Three Voids at Once: Above, Base and Heart

Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra · dhāraṇā 22 · verse 45 (Jaideva Singh numbering)

Door 22Verse 45visualization/space · sensationPracticeDraft · awaiting guardian review

Feel open space above the head, in the heart and at the base, all at once.

The verse

pṛṣṭhaśūnyaṃ mūlaśūnyaṃ hṛcchūnyam bhāvayet sthiram | yugapan nirvikalpatvān nirvikalpodayas tataḥ ||

Let one steadily contemplate, all at once, the void above, the void at the root and the void in the heart. Because this is free of thought-constructs all at once, the thought-free state arises.

School paraphrase drawing on Jaideva Singh (1979), Christopher Wallis and Bettina Bäumer (as printed in Wallis's concordance); not a quotation.

Commentary

Singh reports Śivopādhyāya's reading: the void above stands for the knowing subject (pramātṛ), the void at the root for the objects (prameya), and the void in the heart for knowing itself (pramāṇa), each contemplated as void. Wallis: the space above, at the root, and in the heart, simultaneously.

How to sit with it

Feel an open space above the head, in the heart and at the base of the trunk, all three together, and hold that steadily without moving between them. Let the thought-free state come by itself.

Where attention rests

The voids above, in the heart and at the base, held at once and steadily

The thought-free quiet that follows

Not a body shape. The map is three open spaces on the vertical line (above, heart, base) held at the same moment and steadily.

Breath

Natural breath. Count about four in and four out only if it helps you settle, then let the count go. No forced hold.

The counts are an optional school pacing aid, not part of the verse. Hold is always 0: this school never adds a deliberate breath-hold.

Any steady, comfortable position (school addition)

Any steady, comfortable position: sitting on a chair, sitting on the floor with support under the hips, or lying on the back. Standing or walking slowly is also acceptable when that is easier. Choose the position in which the body needs the least effort.

School addition. Verse 45 does not specify a body position. The seat is a convenience so the dharana can be practised; it is not part of the technique and makes no claim of tradition.

Safety

Pain is information. Pause, regress, or exit. Never push through sharp pain.
General practice caution only; not medical advice. If holding three places feels effortful, return to two (Door 021) or one. If anything feels distressing (dizziness, agitation, strong emotion), stop, open the eyes and rest attention on the feet and the floor.
This door needs no particular posture: sit on a chair, sit on the floor with support, or lie down. Eyes may stay open.

Honesty

Door 022 follows Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra dharana 22 (verse 45) in Jaideva Singh's numbering. The door-to-dharana index is a School of 112 Doorways teaching device. Singh's sequence is one edition's count, not an ancient one-to-one canon. The seat, counts, reaction and beat scripts are school additions.

Door index = Jaideva Singh dharana number: Door 022 is dharana 22, verse 45. Other editions number differently (see dharana.numbering_variants).
The seat, breath counts, reaction metaphor, attention-map drawing and beat scripts are school devices, not part of the verse.
The English is a school paraphrase, not a quotation from any translator.
No medical claims. Reaction names are metaphors, not biochemistry.
New door researched on 2026-10-06 on branch research/vbt-houses-2-7; awaiting guardian review.

Verse verification: verified. Sanskrit: verified. English: school paraphrase. Review: pending guardian review.

The eight beats (spoken script)

Name the door. This is Door 022: three voids at once. Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra dharana 22, verse 45.
Geometry. No shape to make. Any easy seat. The map is three open spaces on the body's line: above, heart, base.
Orientation. Let the floor or the chair carry you. Eyes closed or soft.
Breath. Natural breath. Count about four in and four out only if it helps. No forced hold.
Attention. Feel all three spaces together and steadily. Do not move between them. Let them stay open at once.
Reaction cue. School image: three open spaces leave no room for the next thought. A metaphor, not medicine.
Adiyogi thread. Verse 45: steadily contemplate the void above, the void at the base and the void in the heart at once; the thought-free state arises.
Exit / integrate. Let the breath go unwatched for a round. Move the fingers and toes. Return to the room.

Sources

Jaideva Singh, Vijñānabhairava or Divine Consciousness: A Treasury of 112 Types of Yoga (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979) [Dhāraṇā 22] VERSE 45: numbering, translation and notes. Checked against a scanned copy (text extracted with pdftotext), not a print copy.
Vijñānabhairava, GRETIL e-text (data entry Marino Faliero, 1998) verse 45: Sanskrit source for the IAST (input errors corrected against Wallis and the Singh scan where noted in dharana.sanskrit_variants)
Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra: The Mystery Within (2019 compilation of translations: Bäumer, Singh, Chaudhri, S. P. Singh & Maheshvarananda, Silburn, Dubois, Figueroa) 'Session Two' list: 'Dharana 22' = verse 45 (numbering cross-check; follows Singh). Parallel-translations section: 'Dharana 22 • verso 45' (agrees).
Christopher (Hareesh) Wallis, Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra translation concordance verse 45 = 'Three inner voids (Y19 ~ A3)'. Sanskrit and parallel translations (Wallis, Singh, Dyczkowski, Bäumer and others) used for the paraphrase.
Gabriel Pradīpaka, Vijñānabhairava (Sanskrit & Trika Shaivism) verse 45: Sanskrit compared. Pradīpaka's text shares much of GRETIL's input (it repeats several GRETIL errors), so it is not counted as an independent witness.
School of 112 Doorways: seat, breath counts, reaction metaphor, attention map drawing and beat scripts School devices, following the House 1 conventions (doors/HOUSE-1-REGISTRY.md, guardians/CHECKLIST.md). research/PROMPT_TEMPLATE.md is not present in the repository at 32e76c4.

Pain is information, never a badge. Never force the breath. Practice is not medical treatment. The door-to-dhāraṇā index is a School of 112 Doorways teaching device (school_device), not an ancient one-to-one canon.