|
Vigyan
Bhairav Tantra :
15th
Meditation technique |
15. Closing the
seven openings of the head with your hands, a space between your
eyes becomes all inclusive.
This is one of the oldest techniques
-- very much used, and one of the simplest also. Close all the
openings of the head -- eyes, ears, nose, mouth. When all the
openings of the head are closed, your consciousness, which is
continuously flowing out, is stopped suddenly: it cannot move out.
You may
not have observed, but even if you stop your breathing for a moment,
suddenly your mind will stop -- because with breathing mind moves on.
That is a conditioning with the mind. You must understand what
`conditioning' means, then only will this sutra be easy to understand.
Pavlov,
one of the most famous Russian psychologists, has created this term
"conditioning" -- or "conditioned reflex" -- a
day-to-day word used all over the world. Everyone who is acquainted
with psychology even a little knows the word. Two processes of thought
-- any two processes -- can become so associated that if you start
with one, the other is also triggered.
This
is the famous Pavlovian example. Pavlov worked with a dog. He found
that if you put dog food before a dog, its saliva begins to flow. The
tongue of the dog comes out and he begins to get ready, prepared for
eating. This is natural. When he is seeing the food, or even imagining
the food, saliva starts flowing. But Pavlov conditioned this process
with another. Whenever the saliva would start to flow and the food was
there, he would do some other things. For example, he would ring a
bell, and the dog would listen to the bell ringing. For fifteen days,
whenever the food was placed, the bell would ring. Then on the
sixteenth day food was not placed before the dog, only the bell was
rung. But still the saliva started flowing and the tongue came out, as
if the food was there.
But
there was no food, only the bell ringing. There is no natural
association between the bell ringing and saliva, the natural
association is with food. But now the continuous ringing of the bell
had become associated with it, and even the ringing of the bell would
start the process.
According
to Pavlov -- and he is right -- our whole life is a conditioned
process. The mind is a conditioning. Thus, if you stop something in
the conditioning, every other associated thing also stops.
For
example, you have never thought without breathing. Thinking has always
been with breathing.
You
are not conscious of breathing, but breathing is there continuously,
day and night. Every thought, every thinking process is associated
with breathing. If you stop your breathing suddenly, thought will also
stop. And if all the seven holes -- the seven openings of the head --
are closed, your consciousness suddenly cannot move out. It remains
in, and that remaining in creates a space between your eyes. That
space is known as the third eye.
If
all the openings of the head are closed you cannot move out, because
you have always been moving out from these openings. You remain in,
and with your consciousness remaining in it becomes concentrated
between these two eyes, between these two ordinary eyes. It remains in
between these two eyes, focused. That spot is known as the third eye.
This space
BECOMES ALL
INCLUSIVE.
This sutra says that in this space everything is included; the whole
existence is included. If you can feel the space, you have felt all.
Once you can feel inside this space between the two eyes, then you
have known existence, the totality of it, because this inner space
is all inclusive. Nothing is left out of it.
The
Upanishads say, "Knowing the one, one knows all." These two
eyes can only see the finite. The third eye sees the infinite. These
two eyes can only see the material. The third eye sees the immaterial,
the spiritual. With these two eyes you can never feel the energy, you
can never see the energy; you can see only matter.
But
with the third eye, energy as such is seen.
This
closing of the openings is a way of centering, because once the stream
of consciousness cannot flow out, it remains at its source. That
source of consciousness is the third eye. If you are centered at the
third eye, many things happen. The first is discovering that the whole
world is in you.
Swami
Ramateertha used to say that "The sun moves in me, the stars move
in me, the moon rises in me. The whole universe is in me." When
he said this for the first time, his disciples thought he had gone
crazy. How can stars be in Ramateertha?
He was
talking about the third eye, the inner space. When for the first time
the inner space becomes illumined, this is the feeling. When you see
that everything is in you, you become the universe.
The
third eye is not part of your physical body. The space between our two
eyes is not a space which is confined in your body. It is the infinite
space which has penetrated in you. Once this space is known, you will
never be the same person again. The moment you know this inner space,
you have known the deathless. Then there is no death.
When
you know this space for the first time, your life will be authentic,
intense, for the first time really alive. Now no security is needed,
now no fear is possible. Now you cannot be killed. Now nothing can be
taken away from you.
Now
the whole universe belongs to you: you are the universe. Those who
have known this inner space, they have cried in ecstasy, "AHAM
BRAHMASMI! I am the universe, I am the existence."
The
Sufi mystic Mansoor was murdered only because of this experience of
the third eye. When for the first time he became aware of this inner
space, he started crying, "I am God!" In India he would have
been worshipped, because India has known many, many persons who have
come to know this inner space of the third eye. But in a Mohammedan
country it was difficult. And Mansoor's statement that "I am God
-- ANA'L HAK!" -- was taken to be something anti-religious,
because Mohammedanism cannot conceive that man and God can become one.
Man is man -- the created -- and God is the creator, so how can the
created become the creator? So this statement of Mansoor's, "I am
God," could not be understood; thus, he was murdered. But when he
was being murdered, killed, he was laughing. So someone asked,
"Why are you laughing, Mansoor?"
Mansoor
is reported to have said, "I am laughing because you are not
killing me, and you cannot kill me. You are deceived by this body, but
I am not this body. I am the creator of this universe, and it was my
finger which moved this whole universe in the beginning."
In
India he would have been understood easily. The language has been
known for centuries and centuries.
We
have known that a moment comes when the inner space is known. Then one
simply goes mad. And this realization is so certain that even if you
kill a Mansoor he will not change his statement -- because really, you
cannot kill him as far as he is concerned. Now he has become the
whole. There is no possibility of destroying him.
After
Mansoor, Sufis learned that it is good to be silent. So in Sufi
tradition, after Mansoor, it has been consistently taught to
disciples, "Whenever you come to the third eye, remain silent and
do not say anything. Whenever this happens, then keep quiet. Do not
say anything, or just go on formally saying things which people
believe."
So
Islam has now two traditions. One is just the ordinary, the outward,
the exoteric; another, the real Islam, is Sufism -- the esoteric. But
Sufis remain silent, because since Mansoor they have learned that to
talk in that language which comes when the third eye opens is to be
unnecessarily in difficulty -- and it helps no one.
This
sutra says:
Closing
the seven openings of the head with your hands, a space between your
eyes becomes all inclusive. Your inner space
becomes all the space.
Every
technique is useful for a certain type of mind. The technique we have
been discussing, the third -- closing the openings of the head -- can
be used by many.
It is very simple and not very dangerous. You can use it very
easily, and there is also no need to close the openings with your
hands. Closing is needed, so you can use ear plugs and you can use a
mask for the eyes. The real thing is to close the openings of your
head completely for a few moments -- for a few moments or for a few
seconds. Try it. Do not practice it -- only suddenly is it helpful.
When it is sudden it is helpful. When lying in your bed, suddenly
close all your openings for a few seconds, and see what is happening
within.
When
you feel suffocated, go on -- unless it becomes absolutely unbearable,
because breathing will be closed. Go on, unless it becomes absolutely
unbearable. And when it is absolutely unbearable, you will not be able
to close the openings any more, so you need not worry. The inner force
will throw all the openings open. So as far as you are concerned,
continue. When the suffocation comes, that is the moment -- because
the suffocation will break the old associations. If you can continue
for a few moments more, it would be good. It will be difficult and
arduous, and you will feel that you are going to die -- but do not be
afraid, because you cannot die. You cannot die just by closing the
openings. But when you feel now you are going to die, that is the
moment.
If
you can persist in that moment, suddenly everything will be illumined.
You
will feel the inner space which goes on spreading, and the whole is
included in it. Then open your openings. Go on trying it again and
again. Whenever you have time, try it. But do not practice it. You can
practice stopping the breath for a few moments. But practice will not
help, a sudden jerk is needed. In that jerk, the flow into your old
channels of consciousness stops, and a new thing becomes possible.
Many
practice this even today -- many persons all over India. But they
practice it, and it is a sudden method. If you practice, then nothing
will happen. If I throw you out of this room suddenly, your thoughts
will stop. But if we practice it daily, then nothing will happen. It
will become a mechanical habit. So do not practice it. Just try it
whenever you can. Then suddenly, by and by, you will become aware of
an inner space. That inner space comes only to your consciousness when
you are on the verge of death. When you are feeling, "Now I
cannot continue for a single moment; now death is near," that is
the right moment. Persist! Do not be afraid. Death is not so easy. At
least up until now not a single person has died using this method.
There
are built-in securities, that is why you cannot die. Before death one
becomes unconscious. If you are conscious and feeling that you are
going to die, do not be afraid. You are still conscious, so you cannot
die. And if you become unconscious, then your breath will start.
Then
you cannot prevent it. So you can use ear plugs, etc. Hands are not
necessary. Hands were used only because if you are falling into
unconsciousness, the hands will become loose and the life process will
resume again by itself.
You
can use plugs for the ears, a mask for the eyes, but do not use any
plugs for the nose or for the mouth, because then it can become fatal.
At least the nose should remain open. Close it with your hands. Then
when you are actually falling into unconsciousness, the hands will
become loose and the breathing will come in. So there is a built-in
security. This method can be used by many.
16th
Meditation Technique
