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VoidIdentityDissolutionVerse 127advanced

The Unknowable as Bhairava

Whatever is unknowable, ungraspable, empty, or non-existent — contemplate all of it as Bhairava; at its end, awakening dawns.

Source verse · Verse 127
यदवेद्यं यदग्राह्यं यच्छून्यं यदभावगम्। तत्सर्वं भैरवं भाव्यं तदन्ते बोधसम्भवः॥
yad avedyaṃ yad agrāhyaṃ yac chūnyaṃ yad abhāvagam | tat sarvaṃ bhairavaṃ bhāvyaṃ tadante bodhasambhavaḥ
Whatever is unknowable, ungraspable, empty, or non-existent — contemplate all of it as Bhairava; at its end, awakening dawns.
▶ Practice this technique10 / 20 min · eyes either

How to practice

  1. 1Turn toward whatever the mind cannot grasp — the unknowable, the ungraspable, sheer emptiness, even the sense of "nothing" or absence.
  2. 2Do not recoil from it as a blank or a lack.
  3. 3Contemplate all of that — everything beyond knowing and grasping — as Bhairava himself, as awareness.
  4. 4Stay with it; at the end of that contemplation, awakening (bodha) arises of itself.
Practice note. Where the mind hits a wall — "I can't know this, can't grasp this" — is exactly the doorway. Treat the limit of knowing as the face of the absolute.

Terms in this technique

śūnya
Void, emptiness — not nothingness but open, contentless awareness.
bhairava
The fierce, all-encompassing form of Shiva; ultimate consciousness.
cit
Consciousness itself, the aware principle.
laya
Dissolution, absorption; the merging of attention into its source.

Sources consulted

  • Jaideva Singh, Vijñānabhairava: The Manual for Self-Realization (Motilal Banarsidass, 1979)
  • Swami Lakshmanjoo, Vijnana Bhairava: The Manual for Self Realization (Universal Shaiva Fellowship, 2007)
  • Bettina Bäumer, Vijñâna Bhairava: The Practice of Centering Awareness (Indica Books, 2011)
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