Meditation often feels like a modern solution to stress, but its roots go back thousands of years. One of the most remarkable teachings on meditation is found in the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra, a dialogue between Devi (the Divine Mother) and Shiva. In it, Shiva responds to Devi’s question: How can we realize the highest truth?
His answer is extraordinary—he offers 112 different methods of meditation. Instead of prescribing a single technique, Shiva opens 112 doors into awareness, reminding us that every moment, sensation, and experience can become a path to realization.
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Why 112 Techniques?
Most of us think meditation means sitting cross-legged, closing the eyes, and trying to calm the mind. Shiva’s approach is far broader. The 112 techniques include:
- Breath awareness: Noticing the pause between inhalation and exhalation.
- Body awareness: Focusing on subtle energy along the spine or at specific centers.
- Senses: Entering meditation through sound, sight, taste, or touch.
- Daily life moments: Transforming eating, walking, joy, or even fear into meditation.
- Contemplation: Dissolving opposites like pleasure and pain, knowing and not-knowing.
- Non-dual awareness: Recognizing that the knower and the known are one.
With such variety, these practices show us that meditation isn’t limited to the cushion. It can be found in the breath, in music, in stillness, in movement, in the ordinary—and in the extraordinary.
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A Glimpse of the Methods
Here are just a few of the 112 methods to give you a sense of their range and creativity:
- Breath as a doorway: Watch the moment between inhalation and exhalation. In that pause, the mind quiets, and awareness shines.
- The spine as a path: Visualize your essence as light traveling up the vertebrae.
- Sound as meditation: Listen to the hum of a waterfall, the vibration of A-U-M, or the fading resonance of a bell.
- Senses as gateways: Become the taste of food while eating, or the joy of seeing a long-absent friend.
- Moments of intensity: Notice awareness during a sneeze, sudden fear, or a burst of laughter.
- Dissolving dualities: Rest in the space between pleasure and pain, desire and aversion.
- Embracing the ordinary: Gaze at the clear summer sky, feel rain on a moonless night, or look lovingly at a simple object until it dissolves into presence.
Each method is simple in words, but deep in practice. They are not instructions to master overnight, but doorways to explore, one by one.
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The Spirit of the Teachings
What’s striking about the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra is its openness. It doesn’t say “this is the only way.” Instead, it reminds us:
- Everything can be meditation—breath, sound, love, touch, fear, joy.
- Awareness is the key—not the object, but the quality of being present.
- No separation—between sacred and ordinary, between practice and life.
This makes the text timeless. A seeker 2,000 years ago could practice by watching the pause between breaths; a modern reader can do the same on the train ride home.
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Bringing It Into Your Life
How do you begin with 112 techniques? Start small. Choose one method and stay with it for a week. Notice how it feels, both in formal practice and in daily life. For example:
- In the morning, pause at the end of each breath for a moment before the next begins.
- While eating, slow down and fully taste each bite.
- When listening to music, allow yourself to merge into the sound.
The idea is not to “collect” techniques but to find a doorway that resonates with you. Over time, the practice becomes less about effort and more about recognition—realizing the awareness that has always been here.
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Final Reflection
The Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra is more than a manual of techniques—it’s a reminder that meditation is not confined to one posture or one method. It’s an invitation to live in awareness, to recognize the sacred in the simple, and to discover the vastness hidden in every breath, every taste, every sound.
Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned practitioner, exploring even a handful of these 112 doorways can open a richer, more intimate relationship with life itself.
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