Do you know about - A Cross Cultural Experiential Perspective on Spiritual Awakening
Illinois Chiropractic! Again, for I know. Ready to share new things that are useful. You and your friends.Thirty two years ago I began my journey, a dramatic and arresting inner and outer journey into the experience of kundalini awakening and the process that unfolds once that powerful inner spiritual energy is ignited. It was my great good fortune to receive shaktipat initiation (the awakening of kundalini) from Swami Muktananda who was the realized devotee of the Siddha Yoga lineage at that time. I say it was my great good fortune because, in this tradition, not only is the initiation given, but the considerable teachings for understanding the awakening and the spiritual experiences and process that unfolds as a succeed of it are openly and freely given. I soon realized, through my own inner experience and the experiences of others colse to me who had received shaktipat, that this divine inner energy not only has the power to give one the highest of mystical experiences, but is also a supreme healer. In her goal to take the seeker to the realization of oneness with supreme Consciousness, she must help us to take off our inner obstacles on the physical, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual levels. As with any growth and curative process, being faced with obstacles, limitations, negative emotions, negative tendencies and past difficult experiences and unresolved issues, can be difficult and sometimes frightening. When combined with intense, spontaneous experiences of energy arresting in ways that an private has no prior training, knowledge or understanding of, it can be overwhelming, foremost the private to seek help from clergy, spiritual advisers, reasoning condition practitioners and holistic practitioners-many of whom are lacking in the considerable experience and knowledge to contribute adequate support, and some of whom may assuredly misdiagnose the individual's experience, labeling it pathological. Thus it is imperative that anything providing hold to individuals with awakened kundalini have knowledge and experience of the kundalini process across spiritual cultures.
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Energetic Paradigms across Traditions
There are many names for the kundalini across spiritual traditions. A few are: the Tibetan Buddhist tummo, or inner fire, the Chrisitian Holy Spirity, the Chinese Martial Arts and curative Arts Chi, and the num of African tribal dacers and healers. When one explores the mystical texts, poetry and anecdotal material of a variety of traditions experiential paradigms emerge describing the awakening and movement of this transforming inner power. The most articulated ideas is the Chakra/Nadi ideas that appears in Yoga, Tibetan Buddhism and Sufism. In this ideas the kundalini is awakened and moves up through the central channel or sushumna, piercing the chakras or energy centers in the subtle, energy body. In the process of arresting through the chakras the kundalini releases a variety of physical, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual experiences. across the Yoga, Tibetan Buddhist and Sufi traditions the words may differ in describing the paradigm, but they are essentially the same. The Christian ideas is less fully articulated, but is hinted at in the Book of Revelations as John, after receiving the awakening of the Holy Spirit from Jesus, later experiences a series of mystical visions. In one of them he is shown the seven seals and the seven spirits of God who preside over them. Each seal represents a level of revelation or consciousness. In Kabbalah, the mystical path of Judaism, there is an intricate ideas of the Tree of Life and the sefiroth. Mention is also made of the 7 heavens and the Hebrew letters or sounds used to attain them. In the Native American tradition, the Hopi Creation Story describes vibrational centers that run along the axis or spinal column. These five centers are placed under the navel, at the heart, the throat, just below the top of the head and at the top of the head-a ideas quite similar to the chakra system. A clay artifact discovered by archeologists in the mounds of the antique Cahokian tribes that lived along the Mississsippi River in what is now the state of Illinois, shows a berger woman seated on an uncoiling serpent. The serpent rises like a vine up the town of her back, along which are placed a estimate of gourds. The uncoiling serpent is, in the traditions of Yoga, a fastener of the awakening kundalini, or serpent power. The antique Druids of what is now England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland had a ideas of cauldrons. The cauldron of warming placed in the navel region contains an inner fire, the cauldron of fire, which is placed in its very center. The Druids would meditate on the cauldron of fire to awaken it. Once awakened, the spiritual power, fanned by the breath, rises, igniting the cauldron of vocation in the heart region. through the intense desire and longing that emerges in the cauldron of vocation, the heat is carried upward opening the cauldron of Knowledge at the top of the head, opening the devotee druid to receiving divine inspiration, truth and knowledge from the universe. There is an arresting parallel that seems to have traveled from the antique Druid ideas to the Knights Templar and back to Scotland and the formation of the Freemasons. Leadbeater describes the connection in the middle of the first three degrees of Free Masonry and the chakra/nadi system, but might well have also shown the link to the antique Druid ideas of cauldrons.
Spiritual Awakening- the Experience
The classic yogic experience of kundalini awakening through shaktipat initiation that is described in the teachings of Kashmir Shaivism is assuredly seen in the Siddha Yoga experience. In 1979 I began the process of researching this experience for my doctoral dissertation on kundalini awakening and human development. The study was a qualitative and ideas discovering model completed in 1984. Six Siddha Yoga practitioners with three or more years of quarterly spiritual institution were interviewed extensively about their experience of shaktipat and their resulting ongoing transformation. Qualitative analysis of their experiences and shifts in awareness beginning with their hunt for spiritual awareness, their shaktipat initiation and the impact of kundalini awakening and spiritual institution on their experience of altered states, psychological /self concept, bodily and condition experiences, values, and lifestyle were done. All 5 subjects experienced classic shaktipat experiences of such things as energy rising, lights, visions, waves of bliss and love, unity consciousness, and spontaneous bodily movements in meditation. Over time subjects experienced the following:
Energy throbbing in the chakras
Spontaneous pranayama (yogic breathing)
Spontaneous hatha yoga postures
Spontaneous weeping, spontaneous eruptions of sounds-animal and other
The mind becoming still or vacant
The Siddha Meditation mantra spontaneously welling up inside
waves of bliss
Hearing inner sounds (celestial voices, roaring of energy)
Loss of body awareness
Energy coursing through the spinal column and/or other parts of the body
altered visual perceptions
Heaviness or lightness of body
Feeling life passing away
Constant awareness of energy vibrating within the body
Spontaneous singing in unknown foreign languages
Spontaneous involuntary creation of songs and poems
Divine visions
Spontaneous deep understanding of scriptural teachings
Experiences of the Inner Self
Spontaneous experiences of being charged with energy in the early morning and early evening hours (sunrise and sunset)
Many more experiences and categories of experience of kundalini awakening and unfolding are described in this study. From the stand point of both the seeker and hold givers it is foremost to identify that all of the experiences described here are general kundalini experiences that are not only documented in this study, but also described in such texts as Devatmi Shakti and experienced by thousands of individuals on the Siddha Yoga path and other paths where the goal is to attain God realization through the awakening of the kundalini.
Evidence of these experiences is seen on the Sufi path in Irina Tweedie's autobiography, Chasm of Fire. Here she describes receiving initiation from her Sufi Master, and the dramatic experiences of the unfolding of the kundalini. The great Sufi mystic and poet, Rumi, describes the inner experience of the kundalini in his poem "Song of the Reed":
This flute is played with fire, not with wind;
and without this fire you would not exist.
It is the fire of love that inspires the flute....
It is the ferment of love that completes the wine.
The reed is a relieve to all estranged lovers.
Its music tears our veils away. (1981, p.19)
In Christianity the awakening originally took place when Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into his disciples. This formula of the devotee breathing spiritual energy into the disciple also appears in the texts of Kashmir Shaivism as one of the classic methods of awakening the kundalini. After Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into his disciples they begin to have a variety of spiritual experiences together with visions and speaking in tongues. In the Book of Revelations, John describes a series of mystical visions. He sees the seven seals within which are the seven spiritus of God who are the guardians of the seals. He then sees the fifth angel of God ascending with the living seal of God sealing the servants of God in their foreheads-one of the traditional points of awakening the kundalini. Molotov, a disciple of the Russian Orthodox mon, St. Serafim, pleads with him to help him understand how he will know and understand the experience of the Holy Spirit. St. Serafim prays to God to give Molotov the experience of the Holy Spirit and the two are engulfed in light so intense that Molotov cannot look at St. Serafim saying that the light flashing from his eyes and face is too dazzling too look at. When St.. Serafim convinces him to look at him Molotov begins to experience the love, warmth and peace of the Holy Spirit both within himself and all colse to him and St. Serafim. In the texts of Kashmir Shaivism two of the classic ways that a devotee awakens the kundalini are through opinion and through looking into the eyes of the disciple. Although these methods are not clearly articulated on the Christian path, one sees evidence of both in the experience of Molotov and St. Serafim.
The Throne Mystics of the second and third century were the predecessors of Kabbalistic schools of Judaism. There is a story of Rabbi Yohannin and his disciples. As they were discussing the meaning of Ezekiel's vision of God's chariot the Holy Spirit descended on them in the form if fire. Kabbalistic teachers Rabbi David Cooper and Mark Stavish openly speak of parallels to the kundalini experience in the institution of Kabbalah. Rabbi Cooper compares the experience of the sefiroth and the kundalini paradigm in his recorded course The Mystical Kabbalah. Mark Stavish in his up-to-date book, Kabbalah for condition and Wellness, assuredly presents Kabbalisitc meditation practices for awakening the kundalini.
In the Native American Lakota tradition, Archie Fire Lame Deer, in his autobiography, Gift of Power, the Life and Teachings of a Lakota medicine Man, vividly describes the experience of his father energetically passing him his power and knowledge hours before his death. He says that at this time he went into a totally dissimilar spiritual size and truly became a medicine man.
In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition there exists the tummo, or inner fire tantric institution for awakening the kundalini. Geshe Gyatso, in his book Clear Light of Bliss, describes the intricate practices and the classic experiences of state of consciousness that are achieved as the inner fire is directed upward through the chakras into the crown chakra where a "drop" of bliss is released, then directed downward through the chakras, and then back upward in the reverse order until the drop merges again in the crown chakra taking the practitioner into the state of enlightenment.
In the antique Druid tradition the powems of Nede Mac Adme, and Amairgen, translated by from antique Irish Druid texts by Caitlin Matthews, spin the experiences of the cauldrons of warming, vocation and knowledge. In both the poems of these antique druids and in stories of dialogue in the middle of the devotee Druid Nede mac Adne, it is recommend that only the devotee Druid experiences the full awakening when initiated by a devotee who has attained the highest state of Druidic knowledge. That knowledge is only gained through the tipping upward of the cauldron of knowledge to receive divine inspiration and knowledge from higher consciousness.
Some Considerations In Providing Support
An experiential understanding of spiritual awakening and the unfolding of the kundalini is considerable in providing hold to those who seek it. Charles Tart's now classic statement about investigate on alter states applies to providing hold to those experiencing kundalini awakening and the myriad altered states and life transforming experiences that follow. In doing investigate it is difficult, if not impossible to investigate altered states of consciousness if you have not experienced them yourself. It is difficult to guide and hold man through their experience of awakening and unfolding of kundalini if you have not experienced it yourself. The awakened kundalini is a fully conscious and arresting force that can guide you in both your own process and in the process of supporting others.It is foremost to understand that the awakened kundalini's role and purpose is to purify and refine all dimensions of our experience- physical, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual- and finally bring us into the state of oneness with God. One discern of that oneness unleashes a flood of energy that spirals through anything is in the middle of us and that extended experience of our Divine Self. When this happens one's internal process of clearing obstacles, gaining new understandings of self, of wide spiritual dimensions and of bodily curative can come to be so accelerated that one becomes overwhelmed and experiences psychological, bodily and spiritual crisis. Without a paradigm for understanding kundalini awakening and the process of the undfolding of kundalini, the experience can be very confusing both to the seeker and those who are providing support.
The unfolding of kundalini through the chakras and nadis is not a linear process. In other words, the kundalini does not clear the impressions held in the chakras, or energetic centers one at a time. Nor does it move from the lower chakras to the higher ones in linear order, clearing each before it moves to the next. The kundalini spirals through layers of issues, spiritual experiences, memories and tendencies contained within the chakras and the energetic body, arresting back and forth with an brain that is often awesome to behold. When one considers the process that one experiences in psychotherapy, or in healing, without the awakened kundalini one sees a similar pattern. Issues surface, are worked through and subside, only to resurface from a deeper level at a later time, often triggered by life events, or internal work that needs to be done to enlarge us to go on to the next level of transformation. We all, in our personal amelioration work, peel away the layers of an issue gradually, as we are ready, returning to the issue to move to the next level of resolution when we are ready. When the awakened kundalini becomes a part of that growth process the process is intensified and accelerate. When this intensified personal process is combined with the classic kundalini experiences mentioned previously both the uneducated seeker and the uneducated supporter run the risk of misdiagnosing the experience and confusing the private more. Spiritual visions and energetic sensations can be misdiagnosed as hallucinations. Involuntary bodily movements and looking of lights can be misdiagnosed as neurological disorders. Racing thoughts, changes in visual perception and rapid experiences of bliss and sadness can all be conveniently fit into a estimate of psychological disorders. Where disorders of a bodily or psychological nature have been previously diagnosed appraisal becomes even more complex when an private experiences the awakening of kundalini, as the crises precipitated by the awakening query considerable knowledge of both the kundalini process and the disorders previously diagnosed in order to successfully guide the private on their journey to wellness and to transcendence.
Support Roles
Spiritual Masters, spiritual advisors and clergy, reasoning condition professionals and holistic practitioners may all play considerable roles in supporting individuals experiencing intense kundalini awakening. Each has a inherent role to play.Perhaps the most foremost role is that of the Spiritual Master. In the case of kundalini awakening this devotee must be a true guru, one who has the power to awaken, control and guide the unfolding of the kundalini. It is the role of such a guru to do just that for those who come to him or her for spiritual teaching. Such a guru also provides time honored teachings from scriptures that offer advice to the pupil in understanding the process and the practices that hold the unfolding of the kundalini. The sankalpa or intention of such a guru can promptly awaken the kundalini, modulate its intensity and direct the process of the unfolding of the kundalini in a way that is powerful to each private student. I have experienced this power many times through the course of my own journey on the Siddha Yoga path, beginning with the initiation that awakened my inner kundalini and arresting on through many intense experiences of the movement of that kundalini. One of the most amusing experiences happened in the Siddha Yoga ashram in Ganeshpuri, India. This was early in my experience of the classic kundalini experiences described in Devatma Shakti, and later in my own dissertation. I began to have roaring kriyas, in other words, I would spontaneously, without control over this, begin roaring like a lion. This experience prolonged to intensify. I would begin to hear the roaring internally and know that I needed to run to someplace where I would not disturb other students who were meditating or chanting. The roaring seemed to be triggered most intensely by the chant they we did each evening in the ashram, so I stopped going to the chant and would sit up on the roof of the dormitory building, the roaring beginning with the first verse of this chant. At this time, Baba Mukatananda then said "Everyone must come to the chant." He would send citizen colse to to make sure everybody was coming. So...I had to go to the chant. I sat back near the exit in order to leave swiftly once the roaring started to overpower me. I could hear it, was keeping back and chanting, but there was no keeping it any longer. The shakti was in control and the roaring was errupting, so I leaped up and ran for the exit, only to be met by an ashram safety man who insisted I sit back down. When I explained what was happening he sent me into the hall adjoining the courtyard where we were chanting. The roaring erupted and the hall, with window open to the courtyard, acted like a megaphone sending the roaring out into the courtyard where Muktananda sat with all of the students, chanting. Suddenly, I heard him laughing within me, and then he called me by my spiritual name and said, still laughing, "Now, now, be quiet." Instantly, the roaring stopped and the kundalini shakti picked my body up and I started dancing blissfully, classic mudras forming with my hands. From this bliss welled up within me and my body began to whirl like a dervish. I realized as these beautiful movements of the shakti unfolded that Baba Muktananda had simply directed the kundalini to move quietly and blissfully, rather than roaringly! Many times since then when sitting in meditation intensives that became noisy with animal sounds, spontaneous singing and other sounds I would hear either Baba Muktananda, or later Gurumayi Chidvilasananda simply softly say "Quiet now", and the entire hall would come to be very still and quiet as participants would be plunged into the deepest states if meditation. When gift hold to those experiencing intense kundalini awakening, it is often helpful to send them to a devotee who has the power to modulate the intensity of the experience, particularly if the private has had a spontaneous awakening without the benefit of a Master's guidance. When this is not inherent simply invoking the aid of such a devotee can also be helpful. Studying with such a devotee can also deepen one's own inner experience of the kundalini and the Divine Self, providing understanding and inspiration in the work of supporting others.
Spiritual advisors and clergy have a definite role in counseling and teaching others as they pursue their spiritual path. They have not reached the level of devotee or Guru, but can have a great deal of inner experience and knowledge of the kundalini process and the spiritual disciplines and practical day-to-day strategies and techniques for integrating the experience into one's life. In spiritual advisors and clergy to be helpful in supporting the seeker who is experiencing an intense awakening and unfolding process, they must have experience and knowledge of the process. Throughout history there are cases of great saints who were viewed as either heretics or insane by the clergy of their traditions, because the clergy had no knowledge of spiritual awakening and the classic mystical experiences that accompany it. For those who have limited knowledge it is foremost to seek out those who have the knowledge and understanding and refer seekers to them.
Mental condition professionals can be mountainous hold to those individuals who are experiencing kundalini awakening and unfolding, if they are transpersonally oriented and have experiential as well as traditional knowledge of the kundalini process. It is equally foremost for reasoning condition professionals to manufacture cross cultural competencies and understandings of the base truths, practices and understandings across paths when attempting to contribute counseling and support. It is also considerable to have an openness to questioning one's analysis of psychological disorders when working with individuals with awakened kundalini. Request questions about spiritual institution and experience needs to be a acceptable part of the appraisal process. In most cases if you don't ask about spiritual experiences the client will not share them, for fear of being opinion to be hallucinating, or simply to be "weird". Not every man who needs hold with spiritual awakening is able to identify and ask for that support. Without the benefit of a spiritual path that provides a paradigm and normalization of the experience of awakening and the transformation process that takes place after awakening, many individuals gift with what they are assuming are either psychological crises, or total confusion about what has started to happen to them. It is considerable to be able to identify the awakening experience and the "symptoms" that succeed it and then bring the reasoning and emotional reactions to this into perspective, before assigning a Dsm diagnosis! In some very complex cases, both exist. There may be a clear psychiatric analysis and a clear experience of spiritual awakening. In such cases, the task becomes one of looking a balance in working with both the psychiatric symptoms and the spiritual experiences in a way that brings about curative and spiritual development.
Holistic practitioners can offer much hold to individuals experiencing kundalini awakening and unfolding, providing they have the knowledge and experience of the process themselves. Some holistic practices that can contribute considerable supports are energy healing, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, hatha yoga, Tai Chi, nutritional counseling. Any practitioners working in the energetic field of man with an awakened kundalini must head somewhere with great caution and sensitivity in order to not interfere with the work of the kundalini, or intensify an already intense experience. What one does as an energy healer needs to be in collaboration with the kundalini. This means, gradually succeed her lead. This is also true of hatha yoga and Tai Chi practice. Hatha Yoga institution was originally industrialized in order to purify the body and ready it for awakening of the kundalini, thus many of the asanas and pranayama practices can assuredly intensify the kundalini experience, particularly in the early years of the experience when the process is the most intense. The asanas and pranayama techniques are designed to clear the nadis or subtle energy channels of the body. Individuals with awakened kundalini should be cautioned to be aware of the power of these practices and to monitor themselves to see if they are creating more intensity or balancing the intensity out for them. Nutritional counselors need to be aware of the foods that cool the kundalini down, i.e. Sweets, milk products, and leave them in the diet. Often when the kundalini awakens one begins to pull spontaneously away from meat, fish and poultry and move to a vegetarian diet. Lighter, assuredly digestible foods are more compatible with the kundalini process and may assuredly ease the purification process and bodily symptoms considerably. One must also caution the private to make sure to eat, as the digestive process assuredly draws the shakti to it and sometimes helps to ease the intensity of the process.
Conclusion
This report outlines facts on the cross cultural experience of kundalini awakening and provides some guidelines for those providing hold for individuals experiencing awakening and the transformation process that evolves from that awakening. For added facts about the kundalini experience please feel free to experience Dr. Wilcox through this website. More unabridged observation of this topic will appear in Fire of Love, Descent of Grace, Dr. Wilcox's upcoming book. For more facts about this book please go to http://www.wilcoxhealingcenter.com.
References
Cooper, D.A. (1994). The Mystical Kabbalah, Boulder, Co: Sounds True, Inc. (tapes)
Fire Lame Deer, A. & Erdoes, R. (1993). Gift of Power, the Life and Teachings of a Lakota medicine Man. Santa Fe: Bear & company Publishing.
Gyatso, GesheKelsang. (1982). Clear Light of Bliss. London: Tharpa Publications.
Helminski, E. (trans.) 1981. The Ruins of the Heart, superior Lyric Poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi. Putney, Vt: Threshold Book
Matthews, C. & Matthews, J. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom. Rockport, Ma: Elements Books, Inc.
Tirtha, Swami Vishnu (1962). Devatma Shakti. Rishikesh: Swami Shivom Tirth
Tweedie, I. (1979. The Chasm of Fire. Tisbury, England: The Compton Press, Ltd.
Wilcox, J. (1984). Kundalini: A Study of Spiritual Awakening and Movement Toward the Self. Doctoral dissertation. Teachers College, Columbia University.
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