Thanks for the question - it started a good conversation amongst students here at the school and here's the collective answer:

It is our understanding that you are correct in that there is no embodied being that is giving diksa in the direct lineage of Abhnivagupta. In the oral history of our school it is taught that Abhnivagupta resolved his body into light - prakashakaya - and "took with him" many, if not all, of his closest students. In so doing, while this happenstance continues to be a great blessing to all beings, no humanly manifested students of Abhnivagupta were left to pass the torch on the gross level of physical being.

That being said, our Guru, Tantrik Yogi Acharya Dharmanidhi Sarasvati, chose to name our school Trika out of respect for the legacy of Abhinavagupta. Abhinavagupta emphasized the yogi-scholar/scholar-yogi approach, with practice based realization as foremost in importance. We have the same emphasis in our school. It is important to know that while in a linear model we do not trace our lineage to Abhnivagupta, the tranmission of Essence that comes through the stream of Trika Institute/Jnanagni Kula, via the Guru Tattva, as embodied by Dharmanidhiji, is EXACTLY THE SAME. Our lineage, which is a live, unbroken tradition tracing its origin all the way back to Source, Paramasiva, via Dattatreya in the previous world age, to Mahasiddha Matsyendranath in this age, to Goraknath.... and eventually to Swatmarama... and then again to Swami Visvananda, to Swami Sivananda, to Paramahamsa Satyananda and Paramahamasa Niranjananda, and finally to Dharmanidhiji.

This unbroken stream is alive and well, operating in Berkeley CA, Oakland CA, Canada, Australia, India, and
Thailand (for now), and we welcome you to join us in your study of non-dual Kashmir Shaivsm.