While it's true that in some corners one can find exclusive śaivites or exclusive śāktas, each and every level of Sarvāmnāya integrates both śaivite and śākta practices - as indeed they were originally, for Kaula Tantra means union of kula (śakti) and akula (śiva). Śiva allows you to be the retainer of Śakti; if you do not integrate these two types of energies, Vyomavyāpine (He who pervades the void) and Caṇḍī (She who is ferocious in flames of fire), you will get burnt. You need the cooling grace of Lord Śiva to balance and harmonize the energies of the Goddess. This is the Sarvāmnāya premise.

Kula is the 36 categories (tattvas), one who recognizes the kula as his body, "my body is constituted of the 36 categories", he is a kaula. Kaula's fundamental principle is freedom, svātantrya. It means teachers don't enforce students to behave in a particular way; but we can't expect to drink poison as if nothing will happen as a consequence. So students do need to cultivate sattva, clarity of mind and heart, even to be free. Texts, foods, dresses and so on are good insofar as they help us get clarity of mind. Tantras do have practices that violate certain codes at some specific moments; but they are not mandatory, as that would still be contrary to freedom. Also, Kaula is not supposed to be a social identity signal: Kaulas' signs are internal, Kaulas merge in the society they happen to find themselves.

Āgamas are actually much closer to Vedas than popular beliefs would concede. Tantric teachings practices resonate many of the Vedic teachings and practices - particularly as explained in the Brāhmaṇa and the Upaniṣadic texts. There are two tendencies to distinguish Tantras and Vedas: The Smārta tendency, that creates its own "Vedic" purities and stereotypes all forms of Tantras and Āgamas as 'impure'; and there is also a colonial tendency to split apart Vedas and Tantras. The concepts of mantra, maṇḍala, visualization, prāṇic exercises, fire rituals or libations, nyāsa or installation, mudrā or gestures, complex phonemes, are all common to both Vedic and Tantric practices. Actually, what is called "Vedic" nowadays, the Hindu temple practices, rest on Āgamic architecture and sculpture, Āgamic prāṇa-pratiṣṭha and daily rituals, and so on. In lived Hindu culture, Vedic and Tantric are never opposed or divorced categories. As far as purity and food rules are concerned, these rules are always in the flux, are subject to change, and there are no homogenous rules, whether in the Vedic or the Tantric worlds.

Lord Śiva has five or six faces, with one Goddess in each having dialogue with him, and that dialogue in each case flows as a stream of āgama. The full worship of Lord Paśupati in the form of the Mukhaliṅga thus demands the worship of all these faces and their corresponding goddesses, thus integrating all the Śaiva and Śākta Āgamas. Their synthesis in a system of sequential initiation is what is referred to as the Sarvāmnāya. Still, some particularly prominent āgamas in this tradition are: Svacchandalalitabhairava, Siddhayogeśvarīmata, Tantrasadbhāva, Mālinīvijayottara, Parātrīṁśikā, Vāmakeśvarīmata, Tantrarāja, Jñānārṇava, Jayadrathayāmala (aka Śiraścheda), Mahākāla Saṁhitā, Kālasaṁkarṣiṇīmata, Kubjikāmata, Śrīmatottara, Manthānabhairava, Ciñciṇīmata, Kulārṇava, among others.

The concept of Sarvāmnāya is not new, only that what counts to āmnāya differs based on what texts we consult. Most of the original Kaula Tantras we consult already demonstrate synthesis of the tantric lineages revealed in the four great Kaula Pīṭhas: Kāmarupa, Pūrṇagiri, Jālandhara, and Oḍḍīyāna. Each Pīṭha has its own primary focus. But when you integrate the āmnāyas, you gradually learn the practices that were originally developed in these different schools. One of the primary Āgamas in our own lineage, Ciñciṇīmatasarasamuccaya, alongside some of the earliest of the Kubjikā manuals, suggest that the practice of Trika, Kubjikā, Kalikā Krama, and Tripurā were not discrete. Even the original Śrīvidyā āgama, Nityāṣoḍaśīkārṇava, or the Kubjikāmata, already ground their practice on 4 or 5 (in some Kubjikā cases also 6) transmissions. The synthesis of all these Kaula lineages practiced in a system of sequential initiation, the Sarvāmnāya Krama system, happened in Nepal as early as the XIIth Century.

Each Āmnāya is so complex, it takes a lifetime to learn - that is correct. Also, it takes many life-times to achieve perfection even in a single Āmnāya. That does not mean that we should not learn the rest. We will see a structure emerging as we learn more Āmnāyas, the same structure, the same complexity, and this will give us a deeper insight into how tantrism works as a philosophy. Do we need to learn all that? There is a clear path for us to learn the entire path; but there is no problem if we don't learn the whole thing. As in a holographic universe, every maṇḍala is complete in itself. If somebody desires to stick to ekāmnāya, the practice of only one transmission, it's as deep and fruitful as any other. Not everybody is cut out to all sādhanā-s; most will center around one kaula deity - Kālī, Kubjikā, Tripurasundarī -, and they do samaṣṭi, blending or integration of the other deities as faces of that favored deity. All these kaula deities can integrate each other that way: there's always a plurality within singularity and singularity within plurality. We do teach in the beginning the five faces of Lord Śiva, giving even beginners some connection to the energy of the five faces that emanate the different āmnāyas; but learning the whole path is not for the everyday sādhaka but for those who want to become ācāryas. Sarvāmnāya shows you how different āmnāyas are integrated together; but that doesn't mean any person needs to learn all the āmnāyas.

Following Tantric Āgamas, initiation (dīkṣa) is structured in a fourfold progressive hierarchy: samaya, putraka, sādhaka, ācārya. Each level of dīkṣā bestows certain rights and responsibilities on the initiate. Ācārya (आचार्य) refers to a Śaiva initiate who underwent the Ācārya-abhiṣeka. He is the one who has undergone all the levels of initiation, is learned in the Āgamic rituals (kriyāpāda) and philosophy (vidyāpāda), as well as observant in the conduct (cāryapāda) and yoga (yogapāda). An Ācārya is “sarvādhikārī”: he is authorized to perform any and all practices taught in the Āgamas, as well as to teach them. One of the unique privileges and responsibilities of the ācārya, therefore, is that he alone can perform dīkṣā for others. Hence, the Ācārya is also known as the guru.

To become a Sarvāmnāya Kramācārya one has to excel in both the Vidyāpīṭha and Mantrapīṭha. One has to explore teachers and learn all different schools of darśanas to excel in Vidyāpīṭha. One has to receive highest form of abhiṣeka by completing the puraścaraṇa in all āmnāyas to excel in Mantrapīṭha. When one has both, one is blessed by the Guru Ācārya as Ācārya.

In terms of studies, we are encouraged to study all darśanas. Traditionally, gurus won't teach a supposed higher śāstra if one has not first learned the basic ones - such as Sāmkhya. Most people nowadays discard these śāstras for the sake of learning the higher ones; they're not willing to pick up the fruits and vegetables from the garden, cook and season it, and then only have the ready food. Pandits have to teach the whole system gradually, not just the end product. There's a serious decline in traditional studies everywhere in the world, as people nowadays want fastfood and pre-digested food; while traditional learning of these systems take many many years. And up until the generation of Ācārya Sthaneshwar Timalsina's gurus, traditional learning was still alive, but nowadays less so. Sarvāmnāya integrates all darśanas, considered as particular stations of the mind, not even rejecting Cārvaka, Yogācāra and Mādhyamaka. Nonetheless, Pratyabhijñā/Trika philosophy is essential here, while Mahārtha is the very core.

Mahārtha or Mahānaya refers to the philosophy that develops out of Kālikā Krama. Instead of conceiving the absolute as paramārtha or transcendent relative to a lower state, Mahārtha or absolute sense designates the Reality which does not admit any distinction between superior and inferior. It is characterized by the sequential contemplation of the plenitude of Śiva-consciousness in the form of the wheel of Śakti-s, as the wheel of deities sitted in our bodies as our faculties of cognition and action. Through such gradual contemplation, we attain the direct knowledge of the unsequential absolute immediately revealed in each moment of the sequence of perception. This leads to a radical realization of the identity of the two goals of Tantric practice: liberation (mokṣa) and experience (bhoga) become one.

Maheśvarānanda of Cidāmbaram (XIIIth Century), one of the most prominent philosopher of this school, was himself thoroughly trained in the Trika school of Abhinavagupta, while he was himself an initiate of both the Kālikā Krama and the Śrīvidyā. He also quotes from Kubjikā Tantras, of which his paramguru was also a master. Another prominent Mahārtha philosopher, Śitikaṇṭha of Kashmir (XIth Century), states that the Mahārtha philosophy covers the entire Tantric revelation, from the Siddhānta (the earliest) to the Śrīvidyā (the latest). From an early age, therefore, Mahārtha appears connected with ācāryas conversant with diverse Tantric traditions, leading it to become very prominent in Sarvāmnāya as that philosophy which covers all āmnāyas.

The Sarvāmnāya procedure of sequential initiation in all āmnāyas is itself heavily inspired by the Kālikā Krama mode of sequential worship. That this is so is no coincidence, as Vimalaprabodha, the XIth Century Sarvāmnāya master who composed the Kālikulakramārcana paddhati of Guhyakālī practice, integrated all āmnāyas within it by following a Mahārtha doctrine identical to that which was theoretically exposed by Maheśvarānanda.

The term "Kashmir Shaivism" refers to (i) the tantric traditions practised in Kashmir as well as to (ii) the philosophical traditions of those Kashmiri teachers responsible for the formulation of the Spanda and Pratyabhijñā schools of interpretation of the Tantras, which culminated in the works of Abhinavagupta.

The living traditions of "Kashmir Shaivism" over the centuries were mostly based upon the Svacchandatantra and Netratantra, while its higher esoteric divisions, the Trika and Krama lineages, were based upon the Siddhayogeśvarīmata and the Jayadrathayāmala Tantra. These tantric traditions prominent in Kashmir were first brought to Nepal by Vimalaprabodha as early as the XI-XII century, with the result that all of these root Tantras and their associated teachings are preserved and still practised in Nepal.

Up until the XXth Century, traditional access to the written āgamas used to be conditioned by initiation: i.e., only the initiates had access to them. That means that as long as these āgamas kept being copied out, they were still being practised. It is a well-known fact that many of the ancient Tantric āgamas, including those prominent for Kashmiri tāntrikas, are preserved in Nepal, which testifies to the continuity of their initiatic lineages there. The Svacchanda and Netra tantras are among the most widely practised by Nepalese tāntrikas. The Trika Tantras (Siddhayogeśvarīmata, Tantrasadbhāva etc.), as well as the manuals related to them (mostly compiled within the paddhatis of the Kubjikā tradition), are a very central part of living lineages of Tantric practice in Nepal - primarily as the pūrvāmnāya, but also as subsumed within other deities such as Siddhilakṣmī, Kubjikā and Tripurasundarī. As to the (Kālikā) Krama, it is in fact due to the Nepalese tāntrikas that the Krama scriptures quoted by ancient Kashmiri masters have survived. Its root tantra, Jayadrathayāmala, alongside other texts such as Devīpañcaśataka, Devīdvyardhaśatikā and Vimalaprabodha's Kālīkulakramārcana, are central to uttarāmnāya practice.

Ācārya Sthaneshwar Timalsina was himself taught these living traditions of Svacchanda, the Trika and the Krama by his Nepalese gurus. As to the Kashmiri philosophical tradition of Tantric hermeneutics, enshrined in the Spanda and Pratyabhijñā, they are known and preserved by the Nepalese lineages mostly through their indirect influence in tantric texts and commentaries. Ācārya Sthaneshwar Timalsina learned further about that aspect of the tradition with his Kashmiri gurus, as well as from his other gurus stationed in Varanasi, coming in Gopīnāth Kāvirāj's lineage. And now, through Vimarsha Foundation, these living traditions of tantric practice, married to their full philosophical flowering, can live beyond Nepal.

Siddhalakṣmī (known as Siddhilakṣmī in Nepal) is a Śaiva goddess, a form of the goddess Kālī revealed in the Jayadrathayāmala Tantra, the root āgama of Kālīkrama. Over the centuries, Her worship has been prevalent mostly in Kashmir and Nepal. She plays a double role in Sarvāmnāya: one in the pūrvāmnāya and another in the uttarāmnāya.

Each of the four sections of the Jayadrathayāmala are presided by a form of Kālī: Kālasaṁkarṣiṇī, Siddhalakṣmī, Sāraśakti (the essence of the three Trika goddesses) and Siddhayogeśvarī (the supreme form of goddess Parā). In the Trika, these four are all identified as one: Her inner identity is Kālasaṁkarṣiṇī and her outer identity Siddhalakṣmī, Who plays the role of the essence of the three Trika goddesses as the supreme form of Parā. In Sarvāmnāya, when worshipping the Trika maṇḍala (pūrvāmnāya), the Trika goddesses are therefore ultimately subsumed within Siddhilakṣmī.

In uttarāmnāya, on the other hand, a series of practices focused on Siddhilakṣmī's various forms, here worshipped alongside Bhairava in the Narasiṁha form, constitute a preliminary entrance to the worship of Guhyakālī, who embodies the entire Krama/Mahārtha system of Kālī worship which also developed from the Jayadrathayāmala Tantra.

Also called Śrīvidyā, Tripurasundarī is the chief Śākta goddess since medieval times, worshipped in many forms through different Sampradāyas, with the prominent lineages being Hayagrīva, Ānandabhairava and Dakṣiṇāmūrti. The most extensive collection of manuscripts of Her root-tantras, Vāmakeśvarīmata and Yoginīhṛdaya, are found in Nepal, along with their early commentaries by prominent Trika masters placed between the XIIth and XVth Centuries: Jayaratha (also commentator of Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka), Śivānanda, Vidyānanda and Amr̥tānanda. These works, too, have deeply impacted the fabric of Nepalese Tantra.

The unique position of Tripurasundarī makes her most suitable for the philosophy of Trika, as Her very name suggests that She encompasses all three realms and also that she transcends all the triadic structures, confirming Her status as both transcendent (viśvottīrṇa) and immanent (viśvamaya). For this reason, the practice of Tripurā found its central status within the Kashmiri Trika lineages, as is evident from the commentaries of Jayaratha (XIIIth Century) on Vāmakeśvarīmata Tantra, the manuals of Sāhib Kaul (XVIIth Century), and the commentaries on Tantrarāja Tantra by Subhagānandanātha and Prakāśānandanātha (XVIIth Century). Besides that, the Pañcastavī, a central text of five hymns in the tradition of Tripurasundarī, has remained popular among Kashmiri tāntrikas down to the XXth Century, having even received a commentary by Svāmī Lakṣmanjoo. In sum, in Kashmir, Trika and Śrīvidyā converged to become a single tradition of practice and teaching, a tradition that was passed on to Ācārya Sthaneshwar by his Kashmiri guru Śaṅkaracaitanya Bhāratī.

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In the Ciñciṇīmata of the Kubjikā tradition, the text from which comes the original structure of Sarvāmnāya, we find Her invoked as the deity of the Southern transmission (dakṣiṇāmnāya) in the form of Kāmeśvarī, making her a prominent deity from the transmission of Bhairava. From there, Her practice evolves to the Tripurasundarī form following the Vāmakeśvarīmata. Beyond those, however, Her practice within Sarvāmnāya culminates in Her Nirvāṇa Sundarī form in ūrdhvāmnāya, with sixteen kūṭa practice visualized in the most graphic form of the goddess of sixteen heads and hundred and eight arms. The latter's paddhati-s are considered secret and shared only among the sādhakas who have already completed all the basic Āmnāya sādhanā.

While there is such an integral supreme form of the Goddess, any of the Āmnāya deities can be presented as the Īṣṭa-devatā and, upon full initiation, the initiates are taught to integrate the rest of the vidyās and mantras within the singular form of their own primary deity. While during the course of sādhanā one practice may come next to the other and give sense of hierarchy, the entire practice culminates with the aspirant integrating all the distinctive forms within his own Īṣṭa-devatā.