pessimystic

I hope I might be excused if I move away from the "practical" and stay with Kashmir Shaivism, in order to post more resources for those that are interested: http://www.ishwarashramtrust.com/mal.php Here are all issues of Malini journal, published with blessings of Swamiji.

About 20% into his book on Tarot and I'm very impressed but I am yet to practice any of this information.

http://www.sutrajournal.com/a-thousand-years-of-abhinavagupta-by-jeffrey-lidke Also check out more stuff from Sutra Journal, they aren't exclusively about Shaivism (not even exclusively about Tantra) but there are some gems there, like this one article here which concisely presents the life and subsequent ascension of Abhinavagupta who was an incarnation of Bhairava. Another really valuable article from Wallis: http://www.tantrikstudies.org/blog/2016/2/5/the-real-story-on-the-chakras Speaking of which - if anyone would be interested in Kundalini and chakras in Kashmir Shaivism tradition then the best book on the matter is "Kundalini: Energy Of The Depths" by Lilian Silburn. Also, "Born of the Yogini's Heart" by Paul Muller-Ortega is worth reading, it's somewhere on the web. It's a short article but very illuminating regarding the "cavern of the heart" metaphor in Shaivism. But well, it's not really practical per se, nevertheless it does contribute to understanding of the system. @Nothingness I think that the best entry-level book would be Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme or, mentioned before, Aspects of Kashmir Shaivism. Paramarthasara of Abhinavagupta is also very valuable as it juxtaposed Trika's theory of liberation (and particularly that of jivanmukti - embodied liberation) on earlier, Advaitic notions, with it being actually a very innovative commentary and modification of earlier Paramarthasara of Adi Sesa. The reading list on Dyczkowski's site is spot on, it's also categorized into sections - beginner, advanced etc.

Here is a lecture given by Mark Dyczkowski, it's mostly about chanting Om, but it touches on many subjects, such as Vijnanabhairava tantra and Kashmir Shaivism generally, although the content given here (except for verses from Vijnanabhairava and Spandakarikas from his book) is mostly Upanishadic, still a great deal of knowledge, most of which is hard to obtain even for gods in many kalpas... I mean, hard to find anywhere else on the web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ftGeQkvlwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OmBhlWrrGc Of course when it comes to practical side of Shaivism then Vijnanabhairava is a no-brainer. Just be careful to pick Swami Lakshmanjoo or Jaideva Singh edition (or both) and not Osho or Lorin Roche edition as they are not real Vijnanabhairava. Some links that you might also find helpful: http://tantrikstudies.squarespace.com/blogpage/ a homepage of Christopher Wallis, he seems a bit "New Agey" to me, but in his book and blog posts he also presents many practical sides of Shaivism and he certainly knows the tradition well https://www.sanskrit-trikashaivism.com/en/english-home/100 some Argentinian guy who claims to have had a spontaneous initiation, I can't assess validity of many things on this site though http://www.anuttaratrikakula.org homepage of aforementioned Mark Dyczkowski, whom I don't need to introduce I think, he has lots of courses and some free info too, really priceless IMO, his reading list is also great, working my way through titles that I've missed (Aspects of Kashmir Shaivism is a gem really) http://www.shivashakti.com everyone knows this site I think but gonna post it regardless, Mike's translations and articles are mostly centered around Shaktism (particularly Kalikula and Śri Vidya), nevertheless he has a great deal of information there, some very hard to obtain and his abstacts and translations are really neat, he has a section on Shaivism too https://oxford.academia.edu/AlexisSanderson another scholar of great importance, he used to have his website with various texts, translations and papers but here is most of what was there anyway, if not more, you can find real gems on academia.edu, for example "The Yoga of the Malinivijayottaratantra" by Somadeva Vasudeva https://kyoto-u.academia.edu/SomadevaVasudeva https://univ-lille3.academia.edu/JuditTorzsok https://saivatantra.com https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGKDWoW7Jtkt5Ph7YvKAFWQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIRReDGc_-Ubi0IxIEUx51A https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKYC_hMs3JRWaM_dfi_BnxA You can also of course just study Tantraloka in it's entirety and get to know Tantra from Abhinavagupta Himself. Anyway - I'm most curious about the self-initiation into Trika described by Ahinavagupta in his 4th chapter of Tantraloka, does anyone have any information on Raktadevi and Her mantra? But yeah, when it comes to practical Shaivism then Vijnanabhairava tantra and Dyczkowski and Joo materials are the way to go I think. I'd really like to invite everyone to discussion of Kashmir Shaivism as it is a system that is very close to my heart.

I wonder whether anyone can recommend some books on the Bon tradition? It seems really interesting. I tried doing my own research, but the information is scarce it seems.

What exactly is so Tantric about it? I'm not meaning to be rude and pick on the details, but I've read many tantras and consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to Hindu Tantra and AFAIK the only difference between Tantric concept of Maya and, say, Advaitic version is that Tantra doesn't consider Maya as "an illusion", it is as real as anything else is and has it's place in the 36 tattwa system of Kashmir Shaivism. Moreover, the distinction into Vamachara and Dakshinachara is based solely on whether the particular sect embraced the rites of 5 Ms, so it's not really a LHP perspective either IMHO. Maybe you are thinking more along the lines of Shankara-influenced Shaktism? Cheers!

Hello, As per request I am making an introduction post. I'm an occult practitioner who has been interested in various occult currents, and whose path is leaning towards Taoist cultivation as of late. I'm really impressed by the quantity and quality of the information presented on this forum. Cheers!