Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 61

Light between two objects

Ubhayor Bhavayor Gnane Dhyathwa Madhyam Samashrayeth|
Yugapaccha Dwayam Vyaktwa Madhye Tatwam Prakashate||

This dharana or concentration on the empty space in between two objects is one of the techniques that leads to the essence of consciousness that dwells within.
Take any two objects of your contemplation. It can be two flower vases or pen stands. You can even spread out the fingers of your hand and take just two fingers - the thumb and the index finger. Go on focusing on the empty space between the fingers.
Besides physically looking through the space, bring your mind too, to the empty space. The essence which is a part of you, me and the whole universe will shine through the space, revealing its presence to you.
Even while watching a film, especially if it happens to be a boring one, you can spend your time constructively to meditate on this Sutra. Keep your focus on the screen of the film between all the characters, sceneries and objects in the film. This screen is unchanging, like awareness as the events of life, good and bad, begin to unfold. - Swahilya Shambhavi. (Pic: The rock seen from the roof of the Sikha Nathaswamy Temple, Kudumiyan Malai in Pudukottai, Tamil Nadu, has a panel of carvings of the 63 Nayanmars. - Swahilya Shambhavi.)

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 60

Gaze at an empty mountain

Nirvriksha Giribhithyadi Deshe Drishtim Vinikshipeth|
Vileene Manase Bhave Vrittiksheenah Prajayate||

Cast your eyes in a place where there are mountains or huge rocks, sans trees. As the mind gets dissolved, the different waves of thought or the chitta vrittis get denuded. What the mind sees, that it becomes. Concentration on a barren rock makes the mind similarly singularly focussed. - Swahilya Shambhavi.
(The barren mountains with just a streak of a river flowing between the rocks is situated on the path of the Kailash Parikrama in Tibet. Pic. Swahilya Shambhavi.

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 59

Empty space in and out
Ghatadi Bhajane Drishtim Bhittees Tyaktwa Vinikshipeth| Tallayam Tatkshanad Gathwa Tallayath Thanmayo Bhaveth|| In this technique of Tantra, Shiva teaches on meditating upon the empty space within the pot. Space is the first creation of the mind and from space the other four elements emerge. Taking a deep look at the space inside the pot, the mind forgets for a moment the presence of the walls of the pot. By focussing on the space, the realisation that everything is just the same space happens. In that moment of merging with empty space, the mind also becomes that oneness which is its essential self. - Swahilya Shambhavi.

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 58

Focus on the void in the centre

Vishwametan Mahadevi Shunyabhootham Vichintayeth| Tathraiva cha Mano leenam tatahstallayabhajanam||

Oh great Goddess, when you focus your mind's attention in the big void that this universe is, at that moment, the mind dissolves in that emptiness and experiences the state of dissolving union with consciousness. Today nuclear physics is explaining to us the truth that the whole universe is not what we see, but a void. Take an object for instance. It is packed with atoms and molecules with protons, electrons and neutrons in the sub-atomic particles and quarks forming a minuscule portion orbiting in empty space. Surprisingly though we feel the presence of matter where there is only empty space.
When the mind constantly meditates on space, it has the capacity to take the form of what it always thinks about and becomes that emptiness which is in the core. - Swahilya Shambhavi.

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 57

Meditate and Realise

Asya Sarvasya Vishwasya Paryanteshu Samanthathaha
Adhwaprakriyaya Tatwam Shaivam Dhyathwa Mahodayaha

Meditation is the key to know the truth. What is the truth that needs to be known? There is one essence that pervades this whole universe of manifested creation. Everything that lives, moves or does not, has this flavour of consciousness present in it. That consciousness is the Shiva Tatwa or the Shiva Principle. This leads to the supreme realisation. - Swahilya Shambhavi.

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 56

Earth from the beginning

Bhuvanaadvaadirupena Chintayeth Kramashokhilam|

Sthoola Sukshma Parasthithya Yavadante Manolayaha||

Focussing the mind on a particular thought or image is Dharana. Here, Shiva tells us to take the mind to the point of time before the Earth was born. There was just an empty vast. Though science is still grappling to tell us the story of the earth, we know for sure now that universes are born and die, stars are born and die, the plants have their birth and death too. The earth too has its humble beginnings from nothingness and has been gradually expanding and consolidating over a period of time. Focussing on the gross, subtle and the supreme state of being of the earth beyond the gross and subtle as pure consciousness, the mind dissolves in the end. Swahilya Shambhavi. (The sea of clouds from above the skies. Pic. Swahilya Shambhavi.)

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 55

The sun and its light are the same

Peenam cha durbalam shaktim dhyathva dwadasha gochare|

Pravishya Hridaye Dhyayan Mukta Swatantrya Mapnuyath||

When you get to watch the sunlight falling at your doorstep in the morning, it is no different from the sun itself. But at the peripheral end of the sun's circumference, the light is still visible to the gross eyes. It is far weaker than the heat of the sun in space.

This tantra tells us to meditate on the weak layer of the mind energy that constantly keeps grazing on the objects of perception and action. In all our activities, our senses are involved. While eating for instance, the tongue tastes the food, the eyes see the dining table and other objects around, the ears hear the sounds outside and the food chewed in the mouth, the nose smells the food and the fingers touch the food, plate, spoon, bowl or anything that come in contact with it. All these actions use up the weak layer of energy.

Meditating on this layer of energy which manifests in 12 ways - through the 10 organs of perception and action and the mind and ego, you are able to experience an expression of consciousness that grazes around in this world of sense perceptions. When you enter deeply into the heart of this energy, you become free and attain to enlightenment. - Swahilya Shambhavi

(Pic: Reflection of the sun on the placid waters of the Ganga at Rishikesh. - Swahilya Shambhavi.)