#59 Weightless Body Meditation

Seated on a bed or couch, continuously imagine one’s own body to be without support. The instant the mind disappears, one’s fixed place of residence disappears.Verse 82, Vigyan Bhairava tantra

We are not the Body

It is important to understand that we are not our bodies. We think that we are the body, and that is the cause of our suffering and our bondage. Some of the earlier verses gave meditations to break our attachment with the body. This verse is somewhat similar.

How to do this techinque

One should sit on a bed or couch in a comfortable posture.
Then continuously imagine one’s own body to be without support. That means, imagine your body, your self to be weightless.
In truth, we are weightless and without support. Our soul has no weight. It is the body that has weight, and we are not the body. It is the body that limits us and binds us to the ground.
Here, we are trying to break the limitations of the body, by imagining our body to be weightless.

The other important point to notice about this meditation is that one has to continuously imagine the body to be without support. If thoughts interrupt the practice, ignore the thoughts and come back to the practice. Continuously believe the body to be weightless.

Levitation by this technique

There are many verses in this text that deal with changing our beliefs or imagining something like our body to be weightless. To some people what we are imagining may seem difficult or even far-fetched. Yet they are not far-fetched. They have been reports of some yogis who have levitated during their meditation. They have defied the laws of gravity. Not only have they made their body weightless, but they have also actually lifted their body from the ground. Therefore, what this verse is asking us to imagine is not so far-fetched. This verse is giving us a method for detaching ourselves from the body. Sometimes we find it difficult to detach ourselves from the body or believe that we are not the body because we continuously feel the weight of the body. We are constantly reminded of the body because the body binds us to the ground or a seat. This practice attempts to break that limitation by asking one to imagine that one’s body is weightless. The instant the mind disappears, one fixed place of residence disappears. The moment the mind disappears, one is liberated. Then, although one is in the body, one no longer identifies with the body. One’s attachment to the body is broken. One no longer believes they are the body. The body is now only a vehicle to experience life. A liberated person is one with God. As God exists everywhere, she now also exists everywhere. That is what the verse means when it says that one’s fixed place of residence disappears. For most people, their fixed place of residence is in the body. A liberated person has outgrown the body. She is one with God and feels one with everything else