The following questions (edited for confidentiality, etc.) along with my responses are posted here to answer many common questions. Some of the questions are from Advanced Technique practitioners.
Question 1: I have never felt that I transcend on the Mantra or the Sutras. Perhaps I do transcend on them, but not with the feeling I associate with transcending. Would you please comment?
Response 1: Transcending is a matter of degree. Everyone transcends to some degree when they meditate. However, you only fully transcend once, at the time commonly referred to a Cosmic Consciousness (CC), which then becomes a permanent state, a permanent level of consciousness attained. CC is further refined over time which is referred to as “higher states of consciousness”. It is similar to turning the lights on in a dark room. Once the lights are on, they are on. But it takes time for the eyes to adjust.
Preconceived notions of transcending can get in your way if you allow them to. Meditation is so natural that it, well… it just feels natural!
Question 2: The Advanced Techniques, on the other hand, I love because I feel myself transcending effortlessly on them. Will you comment on this?
Response 2: The Advanced Techniques are more powerful techniques. However, they only work because you have been transcending with the meditation. With the meditation, you established the habit of transcending. Now you ride that wave when practicing the Advanced Techniques. Doing the Advanced Techniques without first establishing the habit of transcending would not be effective. Consider your experiences with the Advanced Techniques to be confirmation that you have been transcending all along!
Question 3: Since the Advanced Techniques are supposed to be followed by the Sutras, I keep an eye on the time and then start those, but often I don’t feel like doing them. Is it okay to skip the Sutras? Is there still value in doing the Sutras and should I lean in the direction of doing them?
Response 3: It is all right, especially at first, to spend more time with the Advanced Techniques and less with the Sutras. It could even be that the Advanced Techniques are so enjoyable that you initially have meditations when you only do the Advanced Techniques. However, the Sutras are precious and as the benefit of the Advanced Techniques is enjoyed, returning to the Sutras will be a natural desire and become highly intriguing.
The Sutras are extremely valuable and it is wise to practice them regularly. With the Sutras, it is as if we enter the Transcendent, then move around in it a bit, and then that value wells up through the physiology. With the Advanced Techniques, we enter into the Transcendent in a manner the integrates the depth with the surface more directly. Both have great value and one enhances the other.
Question 4: I cannot make it to the summer course to learn the Advanced Techniques. When will there be another opportunity to learn them?
Response 4: It is everyone’s experience that meditating in a group is more powerful than meditating alone. This is simply the dynamics of group consciousness. The group consciousness carries the consciousness of every individual in the group to the Transcendent. Ten people meditating together is 100 times more powerful than one person meditating alone. That is the common experience. As mentioned earlier, the Advanced Techniques are based upon the habit of transcending. To ensure that they are learned properly, it is then wise to learn them in a group when the process of transcending is so much more powerful.
We will no doubt offer Phase 1 of the Advanced Techniques series again, but it is not certain when – perhaps this winter. To be in this first group over the next few summers will be an invaluable experience. Please do your best to attend this summer. If you cannot, then watch for the next opportunity, hopefully this year, so you can join the group in the summer of the 2018 Phase 2 course. The first group will, no doubt, be the largest and therefore the most powerful group.
