Kundalini Splendor

Today, I took part in a workshop with Karen Armstrong. Here are a few of my impressions:

Her clever wit: After discussing the relation of sexuality and religion, she added that she herself had never married nor lived with anyone. She then concluded that she was apparently "a failed heterosexual."

Her liberal view of homosexuality: When someone asked about the negative attitudes of the various religious traditions to homosexuality, she said that she was always surprised by the attention given to this subject in America. She explained that in England, this was a topic of little public concern, seldom discussed. She added that some of the fundamentalists seem obsessed with the topic, so that one might wonder what that fixation might suggest about their own sexuality.

On spirituality and the world: She feels, along with the Dalai Lama and others, that true spirituality is expressed in one's life and action, and that these must reflect deep compassion for all. Compassionate action is thus the key, and each one must discover the proper way to deliver that gift to the world.

Her courage: Her work arouses hostility from various quarters. Academics criticize her for writing for a "popular" readership rather than a narrow academic audience. (She writes not for the specialist but for the educated, literate group of those who are eager to broaden their knowledge of the world and its spiritual and political concerns from an enlightened informant.) As for more fundamentalist readers, some are so incensed by her ideas that she is sometimes threatened with death. When she traveled recently in Pakistan, an armed guard was assigned to stand outside her hotel room. Some countries in the far East ban her works entirely (though the people who come to her talks there seem to be familiar with her work.)

How young people react to her: In America, few young (under 30) people come to hear her speak. In Pakistan, they turned out in great numbers.

What she did not address: Her presentation focused essentially on the major traditions as embodied in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. She did not talk about the unaffiliated mystic, the independent traveler who embraces the "direct path" to the divine, rather than following an established church. She did not seem aware of the widespread "spiritual awakening" which many are now experiencing all over the world, outside the confines of traditional institutions.

When the small discussion groups met, most talked in terms of their churches and faith groups. I realized how outside the mainstream the independent voyager is, how truly lonely and isolated that path can be. And, of course, once kundalini is awakened, one is immediately set outside that "norm" of communal spiritual experience. We find each other now and again, and indeed I believe the transition is growing swiftly, perhaps exponentially. But we are lonely pilgrims, for the most part traveling a solitary path, following Buddha's injunction to "be a light unto yourself."

I for one would choose no other way. It is not the easiest of journeys, but the rewards are immeasurable.

Karen Armstrong is a jewel, one who travels the world with her essential message, spreading light and compassion throughout the world through her intelligent, compelling words.

Read her books if you can. And wonderful articles and interviews are available just by typing in her name on Google. One of the most interesting is found at
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/05/30/armstrong/