The past thirty years have witnessed dramatic developments in the study of agamic saivism in general. On the one hand there has been a substantial increase in the historical and anthropological data. On the other, access has been cleared to vast reserves of unedited and unpublished sources. This book is a collection of essays which document in their own way the author’s personal journey in these years through parts of the Saiva and, to some extent, the Vaisnava Tantras. Anyone who has travelled on similar paths knows how vast and marvellous the lands of this extraordinary world are. Self-awareness, Own Being and Egoity studies the history of the notion that the one, unique reality which is equally Siva, the Self and all that appears and exists in any form, is pure, universal ‘I’ consciousness (ahambhava). Abhavavada, the Doctrine of Non-being focuses on a little known doctrine taught in the Bhairava and Kaula Tantras that Siva, who is inherently beyond characterization, is Non-being. The Samvitprakasa is an important text for monistic Kashmiri Vaisnavism. Its author, date and teachings are the subject of chapter three.