Kundalini Splendor

Kundalini Splendor <$BlogRSDURL$>

Thursday, August 06, 2009


A new anthology has just been published from Sounds True. As the cover indicates, it is an anthology on Kundalini including many writers from diverse traditions, many of whom are quite celebrated in the field. Among others, the contributors include Lawrence Edwards (of "The Soul's Journey" and Anam Cara), Bruce Greyson (an authority on near death), Gene Kieffer (who has devoted his life to publicizing the work of Gopi Krishna and the importance of Kundalini), Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (noted teacher of Kundalini Yoga), Barbara Harris Whitfield (who also writes of Kundalini and Near Death Experience), and even the renowned Ken Wilber (an authority on everything), as well as many others, including yours truly.
This lengthy book is divided into four sections focusing on:
Accounts and Reflections from those who have personal experience of Kundalini (what is it like to experience it?)
Kundalini and health (always an area of concern)
Kundalini looked at from historical, philosophical and cultural contexts (it is a universal phenomenon, known to all societies and all periods of history)
Musings from Yogis (those associated with certain traditions share their wisdom)
Each writer brings a special knowledge and perspective to the subject. Together they form an anthology in the truest sense, writings covering the many facets and angles of this deep mystery, which continues now more than ever to fascinate and puzzle.
Gregg Braden, well known writer in the field of metaphysics and spiritual development, says of this book:
"Kundalini Rising is the contemporary voice to guide a new generation of seekers through the uncertainty of life's most intimate journey. This is the book that you'll hand to your children with pride while wishing that someone had done the same for you years earlier to answer your questions of awakening."
Tami Simon, founder and publisher of Sounds True (the firm that has offered so much to the spiritual community and society at large though its recordings and publications for many years), reveals in her Introduction that she herself experienced Kundalini awakening in 1984 at the age of 22. It was this event that propelled her to dedicate her life to
"disseminating spiritual wisdom" through her now acclaimed publishing house. At the time of Tami's awakening, very little information was available on the topic of Kundalini, and most of that was in esoteric texts aimed at "Eastern" readers.
She says of this present volume, "Here is the book I wish I'd had twenty-five years ago.. . .It is time for our understanding of kundalini to be broad and multi-disciplined, for our discussion about kundalini to come out of the realm of esoterica and enter ordinary discourse...more and more of us are experiencing spiritual awakenings of all kinds, identity-shattering experiences that leave us open to the mystery of being beyond name, shape or form."
Like Tami, I also wish I had had such a book at the beginning of my own journey, now even more than twenty-five years ago. As I examined this beautiful collection, I was moved to think of that woman (with my name) sitting alone in her living room so long ago, experiencing one of the most dramatic life moments possible. She had no teacher or guide, but relied on the inner voice, the spirit that takes us through. Now so many years later, she contemplates the long journey of awakening, and feels that, somehow, this book is a landmark, a time of arrival.
And I also thought of the great civil rights leaders who wept at the recent presidential inauguration, for they had thought, "not in my lifetime."
So it seems that miracle do happen, that the unexpected should always be expected, since the actual possible is in fact the art of the seeming impossible.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?