The Real Power Behind the Vigyan Bhairav 112 Meditations

“Tantra is a very revolutionary concept, the oldest and yet the newest. Tantra is one of the oldest traditions and yet non-traditional, even anti traditional, because Tantra says unless you are whole and one, you are missing life altogether. You should not remain in a split state, you must become one.” - Osho

As we enter into the profound world of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra imagine for a moment, the birthplace of this significant scripture. It is said to be the world famous Amarnath Cave in India, visited by millions of pilgrims every year to pay homage to this sacred site. Here, as legend has it, Paravati, the wife of Lord Shiva, was sitting in his lap, asking questions about life, love and spirituality. Shiva answers her, with each one of his 112 answers being delivered in Sutra form. A Sutra is a short, condensed spiritual teaching. Each Sutra Shiva offers is a method of meditation.

In other words, Shiva is not simply giving theories to Paravati, he is offering transformative methods. By practicing the methods, Paravati can unveil her own innate sensitivity and intelligence in an experiential process of spiritual awakening.

What Are The 112 Meditation Techniques in The Vigyan Bhairava Tantra?

The 112 methods given by Shiva cover each and every aspect of human life experience. If we really dive deeply into what the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra offers, we will discover that every life experience in this wonder filled universe offers a portal into self realization and spiritual awakening. The secret for achieving this is to apply a witnessing consciousness to each particular experience, whatever that may be. As we practice this, slowly but surely, we will discover the divine living within the mundane.

The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is a scripture unlike any other and yet, it is the inspiration behind several religious teachings. It is highly possible that it is the world’s oldest scripture. The first written texts of it date back to 5000 years ago, and most certainly it was an oral tradition long before that. As it was being conveyed down the centuries, this Scripture went through many iterations, depending on the Spiritual Master who was offering these teachings.

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How The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra Has Been the Inspiration Behind Various Religious Teachings in the World

"Unminding mind, keep in the middle--until." 

About this sutra, Osho says: “It is a life long practice. Buddha's whole approach is based on this. —That middle point is all that spirituality means."

"Be the unsame same to friend as to stranger, in honour and dishonour. 

There is a wonderful Zen story which illustrates perfectly the wisdom inherent in this sutra. A Zen Priest responsible for the temple of a certain village was accused by a young unmarried woman of being the father of her baby. The village people went to the priest, very angrily and demanded that he take responsibility for the baby. The priest replied, “Is that so?” He graciously received the baby and began raising it as his own. 

After a couple of years, the distraught young woman couldn’t take her inner turmoil anymore and confessed that she had lied about the priest being the father of the child. The Town’s people went to the priest and exclaimed, oh, great Saint! You have so lovingly taken this child and raised it, even though you were not the father! You are a true Master! The Zen priest, maintaining his equanimity said, “Is that so?”

"When in worldly activity, keep attention between two breaths, and so practising, in a few days be born anew." 

About this Sutra, Osho says: “The world appears as a drama with yourself seen as an actor by doing this. It needs to be practised continuously, that is why it is done while in worldly activity.”

"Feel the cosmos as a translucent ever living presence." 

This sutra indicates that as we develop our sensitivity and awareness, we will be able to experience the psychedelic nature of reality which all religious traditions indicate as being an integral part of our human potential.

"Or, when breath is all out (up) and stopped of itself, or all in (down) and stopped--in such universal pause, one’s small self vanishes. This is difficult only for the impure."

According to Osho, the entire Zen Tradition is based on this method. As we enter deeper and deeper into meditation, we are naturally drawn into the void space between two breaths, leading to an egoless state of no-mind. 

From a Tantra Kashmiri Shivaism angle, Lakshmanjoo offers his interpretation of this meditation: “The in-breath moves from the heart chakra down with the internal awareness of ‘ham’ and the out-breath moves from the perineum to the heart with the internal awareness of ‘So.’ The main focus is the point of juncture between the in-breath and out-breath, which is void space. It is this awareness of the void space between each juncture of breath which will bring the experience of Bhairava through the lived experience of Bhairavi.”

Note: Soham is a Sanskrit mantra which means “that which is, was and will always be, the eternal.”

"When a mood against someone or for someone arises, do not place it on the person in question, but remain centred." 

This meditation relates very profoundly to the teaching of Jesus to remain in a state of equanimity even if being provoked by someone. Contrary to the Jewish Teaching of ‘an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth,’ Jesus preached that if someone slaps you, to turn the other cheek. In essence, this method invites us to avoid going into either positive or negative projections towards others, but rather, to swallow back our projections, to remain in a state of equanimity and awareness.

"In rain during a black night, enter that blackness as the form of forms." 

"When a moonless rainy night is not present, close eyes and find blackness before you. Opening eyes, see blackness. So faults disappear forever." 

These two sutras work profoundly with the potency of darkness to awaken our inner luminosity. There are many spiritual communities in the world such as the Kogi of Columbia, Tibetan Tantra, The Yogic Path, Essenes, Taoist Tantra and more, who work with Darkness Retreats as a way of accelerating one’s Enlightenment potential. The fact is, if you spend at least 7–10 days in darkness, the naturally occurring psychedelic drug DMT which exists within the human brain will be released, leading to a profound awareness of multiple dimensions of consciousness and abiding bliss. 

"With intangible breath in centre of forehead, as this reaches heart at the moment of sleep, have direction over dreams and over death itself."

This highly esoteric Meditation works with the third eye and heart chakras, giving you access to Prana (the subtle breath of life) as well as developing your refined spiritual intelligence and the ability to transform your reality. In essence, this meditation helps you to become a Master of your destiny. It reveals the very core of most spiritual teachings.

"Stopping ears by pressing and the rectum by contracting, enter the sound." 

This sutra has offered inspiration for Hindu and Yoga traditions, both of whom proclaim the sanctity of the soundless sound, Om. It is known to be the source from where everything comes and to where everything returns. When one hears it spontaneously in Meditation, it means they have reached a very profound state of consciousness. In this meditation, one is offered a technique to access the soundless sound at will.

"Radiant one, this experience may dawn between two breaths. After breath comes in, (down) and just before turning up (out) --the beneficence."

About this sutra, Osho comments: “Buddha became enlightened through this method. It is one of the simplest ways to become enlightened.” It is a method that helps us to be in present moment awareness and when we are in the present, we are in fact, beyond time and mind, we enter eternity.

"At the start of sexual union keep attentive on the fire in the beginning, and so continuing, avoid the embers in the end."

This sutra offers the transmission of a Tantric methodology for approaching sexual union. Rather than entering into sex with a goal, if we enter into it with a meditative awareness, sexual union can continue for hours, riding waves of consciously maintained pleasure. When we approach sexual union in this way, it opens a portal to Superconsciousness.

Within recorded history, it is known that a great Tantra Master named Matsyendranath who is said to have have received his transmission directly from Lord Shiva, worked together with his disciple Goraknath to put the sutras of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra into one scripture. This scripture is dated to sometime around the 9th or 10th century.

The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra has been lovingly passed down throughout the centuries as an integral part of Kashmir Shaivism. A modern day Master, Lakshmanjoo (1907–1991) has worked ceaselessly to help make known the transformational power this scripture contains. The Lakshmanjoo Academy offers educational materials of the ancient classic texts of Kashmir Shaivism including the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.

Books on The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

Daniel Odier, a contemporary French Tantra Master, has written a book on the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra from a scholarly perspective, giving us glimpses into the depth and breadth of this mystical path.

There are various translations from Sanskrit of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. The Translation Osho used is the same translation we are using in this article. This translation was transcribed by Zen Adept and Author, Paul Reps.

About this translation, Paul Reps says:

“Wandering in the ineffable beauty of Kashmir, above Srinagar I come upon the hermitage of Lakshmanjoo. It overlooks green rice fields, the gardens of Shalimar and Nishat Bagh, lakes fringed with lotus. Water streams down from a mountaintop.

Here Lakshmanjoo-tall, full bodied, shining -welcomes me. He shares with me this ancient teaching from the Vigyan Bhairava and Sochanda Tantra, both written about four thousand years ago, and from Malini Vijaya Tantra, probably another thousand years older yet. It is an ancient teaching, copied and recopied countless times, and from it Lakshmanjoo has made the beginnings of an English version. I transcribe it eleven more times to get it into the form given here.”

Note: In different spiritual traditions of Tantra the order of presenting these sutras may vary and the translation may vary also. Here below, I present the sutras in a particular order, due to the fact that I teach the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra once yearly as an experiential ten-day immersion. By attending this Retreat each year for three years, the student will be able to dive into the experience all 112 methods. My presentation follows my teaching system which divides the sutras into 12 facets of life. During the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra Retreat, under each facet, I offer particular sutras which will be in tune with that life principle. I created the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra Retreat Series due to the fact that many people are very inspired by the sutras but may not have any idea how to practice them.

12 Facets of Human Life (Plus the Transcendental)

1. Love and Relating
2. Creativity
3. Knowledge & Conceptual Refinement
4. Senses
5. Body, Breath & Movement
6. Purification & Healing
7. Devotion & Surrender
8. Silent Meditation & Witnessing
9. Subtle Energy
10. Sexual Union, Birth & Death
11. Elevation To Higher Consciousness
12. Playfulness
13. Transcendence

In the Radiance Sutras by Lorin Roche about the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, he offers an eloquent and poetic passage of Parvati’s questions to Lord Shiva:

One day, the Goddess sang to her lover Bhairava,

“Beloved and Radiant Lord of the space before birth, Revealed of essence

Slayer of the ignorance that binds us,

You, who in play have created this universe,

And permeated all forms in it with never-ending truth

I have been wondering; 

I have been listening to the songs of creation

I have heard the sacred sutras being sung

And yet I am still curious

What is this delight-filled universe

What is this mysterious awareness shimmering

Everywhere within it?

What are these instinctive energies,

That undulates through our bodies

Moving us into action?

And this matter out of which all forms are made,

What are these dancing particles of condensed radiance?

Are they an illusionist’s projection?

What is this power we call life,

Appearing in the play of flesh and breath?

How may I know this mystery and enter it more deeply?

Beloved, my attention is ensnared by a myriad of forms

The innumerable individual entities everywhere

The innumerable individual entities everywhere

You, who hold the mysteries in your hand,

Of will, knowledge and action

Reveal to me the path of illumined knowing

Reveal to me the path of illumined knowing

With the life of the universe

Teach me that I may know it fully

Realize it deeply

And breathe in the truth of it.”

Shiva’s answers In Sutra Form

Shiva’s answers are in the form of 112 Sutras. A sutra is a condensed spiritual teaching. In a sense, it is a coded message, the full meaning of which can only be understood by someone who is deeply immersed into the study and practice of Tantra. 

•  "Or imagine the five coloured circles of the peacock tail to be your five senses in illimitable space. Now let their beauty melt within. Similarly, at any point in space or on a wall--until the point dissolves. Then your wish for another comes true."
•  "Be the unsame same to friend as to stranger, in honour and dishonour.
•  "In moods of extreme desire, be undisturbed."
•  "Put mind-stuff in such inexpressible fineness above, below and in your heart."
•  "When some desire comes, consider it. Then, suddenly, quit it."
•  "This consciousness exists as each being, and nothing else exists."
•  "Look lovingly at some object. Do not go to another object. Here in the middle of the object--the blessing."
•  "When in worldly activity, keep attention between two breaths, and so practising, in a few days be born anew."
•  "O Beloved, put attention neither on pleasure nor on pain, but between these."
•  "Before desire and before knowing, how can I say I am? Consider. Dissolve in the beauty."
•  "This consciousness is the spirit of guidance of each one. Be this one."
•  "Feel the fine qualities of creativity permeating your breasts and assuming delicate configurations."
•  "Believe omniscient, omnipotent, pervading."
•  "Devi, imagine the Sanskrit letters in these honey-filled foci of awareness, first as letters, then more subtly as sounds, then as more subtle feeling. Then, leaving them aside, be free."
•  "Wherever your attention alights, at this very point, experience."
•  "Illusions deceive, colours circumscribe, even divisibles are indivisible."
•  "Look upon some object, then slowly withdraw your sight from it, then slowly withdraw your thought from it. Then."
•  "When vividly aware through some particular sense, keep in the awareness."
•  "Enter the sound of your name and, through this sound, all sounds."
•  "With your entire consciousness in the very start of desire, of knowing, know."
•  "At the start of sneezing, during fright, in anxiety, above a chasm, flying in battle, in extreme curiosity, at the beginning of hunger, at the end of hunger, be uninterruptedly aware."
•  "The purity of other teachings is an impurity to us. In reality, know nothing as pure or impure."
•  "In truth forms are inseparate. Inseparate are omnipresent being and your own form. Realise each as made of this consciousness."
•  "When a mood against someone of for someone arises, do not place it on the person in question, but remain centred."
•  "As, subjectively, letters flow into words and words into sentences, and as, objectively, circles flow into worlds, and worlds into principles, find at last these converging in our being."
•  "Each thing is perceived through knowing. The self shines in space through knowing. Perceive one being as knower and known."
•  "Feel the cosmos as a translucent ever living presence."
•  "Blessed one, as senses are absorbed in the heart, reach the centre of the lotus."
•  "Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audibly as feeling deepens into this silent harmony."
•  "When eating or drinking, become the taste of food or drink, and be filled."
•  "When listening to stringed instruments, hear their composite central sound, thus omnipresence."
•  "In the beginning and gradual refinement of any letter, awake."
•  "Bathe in the centre of sound, as in the continuous sound of a waterfall. Or, by putting the fingers in the ears, hear the sound of sounds."
•  "In summer when you see the entire sky endlessly clear, enter such clarity."
•  "Oh Shakti, each particular perception is limited, disappearing in omnipotence."
•  "Simply by looking into the blue sky beyond clouds, the serenity."
•  "Roam about until exhausted and then, dropping to the ground, in this dropping be whole."
•  "Just as you have the impulse to do something, stop."
•  "Or, whenever in-breath and out-breath fuse, at this instant touch the energy-less, energy-filled centre."
•  "Beloved, at this moment let mind, knowing, breath, form, be included."
•  "Without support for feet or hands, sit only on the buttocks. Suddenly, the centring."
•  "Touching eyeballs as a feather, lightness between them opens into heart and there permeates the cosmos."
•  "Pierce some part of your nectar-filled form with a pin, and gently enter the piercing and attain to the inner purity."
•  "Intone a sound, as AUM, slowly. As sound enters soundfulness, so do you."
•  "Shakti, see all space as if already absorbed in your own head in the brilliance."
•  "Feel your substance, bones, flesh, blood, saturated with the cosmic essence."
•  "Feel yourself as pervading all directions, far near."
•  "Meditate on the make-believe world as burning to ashes, and become being above human."
•  "With mouth slightly open, keep mind in the middle of the tongue. Or as breath comes silently in, feel the sound 'HH.'
•  "Feel my thought, I-ness, internal organs--me."
•  "Unminding mind, keep in the middle--until."
•  "In any easy position gradually pervade an area between the armpits into great peace."
•  "With intangible breath in centre of forehead, as this reaches heart at the moment of sleep, have direction over dreams and over death itself."
•  "Consider any area of your present form as limitlessly spacious."
•  "Devotion Frees."
•  "While being caressed, sweet Princess, enter the caress as everlasting life."
•  "With utmost devotion, centre on the two junctions of breath and know the knower."
•  "As a hen mothers her chicks, mother particular knowings, particular doings, in reality."
•  "Silently intone a word ending in 'Ah'. Then in the 'HH', effortlessly, the spontaneity."
•  "Attention between eyebrows, let mind be before thought. Let form fill with breath essence to the top of the head and there shower as light."
•  "Or, when breath is all out (up) and stopped of itself, or all in (down) and stopped--in such universal pause, ones small self vanishes. This is difficult only for the impure."
•  "Feel an object before you. Feel the absence of all other objects but this one. Then, leaving aside the object-feeling and the absence-feeling, realise."
•  "When on a bed or seat, let yourself become weightless, beyond mind."
•  "In a moving vehicle, by rhythmically swaying, experience. Or in a still vehicle, by letting yourself swing in slowing invisible circles."
•  "Abide in some place endlessly spacious, clear of trees, hills, habitations. Thence comes the end of mind pressures."
•  "Wherever your mind is wandering, internally or externally, at this very place, this."
•  "The appreciation of objects and subjects is the same for an enlightened as for an unenlightened person. The former has one greatness; he remains in the subjective mood, not lost in things."
•  "Here is the sphere of change, change, change. Through change consume change."
•  "Thinking no thing will limited-self unlimit."
•  "Eyes closed, see your inner being in detail. Thus see your true nature."
•  "Look upon a bowl without seeing the sides or the material. In a few moments become aware."
•  "At the edge of a deep well look steadily into its depths until--the wondrousness."
•  "Centre on the sound 'AUM' without any 'A' or 'M.”
•  "Consider your essence as light rays from centre to centre up the vertebrae, and so rises 'livingness' in you."
•  "Or the spaces between, feel this as lightning."
•  "In rain during a black night, enter that blackness as the form of forms."
•  "When a moonless rainy night is not present, close eyes and find blackness before you. Opening eyes, see blackness. So faults disappear forever."
•  "Consider the plenum to be your own body of bliss."
•  "Imagine spirit simultaneously within and around you until the entire universe spiritualises."
•  "Suppose your passive form to be an empty room with walls of skin--empty."
•  "Kind Devi, enter etheric presence pervading far above and below your form."
•  "At the start of sexual union keep attentive on the fire in the beginning, and so continuing, avoid the embers in the end."
•  "When in such embrace your senses are shaken as leaves, enter this shaking."
•  "Even remembering union, without the embrace, transformation."
•  "As waves come with water and flames with fire, so the Universal waves with us."
•  "Place your whole attention in the nerve, delicate as a lotus thread, in the centre of the spinal column. In such be transformed."
•  "O lotus-eyed one, sweet of touch, when singing, seeing, tasting, be aware you are and discover the ever living."
•  "Focus on fire rising through your form from the toes up until the body burns to ashes but not you."
•  "Cover the seven openings of the head with your hands, a space between your eyes becomes all inclusive."
•  "Let attention be at a place where you are seeing some past happening, and even your form, having lost its present characteristics, is transformed."
•  "Since in truth, bondage and freedom are relative, these words are only for those terrified with the universe. This universe is a reflection of minds. As you see many suns in water from one sun, so see bondage and liberation."
•  "Waking, sleeping, dreaming, know you as light."
•  "I am existing. This is mine. This is this. O beloved, even is such know illimitably."
•  "Stopping ears by pressing and the rectum by contracting, enter the sound."
•  "Listen while the ultimate mystical teaching is imparted. Eyes still, without blinking, at once become absolutely free."
•  "Feel the consciousness of each person as your own consciousness. So, leaving aside concern for self, become each being."
•  "Enter space, supportless, eternal, still."
•  "Suppose you contemplate something beyond perception, beyond grasping, beyond not being--you."
•  "Radiant one, this experience may dawn between two breaths. After breath comes in, (down) and just before turning up (out) --the beneficence."
•  "Toss attachment for body aside, realising I am everywhere. One who is everywhere is joyous."
•  "Gracious one, play. The universe is an empty shell wherein your mind frolics infinitely."
•  "On joyously seeing a long absent friend, permeate this joy."
•  "Wherever satisfaction is found, in whatever act, actualise this."
•  "Lie down as dead. Enraged in wrath, stay so. Or stare without moving an eyelash. Or suck something and become the sucking."
•  "See as if for the first time a beauteous person or an ordinary object."
•  "This so-called universe appears as a juggling, a picture show. To be happy, look upon it so."
•  "Objects and desires exist in me as in others. So accepting, let them be transformed."
•  "Stop the doors of the senses when feeling the creeping of an ant. Then."
•  "Suppose you are gradually being deprived of strength or of knowledge. At the instant of deprivation, transcend."
•  As breath turns from down to up, and again as breath curves from up to down--through both these turns, realise."
•  "Sweet hearted one, meditate on knowing and not-knowing, existing and not-existing. Then leave both aside that you may be."
•  "At the point of sleep, when the sleep has not yet come and the external wakefulness vanishes, at this point Being is revealed."

As you can see, the misunderstanding prevalent in our westernised society that Tantra is all about sex is simply not true. While a very few of the sutras could be applied to the sex act, for the most part, the sutras cover each and every aspect of daily life. They offer 112 portals into enlightened consciousness from within the experience of life itself. This is the beauty and grandeur of Tantra; it is a not only for spiritual adepts who retreat from the world, it is essentially a householders path. These powerful sutras indicate that no matter what you are involved in, this too can become a meditation.

"Tantra trusts in your body. Tantra trusts in your senses. Tantra trusts in your energy. Tantra trusts in you – in toto. Tantra does not deny anything but transforms everything.” - (Osho; Tantric Transformation)

Author

Ma Ananda Sarita

Ma Ananda Sarita is a Tantra master, initiated into Tantra in 1973 by Osho. With over 30 years of teaching experience, she offers courses and retreats worldwide. As the voice behind this blog, Sarita offers readers a glimpse into the power of Tantra.