It seems to me that there are three pillars to the path of knowledge for modern, earnest Western seekers:

1. Inner Purification: Many different approaches–ranging from the somatic, to the emotional, to the energy body–can fruitfully be employed to slowly attenuate ego-selves and their attendant attachments. To say this is to insist that direct path teachings be assisted by deeper–and sometimes preliminary–explorations of the subtle body with a view to “cleaning up” bodily tensions as well as ego-tendencies.

2. Higher Reason: The direct path teaching of Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon offers us a nondual form of inquiry referred to as “higher reason,” the point of which is to take one directly to the Truth. Here, we do enter the terrain of jnana yoga proper, yet it should be noted that lines of inquiry–which Atmananda termed “prakriyas”–are first laid out by a teacher who’s highly skilled in this method. Slowly, the student learns how to ask higher reason-style questions during the course of daily life with the aim either of taking his stand as the witness or of reducing all experiences ultimately to pure consciousness.

3. Self-inquiry: The most needful form of instruction, one prepared by inner purification and also by a deeper metaphysical grasp of the heart of the nondual teaching, is self-inquiry (atma vichara). What Ramana Maharshi clearly saw was that at the root of the experience of dualistic consciousness is this sense of I, one that appears upon waking up in the morning and that waxes and wanes during the course of the day. Key to this style of investigation is targeting the very source of dissatisfaction in order to understand that, truly, the essence of the I is none other than pure consciousness.

The lack of inner purification required by, and often implicit in, the direct path teaching explains why it’s hard to maintain one’s stand as awareness (for one’s attention keeps going outward toward objects with which one misidentifies oneself) while the lack of clarity regarding how to engage in higher reason or self-inquiry on a regular basis (call these “situational practices”) accounts for the propensity to simply intellectualize the teaching. (“I know that I’m awareness, but still I engage in certain bad habits.”)When we meet one-on-one or in a small group, I may begin by taking us through a guided meditation that’s keyed into “where you’re at.” The latter may be followed by a dialogue in which we get really clear about fundamental metaphysical topics (e.g., “What is the mind?,” “Is it true that the world is unreal?,” and “What does it mean to suggest that ‘consciousness is not an object’?”) or about your own more practical confusions. Our session may end with spiritual instruction, somewhat in the spirit of Zen, whose point is to “unstick you” from “where you’re stuck.”

Along the way, we may also discuss seminal sacred texts in order, quite simply and deeply experientially, to reveal your true nature.

Some Existential Questions We Resolve

• “If awareness is already free, why do I still feel stuck?”

• “How can I abide as awareness when I’m overwhelmed by emotion?”

• “During seated practice, I dissolve into consciousness. But during the day, I take myself to be the doer. What am I do?”

• “How do I live this understanding in relationships and at work?”