Three best procedures of Meditations in Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
The first method of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra:
Method outline: Concentrate on the ephemeral hiatus between two breaths. Sense it.
Shiva Replies to the Question of Goddess Parvati:
Short elucidation: Between two breaths, radiant one, this experience will arise. Soon after inhaling (down) and soon before emerging (up) – this brings beneficence. In other sentences- The breath (supreme energy of life) moves upwards with exhalation and downwards with inhalation. By fixing on the two abodes of its foundation, one achieves the state of realization.
Further clarification:
This technique wants you to be aware between these two points, and the occurring. Observe your inhalation from the point of beginning. For a short moment, or even it can be the thousandth part of a moment, breathing ceases. — before it turns up i.e. before it goes back outwards. After every breath there is a certain point that the breath stops.
After that breath goes out and again for a single moment, or it can be the smallest part of a moment, breath stops. Then breath enters inside. Thus you will not breath just before the breathing is turning in or turning out. In that moment the occurring or changing is probable, since you are not a part of the world when you are not breathing.
Let’s understand this concept:
If you don’t breathe you die. The moment between inhalation and exhalation when you are not breathing but you are still, is an important moment. This moment passes by so quickly that you never notice it. Every exhaled breath is a death and every inhaled breath is a rebirth in Tantra. Inhaling breath signifies rebirth, and exhaling it signifies death. The inhalation is associated with life, and the exhalation is associated with death. You are therefore dying and reborn with every breath. Though the distance between the two is quite small, you will feel it if you pay close attention and observe with keenness.
There is another philosophical aspects– inhalation means receiving, taking and exhalation means giving, donating, sacrificing, etc.
If you can notice this gap (between two breaths), Shiva says, the magnanimity, goodness or beneficence.
After that you need nothing else. You are exalted, hallowed and blessed. You have known- the incident has ensued.
Here you are not supposed to regulate or train the breath. Leave it to the law of nature, just as it is. The technique is very simple. This helps to realize the truth. It brings the realization of that which is neither born nor dies, to understand that timeless eternal element that is always.
In-breath and out-breath is comparatively easier to know than to know the gap between these two. To notice the gap you can apply some of the techniques:
Be aware of the in- breath. Just watch it. Ignore everything. Concentrate on the passage of nostrils or the base of the nostril. Feel the breath right away as it reaches your nostrils. Next, allow the breath to enter. Breath full consciously. Do not miss a breath as you descend, descend, descend with the breath. Simply follow along; don’t lead the way or lag behind. Keep this in mind: stay in sync with it rather than ahead of it or like a shadow. Conscious breath ought to unite.
When breath goes in- go in with it until you get the gap which is between two breaths. Do the same work for exhalation as well.
Buddha said, “Become conscious of inhalation and exhalation”. There is no need to discuss the gap, therefore he never does. Buddha considered and sensed your awareness may be disturbed if you worry about the space between two breaths. If you create a desire to feel the interval, it may be a hindrance to awareness. So he just said, “Take note. Move in tandem with the inhalation and exhalation of the breath”
Buddha wanted you to be conscious of your breath minutely whether there is breath or no breath. It means you will be aware during the gap as well. When you feel the moment that the breath has ceased- beneficence happens.
Vigyan Bhairav Tantra : Second Meditation technique
Technique review: When the breathing pauses during an inhalation or exhalation and turns inward or outward to begin a new cycle of inhalation and exhalation, be aware of that turn. Experience it.
Shiva Replies :
- Recognize that breath goes through both of these turns as it curves from down to up and from up to down.
Now the emphasis has changed. In the previous one, awareness was on the gap between the breath (at the moment breath gets paused). Now the emphasis is on the turning. Right after a pause of breath it turns back. For example after inhalation, a pause arises. Then it turns back as exhalation. Again after exhalation, breath pauses. Then it turns back as inhalation. Thus, you need to be aware of these two turns. Try to realize these turning points of the breath.
This can be told in other sentences. Notice your first stage of inhalation after its pause. Realize the first stage of exhalation after its pause. Breath curves from up to down through the nostrils- Realize it. Breath curves down to up through the nostrils- Realize it. Keep practicing. This turning is possible to observe if you maintain constant awareness of breath.
If you can watch the turn of your breath without any mental movement, you will enter into yourself, or the beyond inside. You will realize who you are.
Vigyan Bhairav Tantra: Third Meditation technique
Technique Review: Concentrate on the naval- the center where the in-breath and outbreath convene. Feel the breath.
Shiva Replies: 3. Or, whenever inhalation and exhalation mingle, at this moment feel the energy-less, energy-filled center.
Humans have the center and the periphery. The body is the periphery or circumference. But the fusion happens in the center or mid-point. At that time no moving in or moving out happens.
The breath is dynamic when coming in or going out. When it is neither or non-moving you are close to the core or center. The union station of the in-breath and outbreath is your pivot or center. Breath goes to the navel, which is the center of your body. And come back.
The center is a connection between you and your body. You feel “off-center” because you know only the body or periphery but not the center. The whole modern world is missing their center.
You become total at the moment it goes to the center. Your breath is minimum, now try for the maximum. When you are aware of the center you can breathe at the maximum, live life at the extreme – then life is abundant. When you are conscious of the center during the fusion of breath you will feel bliss.
If you do not get (notice or realize) the center take deep, slow breaths. Breath from the naven not from the chest.
If the breath travels deeper and down to the belly, it provides liveliness and vigor to the sex center. It touches the sex axis; it massages the sex root from within. This makes sex center more functioning, more alive. This way of breathing helps to transform sexual energy to spiritual energy. To get mastery over sex breathing system should be changed.
One of Lord Shiva’s most paradoxical expressions is “energy-less, energy-filled.” It has no energy because neither your bodies nor your minds can give it any. As far as you know, your identity is devoid of energy because neither your body nor your thinking possess any energy. However, the reason it is energetic is not your body’s energy; rather it comes from the cosmic source of energy.
Your body i.e. periphery gets energy from food but the center won’t. So, Shiva says it is energy-less. The center does not depend on food and drink. It has a connection with the cosmic energy source. Thus it is an energy-filled center.
When you can sense the exact place where the breaths mix, the center from which they are emitted or inhaled, you will have reached enlightenment.
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