Library Update 44

mega.nz/#F!AE5yjIqB!y7Vdxdb5pbNsi2O3zyq9KQ
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TANTRALOKA

Abhinavagupta's magnum opus, a commentary on Malinivijayottara Tantra, and an expansion of its precepts, appears here for the FIRST TIME in English online. Authored by a noted Tantrik mystic and aesthetic philosopher, for centuries this volume was only available in its native script. In the early 2000s a translation began to get published that was cut short. Mark D's working on another that's in limbo. After I started tripfagging, it came out in English in full translation, but was prohibitively expensive for most.

This is the first time, ever, that a complete English edition is appearing online.

The two extant translations leave...something to be desired. The earlier, abandoned, translation is more precise and technical. It cuts twilight language better. The other later one (chapters 5-37), is rather weaker. Some readings are questionable and some twilight language goes unparsed. If all else fails, it's interlinear, so get to work on learning that Middle-Late Classical Kashmiri Sanskrit dialect.

But we have help. Chapter 29, “The Kula Ritual”, was published by Dupuche. It's a massive, detailed, and complex rendering of the central rite of the Uttara Kaula Trika. Sanderson's “Mandala and Identity in Agamic Identity in Trika of Kashmir” is shorter, but clearer.

But these do not impart all mantras. For help I recommend:
Manblunder.
Kamakotimandali.
Manasataramgini.

Included in this update are:
>Tantraraja Tantra
>Malinivijayottara Tantra (shitty 1956 edition. I can have a copy and may scan it, but...why do we need MVJT when we have TL?)

All new material appears in:
>Eastern>Saivism>Abhinavagupta (Uttara Kaula Trika)

I am now working to obtain and scan Svaccharanda Tantra, another that has recently been published in English but appears nowhere online.

Other urls found in this thread:

sacred-texts.com/hin/hyp/index.htm
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4f/Adhan_in_Shalqar_mosque.webm/Adhan_in_Shalqar_mosque.webm.480p.webm
twitter.com/AnonBabble

The inspiration and the basis for this historical inquiry are the actual works of Kashmiri Shaivites, the most extensive of which are by Abhinavagupta, who wrote the Tantraloka. He was the one who built up what he called “Anuttara Trika,” and he did that by referring to and integrating many Tantras and other works, drawn from varied Shaiva Tantric traditions. The main manual—you might say the Bible of Anuttara Trika—is the Tantraloka, and secondary to that is the Paratrishikavivarana. The Tantraloka is one of the last great classics in Sanskrit that had not been fully and authoritatively translated into English before now.

To fully understand the importance of the Tantraloka, I need to say more about the history of Shaivism. Basically what happened is that sometime around the sixth century AD, relatively suddenly, a huge number of revealed texts began to come to the earth, as it were. There were two streams of thought. The first is Siddhanta Shaivism, which is now very popular in South India. It centers on the worship of lingas and the form of Shiva called Sada Shiva, which means “always Shiva, always auspicious.” Nowadays this tradition is found in the large Shiva temples of South India.

The logic of calling Anuttara Trika the “highest” is that according to the revelation itself, Trika comes at the end of a series. One is initiated into Trika Shaivism after having taken a series of initiations into what are considered from the Trika perspective to be lower forms of Shaivism—and even below that Vaishnava Tantra, and finally Vedanta. So there is an ascending gradation of initiation, and Trika contains and encompasses all of them as their ultimate teaching. Everything culminates in Anuttara Trika.

Abhinavagupta presents his Tantraloka as an explanation of the teachings of the Malinivijayottara, the Trika Tantra he considers to be the most authoritative. He holds this authority in such reverence that he declares at the beginning of his Tantraloka that there is nothing in it which is not in some form present or suggested in the Malinivijay. Abhinava thus intends his Anuttara Trika to be understood not as something new, but as the final development of the Trika school of Shaivism— which is one of the oldest of the Bhairava current of Shaivite scriptural traditions— and the most explicit and detailed presentation of its essential teachings.

Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 AD) was a philosopher, mystic and aesthetician from Kashmir. He was also considered an influential musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logician – a polymathic personality who exercised strong influences on Indian culture.

He was born in Kashmir in a family of scholars and mystics and studied all the schools of philosophy and art of his time under the guidance of as many as fifteen (or more) teachers and gurus. In his long life he completed over 35 works, the largest and most famous of which is Tantrāloka, an encyclopaedic treatise on all the philosophical and practical aspects of Trika and Kaula (known today as Kashmir Shaivism). Another one of his very important contributions was in the field of philosophy of aesthetics with his famous Abhinavabhāratī commentary of Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharata Muni.

Abhinavagupta's thought was strongly influenced by Buddhist logic.

To study he took many teachers (as many as 15) both mystical philosophers and scholars. He approached Vaiṣṇavas, Buddhists, Śiddhānta Śaivists and the Trika scholars.

Among the most prominent of his teachers he enumerates four. Vāmanātha who instructed him in dualistic Śaivism and Bhūtirāja in the dualist/nondualist school. Besides being the teacher of the famous Abhinavagupta, Bhūtirāja was also the father of two eminent scholars.

Lakṣmasṇagupta, a direct disciple of Somānanda, in the lineage of Trayambaka, was highly respected by Abhinavagupta and taught him all the schools of monistic thought : Krama, Trika and Pratyabhijña (except Kula).

Śambhunātha taught him the fourth school (Ardha-trayambaka). This school is in fact Kaula, and it was emanated from Trayambaka's daughter.

For Abhinavagupta, Śambhunātha was the most admired guru. Describing the greatness of his master, he compared Śambhunātha with the Sun, in his power to dispel ignorance from the heart, and, in another place, with "the Moon shining over the ocean of Trika knowledge".

Abhinavagupta received Kaula initiation through Śambhunātha's wife (acting as a dūtī or conduit). The energy of this initiation is transmitted and sublimated into the heart and finally into consciousness. Such a method is difficult but very rapid and is reserved for those who shed their mental limitations and are pure.

It was Śambhunātha who requested of him to write Tantrāloka. As guru, he had a profound influence in the structure of Tantrāloka and in the life of its creator, Abhinavagupta.

It is believed that Abhinavagupta had more secondary teachers. Moreover, during his life he had accumulated a large number of texts from which he quoted in his magnum opus, in his desire to create a synthetic, all inclusive system, where the contrasts of different scriptures could be resolved by integration into a superior perspective.

Bump for preservation of Tantra.

>tfw I like Indian history and religious stories but think all this spiritual shit is bollocks

>books

Shit nigga ain't no-one got time for that, you feel me? Hit me up wit' some recommendations for edutaining videos so I can harmonize my chakras n'shit with my eyes closed, you dig?

K.

That's a pretty common opinion desu senpai

this is definitely the wrong board for this. try x

Why, exactly, is presenting an important historical text for the first time in English wrong for this board?

>This board is dedicated to the discussion of history and the other humanities such as philosophy, religion, law, classical artwork, archeology, anthropology, ancient languages, etc. Please use Veeky Forums for discussions of literature. Threads should be about specific topics, and the creation of "general" threads is discouraged.

This thread covers:
>philosophy
>religion
>Middle-Late classical Sanskrit
>Kashmiri anthropology

Sorry if you don't personally like the materials presented, but just because you can't participate doesn't mean others should be barred from participation.

Also, the thread itself is historical:
>This is the first time, ever, that a complete English edition is appearing online.
Veeky Forums was literally the first place I went after scanning.

bump

Tantra yoga eh?
Are you aware of the mantra of Om hreem shreem chamundaya namaha?

>Om hreem shreem chamundaya namaha
>chamundaya
>chamunda
>candali
>chinnamasta
>sachchi mata
>chamundeshwari
>candika
>kubjika

Yeah, I'm aware.

You know this?

महाविनोदार्पितमातृचक्र-
वीरेन्द्रकासृग्रसपानसक्ताम् |
रक्तीकृतां च प्रलयात्यये तां
नमामि विश्वाकृतिरक्तकालीम् ||

न चैषा चक्षुषा ग्राह्या न च सर्वेन्द्रियस्थिता |
निर्गुणा निरहङ्कारा रञ्जयेद्विश्वमण्डलम् |
सा कला तु यदुत्पन्ना सा ज्ञेया रक्तकलिका ||

Wow, is that samvartamandala?
I am a shaivite Kshatriya, so my knowledge on esoteric is limited to Shivadhanurveda, Kalari and martial traditions.

It's the 14 Kalis, yes, but it's not exclusive to the Samvartamandala. Also incorporated into the Tritrisulbijmandala.

Raktakali is the self initiation deity of the Uttara Kaula Trika.

Have you performed any yajna? Also how much stock do you put in Carvaka and Mimamsa as the materialist thought has influenced some of what Abhinavagupta penned to justify the Kaulamarga, because the attitude is the key in determining when something forbidden in the root scriptures is performed, almost similar to the whole materialist ideals represented.

Ape are you a wizard? You seem to know a lot about the occult and religious practices everywhere.

>yajna
Yes, in Hindi and Buddhist modes.

>Carvaka and Mimamsa as the materialist thought has influenced some of what Abhinavagupta penned to justify the Kaulamarga
I like Carvaka.

It's also pretty clear that Abhinava's transgressive philosophy has a lot to do with climbing around in the five pure-impure tattvas, to understand the subtle throbbing of their interplay and immanent reality.

>888
Sure, why not.

>five pure-impure tattvas
which ones specifically? There are a lot of tattvas.

T-the five (my bad *six*) pure-impure tattvas:
>Maya
>Kala
>Kala
>Vidya
>Raga
>Nyati

My understanding of the system is:
So, you've got Maya as a glue, the very fabric that Shiva weaves the universe out of. If everything below it is subject to it, and the supernal reality above it is exempt....what's the point in the renunciation of the "impure" or even "socially permissible"? There are moral and ethical factors at play, but you're working to weaken the chains that keep you in bondage, personally. Many of those chains are cultural. To conquer them below the six is required to move beyond them. Beyond them they are irrelevant.

Hence the 5 Ms. You're working on dissolving undue restriction.

I hope I'm not getting too personal here, but what do you do for a living Ape?

Museum admin.

Haven't used this yet, is there a Roman section?

No but I've got some substantial amounts of Greek paganism over in the Euro and Neoplatonic folders.

Bump.

^
Srs, first time presentation of Tantraloka online in English.

I don't expect excitement, or anything, but it'd be nice if interested parties could forward the text(s) to folks with a genuine interest in Tantra.

> twilight language

This is a question about pretty much every esoteric "tradition" that does this:

Why should anyone go along with that? What makes "gurus" convinced that they're so special they have "secrets," and if they're so enlightened why can't they figure out that it makes them look like frauds vetting their marks for gullibility?

--

I would strongly encourage anyone reading this to just foster mindfulness and introspection. I can tell you from experience that if you really dedicate yourself to that process, you will easily leapfrog 90% of the fags around here posting about shit like this, in terms of spiritual development.

Thx guru

Huh, I never realized that using euphemistic wordplay by a poet and aesthetician was a mark of charlatanry in a system where the guru pays any travel expense if one is needed for initiation.

I'll ask this here. Is there somwhere I can get the Osprey books? I can only find some here and there in.pdf format.

"The unquestioned authority of the Vedas;
tthe belief in a world-creator;
tthe quest for purification through ritual bathing;
tthe arrogant division into castes;
the practice of mortification to atone for sin—
these five are the marks of the crass stupidity of witless men." - Dharmakirti

With love and respect from a foolish yogin. Happy new year Pandita.

Oh I thought this was for books in general. Well if anyone can answer thanks a bunch.

Osprey's adventure supplements are fun.
I got no idea where their military/history texts are cached tho.

Thanks mate.

>Bump
^^^

>93
Back up top.

Long ass day at work.
I'll be around for questions/commentary.

Huh, I'd have thought there'd be a touch more interest in a religious text appearing online in English with broad access for the first time.

You should have made a thread about
>Hitler/WWII
>Eternal Anglo
>Catholicism vs Protestantism

This board is /pol/-lite trash.

I appreciate it

Keep fighting the good fight sir

Wish I knew enough to ask intelligent questions

>Catholicism vs Protestantism
It's the same autismo spamming Veeky Forums with anti-catholic threads and post.

i have no idea where to begin

what exactly is this text? i've picked up on the spirituality/occult/..tradition?religion?

sorry to appear incompetent but i have no clue what even to google much less research

it is.
thanks you big monkey

>what exactly is this text? i've picked up on the spirituality/occult/..tradition?religion?
>The logic of calling Anuttara Trika the “highest” is that according to the revelation itself, Trika comes at the end of a series. One is initiated into Trika Shaivism after having taken a series of initiations into what are considered from the Trika perspective to be lower forms of Shaivism—and even below that Vaishnava Tantra, and finally Vedanta. So there is an ascending gradation of initiation, and Trika contains and encompasses all of them as their ultimate teaching. Everything culminates in Anuttara Trika.

Once again, great job Ape. Going to work through this asap.

Nobody cares about ancient poo nigger magic.

Tell that to.....

>bump

>Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 AD) was a philosopher
I lost you right there. A man who only lives 66 years has no spiritual authority.

Why, exactly?

Some sources put his death at 1025, making him 75, if that helps your seemingly arbitrary age limits.

That does make a difference actually.

All those weird ass Hatha Yoga texts state that you can escape death and have perfect health with different practices. So, if a guys lives a short life, I have to assume he's a shit-tier yogi.

There's only one Hatha Yoga.

Tale, often disputed but passed around nonetheless, is that he fucked off to a cave with 1200 disciples and just vanished.

Moreover, it's really hard to associate Mukti in the Hatha context with immortality. Here, I'll demonstrate.

sacred-texts.com/hin/hyp/index.htm
^Find me all instances of "immortality" v. "mukti".

The closest rendering we have is "chāmṝtāya", which...seems insufficient. It refers two the unified nectar of the two channels, rather than endless life.

Moreover, HYP speaks only of becoming young vigor, not of eternal youth.

Abhinava writes on Mukti...it has nothing to do with endless life.

Finally, I'm not sure why we're even comparing the two systems. Uttara Kaula Trika is an inherently death-friendly system. If you'd read through the one of the initiations is a ritual killing of terminally ill aspirants.

Any rec's for something like the rig veda?
Also any good books on the connection between hinduism and music?

This is all literal gibberish to me, but interesting gibberish.
Where do I begin?

>hinduism and music
I've got some stuff from Abhinava on aesthetics.

>rig veda
You'll need to buy it, last I looked (couple years back) it wasn't scanned fully.

Hard to say?
Maybe Kaulajnananirnaya?

>tfw you will never get your soul sucked out through your dick by a tantric succubus riding a lovecraftian demon-chimera

The more I read about "hinduism" vs tantra the more it sounds "christianity vs natives".

There is an article (will look it to post here later) that compares the prudish, rigid religiousness of the aryans vs the more natural, metaphysic one of the natives of Harappa (the author implies that tantra is the native religion/culture of India with yoga being tantric and goes full Gimbutas in a matriarchy vs patriarchy thing though).

It really blows me the similarities between tantra and other "native" practices like shamanism or vodoo and the ones between brahmins hinduism and european christianity. Of course european christianity is heavily influenced by IE religion (no matter how much bible thumpers deny it and accuse only catholicism on it, protestantism as well has "germanic" religiousness in it).

We don't actually functionally know which bits of the post-"""Aryan""" cultural synthesis came from the native Indics.

Jan Fries makes the argument that yoga is a Harappan development in his book Kali Kaula. This may or may not be the case.

All we know for certain is that Kali was most revered as an interior goddess in the mountainous/deserty regions of the subcontinent.

Rudra/Shiva is even more ambiguous. By the time Mahabharata was authored there was already a coherent Shiva worship, as evidenced in the late Vedic materials. Shakti gets some references but much of her materials don't get put down for some centures later than the Saivist stuff.

What are the best sigil instructions I can find in the internet, Thoth?

Agrippa and Austin Osman Spare.

>interior goddess
Interior as in spirituality or interior as in the interior regions of India?

thanks senpai

>interior regions of India
^

(bump)

10/10

Thanks mate.

Seriously, what's the real meaning of the High Priestess in Tarot? What I have understood is that it's Pakriti, the infinite source of matter, pure as all things are pure to it. However, I can't grasp how to penetrate in the inner garden that lies beyond the High Priestess's throne, in which we can see an illusory veil.

Lots of people just like to shitpost, don't worry about it too much.

Not a lot of people are qualified to post about this in the first place though.

>what's the real meaning of the High Priestess in Tarot

This shouldn't be rocket science. Pic related.

My threads are always slow and special interest. I was more just making an excuse to post a bump than actually wondering why first year humanities undergraduate board on a Kyrgyzstani goat milking BBS weren't replying fast enough.

>However, I can't grasp how to penetrate in the inner garden that lies beyond the High Priestess's throne, in which we can see an illusory veil.
Pray a rosary.

Yeah, that's part one.

How many years have you dedicated to the occult, The Ape of?
It's obvious that you have been in this for many years.

Fifteen plus years.

Amazing. What piece of advice would you give to the neophytes, like me?

Do the Work.
No Guru will do it for you, unless it's to shame you into doing the Work, like you promised.
So do the Work.

"MOME RATHS

The early bird catches the worm and the twelve-year-old prostitute attracts the ambassador.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!
The first plovers’ eggs fetch the highest prices; the flower of virginity is esteemed by the pandar.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!

Early to bed and early to rise
Makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise:
But late to watch and early to pray
Brings him across The Abyss, they say.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!"
~Liber 333, Ch 22.

Or, more traditionally:

>Prayer is better than sleep.

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4f/Adhan_in_Shalqar_mosque.webm/Adhan_in_Shalqar_mosque.webm.480p.webm

Is Crowley trustworthy? I don't know where to begin with him

>Is Crowley trustworthy
If you can show me better initiations into the Western tradition than Crowley's, I'd love to see them.

I know nothing that's why I ask.

Where do I begin?

Magick in Theory and Practice.

Thank you

>hello I am retarded
Thanks, Ape. You're a cool guy for doing this. Everyone who earnestly spreads knowledge is welcome here.

What are some horrifying religious texts heavy in imagery and storytelling rather than instruction? Not including the new testament of course.

It's honestly a little above my level, I'm afraid.

>tfw you will never get your soul sucked out through your dick by a tantric succubus riding a lovecraftian demon-chimera

kek

Just picked this up and some of the Nag' texts.

What has your experiance with Gnosticism been?

What in your view are the best criticisms of it?

Pretty wide.
The only book on Gnosticism that's not a core text is Kurt Rudolph's "Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism"

>best criticisms
I rarely if ever hear good criticisms of it. Doesn't mean they can't be made, but I usually see detractors using latest possible theoretical dates rather than median or early. Most lump all "Gnostic" sects together even though they all had wildly diverging theology. Reliance of second-hand accounts that may or may not be accurate, etc.

>I rarely if ever hear good criticisms of it.
From what little I know of Gnosticism, the idea that the demiruge is an evil being as opposed to the craftsman envisioned by platonics doesn't seem right. As for being soul parts of Sophia, it's an interesting take on uniting with the Holy Bride.

>Most lump all "Gnostic" sects together even though they all had wildly diverging theology
This

Valentinianism at least seems to have been rooted in no small part in an ugly anti-semitism and elitism

>Valentinianism at least seems to have been rooted in no small part in an ugly anti-semitism and elitism
of course that's not a criticism if you're an elitist anti-semite

>anti-semitism
>legimate cause to complain unless your a Semite or a cuck
Wew

>the idea that the demiruge is an evil being as opposed to the craftsman envisioned by platonics doesn't seem right
Valentine posited that Demiurge was simply mistaken/incompetent, and is intensely sorrowful for fucking things up.

Narcissist? Yes. Evil, not quite.

You mean like the Paluine epistles?

>Jews criticizing pharisaism is anti-Semitic

>like the Paluine epistles?

I don't think the authentic Pauline epistles were elitist. they attack the neliefs of Jews but as far as I'm concerned that's fair game.

I regret calling valentinianism anti-Semitic, there are reasonable grounds for distancing the father from the God of the Old Testament, but I do believe that much of its appeal to the respectable lay in its distancing itself from Judaism.

Basically Paul attacks doctrines and self-righteousness, this is not equivalent in my mind to repulsion at being associated with a denigrated subpopulation.