The Body as Open Space
Feel empty space in every direction within your own body at once; thought-free, you become all space.
अपने ही शरीर में सब दिशाओं में एक साथ खुला आकाश अनुभव करो; निर्विकल्प होकर तुम सर्व-आकाश बन जाते हो।
The conversation of Devi & Bhairava
A faithful retelling of the dialogue that frames this verse — the Goddess asks, and Bhairava answers with the teaching above. (The śloka is the scripture; the conversation dramatizes its meaning, in English and Hindi.)
This body feels so solid and heavy, Lord. How can such density be a doorway?
यह शरीर इतना ठोस और भारी लगता है, नाथ। ऐसा ठोसपन द्वार कैसे हो सकता है?
Contemplate the body, in every direction at once, as open empty space — no solid mass, only spaciousness within and around.
शरीर को, एक साथ सब दिशाओं में, खुले रिक्त आकाश के रूप में भावित करो — कोई ठोस पिण्ड नहीं, केवल भीतर और चारों ओर अवकाश।
I can sense one part as empty, but the whole at once is difficult.
मैं एक भाग को खाली अनुभव कर सकती हूँ, पर पूरे को एक साथ अनुभव करना कठिन है।
Begin part by part if you must, but reach for the whole body sensed as space all at once. It is that thought-free wholeness that opens it — the mind, holding everything as space, has nowhere left to stand on solidity.
यदि आवश्यक हो तो भाग-भाग करके आरम्भ करो, पर पूरे शरीर को एक साथ आकाश-रूप अनुभव करने की ओर बढ़ो। वही विचार-रहित समग्रता उसे खोलती है — मन, सब कुछ को आकाश मानकर, ठोसपन पर खड़े होने के लिए कोई जगह नहीं पाता।
And when the body is felt as space?
और जब शरीर आकाश-रूप अनुभव हो?
Then the boundary between inner space and the outer world falls away, and you rest as boundless space. The sky-gaze finds emptiness outside; this finds the same emptiness within — and they are one cidākāśa, the sky of consciousness, with the body no exception.
तब भीतर के आकाश और बाहरी संसार की सीमा गिर जाती है, और तुम असीम आकाश-रूप में ठहर जाती हो। आकाश-दर्शन बाहर खालीपन पाता है; यह उसी खालीपन को भीतर पाता है — और दोनों एक ही चिदाकाश हैं, चेतना का आकाश, जिसमें शरीर कोई अपवाद नहीं।
Why it works
Contemplating the body as empty space in all directions simultaneously dissolves the dense, bounded sense of being a physical mass. When the mind becomes nirvikalpa (free of constructs) within that contemplation, the felt division between the body's inner space and the outer world collapses, and awareness rests as boundless space (vyat/ākāśa).
How to practice
- 1Sit and bring a soft awareness to the whole body at once.
- 2Imagine that the body, in every direction, is open empty space — no solid mass, only spaciousness.
- 3Hold the felt sense of inner space in all directions simultaneously, not part by part.
- 4As the mind grows thought-free, let the boundary between inner and outer space fall away — everything is felt as one open space.
The deeper story
This is the somatic counterpart of the open-sky meditation: where that gazes outward at emptiness, this discovers the same emptiness within. Kashmir Shaivism's non-dualism shows here — inner and outer space are one cidākāśa, the sky of consciousness, with the body no exception.
Terms in this technique
- ākāśa
- Space, ether; the open expanse, inner and outer.
- śūnya
- Void, emptiness — not nothingness but open, contentless awareness.
- cidākāśa
- The space of consciousness; the inner sky of awareness.
- bhāvanā
- Contemplative imagination; cultivating a state through felt imagery.
Sources consulted
- Jaideva Singh, Vijñānabhairava: The Manual for Self-Realization (Motilal Banarsidass, 1979)
- Bettina Bäumer, Vijñâna Bhairava: The Practice of Centering Awareness (Indica Books, 2011)
- Swami Lakshmanjoo, Vijnana Bhairava: The Manual for Self Realization (Universal Shaiva Fellowship, 2007)