Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra verse 36, Yukti #10 (I consider this to be an āṇava-upāya practice most suitable for experienced practitioners):
कररुद्धदृगस्त्रेण भ्रूभेदाद् द्वाररोधनात् |
दृष्टे बिन्दौ क्रमाल् लीने तन्मध्ये परमा स्थितिः || ३६ ||
kara-ruddha-dṛg-astreṇa bhrū-bhedād dvāra-rodhanāt |
dṛṣṭe bindau kramāl līne tan-madhye paramā sthitiḥ || 36 ||
If [the yogī] closes the doors [of the senses] with the ‘weapon’ [mantra] and the [mudrā by which] perception is blocked with the hands, [and subsequently] pierces the eyebrow-center, s/he will perceive the Bindu [in that center]. When it gradually dissolves, [one will experience the] Supreme State in one’s Center. || 36 ||
Word-by-word analysis:
kara = hands; ruddha = blocked, restrained; dṛg = perception; astra = weapon, weapon-mantra; bhrū = eyebrows, eyebrow-center; bheda = piercing, breaking through, opening; dvāra = doors, openings; rodhana = closing, confining, shutting up ; dṛṣṭa = seen (in the locative absolute); bindu = point of light, ‘droplet’ (loc. abs.); kramāt = gradually; līna = dissolved, melted away (loc. abs.); tan-madhya = in that center, in one’s Center; paramā = supreme, ultimate, final, absolute; sthiti = state, stasis, stability, resting, remaining, abiding.
First of all, we get this mysterious phrase kara-ruddha-dṛg-astreṇa dvāra-rodhanāt which seems to say we should “close the doors of the senses with the ‘weapon’ by which perception is blocked with the hands”. This seems to refer to ṣaṇmukhī mudrā, in which you close the eyes firmly with the index fingers, partially close the nostrils with the middle fingers, cover the mouth with the ring fingers, and plug the ears firmly with the thumbs—so you’re in a state of sensory deprivation (see the image below). Of course you can use modern tools to accomplish much the same thing, e.g. you can just put on an eye-mask and put in ear plugs. However, some practitioners argue that you need the mudrā because the index fingers should apply gentle pressure to the eyes, which may well be correct (see the commentary under letter ‘o’ below).
Let’s discuss the textual problem here. We see this unusual word used, ‘astra’, weapon—that is, it’s very unusual to refer to a mudrā (or the hands, for that matter) as a ‘weapon’, but it’s not unusual at all to refer to specific bījās as astra-mantras, weapon-mantras. These are bījā-mantras that are considered to be especially powerful, such as ‘saḥ’ or ‘huṃ’ or ‘phaṭ’—and if we look at the modern oral transmissions of different versions of this practice, that helps us narrow it down to the mantra huṃ as the one most probably alluded to here. It is not unusual for texts like the VBT to make reference to mantras in this highly allusive manner, where the mantra is not explicitly mentioned at all, and indeed here the text is so allusive that I haven’t seen any modern translators who have explicated this element of the practice. Huṃ (or hūṃ) is indeed an astra-mantra, and in a modern version of this practice is called bhrāmarī or the “bee-breath”. However, most modern yoga teachers and websites do not mention the actual mantra but simply advise the practitioner to make a humming sound (by the way, the English word ‘hum’ has a different vowel sound from the mantra huṃ). From the traditional point of view, this is a gross error because the mantra is key to the success of the practice.
So in one version of this practice, you just put on an eyemask, put in earplugs, and first sit in silent meditation with optional kumbhaka, holding the breath for as long as is comfortable, as many times in a row as comfortable. Then you concentrate attention just above and behind the bridge of the nose, inside the head, while performing uccāra of the mantra HUṂ (for which practice see verse 39). Eventually you may have a visionary experience of a point of light that stands out in front of your third eye—it actually is the point of light in your third eye, but you see it as if standing out in front of you. When you see that point of light clearly, and it is stable, that means, according to this verse, that the eyebrow center has been ‘pierced’, and the third eye has ‘opened’, at least partially. Then you’re advised to become utterly absorbed in this point of light called the bindu. Then it slowly dissolves or fades away, and that’s when you experience this paramā sthiti, this supreme stillness, which is an experience of the inner ground, the core of one’s being, metaphorically speaking.
In the traditional version of the practice, one does ṣaṇmukhī mudrā as described above and pictured below, while performing uccāra of HUṂ. You will find it is more effective to partially close the nostrils rather than fully close them. This practice can be very powerful, and sensitive practitioners should refrain from doing it more than a few minutes at a time.
A practitioner demonstrating ṣaṇmukhī mudrā -- though not visible, his thumbs are pressing closed his ears.
Simplified practice instructions:
(from the forthcoming set of VBT “flash cards,” designed by Jessica Molina)
ALTERNATE TRANSLATIONS (in several languages):
b) By stopping the openings (of the senses) with the weapon in the form of the hands, and thus by breaking open (the knot in the centre of the eye-brows) the bindu is perceived which (on the development of one-pointedness) gradually disappears (in the ether of consciousness). Then the yogī is established in the highest (spiritual) state. (SINGH)
c) By closing the doors of the senses with the weapon, that is, blocking (their) perception with the hands, and by piercing (the center between) the eyebrows, when the Point (bindu) (of light) is perceived and gradually dissolves away, (the yogi attains) the supreme state in the center (of the Void of consciousness). (DYCZKOWSKI)
d) By closing the openings of the senses by the hands and by piercing the centre between the eyebrows, when the bindu (light-point) is perceived and there is a gradual merging, then the supreme state is found in the centre. (BÄUMER)
e) By blocking the door (and) breaking through the eyebrows with the tool of the hands blocking vision, when a sphere is seen and gradually disapearing, in the middle of that is the supreme life. (DUBOIS)
f) By using the hands (as tools) to block the entrances in all directions, the eyebrow centre is pierced and bindu (or light) is seen. Being gradually absorbed within that, the supreme state is realized. (SATSANGI)
g) By concentrating on a point between the eyebrows, a light will be seen. Then, with the fingers of the hand, close the seven openings of the senses in the head. The light will gradually dissolve, and one will then permanently reside in their highest state. (CHAUDHRI)
h) When all the sensory openings in the head, such as eyes, ears, nose, and lips, etc., are blocked by the hands serving as the weapon in breaking the blockade between the eyebrows followed by the vision of the bindu and on the disappearance of the same gradually, it is inside the bindu that one finds the highest state of consciousness. (Singh & Maheśvarānanda)
i) Dès qu’on a bouché les ouvertures (des sens) à l’aide de l’arme (défensive) que forme la main les obturant, et qu’on perce le centre entre les sourcils, le bindu une fois perçu disparaît peu à peu; (alors) au milieu de cette (disparition), (voilà) le suprême séjour. (SILBURN)
j) On doit percer (le nœud) entre les sourcils et bloquer les ouvertures des sens grâce à l’arme des deux mains bloquant les yeux (et les autres sens). L’état ultime (apparaît) alors dans le centre du (champ visuel du yogin) quand il perçoit une sphère de lumière disparaissant peu à peu. (DUBOIS)
l) Bloqueado el dardo de la vista con ambas manos, cerradas las puertas [de los sentidos], perforado el entrecejo, el bindu se torna visible para luego diluirse gradualmente: ahí en medio [se alcanza] la estación suprema. (FIGUEROA)
m) Plug the seven openings of your head with your fingers and merge into the bindu, the infinite space between your eyebrows. (ODIER)
n) Closing the seven openings of the head with your hands, a space between your eyes becomes all-inclusive. (REPS)
o) Additional commentary: You don't merely close the eyes with your guru (index) finger. You don't need a finger to close your eyes. That index finger is softly placed on the eyelid and wrapped along the curve of the eyeball itself. Pressure is applied equally along the arc of the finger so the eyeball is not experiencing any unequal pressure on either side. As the incredibly bright lights begin to arise in the chidākāsh, then you perform uccāra of the mantra. The mantra then meets the light at the Bhrū-madhya of Sushumnā. This combined power takes you through the ‘glass ceiling’. Likewise, the points on the mouth aren’t needed to close the mouth but are to stimulate marma points that are there. (Dharmabodhi)
Śivopādhyāya’s Explication (c. 1700 CE):
This means that “the supreme state” – the manifestation of Bhairava – happens for the yogī “at the center,” meaning in the sky of Consciousness, “when he perceives a [tiny] sphere of light fading away little by little” by the force of his single-pointed concentration. When the knot (granthi) situated “between the eyebrows” is pierced due to this “weapon” which consists in obstructing the openings of the face involved in perception “with the two hands,” (the fingers covering the openings of the eyes, etc.) in order, (that is to say) beginning with the thumb, the index, etc.
Here now, is the word order in prose: There is a closure, obstruction of the openings (of the senses) with the hands, with “the weapon” by which the perceptive faculties are blocked with the hands. Because of that, the [knot] situated between the eyebrows is cut. There is then, perception of a luminous sphere (bindu-darśana).
Or: When there is a closure, obstruction of the opening to the Immense (brahma-randhra), then by reason of that, because the knot situated between the eyebrows is cut, there is perception of the supreme consciousness.
Or: “Having obstructed” is an ablative designating an accomplished action. “Having obstructed all the openings due to the (hands),” in piercing the knot (between) the eyebrows, the Light of Consciousness (appears).
Ānandabhaṭṭa’s Moonlight (commentary c. 1650 CE):
The openings of the face that permit perception are blocked by the two hands. By the aid of this and in piercing the knot at the center of the eyebrows, the yogin sees a [tiny] sphere. In attaining excellence, little by little, in this concentration, this sphere dissolves. Then, at the center of this (dissolution) one finds the supreme state, the full manifestation of Bhairava in his transcendence.
(Commentaries translated by David Dubois from Sanskrit to French, then translated by my student DaleAnn Gray into English, then edited [with reference to the original Sanskrit] by myself)
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Verse 37, Yukti #11 (I consider this to be an āṇava-upāya practice most suitable for experienced practitioners):
धामान्तःक्षोभसम्भूतसूक्ष्माग्नितिलकाकृतिम् |
बिन्दुं शिखान्ते हृदये लयान्ते ध्यायतो लयः || ३७ ||
dhāmāntaḥ-kṣobha-saṃbhūta-sūkṣmāgni-tilakākṛtim |
binduṃ śikhānte hṛdaye layānte dhyāyato layaḥ || 37 ||
Meditate on the Bindu as a tilak of subtle fire produced by the inner stimulation of the Radiant Abode (dhāman), [meditating on it] in the heart and/or just above the head; when it completely dissolves, there is Dissolution [into pure Presence]. ||
Word-by-word analysis:
dhāmā = radiance, light, abode, central channel; antaḥ = inner; kṣobha = stimulation, agitation, excitation; sambhūta = produced, originated; sūkṣma = subtle, not perceptible by the usual five senses; agni = fire; tilaka = forehead mark between the eyebrows; ākṛti = having the form or shape of, looking like; bindu = point of light, ‘droplet’; śikhānta = the end or upper limit of the topknot (or, the tip of the flame); hṛdaya = heart; laya = dissolution; ante = at the end (layānte = at the terminus of its dissolution); dhyāyataḥ = meditating, visualizing; laya = dissolution.
My commentary: The first question is, is this a separate yukti, or is it a further comment on the technique taught in the previous verse? I have marked it as a separate yukti but it’s possible that it was intended as a further explication of Yukti #10.
The verse clearly tells us to meditate on the bindu in the form of a tilaka of subtle fire. A tilaka or tilak is a name for a forehead mark that people apply in India, and the mark is at the third eye, or rather it can go halfway up the forehead, but it starts at the third eye. This tilak shape looks quite a bit like a flame, especially because a tilaka is usually red.
Here, we’re instructed to meditate on the bindu, a word which can refer to a point of light that you see in meditation, or something more significant: a center of essence, a kind of singularity within the energy body. Bindus are much more fundamental than chakras. Chakras are formed by a conjunction or convergence of multiple nāḍīs, or channels of the subtle body, whereas bindus are fundamental essence-points that are ‘deeper’ than chakras. Is this a verse about seeing or experiencing one of these bindus of essence? We don’t know exactly what the author of the verse had in mind. Are we invited to have a kind of visionary experience of a point of light or inner flame, similar to the previous verse? The commentators certainly think this verse about seeing actual light(s). I disagree with the two commentators here (both of whom wrote 800+ years after this scripture appeared) because they say that you should press firmly on your eyes until the bindu appears. However, if you press hard enough on your eyes you see all kinds of light(s), not a single focal point of light in an otherwise relatively dark area. But there’s another reason to disagree with the commentator, which is this: we see the word dhāmā in the verse, which literally means “radiant abode” and very commonly in early sources refers to the central channel. The commentator is taking it in the sense of literal light, believing we’re supposed to create this light in the eyes with physical pressure. But in the verse we see dhāmāntaḥkṣobha, “inner excitation in the dhāmā” (kṣobha can mean agitation or stimulation or excitation). In classical Tantrik yoga there’s this idea of the ‘friction’ of the inhale and the exhale when you’re doing breath retention; the energy of the inhale and of the exhale are in dynamic tension when you’re holding the breath in the center, and that creates this kind of friction or excitation where prāṇa may enter the central channel. (The two breaths are sometimes compared to kindling sticks in this context.)
Let’s look at the first half of the verse all together: dhāmāntaḥ-kṣobha-saṃbhūta-sūkṣmāgni-tilakākṛtiṃ binduṃ—the bindu, the essence-point, appears in the form of a tilak of subtle fire produced by the inner excitation of the dhāmā, the radiant abode, almost definitely meaning the central channel. This excitation is presumably achieved through kumbhaka combined with with mūla-bandha (perhaps pulsing the bandha) with the conscious intention to bring the energy into your central channel. Then you focus that energy at the heart and/or just above the head.
And that brings us to the next ambiguity we have to deal with: is the verse saying a) meditate on this subtle flame in the heart or above the head; b) meditate on this subtle flame in the heart and above the head; or c) meditate on the point at the tip of the subtle flame in the heart? We can’t know for sure, but the lack of the words ‘and’ or ‘or’ (ca or vā in Sanskrit) might argue for the third possibility, as taught in Paul Muller-Ortega’s translation below; however, reading it this way makes the rest of the grammar very awkward. It’s also possible that we are to generate two subtle-fire-bindus, one at the heart and one above the head, as commentator Śivopādhyāya takes it (and see below one experienced practitioner’s interpretation under the letter ‘o’).
Let’s see if we can simplify everything that I’ve said here. Probably the most likely interpretation of the practice is: we bring about an activation or excitation of the central channel, probably through breath and focused attention and mūla-bandha, and then once the central channel is activated, we focus the energy at the heart where we feel or sense something like a subtle flame, and then we focus on the tip of that flame where we find a “point of ultimacy” (bindu), and then it will dissolve. When it completely dissolves, there occurs a perfect dissolution into pure Presence. Layānte layaḥ—when the bindu completely dissolves, you can experience total dissolution of the sense of separate self. There’s simply pure presence, which doesn’t have a “me” quality to it, it’s not like “I’m experiencing pure presence”—not if it’s real laya. It’s just pure presence.
Simplified practice instructions:
(from the forthcoming set of VBT “flash cards,” designed by Jessica Molina)
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ALTERNATE TRANSLATIONS and renderings (note that several of these translations—though not the first—are following the commentor Śivopādhyāya, creating an artificial appearance of consensus among them):
a) Allowing awareness to rest in the HEART, in the very PINNACLE of the CREST Flame, and there locate the Mystical Drop POINT, the Globule of Consciousness that resembles in FORM the red tilaka MARK usually placed on the forehead, and merging and MELTING attention into this SUBTLE FIRE, which ARISES as the THROBBING and trembling creative effervescence of the INTERIOR-MOST SPLENDOR of Consciousness. ~ Then, when such a process of the increasingly smooth dissolving of separative attention moves beyond awareness of the Bindu point, there MEDITATE even deeper and then finally there occurs the true melting and total DISSOLUTION of all separate attention into the Great Absolute Itself. (MULLER-ORTEGA; words in CAPS are those that have exact equivalents in the original Sanskrit)
b) The yogī should meditate either in the heart or in dvādaśānta on the bindu which is a subtle spark of fire resembling a tilaka produced by pressure on the dhāma (light existing in the eyes). By such practice the discursive thought of the yogī disappears, and on its disappearance, the yogī is absorbed in the light of supreme consciousness. (SINGH)
c) Meditate on the Point (of light) (within the upper End of the Twelvefinger Space) at the extremity of the topknot and within the heart, in the form of a tilaka of subtle fire that has arisen by the inner agitation of (the eyes,) the abode (dhāman) (of sight). (DYCZKOWSKI)
d) By agitating the eye a subtle flame in the form of a tilaka mark appears within. One should meditate on this bindu at the top (ūrdhva dvādaśānta) and in the heart. When that concentration is complete, there is absorption. (BÄUMER)
e) Contemplating above the head, in the heart, the sphere (of the visual field) that has shapes of dots of subtle fire moving inside the abode of light, (the mind) shall dissolve (back into its source). (DUBOIS)
f) Whenever one meditates upon the subtle fire, in the form of a tilak (like the mark on the forehead), or on the bindu at the end of the shikha, a condition of agitation and shaking is produced, followed by absorption and dissolution in the cave of the heart. (SATSANGI)
g) Press the eyes gently. A subtle light resembling a dot will appear at the top of the head, or in the heart. Absorb oneself there. From this meditation, one is absorbed into the Highest Reality. (CHAUDHRI)
h) Through meditation at the top of the head or inside the hṛt-cakra on the luminous point appearing before the eyesight as a result of putting off a lamp and some sort of reaction to it in the eye, until the same disappears, the meditation consciousness gets dissolved (in the supernal consciousness of the Divine). (Singh & Maheśvarānanda)
i) Si l’on médite dans le cœur et au sommet de la mèche de cheveux sur le bindu, point semblable à la marque rouge, (ce) feu subtil que produit une (certaine) effervescence; à la fin, lorsque (celle-ci) a disparu, on s’absorbe dans la Lumière (de la Conscience). (SILBURN)
j) À l’intérieur du domaine divin, il y a la forme d’une sphère faite d’un feu subtil engendré par une pression (exercée sur les yeux). En contemplant cette sphère lumineuse au sommet de la tête et dans le Cœur à la fin elle s’évanouit: On se fond alors (dans la Lumière de Bhairava). (DUBOIS)
k) Wenn man im dvādaśānta (śikhānta) und im Herzen auf den Lichtpunkt meditiert, der die Form eines Punktes auf der Stirn hat, wie ein subtiles Feuer, das im Innern der Augen durch Berührung entsteht, dann wird man absorbiert. (BÄUMER)
l) Quien contempla el bindu en la coronilla de la cabeza, en el corazón, bajo la forma de un ardiente punto sutil producto de una variación interna de luz, al final, cuando este se diluye, él mismo se diluye. (FIGUEROA)
m) If you meditate in your heart, in the upper center or between your eyes, the spark which will dissolve discursive thought will ignite, like when brushing eyelids with fingers. You will then melt into supreme consciousness. (ODIER)
n) Touching eyeballs as a feather, lightness between them opens into heart and there permeates the cosmos. (REPS)
o) “This is definitely about activating the central channel. Putting the awareness in the two centers [heart and above the crown of the head] is as if you are tuning a string on a stringed instrument to the right pitch. And then you pluck the string. It requires a lot of awareness to get all that right, so that the tuning is harmonious. You put the awareness on the string, relax and expand, there is a process of the string getting ready (“in tune”), and then the activation (or “plucking”) happens. At the heart and at the dvadaśānta — important to keep connection to both places. If you do just the upper one, you have the expansiveness and quietness, but you are out of the personal realm. You could find something interesting but not have compassion/connection. If you do just the heart, there isn’t the upward-moving, expansive, universal quality. You can have compassion but not effectiveness. When you have both, there is a current between them, like two poles of a battery. It’s important to have a balance between the two.” (HAROLD)
Śivopādhyāya’s Explication (c. 1700 CE):
“The divine domain [or radiant abode],” this is the light that appears in the eyes. “In the interior, there is the form of a bindu made of subtle fire,” that is, a form of the rays of the eyes, “engendered by stimulation,” that is, by a strong pressure (of the fingers on the eyes).
“In contemplating this luminous sphere” at the dvādaśānta point [above the head] and in the heart, “at the end when” (this light) extinguishes, when it has almost entirely disappeared, one absorbs (oneself) in the reality made of Light (tejas-tattva-samāveśa).
Or: There is an agitation, a [visual] instability, at the moment when a light – such as the flame of a lamp – is [suddenly] extinguished. Then, one must meditate on the bindu made of subtle fire engendered by the (retinal persistence of the external light), placing it above one’s one head and/or [in the heart].
Ānandabhaṭṭa’s Moonlight (commentary c. 1650 CE):
An orb of light is born in the interior of the visual field, that is to say in the space of the gaze, if one presses strongly on the eyes.
Or: A clarity is produced also with the aid of a lamp or other (source of light). In the end, as long as (this light) is not extinguished, there is “an agitation”, a movement (of this light). From it is born a subtle form, as a spark of fire, a sphere that one must contemplate.
Then, “at the end of the śikhā” that is to say, at the end-of-twelve, in the Heart, there is resorption (of these luminous forms) in their receptacle (in the space of consciousness), that is to say one realizes unity with it (the receptacle). When thought is resorbed, when it has disappeared, then one is absorbed in the Being of this Light.
(Commentaries translated by David Dubois from Sanskrit to French, then translated by my student DaleAnn Gray into English, then edited [with reference to the original Sanskrit] by myself [NB only the first commentary of the two has been so edited].)
Here is a practice video linking Yuktis #10, 11, and 12 (the last of which is covered in the next post):