The particular form of Tantric mysticism and metaphysics known as Pratybijnana ("self-remembering", "gnosis"), Trika ("Triadism"), or simply "Kashmir Shaivism", was developed in  Kashmir around the 8th and 9th centuries C.E. by the great Shaivite philosopher-sages such as Vasugupta and Abhinavagupta.  It was later adopted by the Bengali Shakta branch of Tantra, which was more practical than theoretically orientated, and concentrated on the qualities of the Chakras and the Kundalini energy.  In a watered-down form it has entered the West through the teachings of Swami Muktananda and the "Siddha Yoga" movement he founded. While lucidly affirming the Absolute Consciousness of earlier Indian monistic philosophies (such as Shankara's Advaita Vedanta), Kashmir Shaivism also explains how phenomenal existence came into being through a successive process of contraction and self-limitation of that Absolute

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