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 Trika Kula section of this site for more information about the communitiy of practioners.
