Saturday, July 10, 2004
Kundalini, Ecstasy, Wisdom, Compassion
Kundalini at its finest implies ecstatic joy, the overflowing into the body (or from the body) of a kind of divine rapture, a sense of deep and wondrous connection with the ultimate source.
But what, we may ask, does such intimate personal experience have to do with today's world, which is dominated by war and widespread human suffering? What right do any of us have to indulge in such subjective pleasures when the world so desperately needs all of us to attend to its critical needs, dress its wounds, solve its problems?
My answer is simple: even in the time of war, the sap continues to rise in the trees, the flowers bloom, the animals cavort in the fields and bear their young. Nature does not cease because of human conflict and the grief it inflicts on its victims. When we "celebrate" love, through dancing, or singing, or simply feeling the flow of the inner currents, we affirm life itself, and thereby make ourselves more fit to be participants on the stage of the human struggles.
We do not cease to think because we allow ourselves to experience joy. We need not feel guilt because the heart of love throbs in our veins. Indeed, this is our challenge--to reconcile two seemingly disparate modes--the path of feeling which allows us to experience fully the bliss which is ours by divine right, and the path of thoughtfulness, which anchors us in the world about us. The mind itself is an important aspect of our being. We do not reject awareness of the world's chaotic affairs simply because we experience a few moments of private communion with "god" in our daily practice. The call to wisdom demands that we do not retreat totally into the realm of subjective bliss (though at times such withdrawal seems quite attractive.) We think and learn and grow, and only by the long labor of years of reflection and dedication can we claim to a modicum of "wisdom," that evanescent but essential ingredient so necessary to full development.
As for compassion this is doubtless the most important of all human attributes, the epitome of all human virtue. Without compassion, bliss can easily become callous self-indulgence, and wisdom the arena for mere accumulation of "knowledge." Compassion for one another, concern for the welfare of the whole, not just the select and immediate group, is the key for the world's salvation. Only when we cease to think in terms of "us" and "them", "ours" and "theirs", can we hope to create a world dedicated to the full development of the human, body and soul.
Kundalini bliss does not rule out wisdom nor preclude compassion. All are essential components of our total identity, our completion as children of the spirit as well as the flesh.
But what, we may ask, does such intimate personal experience have to do with today's world, which is dominated by war and widespread human suffering? What right do any of us have to indulge in such subjective pleasures when the world so desperately needs all of us to attend to its critical needs, dress its wounds, solve its problems?
My answer is simple: even in the time of war, the sap continues to rise in the trees, the flowers bloom, the animals cavort in the fields and bear their young. Nature does not cease because of human conflict and the grief it inflicts on its victims. When we "celebrate" love, through dancing, or singing, or simply feeling the flow of the inner currents, we affirm life itself, and thereby make ourselves more fit to be participants on the stage of the human struggles.
We do not cease to think because we allow ourselves to experience joy. We need not feel guilt because the heart of love throbs in our veins. Indeed, this is our challenge--to reconcile two seemingly disparate modes--the path of feeling which allows us to experience fully the bliss which is ours by divine right, and the path of thoughtfulness, which anchors us in the world about us. The mind itself is an important aspect of our being. We do not reject awareness of the world's chaotic affairs simply because we experience a few moments of private communion with "god" in our daily practice. The call to wisdom demands that we do not retreat totally into the realm of subjective bliss (though at times such withdrawal seems quite attractive.) We think and learn and grow, and only by the long labor of years of reflection and dedication can we claim to a modicum of "wisdom," that evanescent but essential ingredient so necessary to full development.
As for compassion this is doubtless the most important of all human attributes, the epitome of all human virtue. Without compassion, bliss can easily become callous self-indulgence, and wisdom the arena for mere accumulation of "knowledge." Compassion for one another, concern for the welfare of the whole, not just the select and immediate group, is the key for the world's salvation. Only when we cease to think in terms of "us" and "them", "ours" and "theirs", can we hope to create a world dedicated to the full development of the human, body and soul.
Kundalini bliss does not rule out wisdom nor preclude compassion. All are essential components of our total identity, our completion as children of the spirit as well as the flesh.
