The teachings Shankaracharya presents have deep roots in Hindu Tantrism. This philosophy marries the Eternal Becoming of the Buddhists with the Eternal Self of the Vedantins. Supreme Reality is described as the Love embrace of Shiva and Shakti. Shiva, the Supreme Knower, or I, and Shakti, the Supreme Known, or This, are eternally One and inseparable - Being, Consciousness and Bliss.

In the Tantric view, supreme attainment is achieved most easily not by negating the world and the power that gives rise to it but rather by marrying that power (Kundalini) back to Her source, the Supreme. The Self does not stand alone as real in its freedom from the world; rather it is the reality of the freedom of the Self that appears as the world.

A Yogi living in this awareness actually sees the world as if with x-ray vision. Sparkling Consciousness is seen appearing in, and as, all these forms, sporting with Itself. The transcendent is seen as imminent, the subject as object, the formless as form.

The Supreme Self dwells equally within all beings. Ignorance of this inner treasure makes one feel fragmented, small and limited. This is the great cause of suffering. The spiritual path involves the thinning of the veils that obscure the awareness of this Self, so that What Is can stand revealed. The veiling is not mere intellectual ignorance. The purification necessary involves all levels of one's being - gross, subtle and causal. The awakened Kundalini Shakti is working inside to bring this about. Yet it is also the responsibility of a seeker to use self-effort and discrimination to live attitudes that are supportive of this unitive inner process in the outer school of life. Shankaracharya embodies the wisdom that makes this possible and presents it in a direct, no-nonsense way.