St. John of Cross and Kashmir Shaivism

Abhinavagupta renders adoration to the undifferentiated and ineffable  Siva, the Mystical  Night (Sivaratri): "Light of all Lights, darkness of all darknesses. To these lights and to these darknesses, Brightness, without equal, homage!" This night, like St John of Cross's Dark Night of the soul, is also the Night of Undifferentiation and the Dark Night of self-annihilation. The Shaivite theologian Utpaladeva proclaims: " Let this inexpressible night of Siva reign supreme, Siva whose radiant essence spreads its own brightness. It is in it that the moon and the sun as well as the other {dualities} penetrate when they set." Like St, John of the Cross from a later century, uses the metaphor of 'cavern': "O that we may see Your interior cavern, enchanting and profound, in darkness dissipated on all sides. Both St John of Cross insist on sensual and spiritual purgation the Dark Night).

The Absolute Subject resides secretly in the unexplored depths of the heart. A recurrent leitmotif of the apophatic theology