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IdentityVoidDissolutionVerse 134advanced

The Changeless Self Has No Knowing or Doing

For the changeless Self there is no knowing and no doing; knowing depends on objects — so this world is void.

Source verse · Verse 134
आत्मनो निर्विकारस्य क्व ज्ञानं क्व च वा क्रिया। ज्ञानायत्ता बहिर्भावा अतः शून्यमिदं जगत्॥
ātmano nirvikārasya kva jñānaṃ kva ca vā kriyā | jñānāyattā bahirbhāvā ataḥ śūnyam idaṃ jagat
For the changeless Self there is no knowing and no doing; knowing depends on objects — so this world is void.
▶ Practice this technique10 / 20 min · eyes either

How to practice

  1. 1Turn to the Self — the bare awareness that is always present and never changes.
  2. 2Consider that this changeless Self does not itself "know" things or "do" things; knowing and doing are movements, and it is movementless.
  3. 3See that outer things depend on knowing to appear — no knowing, no object.
  4. 4Therefore contemplate this world as essentially void (śūnya), and rest as the changeless witness in which it appears.
Practice note. A contemplative argument, not a denial of experience: knowing and the known come and go; you, the changeless awareness, neither know nor do — and what depends on knowing is, in itself, void.

Terms in this technique

ātman
The true self; awareness as one’s own being.
cit
Consciousness itself, the aware principle.
śūnya
Void, emptiness — not nothingness but open, contentless awareness.
sākṣin
The witness; awareness that observes without being touched.

Sources consulted

  • Jaideva Singh, Vijñānabhairava: The Manual for Self-Realization (Motilal Banarsidass, 1979)
  • Swami Lakshmanjoo, Vijnana Bhairava: The Manual for Self Realization (Universal Shaiva Fellowship, 2007)
  • Bettina Bäumer, Vijñâna Bhairava: The Practice of Centering Awareness (Indica Books, 2011)
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