| About Us
Trika Institute is a center for the
study and practice of Kasmiri Shaivite Tantra. Kashmiri
Shaivite Tantra is a philospophy of Absolutism, wherein
we believe that everything is Pure Consciousness - with
no exceptions. We refer to this Pure Consciousness as
Siva.
Kasmiri Shaivism was founded circa 850 by Vasugupta,
and codified by Abhinavagupta in the early 11th century.
Kashmiri Shaivism provides an extremely rich and detailed
understanding of the human psyche and a clear and distinct
path to self-realization. As Kasmiri Shaivite Tantrikas,
we are concerned less with worshipping a personal, separate
god than with attaining the state of Siva consciousness.
This Siva consciousness is the state of pure, unconditioned,
conscious awareness that is our Natural State. Sadhana,
or personal spiritual practice, including meditation,
teachings, chanting of mantra, visualization, health
cultivation, and yoga, leads to the assimilation of
the object (world) in the subject (I) until the Self
(Siva) stands revealed as one with the universe.
Kasmiri Shaivism uses Sanskrit as its language and
the standard ritual formats and deities associated with
Hinduism. Hatha yoga and meditation are an integral
part of our practices, and Ayurveda forms the basis
of self-care within the system. Kasmiri Shaivite Tantra
differs from orthodox Hinduism in that, in its historical
development, it took whatever was useful from the surrounding
traditions including the Bon philosophy and practice
of Tibet (pre-dating Buddhism), Vajrayana, or Tibetan
Buddhist Tantra, and Dzogchen, and created a synthesis
over the last 2,000 years, giving birth to a very powerful,
progressive, and all-encompassing religious system of
spiritual philosophy and practice.
Practices
Our practices of worship are many and varied and include
group and individual practice. They include chanting
mantras, studying and reciting sutras (scripture), meditation,
kirtan (devotional singing), and the practice of Hatha
and Kriya yoga.
Among our primary forms of worship is performance of
pujas (rituals) to deities, during which we make offerings
of water, food, incense, fire, and flowers. We worship
Ganesh, the elephant-headed god who removes all obstacles
by eliminating difference. We chant the mantras of the
goddess Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom, keeper of
the sacred texts.
We honor our Guru, who is both exemplar and articulator
of unconditioned reality, or Siva, through ritual offerings
and mantra. We use meditation and visualization to “drop
into” the state of Turiya – unconditioned
consciousness. The Mandukya Upanishad defines turiya
as “the sole essence of the consciousness of self,
the completion of the world.” This state is the
transcendence of the individual experience to the universal
experience of Siva.
Trika Institute History
What has come to be Trika Institute began in 1997, when
Dharmanidhi Sarasvati, after 10 years of study, was
given the mandate by his Gurus to form a new sect of
Kasmiri Shaivite Tantra for westerners, and to teach
the classical Tantra and Yoga of India. Dharmanidhi
started the Wisdom Fire Inner-Work School as a way to
bring the practice and the theory behind the practices
of non-dual Kasmiri Shaivite Tantra to students. As
he took on more students, he applied for and received
nonprofit status for the organization, operating under
the name Tantric College of America.
In 2005, an elaborate and important ceremony was performed
by the Acaryas of the Australian Council of Hindu Clergy,
with whom Dharmanidhi was trained, to install a Nataraj
statue and consecrate our site as a temple, or mandir.
In the past three years, the kula, or community of
practitioners, has grown, stabilized, and matured. There
are over 50 initiated members of our kula, and many
more non-initiate practitioners.
See the Jñanagni
Kula section of this site for more information about
the communitiy of practioners.
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