(“recognition”) Many distinct schools of tantra, a hidden, ritually defined religious practice, have promoted this doctrine, notably the Kashmiri scholar Abhinavagupta, Trika Shaivism's most prominent figure.
It claims that the ultimate realization of the Absolute is
just a "re-cognition" of one's fundamental oneness with the Divine.
This oneness has always existed and will never change; the
only thing that prevents it from being seen clearly is the obscuring force of
incorrect understanding.
As a result, final union with the Divine occurs not from
accomplishing something, but from simply comprehending what has always been the
reality.
This concept clearly reveals the Advaita Vedanta
philosophical school's influence, yet with a significant difference.
The Advaita school adheres to the philosophical viewpoint of
monism, which maintains that everything is based on a single abstract ultimate
principle, which they name Brahman, and that all things are just particular
expressions of that one principle.
This broad idea is adopted by the "Recognition"
school, which views Ultimate Reality theistically as the deity Shiva.
Shiva is the single genuine reality for Trika Shaivism, who
is both supreme deity and the source of the material cosmos.
More details may be found in Jaideva Singh's Pratya
Bhijnanahrdayam, published in 1982.
