Sam K. Vyās is the compiler of Advaita Sāṃkhya and Advaita Yoga.
He’s also a longtime yogī, with emphasis on contemplative meditation.
He began his spiritual studies in a Kriyā Yoga school in the United States, where he studied for thirteen years.
Afterwards, he studied Theosophy, Advaita Vedānta, Buddhism, and the Kabbalah.
He found that all of these traditions have a common thread.
He calls this thread the “ancient wisdom.”
It’s always been secret, not because it’s withheld, but because it’s difficult to learn and teach.
Especially when we shroud it in proprietary terms and mysterious initiations.
It’s called “ancient” because it predates and informs all the world’s religions.
It was once common knowledge but was lost over time.
Now we’re left with the remnants which must be pieced back together.
This has proven difficult lately because they’re seemingly incompatible with modern science.
Nevertheless, Sam resolved to try.
If successful, we would have a philosophy that was equally adept at describing both spiritual and material existence.
He felt the way to accomplish this was through string theory.
Modern string theory discusses concepts such as vibration, dimensions, symmetry, and resonance.
Variations of these concepts are found scattered throughout the texts of many spiritual traditions.
But they’re not fully assembled into a coherent doctrine.
As Sam began to reassemble them, he discovered an ancient string theory (guṇavāda).
This journey gave birth to Advaita Sāṃkhya and Advaita Yoga.
The best way to learn this philosophy is to approach it as a modern compilation of ancient ideas.
This means that there’s value in studying ancient texts even though the details might differ.
With this in mind, it would be helpful to study the Sāṃkhya Kārikā1, the Yoga Sūtras2, the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad3, and the Four Noble Truths4 first.
It’s not necessary to master these texts; a general familiarity with them is sufficient.
As the Zen Buddhists say, one mustn’t confuse the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself.
In other words, the map and the actual terrain are two different things entirely.
No teacher, no matter how adept, can overcome this disparity.
Therefore, as students we mustn’t cling to philosophical descriptions or imagery.
They help us by pointing the way toward experience, which is unique for each person.
But when we cling to them, they become obstacles to experience.
The mind is the gateway to experience.
It works much like a hand.
To begin with, it must be open.
To experience an object, it must grasp it; then it’s closed.
In order to experience something new, it must let go.
To grasp the entirety of a thing, the mind must grasp every facet of it.
Not realizing this, the disfunctional mind clings to one facet and declares, “This is it!.”
This is called the “grasping mind.”
On the other hand, the functional mind continually grasps and lets go.
When at rest, it remains open.
This is called the “non-grasping mind.”
As it gains experience, it gradually forms a clearer picture of things.
Therefore, we mustn’t cling to any particular experience no matter how profound.
When a teacher asserts unquestionable authority and has the answer to everything, their teaching quickly becomes dogma.
Then their students stop thinking for themselves and start memorizing “facts.”
They become completely dependent upon their teacher and never realize their true potential.
They can repeat the teachings verbatim, but are no closer to understanding the nature of reality.
Their experiences, though emotionally profound, are mindless reflections of what they were taught.
This is what happens when we teach people what to think instead of how to think.
Sam avoids this problem in two ways.
First, he doesn’t assert unquestionable authority.
To the contrary, he relies solely on the intelligence of his doctrines and invites others to question them.
Second, his Advaita Sāṃkhya Sūtras5 and Advaita Yoga Sūtras6 merely assert the bare minimum tenets required to establish the philosophy.
This minimalist approach teaches people how to think along certain lines and encourages them to fill in the gaps with their own unique insights.
Thus, a tradition can develop diverse branches which share the same core tenets.
In closed systems, authority figures determine who can teach and how to teach.
If anyone defies that authority, they’re shunned and/or excommunicated.
But Sam’s philosophy is an open system, which means that anybody who truly understands and embodies it may teach it in their own unique way.
This is because the ancient wisdom doesn’t belong to anybody.
Nobody invented it, no matter what they claim.
As teachers, we’re merely the caretakers of it for a short while.
And it can be presented in a variety of ways without losing its essence.
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