The wise practitioner, intent on meditation, may focus their attention just below the navel, envisioning there a supreme lotus, delicate and luminous, measuring three fingers in breadth. This lotus may have eight petals, or perhaps five, each radiant and full of subtle meaning. Along with this, the meditator contemplates the triangle—symbol of the fire region—as well as the lunar and solar figures, each imbued with their own distinct powers: solar, lunar, and fiery, contemplated in their proper order. First, the fiery aspect is invoked, followed by the solar, and then the lunar, each arranged below the region of fire. In this sacred space, the practitioner also places the fourfold group of dharma and the other virtues, contemplating the three qualities—sattva, rajas, and tamas—in their proper sequence above the mandala. Established firmly in sattva, one meditates upon Rudra, encircled by his own radiant power. Meditation is to be practiced with care, focusing at various centers within the body: at the navel, the throat, between the eyebrows, at the center of the forehead, or at the crown of the head. At each of these places, one visualizes Shiva manifesting in lotuses of differing forms: the two-petalled, the sixteen-spoked, the twelve-spoked, the ten-spoked, the six-sided, or the four-sided lotus, each in its due order. The meditative space may appear golden, as resplendent as a palace, or pure white, shining with the brilliance of twelve suns, or glowing like the disc of the moon. Sometimes, it may resemble a sudden flash of lightning. In such a place, the Supreme Lord is to be meditated upon, appearing as a fiery hue or as a circle of lightning. The yogi may also focus on a place shining like the tip of a diamond, resembling a ruby, or as a blue-red disc—all settings for the practice of deep meditation. Within the heart, one should meditate on Maheshvara; in the lotus of the navel, on Sadashiva; at the forehead, on the moon-crested one; and between the eyebrows, on Shankara himself. In the divine, eternal space, the meditator contemplates Shiva as pure, partless Brahman—supremely peaceful and the very essence of knowledge. This Shiva is without characteristics, indescribable, more subtle than the subtlest, auspicious, without support, inconceivable, and free from both origin and destruction. He is liberation itself, nirvana, the highest and unsurpassed good—immortal, imperishable Brahman, wondrous and beyond the cycle of rebirth. He is great bliss, supreme bliss, the bliss of yoga—free from affliction, untouched by acceptance or rejection, subtler than the subtle, and the very embodiment of Shiva. Shiva, consisting of pure knowledge, is both self-known and unknowable, supreme, beyond the senses, without form or appearance, the highest reality, transcending even the highest. Free from all limitations, he is attainable through meditation and inquiry, nondual, established beyond darkness, the supreme. Thus, one should contemplate Mahadeva in the mind or in the lotus of the heart, or Sadashiva at the navel—he who is the all-pervading Lord, the essence of all gods. Within the body, Shiva, the Lord, pure knowledge and all-pervading, is to be meditated upon—whether by the path of Kanyasā, the method of upward movement, or by focusing on Shankara. Step by step, by the path of Kanyasā, the middle path, or the highest method, the wise practitioner should employ kumbhaka, the retention of breath. Concentrated in the heart or navel, the adept should exhale thirty-two times, having abandoned both inhalation and exhalation, and thus practice kumbhaka with diligence. With unwavering and equal absorption, one contemplates Shiva within the body, attaining unity with him, and thus realizing whatever essence arises in that sacred space. The wise, established in such direct and equal absorption, know the bliss of Brahman—where concentration is measured in twelve units, and meditation is comprised of twelve such concentrations. Meditation, up to twelve stages, is called samadhi. For the wise, this state can arise simply through association, or, through effort, both gradual and swift, it may be attained. Yet, even for one engaged in practice, obstacles to yoga may arise again. These obstacles, however, are destroyed by repeated practice and by devotion to the teacher. At the outset, laziness appears; then comes affliction by disease, followed by negligence, doubt, and instability of mind. Lack of faith, non-perception, confusion, and threefold suffering may follow, along with dejection, unsuitability for wrong things, and suitability for right things. For the sage, obstacles to yoga arise in ten ways: laziness, inactivity, heaviness of body and mind; diseases caused by imbalance of bodily elements, by actions, and by faults; and negligence, which is the absence of contemplation on the means to samadhi. Knowledge touched by doubt about the place, and instability of mind—the lack of establishment for yogis—are also obstacles. Even after attaining a high state, because of the bondage of the mind, there may be absence of faith and lack of steadiness in practice. When the mind is fixed on the teacher, knowledge, conduct, Shiva, or the like, but perceives error, this is called false knowledge. Knowledge of self in what is not self, due to ignorance, is called inner suffering; likewise, there is suffering from external sources. Suffering from divine causes is the third, and all three are natural. Disturbance of the mind arises from obstruction of desire. Dejection must be restrained by supreme detachment. When dejection, colored by darkness and passion, arises in the mind, it is called durmanas—especially when one forcibly accepts things, failing to discern the suitable from the unsuitable. Restlessness for various objects in a being is also an obstacle. These are, indeed, the obstacles to yoga for yogis. Yet, for one endowed with utmost enthusiasm, these obstacles are destroyed without doubt. When obstacles are removed, the yogi progresses further. Afflictions may still arise, all of which are signs of imperfection. The first accomplishment is intuition, the second is hearing; the third is information, the fourth is vision, the fifth is taste, and the sixth is sensation. Thus, the path unfolds, step by step, towards the highest realization.