In July 2026 we asked the students of our Kashmir Shaivism course a simple question: how has Kashmir Shaivism influenced your life this year? Below are the answers from students in their third and fifth years of study, in their own words. If they speak to you, you can also read the answers our students gave in 2023. The course welcomes new students again in October 2027: leave your email on the course page and we will tell you as soon as booking opens.
Year 5
Vivienne
The Mea Culpa practice taught me to be responsible for everything inside and outside of me, to be more tolerant and forgiving. It has been challenging and very helpful in what has been a very difficult year for me, with many emotionally challenging events where I felt lost and powerless. I judge less and I am more accepting. I look for the godly reality unfolding in everything and the play of a superior intelligence in people, objects and events in everyday life. My mind is not always rushing ahead anticipating danger so much.
The class notes seem to crackle with power and life: the energy seems to jump off the page and create an uplifting, excited feeling in me as I read. While taking the test I also feel uplifted, happy and complete. The happiness takes the form of a delicious fulfilment, like eating a succulent fruit and all my senses coming alive. I am contented for many days afterwards. During the test I engage with the questions romantically, as if sparring with my lover. I am curious to delve deeper into their reality. I am not at all interested in passing the test. I don't care to win at everything any more.
This year I have been increasingly accessing a more refined, a more elevated experience of reality, for example through the study of and the meditations with specific tattvas, challenging me to expand how I see the material universe and myself as part of it. What can I rely on, I ask myself? Similarly with techniques like nurturing a state of bliss, of Turya, disassociated from the objects that make up my world.
"Happiness and bliss are very much a key to expansion on the road towards spiritual perfection."
Sorin
- Kashmir Shaivism assists to change perspective on how we perceive the world through the senses. It is amazing how through the senses we get access to pure joy and bliss of the soul. It is awakening. I also noticed that I start to pay attention.
- It brings more awareness and understanding.
- Learning for the exam awakens the consciousness.
Jeno
- In Kashmir Shaivism classes there is a continuous reminder to come back to the heart and maintain awareness of my soul.
- It offers me more choices in life by increasing my ability to be a detached witness and consciously choosing how to engage with life.
- Focusing on humbleness, and noticing how the experiences that I have, when coupled with humbleness, reach a higher octave.
- Kashmir Shaivism enriches my life with a sense of belonging to a spiritual family, a feeling that we are on this journey together, where whenever one of us wins we all win.
Amrit
- Delving deeper into the tattvas and incorporating them in our life, we notice our awareness heightened.
- As we go through the tattvas it's an ascending journey, helping us get closer and closer to the Self, facilitating us to look deeper and deeper inside of us.
Ann-Marie
All of the Kashmir Shaivism teachings are not readily available in this western world. Even throughout the internet it's hard to get this quality of teachings, and to experience together the exemplifications and open our souls. I thoroughly enjoy this togetherness: that I am not on my own in my quest for expansion and awareness.
The teachings expand my knowledge and awareness of concepts that were not previously understood by me. I have particularly enjoyed the Nitya series and the examples and explication of transfiguration, such that I may be able to personify some of these cosmic super powers.
Generally I have more calm and peace, through breath and meditation practices. Less attachment to my thoughts and worries and anxiety, particularly as I can watch the components of my mind and the mechanisms of how I react. It allows me to now respond with more clarity and wisdom. Closer to God within me, and so I can see God within others.
Thank you teachers, and students also, for the examples of heart wisdom and with it the levels of intimacy. To share deep details of thoughts and feelings doesn't seem to be readily available and accessible in British culture. To give this time to quality exploration, and to know myself and my fellow students' hearts more deeply.
Year 3
Andrei
What touched me in this year's Kashmir Shaivism teachings is the exemplifications with the Nityas. They have been really deep and intense spiritual experiences.
Also, the tapas with the bija mantra for Apas tattva, especially when I practised by a large body of water. Then I started to understand how vast, intricate and essential this element is. During the Tejas tattva tapas I learned how this element can easily penetrate almost anything. At that time the weather got really hot.
Enico
Thank you for this year's classes, they were very rich in meaningful teachings. The meditation with the Svayambhu lingam helped to amplify the fire in my being, and the initiation with Nitya 4 helped me to protect against evil and negative forces. I liked the lessons about the tattvas, especially the one with the subtle fire: there was a synchronicity between my inner fire tapas and the Surya Bheda Kumbhaka tapas for amplifying solarity.
Jason
- The teaching on the universal lingams has helped me understand and directly connect to the universal consciousness in my central core, bringing me confidence in my meditation practice.
- I've long known I am a watery person (I love the sea, kayaking, baths, spas, walking by rivers, and easily delight in Svadhisthana pleasures). But the course has helped me appreciate why I am drawn to it, the universal significance of water, and how the subtle water, Apas tattva, can be used in other areas of my life. Kashmir Shaivism is helping me see connections between the personal and the universal, and how apparently separate functions are actually connected.
Trisha & Lucia
- Connecting and working with the Swayambhu lingam and mandala really helped us resonate with Shiva and his qualities of spiritual courage, sovereignty and freedom, not being swayed by externals, and also helped us to take the steps necessary to move more towards God. It also helped us feel kundalini more, like an energetic stirring in Muladhara, actually moving.
- Connecting with the tattva elements in everyday life, like grounding with Prithvi and taking more long walks in nature, touching a tree, feeling more balanced and grounded and getting strength. We noticed lots of synchronicities. We became aware of what we need to do to transform.
- Techniques related to the body and the objective world: listening to the end of a sound of a Tibetan bowl, a sitar, a drum or a song and getting fully immersed in it with heart and presence, feeling like your body is dripping with Shiva's ananda, always gives a huge energy boost. Ucchara, the awakening-heart breathing meditation, and contemplating your body as an outline with the void inside and outside of it, to feel a unification between the microcosm and the macrocosm, and the oneness. Observing the breath, and the reminders to do that.
Nathalie
"This year's classes have been signified by an overall sense of wonder, amazement and gratitude."
Starting with the extensive lessons focusing on the body as a vessel for reaching the spiritual heart: they have shown me that there was a need for more listening and adoration for it, as the body contains everything. This has been put into practice through various means of adoration and joy explored through it.
When there were the classes on the lingams, I was mostly sitting in amazement at their three means of appearing and their unique hidden treasures. It particularly struck me that their activation is essential for achieving any meaningful spiritual growth. Imagine that! Practising with the visual representation also brought me some delightful insights. I have also connected with them intentionally when focusing on their individual most closely related chakra, therefore enriching other practices.
Lastly, coming to the tattvas. When receiving each tattva, I immediately started working with it through music. I have found that outdoor practices work the best, and it's clear that these practices are highly supported by other beings as well. When doing everyday tasks or activities, there is more awareness of how they are a part of everything. The effects of working with them are visible on many levels, including on the physical body, which is quite astonishing to notice and very motivating.
