Vibration (Spanda)

Spanda, 'vibration' or 'pulse,' is a signature idea of Kashmir Shaivism. It names the subtle inner throb of divine consciousness — not a physical movement but the living dynamism by which the one Śiva-awareness perpetually flashes forth as the world, holds it, and draws it back in, all while remaining itself. Where Advaita pictures the absolute as utterly still, the Spanda teaching insists ultimate reality is intensely alive and self-stirring.