CAMATKĀRA
The Hidden Path
In this book, Igor Kufayev shares his passion and profound insights on Tantra's most compelling perspective, offering a captivating view of the role of aesthetic astonishment in our daily lives, ultimately pointing to the purpose of human experience. The state that unifies all true artists, mystics, and poets in an experience of direct communion with the source of all life is defined with delectable subtlety and uncanny directness.
Camatkāra: The Hidden Path is a collection of discourses delivered over a number of years at live events, transcribed and rendered into written form while keeping with the immediacy of its oral delivery. Igor Kufayev presents the experience of Beauty as a unique path toward direct communion with the Divine, with aesthetic rapture as a spiritual practice. Drawing from Kufayev's experiences as a classically trained, successful artist, meditation master, and seasoned spiritual guide, this book provides an immersive and palpable experience of heightened awareness of the sacredness of each moment.
This work is a confluence of philosophical exposition, intuitive insight, and poetic invocation at times delivered in thrilling prose. It is an open invitation to all to reclaim their legitimate role of being an artist at heart who beholds all creation with an eye of non-dual perception. In this time of global existential crises, this book offers essential hope and a way to navigate the current and coming difficulties with grace and confidence.
This first limited edition of the book Camatkāra: The Hidden Path was printed and bound in Germany, with a Tobacco Brown hardcover and copper embossing. Due to the bespoke nature of this edition, there are only 300 copies available.
Indeed, there is no way to know God so intimately other than through the experience of Beauty—and intuitively we know this. Therefore, we are always driven to beauty; and perhaps even more essentially, we are driven by it. This is a very comforting, reassuring and equally profound understanding because beauty is the supreme form of the Goddess. It is Śakti Herself in Her full magnificence. And that magnificence is for the sake of Śiva’s enjoyment. Whenever we experience beauty, our awareness rejoices. Beauty is the most healing and wholesome experience. Nothing is superior to the experience of beauty and recognizing that truth makes us devoted worshippers. When we worship beauty, inadvertently, at heart we worship the most intimate part of ourselves. In craving intimacy with the Divine through the experience, we find the most direct communion with the Divine. This is the path of aesthetic rapture. This is Camatkāra—the perpetual sense of wonder. It is the delight that rises spontaneously from the void of the heart, from the core of our being, whenever and wherever we behold beauty in any of its forms. Therefore, seek Beauty and you will find God.