Kundalini - Not the End in Itself, but a Means ...

I am moved by the story of Lo-pu who asked: “How is it when the morning sun has already risen but the night moon has not yet appeared? He is told that this is a meditative accomplishment. You sit in meditation and forget both body and mind, and there is just this single brilliant expanse of light. It is as if the sun has already come out but the night moon has not yet appeared. At night, it is not the same. This light is pure and cool.

The Taoist classic, The Triplex Unity says: perfect yang is “brilliant” and perfect yin is “reverent.” After yin culminates and yang is born, when body and mind share the same root with heaven and earth inside and outside, and it’s a single light, this is the realm of “perfect yang is brilliant.”

At this point, you have already gone beyond the issue of whether the ch’i channels are open or not. When you talk of the three channels and seven chakras, you have not even reached the first stage of Samadhi. When Lo-pu reached the stage expressed in “when the sun has already risen but the night moon has not yet appeared,” he had already transcended the state of Samadhi. 

Lo-pu is told: “The dragon carries the ocean pearl in his mouth, paying no attention to the fish swimming by.” There is something here. In the single expanse of light that is both inside and outside, it seems that a dragon is swimming through the ocean, and in his mouth he is holds a bright pearl. This bright pearl is the dragon’s root of life (reverent). Fish are swimming by on all sides, but the dragon does not even glance at them or look their way.

The Dragon Swimming By

If you cultivate the ch’i channels properly and recite the mantra properly, if your cultivation reaches the point where there is just this moment of mindfulness, you, too, will be the same as the dragon carrying the ocean pearl in his mouth, paying no attention to the fish swimming by. You will pay no attention to all the false thoughts around you in whatever form they may take. 

As you do your meditation work, no matter whether it is by refining the breath or reciting the mantra, or any other method, all you have to do is to hold onto that moment of mindfulness, and focus your mind on one object without letting it move; and remember: “The dragon carries the ocean pearl in his mouth, paying no attention to the fish swimming by.” Slowly, you too will be able to reach this realm.
~ Adapted from Master Nan Huai-Chin’s book “Working Towards Enlightenment”.

I’ve always intuitively felt that Kundalini was never meant to be an end in itself, but a means to something more. What is that something more? It could be that which is expressed above in the story from Master Nan Huai-Chin’s book; reaching for that realm where, as a single light, body and mind share the same root with heaven and earth inside and outside. This is a book on Buddhist thought, and this is a Buddhist story. It explains to me my own experience. But I don’t believe it has to be Buddhist. My experience of “the dragon carrying the ocean pearl in his mouth, paying no attention to the fish swimming by” originates from a Christian context. But I don’t believe it has to be Christian.

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it."
~ Gospel of Matthew

From my reading and my understanding, I believe that kundalini, like childbirth, belongs in the scientific or biological realm. But just as childbirth, for some, is seen as an unfolding of a mystical or spiritual event, so too, for some, kundalini is seen as an unfolding of a mystical or spiritual event. When the perfect yin, that which is reverent (celestial) is combined with the perfect yang, that which is brilliant (free from all distractions), something new emerges that is beyond the activity of kundalini. And from this new emergence, something new again is probably beginning to take shape.

One of the principal obstacles to this never-ending expansion is getting stuck at any one stage. Each step on this pathless path requires a letting go or surrender of what was previously experienced in order to embrace what is new. It’s easy to get stuck as I have so many times.