Gazing at the sky ( Technique from Vigyan Bhairav Tantra )-Anant Sri

Gazing at the sky

( Technique from Vigyan Bhairav Tantra )-Anant Sri

Today we begin with a new meditation technique from Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. In this technique Shiva says that you gaze at the blue sky behind the clouds and attain to सौम्यता, शांति and Buddhatv. सौम्यता is awareness, humbleness, gentleness, delicateness, sincerity, all put together, शांति as we all know is peace and Buddhatv is enlightenment.

I consider Buddha and Shiva as greatest spiritual wizards, for all their words are essential to convey what they want to; you cannot ignore even a single word for there is no word that is extraneous. Every word they say is important. Here also all the three words are significant. As you experiment with the technique, सौम्यता, the greatest of the virtues becomes your nature and then peace descends that is already your intrinsic nature and what follows is enlightenment.

This sutra is so simple that one would wonder as to where the technique comes into picture. But the technique that appears to be simple and easy is very deep, in significance and it is transformative in nature.

Everyone looks at the sky but nothing transformative happens. And since no transformation takes place, one thing is certain that we are missing something. Where is the catch? We need to explore that.

Seeing is not an ordinary phenomenon, seeing affects us. Whatever we see we become like that. The characteristics of the scene become ours. Earlier the seekers used to go the forests, the mountains, and the rivers for meditation and their qualities descended on them. Like you go to the Himalayas and their beautiful ranges, miles and miles of stillness immediately calms you down, you become meditative without any technique, just being with them. Likewise, the rivers ever-flowing, indicating the transitory nature of the world and then there is a base supporting all the change. The wild forests, unbeaten paths, their freshness, their danger, their uncertainty all have had great attraction for a seeker for they all add to ones understanding.

Similarly last time we talked about धूनी, the sacred fire. How the fire element brings deep understanding within us. All the elements, the earth, the water, the fire, the air and the sky have been considered divine and worshiped, for their association brings about a deep understanding within man.

We look at the sky and we find that the clouds come and go but the sky remains undisturbed. Once we understand that the clouds are coming and going, the sky supports them but at the same time it remains unaffected, simultaneously it also makes us see that everything in the world is transitory and all things are doomed to perish, one day or the other but one who is witnessing does not undergo any change. And as we understand, that this is the nature of the world, creation and destruction follow each other, we learn to accept things and our mind begins to settle down with this understanding  and it calms down. And the mind, finding no ground to stay, gradually disappears. With this awareness and acceptance, you become humble, gentle and sincere in life. सौम्यता  becomes your nature.

Now you don’t hold on to your thoughts and intellect, where thoughts are the mind, and their meaningful interpretation is the intellect. Both are borrowed from outside and none of it belongs to you, so you don’t try to possess them. You may use them when required and let them go when not. And when you don’t hold on to your thoughts and allow them to go, you begin to feel the peace within you, and it is a leap towards great freedom for your thoughts are your limitation.

We are not able to flower because we are not prepared for an end, whereas the fact is that  birth and death are alternating with each breath. A flower is ready to perish and so it blooms for then it transforms as seed and fruit, it no longer remains a flower. But all our attempts are to make things permanent and that is against nature and is in the root of all our misery.

But once the understanding surfaces within you that change is inevitable and that all things are just passing by, you know that what you have so long considered as being you or yours will also go and with that comes the preparedness for death. And then flowering is not far.

And one, who is ready for any change, accepts everything and becomes choiceless. When you have options, you are limited that is why choices are bondages and choicelessness is great freedom. Being choiceless, you don’t make any choices, and you allow the existence to make all your choices for you. This is complete surrender, and total freedom.

J Krishnamurthy, all his life talked about this choiceless awareness. All his teachings can be summarized into these two words – choiceless awareness.

When you move in choiceless awareness, your pseudo identity goes, there is no I-ness. You develop the understanding of oneness and inter-connectedness. It is only existence, things are happening in absoluteness and there is no individual doer, and enlightenment, buddhatv just happens.

Now, a small hint for those who live in apartments, and are not able get a proper view of the sky, they can experiment by seeing the space in the room. Space is everywhere; it is emptiness in which everything exists. It is not limited by the objects. So, sitting inside the room also one can experiment with looking at the space, the emptiness behind all objects, in the same way like seeing the sky behind clouds as suggested in the technique.