#3. Spirituality Is Not An Option | Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily live meditation session with me,

Dhyansa.

We are meditating on 112 meditation techniques of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.

Two friends are talking.

The first one says,

Look,

In the last days I have been doing all these spiritual practices and now I feel more love,

More peace,

More joy,

More happiness,

More meaning,

More purpose in life.

The second one says,

He looks at the first one,

He says,

I prefer football.

Spirituality has become an option.

Spirituality is not an option in life.

Spirituality is not a subject of life that comes after other subjects of life,

That comes after science,

After art,

After religion.

Spirituality has been pushed all the way in the back as an optional subject of life.

Rather it is the first subject of life.

Because you are the soul,

The spirit first,

That spirituality has to be addressed first.

When a child is born,

He or she is connected to this world through the mother,

Through the love of the mother and the first connection when the child comes into the world,

He or she looks at the mother with love.

And this connection of love with which he looks at the mother,

He looks at the world,

Slowly is conditioned and taken away and the love becomes the mind.

And the heart is pushed back and the mind is pushed forward.

Everything all the training that is done is for the mind.

The child no longer can laugh when the child wants to laugh.

The child no longer can cry when the child wants to cry.

The child no longer can express the heart anymore whenever the child wants to express the heart.

Only he expresses or she expresses the mind in order to fulfill roles given through the mind of the mind.

The direction of spirituality is the exact opposite.

We have taken the direction from the default of the heart as we came into this world towards the mind.

But the direction to the spirit is exactly the opposite.

It also starts with the heart.

It also begins with love and then it moves towards the spirit.

It moves towards spirituality.

It moves towards who we really are.

The first thing that the child should learn after he is learning to express the love is to know who he really is.

To know the truth of his reality,

The nature of his reality.

But rather all the effort of life has been pushed towards the mind.

And spirituality is when you are retired,

When you are in the very last phases of your life as an option.

If you want,

You can have some spirituality,

Otherwise football is also good.

So this turn towards the spirituality to know who we really are,

To know what is our true nature,

Is the turn that opens up the door to inner peace,

To happiness,

To purpose,

To meaning,

To compassion,

To joy in life.

It also starts with love.

Therefore in Vigyan Bhairav Tantra,

The beginning is also with love.

The beginning is also of the Bhairavi,

Of the Devi,

Loving the Bhairava,

The Deva,

Who is expounding,

Who is bringing all these techniques to Bhairavi out of compassion,

Out of love,

So that Bhairavi can come out of the ignorance and can merge into Bhairava.

The Bhairavi,

The ignorance can merge into wisdom,

The unconsciousness merges into consciousness and becomes one and all you experience is the true nature of your reality.

We started with the first meditation technique yesterday.

The early techniques of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra are concerned with breathing.

They use breathing as the doorway to give you this entrance into your truth,

Into the true nature of your reality.

The first technique for those who had missed yesterday was to learn to identify the two gaps between inhalation and exhalation,

And exhalation and inhalation.

These two gaps that you have in your breathing cycle,

When you fix your awareness,

When you fix your mind to these two gaps,

You start to feel the energy of consciousness.

And now in the second technique,

Bhairava goes further into depths,

Into details.

Let us listen what the God,

The Bhairava says to Bhairavi.

When the in-going and out-going pranic air are both restrained,

In their spaces from their return,

The essence of Bhairava.

Understand this technique first of all for its purpose.

The purpose of this technique is to get the essence of Bhairava,

To get the taste of consciousness,

To get into the transcendental nature of your reality,

Not the physical nature of your reality,

Rather the transcendental nature of your reality,

The essence of Bhairava,

You being pure consciousness.

How else are you experiencing yourself as pure consciousness?

This technique is directly related to that,

Directly taking you into this quantum leap,

Into this jump from wherever you are in life,

In whichever situation you are in life,

To that point,

To that door through which you experience the essence of Bhairava,

The pure consciousness.

So how to do that?

He says,

When the in-going and out-going pranic air are both restrained,

In their spaces from their return.

Yesterday we spent our energy,

We spent our awareness to identify these two gaps,

The gaps after exhalation and inhalation,

And the gap after inhalation and exhalation.

In these two gaps what is happening is that the prana is absorbed,

It is absorbed in these two polarities.

So the first gap,

When your breath,

When you are inhaling,

And the breath is downwards,

And before it becomes upwards,

Before it becomes exhalation,

That gap at the very bottom,

This is first gap through which prana flows downwards.

Then there is the second gap,

Which is after exhalation and before inhalation,

This is the gap upwards,

This is where the prana flows upwards.

So these are the two gaps,

And now what Bhairava is saying,

In these two gaps,

You restrain the return slightly.

What that means is,

This turn that happens,

This turn from inhalation to exhalation,

The turn from exhalation to inhalation,

These two turns,

Now very slightly,

Very slightly slow down this turn,

And enter into the transcendental nature of your reality.

These two turns are the doorways into transcendence.

Your breathing has a cycle,

Your breathing has inhalation,

Exhalation,

As long as there is inhalation and exhalation,

You are experiencing the physical reality.

But in these two turns is the chance,

Is the opportunity of transcendence.

So the emphasis in technique number two of Vigyan Bhairava Tantra are these turns.

The gaps you have already identified in technique number one.

In technique number two you go deeper,

Where the emphasis is on the turn.

And in this turn,

Slightly slow this down,

Not controlling the breath,

Not controlling the inhalation,

Not controlling the exhalation,

But in order to become aware of this turn,

In order to become aware of the breath turning from outwards to inwards,

And inwards to outwards,

This turn,

If you can become aware of,

By slowly,

Slightly slowing it down,

So that this pranic energy is not immediately disappearing upwards,

Is not disappearing immediately downwards,

And you are restraining that slightly,

In that turn you enter transcendence,

You experience pure consciousness.

So this is one way to understand this.

There is one more explanation to that.

Mind is the movement,

And in a state of no mind,

In a state of no thought,

There is no movement.

Now when you bring your awareness to your breath,

The breath is always moving,

The breath is always in movement.

How do you come out of this movement?

Basically when you are on a circle,

Let's say you are moving on a circle,

On the circle,

At every point you do not experience the turn,

Yet you experience the turn.

So how do you come out of the circle?

How do you jump from the circle to the center?

Is the crux of this technique,

That in those turns,

By slightly slowing down those turns,

There is an exit from the circle,

There is an exit into the infinity upwards,

Into the infinity downwards,

Or in other words,

You jump from the periphery to the center.

All this concept takes time to absorb,

All this understanding slowly unfolds in you as you practice,

As you taste the experience,

There are moments in your meditation,

In your practice where you will say,

This is exactly what was being told,

Is what I am experiencing.

So allow yourself this openness to remain open to the idea of what Bhairava is saying,

Take it into your practice and see if you reach to that experience,

If you reach to that transcendence or not.

Let us take this into our meditation,

Let us take this into our silence,

And the emphasis for today's meditation technique,

Please remember,

Is on the turns of the breath after inhalation and before exhalation,

And after exhalation and before inhalation.

So the emphasis is on the turn,

Rest everything remains in the background,

Rest everything is of lesser importance for today's technique.

Please close your eyes and take a posture that is easier for you.

Keeping your head straight,

Shoulders down,

Back straight,

And your body alert.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Begin by the natural flow of your breath.

Giving yourself few moments for your breath to find its natural pace.

And with every breath,

Your body falling into rest.

Your mind giving the way for your awareness to turn inwards.

Allowing the natural flow of breath to settle,

Your awareness turning inwards towards your breath.

Bringing your awareness on your breath,

And for a few moments flowing along with wherever the breath goes,

With inhalation,

With exhalation,

The entire flow of your breath.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

If need be,

Engaging your mind to remind you of this flow of the breath.

As you keep your awareness on the flow of your breath,

Flowing along with every step of your breath.

Not controlling the breath,

Not riding the breath,

Simply observing silently,

Passively,

Flowing along with your breath,

Like a shadow.

As your awareness settles on your breath,

Shift your focus on the turns of your breath.

The turns of your breath.

The turn after inhalation,

Before exhalation.

Find the turn after exhalation,

Before inhalation.

Give yourself time for your awareness to be on the turns in your breath.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

The emphasis,

The focus is on the turns in your breath.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Keeping the natural flow of your breath,

But only the turns,

Slightly slowing them down.

In observing,

Becoming aware of the turns.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Slightly slowing down the turn,

In observing.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Move deeper into these turns.

Let go of everything else.

Let go of everything else.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Remain silent.

Remain aware.

Leave the breath,

The body,

The mind,

And simply stay silent.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

Rest,

Yet relaxed.

In these silent moments,

The taste of pure consciousness,

The essence of Bhairava,

Matter,

And is>,

Remains the vibraziness.

NOS Gospel This remembrance of yourself,

Very gently and slowly,

May open your eyes.

Allowing the awareness to once again flow outwards,

To connect to the physical around you,

While maintaining this remembrance,

This taste of pure consciousness,

Of the essence of Bhairava.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.