Table of Contents

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Invocation
Dedication and Benediction
Acknowledgements and author bio
Preface
- How to read this book
Note from the illustrator
List of illustrations
Key to Symbols
Foreword: for scholars

INTRODUCTION

An Orientation to Tantra
Why study the history of tantra?
What’s in a name? – The meaning of the word ”Tantra”
- The tradition’s own definition
- Western definitions
- Implications
Questions and answers

PART ONE: The Philosophy of Nondual Saiva Tantra

What you’re getting yourself into
The definition of nondual Shaiva Tantra
Orientation to the View
Unpacking of the View
Thoughts to live by
- The basic philosophical framework
The categories of Tantrik thought
The innate structure of reality
- The Trika/Krama synthesis of Abhinava Gupta

PART TWO: A History of Saiva Tantra

Early history: framing the tradition in time and space
Early Shaiva Tantra: two streams
The structure of the Shaiva canon
“Kashmir Shaivism”: the refinement of the tradition
Abhinava Gupta: polymath, scholar, aesthete, poet, and siddha
The Kaula Lineage
Post-classical Tantra and the advent of hatha-yoga
Modern Yoga

PART THREE: An Introduction to the Practice of Saiva Tantra

The context of practice: saktipāta and dīksā
The role of the guru
Practice in the Divine Means (shāmbhava-upāya)
Practice in the Empowered Means (shākta-upāya)
Practice in the Individual Means (ānava-upāya)
Theory of ritual in nondual Shaiva Tantra
The structure of Tantrik ritual

CONCLUSION

Undertaking a Tantrik sādhanā in the modern world
Modern survivals of Saiva Tantra
Final Blessing

Guide to Sanskrit pronunciation
Appendix 1
- Invocation verses of Abhinava Gupta’s Light on the Tantras
Appendix 2
- The structure of Krama worship
Appendix 3
- Reference list of names of Tantrik schools, scriptures and gurus

Bibliography
Index