A good resource for Non-dual Shaiva tradition would be http://www.anuttaratrikakula.org/ IINM he is the person responsible for the translation of the Shiva Sutras by Swami Lakshman Joo, considered to be the last fully realized Master of Kashmir Shaivism. If OP is interested, send me a PM and I'll try to connect you with some KS folks I know.

Reminds me of my Master, who is a skinny 120lb, 6-footer. He used to torment the buffed up body-builder types in his gym by asking them to push his hand up/down or push him backward, which they'd give up on, red-faced after several attempts... This!

Don't try to force anything. It will happen on its own. Just be patient. Setting aside the technical aspects of structure, posture, etc etc which are important initially, Sung is from letting go. By letting go, it means not letting your mind get attached to anything in particular. Whatever arises, let go. If a thought arises, let it go. If an emotion arises, let it go. If a sensation arises, let it go. Then next question that usually follows is - "How do I let go?" The answer is - it is as easy as literally dropping something you were holding on it.

I know its sort of off topic, given that you're discussing buddhist mudra practices, but thought I'd share the Hindu/Tamil Siddhar perspective. During my Siddhar yoga days, I used to combine Pranayama and mudras to raise the kundalini up the central channel. Preparatory was learning to breathe properly. How to attain glottis control so the inhalation and exhalation can become slow, steady and elongated. Practice sitting in vajrāsana and do cycles of inhalation:exhalation of 1:4 ratio. Introduce holding after sometime for inhale:hold:exhale with 1:2:4 ratio. Apply the 3 locks (bandhas) Introduce 4 mudras we would cycle through - chin mudra, chinmaya mudras, ādi mudra and merudanda mudra. It was powerful and resulted in kundalini rising to the crown. From start of the process to actually applying all the mudras it took more than a year of daily practice. WARNING -- Don't try this alone at home. Find a good teacher

I agree

I personally have followed three traditions quite deeply over the past 20+ years. I find from direct experience that they lead to the same source. A philosopher-physicist-sage friend of mine put it this way. There really are "truth-claims" and not "truths" per se. In order for a truth-claim to be, a categorical framework needs to be employed. What is a categorical framework? It facilitates a method by which objects of knowledge can be categorized and labeled. They might have roots in different (or different seeming) theories, which set forth the rules via which to do said categorizing and labeling. However, when one directly gets to the heart of any truth-claim, they will find the same underlying experience (can't find a more appropriate word to describe IT). I think it's okay to consider even different truths, so long as we understand that different categorical frameworks are in play. The problem becomes when we try to evaluate on the basis of one categorical framework, the truth claims that arise from different categorical frameworks. A good example I find is in the field of medicine. Western medicine depends on a particular categorical framework. TCM depends on another, and Ayurveda depends on another. From the perspective of the Western medical doctor, TCM and Ayurveda are essentially bullshit, if he/she uses the Western Medicine's categorical framework to evaluate the validity of TCM and Ayurveda. Yet, empirically both TCM and Ayurveda are effective modes of medical practice and in fact are far more prophylactic in nature than Western medicine currently is. The key is in finding a common purpose for the discourse. If you look at the four categories of discourse that I outlined in the thread OP I shared earlier, you'll find there are really two worthy of having. Samvāda and Vāda -- i.e., discussion between an expert and a novice, or between two equals (preferably experts). All other forms will lead to "heat generation".

What you are asking for in the OP is called "pramāńa in sanskrit (or Proof). Each tradition has its own set that it works with. For example, in Yoga, there are three -- Pratyaksha - Direct Experience Anumāna - Inference Agama - Testimony of a reliable witness With which, this logic follows -- Before you know, you rely on the testimony of a reliable witness (one who is considered to be authoritative, like an acknowledged master, or a text, etc). So you study from the Agama. Then as you are studying it, you use your inference and intellectual understanding to extrapolate what is being taught/said in terms of knowledge. All good agamas should provide a method by which one can directly experience what is being said. So along with the inferential part, you start working on the practical aspect, such that one day you can personally verify the truth as it is via direct experience. How that relates to the subject of my original response is as follows -- So supposing there are two such frameworks (as articulated above). Two sets of agama and they don't agree with each other, and there arises a need for a discourse between the two differing theories; then it behooves us to study the "other" so we can understand what they're actually saying. And then follow a framework via which the ideas can be evaluated for their "accuracy". Same method as above follows. I had posited a framework based on traditional Indic methods of debating several times on this forum. No one liked it, because it would be too difficult to follow -- meaning people have to actually do their homework and not simply 'shoot from the hip'. Here's a link to that and the expected mayhem that followed --

Summarizing the following from the interview for those who don't have the patience to watch the whole thing -- Beside the 7 major chakras, the interviewee suggests that there are "micro-chakras". There are 147 in total, of which ~ 50 are along the spine in the back and are entry points of spiritual light in the system. They feed the chakras, which are vortices of light. Beside the Ida (Left) Pingala (Right) and Sushumna (Central) channels, there are three subtle channels that exist within the Sushumna (Central channel). Each major chakra exists in the intersection of these three subtle channels Each major chakra has 7 micro-chakras corresponding to each of the 3 subtle channels within the central channel. Therefore, there are 147 micro-chakras Very interesting given that recently my master talked about 2 such points in the neck. One right below the jade pillow and the other one around the point where the cervical and thoracic vertebrae meet. He said the one below the jade pillow is where the sunlight is ingested. The one between the cervical and thoracic vertebrae is the point of primordial light's entry into the system. One of our drills is to now inhale/exhale from these two points.

Love the creativity

Touché 😃

You're assuming an inferior-superior narrative here The phenomenal world, which a result of duality, is indeed not apart from the non dual. And really, the non dual doesn't give rise to the dual. The dual just appears to be. How can something that is an appearance be anything apart from, or inferior to that in which it appears. Is a movie inferior to the screen?

Dwai is also my real name (part of it at least) That’s the way to be - start as houtian and then realize you always have only been xiantian, in which houtian merely appears to be

The Shankara in that chant is Lord Shiva, not Adi Shankaracharya, who is associated with Advaita Vedanta (minor detail fwiw)