FOREWORD In your hands, you hold a treasure. The Radiance Sutras, the life-work of beloved writer and teacher Lorin Roche, is a contemporary interpretation of the timeless, universal meditations of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. The 112 contemplative meditations known as both yuktis and dharanas unfold as a sacred exchange between the divine masculine as Shiva, or Bhairava, and the divine feminine as Shakti, or Bhairavi.
This happens at a deep level of vibration through the living current, spanda shakti, the pulsating source of consciousness of the early Trika-Krama lineages of tantra that knew of the quantum wave long before modern physics.
Lorin poetically translates the experience of spanda, “the creative vibration,” as always expanding and contracting, creating feelings, thoughts, or actions and then dissolving back into space. Attend to the skin as a subtle boundary Containing vastness. Enter that pulsing vastness And know there is no other but you. YUKTI 25
offer lines of the Radiance Sutras as an invocation, during the hovering space of a mudra or asana, and as a meditation to end a session. They offer ways of changing stiffness into fluidity, replacing density with shimmering energy, transforming separation into the sacred flow satisfied within.
The simple flow of breath, which for most modern practitioners is trapped under tensions and internal neglect, transforms into the most intimate connection to the sublime source. Be conscious of this unconscious prayer (of your breath), For She is the most holy place of pilgrimage. She wishes for you to enter this temple, Where each breath is adoration Of the infinite for the incarnate form. VERSE 154
Prelude
Metaphorically, a tantra is a tapestry of knowledge weaving together the threads of yoga technique.
Its focus is on full-body spirituality and accepting every breath, sensual experience, and emotion as doorways to deep and intimate contact with the energies of life.
A LANGUAGE OF LOVE The Bhairava Tantra is set as a conversation between the Goddess Who Is the Creative Power of the Universe and the God Who Is the Consciousness that Permeates Everywhere. For short, they call each other Devi and Bhairava, or Shakti and Shiva. They are lovers and inseparable partners, and one of their favorite places of dwelling is in the human heart.
Their inquiry is about how to enter into the vibrant essence of the world with the dual balance of passion and detachment.
The text invites us to be at home in the universe by accepting every intense experience, every sensual delight, every ordinary moment, as a gateway to the divine.
When making love, put your awareness into the flame of passion pulsating through the body and become that flame. Falling asleep, pay attention to the transition from waking consciousness to unconsciousness, and catch a glimpse of what consciousness itself is. Or go outside on a moonless night and simply merge with the darkness and vastness of space.
Tantric meditation is an integration of the opposites, not obliteration or mere transcendence of them. It is an alchemical union in which each polarity exists in its fullness and in a relationship of complementarity with the other.
Sanskrit sings of rhythm, vibrancy, and the transmutation of terror into ecstasy, fear into movement, stasis into electricity. It evokes flow, tenderness, intimacy with oneself and the universe, informality, attentiveness, and responsiveness. Devi’s opening statement to Bhairava gets my vote for one of the most enchanting phrases I have ever heard in any language. Chant it softly to yourself and listen: shrutam deva maya sarvam rudra yamala sambhavam. “Beloved, I have been listening to the hymns of creation.”
The language of the sutras is brief, meant to be read over and over. Each Sanskrit verse is only thirty-two syllables, intricately woven and saturated with the power of bliss (anandashakti).
For example, the word yoga has the central meaning of “joining things together,” or “hooking up.”
To practice tantra is to stretch ourselves, to extend our capacity for attention to the utmost.
Each verse of a tantra is called a sutra (there’s tra again), which means “thread” and is cognate with “sew” and “suture,” the thread that joins together. “Seam” and “couture” are also cousins of sutra.
Life refreshes and evolves itself through a symphony of ongoing rhythms. Brains have waves, hearts pulsate, breath oscillates, the senses vibrate. Tantra can be thought of as attending to these rhythms.
There are two numbers for most of the verses. The number accompanying the Sanskrit transliteration is the verse number, from 1 to 162. Devi and Bhairava banter for 23 verses, and then verse 24 marks the beginning of the “112 yogas”—meditations, techniques, known in Sanskrit as yuktis or dharanas. These yuktis are also numbered, from 1 to 112.
SAVORING THE SUTRAS The Radiance Sutras is a text to savor one phrase at a time, over a period of days or years. The verses are designed so you can read or listen to them for a lifetime and have a new revelation every day. Each of the meditations is meant to be experienced many times under many different conditions.
you will discover the tactile luminosity and improvisational music of your inner world. As your internal senses become more alert, doorway after doorway will open to you.
When you discover one sutra that resonates deeply, memorize it. Then you will, as they say, know it by heart. Something happens in the body when you can say a sutra out loud or quietly to yourself. There is a relaxation, an ease and confidence, when you can rest your attention inside a sutra and the words
flow effortlessly.
One way to explore the text is to pick one technique—whichever one strikes you—and practice it for three months. Give it time to work.
Love calls our attention and engages us. When we give love our tender attention, we are in the realm of tantra. Life is a mysterious, self-renewing process. The techniques of meditation are ways of allowing the ecstasy of the life-force at play to renew our bodies and souls. Ask your body to teach you and to take you on adventures into intimacy with your own essence. This is the yoga of wonder and delight.
Part One The Radiance Sutras
Banter Verses
Devi is the Creative Energy permeating the universe. Her nature is power, strength, and might. Bhairava is the infinite consciousness that embraces her. In the initial verses, Devi is speaking from within her awe at existence. She assumes the body of a seeker of truth and dares Bhairava to reveal to her the secrets of yoga. Rising to the occasion, Bhairava accepts her questions as beautiful and invites her to accompany him on the path of intimacy with all life. In verses 1–23, they converse back and forth in this way.
I am always here. I am the embrace Of your most intimate experience. Though I am beyond the intellect, I am not beyond your daring. I am the nourishing state of fullness That is the essence of soul. You belong to me, and I am yours. My nature is spotless, completely uncontaminated. I am not covered up, not even by a billion galaxies. So who is there to worship and adore? There is no one to appease.
At the end of the exhale, Breath surrenders to quietude. For a moment you hang in the balance— Suspended In the fertile spaciousness That is the source of breath. At the end of the inhale, Filled with the song of the breath, There is a moment when you are simply Holding the tender mystery.
In these interludes, Experience opens into exquisite vastness With no beginning and no end. Embrace this infinity without reservation. You are its vessel.
Follow the path of the life force As she flashes upward like lightning Through your body. Attend simultaneously To the perineum, that bright place Between the legs, To the crown of the skull, And to that shining star-place Above the head. Notice this living current
Becoming ever more subtle as she rises, Radiant as the morning sun, Until she streams outward from the top of the head Into all-embracing gratitude. Thus become intimate with the life of all beings.
Trace the river of life that flows through you, The luxuriously rising energies, Gradually touching each of the centers Along the spine. Savor every shimmer of color along the way. Enter each area tenderly, Loving as you go, Finally, gently, Dissolving in the crown of the head. Then above,
In the space above the head, The great dawn.
Let your attention glide Through the centers of awareness along the spine With adoring intent. There is a song to each area of the body. Resonating in sweet vortices, Long rhythmic vowels and hums, Ah… and… eee… ommmm… hummmm… Resounding on and on. Find the harmonies Emanating from the circulation of life energies.
Listen to these as sounds, Then more subtly, as an underlying hum. Eventually as most subtle feeling. Then diving more deeply, Dissolve into freedom.
Rest the attention easily in the forehead, In the eye that is made of light. Cherish the delicate energies glowing there. Allow attention to inquire upwards, into the Radiant space above the head. The small self enters delicious omnipresence. This it remembers and knows as its truth. Gradually the luminosity of that truth Fills the body to overflowing
As it rises through the crown of the head Into a shower of light.
All these beautiful surfaces Decorating vibrant emptiness. The god of love is courting you, Light as a feather.
Every perception is an invitation into revelation. Hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching— Ways of knowing creation, Transmissions of electric realization.
Whatever your focus, Give your whole being.
Gradually, step by step, The infinity from which you both have emerged Will encompass you with blessing.
Rest in that light Ever present, and gradually Awaken into the steady joy of
That which is always everywhere.
Your whole attention resting in the subtle, Vibrating in the center of the spinal column,
Tracing this current between Earth and Sun, Become magnetism relating all the worlds.
Bodies feed on sound. Sonic waves on inner waters Nourish every nerve. Vibration strengthens bones. Ecstatic undulation awaits you. Take a bite of crunchy K, slippery S, a rugged Rrrr. Enjoy a yummy vowel—ah, ee, oo, or uu. Throw it in a bowl of Mmmm. Treasure the impact on your tongue— Kreem, Shreem, Raam, Yumm, Hreem, Laam.
Pronounce a sound out loud, then whisper softly. Now hear with your inner ear. Allow the resonance to enchant you within. The sound goes on resounding, continuing of itself. As the hum dissolves into silence, Be nurtured In the tenderness of infinite space.
The radiance of space permeates the body And all directions simultaneously. Space is always here, Already here before your noticing of it. What we call space is a presence, Permission to exist, And worlds within which to express. Without thinking about it, Without forming mental images, Rest in this vast expanse,
Friends with infinity.
Behind the spine is infinity. Below the perineum, Invisible pulsating roots Open downward into space. The heart is wide as a spiral galaxy. Steadily consider Back, root, heart, And know the living body of vastness That you are.
Forget all of your ideas about the body— It’s this way or it’s that way. Just be with any area of it, This present body, As permeated with limitless space, Drenched in freedom.
In meditation, luxuriate in knowing this deep and simple truth. Every cell is an organ of sense Infused with majesty.
Attend to the skin As a subtle boundary Containing vastness. Enter that pulsing immensity. Discover that you are not separate From anything there. There is no inside, There is no outside, There is no other— No object to meditate upon that is not you.
Put attention into the luminous connections Between the centers of the body, Where the mind loves to dissolve. Base of the spine and top of the head. Genitals and heart. Heart and throat. Throat and forehead. Forehead and crown of the skull. Enter that glowing net of light With a focus born of awe,
And even your bones will know enlightenment.
Imagine the entire world consumed by flame. Stay steady, do not waver, As fire transmutes form into light. The soul reveals itself To itself as Radiance.
Experience the substance of the body And the world As made up of vibrating particles, And these particles made up of Even finer energies. Drifting more deeply, Feel into each pulse of energy As it condenses from infinity And dissolves back into it Continuously. Noticing this, breathe easily
With infinity dancing everywhere.
Strong or soft, wild or serene— Wherever breath flows there is song. Hear its whisper touching behind the face, Singing in the throat, Dancing spirals in the sanctuary of your heart. In this practice of listening, A moment may come when you just want to lie down. This is a doorway—surrender. Fall into the wide-open embrace of life. You are the instrument breath is playing.
All the meditations you have ever loved Are vibrating in this luxurious hum, Continuing even in sleep and dreams. This is your school. Just you and infinity. The texture of the Self is untamed freedom.
Shining One, Breathing out, let go And fall into knowing all of creation As existing within space, And you are absorbed in that Vibrant empty fullness. In this moment your body is intimate With space, exchanging essence for essence. Balancing in the midst of vast emptiness, Know utter freedom.
Throw the one who is seeing into the center. Entrust your mind to the embrace of space. In a flash, all boundaries dissolve.
Go to a wide-open space, Gaze without looking anywhere. The mind stops its building of thoughts, And rests on its own foundation— Immensity. The light that you see by Is the light that comes from inside.
Watch for a moment in which Two opposing perceptions occur— Wanting to go and not going, Knowing and simultaneously not knowing. In the midst of this dilemma, Let go of both perceptions And jump in to the interval between. Reality flashes forth. Your being is the shining field of awareness, The continuum in which the opposites play.
Breathing is the flow of the divine, Where the rhythms of life turn into each other— The eternal exchange. Pour one breath into the other, Outbreath into the inbreath Into the outbreath. Awaken to equanimity, At peace in the play of opposites.
Rivers of power flowing everywhere. Fields of magnetism relating everything. This is your origin. This is your lineage. The current of creation is right here, Coursing through subtle channels, Animating this very form. Follow the gentle touch of life, Soft as the footprint of an ant, As tiny sensations open to vastness. Power sings as it flows,
Electrifies the organs of sensing, Becomes liquid light, Nourishes your entire being. Celebrate the boundary Where streams join the sea, Where body meets infinity.
As the fires build in sexual joy, Enter that blessed place between the legs, Embrace the holy energies shimmering there. Follow the rising flow, Undulating throughout the spine, Shivering with pleasure. As the fire intensifies And flashes upwards, Suspend the breath for a moment. Throw your whole self in.
Become brilliance in your bodily form, In union with primordial bliss.
No inside and no outside— Only the delight of union. The mind releases itself into divine energy,
And the body knows where it came from. This is reality, and it is always here. Everyone craves the source, And it is always everywhere.
In the great joy of seeing A loved one after a long absence, A flash of recognition ignites you. Space becomes charged, The bond between you shimmers, And a surge of delight arises in your being. Beloved, Find within you the source of this surge. Melt into that place of upwelling, A wave rolling in a vast ocean of delight.
All around you, in every moment, The world is offering a feast for your senses. Songs are playing, Tasty food is on the table, Fragrances are in the air, Colors fill the eyes with light. You who long for union, Attend this banquet with loving focus. The outer and inner worlds Open to each other. Oneness of vision, oneness of heart.
Right here, in the midst of it all, Mount that elation, ascend with it, Become identical With the ecstatic essence Embracing both worlds.
Wherever, whenever you feel carried away, Rejoicing in every breath, There, there is your meditation hall. Cherish these times of absorption— Rocking the baby in the silence of the night, Pouring water into a crystal glass, Tending the logs in a crackling fire, Sharing a meal with a circle of friends. Embrace these pleasures and know, “This is my true body.”
When sleep has not yet come, And the sweet buzz of exhaustion Permeates the body, Linger in the ahhhh of relief As your head touches the pillow. Everything in you is yearning to let go. So let go, let your body fall Into something deeper than sleep. With your mind, enter The soft luminous glow of the soul.
You who have been seeking, whatever path you are on, A moment will come when Divine pulsation grabs you And carries you into its dance. In the midst of ecstatic motion, Your body dissolves into light, leaving only The softly glowing benediction of the bones. You become the face of fury, yet serene within. Eyes fly open in amazement, Seeing the unseen vastness. Or you become a tongue tasting upward Into the nectar of eternity.
The soul reveals itself to itself Through movement, Energy-infused undulations and gestures Of hand, foot, spine, face, and form. The invisible loves the visible.
Sit in any relaxed, comfortable pose. Experience the earth below As insubstantial, a pillow of air— Air that is always vibrating, Minute particles in ecstatic motion. Poised here, No support below, no support above, No support for the feet or hands, No support for the mind, Be completely at peace!
Throw yourself into the throbbing intensity. Become this dance, Absorbed in radiant splendor.
Experience the space below As offering no support. You are simply suspended, Floating in space.
Structures of the mind release. The reservoir of habits dissolves. In an instant, lifetimes of patterns Vanish.
Who is morphing through this Ever-shifting flow? Beloved, wake up! Dance in your true body before time, Shimmering energy without end.
Throw off all hesitation. Become one with the fear. Plunge into the uncanny blackness,
Eyes wide open, As if there were no other choice. Vibrating with fierce tenderness, Breathe intimately With the Lord of Infinite Space.
The mind can no longer take the world for granted. Attention spirals inward, And touches the glistening emptiness— The reality behind appearance.
Extending forever in all directions— Above, below, all around. In the embrace of infinite space, Awaken to your true form— Divine creative energy Revealing Herself as you.
People talk about mind and ego. Let’s just drop this whole conversation. Consider instead: There is no mind. There is no ego. There is only the vivid reality Of this surprising moment At play, beckoning.
The One who permeates it all is a great lover. Deeply relating above and below, Mortal and immortal, transient and eternal, Perceive the terrifying beauty.
Beloved, Reject the reality of everything. Deny the universe of appearance. Say no to the phenomenal world. Reside in the secret place inside. As joy rises in the heart At this sudden freedom, Enter there and dwell!
Witness the elemental motion of emotion: Fire burning, illuminating,
Water gushing, cleansing, Air inspiring, soothing, Earth supporting, holding, Space expanding, embracing. You are in the temple of desire. Go deeper still and rest in essence, Awake to infinite spiritual energy Surging into form.
Contemplate the entire universe As a magic show On the grandest scale imaginable. Fabulous art, an immense painting in motion. God is a magician whirling galaxies of fire, Juggling atoms, planets, and us. Everything, everything is fleeting. Meditating on this magic, Great happiness rises in the heart.
Beloved Soul Mate— Find the space in the center, The pulsing spaciousness Encompassing all opposites.
Drop the thought, “I am this body,” Abandon the limitation, “I am only here in this specific place and time.” Embrace instead, I am not my body. I am not this place. I am not this time. There is no place. There is no time.
Realize, “I am everywhere,” Sustained by infinite bliss.
Lovers know, each contact with another Is a spark of the divine. Lovers move through this world Awake to intimacy,
Each touch a revelation Never to be repeated.
There is a Knower who experiences everything. There is a Presence dancing everywhere. There is a Lover who embraces us all. I am one with that Light. I am one with that Power. I am one with that Love.
You are stunned, powerless. You thought you knew What was going on. Now you realize you don’t have a clue.
You are stopped in your tracks. Everything within your skin is shaking. Enter this shaking. Get curious. Look around inside with wonder. Unmind your mind. All the walls have fallen down—
Go ahead and dissolve. The One Who Has Always Been, Who has seen much worse than this, Is still here.
Meditating on the symphony of your own life currents, Enter the palace of the Creator.
Immediately, Doubts dissolve, Dilemmas disappear. Be steady as mind releases itself Into its natural freedom.
Where can you go to avoid The One in Whom All Exists? Reach down into your deepest being. Take a stand in eternity.
Intensity awakens, Wild attentiveness everywhere.
Emptied of engagement, Enter the temple of unknowing. Dissolve in wonder— Where does anything come from?
All the secret teachings are right here— Go deeper, and deeper still. The gift of concentration Is the spaciousness that surrounds it. Focus illuminates immensity.
All this talk of purity and impurity, These are just opinions. Beyond them Are the miraculous energies of creation. Rays of light from a trillion suns Illumine the altar of your sky. Rolling blue-green oceans Sanctify the air you breathe. In this moment, you are inhaling their blessing. Who are you to call any of this pure or impure? Find the center around which everything revolves—
When you are friends with the Friend to All Beings Nothing is the same. Rich beyond measure, abundant beyond counting, You can move through this life laughing. Opinions of others have no rulership over you.
The next time the thought arises, “I want this,” or “I think that,” Grab hold of this “I”—perceive it by itself. Wonder, who is this “I”? I am animal, I am human. I am a loving heart, I am a questing mind. I am a particle of infinity, I am a witness to creation. I am consciousness itself.
In meditation, embrace all these dimensions. Reach into the source: the luminous World of dancing energies In ever-changing relatedness.
What do we love in magic? Each gesture is a kind of jest, Inviting us beyond itself Into the deepest magic of all— God alone is.
INSIGHT VERSES In the final verses 136–162, Bhairava offers encouragement to make these practices your own. Discover the ones that are always going on spontaneously in your deepest being and know that the elixir of life is always available to you. Devi is suffused with delight and embraces her lover.
Marvel that once, you identified with Only the surface of this ocean. Now embrace waves, depths, undersea mountains,
Out to the farthest shore.
When the secret slips out, there is laughter
And a flash of brilliance in the air.
Playing, become smaller than an atom, Travel through the expanse of space, Drink the elixir of immortality. Bathe in the stream of these life-giving teachings. Flirt with the tingling sparks of vitality
Surging through your body. Live your whole life as a festival, a celebration, Liberated in love and work.
When you enter into the great Self, All prayers go on inside you spontaneously Without ceasing.
When you are established in this recitation, You are listening, and you hear them. Plunging without reservation Into the ocean of bliss is meditation. No image, no thoughts, no prop. Concentrating on the image of a god With a body, eyes, and mouth is not meditation.
The real transmutation, The most sacred offering, Is to pour the elements of your body, All of your sensual impressions, Into the fire of the Great Void. Your richness of experience Is the wine you offer To the divinity that is everywhere.
The real sacrifice Is to let your sins be destroyed By the vast power of the universe. It is to live in radiant bliss. Senses dissolve, mind dissolves, The objects of sense dissolve, Even the void is dissolved. This is transcendence.
Be conscious of this unconscious prayer, For She is the most holy place of pilgrimage. She wishes for you to enter this temple, Where each breath is adoration Of the infinite for the incarnate form.
Adorable Goddess, These practices are a nectar I share with you. Drink from this cup whenever you are thirsty Or crave to be refreshed in the essence of life. Know that this ambrosia is available to you Everywhere, for the universe is made out of it. Simply go to the intersection of flesh and spirit, Breathe the tiny sparks that fly. Within this very body
Are many gateways to the infinite, Where incarnation and immortality Consummate their passion for each other.
Friends, relatives, neighbors, people who abide In your village, city, country— Be not concerned with their attitudes Toward these teachings. Everyone is discovering the intimate universe In their own way. This nectar is here Within every breath, every desire, every transition From waking to sleeping and sleeping to waking. Once you have set out on the path of intimacy With the immortal essence of life, Never turn your back on it, my Shining One. Never turn away. Though every moment be surprising, Revelatory, unrecognizable, and full of wonder, Continue to cherish each breath. Live in gratitude for the ambrosia we imbibe In each turning, outbreath to inbreath into outbreath.
Part Two Invitations And Illuminations
The practices are presented in verses made up of four to ten Sanskrit words, and every individual word is a tool of thought, a mantra. In this section, one Sanskrit word from each sutra is presented as a portal into a rich world of experience.
In the meditation traditions, a transmission is an electric realization, an aha moment. Often, you are reminded of something you already know and love. You recognize a truth, and your life-force is awakened.
As you get to know a Sanskrit word, form your own mental images to go with each of the many meanings in the definition. As you learn, little jokes and puns will pop up in your mind, and once you start combining words, the metaphors just keep on mixing. And in between these images, there is an emptiness that is always beckoning, inviting you to feel spacious and expansive. Learning to be entertained by the play of matter, energy, and emptiness is one of the central practices of meditation described in this text. Reading a list of Sanskrit word definitions requires an unusual kind of attention. You may want to take a breath after each phrase in a definition, or even go for a walk with it. Let the meaning in the image surprise you. In this way, one bit at a time, you can begin to learn to think in Sanskrit. It can take hours or even days to get the feel for one word, but you are learning on a deep level.
As we practice meditation, we want to be continually refining our craft, becoming more skillful in joining up all the essential elements of our own inner riches so that we can thrive in the outer world.
PRĀṆA Prana: Filled, full. The breath of life. Respiration, spirit, vitality. The five vital airs: prana, apana, vyana, samana, and udana. Breath as a sign of strength. Vigor, energy, power—with all one’s strength, or with all one’s heart.
Breathing is rhythm, a play of opposites. Here you are invited to enjoy the play of prana, the universal breath of life and jiva, the individual soul, the way the breath of life condenses into you. Another play of opposites is up and down—upward into the sky above you and downward into the brightness of the pelvis. A good way to initiate yourself into this practice is to go outside, where you can feel the sky and earth, and take a standing posture. As you breathe out, let your
hands flow upward along the front of your body to the area above your head. As you breathe in, let your hands float back down toward your pelvis. This is an easy gesture, as eloquent as conductors waving their hands as they direct an orchestra. After you get the sense of this wonderful flow, you can continue the movement in any posture—sitting or lying down or dancing. Exhaling upwards, give your breath to infinity. Inhaling downwards, receive the nourishing fullness of your individuality.
As you exhale, whisper the word prana to yourself, and notice your relationship to the mystery of universality. Follow the motion upwards from your heart into heaven. As you inhale and receive the breath, whisper jiva, and notice your relationship with the mystery of individuality. Allow your attention to travel down from the space above your head, to the heart, to the area between your legs, and even to your feet. Everywhere in the body is spiritual and sacred. As you get used to this movement, add another motion: tilt the head back slightly as you breathe out, so you are facing upward, and tilt the head downward slightly as you inhale. The rhythm of the breath happens twenty-two thousand times a day. When you spend just a few of these times in delight and wonder, it begins to transform the other 99.999 percent that you take for granted. Breathing out, quietly celebrate, “I am part of the life of the universe.” Breathing in, marvel, “I am a living soul, an individual.” Jiva, meaning “individual soul,” also suggests that from the very first breath, you can modify any meditation instructions to suit your unique individuality. For example, if you feel enthusiastic, your celebration phrases could be, “Oh my God! I am alive!”
MARUT Marut: Lightning and thunderbolts, roaring like lions. The flashing ones, shining ones, storm gods, Indra’s companions, children of heaven or of the ocean, armed with golden weapons. Wind, air, breath, and the five winds, or pranas, in the body. Practice Marut suggests that breath is wild and magical, like lightning. Let go of your civilized self and welcome your wildness, your storms.
The practice here is to do nothing—simply enjoy the show as this magic stuff flows inward, turns, and then flows outward and turns again. Welcome the flash of sensations, emotions, thoughts, and breath.
When you use a phrase such as one of these as a tool of thought in meditation, pulsate with it. Whisper or think the phrase, very lightly. Then notice whatever feelings, sensations, or images the phrase evokes. Enjoy the sensations of breathing for a few moments. Then gently think the phrase again. Welcome all random thoughts, and don’t judge your experience. Anything you are tempted to try to block out is actually some part of your own life electricity and wildness—your marut energy—that needs your attention.
Practice With this sutra, we are invited to attend with tenderness to how we embrace the breath. There are many yuktis here. One is to consider the lungs to be a pot for holding the breath. Kumbhaka has the connotation of a jug of elixir, a chalice, a vessel used in ritual offerings to the gods. We revere the air flowing in and out of our lungs as if it is an elixir, and we hold the breath as we hold a chalice of some precious substance we are imbibing.
The subtle, all-pervading spirit; the Supreme Soul. Marrow. Woven silk.
heart, throat, and head. The verse reinforces the notion of subtle and minute with the word kirana, meaning “dust, very minute dust” and “beam of light, like the rays of the sun, or moonbeam.” We sense the energy of life sparkling like dust motes, drifting slowly in a beam of afternoon sun.
In your body, you may have noticed, there are areas of more energetic intensity, such as the perineum, sexual organs, lower belly, solar plexus, heart, throat, forehead, top of the skull. In the physical body, there are nerve plexuses corresponding to these interesting places. In the subtle body, the body made of prana, these networks are sometimes called chakras. The word chakra means “wheel, a potter’s wheel, an astronomical circle, a cycle of years or seasons; a whirlpool.” Your physical body is the center of a galaxy of subtle magnetism.
The chakras evolve through being employed appropriately; for example, your heart chakra develops by loving people, not by being forced to open. You will learn about your own internal sequencing through love and meditation. One of the amazing gifts of a healthy meditation practice is the ability to relax deeply into the ever-changing, unpredictable, always surprising, ecstatic flow of the life-force.
Another key to freedom is to let meditation be a safe place to explore, where any and all feelings are allowed. You can let any thought or emotion come without editing it or controlling it. You don’t care what thoughts come and go, and you don’t try to remember them. All you need to do is make a simple decision: “I won’t act on any thought or emotion that comes during meditation.” You give freedom to meditation by letting it be its own separate state of awareness, in which the body-mind system can explore new patterns of connectedness. Then, after meditation, with a clearer mind, you can make time for decisions.
Practice Nyasa can refer to ritual touching of various parts of the body while saying prayers or mantras. In so doing, you are awakening a quality of the divine and assigning or placing it in that area of the body. Here you are invited to introduce sacred qualities to the inside of your skull and to the crown of
It is best to start out informally. Say something like, “I want my head to be filled with the most beautiful light, gorgeous music, and a view that goes on forever.” Just make it up. Don’t impose anyone else’s idea of the sacred on yourself. The space inside your skull can become a perfect island getaway, a concert hall, the entire range of the Himalayas, vast reaches of outer space, or a medieval church with rose windows and saints everywhere.
Over time, learn to tolerate the sense of immensity both above and below.
Close the outer doors of perception, dvaras, and open your inner senses. You can do this in any way that is attractive to you, such as wearing an eye mask and earplugs, meditating in a silent and dark room, or floating in a sensory deprivation tank. You could put your fingers over your eyes and in your ears in shanmukhi mudra. Most people can automatically shut out the outer world, instantly and without effort, whenever they find something interesting to attend to in the inner world.
When you look out on the world, be alert for what lights up your eyes. The delight is a kind of disturbance; it shakes you and awakens the fire within. It lights up your eyes, lights up your heart. You melt. This simple moment, which all tenderhearted people experience, is a door to the mystery of heart. If you meditate on this flame, you may find yourself dissolving and entering the cave of the heart.
So right here we have one of those cheerful little jokes you find everywhere in Sanskrit: hearts beat—that’s what they do. And hearts get wounded. But there is a level of your heart that is unbeaten and unwounded. Any time you want, come take refuge here and be healed, in your essential heart that is steadily humming along.
This sutra also introduces the term bhavana, which has a meaning of “steeping, infusion.” Soak your body in the feeling of yes, the vibration of yes, whatever that is for you. Let the hot water of your blood and your passion for life mix with your primordial yes. Meditate with that. Listen to the hum of it and follow it into the great silence.
As you listen to any internal music, mantras, or vowels, notice the way the vibration alters your structure, sets the web of your subtle body vibrating. There is an infinity of tiny delicious sensations—the sensuous texture of your inner life. Purva is “being before,” and anta is “end of a texture, pause.” Texture means “web, structure, network, weaving.” As you become aware of the network of your nerves
dancing in emptiness, in shunya, the sensation is unutterable. Even a few seconds of this can be as satisfying as an orgasm (well, almost).
All mantras are to call you home into the silence and vibrant emptiness. When you find your true mantra, it may be hard to remember because it is always fading away into silence and shunya, nothingness, space, heaven, atmosphere. Truth is what works.
It’s also great fun to listen to engines revving—those of planes at airports, cars at race tracks, lawn mowers in the neighbor’s driveway. Listen to bees humming in the garden or your cat purring. Listen and know that space resonates with the silent potential of all these sounds. Let yourself feed on them in the most natural and immediate way.
space. If you do too much, you can get spaced out, as they say. Always fine-tune your practice so that you function better in your daily life.
Practice Take courage (sthira), take heart (hṛd) that you are permeated with infinite space everywhere and you still exist. Get interested in the sense of spacious freedom permeating your spine, the area between your legs, and your heart. As you enter this feeling, find your way into steadiness. This is a shunya meditation, inviting you to firmly sit down on nothing; you are emptiness sitting, standing, or lying down on emptiness. The back is space. The area between your legs is flooded with space. The heart pulsates in spaciousness. Cultivate this feeling steadily, firmly. Develop these experiences, then meditate on them simultaneously (yugapad). As you develop the ability to perceive your heart and spine as space and to be with them as space, allow also the coexistence of both empty space and the appearance of matter. You don’t need to deny the solid nature of your spine; you are just
contemplating that everything is made out of emptiness. A beautiful, clear feeling arises as a result.
Get used to this rhythm: the word, the feeling of the word, the sensations and imagery, the silence after the word, then the next word. You can meditate in this way for five, ten, or twenty minutes a day. That’s it. You’re all set. You can do this with any quality you love or are devoted to or have faith in.
After a while, something surprising happens—the dual perception of boundaries and spaciousness releases your senses to perceive reality at a deeper level, and this shift of perception stimulates changes in your internal chemistry.
Translated into the here and now, from the mythic to the somatic, the soma spoken of in this sutra refers to the process by which the body produces its own molecules of delight, which we might call endorphins. In the meditation tradition, soma refers to the body’s natural nectars that enhance perception.
Practice Do whatever makes your heart sing, then listen in. What you hear is the primordial mantra, and it is a portal to your inner world. Samputa evokes the image of the heart as an infinite singing bowl.
Samputa suggests that mantras emerge spontaneously from the vibrancy of the relationship of energy and consciousness. Listen to the mantra of the heart as if it is emerging from the sigh of lovers: ohhhh… mmmmm… ahhhhh. You might also hear a humming sound, like that of bees. The kurabaka flower is referred to in Sanskrit love poetry as “rich in nectar and a lure for bees,” who excite the air with their humming.
In the heart you are free; there is open space, akasha. The samputa mantra resonating here creates a delicious liquor; drink and be refreshed.
Practice There are sweet spots everywhere in the body—areas the mind (manas) loves to melt into and delight in (laya). If we take the definition of laya, above, and unfold it a bit, we hear something like the following: “If you follow the pendulum of the breath from its highest point, where it swings up into the head, to its lowest point, where it swings down into the vibrating area between the legs, you will find many places of rest—residences and houses for your attention to dwell. These places invite you to enter and be in enjoyment. The atmosphere is alive with music and dance.” Run your hands over your body and explore the places that feel like the union of song and dance—luxurious areas you want to linger in. Be sure to include the arms, hands, legs, and feet. Go get massage from a really skilled person and then meditate afterwards and chart your whole body. Do things that make you feel
fantastic, and when in the height of feeling wonderful, sit down and meditate and sense where the energies are dancing. In lovemaking, notice the areas of heightened sensation where awareness is intensified. If you study the chakras, keep in mind that those are someone else’s maps of their body, a little sketch of some moment of their life. That’s their song and dance. What’s yours?
Yukti means “skillful,” and if you do this yukti skillfully, you will function better and have more attention for the outer world, even though you are also attending to your inner delight. Ksip is almost a physical skill and can be approached playfully—throwing your attention, again and again, into your body, the way you would throw a baseball or football to a partner. Through practice you develop elegance, grace, and effortlessness.
You have more presence because you are continually refreshed in the stream of prana flowing through you.
Each cell is a little flame, a tiny hearth cooking up the sustenance of life and transmuting the elements into energy. The process of transmutation is called fire.
This is akin to meditating on being made up of molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles. It’s intense yet relaxing. Every particle of creation is aflame, a tiny sun.
Nineteenth-century Anglican minister John Henry Newman said, “Heaven and hell are the same place. It’s just that in hell people resist the flame.”
Practice Wonder and awe are power sources propelling this practice. What is the world made out of? What is my body made out of? The technique is to take any element of your body and develop a subtler and subtler (suksma-suksma) appreciation of all its levels, until you perceive its foundation, its ultimate reality (para), the source of existence.
Para is the Universal Soul, and in practicing this yukti, you are asking Her to take you into her kitchen and let you see how bodies and planets are whipped up out of nothing, following the Cookbook of Creation.
When you feel like quitting a specific practice or discipline, it is not failure. That system may have worked to get you through a certain phase of your life. But you have outgrown it and are now being called to a deeper discipline, one more in accord with your true nature. Your yoga is evolving into a new form, which may be unknown to you for a while.
Wonder invites attention toward the subtle, the world beyond the world.
Attend first to the obvious level and then allow awareness to be called into layer after subtle layer of this magical dance until you dissolve into infinity. Follow each perception from sthula, the massive, dense level, to the suksma level, the atomic. Then go beyond into para, that which is beyond—the infinite mystery out of which we have emerged.
In a minute, you might cycle from contemplating the whole universe, to silent awe, and back again several times.
You may already sense infinity all around you and be slightly terrified by the vastness. This terror (jagadbhaya, “terror of the universe”) is natural and is one of the doorways into ecstasy (dvara, “door, gate, passage, opening, way, means, means of entering ecstasy”). You may be able to tolerate it for only a few breaths at a time. It is a very odd sensation to be standing in your garden or on a mountain and experience the earth beneath you as translucent, a little grain of sand floating in a boundless ocean. If you had the resources, you could build a room in which the floors, walls, and ceiling are monitors showing movies of vast reaches of interstellar space with star systems and constellations, worlds upon worlds. One of the skills involved in this practice is developing spherical awareness. Before and after meditation, stand and look in every direction.
As you get used to this, add multisensory awareness, in which you see, hear, and feel in all directions. When you meditate with spherical awareness, great brilliance arises. If you want to develop a verbal mantra to go with this meditation, it could be something like this: In all directions, relatedness. In all directions, intimacy. In all directions, belonging. If you enjoy spiritual language, you could formulate a thought such as, The endless divine mystery is extending around me in all directions or On every side of me is infinite God consciousness. Modify the phrase to be something meaningful to you.
An overall skill of meditation is allowing each surprising moment of your experience to invoke just the right quality of engagement. You may find yourself flowing from tending with adoration to studying carefully, then going off into flights of fancy—all in the space of a minute. This supple motion of awareness is how you let the process of meditating be so interesting that you become absorbed.
The text uses the word laya, “absorbed, dissolved, sport, diversion, merriness, delight in anything.”
Be prepared to catch what happens in the twinkling of an eye. Notice what happens in an instant. There is a momentary dissolution, a quiet dissolving into space, then in the next moment you come back to yourself.
The sutra suggests you go to a place (desa) where there are no trees, no hills, no walls, and with open eyes, gaze at nothing. Behold that wide-open space. Throw your attention into that spaciousness. As your mind dissolves in emptiness, your addictions, preoccupations, mental whirlpools—the vortexes (vrtti)—will gradually diminish. No matter how many times the vrttis intrude, return again and again to the simple beauty of bareness. This practice is especially valuable when you are besieged by repetitive thoughts or worries, by old thinking that creates suffering. You can take a mental
vacation and visualize a wide-open, boundaryless space. Sometimes there is nothing like actually going to such a place and spending a week just letting your mind empty itself out.
At first, the middle space may feel like nothing. But as your awareness shifts levels toward the subtle, the space between begins to seem like the most dynamic thing happening, a magnetic field. When you get this, the invisible somehow becomes illumined and richly textured, and this is such a wonderful surprise that you may burst out laughing.
great love may light you up so much that you feel you can love the whole human race. Love wants to spill over, gush. But you can’t share your love physically with everyone because there isn’t enough time or space or condoms.
When we bond with another person, with an animal, with family or a team, it is as if there are invisible strings connecting us with them. Each string is a nerve connection, a living current of prana. Whenever we are working with strings, we are in the realm of tantra, in its sense of weaving together the strings of life into a fabric. Cherish these connections. The sacred function of niruddha is not to block out the world, but to free you to attend to love.
In this meditation, you accept something deeper—that the matter of your body and the entire universe are made not just of energy and space, but on a deeper level, of pure consciousness.
Practice It is impossible to be appreciative enough of breathing.
A thousand red or purple horses pulling a shining car—what an image for the dynamic power of breath and the blood vessels that meet the air as we breathe in. The greatest skill you could bring to breathing is being in awe and wonder. Some time, you might want to take a year and track all the metaphors associated with vayu; make
own imagery, so that when you think or say the word, you perceive a rich mandala of meaning.
Bliss is a necessary foundation for yoga practice. Without it, the electricity of the life-force can grate on your nerves. Bliss is nourishing, and it suffuses, lubricates, and coats the nerves with the deep pleasure of existence. When you find bliss, notice and welcome it. Do not let any voices tell you that feeling pure joy is not a serious meditation practice. Bask in pleasure, shamelessly.
Practice Life is full of surprises, and one of the sacred functions of meditation is preparing us to be poised and ready to laugh, especially when the joke is on us. During meditation, welcome surprise, however it shows up—in thoughts, shifts of mood, or changes in your state of consciousness. Welcome the sense that you have no idea what is going to happen next in your practice. You could be feeling bubbly and energized and suddenly fall asleep. You might think you are sleepy and sit to meditate, and somehow you instantly feel energized. Before a meditation session, you might think you are in a dull and stupid place, and yet when you close your eyes, suddenly you are full of sunshine inside, and you feel wonderful. Accept that you have no idea which item of your to-do list will demand your attention. Your brain has eighty billion neurons, and they are all talking to each other. Your body has tens of thousands of miles of nerves and blood vessels, and they want a chance to commune with each other. When you welcome surprise, you are more likely to perceive the magic show that is our every living moment.
Learn to be alert for these tiny sensations of the pranashakti, as subtle as an ant walking on your skin, flowing through your senses.
Srotas is also the flow of sensory nutrition; the sensual data flowing into your awareness is nourishing. If you don’t know how to receive nutrition from simple sensuous experiences such as listening to music, working in a garden, watching a baby sleep, or looking at art, go find people who do and spend time with them.
Your body may turn into a pure hum of vibration, the essence of mantras. You may taste the nectar of life. The electricity flowing along your spine and skin may shoot upward into heaven and downward into the earth. You may feel as if you are dancing, immersed in music, or dissolved into space.
Love changes us. Its touch goes deep inside and remains in our cellular memory. The delight is supposed to be lasting. If you have ever been in love or want to be, you can let your heart and soul be filled with the juiciness of this love as if it were happening right now.
Dogs are masters of this dharana. When dogs see someone they love, they don’t hold back. They levitate with bliss; it rises in them, and they leap. Lately, part of my practice has been to meditate on the uninhibited joy dogs express. Teachers are everywhere in our environment and in the connections we have with all other living beings. Who are your teachers on the path of love?
But if you cherish desires and let your body eagerly look forward to eating, you will tend to have better digestion and better instincts about what to eat and how much. Seek out the most yummy smells and tastes available to you. Relish them. In meditation, when desire for a taste or smell arises, welcome it and meditate on it. Whenever you are eating or drinking something delicious, give an extra minute to savoring. That extra sixty seconds can be quietly life changing.
The inner motion of meditation is presented here as an enthusiastic, life-embracing activity like jumping on a horse—“Let’s ride!” This sutra is saying, “If you want to practice yoga, mount up! Jump onto your greatest joy and go.”