Sthaneshwar Timalsina: The world is your body
What if the world is not illusion but illumination? Not a distraction from awakening but its delight?
If consciousness is inherently dynamic then every colour, sight and sound radiate its freedom. Testifies to its creativity. Exclaims its intelligence and power.
Right now you can look up and bear witness to the unfathomable complexity, its kaleidoscopic design.
Every emotion and object, every success and sorrow, every blade of grass and breath that comes, and comes to pass.
In the nonduality of Kashmir Shaivism, even the ignorance of our own divinity is an expression of unlimited freedom. The freedom to forget who you are, and remember all over again.
Reality, then, calls for investigation and participation. Consideration and celebration.
So instead of freedom from suffering, the emphasis is on the freedom to fully engage with life.
Instead of becoming monks, many sages were devoted to beauty and nature, poetry and music, theatre and thought.
The tradition flowered in North India for hundreds of years until disrupted by invasions and forced conversions. But it continued to thrive in Nepal in a living lineage embodied in Sthaneshwar Timalsina.
Authorised as a Śaivācārya within the Nepali Sarvāmnāya tradition, Sthaneshwar is also Professor and Endowed Chair at Stony Brook University and founder of the global teaching platform Vimarsha.
He's joining Bernardo Kastrup to compare perspectives on three central questions
- Is reality self-aware?
- Does reality have purpose?
- What does this mean for our lives?
Pre-conversation
In a preliminary conversation with Prof Kudesia, I heard some background to Kashmir Shaivism, its history and potential future. How it differs in emphasis from the unchanging being of Advaita Vedanta and the impermanent becoming of Buddhism.
I was initially inspired by how so many traditions arrive at the same non-dual conclusion.
Now I’m inspired by their variety and their many perspectives on a reality that illuminate the one. You can hear the whole thing here:
And finally, here is a link to Bernardo's last conversation with Sthaneshwar, one of our most popular:
Amir Giles
I look forward to seeing you Tuesday!
Amir
Zoom room
14th July 2026 | 6-8pm UK time / 7-9pm CET / 1-3pm EST
