This book offers the first published translation of the contemplative manual Virūpāksapañcāśikā written circa the twelfth century CE, and the commentary on it, Vivrti by Vidyācakravartin. These late works from the Pratyabhijna tradition of monistic and tantric Kashmiri Śaiva philosophy focus on means to deindividualize and disclose the primordial, divine essential natures of the human ego and body-sense.

David Peter Lawrence situates these writings in their medieval, South Asian religious and intellectual contexts. He goes on to engage Pratyabhijna philosophical psychology in dialogue with Western religious and psychoanalytic conceptions of identity and “narcissism,” and also demonstrates the Śaiva tradition’s strong concern with ethics. The richly annotated translation and glossary illuminate the texts for all readers.

“I think this is a marvelous book, filled with original insights into the mystical dimensions of the divine-human subject and the cosmicization of the human body. I know of no other book about South Asian philosophy or comparative theology that so deftly addresses the themes of subjectivity and embodiment and is able to relate them to contemporary debates in the fields of religious studies, psychology, and philosophy. There are few real comparativists working today. David Lawrence is certainly one of them, and he is one of the most gifted.” — Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion

David Peter Lawrence is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Dakota. He is the author of Rediscovering God with Transcendental Argument: A Contemporary Interpretation of Monistic Kashmiri Śaiva Philosophy, also published by SUNY Press.