Kundalini Rising (Part 1)

***This was my first lecture in Second Life about "Kundalini, Tantra etc". It was delivered at the OWO&KUN Meditation center. ***

Kundlini Rising (part 1)

My dear friends. We will speak about kundalini today.

Kundalini for me is a very practical thing. Its Energy flowing through my body, My emotions, my mind and my spirit. Its physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

It can be a path of transformation. It can be a path of pain and suffering. For me it was and is both.

This talk is based upon my own experience. The story of my kundalini development. It started when in 1968, when I started practicing yoga. I was 14.. And for the quick calculators: I am 53 now.

So I am very practical .. Please feel free to email any questions or make comments.

I became a professional yoga teacher in 1977 in the Netherlands and had many groups that time. Interest in Yoga and similar things as Tai chi, Chi Kung etc rose quickly those days.

My kundalini development broke through after I stopped teaching large classes. It was 1987.

Before that time I had noticed soft energy rumbles for long, but then the big stream of heavy power unleashed.

I remember standing in the downward facing dog for an hour or so listening to Tina Turner when the kundalini energy started flowing massively. So not a really sacret moment.

There was a deep need to go on and on and on until it would come. What I did not know. I could not stop. And when it started I wa frightened to death

This urge is sometimes described as call of Shakti, the goddesss :)

I panicked a bit, and went for help to teachers. Most said it was impossible.. “this is from the past” they said. This does not happen in our time.

It was 1987. No internet, almost no email. After long search I found one book in a specialized bookshop: Kundalini Psychosis or transcendence. This was not a pleasant choice to make : Psychosis or transcendence..

What was happening???

Some Theory:

Kundalini: The coiled one; Energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine until it is activated, as by the practice of yoga, and channeled upward through the chakras in the process of spiritual perfection.

In some tantric forms of Yoga, the cosmic energy believed to be within everyone. It is pictured as a coiled serpent lying at the base of the spine. Through a series of exercises involving posture, meditation, and breathing, a practitioner can force this energy up through the body to the top of the head. This brings about a sensation of bliss, as the ordinary self is dissolved into its eternal essence, atman.

According to classical literature, signs of awakened kundalini are grouped into three categories: vocal, physical and mental signs. Kundalini is also believed to be connected with certain psychic powers, known to yogis as siddhis

Kundalini can be aroused by a combination of hatha yoga positions, pranayama (breathing exercises) and meditation. Much of the yogic practice is designed to release knots or blockages in the body which prevent the flow of kundalini energy.

However, kundalini may emerge within one who has never performed traditional kundalini rising practices. Often it is not a matter of the seeker grasping Enlightenment, but Enlightenment snaring the seeker. It came to me, I did not look for it intentionally .. or maybe I did…:)

The path incorporates Hatha yoga like practice, Pranayama (breath exercise) Meditation, Tantra and tools for tantra like: Mantra (sound), Yantra’s and Mandala’s(symbols).

The path leads through knots ot wheels in the psycho physical body.. The Chakra’s.

The Kundalini energy flows through channels, called nadi’s. Three main ones. Ida, Pingala and the middle one: Sushumna.. These channels feel like highways in my body.. The charkas feel like knots sometimes and sometimes as pools of bliss.

Tantra uses klesha’s or hindrances like lust and anger to ignite the winds in the nadi’s. That’s why I sometimes use BDSM techniques in the virtual world SL and sometimes in rl too. I use the energies of the BDSM-like practice to develop my apprentices and students. Lots of lust flowing though :)

In Buddhism lots is said about the use of kundalini. Its all meant to realize “” the empty nature of self and mind”, Sunyata, the stainless light. The path is Bodhichitta. “To help others by helping myself”.

After kundalini woke up I struggled and found a way to deal with it through yoga exercises, pranayama and meditation.

If I practice every day for two hours I can manage. If I stop practicing for several days I get sick.

In 1994 we have set up a Kundalini self help group in the Netherlands. Some dozens of people came, some of them quite desperate.

One time i was meditating in a Buddhist center in the Netherlands. Then, by looking at the symbols and books they used, it became clear that the tantric Tibetan system of tummo (heat) yoga was similar to the system of yoga that i had developed myself. The connection was made and I became initiated in the Green Tara energy. The Kalachakra (wheel of time) opened itself for me.

Ever since I refer to myself as carrier of “Green Tara” energy. Its not so serious, and no Geshe or lama will recognize it as i did not go through all studies and formal initiations, but it reflects how i feel.

That time internet developed and more good books came available.. The time of absolute loneliness for this sort of development was over. And now there are over 3 millon hits on google on the word kundalini....

Most google hits are popular new age sites.. well.. no problems with that really, but the main topic is a bit diluted :)

Kundalini brought much and did cost much too. Spiritual transformation? Yes.. and lots of struggle to keep contact with reality. To survive in a family and make money to make a living .

To raise children and give them a “normal” life.

Want to read something? Please refer to good books around. Some examples: Bonnie Greenwell: Energies of transformatiom. Satyananda: Kundalini Tantra. Svatmarama: Hatha Yoga Predipika (bihar shool of yoga); Gopi Krishna: Kundalini