Questions have come in regarding the Advanced Techniques. I hope to answer them here. With the Surya Ram Meditation, we dive into the Transcendent. As we become more and more familiar with the Transcendent, we move in the direction of what is called Cosmic Consciousness. Along the way to Cosmic Consciousness, the awareness naturally begins to gravitate in that direction and rest there. It is as if we discover the true home of our Selves.

However, there is a great deal more to human evolution and things get increasingly grand as we continue to evolve. In time, it becomes our direct experience that everything is the Transcendent. “I am that. Thou art that. All of this is nothing but that.” The Advanced Techniques naturally move our awareness in that direction.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras begin with the Sutras (“threads”) that weave together the tapestry of the deepest level of existence. The Advanced Techniques, in contrast, start with the physical world, and allow you to experience that level of existence as the Transcendent and, over time, expand out to ever deepening, expanding, and subtler levels of existence. It is as if the Sutras start at one end of the spectrum of existence and the Advance Techniques start at the other. Over time, you come to experience your physical body, energetic body, spheres of existence, etc. as all being the Transcendent… all contained within you… all one with you. Aspects of the psyche and physiology begin to resonate with a more refined level, a higher octave. In so doing, the structure of existence is discovered and explored. Daily life, your psyche, and your individual body become the field of evolution. Your own awareness becomes a research laboratory of the universe, as your physical body and all aspects of your being take on their rightful place in the scheme of existence. As other-worldish as that may sound, the experience in daily life is exactly the opposite. The Advanced Techniques enable us to integrate and function in our worldly lives with more comfort and proficiency.

To be completely candid, I wish I had learned the Advanced Techniques decades ago. They would have helped me assimilate with daily life in the physical world more seamlessly. Leaving the ashram decades ago, I was absorbed in the Transcendent. Assimilation with the ways of the world took time. These techniques would have helped greatly. But I was never taught them. I found them within myself and only then discovered the truth of them within the Vedic literature. It was admittedly an awkward path. The integration of the Transcendental level with daily life took a great deal of time.

However, I believe there was a greater purpose in that. I believe that these techniques can best and perhaps only be taught to another when one has found them within one’s Self. In that way, all the possible paths to discovery and experience have been explored and understood. This enables one to teach them not as an overlay, but as a cultivation within each and every individual. In so doing, the path of integration of the Transcendent with daily life is expedited. It has been said that Cosmic Consciousness is, in some ways, an awkward phase. I guess that is true. But these techniques offer everyone the tools to, as if, skip over that awkwardness and quickly attain the integration of life.