I mentioned a short while ago that I would talk more about the 3 malas, but before I take a look at them with you, I want to explore some foundational ground-

Consider this, rather than consciousness being inside of us, we are inside consciousness. A habit of our humanness is to be stuck inside our mind, limited - yet when we open our awareness to the vast extension of distance, nature, earth, sky, sound, movement. It is all-encompassing.

A ‘loom’ used to be called a tantra. Tantra is weaving. Weaving of the opposites, of Spirit and Matter. Unifying the infinite facets of consciousness into an unending, unbroken fabric. Tantra also means text. In the English language we have textiles. .

In this way, we are woven into consciousness, interdependent and shimmering with the same life force as the sun, moon & stars, the ocean & forests & all the life within. As the flowers & animals, our next door neighbour & our human kin across our entire plane.

How beautiful & utterly sublime.

So how do we forget this sense of totality? Why do we see another as less or more, or nature, of which we are, as separate & disposable.

Mysticism recognised the innate underlying unity.

And consciousness, of which we are made, is the potential to be aware.

Sri Yantra Carving at Ekambareswarar Temple, Kanchipuram, India.

Mechanisms of Forgetfulness

Kashmir Śaivism recognises that there are 3 layers or impurities that inhibit us from abiding in pure awareness.

Cit-śakti is the power of consciousness or awareness who’s nature is infinite.

Within this power of awareness lies icchāśakti, the power of will, to choose and align according to intention; jñāna-śakti, the power of knowledge, the capacity to know; kriyā-śakti, the power of action, the potential to do & to experience.

Let's first refer to spanda, the fundamental pulsation of consciousness. Expansion & contraction. Cit-śakti, the power of consciousness draws consciousness into condensed forms of itself to create everything that we experience manifest, from the flash of a star in outer space & the tides of the ocean on earth to the rise & fall of my breath, the beat of my heart, the firing of a nerve impulse & the waves of emotion. Equally cit-śakti unfolds these contracted forms back out into unlimited potential. It is primarily through this pulsing outwards & drawing back inwards that we experience consciousness.

I mention this to give some context of the 3 malas or impurities which are essentially contracted forms of Icchā-śakti, Jñāna-śakti & Kriyā-śakti.

Take a drop of water, believing itself to be just a drop of water, yet if it truly knew itself it would know itself as the river or the ocean. Differentiation is essentially the process through which we contract from unbound Oneness you and me. Although we forget who we are that truth still resides. As the contraction occurs it becomes so thick and dense, almost like a hard shell and the Tantric tradition describers 3 of these shells, or malas, known as impurities, so impenetrable that we get trapped by our own power or śakti! In this state we experience ourself as limited, separate, divided, lacking and incomplete.

āṇava-mala (the power of will contracted); a sense of inadequacy, incompleteness, at a deep level unworthiness, a feeling of not being loved, being small or insignificant.

māyīya-mala (the power of knowing, contracted); a sense of being separate, otherness, ‘subject-object’ duality.

kārma-mala (the power of action, contracted); Impurity of action, doership, a continuing sense of imperfection, superiority, narcissism, ‘good or bad’, a limited sense of agency.

Through sādhanā and self-reflection (vimarśa), meditation and ritual practice, we can expand our awareness. The deeper we are willing to go into self-study (svādhyāya), the more we can refine the quality of our awareness. The clearer we see. It is not about eliminating or removing these 3 malas, rather improving our capacity to recognise them and understand their role in our experience. As we gradually connect to the deeper places within we can cultivate a more withstanding remembrance of our wholeness and perception of Oneness.

Referenced from the work of:

Lakshmanjoo Academy

Christopher Tompkins

Bill Mahoney

Hareesh Wallis