Kundalini Splendor

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Friday, August 04, 2006

Kundalini and Compassion 

What is this awesome mystery

By Symeon the New Theologian
(949 - 1032)

English version by John Anthony McGuckin

What is this awesome mystery
that is taking place within me?
I can find no words to express it;
my poor hand is unable to capture it
in describing the praise and glory that belong
to the One who is above all praise,
and who transcends every word...
My intellect sees what has happened,
but it cannot explain it.
It can see, and wishes to explain,
but can find no word that will suffice;
for what it sees is invisible and entirely formless,
simple, completely uncompounded,
unbounded in its awesome greatness.
What I have seen is the totality recapitulated as one,
received not in essence but by participation.
Just as if you lit a flame from a flame,
it is the whole flame you receive.

-- from The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul's Ascent from the Desert Fathers and Other Early Christian Contemplatives, Translated by John Anthony McGuckin (found on Ivan Granger's www.poetry-chaikhana.com )


For many years, I have pondered the relationship of kundalini and compassion. For me, the "opening" was into a world of bliss--ecstasy undreamed or. And over time, that bliss has continued , though constantly changed into softer forms, and often intermingled with pain.

But the bliss journey focuses primarily on the inner personal process--the experience of feeling and accepting the boundless love of the universe for the self. It involves the adoration of the divine, often in the guise of the divine feminine, the Mother, Tara, or some other image of divinity. It is a splendid path.

In Hindu philosophy, this mode of practice is (as I understand it) called Bhakti--devotion which seeks nothing other than to offer one's love to "this," whatever it is. It asks nothing for self or others, other than to coninue in this state of grace and union.

There seems to be no mention (on this path) of compassion, concern for the fate of the world, even service (though that is another branch of yoga--karma yoga.)

Buddhism, on the other hand, speaks often of compassion, but says nothing of bliss. The aim seems to be to enter a certain state of consciousness which in turn leads to an awareness of compassionate concern for "all sentient beings." It is a noble path. But, for me, it (in this form) lacks the excitement of the kundalini path.

So I have been wondering how the two might be united, into an amalgam of compassionate bliss, blissful compassion.

I think I am finally beginning to discover the answer. Of late, I have continued to do my "moving meditation," focusing on the needs of a universe which is now in agony. What I am finding is that bliss comes through, as always, but in a different form. Now what I feel (and I do feel it deeply) is more what I might term "heart pulses" of love, extending from where my body stands out into the universe itself. These feelings are infinitely tender, soft, more like light or breath, yet incredibly real.

So there I am, standing before Buddha (my tongka), doing my familiar chi gong movements, feeling delicate bliss coupled with a deep sense of compassion for the world and all its inhabitants. It turned out to be simple. But it has taken a long time for me to get there.

I recommend it.

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