#1. Introduction To Tantra | Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

Tantra has nothing to do with sexuality. It is a science to raise consciousness, to meet the supreme consciousness, to come to terms with the nature of reality. The text of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is a love story between Bhairava (God) and Bhairavi (Goddess). Bhairavi has learned several concepts but is full of doubts and asks Bhairava to clear all her doubts.

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Transcript

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

Dhyan Se.

Today,

We begin a new journey.

A journey into the knowledge of Tantra.

So before we begin this journey,

Let us take a moment to give the salutations to this knowledge of Tantra,

To the source of this knowledge of Tantra and for this opportunity for all of us to come together,

To come into contact with the vibrations of this knowledge of Tantra and take something into our life,

To have a life full of love,

Full of peace,

Full of consciousness.

I welcome all of you into the knowledge,

Into the world of Tantra.

What is Tantra?

When for the very first time I came into the western part of this world,

I was astonished to see when I said the word Tantra,

What all connotations were associated with the word.

The word Tantra is in so much darkness,

In so much ignorance,

In so many wrong connotations used in the western world that it deserves once again a chance to put light on what this word means,

What this science of Tantra means.

Tantra has nothing to do with sex.

Tantra,

All with all its sexual connotations,

Is completely misunderstood.

Rather,

Tantra is a science to raise your consciousness,

To meet the highest possibility to the highest consciousness possible to man.

That is the science of Tantra.

If you have been meditating with me on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,

You have gone through a certain journey,

You have felt what it means to raise consciousness,

What it means to clear the illusion,

To come to the nature of reality.

And yet again,

Tantra is once again another piece of work,

Even far more significant than the work done by Yoga,

Because the work done on Yoga was done by a human being,

By Patanjali.

But the work of Tantra,

It comes directly from the Divine.

There is no human intervention into the work of Tantra,

Into the science of Tantra.

It is the direct message from the highest consciousness to raise the consciousness of the human being.

Yoga was a system.

What we went through had a systematic approach to it.

Tantra has 112 meditation techniques.

Each of those techniques is a system in itself.

What you had learned before in Yoga was one system.

Each and every Sutra of Yoga was coming together to form one system.

Tantra is 112 meditation techniques.

Each one of them is a system in itself.

There is no philosophy.

There is no this or that.

There is directly techniques.

Techniques,

Each of which is highly potent.

We will go through these 112 techniques one by one over the course of these sessions as we proceed along this journey.

But first,

We have to come to terms with what is Tantra.

So please understand that Tantra is the science.

Tantra is the knowledge to raise the consciousness,

To understand,

To come to the experience of the nature of reality,

To break through all the illusions that you have created for yourself of this world and come to meet this ultimate reality.

So it is a science.

It is a vibration.

It is a knowledge that you at this stage of your journey require to come out of ignorance,

To come out of the unconsciousness.

The way this Tantra is set,

The texts of this Vijnan Bhairav Tantra is set,

It is a dialogue between the two,

The God and a Goddess.

It is a love story.

You can call it a love story where the Goddess is asking the God to give her knowledge,

To give her tools so that she can rise above all the illusions and understand the nature of reality.

And this story is set as a love story,

Unless there is love between the Goddess and the God,

Unless there is love between the student and the teacher,

Unless there is love between the disciple and the master,

There is no transformation possible.

There is no transmission of energy,

Of knowledge possible.

Therefore,

The text of Tantra,

Of Vijnan Bhairav Tantra is set as a love story,

Is set as a conversation between the Goddess,

The Devi,

With the God,

The Deva,

Between the Bhairavi,

The Goddess,

The Bhairava,

The God,

Between the energy and the consciousness,

Between the unconscious and the conscious.

You have to see that there is both of this in you as well.

There is both unconscious and conscious in you.

Unless the unconscious in you wants to meet and merge the conscious,

Unless the unconscious in you falls in love with what is conscious in you,

Unless the conscious in you,

There is no transformation possible.

Unless that happens,

Unless that urge of the ignorance of the unconscious in you wishes to merge,

To be in love with the conscious and become the conscious and become fully conscious and rise to the supreme consciousness,

Unless that urge is there,

There is no transformation possible.

Meditation remains a meditation.

It does not flower into its full potential for you.

So along this journey of Tantra,

I invite you into love.

I invite you into having your unconscious falling in love with your conscious,

Seeing that the life that you lead with the conscious is far more superior than the life that you would lead in the unconscious.

Therefore,

It is wise to move and merge the unconscious into the conscious.

And the only way possible is to remain completely receptive,

To remain completely in love of the conscious,

Of what is coming towards you.

The energy of the conscious that is coming towards the unconscious and enlighten the unconscious,

Merge the unconscious into the conscious.

Let us hear a few Sutras,

A few sentences from this text before we sit in meditation.

As I said,

There are two parts to this Tantra.

One is the dialogue between Bhairavi,

The goddess,

The unconscious,

And Bhairava,

The god,

The conscious.

This dialogue is a beginning of Tantra where the goddess is asking the god to clear her doubts,

To clear all her questions and bring her to clarity.

And that sets the initiation,

That sets the stage for the god,

For the supreme consciousness to give these 112 techniques to all of us,

To Bhairavi.

So what we will do is for today's session,

We will listen to few of the selections from this dialogue,

From this conversation,

To set our energies for being receptive in this session.

And we will go through 112 techniques starting tomorrow,

One by one.

For today's session,

It is all about setting the energies rightly to become as receptive as possible for Tantra,

For the knowledge of Tantra,

For higher consciousness to penetrate our unconscious and enlighten it into consciousness.

In Vijnan Bhairava Tantra,

The first 23 shlokas,

The first 23 dialogues are all these dialogues between the god and the goddess.

I have summarized them for you.

I have picked up very selective few sentences which relate to how we are as well.

And when we go through the meditation techniques,

We will not skip any of those shlokas,

Any of those sutras.

So listen to this dialogue with an open heart.

Oh Bhairava,

In spite of everything that I have heard,

Even today my doubts are not dispelled.

As Bhairavi,

The goddess,

The unconsciousness,

Speaks to the consciousness,

To the god,

To the Bhairava,

Recognize this in your own self,

In your own being as well that the unconscious is constantly having heard so many different things.

At every corner there is a teacher,

At every corner there is a coach,

At every corner there are knowledge,

So many teachings out there.

And the Bhairavi,

The unconscious is saying to Bhairava,

In spite of everything that I have heard,

Even today my doubts are not dispelled.

Of course,

How can your doubts be dispelled?

You have gathered so much knowledge,

You have gathered so much teachings from all these different parts.

In spite of all that I have heard,

Even today my doubts are not dispelled.

What is your reality?

The unconscious is asking the conscious,

What is your reality?

Is your reality transcendent or imminent?

Or is it completely imminent or completely transcendental?

Can it be perceived through this knowledge of the triple forms of Shakti?

Para,

Para para and apara.

Now Bhairavi,

The goddess,

The unconsciousness is bringing out all what she had learned,

All the systems she had learned and trying to guess what is the reality of consciousness.

Is trying to intellectually come to this understanding of what reality is.

She is asking the consciousness to understand what reality is.

She is asking the question to the consciousness.

At the same time,

She is also trying her best to intellectually answer.

She is saying,

Is your reality transcendent or imminent?

Or is it completely imminent or completely transcendental?

So here she is referring to the system where you see reality in three parts.

You see the reality as the para,

As the transcendental.

That is something completely beyond the perception.

It is transcendental.

It is pure consciousness or the reality that is apara,

That is imminent,

That is something innate,

That is in the form of energy and somewhere in between the para para.

Somewhere which is both transcendental and imminent.

So she is using all these concepts to guess what is the reality of consciousness.

What is the reality of God,

Of supreme consciousness.

And then she continues asking these questions.

She says,

Can your reality be perceived through the nine different ways by which one can enter the realm of higher consciousness?

She again brings out some more learnings,

Some more teachings she had gathered from here and there.

She is saying,

Are you the power or energy contained in sound from which all mantras have originated?

She is trying her best.

I love Bhairavi.

I love this unconsciousness,

Trying to entice consciousness,

Trying to tell consciousness,

Are you this,

Are you that,

In the questioning,

Trying to demonstrate her intellectual capabilities.

Then she makes a turn and says,

These are my doubts,

Oh Bhairava.

By your blessings,

Please destroy all my doubts completely.

Here she realizes that,

Yes,

I am the power of the mind.

Here she realizes that,

Yes,

I am saying everything intellectual possible,

But none of it matches the vibrations of the truth.

So,

Oh Bhairava,

Please clear all my doubts.

With your blessings,

Please clear all my doubts completely.

This is the stance that is needed to be in meditation,

To be on this spiritual path of tantra,

Where the unconsciousness is fully receptive of the consciousness.

Is knowing that there are doubts to be cleared,

Is knowing that the intellectual capabilities are not enough.

They have to be put aside.

You have to listen with a heart open,

With love,

With complete receptivity.

When that happens,

The Bhairava says,

The God says,

Good,

Well spoken.

Oh Bhairavi,

What you have asked is the essence of tantra.

What you are asking to clear all your doubts completely is the essence of tantra.

The tantra is not about answering your questions.

The tantra is about destroying your questions.

It's about completely destroying your doubts,

So that there are no doubts,

There are no questions,

And you come to terms with the truth,

You come to terms with the reality,

The way you should come to it,

The way you should approach it,

Not intellectually.

Bhairava says,

This is the most secret part of tantras,

Yet I will speak to you.

So much compassion this Bhairava has for us,

Has for Bhairavi,

So much love for Bhairavi.

He says that this is the most secret part of tantras,

Yet I will speak to you,

Yet I will expound to you.

There is nothing to speak,

There are techniques to be performed,

Yet I will speak to you,

Yet I will try to put them into words so that you understand them,

So that you have a chance to come to practice these 112 meditation techniques.

He says,

I cannot be perceived in any of your concepts.

These things have been told to you like the tales told to children,

To induce people of immature intellect to follow the spiritual path,

Just as the mother entices her children with sweets.

Here Bhairava very clearly says that your concepts are not enough.

What I am,

What my nature of reality,

The truth is,

Has nothing to do with all these concepts that you have learned.

So these concepts have to be dropped.

You have to be completely empty to come to higher consciousness,

To come to truth,

To come to meditativeness.

These things have been told to you like tales told to children,

So that to induce people of immature intellect to follow spiritual path.

All the concepts that you have heard about spirituality,

All the teachings that you have heard about spirituality,

All what you're following in the name of spirituality,

All those concepts are because of your immature intellect.

So lies have been told to you like tales told to children,

So that to induce people of immature intellect to follow spiritual path.

So lies have been told to you to bring you the truth.

Forget about these lies and come to the truth in complete emptiness,

In complete receptivity.

And the last thing he says,

Is that when you're completely free,

You're completely empty.

You are in a state of receptiveness,

Then this knowledge of Tantra happens.

So,

This is the state of Tantra.

So,

This is the state of Tantra.

So,

This is the state of Tantra.

You are in a state of receptiveness,

Then this knowledge of Tantra happens.

Let us dedicate the next few minutes of meditation,

Of silence,

Moving into the silence in complete receptivity.

Take these moments to allow nothing in you remain closed,

If you want to take any kind of benefit out of this knowledge of Tantra that we will go through in upcoming sessions.

Please close your eyes,

Take a posture that is comfortable for you.

In your hands,

In your lap or on your thighs.

Your head,

Your neck and your back aligned,

Alert,

Yet relaxed.

Take a nice deep breath,

Inhale from the nose,

And exhale from the nose.

And with every exhalation,

Allowing your body to rest.

Bring your awareness to your body.

And tune your body into receptivity.

As if your whole body is receiving the Tantra.

As if your whole body is receiving the energy,

The knowledge,

The silence.

Every cell of your body in receptivity,

In openness.

Your senses,

What you hear,

What you see behind your closed eyes,

What you smell,

Taste,

And feel on your skin.

All your senses open in receptivity of the energy.

And shift your awareness to your inner space.

Thank you.

Taking these moments to drop all what you know,

What you've learned as spirituality.

And just sitting in silence,

In receptivity of the new,

Of the energy.

In receptivity of the new,

Of the energy.

Thank you.

Awareness at all times in your inner space.

In a state of receptivity.

In a state of openness.

In a state of receptivity.

In a state of receptivity.

Taking these moments for your mind to settle,

To drop all these thoughts,

Ideas,

Concepts.

Anything that your consciousness is holding.

Thank you.

As your awareness settles in your inner space,

Silence arises.

Don't force anything.

Remain receptive,

Open,

Receiving,

Empty.

Thank you.

In this silence,

The unconscious settles,

The conscious rises.

And let go of all effort.

Simply stay in this silence,

In awareness of your inner space.

And let go of all effort.

And very gently and slowly bring your awareness back to your breath.

Back to your body.

Very slowly you may open your eyes,

Maintaining the silence,

This awareness.

In this sense of open receptivity in your being,

In your heart,

In your awareness.

We will proceed with 112 techniques of tantra as we go along in these sessions.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.

Reviews

Excited to be starting on this study of Tantra, Dhyanse.. 🙏

Now I finally got (experienced) what's beginner mind not as an intellectual concept but a state of mind and bodily sensation. Beautiful feeling.

Thank you for the background and meditation. Looking forward to the other sessions.

Amazing introduction to tantra. I look forward to continuing through all 112 techniques !

So peaceful thank you 🙏

It’s been some years since I studied (drifted from?) the Tantric teachings. Perhaps my disillusionment with the western misappropriation by those who misinterpret theses sacred texts as focused on sexuality and to monetize them (subconscious judgement?). 2022 threw many challenges my way, and I intuitively knew I had to return to Source, which more than any other teachings, Tantra is. As I prepare to also begin advanced yoga teacher training, this meditation called me and in it, I realized that I must return to those 112 Tantric meditations (systems) as a way of living. Thank you! Thank you! Truly, when the student is ready, the teacher will come.❤️🙏🏼

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Informationen plus Meditation
Thats wonderful.
Thanks

These 112 sessions are an excellent practical introduction to the Tantra meditation techniques. VBT is viewed as the most seminal work (a masterpiece) on meditation techniques ever written.

I was drawn by the practicality and no frills of it and have been practicing only them for the past year. Recently, have delved further into Kashmiri Shaivism (Trika) - a hugely complex path but fully comprehensive. Thank you for your love, work and dedication in spreading the beautiful vibration of Tantra 🙏💜❤

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Excellent!

Love the teaching, love the stillness 💫🙏

I loved this. Very insightful, looking forward to the rest of the sessions 🙏

Thank you so much Dhyan🙏🏽 I appreciate your time and sharing your knowledge of tantra here from your heart. I was always passionate about the path of tantra also upset to see how the west introduces this deep knowledge in a wrong way. Thank you for this journey🙏🏽 This meditation was deep and your energy is amazing. Namaste 🙏🏽🦋