This session, we'll return to one of my favourite yogic works, a Kashmir Shaivite text entitled Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. We'll be working from a technical translation by Jaideva Singh - a primary student of quintessential teacher Lakshman Joo - and a poetic interpretation by Lorin Roche who's been studying this text for the many decades since his late teens.
The text is bookended by a conversation between a teacher - Pure Being (Bhairava) - and its partner and student - (Devi) the creative energy of the Universe. The bulk of the text then lays out a collection of one hundred and twelve meditations one might employ to know and understand oneself as Divine Consciousness in the midst of daily life.
Both the dialogue and the verses in the body of the text use our experiences of breath, body, mind, and daily life point us back to our essential nature as Timeless Beingness and Wonder/Delight.
Dialogue Verses 17-19, from Lorin Roche (The Radiance Sutras, 2014):
Sacred texts sing of my reality, but I cannot be found in them,
For I am the One listening, I am always closer than breath.
Heat and fire are not two separate things, these are just verbal distinctions
[for the purpose of description/learning]
The [creative energy of the Universe] and the One who holds Her [pure Consciousness]
are one and the same.
We are inseparable; the way to me is through Her.