One day in the early 1990’s, I was teaching meditation in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Eric called – he was also teaching in Santa Fe and found out about me somehow. The next day he came by and generously helped me go over the text I had been working on, line by line. Thank you, Eric!
Eric sometimes writes in English, although his primary language is French.
by Eric Baret.
Songs of the Ultimate
The self is Yourself.
My thought is Your consort, Parvati.
My vital breaths are Your companions.
My body is Your abode,
my sleep Your ecstasy.
My walk is the accomplishment of Your circumambulation,
and all my words are hymns in praise of You.
Whatever action I perform, O Siva,
is but for Your adoration.
Bhairavastava, Abhinavagupta
Introduction
Shankaracharya and Abhinavagupta stand out like two equally shining stars in the firmament of India. Recognized in their own lifetimes as full incarnations of Shiva himself, these teachers, through their writings and their traditional lineage, remain radiantly present in the hearts of many.
If their commentaries on classical texts, as well as their own treatises, impress by their inner quality, it is in the hymns that their total immersion in the ultimate reality finds its most striking reflection ; the perfume of the intimate experience freely pervades them.
These hymns can be broached in several ways. Lovers of metaphysics and philosophy may marvel at the subtlety of the non-dual approach. Admirers of classical yoga may be astonished by the conciseness and clarity of the formulation of that which is difficult to formulate: the most hidden secrets of yoga are to be found there. But only poets, seers in the ancient sense of the term, those living in non-reference, free from expectation, will have the inner freedom to let these hymns spiral upward, ever expanding, to vanish in their openness. They alone will be truly sustained by their magical flow.
For Shankaracharya, Shiva, as for Abhinavagupta, Bhairava, is no other than the Absolute itself. The Shiva of whom they speak is beyond the classical trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. He is the eternal present, the contiuum in which the three worlds appear to come and go.
You freely reveal yourself as an actor assuming your own roles : waking, dreaming, deep sleep. But in truth, you play no role.
Abhinavagupta
Nothing ever appears or disappears. Free from wordly succession, revealing itself through diverse expressions, there is only ultimate vibrating energy. To say it appears and disappears is purely metophoric.
Kshemaraja
No path, no advice, no progression, only the constant celebration of that which could not not be !
Wherever you find yourself, stay.
Go neither towards the outside nor the inside.
Let the infinite variations of becoming be cast aside
by the glowing of Consciousness alone.
Abhinavagupta
Even the concept of liberation itself proves to be as relative as the rest :
How can we speak of liberation, when there is neither bondage nor freedom. It can only be by contrast with previous states or by comparison with other subjects that one is said by the wordly-minded to be free.
Abhinavagupta
But enough said : here are the songs of reality. May they lead us to their hidden treasure, which is no other than ourselves.
Link to Eric’s books on amazon.fr
amazon Canada link to Eric’s books in French.