Ninth dhāraṇā. Perhaps the most practical instruction. Na nikṣiped duḥkhe — do not sink the mind into suffering. Na sukhe parikṣipet — do not wrap it up in pleasure. The human mind oscillates between these two poles like a pendulum. Bhairava says: neither one nor the other.

Madhye jñāyatām — know it in the middle. The middle is not indifference. Not lukewarm. It is the space that exists before the mind launches toward the pole of pleasure or pain. A space of pure perception, prior to judgment.

Kiṃ tattvam avaśiṣyate — what reality remains? Bhairava asks rhetorically. When you neither pursue pleasure nor flee pain, what remains is consciousness itself. Without color, without form, without name. But absolutely present.