Kashmir Shaivite and Lurianic Parallels
The Lurianic polarities of Will to Give and Will to Receive and/or Hesed
and Gevurah, correspond both to the Chinese Yang and Yin and also to the
Tantric Shiva
and Shakti. This is not surprising, in view of the fact that
many cosmologies begin with an undifferentiated unity that is then polarised
into opposites (heaven & earth,etc) which then combine to make (or
give birth to) all things. Many creation myths have the separation
of heaven and earth as a catastrophic sort of affair - there
are obvious parallelshere with the Kabbalistic idea of the exile of
Shekinah (Malkhut) from "God" (Tifaret/Ze'er Anpin). At one time
I was studying deeply Lurianic symbolism and Kashmir
Shaivism, and I was astonished by the many parallels in even minute
detail regarding the parallel between shakti/vimarsha as the principle
of contraction (which ultimately becomes prakriti - mind & matter)
& Din/Severity which likewise generates the initial contraction and
isolation within the
Godhead (the "Fall" so to speak) that is necessary for Creation to
come about. Likewise, the indifferentiated Tantric Prakasha/Shiva
principle, whose essence is Light and non-dual consciousness, can be plausably
compared with the Will to Give (Mercy/Hesed) as the original Light of the
En Sof.
Lurianic Kabbalah
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page uploaded 21 November 1998