Layabhavana

Introduction to Layabhavana

If the yogi contemplates that the subtle and subtler tattvas of one’s own body or of the world are being absorbed in their own respective causes, then at the end, Para Devi or the Supreme Goddess is revealed.

– Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

This technique called layabhavana, or ‘fusion’, is based on the insight that the more subtle tattvas underlie and give rise to the more gross ones. Thus you can begin with physical reality and resolve it imaginatively into the senses, then into the mind, then into the personal self, finally arriving at the transpersonal Self. Behind each manifestation is a deeper one, and underlying the whole is Consciousness Itself.

Meditation Instructions

Let’s withdraw the tattvas into the Self.

By turning within, you withdraw the world and the senses into your inner world. Now you are aware of your mind. Turning to the core of the mind, you will become aware of maya, the principle that makes it hard to still the mind and to focus it. Sit in maya as in the cloud of unknowing. You may experience stress, tension, boredom, tearing thoughts. Try to hold your attention there. You cannot control the higher tattvas, they are free and show themselves only by grace. However, sitting at the doorway of maya,we make ourselves available to that grace. Make the statement inwardly, I call on the Self, I call on Shiva’. You will experience a movement of grace. A light, a flow of energy, a release of tension. Meditate for 10 minutes.

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