WHAT IS THE EXPLANATION OF 13th TECHNIQUE OF MEDITATION IN VIGYAN BHAIRAV TANTRA ?VIGYAN BHAIRAV T

THE 13th & 14th TECHNIQUE OF MEDITATION IN VIGYAN BHAIRAV TANTRA;-

26 FACTS;- 1-LORD SHIVA REPLIES;-..

13.''Or, imagine the five-colored circles of the peacock tail to be your five senses in illimitable space. Now let their beauty melt within. Similarly, at any point in space or on a wall ....until the point dissolves. Then your wish for another comes true.''

14. ''Place your whole attention in the nerve, delicate as the lotus thread, in the center of your spinal column. in such be transformed''.

Lord Shiva is pointing towards tratak in 13 th technique...

WHAT IS TRATAK?- 03 FACTS;- 1-Trataka, a technique used in a meditation practice, is one of the six purification techniques, called shatkarmas, of Hatha yoga. Trataka is a Sanskrit word, which means "to look" or "to gaze." 2-Trataka may also be referred to as yogic gazing in English. Apart from a flame, other objects used in the practice of trataka include a dot on the wall, an object of worship, a deity, flower, mountain, rising sun or moon. However, a flame is believed to work best. 3-The oscillations of the mind no longer exist as the mind is tuned in to remaining focused on a single object. Such absorption promotes the ability to disconnect with the external world and find peace within. TYPES OF TRATAK;- Conventionally there are three kinds of trataka that can be practiced: Antar trataka, Madhya trataka and Bahya trataka, VIZ.... 1-INNER TRATAK;- This is done with closed eyes and we have to imagine that we are gazing in the midpoint of our two eyebrows(bhrumadhya dhrishti),or heart,navel or any other internal organs. 2-MIDDLE TRATAK;- in this exercise still gaze is fixed on centre of the eye(bhrumadhya)or tip of the nose(nasagra)or any nearby object made of any material.it can be practised with 'Aum' written in paper, or concentric circles having a black dot in its middle, or a single black dot with open eyes. 3-OUTER TRATAK;- It is performed by fixing our gaze on an distant object like rising sun, moon or a bright planet. THE TECHNIQUE OF TRATAK;- 02 FACTS;- 1-The practice of trataka is done by gazing at a fixed point or object without blinking the eyes. The main objective is to bring the mind into focus, and control its wavering tendencies thus making it single pointed and arising the inner vision. 2-All the thoughts and powers of mind are directed into an unbroken flow.it should be a smooth and easy process without any stress. After achieving this state the hidden potential and powers of mind are awakened naturally. THE TECHNIQUE OF TRATAK;- 05 FACTS;- 1-The practice of trataka is done by sitting on ground in padmasana(lotus posture), ardha padmasana or sukhasana(comfortable sitting posture) keeping the spine and the back straight. 2-A cow’s ghee lamp is placed at the same level of your eyes at a distance of one metre. Now keeping the mind relaxed one should look at the bright portion of the flame without blinking, till the tears start coming out of your eyes. This is the last phase of trataka. 3-After doing this the eyes should be closed for a while and the practitioner should relax and sit quietly for 3-5 minutes and then slowly open his eyes. The exercise can be repeated 2 to 3 times. 4-It is advised that after performing trataka one should wash his eyes and face with water. The time period of trataka from the beginning till the rolling down of tears differs from person to person.it also depends on the mental condition of the individual. 5-The duration of trataka in normal individuals is generally 3-5 minutes and some people can extended the practice to longer periods. BENEFITS;- Additional benefits of trataka include... 1-Strengthens eye muscles 2-Purifies the eyes 3-Treats eye disorders 4-Relieves insomnia 5-Aids in treating depression 6-Improves concentration 7-Calms the mind 8-Promotes emotional stability 9-Boosts willpower 10-Develops intuition and clairvoyance

WHAT IS THE REASON BEHIND MENTIONING PEACOCK FEATHER ONLY?

07 FACTS;-

1-A symbol of purity...Lord Krishna had mainly 8 wives known as the Ashtabharya and had 16,000 junior wives with whom, he did not share any marital relations. Also,Sri Krishna is known to be the Askalitha Brahmacharya, one who is eternally a Brahmacharya as despite being married his aim was never any sensual pleasures and only the betterment of the world. Thus,Sri Krishna is considered to be completely pure and free from any sensual desire. 2-Peacocks in India are considered to be a symbol of purity. There is a mythological belief that peacocks do not use sex for reproduction but rather, the peahen drinks the tears of the peacock to conceive. Thus, Krishna is as pure as a peacock and that is what the feather signifies. The male peacock especially has long been a symbol of romantic love, and the rasalila episode of Sri Krishna's life teaches us how this kind of love may be directed to God. 3-As for the bird’s ‘immaculate conception’, the theory was probably invented to justify ,Sri Krishna’s selection of peacock feather for his crown. It is believed to be a symbol of purity because “peacock and peahen do not have bodily contact and they reproduce when the peahen drinks the tears of the peacock.” Only, birds don’t shed tears. Their nictitating membrane, an inner eyelid, moves horizontally to protect and moisten the eye. 4-The colour of nature...A peacock feather is said to have all the 7 colours of nature and it appears bluish in the day and black at night. Ether, which covers all of us also appears blue by daytime and black by night. Lord Krishna, also called the dark skinned one is represented by both these colours.

5-Thus, Krishna wears the peacock which symbolises the entire range of colours humans are made of and that each one of us a part of the almighty. As God, he is formless but to mortals, he appears Blue by day and Black by night, making him just like a peacock feather. 6-Rainbow-coloured personality...A peacock feather contains all the seven primary colours in it. Just as the Universe is covered by akasha (ether) which appears blue during the day and black at night, so lord Krishna is identified by both blue and black colours.

7-By wearing the peacock feather, Krishna implies that the entire range of colours are present in him. In virtue, he is colourless but during the day, he appears blue, black at night, and in-between, hold us spellbound by his multi-coloured, multi-perceptional views...

THE EXPLANATION OF 13TH & 14TH TECHNIQUE OF MEDITATION

IN NUTSHELL;-

1-Man is born with a center, but he remains completely oblivious of it. Man can live without knowing his center, but man cannot be without a center. The center is the link between man and existence; it is the root. You may not know it, knowledge is not essential for the center to be, but if you do not know it you will lead a life that is rootless — as if rootless.

2-You will not feel any ground, you will not feel yourself based; you will not feel at home in the universe. You will be homeless. Of course, the center is there, but by not knowing it your life will be just a drifting — meaningless, empty, reaching nowhere. You will feel as if you are living without life, drifting, just waiting for death.

3-You can go on postponing from one moment to another, but you know very well that that postponing will lead you nowhere. You are just passing time, and that feeling of deep frustration will follow you like a shadow.

Man is born with a center, but not with the knowledge of the center. The knowledge has to be gained.

4-You have the center ; you can't exist without a center. How can you exist without a bridge between you and your existence?… or You cannot exist without a deep link of ‘God’.. You have roots in the divine. Every moment you live through those roots, but those roots are underground. Just as with any tree, the roots are underground; the tree is unaware of its own roots.

5-You also have roots. That rootedness is your center & it is a possibility that you can become aware of your rootedness. If you become aware, your life becomes actual; otherwise your life will be just like a deep sleep, a dream.

6 - “Self-actualization” is really nothing but becoming aware of your inner center from where you are linked with the total universe, becoming aware of your roots: you are not alone, you are not atomic, you are part of this cosmic whole.

7-This universe is not an alien world. You are not a stranger, this universe is your home. But unless you find your roots, your center, this universe remains something alien, something foreign. Man lives as if he has been thrown into the world. Of course, if you do not know your center you will feel a thrownness, as if you have been thrown into the world. You are an outsider; you do not belong to this world and this world doesn’t belong to you.

8-Then fear, then anxiety, then anguish are bound to result. A man as an outsider in the universe is bound to feel deep anxiety, dread, fear, anguish. His whole life will be just a fight, a struggle, and a struggle which is destined to be a failure. Man cannot succeed because a part can never succeed against the whole. You cannot succeed against existence. You can succeed with it, but never against it. And that is the difference between a religious man and a non-religious man.

9-A non-religious man is against the universe; a religious man is with the universe. A religious man feels at home. He doesn’t feel he has been thrown into the world, he feels he has grown in the world. Remember the difference between being thrown and being grown.The choice of the word ‘thrown’ means that you have been forced without your consent.

So this world appears inimical(unfriendly). Then anguish will be the result.

10-It can be otherwise only if you are not thrown into the world, but you have grown as a part, as an organic part. Really, it would be better to say that you are the universe grown into a particular dimension which we call “human.” The universe grows in multi-dimensions ... in trees, in hills, in stars, in planets… in multi-dimensions.

11-Man is also a dimension of growth. The universe is realizing itself through many, many dimensions. Man is also a dimension along with the height and the peak. No tree can become aware of its roots; no animal can become aware of its roots. That is why there is no anxiety for them. If you are not aware of your roots, of your center, you can never be aware of your death.

12-Death is only for man. It exists only for man because only man can become aware of his roots, aware of his center, aware of his totality and his rootedness in the universe. If you live without a center, if you feel you are an outsider, then anguish will result. However, if you feel that you are at home, that you are a growth, a realization of the potentiality of the existence itself ...as if existence itself has become aware in you, as if it has gained awareness in you ...if you feel that way, if you really realize that way, the result will be bliss.

13-Bliss is the result of an organic unity with the universe, and anguish the result of an enmity. But unless you know the center you are bound to feel a thrownness, as if life has been forced upon you. This center which is there, although man is not aware of it, is the concern of these sutras which we will discuss.

14-Before we enter into VIGYANA BHAIRAVA TANTRA and its techniques concerning the center, two or three things more.

One: when man is born he is rooted in a particular spot, in a particular CHAKRA ...center — and that is the navel. The Japanese call it HARA; hence the term HARA-KIRI. Hara-kiri means suicide. Literally, the term means killing the hara ...the spine, the center. Hara is the center; destroying the center is the meaning of hara-kiri. But in a way, we have all committed hara-kiri. We have not killed the center, but we have forgotten it, or we have never remembered it. It is there waiting, and we have been drifting away and away from it.

15-When a child is born he is rooted in the navel, in the hara; he lives through the hara. Look at a child breathing — his navel goes up and down. He breathes with the belly, he lives with the belly ...not with the head, not with the heart. But by and by he will have to drift away. First he will develop another center ... that is the heart, the center of emotion. He will learn love, he will be loved, and another center will develop. This center is not the real center; this center is a by-product.

16-That is why psychologists say that if a child is not loved, he will never be able to love. If a child is brought up in a non-loving situation ... a situation which is cold, with no one to love and give warmth .. he himself will never be able in his life to love anyone because the very center will not develop. Mother’s love, father’s love, family, society ...they help to develop a center.

17-That center is a by-product; you are not born with it. So if it is not being helped to grow, it will not grow. Many, many persons are without the love center. They go on talking about love, and they go on believing that they love, but they lack the center, so they can't love .

18-It is difficult to get a loving mother, and very difficult and rare to get a loving father. Every father, every mother, thinks that he or she loves. It is not so easy. Love is a difficult growth, very difficult. But if love is not there in the beginning for the child, he himself will never be able to love. That is why the whole humanity lives without love.

19-You go on producing children, but you do not know how to give them a love center. Rather, on the contrary, the more society becomes civilized, the more it forces into being a third center, which is intellect. The navel is the original center. A child is born with it; it is not a by-product.

20-Without it life is impossible, so it is given. The second center is a by-product. If the child gets love, he responds. In this responding, a center grows in him: that is the heart center. The third center is reason, intellect, head. Education, logic and training create a third center; that too is a by-product.

21-But we live at the third center. The second is almost absent ..or even if it is present, then it is non-functioning; or even if it functions sometimes, it functions irregularly. But the third center, the head, becomes the basic force in life because the whole life depends on this third center. It is utilitarian(practical). You need it for reason, logic, thinking.

22-So everyone becomes, sooner or later, head-oriented; you begin to live in the head. Head, heart, navel ...these are the three centers. The navel is the given center, the original one. Heart can be developed, and it is good to develop it for many reasons. Reason is necessary to develop also, but reason must not be developed at the cost of the heart ...because if reason is developed at the cost of the heart then you miss the link and you cannot come to the navel again.

23-The development is from reason to existence to being. Let us try to understand it in this way. The center of the navel is in being; the center of the heart is in feeling; the center of the head is in knowing. Knowing is the farthest from being — feeling is nearer. If you miss the feeling center, then it is very difficult to create a bridge between reason and being — really, very difficult. That is why a loving person may realize his at-homeness in the world more easily than a person who lives through intellect.

24-Western culture has basically emphasized the head center. That is why in the West a deep concern is felt for man. And the deep concern is with his homelessness, his emptiness, his uprootedness. Simone Weil wrote a book, THE NEED FOR ROOTS. Western man feels uprooted, as if with no roots. The reason is because only the head has become the center. The heart has not been trained, it is missing. The beating of the heart is not your heart, it is just a physiological function.

25-So if you feel the beating, do not misunderstand that you have a heart. Heart is something else. Heart means the capacity to feel; head means the capacity to know. Heart means the capacity to feel, and being means the capacity to be one ..to be one with something… the capacity to be one with something.

26-Religion is concerned with the being; poetry is concerned with the heart; philosophy and science are concerned with the head. These two centers, heart and head, are peripheral centers, not real centers, just false centers. The real center is the navel, the hara. How to realize it?

HOW TO ATTAIN THE NAVEL ...THE HARA? -

10 FACTS;-

Ordinarily it happens only sometimes ...rarely, accidentally it happens ..that you come near the hara. That moment will become a very deep, blissful moment.Whatsoever may be the cause, whenever you pass through the hara you feel bliss. For example...

1- A warrior on the field fighting sometimes passes through the hara, but not modern warriors because they are not warriors at all. A person throwing a bomb on a city is asleep. He is not a warrior; he is not a fighter; he is not a KSHATRIYA .. not like Arjuna fighting.

2-Sometimes when one is on the verge of death one is thrown back to the hara. For a warrior fighting with his sword, any moment death becomes possible, any moment he may be no more.

3-When fighting with a sword you cannot think. If you think, you will be no more. You have to act without thinking because thinking needs time; If you think then the other will win, you will be no more. There is no time to think, and the mind needs time.

4-Because there is no time to think and thinking will mean death, consciousness falls down from the head — it goes to the hara, and a warrior has a blissful experience. That is why there is so much fascination about war.When You pass through any danger ;you are thrown back to the hara..

5-One says, live dangerously because in danger;You cannot think;

you cannot work things out with the mind. You have to act immediately. A snake passes. Suddenly you see the snake and there is a jump. There is no deliberate thinking about it, that “There is a snake.” you do not argue within your mind, “Now there is a snake and snakes are dangerous, so I must jump.” There is no logical reasoning like this.

6-If you reason like this, then you will not be alive at all. You cannot reason. You have to act spontaneously, immediately. The act comes first and then comes thinking. When you have jumped, then you think. In ordinary life, when there is no danger you think first, then you act. In danger, the whole process is reversed; you act first and then you think. That action coming first without thinking throws you to your original center ...the hara.

7-That is why there is the fascination with danger. You are driving a car faster and faster and faster, and suddenly a moment comes when every moment is dangerous. Any moment and there will be no life. In that moment of suspense, when death and life are just as near to each other as possible, two points just near and you in between, the mind stops: you are thrown to the hara. That is why there is so much fascination with cars, driving ...fast driving, mad driving.

8-Or you are gambling and you have put everything you have at stake ..the mind stops, there is danger. The next moment you can become a beggar. The mind cannot function; you are thrown to the hara.

9-Dangers have their appeal because in danger your day-to-day, ordinary consciousness cannot function. Danger goes deep. Your mind is not needed; you become a no-mind. You are conscious, but there is no thinking.

10-That moment becomes meditative. Really, in gambling, gamblers are seeking a meditative state of mind. In danger ...in a fight, in a duel, in wars ...man has always been seeking meditative states. A bliss suddenly erupts, explodes in you. It becomes a showering inside. But these are sudden, accidental happenings.

One thing is certain: whenever you feel blissful you are nearer the hara. NOTE;-

That is certain no matter what the cause; the cause is irrelevant. Whenever you pass near the original center you are filled with bliss. These sutras are concerned with creating a rootedness in the hara, in the center, scientifically, in a planned way ...not accidentally, not momentarily, but permanently.

You can remain continuously in the hara, that can become your rootedness. How to make this so and how to create this are the concerns of these sutras. Now we will take the first sutra which is another of the ways concerning the point, or center.

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THE 13TH TECHNIQUE OF MEDITATION IN VIGYAN BHAIRAV TANTRA;-

26 FACTS;- 1-LORD SHIVA REPLIES;-..

''Or, imagine the five-colored circles of the peacock tail to be your five senses in illimitable space. Now let their beauty melt within. Similarly, at any point in space or on a wall — until the point dissolves. Then your wish for another comes true''.

2-All these sutras are concerned with how to achieve the inner center. The basic mechanism used, the basic technique used is, if you can create a center outside .. anywhere: in the mind, in the heart, or even outside on a wall ..and if you concentrate totally on it and you bracket out the whole world, you forget the whole world and only one point remains in your consciousness, suddenly you will be thrown to your inner center.

3-We have to First understand this…How does it work? Your mind is just a vagabond, a wandering. It is never at one point. It is always going, moving, reaching, but never at any point. It goes from one thought to another, from A to B. 4-But it is never at the A; it is never at the B. It is always on the move. Remember this... mind is always on the move, hoping to reach somewhere but never reaching.The very structure of the mind is movement. It can only move; that is the inherent nature of the mind. 5-The very process is movement...from A to B, from B to C… it goes on and on. If you stop at A or B or any point, the mind will fight with you. The mind will say, “Move on,” because if you stop the mind dies immediately. It can be alive only in movement. 6-The mind means a process. If you stop and do not move, mind suddenly becomes dead, it is no more there; only consciousness remains. Consciousness is your nature; mind is your activity ... just like walking. It is difficult because we think mind is something substantial. 7-We think mind is a substance... it is not, mind is just an activity. So it is really better to call it “minding” than mind. It is a process just like walking. Walking is a process, if you stop, there is no walking. You have legs, but no walking. Legs can walk, but if you stop then legs will be there but there will be no walking. 8-Consciousness is like legs ... your nature. Mind is like walking ..just a process. When consciousness moves from one place to another, this process is mind. When consciousness moves from A to B, from B to C, this movement is mind. If you stop the movement, there is no mind. You are conscious, but there is no mind. 9-You have legs, but no walking. Walking is a function, an activity; mind is also a function, an activity. If you stop at any point, the mind will struggle. The mind will say, “Go on!” The mind will try in every way to push you forward or backward or anywhere ....but, “Go on!” Anywhere will do, but do not stay at one point. 10-If you insist and if you do not obey the mind… it is difficult because you have always obeyed. You have never ordered the mind; you have never been masters. You cannot be because, really, you have never disidentified yourself from the mind. You think you are the mind. 11-This fallacy that you are the mind gives the mind total freedom, because then there is no one to master it, to control it. There is no one! Mind itself becomes the master. It may become the master, but that mastery is just seemingly so. 12-Try once and you can break that mastery — it is false. Mind is just a slave pretending to be the master, but it has pretended so long, for lives and lives, that even the master believes that the slave is the master. That is just a belief. Try the contrary and you will know that that belief was totally unfounded. 13-This first sutra says, imagine the five-coloured circles of the peacock tail to be your five senses in limitless space. Now let their beauty melt within. Think that your five senses are five colours, and those five colours are filling the whole space. Just imagine your five senses are five colours ...beautiful colours, alive, extended into infinite space. Then move within with those colours. 14-Move within and feel a center where all these five colours are meeting within you. This is just imagination, but it helps. Just imagine these five colours penetrating within you and meeting at a point. Of course, these five colors will meet at a point: the whole world will dissolve. In your imagination there are only five colours ... just like around the tail of a peacock ...spread all over space, going deep within you, meeting at a point. 15-Any point will do, but the hara is the best. Think that they are meeting at your navel ... that the whole world has become colours, and those colours are meeting at your navel. See that point, concentrate on that point, and concentrate until the point dissolves. If you concentrate on the point it dissolves, because it is just imagination. Remember, whatsoever we have done is imagination. If you concentrate on it, it will dissolve. 16-And when the point dissolves, you are thrown to your center. The world has dissolved. There is no world for you. In this meditation there is only colour . You have forgotten the whole world; you have forgotten all the objects. You have chosen only five colours. Choose any five colours. This is particularly for those who have a very keen eye, a very deep colour sensitivity. 17-This meditation will not be helpful to everyone. Unless you have a painter’s eye, a colour consciousness, unless you can imagine colour, it is difficult. Have you ever observed that your dreams are colourless? Only one person in a hundred is capable of seeing coloured dreams. You see just black and white. Why? The whole world is coloured and your dreams are colourless. If one of you remembers that his dreams are coloured, this meditation is for him. 18-If someone remembers even sometimes that he sees colours in his dreams, then this meditation will be for him. If you say to a person who is insensitive to colour, “Imagine the whole space filled with colours,” he will not be able to imagine. Even if he tries to imagine, if he thinks, “Red,” he will see the word `red’, he will not see the colour. He will say, “Green,” and the word `green’ will be there, but there will be no greenness. So if you have a colour sensitivity, then try this method.

19-There are five colors. The whole world is just colours and those five colors are meeting in you. Deep down somewhere in you, those five colours are meeting. Concentrate on that point, and go on concentrating on it. Do not move from it; remain at it. 20-Do not allow the mind. Do not try to think about green and red and yellow and about colours — do not think. Just see them meeting in you. If you think, the mind has moved. Just be filled with colours meeting in you, and then at the meeting point, concentrate. Do not think! Concentration is not thinking; it is not contemplation. 21-If you are really filled with colours and you have become just a rainbow, a peacock, and the whole space is filled with colours, it will give you a deep feeling of beauty. But do not think about it; do not say it is beautiful. Do not move in thinking. Concentrate on the point where all these colours are meeting and go on concentrating on it. 22-It will disappear, it will dissolve, because it is just imagination. And if you force concentration, imagination cannot remain there, it will dissolve. The world has dissolved already; there were only colours. Those colours were your imagination. Those imaginative colours were meeting at a point. That point, of course, was imaginary .. and now, with deep concentration, that point will dissolve. 23-Where are you now? Where will you be? You will be thrown to your center. Objects have dissolved through imagination. Now imagination will dissolve through concentration.You alone are left as a subjectivity. The objective world has dissolved; the mental world has dissolved. You are there only as pure consciousness. 24-That is why this sutra says: At any point in space or on a wall… This will help. If you cannot imagine colours, then any point on the wall will help. Take anything just as an object of concentration. 25-If it is inner it is better, but again, there are two types of personalities. For those who are introvert, it will be easy to conceive of all the colors meeting within. But there are extroverts who cannot conceive of anything within. They can imagine only the outside. Their minds move only on the outside; they cannot move in. For them there is nothing like innerness. 26-The English philosopher David Hume has said, “Whenever I go in, I never meet any self. All that I meet are only reflections of the outside world ... a thought, some emotion, some feeling. I never meet the innerness, I only meet the outside world reflected in.” This is the extrovert mind par excellence, and David Hume is one of the most extrovert minds. So if you cannot feel anything within, and if the mind asks, “What does this innerness mean? 27-How to go in?” then try any point on the wall instead. There are persons who come to me and ask how to go in. It is a problem, because if you know only outgoing-ness, if you know only outward movements, it is difficult to imagine how to go in. If you are an extrovert then do not try this point inside, try it outside. The same will be the result. Make a dot on the wall; concentrate on it. Then you will have to concentrate on it with open eyes. 28-If you are creating a center inside, a point within, then you will have to concentrate with closed eyes. Make a point on a wall and concentrate on it. The real thing happens because of concentration, not because of the point. Whether it is out or in is irrelevant. It depends on you. If you are looking at the outside wall, concentrating on it, then go on concentrating until the point dissolves. 29-That has to be noted: until the point dissolves Do not blink your eyes, because blinking gives a space for the mind to move again. It becomes a gap; in the blinking, the concentration is lost. So no blinking. 30-You might have heard about Bodhidharma, one of the greatest masters of meditation in the whole history of humankind. A very beautiful story is reported about him. He was concentrating on something ..something outward. His eyes would blink and the concentration would be lost, so he tore off his eyelids. 31-This is a beautiful story: he tore off his eyelids, threw them away, and concentrated. After a few weeks, he saw some plants growing on the spot where he had thrown his eyelids. This anecdote happened on a mountain in China, and the mountain’s name is Tah, or Ta. Hence, the name `tea’. Those plants which were growing became tea, and that is why tea helps you to be awake.Those are Bodhidharma’s eyelids. That is why Zen monks consider tea to be sacred. 32-Tea is not any ordinary thing, it is sacred .. Bodhidharma’s eyelids. In Japan they have tea ceremonies, and every house has a tea room, and the tea is served with religious ceremony; it is sacred. Tea has to be taken in a very meditative mood. Japan has created beautiful ceremonies around tea drinking. They will enter the tea room as if they are entering a temple. Then the tea will be made, and everyone will sit silently listening to the samovar bubbling. 33-There is the steam, the noise, and everyone just listening. It is no ordinary thing… Bodhidharma’s eyelids. And because Bodhidharma was trying to be awake with open eyes, tea helps. Because the story happened on the mountain of Tah, it is called tea. Whether true or untrue, this anecdote is beautiful. If you are concentrating outwardly, then non-blinking eyes will be needed, as if you no longer have eyelids. That is the meaning of throwing away the eyelids. 34-You have only eyes, without eyelids to close them. Concentrating until the point dissolves. If you persist, if you insist and do not allow the mind to move, the point dissolves. And when the point dissolves, if you were concentrated on the point and there was only this point for you in the world, if the whole world had dissolved already, if only this point remained and now the point also dissolves, then the consciousness cannot move anywhere.

35-There is no object to move to ... all the dimensions are closed. The mind is thrown to itself, the consciousness is thrown to itself, and you enter the center. So whether in or out, within or without, concentrate until the point dissolves. This point will dissolve for two reasons. If it is within, it is imaginary ..it will dissolve. If it is outside, it is not imaginary, it is real. You have made a dot on the wall and have concentrated on it.

36-One can understand it dissolving inside ... it was not there at all; you just imagined it ...but on the wall it is there, so why will it dissolve? It dissolves for a certain reason. If you concentrate on a point, the point is not really going to dissolve, the mind dissolves. If you are concentrating on an outer point, the mind cannot move. Without movement it cannot live, it dies, it stops.

37-And when the mind stops you cannot be related with anything outward. Suddenly all bridges are broken, because mind is the bridge. When you are concentrating on a point on the wall, constantly your mind is jumping from you to the point, from the point to you, from you to the point. There is a constant jumping; there is a process. When the mind dissolves you cannot see the point, because really, you never see the point through the eyes: you see the point through the mind AND through the eyes. If the mind is not there, the eyes cannot function.

38-You may go on staring at the wall, but the point will not be seen. The mind is not there; the bridge is broken. The point is real ..it is there. When the mind will come back, you will see it again; it is there. But now you cannot see it. And when you cannot see, you cannot move out. Suddenly, you are at your center. This centering will make you aware of your existential roots.

39-You will know from where you are joined to the existence. In you, there is a point which is related with the total existence, which is one with it. Once you know this center, you know you are at home. This world is not alien. You are not an outsider. You are an insider, you belong to the world. There is no need of any struggle, there is no fight. There is no inimical relationship between you and the existence. The existence becomes your mother.

40-It is the existence that has come into you and that has become aware. It is the existence that has flowered in you. This feeling, this realization, this happening… and there can be no anguish again. Then bliss is not a phenomenon; it is not something that happens and then goes. Then blissfulness is your very nature.

41-When one is rooted in one’s center, blissfulness is natural. One happens to be blissful, and by and by one even becomes unaware that one is blissful, because awareness needs contrast. If you are miserable, then you can feel it when you are blissful. When misery is no more, by and by you forget misery completely. And you forget your bliss also. And only when you can forget your bliss also are you really blissful.

42-Then it is natural. As stars are shining, as rivers are flowing, so are you blissful. Your very being is blissful. It is not something that has happened to you: now it IS YOU.With the second sutra,the mechanism is the

same, the scientific basis is the same, the working structure is the same.

...SHIVOHAM..