God is the Canvas. You Are the Brush. Awareness is the Stroke
God is the Canvas. You Are the Brush. Awareness is the Stroke Abhinavagupta, the towering mystic of Kashmir Shaivism, refused to see spirituality as an escape from life. For him, the sacred was not hidden in remote caves or cloistered monasteries — it pulsed through every heartbeat, shimmered in every glance, and whispered behind each thought. Reality, he wrote, is a living canvas: infinite, vibrant, waiting to be touched by the artist that is you. When most people speak of God, they imagine an object somewhere “out there.” Abhinavagupta turned the gaze inward. God is not a statue or a thunderous force separated from us; God is the vastness in which every perception arises. Awareness is not merely a witness — it is the painter’s own vitality. Every act of seeing, feeling, or creating is a stroke upon an ever-expanding mural of consciousness. To grasp this vision, we must loosen our grip on the idea that awakening is about banishing the world. Abhinavagupta invites us to partic...
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