Śivasaṃhitā 5.63

The instruction to contemplate śūnya (void) in all states—standing (tiṣṭhan), walking (gachan), sleeping (svapan), eating (bhuñjan)—is the Śivasaṃhitā’s formulation of the principle of integral practice. The four listed states encompass practically all human activities: contemplation of śūnya does not occur apart from life but within it, transforming every daily act into a meditative act. This is the ideal of sahajayoga: natural illumination in the midst of ordinary life.

Śūnya—“void,” “zero”—in the Śaiva tantric context is not nihilism but the opening of consciousness in its purest state: cidākāśa without content, the space of consciousness before any thought emerges. Contemplating śūnya means learning to inhabit that space of openness without immediately filling it with thoughts, perceptions, or emotions. The ādhārapadma—the support lotus (mūlādhāra)—with its four petals corresponds to four Sanskrit alphabet letters (va, śa, ṣa, sa) that vibrate in this center.

The description of the ādhārapadma’s four petals with their corresponding letters introduces the mantra-sound aspect of the chakra. Each lotus petal in the chakra system corresponds to a letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, and that letter is also the sound vibrating at that point of the subtle anatomy. Mūlādhāra with its four petals contains the densest, most elemental field of consciousness: the four letters correspond to the earth element (pṛthivī), the most solid of the five elements (pañcabhūta).