and through the relation between any two human beings.
Any such relation is in turn a ‘bi-personal awareness field’
which offers a portal to Other Worlds. Hence the famous
saying of Christ – “where two or more are gathered...” In
the specific Advaitic tradition known as Kashmir Shaivism,
the Divine as such is understood as a dynamic relation
between pure awareness on the one hand (Shiva) and its
pure power of manifestation and embodiment in lived
experience (Shakti). In contrast to the simple linear
succession of life stages or ‘Ashrama’ of orthodox Vedic
Hinduism – from student to householder or ‘family man’,
and thence to community elder and renunciant hermit – the
Trika or ‘triadic’ school of Kashmir Tantrism embraces the
‘Kaula’ principle of the soul family or ‘Kula’. The Kula is
itself triadic in principle – for it unites a threefold set of
relations – the individual in his or her singular relation to
the Divine, the Divine itself as a singular relation expressed
in the relational unit or couple (Yamala), and the wheel
(Chakra) of couples that make up the soul group or ‘Kula’
as such. Hence the words of Acharya Abhinavagupta:
“The essence of the tantras, present in the right and left
traditions, which has been unified in Kaula, lies in Trika.”