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One of the most ancient texts and meditation manuals is Shiva's 5000-year-old
Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, which is concerned with how to go beyond the mind, to
attain glimpse of the consciousness which exists apart from the mind. It is here that
one should not be identified with the mind, and this is the fallacy of the West; that
we are our minds. For us not to be identified with our minds, to know that the mind
is only a moving process, like walking, but not the same as our consciousness, this is
the message of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. And all the techniques of meditation are
not concerned with how the mind operates, but rather are concerned only about
how to find the door outside the mind to find the open sky of consciousness.
The very setting is most amazing. Unlike the neurotic anti-sex fundamentalism of
monotheism, of some religions and all repressive teachings, the setting here is Shiva
speaking to Devi, while she is sitting in intercourse on his lap! Tantra is a valley of
relaxation that energizes each person, verses what we know as sex to be; a peak of
energy that is to be released. The words of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra were
originally written in a love language of depth we have yet to fully understand. And
in such love, like meditation and death, there is a complete surrendering and letting
go to the Methods the procedures. This is the setting of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.
This setting of delivering knowledge is unique and it is also unparallel in the entire
all time philosophical world
Complete surrendering itself needs no methods, no techniques, however it is the
question of how to surrender, thus the techniques.
Osho, from his commentary on the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, in the Book of Secrets,
under a section commenting on the stop techniques, writes:
"Gurdjieff made these (stop) techniques very well-known in the West, but he was
not aware of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. He learned these techniques in Tibet from
Buddhist lamas. He worked on these techniques in the West, and many, many
seekers came to realized the center through these techniques. He called them stop
exercises, but the source of these exercises is Vigyan Bhairav Tantra".
Devi Asks:
O Shiva, what is your reality?
What is this wonder-filled universe?
What constitutes seed?
Who centers the universal wheel?
What is this life beyond form pervading forms?
How may we enter it fully, above space and time, names and descriptions? Let my
doubts be cleared!
Shiva replies:
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]-->Radiant One, this experience may dawn
between two breaths. After breath comes in (down) and just before turning up (out)
- the beneficence.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2. <!--[endif]-->As breath turns from down to up, and again
as breath curves up to down - through both these turns, realize.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3. <!--[endif]-->Or, whenever in-breath and out-breath fuse,
at this instant touch the energy-less, energy-filled center.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4. <!--[endif]-->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.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5. <!--[endif]-->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.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6. <!--[endif]-->When in worldly activities, keep attention
between two breaths,
First as letters, The more subtly as sounds, Then as most subtle feeling.
Then, leaving them aside, be free.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->38. <!--[endif]-->Bathe in the center of sound, As in the
continuous sound of a waterfall. Or, by putting the fingers in the ears, Hear the
sound of sounds.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->39. <!--[endif]-->Intone a sound, As AUM ?? Slowly, As sound
enters soundfulness, So do you.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->40. <!--[endif]-->In the beginning and gradual refinement of
the sound of any letter, Awake.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->41. <!--[endif]-->While listening to stringed instruments, Hear
their composite central sound; Thus omnipresence.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->42. <!--[endif]-->Intone a sound audibly, Then less and less
audibly As feeling deepens