What is Holistic Kundalini? Is it a better way of activating Kundalini? Hardly. There are many ways of activating Kundalini, some better than others — "better," in this instance, defined as tailored to your specific, holistic needs, a method that suits you as opposed to the ones that don't. That's right, not all methods work for all people. Moreover, some people, no matter how much they want it or how hard they try, will never be able to activate Kundalini by any method. That's the Karmic reality.
Holistic Kundalini. What is it? It's a term I apply to the all around Kundalini life experience: Seeking a method, Practicing the method, Activating Kundalini, Undergoing the awakening experience, Living with Kundalini, and finally Helping others to understand Kundalini. This may seem pretty mundane. "Oh, I know all about that; I've read about it," some initiates tell me. Yes, I've heard it all: Individuals who have not yet even begun a well-founded practice telling me what it is like after reading about it in books. I don't tell them I've lived with Kundalini for over forty years. What's the use? These novices purporting to be experts already know more than I do. I'm not being facetious: early on in my practice, I realized I knew nothing.
All the myriad of separate, yet overlapping slices of information available to today's seeker form a gigantic pie. That's the blessing of the New Age. But this overabundance is also its curse. Which slice is for me? Some of this information is good and some of it isn't. I'm not competent to judge the content, only wonder if it's had any vetting or peer review?
Still, I can inform people on what to watch out for and how to set expectations. That's Holistic Kundalini — coming full circle, back to the beginning in order to help others understand the process and the stakes.
So I listen to the chatter of novices and move on. When I see them again years later, they're still turning in circles. Why? Simply and succinctly because they weren't grounded in the first place. They didn't have a goal, and you need one. They didn't have a plan, and you need one of those, too. Why? Because just as Osho says, when you expect too much, you're bound to fail. It's built-in into the process, like a sense of entitlement. I've never known it not to fail, never seen it succeed. Strut into this work with a sense of privilege and overarching confidence and you will end up turning in circles.
From the discussions I've had, most people don't have any idea what I mean when I tell them they need a goal and a plan. Yet, if they were building a house, they'd have one of each. Activating and living with Kundalini are similar undertakings. You must know what you're doing, as well as the why and how of it.
Let's think for a moment about setting goals. How should I approach it, you ask? In the first place the goal shouldn't be all about your ego, as if you were just going to the gym to add some more muscle to impress the opposite sex. You should have something you want to accomplish that can only be accomplished by a change of being, a change of consciousness. What might that be? Gopi Krishna defined that change as, "becoming conscious of consciousness." Think about it and you'll see most people aren't.
In my case, I was looking for a way to reverse the effects of a childhood accident. At the time I wasn't able to clearly formulate it, but it was on my mind, and it eventually came to the fore. All I needed then was a plan and that was delivered to me. It took me a while to recognize it, but I finally did. What plan? To decipher and practice the method of meditation in The Secret of the Golden Flower — Golden Flower Meditation. The book was given to me unexpectedly. After a year of puttering and experimenting, I realized I was supposed to do something with it.
To formulate a plan, you must think about your life. Take inventory. How old are you? Is it reasonable to undertake this work now? Who will support you? Can you work and do it? Why do you want to change your being, your consciousness? For selfish purposes? To heal yourself and others? To overcome addiction? You can't think of a goal, but you know you're supposed to do it?
Does a non-goal, or the absence of a goal, constitute a goal? It could; it's better than doing it to acquire occult powers or to make yourself more attractive. And what about a plan? Once you have a goal, it's easy to work out a plan. Just like building a house, once you know what you want to do, it's easy to work out the plan. You take stock of existing tools and techniques. You examine cost, scheduling, strengths and weaknesses, benefits and inconveniences. You make tests. One approach is going to stand out, appear more suited to your person than the others. It's the same with changing your consciousness. You won't succeed if you wake up one morning telling yourself you're going to raise Kundalini because you want to be Governor of Iowa. The two operate in different spheres. You need compatibility, goals and plans suited to your style of living and to YOU.
You also need to think about living with Kundalini. Let's say you're 20 years old, and you've caught the Kundalini bug, or some other Kundalini-related bug. Let's say you work out goals and plans. And you're successful. So at the age of 20, you're living with a permanently active Kundalini for the rest of your life. Are you prepared for this? What kind of person are you? Introvert? Extrovert? Secretive? Outgoing? Fun-loving? Although Kundalini starts to remake your being and change your consciousness, personality tendencies don't change overnight. In fact, you may take on new tendencies temporarily. Negative emotions, dietary changes, sexual dysfunction. Are you prepared to face these things? It took me a long time to learn to live with Kundalini, to understand what it was doing.
I knew I wanted to write about my experience, but at the beginning I couldn't. It took me thirty years before feeling I was ready. Yet, not one day in those thirty years went by without my thinking about and experiencing the effects of Kundalini. Perhaps, with a little pre-thought, a little discussion, you can do better.
“One thing has to be remembered about meditation; it is a long journey and there is no shortcut. Anyone who says there is a shortcut is befooling you. It is a long journey because the change is very deep and is achieved after many lives — many lives of routine habits, thinking, desiring. And the mind structure; that you have to drop through meditation. In fact, it is almost impossible — but it happens. A man becoming a meditator is a great responsibility in this world. It is not easy. It cannot be instant. So from the beginning never start expecting too much and then you will never be frustrated. You will always be happy because things will grow very slowly.
"Meditation is not a seasonal flower which within six weeks is there. It is a very, very big tree. It needs time to spread its roots.”
~ OSHO
 |
| Stepping Off the Curb in Life |
All the myriad of separate, yet overlapping slices of information available to today's seeker form a gigantic pie. That's the blessing of the New Age. But this overabundance is also its curse. Which slice is for me? Some of this information is good and some of it isn't. I'm not competent to judge the content, only wonder if it's had any vetting or peer review?
Still, I can inform people on what to watch out for and how to set expectations. That's Holistic Kundalini — coming full circle, back to the beginning in order to help others understand the process and the stakes.
So I listen to the chatter of novices and move on. When I see them again years later, they're still turning in circles. Why? Simply and succinctly because they weren't grounded in the first place. They didn't have a goal, and you need one. They didn't have a plan, and you need one of those, too. Why? Because just as Osho says, when you expect too much, you're bound to fail. It's built-in into the process, like a sense of entitlement. I've never known it not to fail, never seen it succeed. Strut into this work with a sense of privilege and overarching confidence and you will end up turning in circles.
From the discussions I've had, most people don't have any idea what I mean when I tell them they need a goal and a plan. Yet, if they were building a house, they'd have one of each. Activating and living with Kundalini are similar undertakings. You must know what you're doing, as well as the why and how of it.
Let's think for a moment about setting goals. How should I approach it, you ask? In the first place the goal shouldn't be all about your ego, as if you were just going to the gym to add some more muscle to impress the opposite sex. You should have something you want to accomplish that can only be accomplished by a change of being, a change of consciousness. What might that be? Gopi Krishna defined that change as, "becoming conscious of consciousness." Think about it and you'll see most people aren't.
In my case, I was looking for a way to reverse the effects of a childhood accident. At the time I wasn't able to clearly formulate it, but it was on my mind, and it eventually came to the fore. All I needed then was a plan and that was delivered to me. It took me a while to recognize it, but I finally did. What plan? To decipher and practice the method of meditation in The Secret of the Golden Flower — Golden Flower Meditation. The book was given to me unexpectedly. After a year of puttering and experimenting, I realized I was supposed to do something with it.
To formulate a plan, you must think about your life. Take inventory. How old are you? Is it reasonable to undertake this work now? Who will support you? Can you work and do it? Why do you want to change your being, your consciousness? For selfish purposes? To heal yourself and others? To overcome addiction? You can't think of a goal, but you know you're supposed to do it?
Does a non-goal, or the absence of a goal, constitute a goal? It could; it's better than doing it to acquire occult powers or to make yourself more attractive. And what about a plan? Once you have a goal, it's easy to work out a plan. Just like building a house, once you know what you want to do, it's easy to work out the plan. You take stock of existing tools and techniques. You examine cost, scheduling, strengths and weaknesses, benefits and inconveniences. You make tests. One approach is going to stand out, appear more suited to your person than the others. It's the same with changing your consciousness. You won't succeed if you wake up one morning telling yourself you're going to raise Kundalini because you want to be Governor of Iowa. The two operate in different spheres. You need compatibility, goals and plans suited to your style of living and to YOU.
You also need to think about living with Kundalini. Let's say you're 20 years old, and you've caught the Kundalini bug, or some other Kundalini-related bug. Let's say you work out goals and plans. And you're successful. So at the age of 20, you're living with a permanently active Kundalini for the rest of your life. Are you prepared for this? What kind of person are you? Introvert? Extrovert? Secretive? Outgoing? Fun-loving? Although Kundalini starts to remake your being and change your consciousness, personality tendencies don't change overnight. In fact, you may take on new tendencies temporarily. Negative emotions, dietary changes, sexual dysfunction. Are you prepared to face these things? It took me a long time to learn to live with Kundalini, to understand what it was doing.
I knew I wanted to write about my experience, but at the beginning I couldn't. It took me thirty years before feeling I was ready. Yet, not one day in those thirty years went by without my thinking about and experiencing the effects of Kundalini. Perhaps, with a little pre-thought, a little discussion, you can do better.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete