Initial Retreats

Goal: To improve your Kundalini rising by elevating it to Makara point in Upper Ajna chakra.

Following a Kundalini Assessment, individualized recommendations are offered to the qualified seeker for the improvement of his or her spiritual process. The custom-designed practice routine consists of several specifically selected postures, breathing practices, meditation/prayer techniques, dietary and lifestyle considerations, Ayurvedic dietary supplements for the energy system, spiritual study, and other spiritual studies. The recommendations vitalize and direct the subtle body functioning, supporting Kundalini Shakti’s efforts to improve your rising. The goal of the recommendations is to establish your rising at the top of Ajna chakra, the upper Brow center, at Makara point. Applicants are given their recommendations during an Initial Spiritual Guidance Retreat.

The interventions for improving process are time tested, traditional, scripture based, and spiritual. Comfortable yet powerful, they encompass gentle physical, pranic (energy), and mental techniques to vitalize and direct the energy system and mind to properly support Kundalini process. Selected from yoga and a variety of spiritual traditions to be in accord with your religious/spiritual preferences, they are simple, natural, holistic, and effective.

The recommendations consist of a custom designed package of self-help practices. The effect of the practices allows for the strengthening and purification of the subtle body so it can support Kundalini Shakti to advance your rising by diversion to a culminating channel and/or breakthrough to a higher level. Improvement is a result of your efforts and Divine grace; it is not an intervention provided by an external agent. PKYC does not use any healing or occult methods. Correcting a blocked rising allows Kundalini Shakti herself to make improvements in the subtle body system. This does not necessarily yield immediate elimination of old uncomfortable symptoms. An adaptation period follows the improvement in Kundalini process, and this is necessarily supported in the Consultation phase through ongoing spiritual direction sessions. To be eligible for the Recommendation Service, applicants must agree to participate in PKYC’s Ongoing Consultation Service. This follow-up is essential to support improvement and make the process more comfortable and understandable. Sincere and regular practice over time along with ongoing guidance yields positive results.

The Recommendation Service is offered through individual, in-person instruction. Among other benefits, the effects of the practices on the consultee’s system can thus be viewed directly. Long distance initial guidance cannot assure correct practice of the recommendations and cannot render reliable results. The Initial Spiritual Guidance Retreat is designed to provide an intensive, comprehensive, and safe container to boost the individual’s spiritual development to the next stage, reaching the top of Ajna chakra at Makara point, which is the entry point for full Risings, which access Bindu, the pinnacle experience of Oneness. (Please refer to Kundalini Vidya for an explanation of the process of spiritual development offered by TKS.)

Applicants must be sufficiently motivated and able to practice the recommendations and lifestyle that are needed to yield spiritual improvement. They must be sincerely committed to regular practice, be willing to take responsibility for their own growth, and be patient for results. For the recommendations to be effective, the applicant’s life situation must be conducive to spiritual development. There must be adequate time, space, health, and focus for spiritual practice. Further, they must live a wholesome, principled lifestyle free of negative influences, feel a positive direction for their life, and have a strong spiritual motivation. They are expected to establish and maintain a stable, secure, peaceful, regulated lifestyle in their home in order to provide an environment supportive to practicing the spiritual recommendations. Applicants who actively remain engaged in behaviors considered to be too depleting are ineligible for PKYC services. This is because some esoteric, sexual, drug, and other lifestyle behaviors may dissipate, misdirect, or toxify the subtle system and, according to TKS, render it unable to support the PKYC interventions for adequate spiritual progress, making them ineffective and contraindicated.

The Recommendation Service is a comprehensive, holistic program for improving spiritual growth. It addresses all aspects of the individual’s well being. Prayer, worship, and spiritual study are always welcome adjuncts, but engaging in certain particular esoteric interventions, practices, or behaviors while a PKYC consultee may confound or impede the effect of PKYC recommendations, depending on the effect the extra activity has on the subtle body. For this reason, participants are requested to inform PKYC of any other methods, consultations, trainings, spiritual practices, and other relevant behaviors in which they are engaged. Unless such additional interventions are reviewed for the benefit of the seeker, some techniques that might adversely affect the functioning of the subtle body might go unnoticed and impede progress.

PKYC is designed to assist the spiritual life of its own consultees only and is not a teacher/clinician training service. Education relevant to the consultee’s needs is provided, and consultees are expected to not teach others what they have been taught by PKYC unless authorized to do so. Your individual practices may not be a good match for someone else’s system.

PKYC’s Recommendation Service is a spiritual direction service. It does not provide services for inquiries primarily focusing on medical or psychiatric diagnoses, psychic consultations, energy readings, astral interference problems, or life situation problems. PKYC does not offer psychological or medical treatment but supports your use of psychological, medical, and health services at your own discretion. Your physical and mental healthcare is your personal responsibility. PKYC is not set up to intervene in crises or to deal with cases involving extreme debilitation. Guarantees and predictions regarding the results of PKYC services cannot be given, but information about the general course of development for the individual’s type of rising can be provided. Applicants are responsible for their own life situation and progress. PKYC retains the right to disqualify inappropriate and non-compliant consultees at any time.

The Initial Spiritual Guidance Retreat experience provides individual spiritual direction to improve your rising and to begin addressing any negative effects sustained by your container (energy system, mental impressions, and discernment) due to your blocked or deflected rising. It is also designed to train your energy system to function in a way supportive to spiritual growth and to train you to live a spiritual lifestyle that is supportive of a continued healthy spiritual process.

After orientation, the retreat director teaches each retreatant his or her individually prescribed Recommendation program. Each practice is personally demonstrated, and the retreatant is coached in its correct execution. Retreatants then follow the daily retreat schedule and practice their set of individual spiritual practices both independently and under the supervision of the retreat director, who monitors their progress, makes adjustments, and responds to questions about practice. Spiritual practice (sadhana) is practiced four times a day, preceding meals and sleep. Individual or group spiritual discussion sessions (satsangs) are provided to give spiritual direction and educate retreatants regarding topics of relevance to their own spiritual life. Recommendations for spiritual study may be offered. Rest, mild exercise, and housekeeping tasks round out the schedule. The retreat program is gently disciplined and balanced for optimum benefit. Retreats are individually and intrapersonally focused rather than interpersonally focused, so introspection and a peaceful, contemplative mode are encouraged. Personal sharing with the retreat director is encouraged and favored over such disclosure with fellow retreatants. Spiritual experiences and individual life struggles are considered personal and private and not the topic for the light conversation in which retreatants might judiciously engage.

At the end of the retreat, participants have a final session to address questions and to clarify the ongoing follow-up consultations and the practice of the spiritual recommendations in your daily life at home. Retreats should be viewed not as an isolated learning event, such as a workshop, course, or seminar, but as an intensive experience that yields spiritual improvement to form a solid foundation for ongoing continued practice and regular follow-up guidance.