This essay is a near-verbatim adaptation of the live spoken teaching, edited only for continuity and readability.
As I begin, I find it helpful to bring attention to the heart center. Gentleness is a protection and a way to clear the space. Gentleness is about being non-reactive; we build a base around ourselves by ending reactivity. I try to feel a sense of positivity, invoking a more beautiful perspective on the situation—not by thinking, but by feeling it in the heart.
Today, I want to discuss some very important things regarding energy. What is energy? Why is it relevant? How can it help us? Perhaps you have heard about Chi or Kundalini—well-known forces in certain spiritual paradigms, but really descriptions of the same biological factor, something we can work with in meditation.
When we want to become something more, to have a truly divine experience of the universe, to feel holiness, godliness, intelligence, and love, it is necessary to grow in our energetic quality. People are all in different energetic states, and as we study or practice, we evolve. The practice of direct energy work—also known as Raja Yoga or Kriya Yoga—is a very powerful way to cultivate energy and change very rapidly.
It can be interesting to study this. It can be enjoyable to cultivate certain abilities, and it can be empowering. There is a power you can develop. But when we are looking to become enlightened, to become more divine, to experience more beauty and love, that is a different application. Instead of being interested in the powers themselves, I am interested in the love that it opens us to.
It is helpful to have a basic cosmology. I am going to describe things, but ultimately one must come to their own direct perception of these qualities. Some of these things you can think of as potentials that you may perceive. You can look out for them, and it gives you a sense of the structure you will navigate on this path of energy.
There are four planes of existence you can consider. There is the material plane, which is physical matter. Then there is the subtle physical, which is the energy plane. That could be electromagnetism—it is the part of existence that is not so gross, it is more subtle. Within our biology, we experience Kundalini and Chi. That is part of the energy plane. It also goes by the name the astral plane. There are many terms that have changed throughout human history, but it is a part of the subtle aspect of existence.
Then there is a deeper plane of energy, and this may be a little surprising. There is the energy plane, but there is also a deeper energy plane—the planes of light. What really differentiates these two is that the energy plane, the astral plane, is within the contents of consciousness. You could think of it as a subtle aspect of the physical. The word "physical" essentially means nature—it is what is manifest. So there is the subtle manifest and the gross manifest. Both are important to attend to. Even just the subtle manifest is very magical and new to most people. Humanity does not really consider it that much.
Most people give me a hard time on Instagram. They say, "I do not believe in the Chakras." Well, it is not a matter of believing in the Chakras. If you are believing in the Chakras, you are certainly not feeling them, and you need to change that. It is alright if you do not feel the Chakras, but if you are working toward feeling them, believing in them either way is not going to help you. Believing in the Chakras may help you in the sense that it will open the door to cultivating them. If you do not believe it is possible, you will never make it a reality. So that is, I suppose, the only real value—as a temporary stage.
The light plane, the planes of light, is not the subtle physical anymore. It is like the fabric of the dream itself. There is a brightness that is your very mind. You have to start considering the possibility and looking at the reality of things, which is that the world is really inside of us. Of course we perceive a body and a world. You might say, well, the body is inside the world, but you, as the dreamer, as the conscious mechanism, are the creator of all that is perceived. So the world is inside your field of consciousness.
So what is the field of consciousness made of? Well, it is made of light, and you can see this light. You can experience this light. In fact, if you think this is a little too whimsical, I will tell you that I spend most of my day trying to maintain contact with this light. I am not imagining it. I am really trying to stay connected with it and navigating my life based on how much light is present. In fact, my development in mathematics was guided by the light. If I did not follow mathematics in a certain way, there would not be much light when I did math. If I did, there would be lots of light.
So light is the third plane, and I would love to help all of you who are interested to integrate light into your life. That was a Freudian slip, because light is life—integrate light into your life. The light is like a life force, and it is very, very special when you are in touch with it. When you are in touch with the light, you are happy. It is like an uncaused happiness. If there is no light, it does not matter. If you are swimming in a pool of gold coins, it does not matter. You will not be happy. The light is happiness, and it is a happiness that simply appears.
One of the most beautiful qualities of light is gold. It is like this golden sunshine in your own heart and mind. It is truly beautiful. It is not the easiest thing to access. You can reach it, but you have to work at it. I worked quite hard to get to the point where I was experiencing it on my own, and then even harder to experience it consistently. Now, I try to prioritize the light as much as possible, even when I am sleeping.
It is interesting—you can begin to dream in the light, which is a wonderful experience. You will sleep more deeply. It also awakens intelligence, because the light renews your mind in a way that allows you to see clearly. It purifies.
So there is a connection between the light and the subtle physical. The light itself will purify the subtle physical. You can bring the light into your body, or you can bring your body into the light. Perhaps merging with the light is the best way to describe it. Make sure there is light in your heart chakra, in your brain, and in all the different parts of your body—all the different parts of your energy body.
The light is very important, and it also helps you. The light has its own intelligence. If you are working just with your astral body, you may have to do certain things. I might say, “Okay, well, I am going to do this technique and move the energy in this way.” But when you are in the light, it allows things to move into their natural state, into their correct state. So it is a very potent and pivotal way to purify and cultivate your energy.
There is also a whole spectrum of light. There is a cosmology—almost like chakras of light, a map of the Light Realm. Paramahansa Yogananda calls the light the causal plane. I think others have called it that as well. That is generally the term. There is the astral plane, and then there is the causal plane—the planes of light. But you know, names are not the most important thing, although it may help you realize what people are referring to.
Within the light, there is a whole spectrum of colors. There is a white light, and this rainbow-colored light. You can see any quality of light. For example, some people see the red light as soon as they start meditating. Depending on how your field is, you may return to certain qualities more consistently. There is also a blue light that is somewhat outside of the rainbow spectrum, and the gold light, which is a very deep quality of light—deep in the sense that it is very essential. It is like the color of the soul, as opposed to the color of love. This is the core part of yourself, and then there is a clear light that appears black, which is very, very deep. It becomes impersonal.
If you read some ancient texts, you will often find references to these things, because this is very deep esoteric knowledge that I think is highly relevant to every human being. It awakens love, intelligence, freedom, contentment, peace, and a sense of what matters most. Really, this will open your heart and bring love. So when you wonder, how is that saintly person so saintly? Well, I would probably guess that they had contact with the light. It truly makes a difference. I do not know how else you would do it, and perhaps there is another way. But the light tells you that you are headed toward the essence.
And then there is another plane—the plane of enlightenment, which is where that clear light is. I do not know as much about this. I have some experiences in it from time to time. It is a very deep place to find yourself. It is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi in yoga. It is a state of dissolution. There is no sense of individuality there. But when you come out of it, you have this sense that you are about to become an individual again. And it is actually not so pleasant, because when you are not an individual at all, there is a truthfulness and freedom there. When you become the individual again, coming out of the eternal plane, there is a sense of illusion. You say, “Oh, my gosh! I am going to think that I am this person again.” And it is a very palpable sense of illusion. It is really interesting.
So those are the four planes: the physical, the astral, the causal, and the internal or enlightened plane.
The astral plane is very important to know, especially the parts of the astral that are your own biology. When I say biology, I do not mean cells and nerves and organs. I mean chakras and nadi and auras. There are different parts. There is a subtle auric aspect of your physicality—the subtle physical.
The heart center is truly paramount. That is right in the center of the chest—the heart chakra. There are also three chakras below and three chakras above. There is the root chakra, which is a little bit beneath your body, around the perineum area. There is the second chakra around the genital area. And related to these, you can sometimes feel, if you are meditating on the root chakra, the perineum muscle twitch or flex, because it is very connected to the body.
There is the navel center, which I highly recommend, especially for beginners. It is one inch below the belly button, and this is a center of willpower. The heart is the next one. If you look it up on the Internet, they might say the navel center is in your solar plexus, which is actually a different chakra. That is more like a secondary chakra.
Heart. There is the throat chakra at the base of the throat. There is the third eye, which I also highly recommend. The third eye, the heart, and the navel make a good combination. And then there is the crown, right on top of the head as well. You can go through all of these, practice them, and explore them.
There are other centers that are not actually called chakras. They are called granthi—the granthis are like nerve centers—and the fields that they create. One is at the top of the head, where a baby has a soft spot, a little bit behind the crown center. There is one in the back of the head, right underneath the divot. This is an important one as well. There is one inside the middle of the brain.
There is also a center in the middle of the brain, which connects with the one in the back of the head. That small part of the brain is called—there is a little part in the center. Then there is one right behind your heart. That is the spot people intuitively rub when offering comfort—the loving back rub spot. It is an actual center. If your friend or someone notices you are having a hard time and rubs your back, they are intuitively aware that you need support there. Or even if you are simply enjoying yourself and someone rubs your back, that is another granthi, called the Vishnu granthi.
There is also the lower back granthi, which is connected to the lower three chakras. You can think of it as being at the back of the navel center, but it is also connected to the other two, so you can meditate on all of those.
There are also chakras in your palms and fingertips. If you have trouble feeling the energy, one of the easiest ways is to focus on the connection between your fingertips and your palms. Try to feel the movement and bring your attention to your hands. Work on building the energy. You can say to yourself, "Okay, I am building, I am building." Find out how to do that. You have to figure it out for yourself. It is almost as if you are letting the charge accumulate at your fingertips, and there are many, many more centers. If you look at an acupuncture model, you will see little dots all over it—like a mannequin or a picture of a mannequin.
There is literally a heart center here, one here, one here, one here—there are about eight heart centers right by your heart chakra. The heart chakra I am referring to is the main one, but there are many secondary spots.
When you work with these, you can truly change yourself. Just as with acupuncture, you can really heal things. You can heal your physical organs by working with the energy. If you fix the light, it can heal your astral body. If you heal the astral body, you can heal your physical body. It is possible to go the other direction as well.
Centering on your essence—why do we do this? We do it to become happier, more free, more peaceful, more capable of seeing beauty, and most of all, perhaps, to become knowledgeable of our true self. Who is the true self? Can you know the impersonal self in the enlightened plane? Is it possible to actually know that side of yourself? Everything takes on a different sense.
We live our lives within a certain paradigm. If we change the paradigm, life can change significantly. It is like someone who has an epiphany and then changes everything—they get married, or they change their job—because they have seen something new. And there is so much to see.
This is one of the greatest discoveries in mathematics. We love discovering math, we love discovering physics, but when you discover, through your direct perception, the planes of light, the astral plane, the psychic planes—which are related—the eternal planes, you are discovering the ultimate. It is truly a remarkable experience to look behind the curtain of existence and see what is really happening, to live with that awareness, to have that be a part of everything you do.
In exploring the centers, I find that the chakras are more etheric, and the granthi are more gross—they are less subtle. The chakras are more like electromagnetic energy, and the granthi are more electrical. The energy that moves through the granthis is more viscous. You can move different levels of energy, but there is definitely a viscous quality that you can move through the granthi, whereas you do not experience that as much with the chakras.
The chakras have an expansive quality, and the granthis—when you are moving your energy, particularly through Kundalini Yoga and meditation—it is almost as if the energy can get stuck at the granthis, and you want to move the energy through them. The chakras have an expansive quality where, through awareness, you can expand them. The heart chakra can be as large as the planet. You can actually expand it. So it is a center, but it expands. And then the Vishnu Granthi, which is behind the heart—you could reach out backwards. But I am not even sure if that is the granthi reaching out; it might actually be the heart chakra reaching out. So it is nice to reach out backwards. But usually, if you focus on the granthi, it is like a local versus non-local experience, and the non-local is associated with that toroidal flow that is limitless.
The granthi is denser, more—almost of the third dimension, or this dimension. I think of it as more electrical versus electromagnetic. Electrical is confined to a wire, but the field around the wire is electromagnetic, which actually reaches out. I usually experience my heart chakra more as a sphere.
It is very important not to become too caught up in this. This is just an initial description, but ultimately the words are not very important unless you are teaching or communicating and discussing it with someone. What matters is the actual experience. Am I becoming more free? Am I purifying my heart? Do I feel more love, compassion, and empathy? These are the real indicators of progress. In fact, it can be a little dangerous to become caught up in jargon, because then you become an expert in terminology. There is a lot of ego involved, and it is not about that at all. You could be someone who knows none of these words, but you are masterful with the experience. And you are the only person in the world who knows about your experience, and you simply love everyone with the beauty and love within your own being. That is a good way to be.
In practice, if you are doing your 15 minutes of meditation a day as I recommended—five minutes on the navel, or five minutes on the heart to start. Five minutes on the navel or the third eye, and then the third eye or the navel. You could do five minutes each. And really, you could do that twice a day.
Once we start talking more about the light—which we are going to add later on in the course—you could spend time just focusing into the light. But that is a different practice. The chakras help you to get into the light. If someone is in a more dense state, the chakras help loosen things up so you can get into the light. And eventually, you can simply focus directly into the light. You might start that way, but the chakras help. They are like doorways into the light.
Let us bring our attention to the heart center. The heart chakra and its expansiveness. If you are able to bring the light into the chakra, if you have experience with that, we can do that as well. My chakra is right in the center of the sternum, and it is underneath the ribs as well. You can feel and explore that. Simply bring your attention there and awaken vitality with your intention. If your mind wanders as soon as you become aware, just bring your attention back. Keep cultivating and building the energy in the heart. The more you stay with it, the more the energy builds. Let us stay with the heart a little longer.
You might feel warmth. We are simply awakening an energetic charge. Let us expand the heart at the front of the body, the heart chakra, and give it that expansive quality.
If everyone is ready, let us perhaps move to the third eye now. The third eye is just a little above the spot between the eyebrows. It almost feels as if you are looking at it with your eyes, but without going cross-eyed—just bring your attention there. You are looking. It is good to feel the magnetism. There is almost a magnetic pull or pressure that feels pleasant because it feels vital. We will do this chakra for about three or four minutes before we go to the navel, so really give it your full attention. It is good to have a gentle intensity. Do not be too forceful.
Let us focus on the crown. Then, let us go to the navel. One inch below the belly button is the center. One thing that helps me feel it is placing my hands like this, and I feel a connection with it. You do not have to do that, but it can help. The quality of energy here is quite different. It feels like a power—you literally feel in command of your own field. The energy of this song that just came on is more like the navel. You can feel that quiet power. The song has other dimensions. The third eye is very prevalent as well, and so is the heart, but there is certainly quite a bit of navel energy.
Let us keep going. Let us bring our attention to the back of the head. This time we will do something that is not just meditating on a center, but working with the whole channel. Push the energy slowly down behind the neck, over the back of the heart, over the middle back where the solar plexus would be, and let it drip down. It almost feels as if it drips all the way down to the lower back and the tailbone, into the perineum for the root center.
Let us do that again. Just let it drip down, facilitating that movement gently. Start from the top again. We are creating fluidity in a way that feels healthy, and you can feel it. Let us bring it down over the back of the head, down the neck, over the upper back, the mid back, the lower back, to the bottom of the channel. You can do it again if you like, or you could place your attention on the Vishnu Granthi, the heart Granthi.
Now, all this energy work should have transformed your consciousness. You can take an existential look at the nature of reality in yourself. What is directly perceivable beyond words? Look a little more directly, more closely.
Now is a good time to feel centered in the heart center, the heart chakra. Feel love, kindness, gentleness, peacefulness. When you are ready, we can come out of the meditation together.
That spinal channel really made me feel high, personally. It is nice. I do not usually do that—I am doing it because I wanted to share it with you, but maybe I should do it more often.
Sometimes, when I am doing math, I experience more light than when I am not. I often do math with my eyes closed. I focus on those animations, or on other things I come up with—essentially things like that. There is more light moving through my mind because of that. Eventually, I stop doing math and simply let go. At that point, math is happening beyond math.
There is a mathematician named Ramanujan—Srinivasa Ramanujan, from India. He approached mathematics in a way that was completely different from anyone else in history. It is truly remarkable. He would commune with Namagiri, a Hindu goddess, and she would reveal mathematical equations to him—equations that were unknown even to the mathematicians at Cambridge in the 1920s. He would literally see the equations emerge from this sort of state, when the mind becomes still enough. I do not think you necessarily need a goddess, but you can apprehend the gestalt and perceive things without relying on linear thought patterns. Ramanujan was truly extraordinary in the way he made this his practice. He died when he was only 32 years old, so he accomplished all of that as a very young person.
I think it is valuable to have a community that understands the light, where we can discuss it—the matters of light, the issues around the light, the considerations of the light. It is valuable to have your friends, your family, and your community living in that realm. I invite you to join me. Make it a part of your life. That is what we are looking to create—to normalize this experience a bit, so it is not so unusual or so out there for people.
What matters is the actual experience. Am I becoming more free? Am I purifying my heart? Do I feel more love, compassion, and empathy? These are the real indicators of progress. In fact, it can be a little dangerous to become caught up in jargon, because then you become an expert in terminology. There is a lot of ego involved, and it is not about that at all. You could be someone who knows none of these words, but you are masterful with the experience. And you are the only person in the world who knows about your experience, and you simply love everyone with the beauty and love within your own being. That is a good way to be.