New Books in Indian Religions Integral Perspectives: From Kashmiri Shaivism to Tibetan Buddhism with Sean K. MacCracken
Dec 20, 2025
Sean K. MacCracken, adjunct faculty and scholar of Kashmiri Shaivism and Indian philosophy, explores contemplative, participatory approaches to religious studies. He discusses Kashmir Shaivism’s inclusive non-dualism, pedagogy shifts toward embodied practice, links between Shaiva and Heideggerian thought, and dialogues between Tibetan Buddhism and transhumanist debates.
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Higher Non-Dualism Embraces the World
- Kashmiri Shaivism frames Parama-Advaita as a 'higher' non-dualism that includes and affirms the world rather than negating it.
- It treats the difference between illusion and non-illusion as itself illusory, enlarging non-dual scope to encompass diversity.
Favor Participatory Scholarship Methods
- Use participatory, roundtable, and experiential pedagogies rather than only paper readings to deepen scholarly dialogue.
- Engage living exemplars and cognitive science alongside texts to preserve and expand embodied traditions.
Inclusion Over Rupture In Indian Thought
- Indian philosophical traditions favor persuasion by inclusion, making them naturally aligned with integral, non-reductive approaches.
- Kashmiri Shaivism functions as an already-existing form of integralism that seeks to account for diverse perspectives within one framework.
