#spanda

The World Isn’t an Illusion — It’s a Mirror of Your Depth

The Story:

Abhinavagupta never asked us to reject the world — he asked us to recognize it. For him, illusion (Maya) wasn’t a cosmic prank; it was the Divine’s way of showing you your own reflection in motion. Every experience, from heartbreak to laughter, is not a distraction from God — it is God, disguised as your perception.

When you touch a flower, the softness isn’t out there. It awakens a softness within you. When you hear thunder, it echoes something ancient — the pulse of awareness vibrating inside your consciousness. The world does not exist apart from you; it exists as you.

The tragedy of modern spirituality is that we’ve mistaken transcendence for escape. But Abhinavagupta’s Kashmir Shaivism whispered otherwise — liberation is not leaving the world, it’s seeing through it. Not running away from forms, but seeing the formless in every form.

The Diagnosis: What’s Stolen

Our culture has made “awakening” look sterile — as if silence, withdrawal, or detachment are higher than emotion, engagement, or desire. We’ve been taught to mistrust life, to fear the world as a web of illusion. But what if illusion isn’t a trap — what if it’s a mirror? When we hate what we see outside, we’re simply resisting what’s unresolved within. When we find beauty, we’re witnessing our own depth reflected back.

The world doesn’t hide truth — it reveals it, through contrast. Your external life is your internal curriculum. Every conflict, every coincidence, every encounter, is your soul’s own choreography for self-recognition.

The Anatomy & Science

From the lens of Trika philosophy, the universe isn’t separate from consciousness — it’s consciousness made visible. Every object, thought, and sensation is a vibration (spanda) of the same luminous awareness (prakasha). In modern terms, you could say reality is not projected but participated in. Neuroscience, too, hints at this. The brain doesn’t see the world as it is — it reconstructs it from within, coloring it with memory, emotion, and expectation.

Abhinavagupta saw this a millennium ago: the seer, the seen, and the seeing are one. So when you call the world cruel or kind, you’re simply naming the mirror. The world you experience is not objective — it’s the texture of your consciousness shaped into form.

The Practical Toolkit for Modern Seekers

1. Notice: Mirror Moments

Whenever you react strongly — pause. Ask: What is this showing me about myself? A rude comment might mirror your unhealed need for validation. A kind gesture might reveal your own hidden gentleness. Every reflection invites integration, not judgment.

2. Speak: Reframe the Illusion

Change your language from “this shouldn’t happen to me” to “this is happening for me to see myself more clearly.” Speak to the world as if it were your teacher. Whisper gratitude even to the difficult reflections. That’s how illusion becomes illumination.

3. Rite: The Mirror Meditation

Each night, sit before a mirror. Gaze softly at your reflection — not the face, but the awareness behind it. Say aloud:

“The world I see is my consciousness in play. I bless what I see, for it reveals who I am becoming.”

This simple rite dissolves separation. It reminds you that you are not observing life — you are life, observing itself.

The Closing Thought

Spanda, Consciousness, and the Binary Pulse of Creation

At the foundation of all things, there is not matter, not energy, not even information as we conceive it, but pure awareness — a luminous, formless presence that precedes form, logic, space, and time. This ground of being — call it Parabhairava, the Absolute, or simply Consciousness — is not merely the backdrop to existence; it is existence in its most essential mode. It is not a god outside the world, nor a force among others, but the very field in which all distinctions arise, and the intelligence that gives rise to them.

Within this infinite, unified field lies the potential for everything. Not “everything” in the sense of accumulated things, but the totality of possibility itself: form and formlessness, thought and sensation, logic and chaos. And it is from this potential that a primordial movement emerges — a vibration not in space, but of awareness itself. This movement is Spanda, the subtle throb of Consciousness, the first gesture of becoming.

Spanda is not the motion of particles nor the dance of molecules; it is more fundamental than either. It is the first differentiation, the tension within unity, the primal pulsation of the real. It is not dualistic — not a split — but duality in superposition, the living paradox of 0 and 1 not as opposites, but as a unified field of emergence and return. Spanda gives rise to unmeṣa and nimeṣa, the cosmic pulsation of opening and closing, expansion and contraction, emanation and reabsorption. These are not symbolic acts — they are the very engine of time, experience, and form.

In this light, I’ve come to see that information and energy are not two separate principles, nor are they even sequential. Rather, they are different expressions of the same vibratory act. Information is the latent potential, the form before form, the archetype not yet stirred. It is pure possibility encoded in the silent stillness of awareness. Energy is the actualization of that information, the kinetic movement of awareness into form, into pattern, into structure. The act of movement from 0 to 1 — or vice versa — is not a metaphor; it is the basic motion of existence.

This is where the binary logic of digital physics, the oscillations of string theory, and the metaphysics of Tantra begin to converge. The 0/1 superposition is not just a tool for computation — it is a cosmic principle. It mirrors the pulse of unmeṣa and nimeṣa, the alternation of Shiva and Shakti, concealment and revelation. Each pulse of this binary wave is a quanta of contraction and expansion, a ripple in the self-reflective ocean of consciousness. From this ripple arises all structure: frequency, dimension, identity, particle, perception.

If information is potential energy, then vibration is the movement that makes it real. In Spanda, we have the living waveform that embodies both the intelligence of form and the force of becoming. The binary pulse does not merely contain meaning — it is meaning, in motion. Each oscillation of consciousness between stillness and expression is the origin of a universe.

This is not just speculative philosophy. It has deep echoes in every serious system of metaphysics I have studied. In Tantra, it is Śiva/Śakti. In Advaita, it is Nirguna/Saguna Brahman. In Kabbalah, it is the Ein Sof contracting and emanating through the Sefirot. In Pythagoreanism, it is the tension between the Monad and the Dyad. Even in modern physics, we glimpse this pattern: quantum fields vibrating to create particles; qubits holding potential until measured; energy and information interwoven at the most fundamental level.

Some — like Mike Hockney and the Illuminist school — argue that information is the true substrate of reality. In many ways, I agree with them. Information is the structure of possibility, and it gives rise to all form and experience. But I diverge from them in one crucial point: information cannot exist independently of awareness. The informational universe they describe cannot compute itself without an underlying field of consciousness in which those operations are rendered intelligible. Information is not self-existent code; it is meaning as held within an aware field. It is the dream of consciousness, vibrating within itself.

So I return again to the notion that consciousness is primary — not as a product of matter or logic, but as the ground from which both energy and information arise. Energy and information are not opposites, nor even sequential phenomena; they are two aspects of a single vibratory principle. And that vibration is not physical — it is ontological, the pulse of being itself becoming aware of its own potential.

When we speak of creation, of the Big Bang, of the emergence of time and form — we are speaking of Spanda. When we breathe, when we think, when we feel desire or withdraw into silence — we are enacting Spanda. This pulse lives in us, because we are that pulse. Our awareness is not a product of the universe — it is a microcosmic expression of the same universal throbbing that gives rise to galaxies and gravity.

The oscillation between 0 and 1 is not just the basis of digital reality, but the metaphysical principle of differentiation. It is the living binary, the cosmic pulse that eternally alternates between go and stop, yes and no, self and other, all while remaining rooted in the nondual source that is untouched, unchanging, and utterly aware.

To contemplate Spanda is to stand at the threshold of creation, to feel the very breath of God before God becomes “God.” It is to perceive the code behind the code, the dance behind all form, and to recognize that this pulse is not separate from ourselves, but is our innermost essence.

One Piece — "...I want to live!!"

When this celestial symphony unfolds within the body, it branches into five major winds, or pattern-unfolding forces residing within every single cell.

The primordial essence, born from the first throb, brings forth all the myriad forces of nature in which the universe finds its breath and vitality.

Mauna

Day 10: Most Disliked Character and Why

And now for something completely different. The last nine days have been nothing but talk about all the things I absolutely love in One Piece. From my favourite characters and favourite arcs to my favourite islands, which was really fun to explore. For today's challenge, though, we got to talk about one of those characters who are not part of the hype. Surely, with all those amazing characters in an anime as wild and colourful as One Piece, there is bound to be a character that stands out as one of the most annoying, dislikeable character around.

Now, most characters in the series are well-written, and some of these are supposed to be annoying and completely dislikeable, to the point that if they weren't, they would be doing it wrong.

I think that today's character is one of those cases. Among today's nominated are characters such as Trebol, St. Charlos the Celestial Dragon, Spandam, Foxy and Vergo. All five of them are really good candidates that fall into that category, although for different reasons. But one of the most despicable characters of these is Spandam.

The idiotic and cowardly former 'leader' of CP9, now working under CP0, who captured Nico Robin in Water 7 and brought her to Enies Lobby for her 'judgment' is one of those characters you just can't help but despise . Caring only for his own life and promotion, he is the kind of character who believes the ends justifies the means to get what he wants. He seems to have no qualms whatsoever with lying, manipulating backstabbing, exploitation to make things go his way, all the while believing in the idea of absolute justice, conveyed by Admiral Sakazuki, aka Akainu. The main difference between Spandam and the latter is that Spandam hides behind the stronger powers such as Lucci, behaving like he is the high and mighty leader, while Akainu himself is a powerful, capable reliable force, although extreme and dogmatic.

Another despicable aspect of Spandam's disagreeable character is his sadistic nature when he is in control. From his role in Franky's backstory, where he framed him, Iceburg and their master shipwright Tom for an attack on Water 7 and sent Tom to his death to his vicious abuse of a defenceless Nico Robin during the Enies Lobby arc and planning to exploit her and Franky in order attain the Pluton, Spandam is easily one of the most despicable villains in One Piece. 

Which character from One Piece do you dlike the most? What do hate the most about Spandam? Please feel free to join the discussion and add your thoughts and comments, likes and feedback 

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