Weaving Attention:
Cinema Exercises Based on the Vijñānabhairava
A selection of 32 dhāraṇās from the ancient text are explored from the perspective of a film practitioner. Excerpt from the preface: “I wrote these exercises for myself first and planned to try these techniques whenever I make films. These are not my commentary or strict interpretation of the Vijñānabhairava. I might have taken the liberty of creatively misinterpreting the verses, but then the seed never resembles the tree. These shlokas pushed my thinking in a direction I had never experienced before. Similarly, if other film students also want to try these exercises, they can also interpret in whatever way they want and create something new each time. The idea is not to decode or arrive at what is being said, but to let the mind wander in the subtlest and unknown areas of thought.”
“The Vijñāna Bhairava is an ancient Tantra of the non-dualist Kashmiri Shaivism and it is referred to in all subsequent literature as an authority on spiritual practice and mystical experience. Its aim is expressly to lead the practitioner or yogi to a higher level of consciousness, and to the identification with the Divine. Can such a scripture which is steeped in a religious-philosophical-spiritual context contribute anything to our present-day search for meaning, and to an understanding of artistic processes and aesthetic experience? Amit has in this little book given pertinent examples for how a verse from the Tantra can illumine a process of filmmaking, corresponding to a movement from gross to subtle awareness.”
– Bettina Sharada Bäumer