Kundalini And Time

We all feel, inwardly, at some deep level, that time is an illusion. Daily life, with its pleasures and problems, makes this illusion — that one moment follows another — irresistibly strong. But there’s still an inkling that what the physicists say is true: space and time are one and the same thing, and this space/time continuum is static. Every event that has ever been, and that ever will be, in the physical universe, is here, now, with us. Even if we only feel it as a hunch, the desire remains, at a fundamental level, to make the time illusion more than an abstract concept, in fact, to live it, and so free ourselves from it.

When the mind, body and subtle body are cleansed and grow still, Kundalini awakes a precious understanding: that the brain itself is an event. The brain isn’t just a lump of cells and tissue stuck inside the skull. Neural matter is an event, an action, emerging from the energy field at a frequency so high it can’t be registered, and therefore seems solid. The brain is in constant movement, and this is what creates the illusion of time — time is the surges of energy moving from left to right, and from right to left, from hemisphere to hemisphere of the thing inside our skulls.

 

Time is an illusion, but the illusion has a rhythm, and there are moments within that rhythm when Kundalini grows more intense, and it’s possible to experience the time illusion bodily. In daily life, one side of the brain dominates the other side, and there is a switching between hemispheres which is essential for our biological survival. Constant left hemisphere dominance would destroy the brain with too much outwardness, and constant right hemisphere dominance would destroy the brain with too much inwardness. In meditation, the switch from hemisphere to hemisphere takes place about every ninety minutes, and there’s a moment when the two hemispheres are in sync. This occurs naturally. It can’t be controlled. But it is an opportunity, because it’s then that Kundalini is concentrated in the susumna nadi, the central channel, beyond time. 

 

That Kundalini is as much out in the cosmos as it is inside the body can be proved by personal observation: There are two moments in the day when Kundalini is at Her most powerful: at dawn and at dusk, the “cracks in the world” of traditional wisdom. At dawn and at dusk, the physical universe becomes both expectant and poignant. Expectant, because profound change is possible. Poignant because change takes time.

 

The other morning, as the sun was coming up, a crow glided down from somewhere and landed on the fence in our garden. My eyes saw feathers and claws grasp splintery wood. My body registered weight, vibration, a bird-shaped form shaking a loose paling. My brain knew it was simply watching a crow landing on a fence. But what overwhelmed me — what Kundalini saw — were feathers, claws, a fence that were made of time. The crow’s — and the fence’s — substance was nothing but time. I was lucky enough to be at one of those instants when the two hemispheres were in sync and Kundalini took over the central channel, because my body changed, it too was made of time. It had no substance outside an event that included both me and the crow and the fence, and, suddenly, everything.

Mixed Signals

Does kundalini communicate with the rational mind? And if it does, how does it work? Does it send mixed signals or try to trick the rational mind? Most accounts identify some kind communication between the super-conscious kundalini and the rational mind. So how does it work?

I want to address this issue because it was recently raised in a previous post by a commenter calling himself go for the gold:

"The more I read the more confused I become. My experience of Kundalini is not like others'. I was a neutral observer when I first experienced my Kundalini awakening, which was by accident. Even so, the Kundalini Serpent is definitely its own entity, looks exactly like a serpent or a dragon, thinks for itself, and almost constantly sends ideas of deception up and into my frontal lobe without my permission."

To address this, we must first explore the cosmology of kundalini and its relationship to the formation of our Beings, and that takes us to The Secret of the Golden Flower (SGF):

"In this part there is described the role played by the primal spirit and the conscious spirit in the making of the human body. The Master says, The life of man is like that of a mayfly: only the true human nature of the primal spirit can transcend the cycle of heaven and earth and the fate of the aeons. The true human nature proceeds from that which has no polarity [the ultimate] whereby it takes the true essence of heaven and earth into itself and becomes the conscious spirit. As primal spirit it receives its human nature from father and mother. This primal spirit is without consciousness and knowledge, but is able to regulate the formative processes of the body. The conscious spirit is very evident and very effective, and can adapt itself unceasingly. It is the ruler of the human heart. As long as it stays in the body it is the animus. After its departure from the body it becomes spirit. While the body is entering into existence, the primal spirit has not yet formed an embryo in which it could incorporate itself. Thus it crystallizes itself in the non-polarized free One.

"At the time of birth the conscious spirit inhales the energy and thus becomes the dwelling of the new-born. It lives in the heart. From that on the heart is master, and the primal spirit loses its place while the conscious spirit has the power.

"The primal spirit loves stillness, and the conscious spirit loves movement. In its movement it remains bound to feelings and desires. Day and night it wastes the primal seed till the energy of the primal spirit is entirely used up. Then the conscious spirit leaves the shell and goes away.

"Whoever has done good in the main has spirit-energy that is pure and clear when death comes. It passes out by the upper openings of mouth and nose. The pure and light energy rises upward and floats up to heaven and becomes the fivefold present shadow-genius, or shadow-spirit. But if, during life, the primal spirit was used by the conscious spirit for avarice, folly, desire, and lust, and committed all sorts of sins, then in the moment of death the spirit-energy is turbid and confused, and the conscious spirit passes out together with the breath, through the lower openings of the door of the belly. For if the spirit-energy is turbid and unclean, it crystallizes downward, sinks sown to hell, and becomes a demon. Then not only does the primal spirit lose its nature, but the power and wisdom of true human nature is thereby lessened. Therefore the Master says, If it moves, that is not good.

"If one wants to maintain the primal spirit one must, without fail, first subjugate the perceiving spirit. The way to subjugate it is through the circulation of the light. If one practices the circulation of the light, one must forget both body and heart. The heart must die, the spirit live. When the spirit lives, the breath will begin to circulate in a wonderful way. This is what the Master called the very best. Then the spirit must be allowed to dive down into the abdomen (solar plexus). The energy then has intercourse with spirit, and spirit unites with the energy and crystallizes itself. This is the method of starting the work."

The Secret of the Golden Flower - Wilhelm Translation, pp. 28-29

In simplest terms, this passage describes how the primal spirit (the term the SGF uses for kundalini):

•  Plays a role in the formation of the Being,
•  Becomes dormant once the individual is born,
•  Can be re-awakened later on in life.

Notice that the word kundalini does not appear at all in the text. So how do we know we're talking about kundalini? This irony — the fact that we are talking about a particular phenomenon in other languages — is the result of having so many different traditions using different terms for the same thing. The translators of The SGF, Richard Wilhelm and Carl Gustav Jung, use Primal Spirit to denote Kundalini. They use Conscious Spirit to denote the Mind/Body/Senses/Ego paradigm. To further confuse the reader, Jung bullied Wilhelm into using some of his favorite psychology terms: Animus for Conscious Spirit = Mind/Body/Senses paradigm and Anima for Primal Spirit = Kundalini. And they appear throughout the text interchangeably.

Kundalini Plays a Role in the Formation of the Being

Kundalini (the Primal Spirit) is the agent of Consciousness incarnate, the all-pervasive energy continuum that links all existence. It is responsible for your embodiment — creating a blueprint for our perfect body before conception, and then transforming the plan for our perfect body into flesh and blood, from embryo to fetus. The Primal Spirit doesn't know algebra, how to balance a checkbook, or do crossword puzzles. It does, however, know the human body. It does know evolution and energy. It does know DNA. It's the non-verbal intelligence of the life force, that which needs no words to execute its evolutionary mandate.

Kundalini Becomes Dormant Once the Individual is Born

Unfortunately, kundalini (the Primal Spirit) becomes dormant after birth. Doesn't mean it no longer exists; every being has this subsystem in their body. It's like a warranty — you can use it at any time to renovate and re-engineer your body. If Kundalini didn't serve a purpose, evolution would have eliminated it. That's how evolution works.

Trouble is, not everyone knows that Kundalini exists. And many who've heard of it, dispute its actuality.

Kundalini Can Be Re-activated in Later Life

However, before activating it, you first have to know that it exists and is standing by, waiting for you to activate it. There are many ways of activating it (triggers) and many changes that it brings to the being (effects). In fact, it turns the being into a Being. I can only speak for myself, and I have through my books, providing information on my kundalini activation, the challenges along the way, and the methods I practiced.

Nevertheless, my recent book, Case Studies in Kundalini does feature nine accounts of kundalini activations with different triggers and a variety of effects. Its purpose is to help readers become aware of the vastness of the Kundalini efforts in today's world. Obviously, it is not exhaustive.

The Donald Knows Kundalini!

Back to whether kundalini sends mixed signals. I can only testify that signals/messages do bubble up from the non-verbal consciousness to the verbal mind. And for me they have been benign.

This is an issue I've written about repeatedly. An easily understandable account  in a previous post to this blog: Is Kundalini Intelligent? features Jill Bolte Taylor’s account of left-right brain interactivity during her stroke. It's a excellent explanation of how the primal spirit (kundalini) takes over when the left brain shuts down. Kundalini (the life force, and all its other pseudonyms) is always benign, whether it's telling you what not to eat or it's trying to save your life. It has certainly never told me to smoke a cigarette.

Kundalini communicates via the nervous system, which stimulates psychic activity. If you fight it, the message can get distorted by filtering it through too much reflexive social conditioning. Let your heart be open. Don't try to control kundalini energy. Remember, after activation, IT does YOU; you no longer do it.

After living with an active kundalini for more than forty years, I've found that it (kundalini) clears away the conditioning that the rational mind and senses imposes, and I am able to receive and process messages/instructions/signals (or whatever you want to call them) from the unconditioned "energy continuum/total mind/life force,” and they are always benign. Mostly, they have to do with making right choices.

I'm not talking about delusions or messages from an anthropomorphic God; I’m talking about messages that concern “right living,” a path that kundalini knows well:

    •    Controlling negative emotions.
    •    Practicing self-remembering.
    •    Practicing meditation and yoga.
    •    Avoiding material attachments.
    •    Avoiding addictions and harmful substances.
    •    Taking care of the body.

If it weren't for conditioning, we would all be tuned to right living — acting more in accordance with the life force and its benign, non-verbal dictates.

Kundalini And My Dad

My father died recently at a venerable age (96), a respected man, and "Australia's Oldest Bush Dancer." (Bush dancing is a vigorous Aussie version of Irish and Scottish reels and jigs.) Dad was still waltzing young girls of eighty off their feet well into his ninth decade.

He and I were diametrically opposed on the question of whether there is or isn't a transcendent reality, and the fact that awakened Kundalini is this transcendent reality taking charge of the body. A polite and cultured man, Dad could turn the air blue with what he thought of "She who goes upwards, and is outside the universe." The only "She" (with a capital S) he ever acknowledged was Mum. A passionate "you've-only-got-one-lifer," he was determined to live his one life well.

The irony is that, with the positive way he approached everything — even dying, he was a supporter of "Doctor Death," Australia's medical advocate of assisted suicide* — Dad proved himself wrong. He proved that dying is something that you do. It's the deepest form of action. It doesn't just happen to you. It isn't passive. No matter how many tubes or drugs or comas force themselves upon an inert body, dying itself is a deed, an accomplishment (even death by violence.)

So who, or what, accomplishes this deed? A transcendent being free in the energy continuum — Dad would say "bullshit" — but he's wrong. I saw it.

*For a moving account of unassisted, intentional suicide, see Wake Up Running by David Egee, pp. 189-194.

Kundalini and the Seven Goddesses

My wife's face is beautiful. When I look at her face, I glimpse a quality that I can't register, let alone grasp, not even when we make love. This quality can't be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, weighed. This beauty is hers, yet she possesses it as little as I do. It's deeply attractive, and yet seems to be as much outside her as it's inside her.
 

Author Paul Lyons and wife, Kanlayanee

When it first awoke in me, Kundalini seemed an impersonal force, like electricity, a stinging sensation in my spine, intense heat round my coccyx and in the back of my neck, and a painful prickling in my face. There were internal tearing noises like a plaster (bandage) being pulled off, cracking sounds in my head. All this was impersonal, inhuman. It was simply happening.

Gradually, however, I began to realize that this energy isn't impersonal at all — it's female. Kundalini is a She. It was an unsettling realization. How can something so metabolic have a gender? How can a force working at a cellular level feel so undeniably female? How can this stinging and heat and these internal noises be female? Up till that point female had meant simply the other half of the human race. Female couldn't possibly be something working inside and through me, sometimes overwhelming my sense of my own masculinity.

The idea that contact with another person can bring us into the presence of a cosmic being is shocking. And yet the experience of glimpsing in another's face is a quality that can't be registered is common. Every couple has experienced this beauty that is both inside and outside them, that can't be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, weighed, and yet at some deep level still has gender — and it's female.

Because Kundalini first activated in me suddenly and unexpectedly, during a sexual encounter, the movement of energy up my spine into my brain was rapid and overwhelming. It got out of control. My mind veered from fantasy to reality and back again. My male brain found it hard to cope with this influx of the inexplicably female. Kundalini pierced the seven chakras — they remain vivid inside me — but the movement from the base of the spine to the brain happened in a rush that blurred them. Looking back on it, I think there was some deep-seated fear of what each chakra might contain.

Gradually, I learned how to keep still, to wait — or "reside" — in each chakra as it opened out and unfolded. What the chakras revealed was strange: the sense of the female became more, not less, intense. And the feminine quality of Kundalini was articulated differently in each chakra. Her presence changed from chakra to chakra. At the base of the spine, She was one female Being, in the genital chakra another, and so on up. The chakras are gear changes in the sound frequencies and light waves from which the body is ultimately formed. As Kundalini ascends the spine, the frequencies get higher and more rapid, but because energy is transmitted in quanta, or discrete "packets," each change in frequency has its own separate quality.

These qualities are female. The seven Goddesses referred to in the Sat-Cakra-Nirupana are a reality. Kundalini is one Being at the base of the spine, and another Being in the genitals, and another in the belly, and in the heart, throat and brain. If one can discern the differences, their different "faces," one can get closer to the ultimate stillness to which they respond.