Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra verse 34, Yukti #8:
कपालान्तर् मनो न्यस्य तिष्ठन् मीलितलोचनः |
क्रमेण मनसो दार्ढ्यात् लक्षयेत् लष्यम् उत्तमम् || ३४ ||
kapālāntar mano nyasya tiṣṭhan mīlita-locanaḥ |
krameṇa manaso dārḍhyāt lakṣayet lakṣyam uttamam || 34 ||
Remaining with eyes closed, fix your attention inside the cranium (kapāla); by means of gradually increasing steadiness of mind, you will perceive that which is most worthy of being perceived. || 34 ||
Word-by-word breakdown: kapāla = cranium, skull-bowl; antar = inside; manas = faculty of attention; nyasya = having placed (a form of the word nyāsa); tiṣṭhan = staying remaining, abiding; mīlita = closed; locana = eyes; krameṇa = gradually, bit by bit; manas = mind, attention; dārḍhya = stability, firmness, fixity, steadiness; lakṣayet = one may/will note or perceive; lakṣya = target, goal, point of focus, perceptible (thing), that which ought to be perceived or is worthy of being perceived/noticed; uttama = ultimate, unsurpassable.
Analysis: the word tiṣṭhan (remaining) has connotations of stillness, steadiness, and stability. Mano nyasya literally means “having placed one’s manas,” and here manas means the faculty of attention. So, “having placed the focal point of attention inside the cranium (kapālāntar),” i.e., the top of the inside of the skull.
Now, what is strange about this phraseology is that we have the word kapāla, which doesn’t mean ‘skull’ per se but is specifically used to mean a skull-bowl, a ritual object used by transgressive tantric practitioners that cultivate intimacy with mortality. It is still used by both Tibetan Buddhists and Aghoris today, Aghoris being the direct descendants of the kāpālikas, “those who carry a skull-bowl.”
So a kapāla is an unusual word to use in this context, where we might expect simply mūrdhni, “inside the head”. What is the point of using the word kapāla, then? I think it is important because at the time of the composition of this text, kāpālikas were numerous throughout India. So the word kapāla would have made the contemporaneous reader immediately think of these practitioners carrying skull-bowls and wearing the six bone-ornaments (ṣaṇ-mudrās). This word kapāla thus reminds you of your own mortality, because these skull-bowls were made by taking a human skull and sawing off the top of the cranium. In the original Sanskrit, the verse was formulated to make you think of your own mortality in a way that is not at all obvious from a translation—because one translates kapāla in this context as something like ‘cranium’.
Now, if you see one of these skull-bowls, you can observe a middle point, the deepest part of the skull-bowl, and that’s where you’re fixing your attention inside your own skull. When doing this practice, you can simply ‘throw’ your attention to the inside of the top of your head and it kind of sticks there in an interesting way that’s hard to describe.
Then what does the verse say next? krameṇa manaso dārḍhyāt—through gradually increasing steadiness of the faculty of attention. Dārḍhya is steadiness, and strength, and fixity. Through this, lakṣayet lakṣyam uttamam—one will perceive that which is most worthy of being perceived. One will realize the uttama-lakṣya, the ultimate goal (because lakṣya also means ‘goal’). That seems like quite a dramatic claim—just by putting your attention in the top of the inside of your skull until it becomes perfectly steady, you’ll realize the ultimate goal. But the whole point is that any practice, if perfected, could facilitate such realization. It’s just that some practices, like this one, are in a way too simple for the modern mind, which thinks there has to be some deep philosophical meaning implied for a practice to be powerful.
This could be a good practice for anyone who is vāta-exacerbated (that’s an Āyurvedic term—too much wind element in the system means the mind just jumps here and there and it’s hard to keep it steady). This particular yukti can be done as a micro-meditation as well, meaning you can do it for a few minutes anywhere, anytime. The thing that’s not explicitly mentioned here but certainly must be included is relaxing the jaw and the muscles of the face—this is traditionally called divya-karaṇa, and I’ve found that this practice doesn’t work well unless you’re relaxing the muscles of the face and the jaw while you’re fixing your attention on the inside of the crown.
We’ve seen in previous verses (and will see in the very next verse as well) a great importance given to the central channel, and so it’s worthwhile to note that this point where we’re fixing our attention in this practice is in the central channel, just short of its upper terminus. If this practice has its maximum effect, it will bring about an opening of the brahma-randhra, the “aperture of the absolute”, the potential portal in the crown of the head. At that time it can feel like the top of your head has palpably opened up.
PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS: relax the jaw, letting it drop enough that the lips almost come apart. Place the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth, wherever it’s most comfortable on the hard palate, pointing up to the crown of the head. Let the eyes soften back in the head. Now, cast awareness up to that point—the center of the inside of your skull. Perhaps you feel a little tingle there. You may start to feel subtle prāṇa, vital energy, at that point. After a while, you may start to feel like you’re inhaling and exhaling through that point in the crown of the head. Just keep that focal point of attention. If attention wanders from that point, you just bring it back—it’s that simple.
If you do this practice, you may find it helps the following practice (see below), which is a central channel practice.
One of my students said, “That point really feels like the point at which a human can most easily sense the dissolution into all and the connection to all.”
ALTERNATE TRANSLATIONS:
b) Fixing one’s attention on the interior of the cranium and seated with eyes closed, with the stability of the mind, one gradually discerns that which is most eminently discernible. (SINGH)
c) Having placed one’s mind within (the space of the) skull, sitting (motionless) with the eyes closed, by progressively (increasing) the stability of the mind, one perceives the supreme goal. (DYCZKOWSKI)
d) By fixing one's mind on the inner space of the skull and sitting motionless with closed eyes, gradually, by the stability of the mind, one attains the supreme goal. (BÄUMER)
e) Staying with closed eyes, putting (one's) attention in (one's) skull, throughout the gradual stabilizing of attention, one shall get at the ultimate Goal. (DUBOIS)
f) Having closed the eyes and fixing the attention at the crown of the head, gradually stabilize the mind and direct it towards the goal, which will gradually become discernible. (SATSANGI)
g) Seated with eyes closed, fix one’s attention inside the skull. From firmness in concentration, one will gradually perceive the Supreme Reality. (CHAUDHRI)
h) By sitting with eyes closed and the mind fixed inside the (secret hole of the) head, when the mind gets gradually settled in its meditation, the aspirant should make the highest object of meditation its goal. (Singh & Maheśvarānanda)
i) Ayant fixé la pensée à l’intérieur du crâne, se tenant les yeux fermés, peu à peu, grâce à la stabilité de la pensée, qu’on discerne l’éminemment discernable. (SILBURN)
j) On doit déposer l’esprit dans le crâne, les yeux fermés. L’esprit se stabilisant peu à peu, on doit alors viser la cible ultime. (DUBOIS)
k) Wenn man seinen Geist auf das Schädelinnere konzentriert und so mit geschlossenen Augen verweilt, dann erlangt man allmählich durch die Festigkeit des Geistes das höchste Ziel. (BÄUMER)
l) Al fijar la atención en el interior del cráneo y sostenerla [ahí] con los ojos cerrados, gradualmente logra discernirse – gracias a esta atención inflexible – la meta suprema. (FIGUEROA)
m) Close your eyes, see the whole space as if it were absorbed in your own head, direct your gaze inward, and there, see the spatiality of your true nature. (ODIER)
n) Eyes closed, see your inner being in detail. Thus, see your true nature. (REPS)
* * *
Verse 35, Yukti #9:
मध्यनाडी मध्यसंस्था बिससूत्राभरूपया |
ध्यातान्तर्व्योमया देव्या तया देवः प्रकाशते || ३५ ||
madhya-nāḍī madhya-saṃsthā bisa-sūtrābha-rūpayā |
dhyātāntar-vyomayā devyā tayā devaḥ prakāśate || 35 ||
The central channel is situated in the core [of one’s being]. Meditate on it as having a form like a slender lotus fibre [and] as being the Goddess in the form of the innermost Space; through Her, [the experience of] God (i.e., the Light of Consciousness) will manifest. || 35 ||
Word-by-word breakdown: madhya-nāḍī = central channel; madhya-saṃsthā = situated in the center/core; bisa-sūtra = lotus fibre; ābha = appearing, like, resembling; rūpa = form, nature (rūpayā = ‘as having a form/nature’, in the feminine to agree with devī); dhyātā = visualized, meditated upon; antar = inner; vyoma = space, void, openness, clarity (in the feminine to agree with devī) [Ś: = cidākāśa]; devyā tayā = through that Goddess; deva = god, God, divinity, shining one, playful one [Ś: = prakāśa]; prakāśate = will manifest, will be revealed, will shine forth.
Madhya-nāḍī, the central channel, is also known as suṣumnā-nāḍī, the graceful channel. This of course is that subtle axis of energy running through the very center of the body. All our most powerful emotional and energetic experiences occur along this axis, this midline, whether in the region of the heart, or the belly, or the throat, or the sex organs, or the crown. The reason I say this is because it’s easy for people to construe the central channel as a mystical reality only experienced by advanced yogins or psychics—and that’s not the case, even though most people don’t experience the full power of the central channel, nor do they experience it along its entire length.
Most people only experience those points along the central channel where energy gets activated most intensely, those points called cakras where multiple nāḍīs or channels intersect. In the verse, the central channel is said to be madhya-saṃsthā—situated in the core, in the total center of one’s body, both from the perspective of left vs. right and front vs. back. In other words, it’s not the spine as is commonly believed, but rather runs vertically in a straight line from the pelvic floor to the crown of the head.
This is the second yukti focussing on the central channel, the first being that taught in verse 28. This practice is considerably subtler, perhaps presuming some facility with the earlier practice. Most people at first have a hard time feeling the central channel along its entire length, and that sensibility is exactly what’s cultivated in this yukti, but what makes it more challenging is the fact that here we are invited to experience the channel as pure space, a extraordinarily slender column of pure space.
At the end of the first half of the verse, we see the compound bisa-sūtrābha-rūpayā, which means “as having the form of a lotus fibre.” So, we are to imagine or experience the central channel as being very, very slender and subtle, as slender as a lotus fibre (see image below), running from the pelvic floor to the crown of the head.
Lotus fibres attached to lotus roots.
Then we get a further instruction—one should orient to the central channel in this practice as antar-vyoma, meaning “inner space.” Here, vyoma is a synonym for śunya, which means emptiness—but the commentator Śivopādhyāya points out that this inner space is in fact full of presence, full of consciousness. He glosses antar-vyoma, this inner space of the central channel, with cidākāśa, which means “the space of [pure] awareness.” It’s not just a void, it’s full of awareness and presence, while being empty of any particularity, any thing-ness.
Then the verse says devyā tayā, “through that Goddess,” with the word ‘Goddess’ agreeing grammatically with the word ‘space’ to show they are synonymous. So this is not space in the sense of an energy-free static void, but rather there’s a subtle dynamism present. In nondual Śaiva Tantra, this subtle dynamism is understood to be the innate capacity within consciousness to perceive anything. The capacity to be aware is a subtle kind of energy called citi-śakti. We can infer that this is intended because Devī, Goddess, is equivalent to Śakti, energy, in this tradition. So the inner space itself is to be experienced as the Goddess. And through that Goddess, God manifests.
Now, the word God (devaḥ) is glossed by the commentator as prakāśa, the creative Light of Awareness that has the capacity to manifest any experience whatsoever. (Glossing is when a commentator says “this word means that”, giving a one-word equivalent.) When the text says devaḥ prakāśate, God manifests as a result of this practice, we can be sure that that doesn’t mean having a vision of anthropomorphic Shiva in front of you, but rather something much, much subtler—that the Light of Awareness reveals itself as a result of this practice. It reveals itself in the central channel, and once it does that, you can experience that same Light of Awareness in everything. The tradition usually says or implies that you must first experience it internally before you can experience it in everything.
Let’s read the verse again: the central channel, madhya-nāḍī, is situated in the core of one’s being, madhya-saṃsthā; meditate on it, dhyātā, as having a form like a slender lotus-fiber, bisa-sūtrābha-rūpayā, and as being the Goddess in the form of the innermost space, antar-vyomayā devyā, and through that Goddess, that subtle dynamism of consciousness, the Light of Awareness that manifests everything in the entire universe will reveal itself to you as the very core of your own being.
PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS: sitting up straight and tall, but with the jaw relaxed, place the middle finger of your right hand very gently on the crown of your head. Then place the middle finger of your left hand on the perineum. Then, relaxing the jaw, feel the subtle line of energy between those two finger-tips. You may feel it along its entire length or not—that’s okay. Then take the fingers away and see if you can still feel that subtle line of energy. Now feel that subtle line of energy as pure space or spaciousness, filled with quiet presence. Tune into the central channel as pure spaciousness filled with quiet presence.
One student mentioned, “Sometimes it feels like there’s a ripple upward and downwards along this slender thread.” That’s the dynamism that I was talking about—even though it consists of pure spaciousness, vyoma, at the same time it has śakti, this subtle dynamism. Philosophically, that’s kind of a paradox because we conceptualize pure spaciousness as not having energy or dynamism, but experientially it does. The space of pure awareness is filled with subtle dynamism.
Below is a guided practice video connecting Yuktis #1, 2, and 9.
ALTERNATE TRANSLATIONS of verse 35:
a) The MEDIAL CHANNEL or Central Vein of Reality ABIDES in the mysterious CENTRAL IN-BETWEEN, which is the place or space of that which is utterly most interior and completely adjusted to the Core depth of the Real. In FORM, it can be described as BEING LIKE the SLENDEREST THREAD of the FIBER OF A LOTUS. That INNER VACUITY, the Paradoxically Empty Fullness of the Heavenly Space of the Central In-Between, is the very space where MEDITATION must ever deepen and steep. There, THE GODDESS Potency of Consciousness ILLUMINATES and reveals THE DIVINE Absolute. (MULLER-ORTEGA; words in capital letters have exact Sanskrit equivalents in the verse)
b) The medial nāḍī is situated in the middle. It is as slender as the stem of a lotus. If one meditates on the inner vacuity of this nāḍī, it helps in revealing the Divine. (SINGH)
c) The Middle Channel is situated in the middle (between the two breaths) in (an extremely subtle) form like a lotus fibre. Having meditated on that as the Goddess Who is the inner Void, God is illumined by Her. (DYCZKOWSKI)
d) The central vein, which is situated in the middle, is subtle like the fiber of a lotus stalk. By meditating on the space within it through that goddess (of inner space), God is revealed. (BÄUMER)
e) The middle channel is standing in the middle: by visualizing her like a lotus fiber, through that Goddess, that inner sky, God shall shine (fully). (DUBOIS)
f) One should meditate on the inner space of the medial nadi (sushumna) situated in the central axis of the body (the spinal column), which is as slender as a fibre of the lotus stem, and then by the grace of Devi, the divine (form) is revealed. (SATSANGI)
g) The central channel located in the middle of the spinal cord has the appearance of the lotus thread. Meditate on its inner space. The Goddess then reveals God. (CHAUDHRI)
h) The intermediate nerve (i.e. sushumnā) is situated in the middle (of the iḍā and pingalā). It appears like a thread inside the lotus-stalk. Having been meditated on via that divine nerve running through the void, the Divine manifest Itself. (Singh & Maheśvarānanda)
i) Le canal médian est ce qui se tient au Centre. Quand on médite sur lui sous forme de cette Déesse qui, semblable au filament d’une tige de lotus, est identique au firmament intérieur, (alors) le Dieu se révèle. (SILBURN)
j) On contemple le canal du milieu qui se tient au milieu (du corps), en forme de tige de lotus lumineuse. Grâce à cette Déesse de l’espace intérieur, le Dieu se manifeste. (DUBOIS)
k) La vena central está situada en medio: a través de esta Diosa, [tan sutil] como el filamento del tallo de loto y en cuyo interior puede contemplarse el vacío, Dios resplandece. (FIGUEROA)
l) The inner channel is the Goddess, like a lotus stem, red inside, blue outside. It runs across your body. Meditating on its internal vacuity, you will reach divine spatiality. (ODIER)
m) Place your whole attention in the nerve, delicate as the lotus thread, in the center of your spinal column. In such, be transformed. (REPS)