Updated: September 2, 2024
Hello, my friends. It's been a while. I've been reflecting last 2-3 days on what is the next thing we should explore? And I thought maybe we should do some of the Dhāraṇās. Dhāraṇās are focused awareness practices, do some of the dhāraṇās that have been handed down to us from what is called the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra. So the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra is an ancient text where Shiva and his consort, the goddess Parvati have a conversation regarding the nature of fundamental reality. And the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra is a good compliment to some of the other things we've done so far, including the Shiva Sutras, the Brahma Sutras, the Yoga Vasistha the Bhagvad Gita, the Upanishads. So they're all kind of always taking us to the source of all experience, which is reality.
So, Bhairava is a term that has been used by Buddhists and Vedantists and Chevists to talk about one of the aspects of Shiva. So Shiva is usually referred to as the destroyer, but actually the, but actually the the five faces of Shiva include creativity, maintenance, destruction, incubation, and resurrection, recycling of experience and then evolution of experience. So Bhairava though is frequently also understood as supreme reality, synonymous with Para Brahman. Bhairava can also mean Shiva in its fearsome forms known as Kala Bhairava the Lord of Time and death. So today, what I'd like to do is actually start with a very simple practice. And that is looking at the breath as the most fundamental sensation, looking at the breath as the most fundamental sensation of our existence. And the the short interval, the short gap between the in breath and the out breath. And then again, from the out breath to the in breath.
Very short is the transcendent moment for both dissolution and creation and incubation. So the five faces of include creativity, observing, witnessing or maintenance, then destruction and incubation and then resurrection, recycling and evolution. And so the first technique I think today we can just see is focusing on the interval between the in breath and the out breath. And actually there are many people who came to amazing conclusions just by doing this. And when you observe the breath, you recognize that it has a beginning, that's the beginning of the sensation, the beginning of life. Then you feel the sensation that's the existence of life, the witnessing of life, then the sensation disappears and then as it disappears, that's the destruction of that experience of life. And then there's incubation, short incubation and recycling. Now this happens at every level photons go on and off in the same way, electromagnetic fields particles go on and off in the same way as determined by the uncertainty principle.
And this is the creative process. So today, just observe your breath and then pay attention to that little short gap between the in breath and the out breath and the out breath and the in breath and then learn to abide there for just a few microseconds and then extend that the more you extend the gap between in breath and out breath, the secrets of existence will be revealed to you. Some of the conclusions that the Buddha came when he observed his breath were whatever is in the nature of arising is also in the nature of subsiding. That breath is a sensation and like every other experience which is also sensation, there's a beginning it exists and then it disappears. From this is derived the Law of Impermanence. But in the gap between the in breath and the out breath is infinite possibilities, infinite correlation or synchronicity, unpredictability, creativity, self-organization, self evolution. So today, let's just do that. And you can actually even do a visual, imagine the breath coming into your body from here, from the crown and going through the back all the way down to the spine, then hold the breath there at the bottom of the spine.
And then again, have the visual that it is moving upward from the base of the spine to the crown. And as you do this, you are activating what is also called the Brahma Nadi. The Brahma Nadi is is the Nadi of Brahman activating the different chakras and different centers of awareness. So the first center of awareness is survival and safety. The second is sensation. The third is power. The fourth is abundance and belonging and love. The fifth is creative expression, but also knowledge. And then here is wisdom and then transcendence. So let's keep that as the first teaching of the, of the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra the beginning points of the breath, fix the mind on two places where it begins and where it ends and we'll slowly proceed. So this today's technique from the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra is verse 24.
It doesn't matter. We'll choose them randomly. OK? If you like this idea, let me know and we'll continue with Vigyana Bhairava Tantra.
