1 Coming Alive in the Present Moment For you to gain a firsthand understanding of what the kundalini experience is like, you have only to look back into your own childhood, when the lifeforce energy in your body was still comparatively free to express itself spontaneously. Unless you grew up in an especially repressive family environment, you almost certainly entered quite often into a diffuse type of kundalini consciousness, especially when you were engaged in free play. To recall these moments of childhood bliss, of innocent communion with the divine, is to realize that the kundalini experience, rather than being some vague foreign territory you have no previous knowledge of, is actually the most intimate inner terrain of your personality. Many times as a child you felt an intense sense of oneness in your heart--a sense of total immersion in the world around you. Perhaps you have maintained in memory the beautiful moments of bliss and pure pleasure you felt, when running wild outside, while gazing at a flower, while laughing and wrestling with a playmate. Can you recall special moments when your body was electric with energy, when your spirit was burning bright with an inner flame, when you felt totally alive, alert, empowered by some magnificent, invisible, infinite source of energy? You will find as we progress through the programs in this book that childhood memories of spontaneous kundalini experiences will continue to come to you, aiding you in your progress into adult kundalini awakening. These memories offer a reflective view of how energy manifests in the human body. However, as an adult, with your nervous system now completely developed biologically, the kundalini experience will not be the same as it was when you were a child. During your developmental years and through puberty, your kundalini energy was being directed almost entirely toward nurturing and completing your grand genetic design. Now, as an adult, with the biological phase of your development completed, you are in position to employ your kundalini energies toward more subtle, spiritual dimensions of development. SPONTANEOUS KUNDALINI UPSURGES Even without formal kundalini meditation or meditations by other names that achieve a similar effect, we are all continually evolving spiritually. It's a mistake to think that only people who practice formal meditation are progressing spiritually. One of the true mysteries and blessings of humanity is that our kundalini energy often spontaneously surges up through our various energy centers, encouraging a new awakening into more expansive levels of consciousness. In every culture, there are various traditional ways that communities allow for stimulating moments of kundalini illumination and release. Dancing, for instance, has always been a part of all human cultures. Through moving totally into rhythm, into breathing, into movement, into our physical presence here in the eternal present moment, we can readily induce a sudden increase in the flow of kundalini energy through our bodies, minds, and souls. A variation on this theme is the playing of sports. Jogging, for example, recently became an extremely popular way to regularly shift into higher levels of kundalini consciousness. Pleasureful walking with the mind at rest accomplishes the same desired aim. Traditionally, singing was also a powerful vehicle for transforming one's consciousness and energetic condition quickly into kundalini illumination. Both in the church and the home, groups of people used to sing themselves communally into the kundalini experience. Another very common way to induce spiritual states of mind has been through the use of concoctions that alter consciousness. Alcohol has been one of the primary vehicles for temporarily increasing the flow of kundalini energy in the body, which in a very limited and distorted way it sometimes does. Hashish and marijuana have also been used throughout the world since time immemorial for temporarily providing a rush of kundalini energy through the nervous system. And definitely, strong psychedelics such as magic mushrooms (psilocybin), peyote (mescaline), and the recently invented LSD all can induce a radical temporary increase in kundalini energization. A great many people have at least temporarily satisfied their spiritual hunger for transcendence by using such drugs. Many report remarkable kundalini experiences. However, the dangers and limitations of such chemically induced initiations into higher states of consciousness are legion. Another primary way to move into kundalini empowerment and realization has been through the hatha-yoga path of physical postures, as developed for many thousands of years in India, and now quite popular in our culture as well. By consciously holding certain postures that stimulate various glandular secretions in the body, and by quieting the thinking mind through tuning in to the breathing, a deep purification and energization can take place. Perhaps the main source for regular kundalini energization and temporary illumination has always been, is now, and probably always will be, the human act of sexual intercourse. Because our sexual energy is our most intimate expression of the infinite creative power of the universe, erotic experiences provide us with a direct form of access when we seek a rush of kundalini illumination. Orgasm is our most certain way to interface with the divine. With all of these ways for accessing kundalini surges of power and pleasure, bliss and self-realization, almost all of us find our own everyday patterns for at least momentarily tapping into a short rush of kundalini presence as we go through each week's routines. Human beings do hunger for transcendence--this is a natural, instinctive, God-given desire. The true challenge of spiritual life is to discover the most effective, satisfying, and rewarding techniques for tapping into increased spiritual energy in our everyday lives. CONSCIOUS MEDITATION Perhaps in an ideal world where emotional inhibitions and mental contractions didn't exist, we would have no need for consciously encouraging our spiritual development through kundalini meditations. If children were taught from birth onward to value and nurture their spiritual dimensions of consciousness, rather than to fear and avoid them, our spiritual development would progress with the same natural certainty as our biological development. However, as you know from your own childhood, and as I have seen with sometimes upsetting clarity in my work as a psychologist, almost all of us grow up with our minds focused on the material dimensions of life. We receive very little encouragement from our culture to tune in to our spiritual nature, to trust our inner Guide, and to open ourselves to the radical inflow of kundalini energies in everyday life. We live in a society that encourages us to be consumers rather than meditators, that reinforces our ability to work at a boring job all our lives, but discourages our natural desire to explore the vast unknown mystic realms of our being. However, "culture bashing" is pointless--it does little good to cry over our cultural fate. Life for everyone everywhere always has been and always will be a challenge. We are quite lucky to live during a period of history when we can readily find help in our personal spiritual explorations. It is a true blessing to be able to go to a bookstore or library and immediately find books that teach the ancient, secret techniques for waking ourselves up to our own infinite presence. What we are actually doing through learning conscious kundalini meditation techniques is simply accelerating the natural process of spiritual awakening, as we gently put aside the psychological hindrances in our personalities that block spiritual illumination. By assuming responsibility for turning our personal attention toward the divine within us, toward the inner Master who will guide us lovingly toward greater and greater union with the infinite divine, we are giving ourselves the ultimate gift of love and liberation. NATURAL KUNDALINI BLOCKING MECHANISMS Although the universe's infinite kundalini energy is available to each of us every moment of our lives, our nervous systems as well as our cultural systems contain definite blocking mechanisms that keep us from being constantly overwhelmed with creative power. Our biological constitution can realistically be seen as a step-down transformer in which the infinite flow of lifeforce in the universe is filtered and reduced to just the right level to maintain a single human body. If the balance were too high or too low, we would not survive. And since the survival function of the body is primary for the continuation of our species, it makes perfect sense that over the aeons, we have naturally evolved into creatures who limit the kundalini flow in our bodies to functional levels. Perhaps here we can see the crucial difference between the other creatures that populate this earth and humans--we possess not only the basic kundalini lifeforce that animates all creatures but also the ability to consciously develop our nervous systems so that they can receive more kundalini energy, so as to enhance our deeper levels of consciousness that lie beyond the gross dimensions of physical survival. Very good reasons remain for honoring and maintaining the genetic blocking devices in our nervous systems that limit the flow of the lifeforce through our bodies and minds. If too much of this energy flows through us too fast, our nervous systems, unprepared, react much like an electrical system that receives too powerful an electrical upsurge. This is the serious danger of uncontrolled kundalini awakening. As I mentioned briefly already, in this book I am offering a path to kundalini awakening that avoids this "overamping" danger completely. My assumption is that what you are seeking is not a path that blasts you out of your normal life and into extreme spiritual states of consciousness that can prove dysfunctional. Instead, what is needed is a potent yet safe approach to opening up to higher levels of kundalini energy. For most of us there is simply no reasonable possibility of leaving our present situation, even if we wanted to, and devoting our entire lives to the solitary pursuit of our private spiritual awakening. Most of us hunger instead for a meditational life that fits perfectly into our existing routines and habits, but that magically transforms our everyday experiences into a higher level of awareness. To seek a pragmatic way to enhance our lifeforce so that in everything we do, we have more energy, more pleasure, and more intuitive clarity into the deeper spiritual levels of human existence-- this is nothing less than our natural spiritual birthright. Excerpted from Kundalini Awakening: A Gentle Guide to Chakra Activation and Spiritual Growth by Zachary Selig, John Selby All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
