Pilgrims to Openness: Direct Realization Tantra in Everyday Life

In nearly 70 heart- and mind-opening teachings, Pilgrims to Openness lays bare the compelling view of Kashmir Shaivism (Trika Shaivism, direct realization Tantra) and offers the reader powerful guidance for embodying greater freedom and fulfillment in human life. Shambhavi Sarasvati is a gifted teacher who has been deeply engaged in practice and study for more than thirty-five years. With compassion, wry humor, and insight, she leads the reader to understand precisely how our everyday lives can function as spiritual practice-eating, sleeping, moving, working, and relating to other people. "We don't have to concoct, contrive or conceptualize a 'spiritual' life. The life-process is the process of awakening, and it is already underway." Pilgrims to Openness invites you to enter into a transformative conversation with wisdom, world, and Self.

Shambhavi begins by presenting a fresh view of Kashmir Shaivism that is true to this ancient tradition, but speaks powerfully to the lives of contemporary people. At the heart of Kashmir Shaivism is uncontrived naturalness: the profound relaxation of body, energy, self-concept, and mind. Such relaxation leads inevitably to a life filled with spontaneity and wonder. Pilgrims to Openness is alive with personal anecdotes and encounters. Along the way, no subject is off limits, from difficult emotions, such as loneliness, to love relationships, death, kundalini, chakras, boredom, and how to wake up in the morning and for all time. The final pages offer detailed instructions for three key practices aimed at beginners and more seasoned practitioners alike.

Pilgrims to Openness is the winner of a 2010 national IPPY award in the category of best new books about religion from independent publishers.

Author: Shambhavi Sarasvati
Publisher: Jaya Kula Press
Published: 09/28/2009
Pages: 204
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.67lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.47d
ISBN: 9780984163403


Award: Independent Publisher Book Awards - Silver Medal Winner

About the Author
Sarasvati, Shambhavi: - Shambhavi Sarasvati is the spiritual director of Jaya Kula, a vibrant nonprofit community of diverse people learning and practicing in the direct realization traditions of Trika Shaivism and Dzogchen. Find out more at jayakula.org. Shambhavi is the author of The Reality Sutras: Seeking the Heart of Trika Shaivism (2018); The Play of Awakening: Adventures in Direct Realization Tantra (2012, 2018); Nine Poisons, Nine Medicines, Nine Fruits (2017); No Retreat: poems on the way to waking up (2016), Returning: Exhortations, Advice and Encouragement from the Heart of Direct Realization Practice (2015), and Pilgrims to Opennness: Direct Realization Tantra in Everyday Life (2009). In addition, she published an academic book, Avatar Bodies: a Tantra for Posthumanism. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Mills College and a Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University.

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