Vigyan Bhairav Tantra112 techniques of meditation — restored to their source verses
यत्र यत्र मनो याति तत्र तत्र समाधयःA dialogue between the goddess Devi and Bhairava, the Vijñāna Bhairava gives 112 dharanas — short, exact doorways from ordinary attention into awareness itself. This is not a meditation app that borrows a few of them. It restores each technique to the verse it came from, free forever, with everything stored privately on your device.
The Turning of the Breath
Watch where the rising breath becomes the falling breath; rest in the turn.
ūrdhve prāṇo hy adho jīvo visargātmā paroccaret
The techniques
A curated selection of the 112 dharanas. Filter by method, by how you feel, or search. 20 showing.
The Turning of the Breath
Watch where the rising breath becomes the falling breath; rest in the turn.
The Pause After the Breath
In the still gap after the out-breath, before the next in-breath, Bhairava appears.
Energy Rising and Dissolving
Feel the breath as energy rising and dissolving; in its dissolution, peace.
Attention Between the Brows
Fix gentle attention at the brow-centre; let thought thin into light.
The Thread Through the Centre
Visualize the central channel fine as a lotus fibre; awareness travels it and opens.
The Sound That Ends in Silence
Intone a sound aloud, then inwardly; follow its fading tail into soundless awareness.
Rest at the End of a Word
Speak a word ending in an open breath; in the openness that trails it, abide.
The Body as Rising Flame
Imagine the body burning upward into ash; what does not burn is what you are.
The Open Sky
Gaze into clear empty space until the space enters you and the boundary thins.
Letting the World Dissolve
Picture the whole world dissolving into emptiness; rest in the awareness it leaves.
The Gap in a Strong Feeling
At the first instant of fear, anger, or longing — before it becomes a story — look.
Become the Taste
In eating or drinking, become the taste itself, and through it the fullness.
Dwelling in Sudden Joy
In the joy of meeting a loved one, do not cling to the cause — rest in the joy.
The Energy of Union
At the height of union, attention turns from the other to the living energy itself.
Wherever the Mind Goes
Do not fight the wandering mind; wherever it lands, the nature of Shiva is already there.
Trace the Sense of I
Turn attention back on the one who is aware; the 'I' has no edge you can find.
The Space Within the Heart
Let attention sink into the open space in the centre of the chest and widen there.
Entering the Darkness
In total darkness with eyes open, rest in the formless dark until it becomes luminous.
The Edge of Sleep
At the threshold where waking turns to sleep, hold awareness in the in-between.
Listening to Silence
Listen past every sound to the silence underneath; let hearing rest in it.
Your practice journal
Stored only on this device. Never uploaded. Yours to keep.
No sessions yet. Begin any technique above and it will appear here — privately.
Ten ways into one awareness
The 112 dharanas can be grouped by their doorway. No grouping is the final word — Osho, Lakshmanjoo, and Jaideva Singh each arrange them differently. This is the taxonomy this edition commits to.
Breath
prāṇa dhāraṇāThe gaps and turning points of the breath as doorways.
Sound
śabda dhāraṇāMantra, ambient sound, and the inner sound dissolving into silence.
Void
śūnya dhāraṇāEmpty space, darkness, and the void as the ground of awareness.
Light
tejas dhāraṇāInner light, flame, and luminosity rising through the centre.
Sensation
sparśa dhāraṇāTouch, taste, and the living field of the body.
Emotion
bhāva dhāraṇāUsing desire, fear, joy, and grief as entry points, not obstacles.
Centering
madhya dhāraṇāResting attention at the midpoint between any two opposites.
Visualization
bhāvanā dhāraṇāImagined imagery held until the image and the seer dissolve.
Identity
ahaṃ dhāraṇāInquiry into the nature of the 'I' that watches.
Dissolution
laya dhāraṇāDissolving the object of attention until only awareness remains.
What the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is
The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra — more precisely the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra — is one of the foundational practice texts of Kashmir Shaivism, the non-dual tradition that holds consciousness (Shiva) and its energy (Shakti) to be a single reality. It was likely compiled in the seventh or eighth century CE in Kashmir, and survives in roughly 163 verses, with manuscripts varying between about 162 and 164.
The text is a dialogue. The goddess Devi asks Bhairava — the fierce, all-encompassing form of Shiva — about his ultimate nature. In reply, Bhairava does not give a doctrine. He gives 112 dharanas: concise, exact meditation techniques, each a direct doorway from ordinary attention into awareness itself. The radical claim of the text is that any moment of complete attention — the pause after a breath, the taste of food, the first instant of fear, even a wandering thought — can become that doorway.
Because the techniques are so portable, the modern meditation industry has lifted individual ones out of the text and sold them as generic exercises, severed from their source. This edition does the opposite. Every technique here sits inside the verse it came from, every rendering is compared against the major scholarly translations, and nothing is hidden behind a paywall or a sign-up. The text is the product; the interface gets out of the way.
The verses move in a clear arc: Devi's opening questions (verses 1–23), Bhairava's introduction (24–26), the 112 dharanas themselves (the long central body), Devi's realization, and the concluding verses on the fruit of practice. Exact boundaries vary by recension; this edition follows the numbering of Jaideva Singh's critical translation and notes variance where it matters.
If you are new, do not collect techniques. Choose one — the pause after the out-breath is a good first doorway — and let it work on you for days. The point was never to know 112 methods. It was to discover the one awareness all 112 lead to.
How to practice a dharana
- 1Choose one techniquePick by method, by mood, or take today's dharana. Resist collecting — depth beats variety.
- 2Read the verse and the noteSee the source verse and the practice note. The technique is a pointer, not a performance.
- 3Set a short timerFive to ten minutes is plenty. Use the guided breath-circle to settle, then let it fade into the background.
- 4Practice gentlyFollow the instruction lightly. When attention wanders, return without judgement — the wandering is part of it.
- 5Sit a moment afterDo not rush to rise. Let the state the practice leaves you in settle. Your session saves to your private journal.
Frequently asked questions
Glossary of Sanskrit terms
Sources & translations consulted
The Sanskrit is public domain. The English renderings here are original, compared against these editions. Where readings genuinely diverge, the difference is noted on the technique.
- Jaideva Singh, Vijñānabhairava: The Manual for Self-Realization (Motilal Banarsidass, 1979)The most rigorous scholarly translation, with Sanskrit text and Shivopadhyaya’s commentary.
- Swami Lakshmanjoo, Vijnana Bhairava: The Manual for Self Realization (Universal Shaiva Fellowship, 2007)Traditional transmission from the Kashmir Shaiva oral lineage.
- Bettina Bäumer, Vijñâna Bhairava: The Practice of Centering Awareness (Indica Books, 2011)Strong on Kashmir Shaivism context.
- Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati, Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra (Yoga Publications Trust, 2003)Accessible, practice-oriented.
- Osho, The Book of Secrets (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998)Commentary, not translation; widely-read framing of the techniques for practice.
- Paul Reps, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (Charles E. Tuttle, 1957)The "Centering" section; historically important but a loose rendering.
This is V1 — a curated selection of the 112 dharanas with the framing dialogue. The complete 163-verse critical edition, with full Devanagari, word-by-word grammar, and Hindi, is being expanded in phases. Last reviewed: 2026-06.