This article offers a focused study of cicchakti (consciousness-power) in Śaiva Siddhānta and Pāñcarātra, treating its metaphysical and epistemological dimensions. Cicchakti is presented as Śiva’s innate, inseparable power: the dynamic source of cosmic manifestation, as well as Śiva’s subtle body and creative agency. The article foregrounds cicchakti’s distinctive epistemic status, arguing that...
The basis of religion lies in the nature of man as a thinking self-conscious being. As a thinking being, I can make my individual self and the world, which is opposed to it, the object of my thought and have the capacity to transcend the opposition and rise to a higher unity in which both these -- the self and not-self are comprehended as elements. It is by thought that we transcend the limits...
Abstract I identify two problematic strands of Ken Wilber's transpersonal theory. First, I question Wilber's claim that his spectrum model is supported by the materials of all the world's major mystical traditions. I argue that his integral, hierarchical perspective privileges some traditions but distorts others. Drawing heavily upon Andrew Rawlinson's recent, taxonomic study of mystical...