#10. Heart, The Abode Of Emptiness | Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

Emptiness is not a concept to be learned from books. It is an inner experience. As you learn to shift the focus from form to formless in all senses, a new door opens up for you. The heart - the abode of emptiness. Technique: Meditate on the five voids of the senses, which are like the five different coloured circles on a peacock's feather. then enter the heart, enter the absolute void.

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Transcript

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

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

A young monk was admitted to a monastery and he had his first interaction with his master.

So he was invited to the master's place.

He got very excited.

He went to his master's place.

The master looked at him.

He said,

Tell me about yourself.

And this monk,

He wanted to impress the master.

So he said,

Which self?

There is no self.

There is no body.

There is no mind.

There's only emptiness.

There's only emptiness inside.

There's only emptiness outside.

And as he was continuing to speak,

The master took a stick,

Gave a whack on his head with his bamboo stick and immediately the monk,

He was shocked and the whole tone changed.

He got angry and he said,

Why did you do that?

And the master said,

If you are emptiness,

Where is this anger coming from?

Where is this tone coming from?

Take this anecdote.

Take this story and meditate over it.

Contemplate over it.

In this world full of knowledge,

With access to knowledge from all different directions,

With all the books that you can read,

With all what you can come across,

There's so much knowledge in the mind that the mind is continuing to repeat that knowledge and not really letting that sink in,

Not really that becoming an experience.

If this knowledge is about the objective world,

The outside world,

There is still a chance to measure.

There is a chance to have reference.

There is a chance to tell you whether you are on the right path or not on the right path.

But when it comes to the inner journey,

When it comes to this spiritual journey,

This turn inwards,

Where for the very first time you get interested in spirituality,

The path is endless.

The space is endless.

There is no reference.

There is no milestone.

How do you know that you are on the right path?

How do you know that you're not stuck somewhere just in mental concepts?

You are not just repeating these great profound ideas that there is no self,

There is no mind,

There is no body or anything else that you have come across with your books,

You've come across with all what the teachings that you have absorbed so far in your life.

So these sessions that we are having here are not another teaching,

Are not another lesson,

Are not another knowledge that you acquire and pile up on top of the knowledge that you have gathered from previous sources.

Rather these sessions are a chance,

A space,

Where you bring all that in your first-hand experience.

Nothing that is not in your experience,

You take it as a concept.

Everything that you come across,

All these spiritual teachings,

You do not reject them,

You do not deny them,

But you also do not just take them for granted,

Take them for words,

Rather use the space.

Enter into contemplation,

Enter into meditation,

Enter into your inner space,

Do that much effort that in these sessions you reflect.

You go within,

You not only listen,

But you go within not just having the filter of the mind rejecting or accepting all what is being said,

But rather taking what comes in,

This energy,

This vibration through Tantra,

Through yoga,

Through meditation,

Through these sessions.

Let this energy penetrate your heart,

Your spirit and give you that space where you can have that contemplation,

Where you can have that silence,

Where you take all these profound messages and let them unfold in your silence.

Let them become your reality.

Yes,

There is no self.

Yes,

There is no mind.

Yes,

There is no body.

Yes,

There is emptiness inside and outside.

But is this your experience or not?

If this is your experience,

Great!

Rejoice in that silence,

Rejoice in that emptiness.

If that is not your experience,

There is some effort that has to be done.

There is some work that has to be done by you in your inner space to let go of all the concepts,

To let go of all the ideas and let your consciousness rise to these profound messages,

To these facts.

What can help is techniques.

That is why we are discussing these 112 meditation techniques which the Bhairava,

The God himself,

Gave to the goddess Bhairavi in order for the consciousness to rise,

In order for the energies to be liberated,

In order to have some direction,

Some guidance how to approach this inner space,

The space which is vast,

Which is directionless,

Which is completely empty.

How do you approach that space?

Where is the door to that space?

How do you identify that door?

How do you enter that door?

Here,

With the compassion and love of Bhairava,

We have these 112 techniques with us.

In each of these sessions,

We are discussing these techniques one by one by one.

And all you have to do is,

First of all,

Remain in this contemplation.

Every word that is being said here,

You reflect this in your inner space.

Not only with the thought not only with your mind,

But with the awareness,

With your heart,

With your spirit.

Let that be absorbed.

Let that become your reality.

And through the techniques,

You have these doors,

These access points to this vast emptiness.

Let us go through the technique for today.

Understand how to perform this meditation before we sit in silence and practice this in our own experience.

Bhairava says,

Meditate on the five voids of the senses,

Which are like the five different color circles on a peacock's feather.

Then enter the heart.

Enter the absolute void.

Let me repeat.

Meditate on the five voids of the senses,

Which are like the five different colored circles on a peacock's feather.

Then enter the heart.

Enter the absolute void.

The first part of this technique,

Meditate on the five voids of the senses.

So here,

Bhairava is referring to the five senses.

The seeing,

The smelling,

The tasting,

The touching,

And the hearing.

These five senses are your doors to your perception,

Are doors to the external world,

Are doors to all the forms that you experience.

Through the eyes,

You see all the forms.

Through the ears,

What you hear,

You hear all the forms of sounds.

Through the smell,

You hear the form of the sounds,

Of the smell.

You identify those smells,

And so on.

So through all these senses,

These five senses,

What you receive is form.

And here,

Bhairava is encouraging you,

Is pointing you at the formless.

He's saying,

You so far,

Through this senses,

You have experienced the form.

Now experience the formless.

Move from form to formless.

He says,

Meditate on the five voids of the senses.

The voids of the senses is the formless that you have when you are shifting from form to formless in the senses.

Those who have practiced yoga know that there is a process,

There is a technique called Pratyahara,

In which you withdraw your energies from five senses.

So this technique of Tantra is not Pratyahara.

You're not withdrawing the energy from all the senses.

Rather,

You leave your senses open.

You leave all the five senses open.

So much so,

That there is no inside,

There is no outside.

The flow between inside and outside is seamless,

Is not with any filters.

And then you pay attention,

Pay awareness to every sense,

And shift the focus from form to formless.

When you start to see the emptiness,

And not just the form,

When you start to see the formless,

When you start to hear the formless,

When you start to smell,

Taste,

And touch the feel,

The emptiness,

The formless,

That is the time the next door opens.

The door to your heart.

So far,

You only know your mind,

And you know your heart through moments of love.

But this heart,

Which is the abode of individual consciousness,

That door has not opened up for you yet.

So when you feel emptiness through all your senses,

Then this door opens,

The door to your heart,

Through which you can enter the ultimate emptiness,

The ultimate nothingness,

The ultimate limitlessness.

So in this technique,

We will start with our awareness,

We'll bring it to each of our senses,

We'll give enough time for your awareness to shift from form to formless.

Until it becomes your experience,

Until you say in your inner space,

Yes,

I have tasted the emptiness,

I have tasted the formlessness in each of these senses,

The door does not open.

So give yourself time for each sense and taste,

Feel the emptiness through each of these senses,

And then move to the heart center,

Move to the heart where there is access to this vast emptiness,

Access to pure consciousness.

Let us take this message,

This technique,

Into our own experience and meditate over it,

Practice it in the next minutes.

Please close your eyes,

Take a posture that is comfortable for you,

With your hands in your lap or on your thighs.

All these meditations are with a sitting posture,

So make sure that your head,

Your neck,

Your back are straight,

Aligned,

Alert,

Yet restful.

Take a nice deep breath,

Inhale from the nose and exhale from the nose,

Allowing your body to rest,

To find its balance,

To find its stillness,

Allowing the breath to find its natural pace and become silent,

Flowing on its own,

With your awareness in your inner space.

Shift your awareness to what you see in front of your closed eyes,

Your awareness on what you see in front of your closed eyes.

You may see forms,

Light,

Shapes,

And so on.

And as your awareness settles on what you see,

Shift this focus from the form to the formless.

You see the formless,

Shifting awareness to what you hear,

To the form,

The ambient noises,

The voices in your head.

Listen and shift the focus from the form to the formless.

You hear emptiness,

Formlessness,

Awareness on your nose,

On what you smell in this moment.

Shift from the form to the formless,

In smelling from form to formless,

Awareness on your tongue,

What you taste from form to formless in your taste,

Formlessness,

Emptiness,

Awareness on touch,

And from form to formlessness in your touch,

And awareness at your heart,

At your heart center,

And let go of all effort.

Simply stay in silence,

In this emptiness,

In awareness.

While maintaining the sense of silence,

Awareness,

And emptiness,

Very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes,

Allowing your senses to once again,

Move from the formless to the form,

And take this taste of emptiness in all forms that you see,

A sense of formlessness that is always there together with the form in your daily life.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.

Reviews

This technique is open awareness. 🙏

If there was a sixth star for this review, I would give it! Questions explored and answered for me. My path is becoming smoother. Namaste, and deep bows to you. 🙏🏼😊

#10… into emptiness! Wonderful. Love these teachings!

Hello, I am not sure how to be in no form with the senses. How do I know I am there? Thank you. 🙏

I highly appreciate your teaching, thank you! I have been listening to all Vigyan Bhairav meditations and am committed to listening them all. This time I had difficulties in understanding the formless in seeing, hearing etc. can you explain them? 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 Namaste!

Beautiful