“Redirect your attention inward. This is the key teaching of yoga and meditation. Be aware of what you are being throughout the day.”
This isn't a verse from the Vigyan Bhairava Tantra. It is an idea from commentary on the text. For the text's own words, see the verses we've referenced.
About the text: Vigyan Bhairava Tantra
The Vigyan Bhairava Tantra (Vijnana Bhairava Tantra) is a Sanskrit text of Kashmir Shaivism, framed as the goddess asking Bhairava, a form of Shiva, about his nature. Its 163 short verses describe roughly 112 meditation methods using the breath, the senses and awareness itself. It is often dated to around the 7th or 8th century, though the date is uncertain.
More from the Vigyan Bhairava Tantra
- “Rest your gaze on an object, then slowly withdraw it, until only emptiness remains.”
- “Life's greatest joy is found in the self, not in the external world.”
- “There is neither bondage nor liberation for me. These are only fears of the timid, reflections in the mind like the sun reflected in water.”
- “See the whole world as magic jugglery or an illusion.”
- “God is beyond all concepts of time or direction and cannot be confined to a particular place.”
- “Make the mind free of all support and let no thoughts form; then the self is known as the Supreme Self.”