A closer look
The chair you are sitting on isn't solid matter; it is just a highly concentrated, frozen snapshot of divine ecstatic shivering. In the brilliant 10th-century framework of Kashmir Shaivism, the philosopher Abhinavagupta elaborated on the doctrine of 'Spanda' (vibration). Unlike other Eastern philosophies that view the physical world as a pure illusion to be escaped, Spanda posits that absolutely everything is real because it is the dynamic, pulsating throb of Lord Shiva's supreme consciousness. Enlightenment is achieved by catching the micro-vibrations in the gap between your thoughts and riding them back to the source.
