1. The Concept of Spanda.^* Among the various schools that flourished in medieval KazmIr 1, the Zivaite Agama-s developed a monistic philosophic system called Trika around the end of the 8th Century A.D. One of its features was the doctrine of spanda that, as we will see, originated a school in many ways different from the other Zivaite schools.

The term spanda derives from the verb spand that means 'to throb with life', 'to vibrate'. In fact, spanda is the immovable vibration of Ziva, the vibration of the universal consciousness that is our own consciousness. The vibrating consciousness is also the reality that is the very foundation of the multiplicity and the multiformity of the world, from the lowest category 2 up to Ziva. This reality also animates and enlightens every state of our ordinary experience3.

The spandakArikA-s, together with the ZivasUtra-s the basic texts of this school, were written either by Vasugupta or more probably by his disciple KallaTa. They guide the adept to grasp this vibrating reality through the ordinary experiences of everyday life. Where can one experience spanda? The spandakArikA-s say:

"The cognition I am happy and unhappy and attached and others, these evidently are founded some place other than where the state of happiness etc. are strung together." 4

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