and teaching activities a guru or âcârya must fulfil. It is through their presence alone that they pass divine grace on to others.
So for all of us who do not have absolute grace, we are obliged to practise, to train ourselves in demanding disciplines that are often not particularly pleasant. But all our practices must seek divine grace; they must be directed towards MahaPrakasha (the light), which has nothing to do with the phrases we hear from many people who say the light is here and that they bathe in the light. The light MahaPrakasha is an absolute experience of the divine, which we must seek in the silence of our absolute and which will be there to “assess” us at the end of our existence. It is the Clear Light the Tibetans speak of, and it is not easy to meet in our decidedly agitated lives, where the path towards this experience is very seldom taken each day, because we much prefer enjoying our existence to trying to master it and step out of it...
NB: My text is largely inspired by Abhinavagupta's TantraLoka
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