WHAT IS HINDUISM?
The Divine is a Universal Consciousness that has the
character of an infinite field –- not of ‘energy’, but of pure
awareness. This is awareness inseparable and yet absolutely
distinct from any content of consciousness – any thing we
are conscious or aware of. Since it transcends every element
of our conscious experience – every thing we can possibly
be conscious or aware of – this pure awareness can also free
us from attachment to all the things and activities that our
everyday consciousness ordinarily binds us to.
Instead, things and all beings are individualised
portions of this Universal Consciousness that is God, an
infinite field of pure awareness that embraces and
“enowns” them all. To experience this Universal
Consciousness or pure awareness therefore, is to experience
‘God’ – the Divine. Yet this is no impersonal experience,
impersonal consciousness or impersonal ‘God’. How could
it be, since it is the very source of our own personhood,
individual consciousness – and that of all beings and all
things?
In the Hindu Tantric tradition known as Kashmir
Shaivism or ‘Shiva-ism’, God is not seen as a person like
Christ or Krishna, nor as three persons or three persons in
one. Yet neither is God an impersonal abstraction – but
rather that Divine Universal Awareness which knowingly
personifies itself in all persons. The word ‘person’ refers to a
‘face’ or ‘mask’ (persona). The image or Murti of the Hindu