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By
Michele Avanti, CAP
Kundalini
is the hidden power of creation sleeping at the base of the spine in the subtle
body of every human being. It is a Sanskrit word meaning “a coiled female
serpent” or “serpent power.” Kundalini is awakened either spontaneously
through a traumatic or near-death experience or through the practice of
Kundalini Yoga. Once awakened it travels upward along the spine activating each
of the chakra centers giving the individual wonderful benefits in health,
intellect and intuitive powers. It can take years of practice to stabilize the
energy in each chakra. That means to keep the chakra consistently open, so the
benefits and powers are always available. Often yogis meditate for years (I do
mean years – what do you think of 35 years in mediation!) to get the Kundalini
energy to rise to the crown chakra and stabilize there. When this happens, it is
said the individual self will merge into the supreme self and the cycle of
reincarnation will end. My
Journey When
my nephew invited me to attend a Kundalini Yoga workshop my first thought was
I’ve past the half-century mark and can’t bend like a pretzel! Like
most Americans I thought of Yoga in terms of body movements. But to my great
surprise, the let’s keep up by standing on one foot or bending into a bridge
type Yoga is only one branch of an eight-branch system and the word yoga (I
thought it meant exercise or posture) means unite. It actually refers to the
joining of the individual soul with the Supreme Being. Kundalini
Yoga does not involve a lot of postures, just one – the lotus position. (Which
by the way I can’t do either but I can get by with what they call the modified
lotus – just sit cross-legged) Kundalini Yoga is a method of breathing,
meditating and sound that slowly opens each creative energy center. These
centers are commonly known as the seven chakras (root, navel, solar plexus,
heart, throat, third eye and crown.) From
the time I was born I traveled the inner worlds
(realms beyond the physical including: the Astral, Causal, Mental,
Etheric and Soul) with a spiritual teacher. I saw wondrous things and learned
more than most people ever dream of knowing. Then as I continued through my
young adulthood, I meditated each day, (in a comfortable chair I might add) for
over twenty years. It brought peace and health and contentment with life no
matter what karmic experience might come my way. (And I have to say I have had
my share of challenges from fire to divorce and death.) But as I passed forty it
seemed I lost some of the discipline. I wanted to be just another person.
Someone who has the so called ‘American dream’ (a much overrated experience
I now can say.) I wanted to be a ‘normal’ or ‘regular’ guy so to speak.
Oh I still had my connection to Spirit but I didn’t discipline my food intake
as much, I didn’t get up early each morning and meditate; and slowly over the
last ten years the ordinary life crept in, with it came anger, frustration and
stress.
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