Discover who and how powerful you really are.
Are you part of the 4:00 am club? Membership cost is insomnia. It’s the club in which you wake up at 4:00 am and ask yourself, “What the heck is the point of the rat race?” or “How do I get off the ferris wheel of keeping up with the Joneses (or should I say the Kardashians)?”
Do you want lasting peace?
Do you wish you understood how the world works?
Do you wish you knew where you get stuck?
Do you want to understand how you get in the way of your inner freedom, power, and potential?
If you are ready to discover the answers to these questions and more, then this course is for you.
This series—8 modules, 48 videos—it’s deep, it’s life-altering, it’s loving. It’s for sure NOT the usual loud voice, “Rah, rah, journey to your greatness…”
Before you decide if this is for you, I ask that you carefully read, reflect, and pause on the program description. It is very possible the description alone serves you in some way. Yes, it’s long. No, it’s not a 2-minute attention span message—but then you, your life, are worth more than two minutes.
Complete Wisdom
Yoga Vasistha is potentially the oldest form of Positive Psychology on the planet. It is a science of consciousness that uses impeccable logic to help us understand the nature of our best Self, consciousness, and “reality” itself.
The Yoga Vasistha is taught in a structured way.
This teaching takes place as a dialogue between Vasishta, one of the greatest alchemists of his time, and a prince known as Rama. The teachings progress through a specific sequence of logic, leading the student to not only understand, but eventually integrate and fully realize the essence of the wisdom.
The fruit of your effort, contemplation and sincerity can lead to the possibility of a completely different understanding of yourself and life. It can forever change your relationship to the world of objects. It is the potential for a second chance at life.
What’s in it for you?
We all rely extensively on external objects—such as people, situations, and attainments—for our sense of self-worth and self-love. What if I told you that it’s possible to break this addiction? Through this book, we can release the dependency on the external world of objects for fleeting moments of happiness. The Yoga Vasistha offers the potential for you to discover a limitless well of happiness and wholeness within your own self.
At first, you may find your mind in a battle to grasp and assimilate the teaching. This is part of the process of the unlearning, or letting go of fixed beliefs and assumptions. These teachings may at first seem radical and counterintuitive. Don’t let that stop you. Keep going, come back to a session if you wish, just continue to reflect. At some point it will make perfect sense.
This is the way these teachings work.
The wisdom in this book is not a theory, an idea, or a product of any one person or group of people. It’s also not just a philosophy. It’s what is known in Sanskrit as a pramana, a means of knowledge. In this case, it explores self-knowledge. You may wonder, why would anyone need a means of self-knowledge? After all, most of us assume and are certain about who we are. This is Philip and that is Tramie. One is a real estate developer who drives a BMW and the other a school teacher who rides around on a Harley. One likes pizza and the other likes whiskey.
But consider something for a moment…
What IF?
What if everything you’ve ever thought or assumed to be true about yourself was actually nothing more than that—just a thought, an assumption ? Or what if it was stuff you blindly accepted as fact before you were old enough to discern, judge and choose from what the world and people around you taught you?
What if the person you’ve always considered yourself to be was nothing more than a notion, a concept in your head taken on as a reality? And, what if this idea, concept, or belief about yourself was actually the source of all your suffering and unhappiness in life?
A Question of Identity
What sets you, me, and any human being apart from other creatures is our ability to self-reflect.
While animals are intelligent, sentient, and have a rudimentary intellect—or what we call instinct—we humans are unique in that we have a separate sense of identity called ego. We have a sense of who we think we are, who we think we should be, and who we want to be. This has a lot of upside to it. We are considered the dominant species on the planet. We have built and maintained incredible civilizations. We create, discover, explore, innovate, and expand our environment.
But it is also how we judge, dissect, and feel separate.
Self-Awareness
This identity with the limiting sense of Self is the root of our greatest stuck-ness and our greatest source of suffering. It is our gift and glory that we are aware of our Self. However, the problem is we are aware of the inadequate Self and not the whole complete Self.
The problem with self-awareness is a simple one: the Self we are aware of comes with duality. Sometimes we love and like ourselves and sometimes we dislike and deprecate ourselves with a lack of self-acceptance. We find fault in how we look, how we behave, how we think, how we feel, how we love or don’t love—it’s an endless sense of a highly unsatisfactory Self.
If we assume ourselves to be our body, mind, thoughts, emotions, accomplishments or ego, we inevitably experience a sense of limitation, because all these pieces are, by their very nature, temporary and limited. This changing sense of Self, upon investigation, is simply a bundle of unquestioned assumptions, ideas, and beliefs that masks our core essence.
You are whole and complete.
Yoga Vasistha tells us that we’re far more than we ever dared to imagine. It tells us that we are already whole and complete and that our sense of limitation comes from identifying with what we are not.
This book is universal in scope, it deals with the questions humanity—you, me, we—wrestle with at some point in our life:
- Who am I?
- What am I?
- Where did the universe come from?
- What is the purpose of life?
Your Journey
Perhaps the universe has a hand in you being here, as it did for me. For me, during my journey, the most important requirement was to remain curious and to have a clear and an open mind. It transformed my life—how I think, feel, and act. It left me with the inner freedom to do, be, and live with love in my heart and courage in my choices.
I wish and intend for you to discover your best and highest Self, so that you may live a life of joy, success, and significance. All you need to do is keep a clear and open mind. Be willing to let go of what you think you already know at least for the duration of this series. Be willing to carefully consider the teaching as each video unfolds a new perspective or a new potential outlook.
You’re not expected to just accept what is being discussed. In fact, at each stage you are encouraged to carefully reflect and consider the teaching as it relates to your life. Let that be the proof of the impact, choice, and validity of the teachings for yourself. You’re meant and encouraged to question everything, to work through doubts, and to consider it from all angles.
Remember, we as human beings are hard wired with a confirmation bias. It is one of the greatest obstacles to creativity, innovation, and connection to our greatness. Spinning in what we already know is a limiting conditioned response. To me, that is living blindly.
For some, sitting down listening and reflecting on teachings from texts, which are centuries old, may not sound very cool, hip, or exciting. It’s not intended to be. What would be the point of all the hype, cool technology, and marketing, if internally we remain disconnected? The potential for your “low key presence” to this series and a firm commitment to yourself is that you may just find yourself living your life like a lion. To put it in cool, hip terms—living like an inner badass.
Dive in.
This 3-part series is only the beginning of a great book. These are recordings of a live discussion that took place during 2020—the year of sheltering IN place. Yes, sheltering within—it’s a place of deep love and connection. A place called home.
Please look past the surface; don’t get hung up on the grainy visual. During the 8-session series, we were moving through unusual times. The world was “closed.” The need of the hour—more than ever—was to expand the spirit of giving. A spontaneous decision to read and discuss Yoga Vasistha was launched as a way to support. Some required medical protection equipment, some required food, while others required uplifting of their spirit. More than 850 souls jumped in to up-level their Self while giving back to a community in need. These recordings are the result of that moment. This course is self-paced and over the next 48 days, you will receive access to one video every day so that you can digest and chew on it. You will have access to the whole program for 90 days.
Be safe. Be well. Be happy.
Course Content
Introduction to Yoga Vasistha
- What’s the Point?
- The Big Question on Repeat
- What is the path to unshakeable happiness or freedom?
- Rama: The Prince of Stillness
- Logic vs Peace/Stillness
- Meditation
The Story Continues
- Recap: The Two Demons of our Mind
- The Deep Contemplation–Life, Death, and Relationship
- Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems
- Me, Myself, and the Cravings of the Mind
- Your Body is Not a Wonderland
- We’re Not Here for a Good Time, We’re Here Because of The Great Time
- Meditation
Liberation
- The Wisey Bound
- Bondage 101
- I got 99 Problems and Vasanas are Responsible for All of ’em.
- As is the Self-effort, So is the Fruit
- The How-to Guide on How to Not Deepen your Impressions
- Meditation
- BONUS: Q&A, Karmas, Self-Effort, Relationships
Liberation, continued
- Take the Red Pill
- The Five Major Habits of Effectively Bound People
- Getting Real with What is Real
- When 2 Becomes 1
- I Dreamed a [Wakeful] Dream
- Thought of the Day: We are just a Bunch of Thoughts
- Meditation
Are you listening?
- Alright Stop, Contemplate and Listen
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Scene
- Does it Spark Joy?
It Was All a Dream
Never Mind, It Doesn’t [Have] Matter
- Bonus Q&A
- Meditation
Discernment and Duplicity
- Getting Clear: Where We Are and Where We Are Headed
- There Can Only be One
- If You Know, Now You Don’t Know
- All That Glitters is Just Gold
- You May Say I’m a Dreamer, but So is The Only One
- You Cannot Know It–But, You Can Live It
- Meditation
Change vs. Changeless
- Real vs. Unreal
- Sentient is the Universe
- The Pursuit of Happiness is… a Warm Gun
- To Knowable and Beyond
- The States of Reality: Rethinking The Real
- Force in Motion
- Bonus Q&A
Lila
- Oh, The Spaces You’ll Let Go
- One Underneath It All
- The Infinite Space
- Level Up, Level Up, Level Up
- The Gulab Joy Club
- All The Paths Lead to The One
- It Was All From Nothing
- Bonus QA on: Self-Effort, Relationships, and Delusion
- Bonus QA on: The Ultimate Seer, Kara and Dusana, and Seeking Freedom
- Bonus QA on: Regret, Seva, and Lust
- Bonus QA on: The Changing Seer, The Unknowable, and Babies
- Bonus QA on: Connecting to It, Living It, and the Causeless Creation
Presenter
Rajshree Patel
Rajshree Patel is one of the most influential teachers today in the field of personal and spiritual development. She has taught Sudarshan Kriya and the Art of Living programs to hundreds of thousands of people in every walk of life all over the world. …
Online Program FAQs
Retreat Cancellation Policy
Your program is hosted on Zoom. In order to participate, you will need one of the following:
- Computer: Windows or Mac computer with speakers and a microphone. (Note: Webcams are recommended but not required.)
- Mobile Device: iOS or Android
- Phone: mobile, desk or landline.
You can find out more about using Zoom here.
Once you register and reserve your spot, you will receive a confirmation email with detailed instructions on how to access the online sessions. If you have any problems or questions, please feel free to reach us at 800-392-6870.
