In this interview at SAND19 Italy by Zaya Benazzo, Mark Dyczkowski dives deep into the history of Tantra and the practices of Tantric Kashmir Shaivism. He describes tantric rituals, explains the interplay of duality and nonduality, and touches on the relationship of Tantra to sexuality.
Mark Dyczkowski is one of the world’s foremost scholars on Tantra and Kashmiri Trika Shaivism. He has lived and worked in India for close to forty years. Both a scholar and a practitioner, he was initiated by the great Indian teacher Swami Laksmanjoo in the year 1976. He has an undergraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University and a Ph.D. from Oxford University, where he researched Kashmir Shaivism under the guidance of Professor Alexis Sanderson. Mark has published extensively, including the 12-volume Manthanabhairava Tantra and is considered to be one of the world’s leading authorities on Tantric Shaivism. He is affiliated with several major academic institutions in India and has lectured in Universities in Europe, the States and India. Mark lives in Varanasi on the ghats of the Ganges where he teaches students on Kashmiri Shaivism and practices music.
