Kundalini Splendor

The Bhagavad-Gita

I am the dice-play of the cunning: I am the strength of the strong: I am triumph and perseverance: I am the purity of the good.

I am Krishna among the Vrishnis, Arjuna among the Pandavas, Vyasa among the sages, Ushmas among the illumined poets.

I am the sceptre and the mastery of those who rule, the policy of those who seek to conquer: I am the silence of things secret: I am the knowledge of the knower.

O Arjuna, I am the divine seed of all lives. In this world, nothing animate or inanimate exists without me.

There is no limit to my divine manifestations, nor can they be numbered, O foe-consumer. What I have described to you are only a few of my countless forms.

Whatever in this world is powerful, beautiful or glorious, that you may know to have come forth from a fraction of my power and glory.

But what need have you, Arjuna, to know this huge variety? Know only that I exist, and that one atom of myself sustains the universe.

from Bhagavad-Gita (The Song of God)
(translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood)

from "The Dark Night" by St. John of the Cross

On a darkened night,
Anxious, by love inflamed,
-- O happy chance! --
Unnoticed, I took flight,
My house at last at peace and quiet.

Safe, disguised by the night,
By the secret ladder I took flight,
-- O happy chance! --
Cloaked by darkness, I scaled the height,
My house at last at peace and quiet.

On that blessed night,
In secret, and seen by none,
None in sight,
I saw with no other guide or light,
But the one burning in my heart bright.

This guide, this light,
Brighter than the midday sun,
Led me to the waiting One
I knew so well -- my delight!
To a place with none in sight.

O night! O guide!
O night more loving than the dawn!
O night that joined
The lover with the Beloved;
Transformed, the lover into the Beloved drawn!

Upon my flowered breast,
For him alone kept fair,
There he slept
There I caressed,
There the cedars gave us air.

I drank the turret's cool air
Spreading playfully his hair.
And his hand, so serene,
Cut my throat.
Drained of senses, I dropped unaware.

Lost to myself and yet remaining,
Inclined so only the Beloved I spy.
All has ceased, all rests,
Even my cares, even I:
Lost among the lilies, there I die.

(translated by Ivan Granger)

Many think that St. John of the Cross is describing a sense of ecstatic union stemming from awakened kundalini energies. Like many other saints (and less exalted folk), he experienced deep rapture when he met his "Beloved" alone in the solitary meeting place of the mind. The tryst takes place under cover of darkness, for secret lovers always meet in places concealed from the common eye.

Some interpret the line "he slit my throat" as describing annihilation of the senses as he is united with his divine paramour. Others suggest it is merely a tiny love stroke, a token of the beloved's affection and intimacy.

This is your ocean


The Transformation

(for Patricia)

Do you think such things
are not possible?
have you looked in a mirror
lately,
seen the face you have become,
this sun marked visage,
this god shine parable
named you?

**************************
Never mind how you got here

When you are in love
you do not say
you are near love
or beside love,
or seeking to know
love's truth.

You say you are in love.

Never mind how you got here.
This is your ocean.
Drown in it.

****************************

This squalling wriggling time

Now we are birthing
not just ourselves,
but the world and all its beings.

We are women squatting together
in a delivery circle,
bringing forth
this new age,
this squalling,
wriggling time
ready to leap out,
shout its name aloud.

***************************
What it is about

This canopy of words--
this outpour of sayings--
they help up to unlock
the glaciers of the mind,
unfurl the tight knit banners
waiting to proclaim presence,
capture us, make love.

*************************

Waiting for you

Think about who you are.
Think of all that was rolled
into your skin
even before you were born.

What will you do with these gifts?
these sacraments waiting for you
to claim them.

Dorothy Walters
August 24, 2007

The Rose Opening

Listen . . . . listen . . . .
can you hear those honey drops fall
from the mouth of god?

Can you feel the rose
opening
in your spine?

Whatever you were before
now you are only this.

*********************

Do you want
words
or feelings?
Or are they melted together
like the love streaming
from your lover’s eye
meeting the love
pouring from your own?

**********************

Does anyone else
feel this love?
Like the breath
of a thousand rose gardens
dreaming that they are petals
crushed in god’s hand.

**********************


Is this from this world
or another . . . .
do these words have meanings
or are they mere love cries
from that one
come to kiss you awake again.

***********************

God has a thousand names
and I but one tongue
to tell them.

Some call me a wastrel,
some a wanton.
All I want
is to dance this dance
we do so well together.

************************


Are you looking for the goddess?
she is
the lash on god’s eye,
the invisible hand
stroking your velvet flesh alive,
the pearl
you found under your tongue
this morning.

***************************

All this time together
and still you have not told me
who I am,
where this journey leads.


Dorothy Walters
August 22, 2007

(Photo by Paticia Lay-Dorsey)

It really won’t matter. . .

These inspirations,
these little beadlets of love,
who am I to refuse?

Yesterday,
you wanted sugar candy kisses.
Today love songs
in your ear.

Tell me who I am
and I will keep on singing
for you.
Or who you are
and I will begin
yet another poem.

Or don’t say anything at all,
it really won’t matter.
Even your silence
is beautiful.

Dorothy Walters
August 9, 2009

(We all know that the "Dark Night of the Soul" is a stage we pass through not once but again and again. We hang on because we know that this, too, is part of the cycle, that light will again replace darkness. But as we go through the "down cycle", poetry can be of great help in our struggle for survival.)


Map Lines

You are already a refugee
in your own mind
torn from place and story


trussed in the fluidity of now
you dream of sea dragons at night
beasts bellowing winds


spewing waves instead of fire
as if that were better
as if the slowness of drowning
made it more palatable

you wander in map lines
and probabilities
in the inked realities
of instruments


the day is lined with baggage
a cacophony of voices
and flowers disappear


we know too much and
not enough
elephants fled the beaches
in the tsunami


there is no high ground trail
to run
from fear

n.m.rai

(Image by N. M. Rai)

Jane Green is a wonderful poet and dear friend. Her poem reminds us that life contains not only its own ecstatic moments, but serious confrontations as well.

In Open Prayer

Jane Green

In open prayer
A woman in church
Mentioned her friend
Who loses her battle
With ancient cancer
All I could think was
That was no battle
Not even defeat
But a ready body
For a blaze of homecoming
With the womb of light
When the eternal beckons
With the quick threshold
We each wander into
When the body says ready

(copyright Jane Green)

(Photo courtesy Patricia Lay-Dorsey)

Sufis

Only yesterday I swore
to give up all this daylight
love play,
to get down to business,
early rising,
travel over rough trails,
brown bread and hard cheese
for lunch,
only water to drink.

But already this wisp of song,
these turning dancers
with skirts unfolding
like flowers awakened,
or birds spreading their white
or scarlet wings
in their flurry of ascent--
these have glazed my eyes,
carried me into
that other place,
secret trysting spot
familiar love ground.. .

Sometimes I just stand here,
thinking about you,
and I disappear.

Dorothy Walters
August 15, 2007

(Again, image thanks to Jeannine Keenan)

Time to Continue

Part of me saying,
enough, now I must rest
and then you answering,
no, time to continue,
forget about pauses,
no let up
for someone like you,
didn't you climb
into this honey bin
on your own,
try a few samples--
so go ahead, drown in this sweetness,
it is you.

Dorothy Walters
August 9, 2007

(And the above is another of Jeannine Keenan's wonderful mandalas.)

Heavy Secrets

You and I
carry heavy secrets within.

This is why our breasts
have grown so large.

Already they are overflowing,
ready to fill
the world’s waiting mouth.

Dorothy Walters
August 9, 2007

I smile back

I used to hide my words,
conceal them in a secret place,
a casket or an underground temple.

Now I flaunt them like jewels,
wear them like necklaces when
I take off all else
and go strolling through
the market square.

Some people see
my ornamented breasts
and smile,
others seem not to notice
or turn away.

I smile back at the smilers,
ignore the rest.

Perhaps someday they will
regain their sight.

(Again, the mandala is from Jeannine Keenan. Thanks again Jeannine for sharing your wondrous creations.)

Dorothy Walters
August 9, 2007

Whatever this is

What is it,
this channeling god,
these words pouring through
like love strokes of light,
these syllables taking over
becoming flesh, my flowing veins,
I cannot remember
when it was not this way,
when my blood did not ache
for whatever this is.

Dorothy Walters
August 9, 2007

(Once again, the image is provided by Jeannne Keenan. Thanks, Jeannine.)

Bernini's great sculpture of Saint Teresa is located in Rome.

Teresa in Ecstasy

Bernini saw it.
Gave us
the woman in
her full inscrutable passion.

The angel stands near,
his arrow ready
to pierce her breast,
to lance her heart
again and again to love.

Nothing
in chapel or cell,
no soft telling of beads
or whispered hours
prepared her for this moment,
readied her for this time.

How, we wonder,
can she abide
this fiery rapture,
such sudden annihilation
into light?

How endure
this ultimate fusion,
relentless agony
of ascent?

Dorothy Walters
August 9, 2007.

(This is another of Jeannine Keenan's beautiful mandalas.)

Are You Willing

The ascent to Joy
Is itself the transforming
Of fear into LOVE

Marina Gamble


Are you willing to ascend to this joy?
It will tear you, rend you,
shatter your limbs
and fling them
into the sky
like dry sticks of straw
caught on the wind.

At times you will think
you are drowning,
tossed in the furious ocean of longing,
at others,
that you are scorched
by unseen fires,
flare of passion.

Do you imagine you will
then remember who you are?
Why you began this journey?

Think well
before you enter this path.

Consider the price
of a single kiss.

Dorothy Walters
August 8, 2007

(This mandala is by Jeannine Keenan, gifted poet, artist, and friend.)

More Love Poems to the Invisible

This gift you have given me
Who can say its value.
I can only clutch it
wait for something more.

******************************

How is it
that you keep returning. . . .
Even after the candle has
long since died away,
even when I have given up
the remains of my longing
and gone to dream
once more alone in my bed.

********************************

These words you keep slipping
into my mouth.
This throat kiss.
This terrible knowing
of what it is
to be loved.

******************************

Nevertheless,
I will keep returning.
Even if I still, after so many years,
do not know your name,
where you are coming from
how to follow you
when you leave.

***********************************

Now you are telling me
it doesn’t really matter
how long this affair
has gone on,
when it began,
who made the first move.
You say this moment
is pure honey.
Drink.

Dorothy Walters
August 8, 2007

(The above photo is from Patricia Lay-Dorsey, who does such exquisite work in this and other fields.)

Here is more poetry from Marina Gamble, who continues to pour forth her beautiful verses.

She is much inspired by Rumi, and her work has the same sense of dedication to the Beloved, sometimes called God, sometimes unnamed.

That quiet stillness
You hold in your heart is a
Ransom for many

**************************

God's address on Earth
These walking talking temples
(Place your own name here.)

**************************

Eternity is
Not enough time to tell you
How much I Love You

copytight Marina Gamble

(The above photograph is by N.M. Rai. Thanks, Naggie.)

Recently, I discovered a fascinating website which I am continuing to explore. It is presented by Lynn MacTaggert, who wrote "The Field" and also "The Intention Experiment." "The Field" (which I have mentioned before, offers a basic premise with which many of us are familiar--that each of us is merely a speck swimming in a vast sea of energy, for energy is really all there is. The further implication of this is that we are all One, for each thing is inextricably connected to everything else.

The above is a vast oversimplification of the thesis--the book itself is fascinating reading which I would strongly recommend for all.

The second book, "The Intention Experiment" expands these ideas and offers a project to test scientifically whether or not human thought, proceeding from sufficient numbers of practitioners, can influence matter itself. That is interesting enough. But of even greater interest are the various small cells or groups which have formed in conjunction with the site. These include members from all over the world with a multitude of interests, many of whom write fascinating accounts of personal experience or offer arresting reflections of pertinent topics. Sometimes the sites (both the primary and secondary ones) focus on calls for actual long distance healing through individual intention.

I think this is a fascinating idea. It allows for transmission of healing energies through vast distances of space, by groups of people focusing in unison or separately. We cannot know whether such healing is possible until we try. And given the unexpected developments of our time, anything seems possible.

In addition, several videos are included on a variety of metaphysical and spiritual topics, from Rupert Sheldrake (morphic fields) to Gurdjieff to the meaning of Namaste. (These videos are listed on the home page in the lower left hand part of the screen.)

Apparently, vast numbers of people have joined this site. It seems to combine a great many threads of interest into a very interesting network of investigation.

(The above picture is by my friend Naggie, who kindly gave me permission to put it up, after giving me a long and difficult lesson in this technique of transferring pictures to the blogsite. Her gallery is definitely worth a visit--at http://www.pbase.com/nmrai. She is a woman of many talents--including poetry, art, photography. She is also remarkably patient and helpful in assisting beginners learn some of the intricacies of the internet. Thanks, Naggie.)

Often in the course of Kundalini awakening, one discovers various "paranormal abilities," such as seeing auras, thought transmission, and such. I have frequently seen "auras" around others, almost always as purple light, which can vary from extremely dark tones to light violet. However, I haven't experienced this phenomenon in a very long time, so I was surprised when "it" happened again last night.

I was sitting in a small circle of poets, looking at the reader who was sitting a short distance away from me, when I began to see lovely purple light floating around her head and upper body. It was as if swatches of transparent color were shifting here and there in a fascinating display. Sometimes the tint seemed to streak the side of her body, at others it outlined her head.

And then I saw something unlike anything I have ever seen before. It was a "ball" or disk of deep bronze/gold just above her crown chakra. I was quite intrigued by this manifestation. It so happens that the friend who was reading is herself a loving and committed person, someone intent on her own spiritual search--so no wonder she had such a beautiful aura!

And then the next poet came up. He sat in the same place, and soon I began to see purple light outlining his spinal column (which I was viewing from the side) and extending up and over his head. It looked like the aura of a very balanced and healthy person. He also is an extremely nice being.

Once years ago at a poetry reading, I saw the line of light flow up and along the right arm of the young reader, and then continue all the way out to his hands, where he was holding his manuscript. And another time, I saw the energy rise up the back of an orchestra conductor, and out along her arm to her baton. And many years ago, I watched as a singer's aura expanded from her chest when she rose up to sing, then subside when she sat back down.

I think these particular auric lights are easier to see when the subject is alive and intent on what she is doing. Amazing stuff!

(The above image might be an archetypal representation of the "inner temple," the goal we all desire to arrive at where we will fully know and be fully embraced by Mystery. However, as Rumi remarked, "On the road to Mecca, many dangers.")

Someone asked me recently why Kundalini is considered to be dangerous for the unpracticed. We know that ancient texts warn that "premature arousal" of the inner energies can lead to various kinds of reactions, from discomfort to pain and even death. It is thought that for this reason the knowledge of Kundalini arousal was kept as a carefully guarded secret, to be shared only with initiates who had prepared themselves through years of rigorous discipline and practice.

Today, of course, many are experiencing sudden awakenings with little prior preparation or, in many cases, little knowledge of the true nature of Kundalini. What follows next is totally unpredictable, since each person's path is different, determined by numerous factors of heredity, upbringing, emotional and physical well being, and present circumstances. In other words, your Kundalini process is unique to you, perhaps similar to but still unlike anyone else's.

The positive results can vary from intensely pleasurable sensations all the way up to rapture and ecstasy, renewed energy, increased vitality.and health, deepening of mystical perception, a sense of universal love, a heightened awareness of beauty in the world, and so forth.

But then there is the downside. Some people experience pain and agony in various parts of their bodies, bringing symptoms similar to those of various diseases and physical maladies. Typically, no underlying physical cause can be discovered for these, and they generally pass away after a time, only to give way (often) to a new set of symptoms. How long this process will continue is anyone's guess, for again, it is totally unique to the subject herself. The traditional explanation for this disturbing reaction is that the Kundalini is going through the body and clearing blocks wherever they exist. These blocks can be physical or psychological. Someone who is subject to psychological or emotional issues will likely have a more difficult time in this stage. In fact, some never seem to recover, but continue in agony for years.

On the other hand, some seem to "breeze right through," experiencing notable improvement in overall health, even losing weight and finding welcome increase in vitality and energy, including libido. They may feel deep love for everyone and everything they encounter, for the world takes on a more beautiful aspect--colors deepen, joy abounds.

Kundalini is a profound teacher, but she is the trickiest of the tricky, the most fickle of the fickle. She gives us difficult lessons, for we now are in touch with parts of ourselves unsuspected before. One day we may be in bliss, the next in utter despair. It is, in Talullah Bankhead's words, "a rocky ride."

But--and here is the clincher--once the process starts, it cannot really be stopped. To attempt to bottle these aroused energies is (I think) the most dangerous path of all. New blocks will be formed, new and more intense challenges encountered.

Always, we are advised to find "an expert teacher" to guide us on the journey. But I for one have never found such a teacher, only those who demanded some sort of commitment to their own purported infallibility (and no one is infallible, when we come to the area of Mystery). I, like others I know, preferred to follow the "inner guide," for we have, I think, an inner knowing which will lead us through the dark passages. Today, we can at least find "companions of the soul," at hand or on the internet. Literature on the subject abounds, though we must carefully sort our the phoney from the real, the valid from the false and sometimes even preposterous claims.

No one follows the ideal example which is often presented as evidence of "true Kundalini." Kundalini knows no boundaries or rules. She (this goddess inside,) makes her own rules, follows her own inclinations. She seems to possess an intelligence, and will give good counsel if you will listen.

When she comes upon us, we realize that we are her willing subject, following and inviting her company but never in absolute control, all worth it for the blessing she brings.

A good resource to check out on this topic is http://www.kundalinisupport.org/

Lawrence Edwards, the primary originator of this site, is a world renowned expert on the subject of Kundalini. I agree with virtually all of his observaions, except that I would add that (in addition to past life karma) current life experiences, especially those relating to abuse, suffering, physical impairment and the like, can also powerfully impact how Kundalini unfolds for better or worse.