Moksha — Liberation as the Goal
Moksha (liberation, freedom) is the ultimate goal of all Tantric practice — the complete and irreversible recognition of one's identity with Shiva, beyond all limitation, suffering, and death.
Moksha (liberation, release) is the highest Purushartha (human goal) in Indian philosophy and the ultimate aim of all Tantric practice. In the Tantric understanding, Moksha is not the achievement of a new state (which would imply that liberation is currently absent) but the direct recognition of what was always already the case: one's identity with Shiva/Brahman. The Tantric tradition distinguishes several levels of Moksha: Salokya (dwelling in the same realm as the divine), Sameepya (proximity to the divine), Sarupya (having the same form as the divine), Sayujya (union with the divine), and Kaivalya (absolute independence — the highest Yoga conception). Kashmir Shaivism adds Bhava Samapatti (complete recognition of one's identity as Shiva) and insists that this recognition is complete — not partial. The sign of Moksha is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Being-Consciousness-Bliss) recognized as one's own inherent nature rather than as an external achievement.
Moksha is not something to be achieved — it is something to be recognized. It was always already here, as your own innermost nature.
Philosopher Derek Parfit's work on personal identity demonstrated that the sense of a continuous, substantial self is constructed rather than given — supporting the Tantric teaching that Moksha involves the dissolution of a constructed identity rather than the loss of something real.
Tantraloka
Written about in
- What Tantra says about freedom
Liberation is defined as recognition rather than achievement. If it were achieved it would once have been absent, and the whole system rests on it never having been absent.