- Lived:
- c. 950–c. 1016 CE · Srinagar, in the valley of Kashmir
- Tradition:
- Kashmir Shaivism — non-dual tantric philosophy — plus Indian aesthetics, where he is the authority
- The Big Idea:
- Reality is one infinite consciousness — Śiva — and it is not asleep but pulsing, playing, expressing itself as the world; liberation is not achieving something new but recognizing what you already are, and great art works because it gives you a rehearsal of exactly that recognition.
- In their words:
- "There is nothing here to attain, and nothing to leave behind. One thing alone is real: the fullness of your own awareness, resting in itself." (a plain rendering from his short hymn the Anuttarāṣṭikā)
- If you remember one thing:
- The tantric polymath of Kashmir argued that the same pulse beats in a saint's enlightenment and in the hushed climax of a great play — consciousness recognizing itself.