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