Who we are

This blog is maintained by the administrator of a major page on the topic of KUNDALINI on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Kundalini-140971995120/). The administrator of both this blog and the Facebook page chooses

1. to remain anonymous in the articles on both pages (if you know him, please respect his wish for anonymity),
2. not to mention his/her spiritual accomplishments or aptitudes,
3. not to use or mention personal titles, distinctions, qualities, spiritual Sanskrit names or anything that could place him higher than any common individual.

The role of this blog is to educate on the topic of Kundalini, to uplift students and not to uplift the author’s ego. We believe teachers should disappear before their students.

Suffice it to say the author has been studying and practicing the notions seen in these pages for over 35 years, in many esoteric groups and with the help of various spiritual masters from various parts of the world. He has seen thousands of people who say they have experienced an awakening of Kundalini. He has read and analyzed a large quantity of texts, both sacred and scientific on the topic of Kundalini, from various cultures and moments in time. The author of this site greatly values studying the science of Kundalini which he considers both the most important topic to study and the most complex one of all human topics.

We are interested in the Tantric approach to spirituality. Especially the ideas from Kashmir Shaivism (a group of nondualist Tantric Shaiva exegetical traditions from Kashmir) and how these ideas influenced countless other spiritual traditions, in particular the practices of sacred sexuality.

We believe that the rich ideas added by multiple spiritual traditions (Tantra being just one of them) to the practice of what is often referred to as “sacred sexuality” are very important to understand.  There is a link between your own life force (sexual energy) and your own spiritual energy.  Our blog and courses are geared to shedding light on these often misunderstood topics and the rather interesting links between them, especially in light of the confusing plethora of misleading information one can find in “neo-tantra” these days. Do read Georg Feuerstein’s interesting article on “Tantrism and Neotantrism” here: http://santosha.com/moksha/tantrism1.html.

===============================

What is Kundalini

Kundalini (kuṇḍalinī, Sanskrit: कुण्डलिनी) literally means coiled. In yoga, a “corporeal energy” – an unconscious force or Shakti, lies coiled at the base of the spine. It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as ‘serpent power’. The kundalini resides in the sacrum bone in three and a half coils.

Description

Kundalini is described as a sleeping, dormant potential force in the human organism. It is one of the components of an esoteric description of man’s ‘subtle body’, which consists of nadis (energy channels), chakras (psychic centres), prana (subtle energy), and bindu (drops of essence).

Kundalini is described as being coiled up at the base of the spine, usually within muladhara chakra. The image given is that of a serpent coiled 3 and a half times around a smokey grey lingam. Each coil is said to represent one of the 3 gunas, with the half coil signifying transcendence.

Through meditation, and various practices, such as kundalini yoga, tantra yoga, paryanga yoga, ulta sadhana, laya-yoga, and kriya yoga, the kundalini is awakened, and can rise up through the central nadi, called sushumna, that rises up inside or alongside the spine. The progress of kundalini through the 33 vertebrae and the different chakras leads to various levels of awakening and mystical experience, until the kundalini finally reaches the top of the head, Sahasrara chakra.

Meaning

A number of descriptions exist that attempt to describe exactly what the kundalini experience is.

Sri Ramana Maharshi maintained that the kundalini energy is nothing but the natural energy of the Self, where Self is the universal consciousness (Paramatma) present in every being, and that the individual mind of thoughts cloaks this natural energy from unadulterated expression. Advaita teaches that Self-realization, enlightenment, God-consciousness, nirvana and kundalini awakening are all the same thing, and self-inquiry meditation is considered a very natural and simple means of reaching this goal.

Swami Vivekananda described kundalini briefly in London during his lectures on Raja Yoga as follows:

“According to the Yogis, there are two nerve currents in the spinal column, called Pingala and Ida, and a hollow canal called Sushumna 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 form in which, in the symbolical language of the Yogis, there is a power called the kundalini, coiled up. When that kundalini awakes, 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 centre of the spinal cord is the Sushumna. Where the spinal cord ends in some of the lumbar vertebrae, a fine fibre issues downwards, and the canal runs up even within that fibre, 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 centres in the spinal canal can very well stand for the different “lotuses” of the Yogi.”

Awakening of the kundalini

The arousing of kundalini is said by some to be the one and only way of attaining Divine Wisdom. Self-Realization is said to be equivalent to Divine Wisdom or Gnosis or what amounts to the same thing: self-knowledge. The awakening of the kundalini shows itself as “awakening of inner knowledge” and brings with itself “pure joy, pure knowledge and pure love.”

Text based on Wikipedia page on Kundalini
(More to come)