Door 55Verse 78sensation · body position named by the verseHistorical / observe onlyDraft · awaiting guardian review
Historical / observe onlyThis dhāraṇā is kept as a classical description to read and understand. It is not practised here, and no practice cues are given. Observe-only. Holding hands and feet off the ground while balancing on a soft seat can strain the lower back, hips and abdomen and risks tipping over. For a related practice of feeling unsupported, use Door 059.
Observe only: read and understand this classical description. It is not practised in class. For practice, use Door 059.
Seated on a soft seat on the buttocks alone, with hands and feet left without support, by remaining in that position the mind becomes supreme and full.
School paraphrase drawing on Jaideva Singh (1979), Christopher Wallis and Bettina Bäumer (as printed in Wallis's concordance); not a quotation.
Commentary
Singh: seated on a soft cushion, resting on only one buttock (sphijā ekena), hands and feet without any support, in a very relaxed way; agitation and dullness fall away and the mind reaches equilibrium (sattva). Wallis: 'with only the buttocks touching it and the hands and feet suspended in the air'.
Classical description
Classical method: sitting on a soft seat on the buttocks alone, with hands and feet held without support, and remaining so, the mind becomes supreme and full.
Historical / observe only. Read and understood, not practised. No practice cues are given for this door.
Pain is information. Pause, regress, or exit. Never push through sharp pain.
General practice caution only; not medical advice. The unsupported balance is not taught. Anyone with back, hip or abdominal problems, or balance difficulties, should not attempt it. If anything feels distressing (dizziness, agitation, strong emotion), stop, open the eyes and rest attention on the feet and the floor.
Honesty
Door 055 follows Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra dharana 55 (verse 78) 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 055 is dharana 55, verse 78. 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.
historical/observe_only: The technique is itself a specific unsupported body position (sitting on the buttocks with hands and feet held off any support). This school does not teach body positions as dharanas, and the unsupported balance can strain the back and hips or cause a fall. Taught as text to understand, not as a class drill.
Wallis's concordance heading for verse 78 is a posture name; it is withheld in this record under the school's no-posture-names rule.
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.