The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra specifies 112 ways to find reality through meditation. These are the answers that the god Shiva gave to his wife, Shakti, when she asked:
O Shiva, what is your reality? What is this wonder-filled universe? What constitutes seed? Who centers the universal wheel? What is this life beyond form pervading forms? How may we enter it fully, above space and time, names and descriptions? Let my doubts be cleared!
Some of the 112 seem simple, others are true puzzles open to many interpretations. And there have been hundreds of interpretations over the 4000 year history of this book. It is worthwhile to explore the originals and the interpretations.
Here is a list of all 112 techniques as taught by Osho, who wrote five volumes and shared countless hours of discourse on the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.
With so many different ideas for how to find reality in meditation, one or more of them is likely to resonate with you. In our silent meditation sessions for the rest of this year, we’ll try them. Not all of the techniques can be done in class, but many can.
In today’s meditation, we tried three of the techniques:
#90
Touching eyeballs as a feather, lightness between them opens into the heart & there permeates the cosmos.
How we interpreted this was to lightly place our fingertips on our eyelids and bring our attention to the third eye. As in candle gazing meditation, we envisioned light streaming from the third eye to the heart and filling the body.
Personally, I found this one challenging. The sensation of touching my eyeballs was uncomfortable and I had trouble keeping my mind focussed on the light.
#42
Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audibly as feeling deepens into this silent harmony.
Since we are all joining class by Zoom, we each were able mute our mics and choose our own sound, sigh, chant, or even song to interpret this one. We started loudly and then at our own pace quieted to silence and felt the “silent harmony.”
I loved this one and found it to be peaceful. I chanted Om until it naturally started to get quieter and quieter. After about 2 minutes, I was silent and feeling the resonance of the sound in my body. It was subtle but very powerful.
#30
Eyes closed, see your inner being in detail, thus see your true nature.
We used this meditation to supplement our Shavasana. How do you interpret “inner being”? That is the crux of this meditation. When you see it, what does it look like? A collection of organs and muscles? Light? Patterns?
I found it interesting to separate my inner being from my inner body. My inner body wanted breakfast; my stomach was rumbling by the end of class. Despite that, my inner being manifested itself in my imagination as bright and free and colorful.
