Noticing the Space Between (Verse 61)¶
1. Exercise Title & Verse¶
Noticing the Space Between (Verse 61, Dhāraṇā 38)
2. Sanskrit (IAST)¶
ubhayor bhāvayor jñāne dhyātvā madhyaṃ samāśrayet | yugapacca dvayaṃ tyaktvā madhye tattvaṃ prakāśate || 61 ||
3. English (Literal)¶
When there is cognition of two entities or states, having attended to them, one should resort to the middle between them. Having abandoned both simultaneously, Reality shines forth in the middle.
4. Main Commentary (Bhāṣya)¶
Padārtha. Ubhayor bhāvayor means "of two bhāvas." Here bhāva should not be reduced to only "thought." It can mean two perceived things, two mental states, two moods, or two felt poles of experience. Jñāne means in the knowing or perception of them. Dhyātvā means having attended to them carefully enough that the movement of cognition is actually seen. Madhyaṃ samāśrayet means one should resort to, rest in, or take refuge in the middle. This madhya is not a geometric midpoint and not a theory; it is the living interval disclosed when one cognition has completed itself and the next has not yet taken over. Yugapac ca dvayaṃ tyaktvā means abandoning both together, all at once. That is the practical precision of the verse. Madhye tattvaṃ prakāśate: in that middle, Reality, the real principle, shines forth by itself.
Anvaya. The sentence runs as follows: when two bhāvas are being known, notice them in such a way that the middle between them becomes evident; then, letting both go together, rest there. In that middle, the Real reveals itself.
Tatparya. This verse introduces a more precise inner interval than the previous barren-space practice. Verse 60 used a supportless visual field to starve the mind of objects. Verse 61 goes closer to the machinery of cognition itself. It teaches that the middle is not only found in outer space but in the handoff between two knowings. This is also why verse 61 must not be collapsed into verse 62. In verse 61 two poles are already in play, and awareness is placed in the center disclosed between them. In verse 62 one bhāva has been dropped and the practitioner is told not to move into the next. Here the emphasis is twin perception and simultaneous release; there the emphasis is the refusal of succession. The point of verse 61 is not to stare at two objects forever, nor to create a blank trance by force. It is to discover that the stream of cognition is lit from a center that is never itself one of the passing contents.
Sādhana. Take two simple supports at first: two objects in front of you, or the paired movements of inhale and exhale. Let attention know one, then the other, quietly and repeatedly. Do not rush. The crucial moment is the tiny interval after one perception has completed and before the next has occupied the field. Put awareness there. At first the middle will vanish almost immediately. Then use the two supports again; this returning is part of the practice, not a failure. Once the center becomes stable enough to be felt, release both poles together and remain with the interval itself. Do not squeeze the mind into blankness. Do not push the objects away violently. The verse works by subtle recognition and gentle non-observation, not suppression.
5. Jaideva Singh — The Logical¶
The grammar itself teaches the method. Ubhayor bhāvayor is a genitive dual: the verse is explicitly about a pair. Jñāne is locative, "in the cognition" of that pair, so the locus of practice is the act of knowing, not merely the external objects. Singh notes that Jayaratha adopts the variant reading jñātvā instead of dhyātvā, because it gives a cleaner sense; either way, the practice turns on directly recognizing the interval, not on prolonged imaginative meditation. His doctrinal point is equally exact. Reality is the eternal subject underlying all mental activity, so it cannot be grasped as one more object among others. Hence the two bhāvas are not defeated by force but by what Singh calls anālocana, gentle non-observation. He explicitly names this śāktopāya, and also describes it as nirālamba bhāvanā and śūnya-bhāvanā: once the middle is noticed, the mind rests without support, and the sudden flash of Reality is unmeṣa, the opening-out of consciousness.
6. Swami Lakshmanjoo — The Lineage¶
Use two clear objects and learn the mechanism exactly. See one object, then the other. The madhyam is the interval when the perception of the first has ended and the second has not yet arisen. Put your consciousness there. This is Lakshmanjoo's decisive hinge: the center is not invented, it is caught in the transition itself. At first that center will not stay. Then take support of the two objects again and again until the center is established. Only after that do you leave the impressions of both objects together. He gives a second entry into the same method through inhale and exhale: establish the center between the two breaths, then leave the breath aside and enter that center. He is explicit that this is śāktopāya, not śāmbhavopāya. Do not throw away the supports too early, and do not confuse this verse with the next one, where one object is left and the next is not entered.
7. Mark Dyczkowski & Christopher Wallis — Context & Philology¶
Wallis gives useful direct translation support in his official concordance: https://hareesh.org/blog/2023/9/27/vijaana-bhairava-tantra-translation-concordance. His broad rendering of bhāva as entities, states of mind, or emotions prevents the verse from being reduced to a visual exercise only. Dyczkowski's official PDF translation converges on the same core mechanics: two entities or states are perceived, one rests in the center between them, and both are abandoned together so that Reality shines there. See: https://www.anuttaratrikakula.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Vijnaanabhairava.pdf. Neither source, in the official material located for this pass, gives fuller verse-specific prose commentary, so they should be used here as translation support rather than inflated into commentary.
Indirect context: Dyczkowski's Doctrine of Vibration is not a verse-61 commentary, but it does illuminate the background logic. There he describes the yogi attending to the thought-free initial impulse to perception and to the center between one thought and the next, where unmeṣa, the unfolding of awareness, becomes evident. That supports Singh's insistence that the interval is not a dead gap but a living disclosure of consciousness.
8. Daniel Odier — The Somatic Grounding¶
Keep the practice close to the actual shift of experience. Let the eyes move from one object to the other, or let awareness pass from inhale to exhale. One perception releases; the next has not yet landed. In that tiny unoccupied instant, the face, throat, and chest stop reaching outward for a moment. Odier's rendering is brief, but it preserves the essential bodily fact: the interval between two instants of awareness is not numbness. It opens as radiant spatiality.
9. Paul Reps — The "Sudden Hit"¶
Sweet-hearted one, meditate on knowing and not knowing, existing and not existing. Then leave both aside that you may be.
10. Upāya Type¶
Śāktopāya. Singh explicitly classifies the dhāraṇā this way. Lakshmanjoo explicitly confirms the same classification, even when he allows breath to be used as a temporary support for discovering the center.
11. Resonance Check (Adhikāra)¶
This practice suits the practitioner who can notice transitions quickly and does not need a heavy ritual or bodily apparatus to stay present. It is especially apt for someone whose mind is agile enough to catch the handoff between perceptions without immediately narrating it.
12. The "What Else?" — The Pitfall¶
The trap is ping-ponging attention between two objects and then trying to force a blank gap by mentally shoving both away. That only produces tension or dissociation. The middle must be noticed in the transfer of cognition, and the two poles are dropped only after that center has become real.
13. Verse-Specific Glossary¶
bhāva: here, a noticed pole of experience, whether an external thing, an inner state, or a mood.madhya: the living center or interval disclosed between two cognitions; not a mathematical middle point.yugapac: simultaneously, all at once; this governs how the two poles are released.anālocana: gentle non-observation; Singh's term for letting the poles fall away without aggressive suppression.nirālamba bhāvanā: supportless contemplation; once the middle is recognized, awareness no longer leans on an object.unmeṣa: opening-out or sudden disclosure; the flash in which the background consciousness reveals itself.