#youareshiva

You Are Not Seeking God — You Are Remembering Being One

A Tantric Awakening Through Abhinavagupta's Eyes

There is a lie buried deep in modern spirituality. A soft, poetic lie that says: “You must seek God.” Climb higher. Go deeper. Meditate longer. Transcend faster.

But Abhinavagupta, the mystic master of Kashmir Shaivism, dismantles this narrative with one thunderous whisper:

“You’re not seeking God. You’re remembering being one.”

There is no distance between you and the divine. No sacred peak to conquer. No spiritual badge to earn. There is only amnesia. And there is only recognition.

🔱 The Recognition Philosophy: Pratyabhijñā

In Pratyabhijñā, the core philosophy of Abhinavagupta’s lineage, the divine isn’t something out there, separate, or superior. It’s the very awareness reading these words right now.

You are not a seeker. You are Shiva forgetting and remembering Himself, again and again.

Unlike other paths that treat the world as illusion and the ego as a prison, **Kashmir Shaivism treats everything—**even your ego, your confusion, your yearning—as sacred expressions of one divine Consciousness.

This is not pantheism. This is non-dual tantra:

"Everything is God, including your forgetting of God."

🌌 The Divine Amnesia

Abhinavagupta says that the divine chose to forget itself—to taste reunion, wonder, and the ecstasy of rediscovery.

You are not broken. You are not impure. You are not separate.

You are simply playing a cosmic game of hide-and-seek—and every emotion, every failure, every longing is Shiva knocking on your own door saying:

“Remember me. I’m not far. I’m inside you…as you.”

💡 The Flip: Stop Seeking. Start Recognizing.

Most spiritual paths have taught us to become something. Abhinavagupta reminds us to un-become the false idea that we are lost, lacking, or lesser.

His invitation isn’t to transcend this life, but to see through it—to look at your own experience and say:

“This, too, is God in costume.”

When you’re in pain—God is crying through you. When you’re laughing—God is remembering. When you’re yearning—God is calling God home.

🔄 Your Identity Is the Illusion, Not Divinity

You think you are a name, a body, a story. But these are clothes you’ve worn in this lifetime. The one wearing the story, the one behind the breath, the witness behind the dream— That is the unchanging Shiva-consciousness.

You were never disconnected from the divine. You were simply trained to forget.

Abhinavagupta doesn’t want to make you spiritual. He wants to unmask the divine that’s always been you.

🧘‍♀️ PRACTICAL TOOLKIT: Daily Reminders of Your Divinity

Here’s a simple but powerful Abhinavagupta-inspired toolkit for remembering—not seeking—your inherent divinity.

1. 🌄 The Morning Remembering

As soon as you wake, before you become your identity, place your hand on your heart and whisper:

“I am not the seeker. I am the sought.” Feel the stillness. That’s Shiva waking up as you.

2. 🔥 Divine Mirror Ritual

Each time you look in a mirror today, gaze into your eyes and say mentally:

“This is God peeking through form.” Not egoic. Not delusional. Just recognition.

3. 🌿 Reverence in the Mundane

Choose a daily task—washing dishes, walking, eating. Do it slowly, attentively, with the awareness:

“God is experiencing this through me.” Let this awareness turn action into devotion.

4. 🌘 The Night of Reunion

Before sleep, close your eyes and ask:

“Where today did I forget I was divine? Where did I remember?” Smile at both. Wonder is built on forgetting and rediscovering.

5. 📜 Weekly Tantric Journal

Each week, write down a moment when you felt most “alive” or most “lost.” Then reflect:

“What if both were Shiva in different moods?” Turn your life into scripture written by awareness itself.

🌺 Final Reflection: You Are Already What You Seek

You don’t need to climb mountains to find God. You need to sit in your chair and remember that you are the mountain, the climber, and the sky.

Abhinavagupta’s gift isn’t a technique. It’s a reorientation.

You’re not becoming holy. You’re remembering you were never anything else.

In a world obsessed with seeking, he offers a quiet revolution:

“You are not lost. You are simply dreaming separation.” Wake up—not into something new, but into something eternally familiar.