Interpreting Across Mystical Boundaries: An Analysis of Samādhi in the Trika-Kaula Tradition

Abhinavagupta's fourfold path of mystical practice (upāya-catuṣṭayam) in the eleventh-century Trika-Kaula system collapses the Western distinction between introvertive and extrovertive mystical experience, challenging W. T. Stace's Cartesian model that privileges inner mental states. In early stages, the adept pursues an introvertive experience with eyes closed (nimīlana-samādhi) by harnessing a regressive power (visarga-śakti). Later, this power is inverted to yield an extrovertive experience with eyes open (unmīlana-samādhi). At the culmination (bhairavīmudrā), inner self and outer world are united in a singular continuum of consciousness, a 'no-path' stage where the distinction collapses entirely.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The following analysis of Abhinavagupta’s system of mystical practice (termed the fourfold path or upāya-catuṣṭayam) aims to illustrate the ways in which the Western discourse of duality, because of its fundamental acceptance of a mind/body split, is an unsuccessful heuristic model for understanding non-Western mystical traditions. Specifically, I examine the hermeneutical limitations one encounters when applying W. T. Stace’s model of comparative mysticism, which gives a Cartesian privilege to the ‘introvertive’ mystical experience of mental inwardness over its ‘extrovertive’ counterpart, to Abhinavagupta’s eleventh-century Trika-Kaula system. Abhinavagupta’s own discourse on mystical states of consciousness inverts Stace’s model and ultimately collapses the distinction between introvertive and extrovertive. In the preparatory stages of Trika-Kaula practice, the adept harnesses an inward, regressive power (visarga-śakti) in pursuit of an introvertive mystical experience with eyes closed (nimīlana-samādhi ). In the later stages, however, the same regressive power is inverted to reveal its progressive side and the Tantric thereby attains an extrovertive experience with eyes opened (unmīlana-samādhi ). At the culmination of his or her practice the Tantric attains a state of consciousness in which the inner and outer become united in the singular continuum of consciousness. At this ‘no-path’ stage of transcendent experience (bhairavīmudrā) the Self within and the world without are one.