Internal Practices & Meditation Retreat
PART 2. Reintegration: Jan 2025
Meditators at the previous retreat near Sun River, Oregon.
This coursework is a continuation of Part 1 based on Advaita Vedanta (Non-dualism), and Tantrika Shaivism. While the first part of this coursework provides skillful ways of breaking down your illusion of yourself and the world around by working through Vasana (tendencies), Samskara (repeated patterns developed in past lives), and Runanu Bandha (debts of Karma accumulated through relationships), in Part 2 we reintegrate the universe within the pure self. It is as if after tumultuous pilgrimage and effortful cleanse in the holy ocean (Part 1 - disintegrate and dissolve), you emerge and work with your pure consciousness (Part 2 - reintegrate)!
While Part 1 was effortful, Part 2 teaches how to be effortless. Participants learn highly advanced techniques and sequences of meditation that take them to the very razor’s edge of moving from the ‘created’ to the ‘creator’. Without the understanding and the deep work in Part 1, the subtle workings of Part 2 would not be feasible. You will learn how to surf a field of spiritual bliss using the finest qualities of your pure consciousness, helping you experience a state as close to Samadhi as you may have ever experienced.
Outcome from this retreat: you can expect to take with you the most effective, peaceful and integrative meditation practice that is your own calling in order to realize the Brahma within. You move from the state of a meditator to the state of a Yogi - the one in Union.
You will learn:
Waking up and embracing the Divine
While Kundalini Shakti is the essential start of Tantrik path of samadhi, the journey continues into transcendence - the absorption of the AnandaMayakosha. Here instead of spending any energy, you will learn to produce seeming limitless energy through blissful cultivation of Amrita. None of the techniques for Part 1 will be revisited here. You will practice and master specific techniques for:
Highly advanced Mudra combination from Himalayan yogis to unlock the key to higher consciousness
Invoking and interacting with the Deva Loka or the layer of Astral Beings
Moving through three stages and layers of consciousness development
Allowing the state of Turiya to be the ever-present canvas of existence and the opening of wisdom eye
Full absorption of mind and prana in pure consciousness
Navigating fear and pride generated from the presence of luminous consciousness prior to selflessness and emptiness
The above and much more. The nature of these practices and techniques will unveil your own approach to knowing the deepest embedded divinity that will allow a path for your ego to merge into the absolute. It is highly experiential and personal and hence stating the coursework in words feels limiting — similar to, say, creating a guideline on falling in love — let alone, love of the highest order.
Program Structure: FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. Limited spaces.
This curriculum is designed for in-person participation.
Mandatory Session (Online) - Noon to 4 PM: Start of the program with some critical instructions and advanced techniques that require some effort to master. The hope is that with the week between now and the actual retreat you can become familiar and well-versed with such.
Jan ##, 1 PM - Jan ##, Noon: Everyday full participation is required, as all aspects of the program are specifically designed for progressive immersion and advancement. Each day will consist of morning, afternoon, and evening instructions, practices, and lectures, including time for self-practice, self-reflection, and meals. Ample rest and a quiet mind are critical throughout the journey of this curriculum.
What can you walk away with?
All the mythological stories you have read about yogis and their secret, esoteric, and even impossible practices will get somewhat demystified through your own experience. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra will feel unveiled, decoded and approachable to a much greater extent than before. Finally, “dissolving of the ego” will have a personal meaning through glimpses in this retreat.
Tuition:
$1,600 ($500 deposit to reserve limited spaces; balance of $1,100 by Oct 31, 2024) payable by Venmo to rajpatra@hotmail.com
25% discount offered to those who are repeating Part 2.
Location and Residence: TBD. Food: TBD
Faculty: Raj Patra (YFL Co-Founder)
Raj’s yoga journey started in Kolkata, India at the age of seven at Ghosh’s Yoga College which was established in 1923 by Bishnu Ghosh, younger brother of Sri Paramhansa Yogananda, the author of “Autobiography of a Yogi”. Incidentally, Raj grew up on the same street, blocks away from the birthplace and house of Swami Vivekananda, the personality single-handedly responsible for introducing Yoga and Hinduism to the United States in 1893. For Raj, yoga involved not only physical exercises, pranayama, and meditation, but a prescription of lifestyle, in close association with Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and helped cure ailments and improve quality of mental and physical connections.
Over the the past four decades Raj has studied in the lineages and inspirations of Yogananda, Sri Anandamayi Ma, Swami Vivekananda, Bishnu Ghosh, Dr. A. G. Mohan, Zhander Remete, 17th Gyalwa Karmapa of Kagyu Lineage, venerable Chöje Lama Phuntsok Rinpoche, Ajayan Borys, and most importantly, Guruji Andrey Lappa, founder of Universal Yoga and teacher of Tantrika. Raj is well-versed in systems of Hatha yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga and its western derivations, Bikram yoga, Power yoga, Yin yoga, Shadow yoga, and the extensive system of Universal Yoga and Shiva Nata (Dance of Shiva), and has spent time in Ramakrishna Mission, Dakshineshwar Temple, Balur Matth Vivekananda Institute in Kolkata, and Karma Lekshey Ling monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal. Raj is a Reiki Master, and initiated in the Modern Mystery School.
With degrees in Physics and in Mathematics, and high profile corporate and hi-tech jobs since 1998 in start-ups and Fortune companies, Raj’s yoga practice and teaching are grounded by the fundamental belief that stress through the rat-race of material success is the biggest contributor to the unhappiness and increasing health issues in the world, and that raising human consciousness is the means of attaining peace. “Yoga helps in not only re-balancing our lives, but also in raising an intellectual awareness that we are all connected beings living off of the same quantum mechanical resources.”
Raj’s mission is to educate yoga practitioners and teachers about Yoga in its authentic and universal way, enriched by centuries of lineage. His activities and energy these days revolve around teaching ancient philosophies in modern and scientific contexts, inspiring people to live life in conscious and meaningful ways, and relentlessly studying with and from yoga masters. Learn more.
