Skip to content
DissolutionIdentityVoidVerse 138advanced

When the Fourfold Dissolves

Mind, awareness-energy, power, and self — when this fourfold dissolves, that very dissolution is the Bhairava-body.

Source verse · Verse 138
मानसं चेतना शक्तिरात्मा चेति चतुष्टयम्। यदा प्रिये परिक्षीणं तदा तद्भैरवं वपुः॥
mānasaṃ cetanā śaktir ātmā ceti catuṣṭayam | yadā priye parikṣīṇaṃ tadā tad bhairavaṃ vapuḥ
Mind, awareness-energy, power, and self — when this fourfold dissolves, that very dissolution is the Bhairava-body.
▶ Practice this technique15 / 20 min · eyes closed

How to practice

  1. 1Recognise the four inner layers named here: the mind (manas), awareness (cetanā), energy (śakti), and the individual self (ātman).
  2. 2One by one, let each grow quiet and subtle — thought settling, then awareness-of-objects, then the felt energy, then even the sense of a separate self.
  3. 3Let all four dissolve together, until none stands out as a separate thing.
  4. 4What remains when the fourfold has dissolved is the Bhairava-body. Rest as that.
Practice note. The last of the 112 doorways: not the dissolving of the world but of the very apparatus of the inner person. What is left over is the goal of every other technique.

Terms in this technique

laya
Dissolution, absorption; the merging of attention into its source.
ātman
The true self; awareness as one’s own being.
śakti
Energy, the dynamic power of consciousness; Devi.
bhairava
The fierce, all-encompassing form of Shiva; ultimate consciousness.

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)
← All 112 techniquesVigyan Bhairav Tantra home →