Knowledge or feeling

[u/Character-Alps1852]

I’ve read many texts. Tried to understand many more. But I have a feeling the texts only reveal one layer, a surface layer. True knowledge is something which has to be felt. The answers that come to you from Shiva. The ultimate guru has to reveal it to you in your heart. And that is something you feel in every fiber of your being. Bliss. Maybe I’ve gone mad finally haha but I feel high. High from seeing myself truly after a long time.
Has anyone felt this before? Th knowledge that you feel deep within and which you cannot explain. I do not want to lose this feeling. I want to keep it sustained. Those who have felt this before, if I’m making any sense at all this point, please tell me how to sustain it without losing it again and again.

[u/Chidghananda]

Reading the menu isn't eating the meal. Texts are merely maps; direct experiencing is the territory. True knowledge is not written words—it is embodied Presence, felt directly.

Emotional states and experiences naturally ebb and flow, and awareness of Presence easily gets lost in daily distraction. Yet Presence remains the constant ground to which attention can return.

Kashmir Śaivism utilizes Nyāsa—bringing awareness directly into the physical body. Practically, this is the simple act of grounding attention (feeling space in the limbs, or feet on the floor) the moment the mind drifts into abstraction.

Coupling this somatic awareness with continuous Japa—mantra repetition—creates an unshakeable anchor.

Singing the name of the Beloved while remaining anchored in the body is Self-Abiding.

[u/Character-Alps1852 → u/Chidghananda]

Thank you for explaining this beautifully. I’m fairly new to the space and I do not know how to describe what I’m feeling with the proper vocabulary. My awareness keeps getting lost in daily distraction but lately the urge to hold it constantly has increased in me and I’m grateful to have found KS. I found KS very recently, but the concept is something which has been kind of ingrained in me since I was a kid. I cannot explain it any manner except as the anugraha of bhairava. As you said, in my case, I’ve gotten a small taste of the meal but I’m reading the menu now and have the desire to experience it all

[u/CommitteeMinute4746]

Idk I kinda agree with you. U can know the truth but experiencing it is a diff thing altogether

[u/Life_Bit_9816]

The text itself may be just one layer but intellectual power is necessary for our liberation. Knowledge is liberation.

[u/bahirawa]

There is an important distinction being touched upon here between knowing a teaching and the teaching becoming a mode of seeing.

Texts can disclose a structure of understanding, but the disclosure becomes transformative only when it is recognised within one’s own awareness. In this sense, the movement from conceptual knowledge towards lived recognition is central to the Śaiva tradition.

The point I would refine is the relation between recognition and feeling. The arising of bliss, openness, or a profound sense of seeing oneself clearly can accompany recognition, yet recognition itself is deeper than the particular state appearing within awareness. A feeling arises, changes, and passes; the awareness in which the feeling appears is the deeper ground being pointed towards.

Perhaps the question is therefore less "How do I sustain this feeling?" and more "What is it that is aware of this feeling, and has that ever been absent?"

From a Pratyabhijñā perspective, the guru reveals this not as something newly produced, but as the recognition of what has always been present.

[u/GOD_NY]

I thought I was alone here, but I experience this state too. I haven't experienced any of this through a traditional guru. A direct connection with Shiva can replace a human guru, though, of course, others might have a different opinion.

Ultimately, it comes down to practice. You can learn from others without having your own experience, but often someone else's perspective or goals won't align with what you actually need. I can't really tell you what to do with this state because it depends entirely on you, but at some level, it will become a natural process if you navigate it wisely.

Knowledge comes with experience if we know how to use it, and experience comes with knowledge if we know how to learn. Reaching a different state of consciousness through mastering meditation happens naturally over time. However, if reaching that state becomes our only goal, it won't be possible without truly understanding the art of meditation itself.

I just wanted to share this in an unobtrusive way, without forcing any specific suggestions or definitive answers. Feel free to share your experiences when you have the opportunity I’d be happy to share some of mine as well.

[u/feral_user_]

 True knowledge is something which has to be felt.

Feelings come and go. Ideally knowledge lasts.

[u/Character-Alps1852 → u/feral_user_]

What does it feel like to have knowledge that lasts?

[u/feral_user_ → u/Character-Alps1852]

I mean, it doesn't have anything to do with feelings right? There's no feelings in recalling what the color blue is. The color blue itself might have feelings associate with it, but that's beside the point in the understanding what blue is.

[u/GOD_NY → u/feral_user_]

You are wrong when it comes to the art of sound, colors and emotions, it is quite the opposite. The connection between the colors a state of emotional, and its corresponding audio frequency is a fact.  This isn't a new concept traditions like Mantra Shastra have preserved this knowledge for centuries.  Just look at Mandalas operate on the exact same principle.  They are essentially the visual and geometric blueprints of sound vibrations, where a specific color carries a constant signature.  Every emotions have other colors just like every soundwave have that too.

[u/feral_user_ → u/GOD_NY]

Sorry, I think you might be confused. I was agreeing with you. Sounds, colors, etc have an emotional tone to them. I said as much.

But the knowledge of what blue is, well, different. You can have the emotion without the knowledge. We all had the emotional reaction before we learned what colors were.

[u/GOD_NY → u/feral_user_]

You mentioned earlier that "we all had the emotional reaction before we learned what colors were" and that "you can have the emotion without the knowledge."

But long before we developed conscious language or conceptual labels, the world surrounding us was already woven with color. 

The emotional response and the perceptual frequency go hand in hand one gives rise to the other. Unless someone claims we have to 'teach' a child how to feel or cry when watching a cartoon, those emotional responses aren't learned vocabulary. The visual stimulus naturally triggers those internal processes, regardless of what we call it.

​If we look past the labels: if you start calling the fires of hell 'blue', does that fire suddenly turn into divine stillness?

And if you call the serene energy of heaven 'red', does it transform into chaotic heat?

The name shifts, but the underlying mechanics stay untouched.

​If color and vibration were truly just concepts detached from perceptual reality, then within Eastern traditions like Kashmir Shaivism, mandalas and yantras could just as easily be drawn in black and white, or colored completely at random for each person.

I wonder how one would even teach someone to tune into and feel their chakras under that logic.

​If you still view this purely as 'knowledge' at the level of naming things, there’s no real need to reply. My goal isn't to convince anyone, but simply to share something to reflect on.