BD: At what point did Jyotish become part of this Vedic life experience for you?

 

SK: I encountered Jyotish right next door to our family compound, and that image is still quite fresh in my early memories. A simple man lived there and he sat on a wooden pallet outside his room, over which a sign, shaped as the palm of a hand facing outward, invited consultations. Regularly people came to him, touched his feet, and sat quietly before him. To me he seemed like a very modest, ordinary guy, but he commanded a lot of respect in the community. I was very intrigued by him. 

 

He was always very nice to me. I remember chatting with him often, and sometimes he shared sweets with me that were given to him by his visitors. As I grew up, I realized that he was playing two integrated roles with people. He was clearly a Vaidya, providing natural remedies to people who stopped by, but at the same time he was a practicing Jyotishi, reading charts as part of his healing practice. He was from a Brahmin family, but his education had been informal, studying with his teacher about food, spices, herbs and other natural remedies. The advice he offered was always friendly, and by his reputation among the locals, his treatments worked every time.

 

As people sat with him he flipped through the pages of his own Panchanga and included the movements of sun, moon and stars in his consultations. He would tell people their auspicious days, their sacred timing, and the do's and don'ts of their behavior. And he taught people mantras and rituals as part of their care.

 

I only realized later that I was seeing the integrated practice of Vedic arts, serving each client in a holistic way. Everybody felt confidence in him, and well-cared for by his ministrations. I saw clearly the power of his cohesive approach to healing through unified Vedic practice. 

 

BD: I’m struck how this integrated Vedic healing hearkens to the vision of Vedic counseling that you and Dr. Frawley described so comprehensively in your previous book. After this early introduction how did you then prepare for your own career?

 

SK: After attending the usual formal schooling in my early years I attended an Ayurvedic school and received my Ayurvedic degree. I appreciated the traditional practices of Ayurveda, but I wanted to go deeper into the more technical knowledge of medical practices. I completed then a residency in Ayurvedic internal medicine and got my MD degree in Ayurvedic medicine. I suppose that this has been a major theme of my career, to merge ancient Ayurvedic remedies with modern scientific approaches to diagnosis and treatment.

 

BD: I’m guessing that was about forty years ago, which was a time of world-wide interest in the integration of scientific principles with spiritual and cultural practices. Did you meet others during your training who shared this integrative vision?

 

SK: Yes, there were many with similar aspirations during those years. Perhaps the most important connection I made was with another student who became an Ayurvedic doctor with me at that time, and I’m happy to say she became my lovely wife. She came from more or less the same lineage as I did, and we have been partners at home and at work ever since. Manisha’s last name, Joshi, simply means “Jyotishi.” It implies the combination of the Vaida and the Jyotishi together--someone who sees and knows the light of Truth, someone who understands what is right to do. Jyoshi suggests someone who lives a sattvic lifestyle, and that is exactly what she brought to our partnership.

 

We started our Ayurvedic practice together in a very rural part of India, and as was traditional it was not even proper to ask our clients for payment. The ancient Ayurvedic convention is to do your job to the best of your abilities and people in the community will take care of you. Often we had patients who never paid us anything, no matter what we did for them, no matter how many concerns we helped them with. And yet, one day there was a sack of grain or a basket of fresh vegetables at our doorstep. Someone came unasked to clean our scooter and someone else to fix our door. The unwritten agreement between us and our community was: “You help us in our time of distress, and when we are well again, you may count on us to support you and care for you in any way you need.” I have been intrigued by that culture of reciprocity for my whole life.

 

BD: What a simple and satisfying way for you and Dr. Manisha to practice the healing arts you had learned together. Continuing in that simple mode, Ayurvedic care in a rural setting might have made for a fulfilling life in itself. Was there at some point a turning or a calling that changed all that?

 

SK: (chuckling) Well yes, it was an abrupt turning, and literally a “calling.” Let me explain. Manisha and I were building up this practice and starting our young family together. One evening, about ten or eleven PM, a neighbor rushed over to say that he had a call on his phone for us. Phone calls were very rare in rural India at the time, so we were somewhat taken aback. We got to the phone and someone on the line is talking in Hindi. He explained that he had talked with one of our Ayurvedic teachers about us who had spoken highly of our character and our work. Then the caller asked if would we like to come to live and work with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Holland.

 

Maharishi lived in the Netherlands at that time, and although he was widely known in the West for building the TM organization, Manisha and I had never heard of him. It seemed incongruous that we would be whisked away from our rural home to the other side of the world. 

 

Rather abruptly I said, “Frankly speaking I don’t know you, and I don’t know where the Netherlands is. And what would I even do there?” The caller said not to worry about anything, just come along to be with Maharishi. And he hung up. That was our “calling” to a new life in a totally unfamiliar world. I told my parents about the call and my stark refusal to be drawn in. My father was a scholar and teacher, and he had known of Maharishi and his work for many years. He explained to us that if a master on the other side of the world wants you to do something, it's very disobedient to decline the offer. My father was very clear with me that at least we should show some interest to see what it is we are being asked to do.

 

I had no computer, had never learned English, had never been in an airplane. They called from Holland again and said, “Don’t worry. Just come. We’ll teach you everything you’ll need to know.” Shortly after that we boarded a KLM jet and found ourselves transported further from home than we had ever imagined we would go in our lifetime. The day we landed in Holland we met Maharishi. It was Diwali, the festival of lights in India, which we took as an auspicious sign for a new life in a strange new world.

 

BD: Tell us a little about that strange new life. It must have been radically different from the rural community where you grew up.

 

SK: It was glittering in Netherlands. Everything was beautiful. The hall was full of guests from all over the globe. Deepak Chopra and many other eminent physicians and spiritual leaders were there, with whom we later worked very closely.

 

From his headquarters in Holland Maharishi sent us from pillar to post. We traveled to 39 different countries, teaching TM and related Vedic practices. For many years we lived out of our suitcases, but finally we settled down in Fairfield, Iowa, where Maharishi International University was located. We raised our kids there, and for a time we were the directors at the Raj Ayurvedic Center. We became professors at MIU and traveled all over the US speaking and teaching. This entire time was one of great learning for us both in countless ways. English was a new language for us both. Jyotish was being  revived from the ancient Vedic sources by eminent pandits. Unfamiliar cultures all over the world became our regular place of work. And we learned how to share messages of meditation and Vedic practice with a wide range of people with diverse interests and intentions.

 

BD: What would you say about how your life and your work now were impacted by this intense period of learning and teaching?

 

KS: During my studies in India I had developed a basic but limited understanding of Jyotish. The profound insight that rose up during the years with Maharishi was that all the Vedic studies were unified in a cohesive whole. I couldn’t have asked for a more powerful introduction to this awareness than the one provided to me during that time, studying with all manner of Vedic astrologers, pandits, Vedantic scholars, Vastu masters and Ayurvedic doctors from all over India. It became clear to me that the Vedic arts, especially Ayurveda and Jyotish, could provide a framework for bringing together many, diverse tools and practices, both from India and from all over the world. This fusion of knowledge structured my own awareness in an indelible way, forming me as its exponent in every aspect of my work, even to the present time.

 

I observed Jyotish masters reading the chart for each person uniquely, as the authentic human beings they were, without being biased by their geography or culture. They decoding the Jyotish chart, shared their understanding and provided useful remedies regardless of the client’s upbringing, language and nationality. I saw the gift of insight that these eminent practitioners possessed to do these consultations with effortless ease. Many of these teachers and healers had never left their village before being called to travel the globe, and for them to read the charts so seamlessly inspired me. Somehow they connected with the client in a way that allowed them to see the truth of the client’s life and need. It is a way of practicing Jyotish and Ayurveda that I have emulated ever since.

 

This vision of integrated counseling practice and intuitive understanding of diverse clients led in part to the book that I co-wrote with a renowned pandit and Vedic scholar in his own right, our CVA colleague Dr. David Frawley. Called simply, The Art and Science of Vedic Counseling, the book is the fusion of Yoga, Ayurveda, Jyotish, Vastu, and counseling as the key arts and sciences that provide an entry point through which to enliven higher states of consciousness.

 

BD: What a profound experience for personal, professional and spiritual growth. At what point did this apprenticeship with the masters come to an end?

 

SK: It ended quite abruptly. With the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC, Maharishi immediately removed all the Indian Ayurvedic doctors, Jyotishis, pandits out of the United States. Manisha and I returned to India, unsure of our next step. I had become more proficient in these integrated teachings by now, and soon I was invited back to the US to practice and teach Ayurveda. I began in Seattle, moved to Hawaii for many years, and finally settled down in California, where I have established and continue to practice with my wife and son in the Ayurvedic Healing Institute in Santa Cruz.

 

I was fortunate about twenty years ago to make a connection with Dr. Deepak Chopra, whom I had met in the Netherlands and who now lived in California. Since that time I have helped the Chopra Center establish courses, clinics, and curricula based on Ayurveda.

 

BD: It seems that teaching from the Vedic arts and sciences continues to be what you are called to do. I anticipate that your newest book, Awakened Sleep, co-authored with Dr. Sheila Patel of the Chopra Center, will grow in popularity quite quickly. What led you to write this book?

 

SK: Above all else I’m a clinician. I see many patients every day in our clinic in Santa Cruz. One of the most frequent and troublesome concerns I see in my patients is that they are unable to have a restful sleep. That lack of sleep contributes to weight gain, anxiety, depression and other physical and psychological abnormalities. Insomnia is so prevalent among our patients that we thought we should investigate this problem from the vantage point of both Western and Ayurvedic medicine. This involved going back to original studies and traditional texts to look for answers.

 

In our research we discovered that modern medicine offers a somewhat limited understanding of sleep disturbances, when they are compared to the rich and nuanced teachings offered by Ayurveda. Allopathic sleep clinics focus primarily on the electrical activity in the brain during sleep, noting the stages of sleep. Though this is useful, Ayurveda takes a more comprehensive view, considering body, emotions, and mind together to understand sleep and sleep disturbances. More importantly Ayurveda and its sibling Vedic arts and sciences set the stage for understanding the potential for using sleep as a tool for developing higher states of consciousness.

 

Getting a Good Ayurvedic Sleep 

 

BD: At one level improving the quality of sleep must depend on addressing a variety of sleep disturbances. What sleep problems have you identified in the book that are common among your clients in the clinic?

 

SK: We live in a largely sleep-deprived culture, with one in three adults suffering from nightly disruption of their sleep. The catalog of sleep disturbances is long and varied, including insomnia (difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep), restless leg syndrome, obstructive sleep problems including sleep apnea, sleep walking, sleep talking, fearful dreams, nightmares and chronic nocturnal worrying. Rather than consider each condition in isolation, the focus of the book is to identify opportunities and make changes that improve the sleep comprehensively.

 

BD: What are some of the practical suggestions that you offer your readers on changing their sleep patterns to improve the quality of sleep and the benefits of that deep rest?

 

SK: One of the key findings that we specify in the book is the role of the Ayurvedic doshas or mind-body types. Each dosha brings about a different pattern of sleep. If you have a vata makeup you are a light sleeper. If you're a pitta type, you fall asleep easily, but you have a tendency to get warm late in the night and to wake in the wee hours of the morning, unable to fall back to sleep. And if your dosha is kapha it’s quite easy to both fall asleep and stay asleep, but the kapha person tends to oversleep, to snore heavily and to wake up late in the morning feeling rather dull and congested. 

 

Many of the clients I see know their doshic type, but very few correlate their dosha with their particular sleeping problem. Helping them to maintain a balanced dosha leads to a restful, light and sattvic sleep experience. In the book we suggest useful approaches to a dosha-balancing lifestyle to correct particular sleeping dysfunctions. We offer quizzes to help readers understand what kind of sleeper they are and how their dosha influences that pattern. We recommend diet and lifestyle changes to avoid aggravating doshas, especially steering clear of unbalancing foods during the evening and night. Eating very spicy foods at night, especially for a pitta type, will interrupt sleep by over- activating them. For all three dosha types alcohol, coffee and meals taken late in the evening will surely disturb the sleep.

 

Any type of work late in the evening and during the night will interfere with restful sleep, including emails, text messages, social media and surfing the web. Turbulent emotions will also interrupt sleep, as will clutter in the bedroom. Television shows and movies in the late evening, especially suspense and horror shows, will plague the sleeper with images through the night caused by aggravated stress hormones. 

 

Relational distress in the evening is sure to linger with us through the night. Bickering with a partner, dealing with a nasty email, or  arguing on the phone will destabilize the nervous system and interrupt the sleep. We suggest that people stop watching shows before bed—especially the ten pm news, which can trigger worry about anything and everything.

 

In the book we offer affirmative practices at bedtime to replace these destabilizing factors. Reducing clutter, focusing on something greater than oneself, and adopting a dosha-balancing routine will go a long way to improve the pattern of sleep. A vata person, for example, may find almost miraculous benefit from a gentle oil massage and a long soak in the bathtub. Even a relaxing hot shower in the evening is a step in the right direction. We suggest that a cup of warm milk with some saffron or turmeric, maybe with a little honey or ghee, is a phenomenal and sattvic evening dessert that will help anyone sleep better. We also discuss in the book many healing herbs that can support a good sleep.

 

An absolute key for all doshas has to do with the sleeping routine. I have also referred to this phenomenon in my book from a few years ago, Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life. Even the small change of one hour for daylight savings time profoundly disturbs the sleep of many of my patients, lasting a month or more before it resolves—alarmingly, this happens twice each year. Adhering to a regular bed time and rising time allows the body clock to maintain a much more balanced and restful sleep. Similarly, maintaining the regularity of daytime schedule with our eating, working and exercising will have a profound impact on the quality of sleep at night.

 

Holding a sense of something greater than ourselves before and during our sleep is itself a practical tool that promotes the process of falling into and remaining in a deep and restful sleep. And yet that subtle sense of being with something greater than our limited self during our sleep is a significant end in itself. The predominant intention of my work with Dr. Patel on this book goes beyond just the practicalities of sleeping well. What we hope to reveal to our readers is the critical relationship between the quality of sleep and the deepening of our consciousness—truly “awakening” at the most fundamental level.

 

Sleep and Consciousness

 

BD: Many people think that during deep sleep there is no awareness, compared to when we are awake. Can you say more about the possibility of spiritual experience and higher consciousness during sleep? 

 

KS: We have a general sense of what sleep is, having known the state lifelong. Science deepens this understanding but in an empirical sense only. Most of us simply don't know the mystical experiences of sleep and the enormous gifts of awakening consciousness that we may reach while resting in that silent, sattvic realm—while indeed the whole universe sleeps.

 

We are blessed with cycles of light and darkness. We tend to think that the important aspects of our living take place predominantly during daytime, but the truth is that the life of deeper consciousness and the potentiality of awakening comes to us in the darkness. Our planet spins on its axis, and the sun rises and sets, again and again. We are hardwired as a species, even as all life on earth, to light then dark, light then dark. All of our chronobiological functions depend upon that rhythm. Night is meant for sleeping, and day is meant for working in whatever activity is ours to do.

 

There's a purpose for sunlight and sunset; there's a purpose for dawn and dusk. This is not only  true from a chronobiological perspective, whereby the rhythm of day and night structures our health and physical wellbeing. We need the sleep for subtler needs, like our cognitive function, our vitality, our memory, even our longevity. Sleep disturbance is itself a major cause of cognitive decline, depression and disabling anxiety. 

 

BD: Can this mystical dimension of sleep be explored through the lens of Ayurveda.

 

KS: I grew up learning Ayurveda even before I studied it formally, and it was clear that sleep is a key pillar. Simply said in Ayurveda, “the quality of your life depends on the quality of your sleep.”

 

There is a beautiful sutra from the Ayurvedic tradition in the Charaka Samhita text. It states that your strength, your health, your vitality, your stamina, your cognition, your luck, your fortune, your ability to manifest your dreams, your capacity to manifest what you deserve, your life and your death all depend on your sleep. Earlier in my life I thought this was just a very poetic way to write about the importance of sleep. It was inconceivable to me that so many benefits would be possible just from a good sleep. But when I began to look at all the research I realized that we are not using our sleep properly. And if we add a component of spiritual hygiene in our sleeping experience, there are yet further benefits to be gained.

***

Ayurveda says that you fall asleep because the senses withdraw themselves from our outer world. When the mind and senses are exhausted with all the day's activities and challenges, they retreat into a state of hibernation. Because this takes place under the influence of tamas guna, for many years I thought that one would only sleep with that dull, heavy, groggy, toxic, and tired feeling. But there are numerous instances in all Vedic literature that reveal how you can make sleep sattvik. While the body is getting all the rest that it needs the mind and consciousness can take you onto a journey into elevated awareness.

 

This gets to the spiritual core of what developing awakened sleep is all about. Rather than settling for tamasic sleep, withdrawing the mind and senses into a kind of stupor, we can aspire to sattvic, awakened sleep. Sattvic sleep is variously described as enlivened, inspired, or conscious sleep, and the awareness of the wakened sleeper in such a state is the subtle essence of an inner light. 

 

There comes a point when the deeper experiences of sleep, of consciousness itself, requires a symbolic, mythological or even devotional perspective. It is not the case that the story science tells about sleep is untrue; it is simply that the tools of science are limited in describing the delicate and intimate perceptions of awakened sleep. We need only to consider the work of a modern seer like Bepin Behari, whose book Myths and Symbols of Vedic Astrology is a modern classic, to know how important it is to transcend the limitations of a purely empirical understanding of the art of Jyotish. 

 

BD: Can you say more about this subtle experience of light in the depth of sleep?

 

SK: Many wisdom traditions bring attention to the presence of light at the level of consciousness in the quietude and darkness of the night. In Vedic lore Mahakala is the darkness within which we find the light. Mahakala is a wrathful protector deity, often depicted as a fierce, dark figure who destroys obstacles to enlightenment. This deific figure or mythic inner quality dispels fear and brings hope, strength, and courage. Often Mahakala is represented by a dark color, but he can also manifest as a brilliance of fire and the light of wisdom. 

 

For many people courage is needed even to go to sleep. Children are often afraid of the dark and the sense of being alone in the night, but this fear may also be found in the fitful sleep of many adults. A recent article in the Atlantic indicated that people would prefer electric shocks to being alone with their thoughts at night. Somniphobia is common in our time, including the fear for falling asleep and the fear of being alone in your own bed. For many people the darkness itself brings a dread of mortality (thanatophobia). The resulting anxiety of somniphobia and thanatophobia keeps the fight or flight system on alert, leading to sleep disturbance throughout the night.

 

If we can help people overcome that anxiety, feeling instead a lightness of being and a sense of being connected with and supported by consciousness or divinity, they may find that rest comes more naturally. More importantly, the positive experience of light and consciousness, with concomitant feelings of joy, peace, serenity and unity, transform the fearful experience of sleep into a nightly spiritual practice.

 

With awakened sleep we have the capacity to escape the illusion that we are born into this lifetime to have a human experience for a while, only to fizzle out at some point in the moment of death. We can change that narrative with the deeper experiences of consciousness available to us during our sleep. In a way, we do a dress rehearsal of dying every night. The Vedic literature suggests that the awareness in deepest sleep rests in the field where we were before our birth and where we will abide long after our bodies are gone.

 

As I explored the Vedic references to sleep in order to write Awakened Sleep, there were many references to the “goddess of sleep.” This divine feminine quality, this Mother Nature, is represented in the Vedas as Prakruti, the womb of creation. During sleep Prakruti is there as Dhatri, the divine wet nurse, who takes you into her own shelter to nurture you, nourish you, feed you in the night, and send you back for your daytime activity when you are rested. By surrendering into that relationship with the goddess we awaken into sleep.

 

BD: The goddess of sleep! What a wonderful image! What might the aspirant of awakened sleep do to obtain this blessing?

 

SK: The Vedas talk about the hymn for the goddess of sleep, to invoke her grace and receive the boon of her gifts. The hymn itself indicates that the goddess of sleep will bring strength, vitality, vigor and potency to the sleeper through awakened deep rest. The hymn talks about the tension between the dissolution of the universe, pralaya, and the re-creation of the universe, uthpati. There is a story of the Vedic gods that symbolizes the dynamism between dissolution and re-creation that takes place during sleep every night.

 

Brahma the creator is trying to awaken Vishnu, who has fallen asleep on Kshira Sagara, the ocean of milk, so that a new creation may begin. But Yoga Maya has cast a spell on Vishnu, hindering Brahma’s ability to waken Vishnu. Brahma begins to pray to the goddess of sleep to rouse Vishnu so that he can reconstruct the universe. That gap between pralaya and uthpati, the dissolution and the reconstruction, is what this journey of awakened sleep is all about: creating that awakening impact, while still giving the body the desired quality rest. It is the junction of the dusk and the dawn, of Nisha as night and Usha as day. It is the tension between the two Gunas, tamas and sattva. 

 

In the Vedic wisdom it says that the biggest factor that affects your sleep in the nighttime is your daytime exposure to sunlight. The fullness of the Usha, dawn’s light, will decide the quality of Nishat, light of consciousness, at night. In the Vedic lore Usha and Nisha are sisters, with the daytime sunlight providing the foundation for the vacancy of awakened sleep in the night. 

 

BD: Most of the CVA Journal readers are Vedic astrologers; some are masters while others aspire to be. Are there consistent correlates in the Vedic chart with sleep disturbance and the potential for the deeper awakened sleep?

 

SK: The twelfth house of the Rashi chart correlates roughly with the pattern of sleep. When our clients express concern about insomnia, we should always begin by assessing the twelfth house. We especially look for afflictions, as for example when Moon is in the twelfth house in conjunction with Saturn, Rahu or Ketu. In the house of losses and expenditure, an afflicted Moon would bring a tendency toward sleeplessness, and the client would be fearful, anxious, depressed and worried about the future, leading to fatigue and depleted energy.

 

But we say often that the twelfth house brings both loss and liberation, and what we have described as the deep nocturnal consciousness and the quality of awakened sleep correlate with the twelfth house’s status as the foremost moksha bhava. By attending to the afflictions that may disturb the twelfth house, the client is encouraged to reprogram the sleep patterns to experience healing and heightened consciousness during the night. This parallels the experience in deep meditation; on the one hand the world as such disappears, but on the other hand the transcendence emerges. What is awakened sleep other than an extended nocturnal meditation. 

 

We must also remember that affliction of the twelfth house, whatever malefic combination may be causing it, is the work of Maya. Just as our clients begin to transcend the limitations of their malefic planetary combinations through meditation and spiritual growth, so also will awakened sleep begin to favor the moksha values of deep sleep over the afflictions that previously promoted sleep disturbances. 

 

The practice of the humanistic Vedic astrologer is not to incite fear in our clients, not to say that they will never find restful sleep with Saturn and Moon in the twelfth house. We first explore the pattern of imbalances, then we offer clients support and practices to improve and deepen the sleep. Mercury in the twelfth house, for example, has its malefic side to disturb the nervous system, generating troubling thoughts and anxiety through the night. Remedies to calm the nervous system, propitiating Mercury’s malefic influence, would promote better sleep.

 

Similarly, Mars in the twelfth house can cause insomnia through a pitta imbalance, where the client will fall asleep easily but wake up in the middle of the night thinking about work or planning the day ahead. Balancing pitta by propitiating Mars, would allow the client to rest better and to remain  asleep more of the night.

 

BD: Sometimes the thoughts and dreams during the night seem so real and so urgent that it’s hard to let go of them. In the moment they seem so important to dwell on and try to resolve. Any suggestions on this?

 

SK: Some of the best support we can give our clients from a Vedantic perspective is to help them detach from the seeming importance of nighttime thoughts and dreams that interrupt sleep. Whether it is the day or the night, the worries that plague us all are essentially illusory. In the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most important sutras pertaining to sleep says, “Ya nisha sarva-bhutanam.” We don't know whether what you see in the dream world is real, or what you see when you're awake is real? Both of them are illusory. If we can really grasp the truth of this wisdom we can begin to break our bondage to the seemingly important but illusory thoughts that plague us—in the day or in the night.

 

Manduki Upanishad says that there are three initial states of human consciousness: jagrut, svapna, and sushupti, translated as waking, dreaming and sleeping. But there is a fourth state of consciousness, turiya, the transcendental state, and when the fourth state is experienced during the night, it transcends sleeping, dreaming and the usual wakefulness. Turiya  connects us to the field of pure consciousness, even during sleep, giving a singular awareness of being aware. Here the sleeper watches the sleeping as witness or observer. 

 

In Vedic spirituality this shift in awareness is also a shift in loca. Though the word is similar to the word “location,” it is not a place in time and space in a physical sense. Loca means place as a field of pure consciousness, pure unmanifest potentiality. The awakened sleeper will experience this loca without any thought or fear. In this field of all possibilities the sleeper plants the seeds of subtle intention for what he or she wishes to see manifest in the waking life, and in so doing, receives a glimpse of the creative process itself.

 

The potential of awakened sleep is an eight-hour, non-stop meditation. With the practices of awakened sleep a person would be meditating for one third of every day with fewer outside interruptions. The sleeper can become familiar with the field of pure consciousness for longer periods of time, eventually all night long.

 

BD: From an Ayurvedic perspective, what behavioral formula would you suggest to clients a to improve the depth of sleep and eventually to open into awakened sleep itself?

 

SK: A simple Ayurvedic sleep ritual might look something like this. Start by turning off your television and putting your cell phone in a different room at least a half hour before going to bed. Avoid blue light and keep the bedroom dark and cool. Do a quick sensory scan of the body to make sure that what you are sensing in that moment is ready to turn towards rest. Then do a quick scan of your thoughts and feel into any emotions that may be there, in order to help them to settle down. Do a self-reflective journaling practice, especially writing down few things that you're grateful for, or ask yourself what you want to manifest in your life now. Let this journaling come from the heart, not from the mind. Finish a bedtime ritual by recapitulating the events of your entire day, as if you are watching the movie of your day’s experiences. Feel the sense of being an unattached observer of it all as you review the day’s happenings and let them go.

 

Finally, begin with a mantra practice, especially if you're trained in one that promotes transcendence. Let every part of your body relax. Noticing the effortless breath, slowly drift into a state of sweet slumber. If you wake up in the night, which is very common, gently go back to the same practice. You will either drift off again into sleep, or you will enter a deep state of rest while remaining aware. In either case you are getting precisely the rest that you need to prepare for the active day ahead, and you are touching into pure consciousness, your deepest nature.

 

BD: Do you have a final word of wisdom for the readers of CVA Journal?

 

The deep wisdom of awakened sleep and transcendental consciousness is important, but we must remember that much of our lives are interactive with people and situations we encounter. Once we begin to experience that who we are is consciousness itself, we must bring our gifts with energy and vitality to others in a helpful and compassionate way. The commitment to simple acts of kindness can make a huge difference in the lives of other people. We can simply say an encouraging word to someone, maybe give them a compliment, express appreciation, do something that uplifts them or make them feel loved. We do this because we are human beings in community with other human beings. Even though the silence and stillness of an awakened state of consciousness can become foundational for our lives, I firmly believe there is no higher purpose than maintaining loving, compassionate connections with the people whom we encounter every day.