The one indubitable fact about my life is that I AM. Or rather, I am essentially consciousness because to be is to be aware and to be aware is to be. But what is the nature of that Consciousness? We argue in our tradition that this Conscious Self which I feel myself to be is really one and the same with God, Śiva and that

I am not at all merely localized to this contraction of limited body-mind-personality but that I am, in truth, all-pervasively present in all things as all things. And more than that, I am not only immanent in all things, I also transcend them all! I am full and empty, everything and nothing.

What then do we make of insentience? If I, the sentient Self am all, then are all things sharing in my sentience? Are jugs and pieces of cloth sentient? Is the AI sentient? In fact, are cats and other people even sentient?! (i.e the problem of the philosophical zombie). And if I am all things, then why do I feel like only this one thing (namely this body and this mind)? How do you explain my jīva-tva (my littleness) when in fact I am śiva (the all-pervasive transcendent-immanent Absolute.) 

This is a really profound and beautiful question to ask because it takes us to the very heart of non-dual Śaivism! As such, on this third Monday of the sacred month of śrāvana, I present you with this discussion on the lofiest and most refined ideas of the Śaiva non-dual transmission, as part of our Paramārthasāra, Abhinava Gupta series. 

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