31 Dec Advanced Vedic Techniques

In Vedic Meditation, an Advanced Technique is designed to take one’s awareness to that stratum, that layer of consciousness that comprises the interface between thinking and pure silent consciousness.

During meditation, sometimes we experience a state where the mind is as if virtually in the “no mantra, no thought” condition. And yet we are experiencing something that is so fulfilling – we may not be able to pinpoint what exactly it is — but nonetheless it is something. It is not the Absolute, not the pure silent awareness of transcendence. Instead, there is some faint thinking there, extremely subtle, but there nonetheless.

The point here is that there is a layer in meditation in which our mind can think and also can simultaneously be (here, Being is the innocent silent witness to thinking). That condition has a Sanskrit name: “Ritam Bhara Pragya”, also known simply as Ritam. The word Ritam is expressive of ‘whole truth’. So Ritam is ‘the state of consciousness that contains the ‘whole truth’.

What do we mean by whole truth?

It is not the whole truth, that our true nature is limited to our body. This individualized mortal set of physiological functions with a history (when it was born, where it has been, what experiences it witnessed, etcetera). However, nor is it the whole truth that after meditation has revealed the Absolute state of Being, our reality solely is that immortal unboundedness of Being, the unmanifest source of everything.

The whole truth, the Ritam, is that we are both these realities simultaneously; we are relative and absolute at the same time. There is a place in our consciousness, a level, a stratum, deep in the least excited state in meditation where Ritam can be experienced; and it is right on the cusp of transcendence, in the super-subtle field, where thinking and other cognitive phenomena are adjacent to Being, just emerging from Being.

With our “First Initiation” technique, the mind glimpses occasionally this in-between Ritam state, but the First Initiation technique is designed to cause the mind to jump into pure transcendence (the state of “no mantra, no thought”) quickly and to bounce back into the grosser fields of thinking, as the body releases its stress.

An Advanced Technique is designed to take the awareness into Ritam (the in-between state) and to linger there, to familiarize the mind with Ritam.

When the mind becomes familiar with Ritam, the subtle perceptual capability of the senses is very engaged; the state of Ritam is absorbing and the senses become enchanted by their experience, something akin to experiencing nectar. Simply the phenomenon, the mere process of experiencing is intrinsically fascinating to the senses.

So, this fascination [experienced in Ritam, during meditation] gives the senses a naturally refined liking and capacity for discernment of the subtle. The senses develop an habituation to find that super-subtle layer outside meditation, in the eyes-open state. The regular daily experiences of that super-subtle value in Ritam hones the senses to a razor-sharpness, giving them acuity, an acuteness, of sensory perception with eyes open, whilst engaged in activity.

Now, outside of meditation (with eyes open) the senses will delve into their objects in order to locate that same level of satisfaction that they acquired inside meditation (with eyes closed). Consequently, one’s capacity for super-subtle sensory perception outside meditation is enhanced markedly.

Possession of highly enhanced sensory acuity gives one the advantage of being able to detect subtle change occurring in the phenomenal world.

At every moment, everything is changing to assist the inexorable process of evolution. All seeds of future events are available here in the present. If only we possess the sensory sensitivity to be able to detect change-in-genesis, then we are able to detect the future-in-the-making. When we can detect the subtle shifts that occur constantly causing progressive change, then, also, we will find that our expectations spontaneously align themselves with what actually is going on, rather than our relying utterly upon the shoddy guesswork of a speculating intellect, whose capacity for forecast and prediction is notoriously inaccurate.

Our being blind-sided by changes that occur when we do not expect change brings about much suffering in life. This suffering makes it extremely difficult to understand how change is evolutionary, and this can cause deep sadness. However, when, through regular practice of our Advanced Technique, the senses gain that capacity for super-subtle perception of minute progressive changes, then we are more attuned; we are able better to sense probabilities, better equipped to avert dangers before they become inevitable, and better able to be in the right place at the right time, to identify opportunities and to make the most of them.

In addition, the greater joy of subtler, more acute perception in daily life increases our wisdom, our ready insight into and understanding of everything. Ultimately, one is liberated by ever-increasing degrees to enjoy life more and more, and thereby to fulfill your life’s purpose.

It is good after each successive year of regular, twice-daily meditation to learn the next iteration of one’s meditation technique, to enhance the depth and the regularity of the experience of Ritam. Advanced Techniques are available to be taught by specially qualified Initiators of Vedic Meditation worldwide

Love and Jai Guru Deva

By Thom Knoles