More
and more people are beginning to inquire into Kundalini practices such
as Tantra and Kundalini Yoga as paths to Spiritual Evolution and
Enlightenment. As the pace of technological innovation and life in
general seems to be increasing exponentially, there is a desire among
those seeking to balance their worldly and spiritual lives for
increasingly efficient tools to achieve that all too elusive balance.
Studying and practicing the Kundalini arts holds such a promise. What
is Kundalini? Physicists
recognize that the universe is constructed of energy bundles known as
“quanta”. We laypersons can think of these in one sense as
particles with an electrical charge. Particles can be either positive,
negative, or neutral. All energy or material phenomena observed by our
senses are based on the interplay of these particles. In the esoteric
traditions the positively charged energies are known as Shiva (solar,
male, heavenly); the negatively charged energies are called Shakti
(lunar, female, earthly); and the neutral is Kundalini. In Tantric
cosmology, all the myriad forms in the universe are created through
the union and interplay of the god Shiva and the goddess Shakti. With
balance achieved in their unity, Kundalini is freed. In
the human realm Kundalini can be thought of as the primal energy of
the body. We all have some degree of Kundalini activation or we
wouldn’t be alive. However, the degrees of activation and the
consciousness of this energy can vary widely. Kundalini practitioners
are seeking to consciously connect with and amplify their basic life
force for the purposes of improving physical health, strengthening the
body, and achieving enlightenment through transcending Karma or
self-limiting patterns. What
is Karma and enlightenment? In
physics it is well known that for every action there is an equal
reaction. This is the basic precept of Karma: what goes around, comes
around. Our actions, thoughts, and emotions create effects within and
around us. Sometimes these effects are dramatic, sometimes subtle.
They can be manifested immediately, or sometimes take many years to
make their appearance known. Lets look at an example of this on one
level. You become angry with someone. The energy of this anger may
first affect your thoughts and emotions, then rapidly it creates
physiologic effects. Your body produces adrenaline, your heart rate
and blood pressure increase, your stomach begins to churn. If you
“stuff” these feelings the energy is driven deeply into your core,
creating emotional and physical illness. If you seek to vent this
emotion indiscriminately, other people around you begin to take effect
from this energy which creates reactions within them. In a chain
reaction this “karmic event” can be spread far and wide from its
source, affecting many people’s, thoughts, emotions, physiologic
response, perceptions, and actions. On the other hand, remember a time
when you experienced deep unconditional love. Remember how all seemed
well with yourself and your world. Perhaps you noticed how others
seemed to create alignment with you, feeling connection and an ease of
relating in a genuine, heartfelt manner. In
considering a larger cosmological view of this process, consider that
all functions with a connection to the physical body (including
thoughts and emotions) have an electrochemical aspect. Associated with
these electrochemical processes are electromagnetic waves (such as
radio frequencies, etc.) These waves produced by our bodies travel
without limit, at the speed of light through the entire universe.
Modern physics acknowledges that in actuality our very material bodies
are composed of structured energy. We are dense focused energy
interacting with and exchanging energy with this cosmic energy
“soup” we call the universe. Each thought, each emotion, each bout
of indigestion creates it own particular frequency of electromagnetism
which will travel the entire universe for all eternity! It is not too
difficult, from this perspective, to recognize the link between the
individual and the universal. In our own way, great or small, for good
or ill, we are Creators. Enlightenment
is sometimes regarded as the goal of the spiritual path. In actuality,
it is a process, an evolution towards increasing awareness of our
awesome responsibility for our actions, thoughts and emotions. This is
in contrast to the prevalent social consensual reality, where we
attempt to externalize and project responsibility on to others. We do
others and ourselves a disservice by adopting this view in that we
perceive the external world controls our lives. While it may, at
first, feel comfortable to blame others for our circumstances, we are
defacto abdicating our empowerment, our very control over our own
lives. Conversely, by bringing our unconscious mental, emotional and
behavioral patterns into the light of full awareness and
responsibility, we reclaim our power as co-creators of our world. Once
we own the tremendous power of self-responsibility, we can begin to
create what we want rather than what we fear. In Tantra it is often
said that if we want to invite ecstasy into our lives, we must be
willing to abandon the security and comfort of our pain, fear and
anger. OK,
I want enlightenment, empowerment and ecstasy in my life, how do I get
there? Enlightenment is not so much a final destination as a continual
exercise in cleaning up our perceptual filters and the resultant
judgments and actions that derive from assumptions based on our
perceptions. It is more like routine maintenance. One cannot expect to
clean one’s house once and have it remain clean forever, dirt will
eventually seep back in. The tricky part is that our perceptions are
based on our senses, nervous system, and past experience, including
social conditioning. Our experiences are received by our perceptions,
and our perceptions are interpreted by our experience. A neat cosmic
Catch-22, eh? Does a dog have a Buddha nature? One
might question whether enlightenment and true objectivity is possible
given the limitations of our human state and social conditioning. Wars
have been fought over the definition of the “One True God.” From
individual relationships to spiritual communities, to entire nations,
we have clashed over what is proper ethical conduct. We indoctrinate
ourselves and our children in what we believe as true. We
anthropomorphise our perceptions of the divine. We arrogantly assume
we know what is right, proper, and desirable, and this varies from
culture to culture! From the inside, it doesn’t look good. Yet, if
we entertain the concept that humanity is created in the image of the
Divine, that everything from the smallest subatomic particle to the
largest galaxies are connected by a nexus of energy, cause and effect,
even consciousness, then it might appear that the sky is the limit! In
our continual process of clarifying and expanding our consciousness
and self-definition, we can move ever closer to reclaiming ourselves
as the Divine. The
vehicles we can use for this journey are numerous. It has always been
the intent of all religions and spiritual paths to bring the
individual seeker into harmony and consciousness of the Divine. The
tools used vary greatly from era to era and culture to culture. It
might at first be difficult to see the similarity of Castaneda’s Don
Juan, Lao-Tze, Christ, and Buddha, yet the truth within each tradition
remains eternal. (Moreover, these guys probably get together
occasionally, have a beer, and chuckle over our insistence on there
being One True Path, all others being inferior or wrong. To a higher
entity, we must seem like a religious version of the Keystone Kops:
policing our dogma with a great sound and fury, and continually
running blindly into each other and falling down!) The question is
what path is most efficient for a given culture and time. This
question is becoming more urgent as we insist on moving through our
lives at ever-greater speeds. Most
spiritual paths evolved in simpler, slower times. To reach the highest
spiritual attainment, one removed oneself from society to live a
solitary or monastic life. The purpose of this was to remove oneself
from the unconscious reactivity due to constant external stimuli
bombarding our senses. Spending hours every day in contemplation and
spiritual ritual limited the amount of stimulus taken in by the seeker
and allowed for adequate time to internally process one’s Karma
under the guidance of a master. It is easy to see that our western,
externally focused culture doesn’t exactly support this. When was
the last time you put rice in the bowl of a penniless sadhu standing
on a street corner? How many of us have ever taken off a few months,
let alone years, to claim our birthright of clarity, peace, and joy?
We are increasingly driven by our careers, status, family obligations,
and material desires, and we are expending more and more time, energy,
and peace of mind to maintain this.
Tantra
and Kundalini
Yoga These
are sciences which use various exercises, breathing patterns, and
visualizations to activate, balance, and transmute our primal
energies. As the polar energies (Shiva/Shakti, heavenly/earthly) come
into balance, Kundalini begins to flow much more powerfully. Typically
visualized as a coiled serpent residing at the base of the spine, this
energy begins to rise and activate each Chakra in turn. There is a
tendency for this energy to be attracted to whatever needs to be
healed emotionally and physically. As we heal our fear, pain, and
anger, we begin to experience more abundance, pleasure, and
empowerment. Our bodies become stronger, our minds live in more peace
and bliss. As Tantra enrolls the enormous power of our senses and
sexuality in this process, this requires some delicacy in fine tuning
the practices for the individual. Too much energy too fast can
emotionally and physically unbalance the practitioner. I have even
seen some teachers of these arts, particularly those who adopt
aggressive cathartic techniques, damage their bodies, emotions, and
relationships permanently. On the other hand, with judicious and
sensitive energy management, these traditions remain among the most
effective technologies for transformation that we have. Taoism When
we include T’ai Chi, the various form of Qi Gong, and Taoist
Sexology, this tradition encompasses all the important Tantric
techniques while adding grounding technology. This grounding gives us
access to the tremendous strength and stability of the planet. It
allows us to become a spiritual warrior, affording us the empowerment
to deal with our own internal demons and external stresses. We can
have our cake and eat it too — becoming able to reach great heights
of spiritual bliss while walking in the world. Taoism
does differ greatly with some teachers of Tantra in its approach to
processing Karma. While some Tantra techniques encourage cathartic
emotional release, Taoism recognizes that this approach has little
long-term benefit for most people, and can actually be harmful.
Aggressive energy stimulation for catharsis is predicated on: 1.
Activating primal energy and directing it towards emotional patterns, 2.
Fully releasing this energy physically, emotionally, and mentally. 3.
Being able to hold “Witness Consciousness” to observe yourself
re-experiencing a given pattern and how it has affected and controlled
your life. This
is a tall order and unlikely for the practitioner to be truly
successful at. Although the catharsis can feel effective, even
blissful immediately afterward, the patterns tend to re-assert
themselves over the long haul. If you have one unit of ability to
release and witness, and you activate 3 units of emotional trauma, you
have effectively reinforced the karmic pattern by a factor of 2.
Recognizing that often “less is more” Taoism tends toward working
on grounding and strengthening empowerment while allowing karmic
patterns to rise into consciousness more gently and naturally. The
Body Mind can then more easily witness and integrate this experiential
knowledge without the potential perils of a more aggressive energetic
assault. Bioenergetics Originating
with Alexander Lowen, and based on the work of Wilhelm Reich,
Bioenergetics contains aspects of both Tantra and Taoist practices.
Like the masters of the East, Reich identified the primordial energy
that resides within us and links us to the cosmos and called it “Orgone”.
As fascinating a character as you’d ever want to meet, Reich was
able to concentrate the Orgone and use it for everything from healing
cancer to making it rain. He once ticked off Freud by claiming that
one’s analysis wasn’t complete until one was able to have a full
body orgasm. Reichian
based techniques are similar to Tantra in recognizing the central role
played by activating and amplifying these core energies, however they
differ in the order of opening the various components of the Body Mind
to these energies. Many
Tantra teachers aggressively stimulate sexual energies and Kundalini
then attempt to have them rise safely up through the body’s Chakras
to the head and outward into the energy bodies. Reichian traditions
start with cognitive work, gentle energy channeling and lots of
grounding positions to fully prepare the practitioner for increasingly
higher amperages. Generally, the bodywork aspect begins with the head
while pelvic and sexual work comes later in the process. This order of
release opens the body’s channels gently to prepare oneself for the
safe rise of Kundalini and the efficient release of somatic and
psychic blockages. In addition, techniques for remaining present and
facilitating nonjudgmental communication serve to create a safe space
for sharing, releasing, witnessing, and healing our inner wounds. So,
to properly equip our evolutionary “vehicles” for this spiritual
roadtrip, each traveler must select the correct options for that
individual’s comfort and safety. Then, sit back and enjoy the ride!
1.
Breathe Deeply & Fully: 2.
Be Present: 3.
Walk like a Warrior: 4.
Make love with your
Heart: 5.
Touch others with your Heart and Soul: Rev.
Keith Hall has studied, practiced, and taught Tantra, Taoism, and
meditation for over 25 years. He has studied at the Arica Institute,
and with Professor Yung-ko Chou, Ma Premo, Sunyata Saraswati, Dyanyogi
Mahasudandas, Margo Anand, and others, and is the Director of the Jade
Garden Tantra & Learning Center. His video The Eight Treasures:
Tantric Qi Gong for Empowerment & Enlightenment is due to be
released soon. For more information, or to attend or sponsor a
workshop call 301-924-2245. © 1998 Keith E.
Hall. All rights reserved.E-mail at KHall94433@aol.com.
Website: www.jadegardentantra.com. |
So,
it would seem that for most Westerners, there is a conflict between
our desire to live a worldly life and the rigors of a traditional
spiritual inquiry. Yet, if it is true that we recreate our world
daily, we can create a middle path that allows us access to both
worlds easily, even simultaneously, by utilizing some of the more
powerful eastern and western techniques.