The Vijnana Bhairava is a ceaseless pulsation, and the first practices of the Vijnana Bhairava take us through a progressive training of awareness in order to use that pulsation to reveal our true nature. Dharana one teaches us to focus on the pulsation itself in the form of Ham and Sah, Dharana two introduces the turning point of our breath, a moment of pauseless presence. Dharana three dives deeper into that pause, and Dharana four leans into it.
It should always be noted that the pause between the breath should feel as natural as breathing itself— anything less and we’re missing the point. Pranayama is no more about controlling our breath than Hatha yoga is about controlling our body. It is a means by which we enter the flow of the breath, just like Hatha yoga is how we start to move more harmoniously with our body. This means that our work with the pauses should always feel natural, and if it doesn’t, each of us has to be open to taking a step back in order to find a sustainable path forward.
Dharana 2: Reps: “As breath turns from down to up, and again as breath curves from up to down—through both these turns, realize.”
So as we see here, we begin to explore the pause not by seeking a pause, but by watching it turn. You can imagine a pendulum swinging in one direction, and if you watch it closely enough, it slows and turns and begins to swing in the other direction, did it stop? When did it stop? The math of this moment proves to be quite complex— as it approaches the end of the swing the speed gets slower and slower, the movement smaller and smaller, and the pause that takes place before it turns around is almost imperceptible, and mathematically almost impossible to predict. It would be like slicing a cake in Half, then quarter, then eighths, then sixteenths, then thirty-seconds, and sixty fourths, and so on, the slices of movement getting smaller and smaller as the pendulum approaches the end, almost infinitely. Which is why watching this turn can give us a glimpse of the infinite.
Jai Deva Singh comments on the Sutra that at this point the inhale and exhale cease, and what occurs is an upsurge of energy in the Shushumna: “By the anusandhāna or one-pointed awareness of these two pauses, the mind becomes introverted, and the activity of both prâna and apâna ceases, and there is the upsurge of madhya dasa i.e. the path of the madhya nadi or shushumna becomes open.”
But this is not a state we can grasp with our minds, or our bodies— as the math showed us. This is a state that arrives as we watch the turn with pauseless effort, or “Uninterrupted awareness”, as Swami Lakshmanjoo described it— meaning that we must be pauselessly present in order to actually feel this turn take place, and in that pauseless presence we perceive our True nature, “When you maintain uninterrupted awareness of these two voids, by this way of treading on this process the formation of Bhairava is revealed.”
This is why the Dharana teaches us to focus on the turning, the slowing, the changing, as a way of cultivating pauseless presence. It can be very productive to approach this concept progressively, first in body, then in breath. To help us really notice the ‘turn’ we can incorporate Robin’s breath, and work physically to make the end of each movement come to an almost invisible end before turning in the opposite direction. After a few repetitions with the arms, we can continue with the same pranayama, using a little effort to keep our breath long and smooth, like it was with robins breath, allowing us to hone in on the imperceptible ‘turn’ of the breath.
Homework: Taking this Dharana into your life means noticing the ‘turns’ of your day— all the in between moments when you are going in one direction with one activity, and then as that comes to an end, are going in a new direction with another activity. The spaces between the breaths are like the spaces between the activities of our life. In Sanskrit, these turns are described as Unmesha and Nimesha. It can be easiest to understand these by looking at the seasons. Summer and Winter represent the inhale and exhale, the two phases that we oscillate between. In between these two polar opposites are transitional turns we call fall and spring. Fall is the turn that takes summer into winter, and Spring is the turn that takes us from winter into summer. Paying attention to these turns can help us arrive more consciously in the experience that is either coming our way, or fading away.
On a practical level, this means paying more attention to the turns of your day, between your activities. Such as the space after this class, and before whatever is next for you. The turn that is your morning commute, for example, how do you engage your awareness there so that you truly arrive when you arrive? Or the turn on your way back from work, so that when you get home you can be totally present? Waking up is a turn from sleeping to waking life, and going to bed is also another turn in our schedule. What we bring to these turns usually indicates what our next activity will be like for us. What are your turns throughout the day? How do you use your practice to engage your awareness in them naturally and effectively? We will revisit this as a writing prompt next week for our Creative Consciousness Class, but it will only make your work next week more fruitful if you take time to bring this practice into your life, as well as your cushion, leading up to that class.
