Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra

The goddess Bhairavi says she has heard the teachings of the Rudrayamala Tantra yet her doubts remain. She asks whether the highest reality is sound, the phases of the Trika system, the energies, or something else. Bhairava replies that these are aids for the immature and that his real nature is a state free of all such designations. She then asks how that state can be reached, which introduces the practices.

The first dharanas take the incoming and outgoing breath as their object. They direct attention to the two points where breath arises and dissolves, and to the pause when breath is held. Breath returns later in the text as well, for example in the closing verses on the natural repetition of breath.

Several dharanas describe energy rising like lightning from centre to centre, up to and beyond the crown of the head. These verses draw on the subtle-body vocabulary of the wider Shaiva Tantric tradition. Commentators link them with kundalini, though the term itself is used sparingly.

Some practices close the openings of the senses and attend to the inner field that remains. Others take sound as the object: the unstruck inner sound, the syllable Om, a sound followed until it dies away, and the lingering tone of a stringed instrument. The common structure is to follow a sound to its end and remain there.

A long run of dharanas asks the practitioner to contemplate the body, its skin, or all directions at once as void. Others dissolve the body in imagined fire or contemplate the world as if it were burning away. These verses are the source of many modern summaries of the text as a manual of space meditation.

Several practices point to transitions: the gap between two thoughts or two perceptions, the start of a sneeze, or the moment of fear, grief, or sudden surprise. The text treats these moments as openings where ordinary mental activity briefly stops. They are spread through the text rather than gathered in one block.

A notable group uses pleasure as a support: the memory of sexual union, the joy of meeting a long-absent friend, the taste of food and drink, and absorption in music. Later dharanas turn to looking at the open sky, lying in darkness, swaying on a swing, or noticing desire and anger as they arise. The practices end at about verse 138, completing the traditional count of 112, although scholars note the count is not exact.

Bhairava explains that repetition of mantra, meditation, worship, oblation, and pilgrimage are, in their real sense, forms of this same recognition. He describes the natural repetition of breath as a mantra that goes on by itself. Bhairavi, satisfied, embraces Bhairava, and the text closes.