Kṣemarāja explains madhya, the “centre”, on two interconnected levels.

Awareness as the innermost centre

Awareness is the innermost reality of all beings. Nothing could possess a form of its own without appearing upon this ground. In the condition of Māyā, Awareness conceals this central position, assumes the form of vital energy, and descends through intellect and body into the limited levels. In doing so, it follows the pathways of countless channels of energy (nāḍī).

The central channel

Among these channels, the central brahma-nāḍī occupies a special position. According to Kṣemarāja, it extends from the opening at the crown (brahma-randhra) to the lower endpoint. Just as the side veins of a Palāśa leaf branch from its central rib, the other channels are connected with it. All movements arise from this centre and come to rest there again.

In the bound being, this centre remains, as it were, closed. It can open in two ways: Awareness itself unfolds through the insights previously described, or the central channel unfolds through the methods that follow. In both cases, the joy of Awareness is attained. The liberation while alive explained above follows from it.

Kṣemarāja describes several approaches to the unfolding of the centre. Contemplation of the five acts discussed above already belongs among them. He now adds deliberately accessible means (sukhopāya) that do not presuppose complete technical mastery of breath control, Mudrā, and Bandha.

He names many possibilities because different people enter by different approaches. The first method is explicitly situated within the Pratyabhijñā teaching. He grounds the others in the tantric tradition.

1. Bringing concepts to rest – vikalpa-kṣaya

The mind is gathered in the “heart”, the centre of Awareness. The practitioner quietens the conceptual constructions that prevent him from resting in his own nature. Kṣemarāja describes this as thinking of nothing in particular.

Attention turns towards non-conceptual knowing and towards one’s own Awareness as perceiver, which is not tainted by the body or other appearances. According to Kṣemarāja, this can quickly open the fourth state (turya) and the state beyond it (turyātīta).

2. Contracting energy – śakti-saṅkoca

Kṣemarāja names two movements:

• The power already streaming out through the gates of the senses is bent inwards. A verse from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad cited by him describes the wise person reversing the outward-directed gaze and seeing the inner Self.
• The expanded power is withdrawn completely—as a tortoise draws in its limbs, or as all energy gathers in the heart in a moment of fright.

3. Expanding energy – śakti-vikāsa

The power concealed within spreads simultaneously, without a gradual sequence, through the entire circle of the organs of perception. In the Bhairavī-Mudrā, attention remains grounded within while the gaze is directed outwards.

Kṣemarāja’s quotation gives a vivid image: all the powers of sight and the other senses are cast at once into their respective objects. The practitioner remains in the centre like a golden pillar and shines as the single bearer of the whole world.

4. Combining contraction and expansion

Here, too, Kṣemarāja gives two concise, technically formulated possibilities:

• A subtle vital energy, opening as a pulsation in the region of the nose, pervades the area between the brows and leads to the ascending Kuṇḍalinī. Its outflow and its coming to rest are contemplated.
• With the lower Kuṇḍalinī, described as the “sixth aperture”, the power is straightened. Absorption then focuses on contact with the regions of its base, tip, and centre. The cited Vijñānabhairava verse connects this level in coded language with erotic joy. Kṣemarāja explains “fire” as the site of contraction and the “place of poison”, through the sense of spreading, as the site of expansion.

Here the Vṛtti presupposes tantric instruction and does not turn these terse statements into a generally accessible step-by-step technique.

5. Interrupting the currents – vāha-ccheda

The leftward and rightward currents of prāṇa and apāna are interrupted after the power has come to rest in the heart. Kṣemarāja connects this with the inner articulation of a consonant without a vowel, such as k or h. A cited image depicts this causing a seed of knowledge to sprout in the heart-lotus, capable of producing supreme sovereignty even in the bound being.

6. Contemplating the beginning and ending points – ādyanta-koṭi-nibhālana

The starting point is the heart. The endpoint is the dvādaśānta, the conclusion of the breath’s path “twelve finger-widths” above. As vital energy ascends and comes to rest, the mind is gathered repeatedly at these two points.

Verses from the Vijñānabhairava cited here connect this with two forms: gathering in the space of the heart as though seated inside a closed lotus blossom, and repeated orientation towards the dvādaśānta in every situation.

Further means included by Kṣemarāja

The words “and so forth” in the Sūtra open the text to related approaches:

7. Attending to the phase of arising (unmeṣa-daśā-niṣevaṇa): The first flash of a new perception or movement is recognised as the activity of the power of Awareness.
8. Savouring a beautiful object (ramaṇīya-viṣaya-carvaṇā): Eating, drinking, song, or another delightful perception is received in such a way that its fullness opens. According to the cited verses, wherever the mind finds genuine joy and remains gathered there, highest joy can shine forth.
9. Contemplating one’s own Self as filled with joy (ānanda-pūrṇa-svātma-bhāvanā): Kṣemarāja gives this as an example of further means that may be inferred in the same way.

All these approaches serve the same end: the closed centre is to open, so that Awareness is not merely conceived as a background but experienced in its own joy.

The unfolding of the centre leads to the joy of Awareness. For the highest yogin, this experience is samādhi, also called samāveśa or samāpatti. Kṣemarāja now explains how it becomes ever-newly-arising samādhi (nityodita-samādhi).

He describes two interconnected forms of absorption:

1. Nimīlana-samādhi is the inward-directed absorption experienced during meditation. This experience leaves imprints (saṃskāra).
2. Nityodita-samādhi is the absorption that continues to arise in everyday life. The imprints of nimīlana-samādhi remain active as attention turns outwards. By repeatedly touching unity with Awareness (citi), the yogin keeps this experience present in everyday life as well.

After deep absorption, the yogin carries its flavour and imprint into the state that has turned outwards again. Kṣemarāja compares him to someone joyfully intoxicated. He sees the multiplicity of things like a small autumn cloud dissolving in the sky of consciousness. By turning inwards again and again and touching unity with Awareness, even the experience ordinarily called “emergence” remains permeated by samādhi.

Krama-Mudrā: inward and outward as one movement

Kṣemarāja explains this interplay of inner absorption and outward experience as krama-mudrā. It unites both directions:

• In the act of “devouring”, external objects are absorbed into highest Awareness.
• From the power of Awareness recognised within, the external world emerges again—now as a condensed appearance of that same Awareness.

The yogin thus remains immersed in the highest power even while engaging with the objects of the senses. Inner and outer are not confused, but recognised as two movements of the same Awareness.

Kṣemarāja also explains the name. Mudrā gives joy, releases the bonds, and “seals” the world within the inner fourth level of consciousness. It is called krama, sequence, because creation, maintenance, and withdrawal appear successively within it while being recognised as one movement of Awareness.