Kundalini
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Kuṇḍalinī awakenings are said to occur by a variety of methods. Many systems of yoga focus on awakening Kuṇḍalinī through:
Etymology
The concept of Kuṇḍalinī is mentioned in the Upanishads (9th – 7th centuries BCE).[7] The Sanskrit adjective kuṇḍalin means "circular, annular". It is mentioned as a noun for "snake" (in the sense of "coiled") in the 12th-century Rajatarangini chronicle (I.2). Kuṇḍa (a noun meaning "bowl, water-pot" is found as the name of a Nāga (serpent deity) in Mahabharata 1.4828). The 8th-century Tantrasadbhava Tantra uses the term kundalī, glossed by David Gordon White as "she who is ring-shaped".[8]
The use of kuṇḍalī as a name for Goddess
In Shaivism
Kuṇḍalinī arose as a central concept in Shaiva Tantra, especially among the Śākta sects like the Kaula. In these Tantric traditions, Kuṇḍalinī is "the innate intelligence of embodied Consciousness".[11] The first possible mention of the term is in the Tantrasadbhāva-tantra (eighth century), though other earlier tantras mention the visualization of Shakti in the central channel and the upward movement of prana or vital force (which is often associated with Kuṇḍalinī in later works).[12] According to David Gordon White, this feminine spiritual force is also termed bhogavati, which has a double meaning of "enjoyment" and "coiled" and signifies her strong connection to bliss and pleasure, both mundane physical pleasure and the bliss of spiritual liberation (moksha), which is the enjoyment of Shiva's creative activity and ultimate union with the Goddess.[13]
In the influential Shakta tradition called Kaula, Kuṇḍalinī is seen as a "latent innate spiritual power", associated with the Goddess
According to
the force of the syllable ha in the mantra and the concept of aham, the supreme subjectivity as the source of all, with a as the initial movement of consciousness and m its final withdrawal. Thus we have an elaborate series of associations, all conveying the central conception of the cosmos as a manifestation of consciousness, of pure subjectivity, with Kuṇḍalinī understood as the force inseparable from consciousness, who animates creation and who, in her particularised form in the body, causes liberation through her upward, illusion-shattering movement.[14]
Despite mostly being associated with
Description
According to William F. Williams, Kuṇḍalinī is a type of religious experience within the Hindu tradition, within which it is held to be a kind of "cosmic energy" that accumulates at the base of the spine.[16]
When awakened, Kuṇḍalinī is described as rising up from the
Swami Sivananda Saraswati of the Divine Life Society stated in his book Kundalini Yoga that "Supersensual visions appear before the mental eye of the aspirant, new worlds with indescribable wonders and charms unfold themselves before the Yogi, planes after planes reveal their existence and grandeur to the practitioner and the Yogi gets divine knowledge, power and bliss, in increasing degrees, when Kuṇḍalinī passes through Chakra after Chakra, making them to bloom in all their glory..."[18]
Kundalini experiences
Invoking Kundalini experiences
Yoga gurus consider that Kuṇḍalinī can be awakened by
There are two broad approaches to Kuṇḍalinī awakening: active and passive. The active approach involves systematic physical exercises and techniques of concentration, visualization, pranayama (breath practice) and meditation under the guidance of a competent teacher. These techniques come from any of the main branches of yoga, and some forms of yoga, such as Kriya yoga and Kundalini yoga, which emphasize Kuṇḍalinī techniques.[20]
The passive approach is instead a path of surrender where one lets go of all the impediments to the awakening rather than trying to actively awaken Kuṇḍalinī. A chief part of the passive approach is
The twentieth century yogi and mystic Gopi Krishna, who helped to bring the concept of Kuṇḍalinī to the Western world, stated that
As the ancient writers have said, it is the vital force or prana which is spread over both the macrocosm, the entire Universe, and the microcosm, the human body... The atom is contained in both of these. Prana is life-energy responsible for the phenomena of terrestrial life and for life on other planets in the universe. Prana in its universal aspect is immaterial. But in the human body, Prana creates a fine biochemical substance which works in the whole organism and is the main agent of activity in the nervous system and in the brain. The brain is alive only because of Prana... The most important psychological changes in the character of an enlightened person would be that he or she would be compassionate and more detached. There would be less ego, without any tendency toward violence or aggression or falsehood. The awakened life energy is the mother of morality, because all morality springs from this awakened energy. Since the very beginning, it has been this evolutionary energy that has created the concept of morals in human beings.[21]
The American
Hatha yoga
According to the
Shaktipat
The spiritual teacher Meher Baba emphasized the need for a master when actively trying to awaken Kuṇḍalinī:
Kundalini is a latent power in the higher body. When awakened, it pierces through six chakras or functional centers and activates them. Without a master, the awakening of the kundalini cannot take anyone very far on the Path; and such indiscriminate or premature awakening is fraught with dangers of self-deception as well as the misuse of powers. The kundalini enables man to consciously cross the lower planes and it ultimately merges into the universal cosmic power of which it is a part, and which also is at times described as kundalini ... The important point is that the awakened kundalini is helpful only up to a certain degree, after which it cannot ensure further progress. It cannot dispense with the need for the grace of a Perfect Master.[26]
In his book, Building a Noble World, Shiv R. Jhawar describes his Shaktipat experience at Muktananda's public program at Lake Point Tower in Chicago on 16 September 1974 as follows:
Baba [Swami Muktananda] had just begun delivering his discourse with his opening statement: 'Today's subject is meditation. The crux of the question is: What do we meditate upon?' Continuing his talk, Baba said: 'Kundalini starts dancing when one repeats Om Namah Shivaya.' Hearing this, I mentally repeated the mantra, I noticed that my breathing was getting heavier. Suddenly, I felt a great impact of a rising force within me. The intensity of this rising kundalini force was so tremendous that my body lifted up a little and fell flat into the aisle; my eyeglasses flew off. As I lay there with my eyes closed, I could see a continuous fountain of dazzling white lights erupting within me. In brilliance, these lights were brighter than the sun but possessed no heat at all. I was experiencing the thought-free state of "I am", realizing that "I" have always been, and will continue to be, eternal. I was fully conscious and completely aware while I was experiencing the pure "I am", a state of supreme bliss. Outwardly, at that precise moment, Baba delightfully shouted from his platform, ‘I didn't do anything. The Energy has caught someone.' Baba noticed that the dramatic awakening of kundalini in me frightened some people in the audience. Therefore, he said, 'Do not be frightened. Sometimes kundalini gets awakened in this way, depending upon a person's type.[27]'
Kundalini awakening
The experience of Kuṇḍalinī awakening can happen when one is either prepared or unprepared.[20]
According to Hindu tradition, in order to be able to integrate this spiritual energy, a period of careful purification and strengthening of the body and nervous system is usually required beforehand.[28] Yoga and Tantra propose that Kuṇḍalinī can be awakened by a guru (teacher), but body and spirit must be prepared by yogic austerities, such as pranayama, or breath control, physical exercises, visualization, and chanting. The student is advised to follow the path in an open-hearted manner.[20]
Religious interpretations
Indian interpretations
Kuṇḍalinī is considered to occur in the chakra and nadis of the subtle body. Each chakra is said to contain special characteristics[29] and with proper training, moving Kuṇḍalinī through these chakras can help express or open these characteristics.
Kuṇḍalinī is described as a sleeping, dormant potential force in the human organism. (drops of essence).
Kuṇḍalinī is described as being coiled up at the base of the spine. The description of the location can vary slightly, from the rectum to the navel.[8]: 229–231 Kuṇḍalinī is said to reside in the triangular sacrum bone in three and a half coils.[31]
Swami Vivekananda describes Kuṇḍalinī briefly in his book Raja Yoga as follows:[32]
According to the Yogis, there are two nerve currents in the spinal column, called Pingalâ and Idâ, and a hollow canal called Sushumnâ running through the spinal cord. At the lower end of the hollow canal is what the Yogis call the "Lotus of the Kundalini". They describe it as triangular in a form in which, in the symbolical language of the Yogis, there is a power called the Kundalini, coiled up. When that Kundalini awakens, it tries to force a passage through this hollow canal, and as it rises step by step, as it were, layer after layer of the mind becomes open and all the different visions and wonderful powers come to the Yogi. When it reaches the brain, the Yogi is perfectly detached from the body and mind; the soul finds itself free. We know that the spinal cord is composed in a peculiar manner. If we take the figure eight horizontally (∞), there are two parts which are connected in the middle. Suppose you add eight after eight, piled one on top of the other, that will represent the spinal cord. The left is the Ida, the right Pingala, and that hollow canal which runs through the center of the spinal cord is the Sushumna. Where the spinal cord ends in some of the lumbar vertebrae, a fine fiber issues downwards, and the canal runs up even within that fiber, only much finer. The canal is closed at the lower end, which is situated near what is called the sacral plexus, which, according to modern physiology, is triangular in form. The different plexuses that have their centers in the spinal canal can very well stand for the different "lotuses" of the Yogi.[32]
When Kuṇḍalinī
At the command of the yogi in deep meditation, this creative force turns inward and flows back to its source in the thousand-petaled lotus, revealing the resplendent inner world of the divine forces and consciousness of the soul and spirit. Yoga refers to this power flowing from the coccyx to spirit as the awakened kundalini.
Paramahansa Yogananda also states:
The yogi reverses the searchlights of intelligence, mind and life force inward through a secret astral passage, the coiled way of the kundalini in the coccygeal plexus, and upward through the sacral, the lumbar, and the higher dorsal, cervical, and medullary plexuses, and the spiritual eye at the point between the eyebrows, to reveal finally the soul's presence in the highest center (Sahasrara) in the brain.[33]
Krishnamacharya, often called the "father of modern yoga", described kuṇḍalinī differently. To him, Kuṇḍalinī is not an energy that rises: it is a blockage that prevents prāṇa vāyu (breath) from entering the suṣumnā and rising. This interpretation came partly from his own experience and partly from teachings of two sects of Vishnu-worshiping temple priests.[34]
Western significance
When Woodroffe later commented upon the reception of his work he clarified his objective, "All the world (I speak of course of those interested in such subjects) is beginning to speak of Kundalinî Shakti."[This quote needs a citation] He described his intention as follows: "We, who are foreigners, must place ourselves in the skin of the Hindu, and must look at their doctrine and ritual through their eyes and not our own."[This quote needs a citation]
Carl Jung
Western awareness of Kuṇḍalinī was strengthened by the interest of Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
In the introduction to Jung's book The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga, Sonu Shamdasani puts forth "The emergence of depth psychology was historically paralleled by the translation and widespread dissemination of the texts of yoga... for the depth psychologies sought to liberate themselves from the stultifying limitations of Western thought to develop maps of inner experience grounded in the transformative potential of therapeutic practices. A similar alignment of "theory" and "practice" seemed to be embodied in the yogic texts that moreover had developed independently of the bindings of Western thought. Further, the initiatory structure adopted by institutions of psychotherapy brought its social organization into proximity with that of yoga. Hence, an opportunity for a new form of comparative psychology opened up."[36]: xviii–xix
More recent viewpoints
The American writer William Buhlman began to conduct an international survey of out-of-body experiences in 1969 in order to gather information about symptoms: sounds, vibrations and other phenomena that commonly occur at the time of the OBE event. His primary interest was to compare the findings with reports made by yogis such as
There are numerous reports of full Kundalini experiences culminating with a transcendental out-of-body state of consciousness. In fact, many people consider this experience to be the ultimate path to enlightenment. The basic premise is to encourage the flow of Kundalini energy up the spine and toward the top of the head—the
crown chakra—thus projecting your awareness into the higher heavenly dimensions of the universe. The result is an indescribable expansion of consciousness into spiritual realms beyond form and thought.[38]
Sri Aurobindo was the other great scholarly authority on Kuṇḍalinī, with a viewpoint parallel to that of Woodroffe but of a somewhat different slant - this according to Mary Scott, herself a latter-day scholar on Kuṇḍalinī and its physical basis, and a former member of the Theosophical Society.[39]
New Age
Kundalini references may be found in a number of
Psychology
According to Carl Jung "... the concept of Kundalini has for us only one use, that is, to describe our own experiences with the unconscious ..."[41] Jung used the Kundalini system symbolically as a means of understanding the dynamic movement between conscious and unconscious processes.[42][page needed]
According to Shamdasani, Jung claimed that the symbolism of Kuṇḍalinī yoga suggested that the bizarre symptomatology that patients at times presented, actually resulted from the awakening of the Kuṇḍalinī. He argued that knowledge of such symbolism enabled much that would otherwise be seen as the meaningless by-products of a disease process to be understood as meaningful symbolic processes, and explicated the often peculiar physical localizations of symptoms.[42]: xxvi
The popularization of eastern spiritual practices has been associated with psychological problems in the west. Psychiatric literature notes that "since the influx of eastern spiritual practices and the rising popularity of meditation starting in the 1960s, many people have experienced a variety of psychological difficulties, either while engaged in intensive spiritual practice or spontaneously."[43] Among the psychological difficulties associated with intensive spiritual practice we find "Kundalini awakening," "a complex physio-psychospiritual transformative process described in the yogic tradition."[43] Researchers in the fields of Transpersonal psychology,[29] and Near-death studies[44] have described a complex pattern of sensory, motor, mental, and affective symptoms associated with the concept of Kundalini, sometimes called the Kundalini syndrome.[45]
The differentiation between spiritual emergency associated with Kuṇḍalinī awakening may be viewed as an acute
Some modern experimental research seeks to establish links between Kuṇḍalinī practice and the ideas of Wilhelm Reich and his followers.[47]
See also
- Mystical experience
References
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- ^ a b Dyczkowski, Mark S. G. The Canon of the Saivagama and the Kubjika Tantras of the Western Kaula Tradition, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1989, pp. 60, 89.
- ^ Mallinson, James. "Śāktism and Haṭhayoga." In: Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism: History, Practice and Doctrine, edited by Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen London: Routledge, 2016. pp. 109–140.
- ^ a b "Spotlight on Kundalini Yoga". Yoga Journal. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
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- ^ Wallis, Christopher, Recognition Sutras: Illuminating a 1,000-Year-Old Spiritual Masterpiece, Mattamayura Press, 6 Oct 2017, Introduction.
- ^ Flood (1996), p. 99.
- ^ a b White, David Gordon, The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India, University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. 219–220.
- ^ a b Flood, Gavin, The Tantric Body: The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion, I.B. Tauris, 5 Jan 2006, pp. 160–161.
- ^ "Narada Pancaratra full in 2 parts : Srila Vyasadeva : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive". 18 June 2013.
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- ^ Baba, Meher (1958). Beams from Meher Baba on the Spiritual Panorama (PDF). San Francisco: Sufism Reoriented. pp. 13–14. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
- ^ Jhawar, Shiv (2004). Building a Noble World.
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I just wanted to talk to someone who would understand about kundalini and wouldn't think I was crazy ...
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the concept of Kundalini has for us only one use ...
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Further reading
- Aun Weor, Samael (2009). Kundalini Yoga. EDISAW. ISBN 978-85-62455-03-2.
- ISBN 978-0-486-23058-0.
- Karmokar, G. (2006). Kundalini – From Hell to Heaven. Zen Way Center. ISBN 978-0-9777456-0-9.
- Kripananda, S. (1995). The Sacred Power: A Seeker's Guide to Kundalini. Siddha Yoga Publications. ISBN 978-0-911307-39-9.
- Mookerjee, A. (1981). Kundalini: The Arousal of the Inner Energy (2nd ed.). Destiny Books. ISBN 978-0-89281-020-8.
- ISBN 978-81-7476-038-8.
- Petty, A. (2007). Kundalini Rising: Exploring the Chakra/Asanas Connection. Kitsune Books. ISBN 978-0-9792700-0-0.
- Scott, Mary (2006). The Kundalini Concept: Its Origin and Value. Jain Publishing. ISBN 978-0-89581-857-7.
- Sannella, L. (1987). The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis or Transcendence. Integral Publications. ISBN 978-0-941255-29-5.
- ISBN 978-0-87612-030-9.
- Dixon, Jana (2008). Biology of Kundalini. Lulu Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4357-1167-9.
External links
- Kundalini at Curlie