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The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Shaivism
Cutting across distinctions of schools and types, the author explains the central feature of Kashmir Shaivism: the creative pulse of the all pervasive Consciousness called Śiva. This is also the central theme of the Hindu Tantras, and Dyczkowski provides new insight into the most literate and extensive interpretations of the Tantras.
This book is significant from four points of view. First, it breaks new ground in Indian philosophy. According to the Spanda Doctrine, the self is not simply witnessing consciousness as maintained by Sānkya and Vedānta, but is an active force. Second, the ultimate reality is not simply a logical system of abstract categories, but is living, pulsating energy, the source of all manifestations. Third, the work elaborates the dynamic aspect of consciousness. It supplies and excellent introduction to the texts and scriptures of Kashmir Shaivism. Fourth, it suggests a Yoga for realization of self.
This book is significant from four points of view. First, it breaks new ground in Indian philosophy. According to the Spanda Doctrine, the self is not simply witnessing consciousness as maintained by Sānkya and Vedānta, but is an active force. Second, the ultimate reality is not simply a logical system of abstract categories, but is living, pulsating energy, the source of all manifestations. Third, the work elaborates the dynamic aspect of consciousness. It supplies and excellent introduction to the texts and scriptures of Kashmir Shaivism. Fourth, it suggests a Yoga for realization of self.
308 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1987
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307 people want to read
About the author
Mark S.G. Dyczkowski
32 books21 followersMark S. G. Dyczkowski was an English Indologist, musician, and scholar of Tantra and Kashmir Shaivism. He has published multiple translations and commentaries, most notably the 12-volume Manthanabhairava Tantra and an 11-volume Tantrāloka including the commentary by Jayaratha. Dyczkowski also played the sitar and collected over 1,500 compositions for sitar.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 22, 2023
A densely difficult, but beautiful book of priceless wisdom, it is a resource to return to periodically and gain new insight from. This is a book to read in quiet when your focus is acute and your mind flexible, not when you are on a plane (as I tried to do, initially), or wanting to enjoy reading for its own sake. I don’t recommend this book to anyone not already pretty familiar with meditation and who does not have some previous knowledge of Kashmir (Tantrik) Shaivism.
I’m not posturing as someone who is particularly knowledgeable, but I wouldn’t have made it more than a few pages into this book without having previous background information. This is not a good starting point. Read Christopher Wallis’s “Tantra Illuminated,” if you want one good resource that will serve as a solid introduction, but I also don’t guess any of these texts would be engaging to someone not already dedicated to and interested in meditation. Perhaps I’m wrong.
I’m not posturing as someone who is particularly knowledgeable, but I wouldn’t have made it more than a few pages into this book without having previous background information. This is not a good starting point. Read Christopher Wallis’s “Tantra Illuminated,” if you want one good resource that will serve as a solid introduction, but I also don’t guess any of these texts would be engaging to someone not already dedicated to and interested in meditation. Perhaps I’m wrong.
December 29, 2013
Excellent scholarly exposition of the doctrine of vibration (Spanda) within Kashmir Shavism and related movements (pure Shaivism in comparison). Also makes mention of some other philosophies such as Advaita Vedanta, which is useful in comparison. Although the explanations and detail is at a fine level, and complete with notes etc., one gets the impression that this is an intellectual discussion or paper (which it is- I believe it was a thesis for the author's PhD), rather than an attempt to introduce pointers or awakening in the reader. Recommended for those after an intellectual understanding of Kashmir Shavism, this doctrine, and as a complement to actual spiritual practices and pointers, which the reader will need to be introduced to elsewhere.
December 20, 2025
The modern mind suffers from a surfeit of objectivity. The objective dimension of experience is taken to be our common, universal reality, while subjectivity has become synonymous with the limited, particular, and relative. To say that something is subjective is to say that it has no claim to universal applicability; to whatever extent it is real and true, it is only partially and conditionally so. Yet the same can be said at least as plausibly of the object. My objective existence as a psychosomatic complex is no less fragmentary than my individual perspective as a subjective perceiver and experiencer. No object encompasses the whole of reality; its “truth” is relative to that of every other thing. The reign of objectivity has produced an assortment of ideologies—liberal individualism, nationalism, capitalism, the modern state, and the mechanistic, anti-teleological paradigm in some physical sciences—that see only discrete objects within a world, bracketing out the possibility of a unifying subjective mode and producing a paradoxical universality of separateness.
Neither subjectivity nor objectivity is responsible, in and of itself, for limitation or partiality. It is closer to the truth to suggest, as does the tradition of Kashmir Śaivism, that our pluriform world of diversity and multiplicity arises from what appears to us within our limited frame as the separation between these two poles of phenomenality. Nondual Śaivism represents the arising and disappearance of diverse reality in terms of the relationship between Śiva, the absolute self-luminous subject, and Śakti, who in a sense represents pure objectivity and figures as Śiva’s power of manifestation. Śakti is only perceived to be distinct from Śiva from our limited perspective, when Śiva partially veils his true nature and contracts our world of manifold subjects and objects from the infinite plenitude of his being. When the world parents come together, the cosmos of separativity ceases to be, withdrawn into Śiva’s introverted self-awareness—the unus mundus. This “when” does not take place within our temporal framework, of course, because time itself is of the nature of separativity.
Subject and object, oneness and multiplicity, transcendence and immanence—these are two aspects of the same infinite reality. The subject, through its creative power, takes the form of the object without losing its inherent unity and transcendence, while every object has the same universal subjectivity as its interior world. All objects exist insofar as they appear within the luminous, unified field of consciousness, prakāśa, the light through which all things come into being and in which they hold together. At the highest level, in the life of Śiva, this light of “outer” manifestation (it appears external for us, but manifestation really occurs within the conscious subject) never loses its inner self-awareness, vimarśa, the heart of Śiva’s creative freedom.
If the modern mind seeks to erase the universal, unifying reality of the self, or at least to reduce it to the multitude of finite subjects who are limited, from the nondual Śaivite perspective, precisely by the association of the self with some degree of objectivity, some traditional Indian philosophies—most notably Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism (at least according to some interpretations of the doctrine of Anātman)—take the opposite tack, denying the true reality of the manifest world (of which the Buddhist ātman is considered a part) and seeking either nirvana or union with the divine by negating the trappings of embodied, sensory experience. For the Kashmir Śaivite, however, the goal is not to eliminate the phenomenal world by uniting oneself to a pure, unblemished subjectivity, but rather to transfigure the world, to gain an awareness of oneself as the subject of all things—thereby realizing one’s identity with Śiva—rather than as one thing among others; to participate in the play of Spanda, the vibration or pulsation that is Śiva’s power—and ours—to become incarnate and to recognize himself in what he creates; to navigate to the center of the Wheel of Samsara and uncover its true nature as the Wheel of Energies, the outflowing of Śiva’s infinite creativity, life, and freedom; to understand that nothing is, or ever has been, impure.
Neither subjectivity nor objectivity is responsible, in and of itself, for limitation or partiality. It is closer to the truth to suggest, as does the tradition of Kashmir Śaivism, that our pluriform world of diversity and multiplicity arises from what appears to us within our limited frame as the separation between these two poles of phenomenality. Nondual Śaivism represents the arising and disappearance of diverse reality in terms of the relationship between Śiva, the absolute self-luminous subject, and Śakti, who in a sense represents pure objectivity and figures as Śiva’s power of manifestation. Śakti is only perceived to be distinct from Śiva from our limited perspective, when Śiva partially veils his true nature and contracts our world of manifold subjects and objects from the infinite plenitude of his being. When the world parents come together, the cosmos of separativity ceases to be, withdrawn into Śiva’s introverted self-awareness—the unus mundus. This “when” does not take place within our temporal framework, of course, because time itself is of the nature of separativity.
Subject and object, oneness and multiplicity, transcendence and immanence—these are two aspects of the same infinite reality. The subject, through its creative power, takes the form of the object without losing its inherent unity and transcendence, while every object has the same universal subjectivity as its interior world. All objects exist insofar as they appear within the luminous, unified field of consciousness, prakāśa, the light through which all things come into being and in which they hold together. At the highest level, in the life of Śiva, this light of “outer” manifestation (it appears external for us, but manifestation really occurs within the conscious subject) never loses its inner self-awareness, vimarśa, the heart of Śiva’s creative freedom.
If the modern mind seeks to erase the universal, unifying reality of the self, or at least to reduce it to the multitude of finite subjects who are limited, from the nondual Śaivite perspective, precisely by the association of the self with some degree of objectivity, some traditional Indian philosophies—most notably Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism (at least according to some interpretations of the doctrine of Anātman)—take the opposite tack, denying the true reality of the manifest world (of which the Buddhist ātman is considered a part) and seeking either nirvana or union with the divine by negating the trappings of embodied, sensory experience. For the Kashmir Śaivite, however, the goal is not to eliminate the phenomenal world by uniting oneself to a pure, unblemished subjectivity, but rather to transfigure the world, to gain an awareness of oneself as the subject of all things—thereby realizing one’s identity with Śiva—rather than as one thing among others; to participate in the play of Spanda, the vibration or pulsation that is Śiva’s power—and ours—to become incarnate and to recognize himself in what he creates; to navigate to the center of the Wheel of Samsara and uncover its true nature as the Wheel of Energies, the outflowing of Śiva’s infinite creativity, life, and freedom; to understand that nothing is, or ever has been, impure.
July 3, 2025
The digital revolution has indeed democratized access to Vidya (true knowledge), and platforms like OpenAI are taking this further. But this was far from the case when Mark wrote this book as a young scholar at a colonial university—an institution representing the same machinery that historically suppressed and distorted indigenous knowledge systems across Africa, Asia, and other ancient civilizational states under the Vatican’s (an organised lobby of Deep State Dynastic Bandits grouped under the garb of a Spiritualist Organisation) global expansionist influence.
With that context, it’s no surprise that nearly 80% of this book feels like a waste of time and money for anyone well-versed in Bharatiya Darshana or deeply rooted in the Shiva tradition. Mark, despite his efforts, unknowingly echoes the preconditioned frameworks of his Abrahamic upbringing - where everything must be forced into "-isms" to be classified, judged, or validated.
It’s almost comical to read claims such as “the oldest Hindu temple dates to the 3rd century.” The very use of the word "temple" as a translation for "Mandir" is fundamentally flawed—several studies including those concluded by NASA accept that from Egyptian Pyramid to Hindu Mandirs are not merely architectural spaces for Hindus, but complex energetic and spiritual centers unlike churches, mosques, or Western-style pegan temples. The book also echoes long-debunked colonial narratives: that Hinduism is distinct from Buddhism and Jainism, or that Shaivism emerged during the reign of Ashoka! These ideas are remnants of Macaulayite historical rewriting.
However, I do acknowledge that when Mark later spent extended time in Kashi- the oldest living city on Earth - it might have opened his heart and mind to deeper truths. Perhaps, with age, he recognized the shortcomings of this early work. But only a rare few have the courage, wisdom, and grace to publicly revise their own missteps shaped by youth and academic conditioning.
May Shiva grant him another birth - an opportunity to rise beyond such karmic inertia, to truly immerse in and serve the eternal knowledge stream of Sanatana Dharma.
Om Shanti
With that context, it’s no surprise that nearly 80% of this book feels like a waste of time and money for anyone well-versed in Bharatiya Darshana or deeply rooted in the Shiva tradition. Mark, despite his efforts, unknowingly echoes the preconditioned frameworks of his Abrahamic upbringing - where everything must be forced into "-isms" to be classified, judged, or validated.
It’s almost comical to read claims such as “the oldest Hindu temple dates to the 3rd century.” The very use of the word "temple" as a translation for "Mandir" is fundamentally flawed—several studies including those concluded by NASA accept that from Egyptian Pyramid to Hindu Mandirs are not merely architectural spaces for Hindus, but complex energetic and spiritual centers unlike churches, mosques, or Western-style pegan temples. The book also echoes long-debunked colonial narratives: that Hinduism is distinct from Buddhism and Jainism, or that Shaivism emerged during the reign of Ashoka! These ideas are remnants of Macaulayite historical rewriting.
However, I do acknowledge that when Mark later spent extended time in Kashi- the oldest living city on Earth - it might have opened his heart and mind to deeper truths. Perhaps, with age, he recognized the shortcomings of this early work. But only a rare few have the courage, wisdom, and grace to publicly revise their own missteps shaped by youth and academic conditioning.
May Shiva grant him another birth - an opportunity to rise beyond such karmic inertia, to truly immerse in and serve the eternal knowledge stream of Sanatana Dharma.
Om Shanti
July 17, 2023
Clear writing, modern classic on non dualism. Unfortunately hard to get a copy because his stuff is not widely read.
January 18, 2025
It wasn’t for me
October 15, 2016
Originally his doctorate dissertation, this ground breaking work on Kashmir Shaivism, reveals absolute advaita philosophy of this school Śaivism, the oneness without division of all, in the all pervasive Consciousness and its actions, Śiva-Śaktī.
The Hindu Tantras are based in this approach, and Mark Dyczkowski provides in his unique work on Sanskrit texts previously almost unknown to Western scholarship a new and vibrant analysis of these and their relationship in advaita philosophy.
For those seeking the tantrik path, these are undoubtedly, as the publisher boasts, "...the most literate and extensive interpretations of the Tantras."
"There is no other complete study of the Spanda, which is central to the SAaiva thought as it was developed in Kashmir. The treatment of the subject is sound, scholarly, exhaustive and penetrating." -- Andre Padoux, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
This book is the work of a yogi and a great scholar.
The Hindu Tantras are based in this approach, and Mark Dyczkowski provides in his unique work on Sanskrit texts previously almost unknown to Western scholarship a new and vibrant analysis of these and their relationship in advaita philosophy.
For those seeking the tantrik path, these are undoubtedly, as the publisher boasts, "...the most literate and extensive interpretations of the Tantras."
"There is no other complete study of the Spanda, which is central to the SAaiva thought as it was developed in Kashmir. The treatment of the subject is sound, scholarly, exhaustive and penetrating." -- Andre Padoux, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
This book is the work of a yogi and a great scholar.
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February 24, 2018Cutting across distinctions of schools and types, the author explains the central feature of Kashmir Shaivism: the creative pulse of the all pervasive Consciousness called Śiva. This is also the central theme of the Hindu Tantras, and Dyczkowski provides new insight into the most literate and extensive interpretations of the Tantras.
This book is significant from four points of view. First, it breaks new ground in Indian philosophy. According to the Spanda Doctrine, the self is not simply witnessing consciousness as maintained by Sānkya and Vedānta, but is an active force. Second, the ultimate reality is not simply a logical system of abstract categories, but is living, pulsating energy, the source of all manifestations. Third, the work elaborates the dynamic aspect of consciousness. It supplies and excellent introduction to the texts and scriptures of Kashmir Shaivism. Fourth, it suggests a Yoga for realization of self.
This book is significant from four points of view. First, it breaks new ground in Indian philosophy. According to the Spanda Doctrine, the self is not simply witnessing consciousness as maintained by Sānkya and Vedānta, but is an active force. Second, the ultimate reality is not simply a logical system of abstract categories, but is living, pulsating energy, the source of all manifestations. Third, the work elaborates the dynamic aspect of consciousness. It supplies and excellent introduction to the texts and scriptures of Kashmir Shaivism. Fourth, it suggests a Yoga for realization of self.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews