Kundalini Splendor

i've come again
like a new year
to crash the gate
of this old prison

i've come again
to break the teeth and claws
of this man-eating
monster we call life

i've come again
to puncture the
glory of the cosmos
who mercilessly
destroys humans

i am the falcon
hunting down the birds
of black omen
before their flights

i gave my word
at the outset to
give my life
with no qualms
i pray to the Lord
to break my back
before i break my word

how do you dare to
let someone like me
intoxicated with love
enter your house

you must know better
if i enter
i'll break all this and
destroy all that

if the sheriff arrives
i'll throw the wine
in his face
if your gatekeeper
pulls my hand
i'll break his arm

if the heavens don't go round
to my heart's desire
i'll crush its wheels and
pull out its roots

you have set up
a colorful table
calling it life and
asked me to your feast
but punish me if
i enjoy myself

what tyranny is this

(tr. by Nader Khalili)
(Picture from internet source)

Perhaps at this new year we should, like Rumi, break all he old molds, smash to pieces all the restrictions of habit, and toss out the window all our familiar conceptions. Perhaps we should--like some of the early American tribes--burn all our possessions and begin anew, born into new bodies, clothed in new raiment. Perhaps we should truly be "born again".

Kundalini makes such demands upon us. It tells us we must give up the old ways and the old self in order to emerge into our new identity, and allow ourselves to be conducted by fate itself into our new way of being.

The Lens You See Through

On the one hand, there are the holocaust and the tragedy of 9/11, and many other such horrific examples of human actions gone awry.

On the other, there are the countless and continuing acts of generosity and compassion by persons and nations and—above all—the awakening of Kundalini energies for many across the planet.

I think of it as a kind of spectrum, or perhaps a see-saw, with negative forces on one end balanced by positive on the other. Many choose only to see one or the other end of the scale, filtering out the opposite. Some choose only to admit the reality of the dark vision—they are often among the most highly educated and intellectually gifted among us. Like Flannery O’Connor’s character in one of her stories, they have “seen through to where nothing is,” and will admit no evidence to the contrary.

Others insist that the shadow is a fiction, and that only the sunny side of the street is real.

To me, both perspectives contain a certain amount of truth. Kundalini bliss leads one to acknowledge that there is more to our human experience than grief and suffering, although certainly these exist. The shadow enters into individual and societal experience, but so does the light, the revelation of ultimate connection with that which is greater than ourselves.

Fortunately, Kundalini awakening does not depend on arguments or conceptual approaches. It is a gut felt, visceral experience that convinces by its bodily/spiritual authority. One cannot deny its power and its presence. One recognizes it as one’s own ultimate destiny, one’s source and end.

I think that the best course is not to deny either pole of experience, to acknowledge the shadow but live in the light. This is the wisdom contained in the ancient Taoist emblem of the yin/yang, opposites eternally balanced, each containing the seed of the other.

Transformation of Consciousness

The transformation of consciousness resulting from a mystical experience brings with it, along with an enhanced sense of morality, compassion and detachment , a continuum of experience, with the gifts of genius, inspired creativity and paranormal gifts on one end to revelation on the other. Often, this transformation manifests in new knowledge, revolutionary ideas, new forms of writing or art, and what the yogic tradition call siddhis or boons, i.e., paranormal gifts.

Walt Whitman's poetry in itself was a departure from a standard literary style and its structure was a new and revolutionary expression. He brought the gift of physical and emotional healing in his extraordinary ministering to the wounded and dying soldiers of the American Civil War.

He prophesied the coming turbulence of the 20th century in his poem, ‘Starting from Paumanok’

O expanding and swift! O henceforth,
Elements, breeds, adjustments,
turbulent, quick and audacious;
A world primal again, vistas of glory,
incessant and branching
A new race, dominating previous ones,
and grander far - with new contests,
New politics, new literatures and
religions, new inventions and arts
These! My voice announcing - I will
sleep no more, but arise;
You oceans that have been calm
within me! How I feel you,
fathomless, stirring, preparing
unprecedented waves and storms.

Whitman believed that sublime knowledge and enlightenment was accessible to all. "A prophet," he said, "is one whose mind bubbles and pours forth like a fountain from inner divine spontaneities revealing God…The great matter is to reveal and outpour the God-like suggestion pressing for birth in the soul."

After Hildegarde of Bingen's profound mystical experience in 1141, the voice in the vision commanded her to "say and write" what she "saw and heard" in her visions. At first she refused and as a result, she soon fell ill. The moment that she began to do as the voice within the light had commanded, her illness lifted and one of the most phenomenal creative outpourings in history began. Between her forty-third year and her death at the age of eighty-one, Hildegarde produced a monumental amount of literary, poetical, musical, medical and scientific material. In total she wrote three lengthy books on her visions, two books on medicine, a book depicting the cosmology of the world, two biographies of saints, liturgical poetry and the words and music to a cycle of over seventy songs. She wrote a mysterious and apparently unfinished dictionary containing the definitions of some 900 words that appear to be from a completely unknown language. Beyond all this, Hildegarde expressed herself artistically by illustrations (some done with the help of others) that depict elements from her visions.

In addition to her visionary, musical and medical writing, Hildegarde produced the very first morality play - a drama form that would become the standard for theatre in the Middle Ages. In his classic work, From Magic to Science, written in 1958, Dr. Charles Singer gives Hildegarde a pivotal place in the history of science. He states that her writings on Cosmology "are heralds of the dawn of a new movement" and says that "with her we have left the Dark Ages and the Dawn of Science has begun."

Along with this new knowledge, Hildegarde was instrumental in the development of sapiential theology—a tradition in Christianity that focuses on the divine feminine that is expressed as Wisdom or Sophia in such texts as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Wisdom of Solomon.

Victor Hugo's exceptional gifts included a creative energy that often resulted in a staggering output. His daily schedule of exercise, writing, spending time with family and reading left little time for sleep. Even with only 3 or 4 hours sleep he would not stop work until he had finished 100 lines of poetry or 20 pages of prose. Yet he lived in good health and active creativity until his death at age 83.

His mystical and visionary attributes aside, Hugo stands as a great literary genius. In Victor Hugo, A Tumultuous Life, Samuel Edwards summarized, "It is said even by his detractors, that no one ever expressed the French language in such a unique fashion…He was acclaimed as the greatest lyric poet of the century and one of the greatest who had ever lived. 'A Ville Quier' is a lyric elegy of unsurpassed beauty and is recognized as one of the greatest poems ever written in the French language."

Certainly, Hugo was a visionary. He once wrote that the complete poet is composed of these three visions: Humanity, Nature and the Supernatural. "Man always dreamed," he wrote, "always went beyond reality."

The divine inspiration that Mahadevi embodied was not only evident in her courage but in her creative expression. Her deepest yearnings resulted in the powerful imagery of her poems:

For hunger,
there is the town's rice in the begging bowl.
For thirst,
there are tanks, streams, wells.
For sleep,
there are the ruins of temples.
For soul's company,
I have you, O Lord
White as Jasmine.

There can be no doubt that Mahadevi knew that she was receiving this inspiration from God:

Knowledge is like the sun;
Devotion, like his rays:
Without the sun, there are no rays;
Without the rays, no sun.
So, how can ever be
Devotion without knowledge, knowledge without
Devotion, O Cenna Mallikajuna?

Like many before and since, St. John of the Cross was transformed by his experience of illumination, becoming "a poet unsurpassed in the Spanish language". In the decade that followed his transformation, he completed his three major poems, ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, ‘Spiritual Canticle’, and ‘Living Flame of Love’ and wrote lengthy treatises to explain them in detail. St. John has given the world a wealth of spiritual guidance, his writings give us but a glimpse into the depth and scope of his insights into the union of the soul with its creator. At his beatification process, a nun, M. Francesca de la Madre de Dios, testified that on two separate occasions when he was preaching, St. John was "rapt and lifted up from the ground". In addition to writing poems and treatises in record time, St. John knew the Bible by heart and completed a two-to-three year course in theology in one year. His literary style was quite unique and highly individualistic. E. Allison Peers, his biographer, concludes that, "nothing but natural genius could import the vigour and the clarity which enhance all of St. John of the Cross's arguments and nothing but his own deep and varied experience could have made him what he may well be termed - the greatest psychologist in the history of mysticism".

Ralph Waldo Emerson, it is said, was not a great writer, but he was a writer with a greatness of mind. He has been compared to Walt Whitman in that they both overcame the suppressive nature of their cultures and each produced a body of writing that was uniquely American. Emerson's belief that science and religion could be unified was a revolutionary concept. In his outstanding work, The Esoteric Emerson, Richard Geldard explains: "In our secular world Emerson's world view is lumped into so-called paranormal phenomena and is often discredited as sentimentalism. In science the subtle is merely what is yet to be fixed by experimentation and demonstrable proof. For Emerson, subtle meant unseen, what had to be intuitively known. It also meant "real" and he defined it as a "source of energy by which life was generated and sustained."

Emerson's gift of genius might not be original in thought but there was originality and beauty in its expression. A precocious child, an unusually thoughtful young man, Emerson's genius matured in his mid-30s with the publication of Nature. His essays and poems were a marvel of intellectual clarity, depth and range; their vision, revelations and practical wisdom causing one biographer, George Woodbury, to say, "No man rises from reading him without feeling more unshackled."

Stephen Whicher calls Emerson's idea of man's entire independence one of the most startling new notes in American literature - "The aim of this strain in his thought is not virtue, but freedom and mastery. It is radically anarchic, overthrowing all the authority of the past, all compromise or co-operation with others in the name of the Power present and agent in the Soul."

The expansion of consciousness attendant to the mystical experience, St. Teresa of Avila explains with a warning to the beginning spiritual seeker: "There is another kind of rapture - I call it flight of the spirit - which though substantially the same as other raptures, is interiorly experienced very differently. For sometimes suddenly a movement of the soul is felt so swift that it seems the spirit is carried off, and at a fearful speed especially in the beginning. This is why I have told you that strong courage is necessary for the one to whom God grants these favors and even faith and confidence and a full surrender to our Lord so that He may do what He wants with the Soul."

St. Teresa of Avila wrote about her mystical experiences in the language of her people and displayed her genius by expressing the ineffable in a way that could capture the essence of her spiritual life. She wrote spontaneously with very little erasing nor revising her words and her work belongs in the top echelon of spanish literature. The Interior Castle stands as an example of divine inspiration and a practical road map to a spiritual transformation.

After Krishnamurti's mystical experience in 1921, people who had known him from an early age reported that the change in him was marked. Mary Lutyens, his biographer, called him "almost vacant" in his early years. But in the years 1926 to 1931, Krishnamurti wrote sixty poems. From 1926 until his passing in 1986, he gave innumerable talks world-wide, published dozens of books and founded eight schools.

From a very early age, Krishnamurti had a tendency to be clairvoyant, seeing deceased and absent loved ones, occurrences that could be brushed off as fanciful if they hadn't been witnessed in some cases. When asked about his ability, he said it was a faculty he could still have but did not choose to. He felt the ability was a distraction from real spiritual development.

According to Mary Lutyens, he also had the power of healing. Krishnamurti had written to friends years earlier that he had success in this area but later down-played the assertion because he did not wish to be known as a healer. He emphasized throughout his teaching that internal personal growth is far more important than development of psychic abilities. He never rehearsed his teaching —"It is like what the Bible terms revelation", he said "It happens all the time I am talking. This simple person Krishnamurti has not come to the teaching through thought. The core of his teaching is that each individual must hold a mirror to his own consciousness and strive to develop freedom. There is a direct line to Truth within each individual."

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, mastermind behind the historic expeditions of Lewis and Clark, architect and founder of a great University, was also an accomplished naturalist, musician, inventor and lawyer. He could converse expertly on art, science, religion, physics, astronomy and literature. He spoke several languages fluently and could read the classics in the original Greek and Latin. These astonishing gifts of genius have been documented in numerous volumes over the years. Was Jefferson a prophet, also? In his writings, he often predicted the evils, upheavals and disasters that later came upon the American people in consequence of violation of economic balance, political justice and social fair dealing. His mind was always open and young. Phillips Russell writes, "One of Jefferson's distinctions was that increasing age found him neither cynical nor conservative. During a long life, he remained an inquirer and student."

This has been but a brief examination of the lives of enlightened mystics and extraordinary geniuses. Some diversity in the accounts of their experiences are due to variations in mental levels, ideas, and cultural development but the common features of the characteristics displayed certainly give credence to the Kundalini hypothesis. Research into the kundalini phenomenon remains embryonic at this stage but its importance for our planet cannot be overestimated. Gopi Krishna makes this prediction:

The possibilities inherent in Kundalini are unlimited. Its implications in respect of every sphere of human life are enormous. What the seekers often believe to be a power they can activate for their own spiritual or material benefit, is the Power that rules the Universe, the Infinite Intelligence of which we are a tiny speck. Once the existence of an organic evolutionary mechanism in human beings is confirmed, Kundalini will assume an importance that is unimaginable at present. It will decisively influence every field of human activity and thought. The whole atmosphere of the earth will be saturated with the idea that man is a pilgrim on the way to the Shrine of God-Consciousness.

There is a close relationship between Kundalini and the mystical experience. I think all of us experience "mystical moments," when ordinary consciousness subsides and a sense of a larger, mysterious reality takes its place. Such moments lead to intense, heightened awareness of ourselves and the world. They can happen in nature, in devotional practice, when listening to music, when creating something of beauty, or even when being in love (as well as other states of consciousness). I think that those who are universally recognized as "mystics" are simply those whose lives are marked by a near constant stream of such moments--these states then become the dominant "reality" rather than "ordinary consciousness."

Here is an excerpt that I found on a new website at http://www.icrcanada.org (Institute for Consciousness Research). The full entry (well worth reading) is printed under the section called "Literary Research."

It is gratifying to know that those of us on the Kundalini path share certain kinds of consciousness states with great mystics, who have themselves significantly impacted the world.

The Institute for Consciousness Research did not supply information as to the original source of this article nor background information on the author. The site contains much additional information of value on Kundalini as a whole, especially the role of Gopi Krishna, one of the pioneers of the Kundalini phenomenon.



The Mystical Experience

(excerpted from an article by Eileen Holland)

Mystical experience is generally described as being some type of direct experience of the Divine. In virtually every spiritual tradition, mystics talk about this experience as a "union" with the Divine or as a "oneness" with all things. Gopi Krishna says that "In the highest states of mystical ecstasy every object springs to life and the whole of nature becomes alive. One incredible living, feeling Ocean of Being connects the mystic with every object in the Universe."

In examining these lives, we present several examples of people who had these profound mystical experiences. They may differ somewhat, but their similarities are far more notable than their differences. Regardless of when or where they occurred, they all contain the elements of the mystical experience the Yogic tradition tells us are characteristic of kundalini awakening. This awakening is usually accompanied by an experience of cosmic light, sometimes sound, a feeling of bliss, and expansion of consciousness and a lasting transformation in the life of the experiencer.

Walt Whitman in ‘Song of Myself’ expresses the transformation:

Loafe with me on the grass, loose
the stop from your throat,
Not words, not music or rhyme
I want, not custom or lecture,
not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum
of your valved voice…
…Is this then a touch quivering
me to a new identity?
Flames and ether making a rush
for my veins…
…My ties and ballasts leave me…
I travel…I sail…My elbows
rest in sea gaps,
I skirt Sierras…my palms cover
continents,
I am afoot with my vision.

And in his poem ‘Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking’

Never again leave me to the peaceful
child I was
before what there in the night
By the sea under the yellow and
sagging moon,
The messenger there arous'd, the fire,
the sweet hell within,
The unknown want, the destiny of me.

In Hildegarde of Bingen: A Visionary Life, Sabina Flanagan quotes Hildegarde's description of the experience as it appears in the introduction to Scivias:

And it came to pass in the eleven hundred and forty-first year of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, Son of God, when I was forty-two years and seven months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And to it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming…and suddenly I understood the meaning of the expositions of the books, that is to say of the Psalter, the evangelists, and other catholic books of the Old and New Testaments.

In her 70s, Hildegarde again describes her vision, this expansion of consciousness:

From my early childhood…this vision, my soul as God would have it, rises up into the vault of heaven…and spreads itself out among different people…far away from me in distant lands and places…The light I see… is far, far brighter than a cloud that carries the sun…Sometimes I see within this light another light…all sorrow and anguish leave me, so that then I feel like a simple girl instead of an old woman.

With Victor Hugo, the mystical experience was often expressed in his fictional characters e.g., The Bishop of Digne in Les Miserables, who meditates in his garden at night:

…opening his soul to the unknown…offering up his heart at that hour when the flowers of night emit their perfume…expanding in ecstasy in the midst of creation's universal radiance…He felt something floating away from him; and something descending upon him, mysterious exchanges of the soul with the universe…

In Hugo's poems, the sound that has been heard by mystics of all ages rings out:

First 'twas a voice, immense, vast, undefined
More vague than through the forest
sounds the wind
Music it was, ineffable and deep,
Which vibrates, flows and round the
world doth sweep…

And in the poem ‘Dreams’, the "voice" again appears:

Let me in dreams ascend
To heavens of love and shade
And let them never end,
But night the vision lend
That in the day was made.

It is a voice profound
Creation's total song:
It is the Globe's vast sound
The world as it turns round
The Heavenly space along.

Mahadevi Akka, whose short but passionate life was spent in intense devotion of Shiva, recounts her experiences of bliss and light in her poetry much the same way as Hildegarde:

A light excelling a billion suns and moons
Came down and lodged itself within my mind;
At sight whereof I crossed this life's pitfalls

When Mahadevi reached marriageable age and her parents began to seek a husband for her, her worship of Shiva became clear, as she refused all eligible suitors saying she loved only Shiva whom she had given the name, Chenna Mallikarjuna (My Lovely Lord White as Jasmine). In her poetry, this love is portrayed as pure joy and a sense of expansion:

I saw the Absolute,
I saw the Mystery,
I saw the joy that comes, the joy
That is possessed, the joy that is lodged
When knowledge had been won, I lost
All trace of ignorance;
While still hemmed in
Within the fascination of the Sign
I shed my bounds on knowing Thee,
O Cenna Mallikarjuna.

St. John of the Cross, whose experience of fire and light is the core of his writings, expressed his spiritual awakening in ‘Living Flame of Love’:

Oh living flame of love
How tenderly you wound
the innermost center of my soul…
Oh gentle cautery!
Oh delicate wound!
Oh soft hand! Oh gentle touch
that tasted of eternal life
and repays every debt!
By killing, death into life you have transformed.

He explains the purifying flame further: "The fire…is able to consume to an extent which cannot be measured…since God is an infinite fire of love, when therefore He is pleased to touch the soul with some severity, the heat of the soul rises to such a degree that the soul believes that it is being burned with a heat greater than any other in the world."

While imprisoned at the age of 35, St. John experienced a mystical ecstasy he described as a presence of light. One of his biographers describes it: "His cell became filled with light, even though it was night and there was no lamp or other source of light. St. John…later…told one of his brethren that the heavenly light, which God so mercifully sent him, lasted the night through, filled his soul with joy and made the night pass away as it were but a moment".

Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke of "one central fire which flaming now out of the lips of Etna…and now out of the throat of Vesuvius…It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul that animates all men."

Emerson's mystical experiences were many and profound, finding expression in Nature, where he wrote…"Standing on the bare ground…my head bathed in the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all, the current of the Universal Being circulates through me."

St. Teresa's descriptions of her mystical experiences are not only scrupulously detailed, they flow with a literary beauty that carries the reader along with her:

If I should have spent many years trying to imagine how to depict something so beautiful, I couldn't have, nor would I have known how to, it surpasses everything imaginable here on earth even in just its whiteness and splendor.

The splendor is not one that dazzles, it has a soft whiteness, is infused, gives the most intense delight to the sight, and doesn't tire it; neither does the brilliance, in which it is seen, the vision of so divine a beauty, tire it. It is a light so different from earthly light that the sun's brightness that we see appears very tarnished in comparison with that brightness and light represented to the sight, and so different that afterward you wouldn't want to open your eyes.

The expansion of consciousness attendant to the mystical experience, St.Teresa explains with a warning to the beginning spiritual seeker:

There is another kind of rapture - I call it flight of the spirit - which though substantially the same as other raptures, is interiorly experienced very differently. For sometimes suddenly a movement of the soul is felt so swift that it seems the spirit is carried off and at a fearful speed, especially in the beginning. This is why I have told you that strong courage is necessary for the one to whom God grants these favors, and even faith and confidence and a full surrender to our Lord , so that He may do what He wants with the soul.

Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote in his Note-book — "…there was an intense bright light at the very centre of the brain and beyond the brain at the very centre of consciousness, of one's being. It was light that had not shadow nor was it set in any dimension…with that light there was present that incalculable strength and beauty beyond thought and feeling."

And in another description of the experience… "Suddenly one felt this immense flame of power…It is beyond all thought and words to describe what's going on, the strangeness of it and the love, the beauty of it. It's beyond and above all faculties of man."

Thomas Jefferson, who chose not to dwell too deeply on the ‘mystical’ but yet from his youth had a serene sense of an indwelling God, instead took the path of reason and religious freedom. He was interested in Eastern philosophy and there are intriguing hints that he may have turned away from the powerful experiences that often accompany esoteric disciplines. In a letter to Isaac Story, a Massachusetts minister, who was questioning Jefferson's beliefs, he answered…"When I was young I was fond of the speculations which seemed to promote some insight into the hidden country but observing at length that they left me in the same ignorance as they found me, I have for many years ceased to read or think concerning them and have reposed my head on the pillow of ignorance which a benevolent creator has made so soft for us…"

Jefferson had a deep conviction that men should answer to their own God and to "question with boldness even the existence of God." In a letter to his nephew urging him to selfless action, he wrote, "if you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under His eye and that He approves of you, will be a vast incitement (to virtue)."

These examples of mystical experience are but a small sampling of the highly evolved individuals who have reached these higher states of consciousness. These higher states should not be confused with ‘altered’ mind states that are often drug-induced. The true mystical experience may be perennial, i.e., the person lives in a permanent state of luminous thought-energy, or the experience can be of short duration. In either case, the person is changed forever, the feeling of ‘oneness’ with all living beings causing a transformation endowing the person with a deep sense of morality, compassion and humanitarian characteristics, detachment from the material and an unshakable belief in a Divine Intelligence or God.

Then as Now

(another poem for the Beloved Within)

How long this has been happening,
how many days, years, eons,
none of the measures matter.

I think we two met in eternity.
I think I was you,
then as now,
and you were me as well.

We did not need names.
We saw ourselves
reflected in each other’s faces,
though of course,
we no longer had faces.
Features, aspects,
these no longer counted.

We each were drowned
in the sea of love,
then as now.

Dorothy Walters
December 27, 2011

Today, once more, those of us who feel alienated from "mainstream culture," may feel isolated and perhaps depressed. There are, of course, many ways of feeling alienated. Often this feeling derives from renewed awareness of a childhood lacking in love, perhaps marked by physical or sexual abuse. Such backgrounds can produce a life time of mourning, of grieving for the "lost" parent, the mother or father who failed to extend sufficient tokens of nurturance and acceptance.

Another state of alienation is produced when one is a creator, by definition someone who does not see the world as the majority perceive it, a person who expresses in deeply felt ways a vision unique to the self. Even geniuses can suffer this fate--consider Beethoven who had virtually no one to love or be loved by in his life, who was further isolated by his deafness in his later years. And of course, there is also Mozart, who was buried in a pauper's grave, lacking even the modest fee required for proper burial.

Spiritual alienation is another common state of all who have penetrated to the "secret realms" of spirit, places where the masses often do not go nor even guess exist. Such is often the fate of those who undergo deep spiritual transformation, especially through the process of Kundalini awakening. Often "initiates" who have experienced the sacred inner energies feel quite isolated from family or friends. They are unable even to tell others of their profoundly transformative experiences, for those who are still "unawakened" to this new reality are unable to comprehend or interpret.

Yet, such states also may produce great benefits. The abused child may well develop a sensitivity, an empathy, beyond what is felt by many others. The artist may break through to a new revelation, a stunning vision produced by transcending the bounds of familiar perceptions. And, as for Kundalini, it introduces us to new realms of being and seeing, lifts us to a new level of consciousness, and reveals astonishing insights as to wht the human is capable of.

Here is a little exercise that may help some to overcome feelings of depression or isolation on this day when it seems the entire world (except oneself) is reveling and celebrating: Instead of dwelling on losses and feelings of isolation, find reasons to be grateful. In terms of past negative experiences, be grateful one is no longer caught up in those settings or circumstances. In terms of one's present condition, be grateful that one has a roof over one's head, sufficient food to eat, enough heat to stay warm. Send blessings and hope to the millions driven from their homelands, living perhaps in tents, whole families dying of famine or disease.

Above all, be grateful that one has been "chosen" by grace itself to participate, through Kundalini, in what is perhaps the greatest venture ever conducted on the human species--evolution of consciousness to the next level. Be glad you are here as a participant and do your part to move the effort forward.

To really get in the spirit of joy and celebration, go to youtube and then to "A Giggle with the Goats". Trust me!

Http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/b4_EdJ-XkUA?rel=0

Sometimes we mislay things and think they are lost forever. Then, when they magically reappear, we are doubly delighted. That is what happened to me recently. Michael Davies sent me the link to his wonderful blog, and, before I could post the site on my own blog, I lost sight of it among my many unsorted e-mails. Yesterday, I was gratified to find it once more, and decided to publish Mike's self-description (do you recognize some aspects of yourself here?) as well as some choice quotes from his blog. He describes himself (modestly) as a "master of Kundalini and Goddess energy" and I wonder how many of us who also follow a Kundaini/goddess path might also be "renegades.' One of the marvels of the internet is that it allows us to contact others like ourselves, and thus feel some connection with like minded souls on this "lonely planet.

I encourage you to look up his blog at:http://renegadepoet.wordpress.com


About

Reprobate, na’er do well, slacker, fearless warrior of the heart, jobless defiant beatnik , keeper of frequency, champion of laughter, advocate of orgone and spiral energy, natural born renegade and troublemaker, maverick and curmudgeon, patron saint of all flash mobs and unassuming master of kundalini and Goddess energy, tireless defender of sacred ground, husband and father, pet owner and system buster, distinguished psychonaut, award winning performance poet and semi-retired raver, whose root glyph is the sign of infinity and birth number the symbol for three, currently residing in the foothills of Lancashire where he burns fires at night to purge his spirit of the mendacious urban mind.

“The true seeker of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion until he grasps the essential nature of things…”

Plato’s Republic 490b, translated from the original Greek

“The mind is like a parachute, it only works when it’s open.”

Anon

“All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Edmund Burke

“Don’t let school interfere with your education.”

Mark Twain

The warrior of light is aware of his or her immense strength, and will never fight with anyone who does not deserve the honor of combat.

Paulo Coelho, Ode

True imagination follows nature, false imagination deviates from it.

John Lash, The Promise of a Lonely Planet

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

Henry Miller

The following quotes are from the newsletter of the Anam Cara Foundation, offered by Lawrence Edwards, Ph. D. (Kalidas)

Dear Friend
This month brings so many ways of celebrating revelation and divine incarnation. Contemplating these brings the mind back to its own origin, its own calling, its own higher purpose.

May everyone realize the fullness of their abilities to give generously, to love boundlessly, and to breathe with compassion and kindness for all!



December Quotes For Reflection


"Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us we're here for something else besides ourselves."
Eric Sevareid


"When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?"
G.K. Chesterton



Chanukah Blessing
"Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has kept us alive, and has preserved us, and enabled us to reach this time."


Rohatsu - December 8th celebration of Buddha's enlightenment
"The traveler has reached the end of the journey! In the freedom of the infinite he is free from all sorrows, the fetters that bound him are thrown away, and the burning fever of life is no more."
Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha




The flute doesn't claim credit
for the alluring sound of Lord Krishna's
breath vibrating with life,
blowing through it
into the world.

The faucet can't claim credit
for the life-giving qualities
of the pure water
that flows through it.

Mother Mary didn't claim credit
for the grace that flowed through her
into this world through her son.

Eternal Mayadevi, Buddha's mother,
doesn't claim credit for what issued
forth from her.

Mothers surrender to the humble tasks
asked of them.

Simply be open, clear, pure,
surrendered and willing.
And surely the One
will find you
an irresistible
instrument of service!

Kalidas
December 2011

Testimony

(for my daughters)

I want to tell you that the world
is still beautiful.
I tell you that despite
children raped on city streets,
shot down in school rooms,
despite the slow poisons seeping
from old and hidden sins
into our air, soil, water,
despite the thinning film
that encloses our aching world.
Despite my own terror and despair.

I want you to know that spring
is no small thing, that
the tender grasses curling
like a baby's fine hairs around
your fingers are a recurring
miracle. I want to tell you
that the river rocks shine
like God, that the crisp
voices of the orange and gold
October leaves are laughing at death,

I want to remind you to look
beneath the grass, to note
the fragile hieroglyphs
of ant, snail, beetle. I want
you to understand that you
are no more and no less necessary
than the brown recluse, the ruby-
throated hummingbird, the humpback
whale, the profligate mimosa.
I want to say, like Neruda,
that I am waiting for
"a great and common tenderness",
that I still believe
we are capable of attention,
that anyone who notices the world
must want to save it.

- Rebecca Baggett

Devoured by Love

The hunger of the soul
is vast
and immeasurable.

It is a like a ravening beast
that will gnaw your heart
until you faint
with delight,
a great tree of light
that will plunge
its invisible roots
into your
flesh
and suck out
your marrow
as you groan
in pleasure,
then make of you
a swooping falcon,
predator and prey,
wondering what you
did before
for food.

August 21, 2011
Dorothy Walters

What many do not realize is that the "hunger for the holy" is not always a gentle, soft impulse. It can be quite intense, like a "predator and its prey," and give little rest until its needs are met--but of of course, then one always hungers for more.

(photo found on internet)

/Users/dorothywalters/Desktop/one.jpg

Refuse to Fall Down

Refuse to fall down.
If you cannot refuse to fall down, refuse to stay down. If you cannot refuse to stay down,
lift your heart toward heaven and like a hungry beggar, ask that it be filled and it will be filled.
You may be pushed down. You may be kept from rising.
But no one can keep you from lifting your heart to heaven--only you.
It is in the middle of misery that so much becomes clear.
The one who says nothing good came of this, is not yet listening.
-Clarisse Pinkola Estes

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
By Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
(1207 - 1273)
English version by Coleman Barks

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

As Christmas approaches, many of us feel more or less like the opening line in Rumi's poem.
Somehow the holiday season, with its emphasis on merriment and joy, brings on inner feelings
of loss and things that are lacking in our lives. We too "wake up empty and frightened," even though
we might not be able to say exactly what we are frightened of. Times are uncertain. 2012 is rapidly
coming nearer, with all its dire predictions for the future. We wonder "what we have done wrong" in our
lives to be so far from our goals. We may feel that family or good friends are wavering in
their support.

I think Rumi offers valuable suggestions as to what to do in such moods. Music itself can often be of
great comfort. We can immerse ourselves in those projects that we love and that reassure us that we are
connected to something meaningful in our lives. We can turn to our spiritual practices, which we may have
neglected in the recent past.

All of these are helpful, and may help to heal the "primal wound," caused by the separation from source
that occurred when we were born and came into an unfamiliar world.

These periods of grief are part of a recurring cycle in all our lives. We can't wear a smiley face all the
time, but we can also know that the good times of love and joy will return, as they too are part of
the constant cycle.

TO HEAR ABOUT FOUR MINUTES OF "TRANCE DANCE" DEVOTIONAL MUSIC,
GO TO:
WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/NANDHI108

You are Christ's Hands
By Teresa of Avila
(1515 - 1582)

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ's compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

(Teresa of Avila was known for her many "raptures." The image depicts an archangel opening her heart to ecstasy. Some believe her "raptures" were in fact Kundalini bliss.)

Why am I reaching again for the brushes?
When I paint your portrait, God,
nothing happens.

But I can choose to feel you.

At my senses' horizon
you appear hesitantly,
like scattered islands.

Yet standing here, peering out,
I'm all the time seen by you.

The choruses of angels use up all of heaven.
There's no more room for you
in all that glory. You're living
in your very last house.

All creation holds its breath, listening within me,
because, to hear you, I keep silent.

~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~

(Rilke’s Book of Hours:Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)

To A Siberian Woodsman
(after looking at some pictures in a magazine)

1.
You lean at ease in your warm house at night after supper,
listening to your daughter play the accordion.
You smile with the pleasure of a man confident in his hands,
resting after a day of long labor in the forest,
the cry of the saw in your head,
and the vision of coming home to rest.
Your daughter's face is clear in the joy of hearing her own music.
Her fingers live on the keys
like people familiar with the land they were born in.

You sit at the dinner table late into the night with your son,
tying the bright flies that will lead you along the forest streams.
Over you, as your hands work, is the dream of the still pools.
Over you is the dream of your silence while the east brightens,
birds waking close by you in the trees.

2.
I have thought of you stepping out of your doorway at dawn,
your son in your tracks.
You go in under the overarching green branches of the forest whose ways,
strange to me,
are well known to you as the sound of your own voice
or the silence that lies around you now that you have ceased to speak,
and soon the voice of the stream rises ahead of you,
and you take the path beside it.
I have thought of the sun breaking pale through the mists over you
as you come to the pool where you will fish,
and of the mist drifting over the water,
and of the cast fly resting light on the face of the pool.

3.
And I am here in Kentucky in the place I have made myself in the world.
I sit on my porch above the river that flows muddy
and slow along the feet of the trees.
I hear the voices of the wren
and the yellow-throated warbler whose songs pass near the windows
and over the roof.
In my house my daughter learns the womanhood of her mother.
My son is at play,
pretending to be the man he believes I am.
I am the outbreathing of this ground.
My words are its words as the wren's song is its song.

4.
Who has invented our enmity?
Who has prescribed us hatred of each other?
Who has armed us against each other with the death of the world?
Who has appointed me such anger that I should desire the burning of your house
or the destruction of your children?
Who has appointed such anger to you?
Who has set loose the thought
that we should oppose each other with the ruin of the forests and rivers,
and the silence of birds?
Who has said to us that the voices of my land shall be strange to you,
and the voices of your land strange to me?

Who has imagined that I would destroy myself in order to destroy you,
or that I could improve myself by destroying you?
Who has imagined that your death could be negligible to me
now that I have seen these pictures of your face?
Who has imagined that I would not speak familiarly with you,
or laugh with you,
or visit in your house and go to work with you in the forest?
And now one of the ideas of my place will be
that you would gladly talk and visit and work with me.

5.
I sit in the shade of the trees of the land I was born in.
As they are native I am native,
and I hold to this place as carefully as they hold to it.
I do not see the national flag flying from the staff of the sycamore,
or any decree of the government written on the leaves of the walnut,
nor has the elm bowed before monuments
or sworn the oath of allegiance.
They have not declared to whom they stand in welcome.

Wendell Berry

Miracles


Here I sit at my computer on 11-11-11, reading hours of emails and petitions and forwards about Delaware River fracking, and Mississippi’s rejection of personhood for women’s eggs, and move-your-money-day, and tar sands pipelines, and constitutional amendments to limit campaign funds, and Occupy Oakland’s massive challenge to stay non-violent in this most violence-racked city, and polar bears without ice floes, and torture of lesbians in Ecuador, and, and,............ and I am overcome with gratitude:

.... to Hippocrates and Hahnemann and Curie and Pasteur and Salk and my Dr. Michael and Debbie and herb gardens and bees and sunshine and rain and the loyalty of seed, for helping me be here still, octogenarian on fire

.... to my parents and grandparents and their ancestors for their good genes and their good sense to cross the daunting Atlantic to labor in coal mines and cigar factories to make me, to make me better, to make me a better life

.... to Ben Franklin and Tom Edison and Singer and to my furnace for keeping me warm, and to all the other comforting and safety-making inventions in this shelter where I can close my eyes in sleep unafraid

.... to those who created language out of grunts, and Gutenberg, and my Dad who taught me to read while tending to my sixth-year chickenpox, and to Miss Hanson who liked my third-grade poems, and to those colonials who created Rutgers University without ever having me in mind

.... to a lifetime of listening wonderment for the Mozart melodies that reside in my head, my brain’s personal MP3 downloads

.... to Susan and the other suffragettes who marched and suffered nights in jail for my right to be a woman voting, though they never knew me personally

.... to Ghandi and MLK and Mother Theresa and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Friends and COs and Occupy-all, all those who hold the light

.... to the power of those who loved me and love me still, and by so doing keep me whole still, whether they walk the earth or no longer grace it

.... to whatever mysteries keep my mind alert and capable of outrage, keep my soul alive and capable of gratitude

.... to my diaphragm that keeps me breathing, I know not why

- Vilma Olsvary Ginzberg

During the time of your Kundalini awakening process, your body--and especially your nervous system--is undergoing major changes. It will need all the support it can get as it adjusts to the new energies coming in. One of the areas you can utilize to aid in this process is by following a more careful diet, one that will enhance the function of your entire system

Last night I watched a very interesting program on PBS from Dr. Joel Fuhrman, a board certified physician who specializes in nutritional medicine. The information he presented was not necessarily new, but it reaffirmed some of the basics that we all need to review from time to time.

Essentially, his message was similar to what most of us already know--the road to health consists of eating more fruits and vegetables, less meat and carbohydrates. His view is that by improving our diets and thus our health, we will automatically loe weight until we reach the most desirable reading for us.

Dr. Fuhrman made a clear and convincing presentation explaining why a raw fruit/vegetable diet is a superior one. Certain ones of these in particular contain micronutrients not found in the macronutrient/high calorie foods most of us rely on. In particular he recommended the following (using the acronym "gombs":

g---greens--most important--"let the salad be the most important part of the meal"

o---onions---very high in micronutrients

m--mushrooms--a kind of "miracle food''--the top of his list

b---berries

s---seeds and nuts---put some in your salad for best results

He also praised beans and flax, and said to eat meat only once or twice a week

Cut out salt, sugar, dairy, and all processed foods

Some critics dispute his contentions as to the relation of this kind of diet and health and longevity, but many of his patients have lost huge amounts of weight and also have been cured of serious diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. He says that when one follows this regimen, one no longer feels hungry and thus the diet is much easier to stick with than other forms of diet.

Some people undergoing Kundalini awakening feel they need a heavier diet to "ground" them. Each person is different and has individual needs. You much always find what is right for you and act accordingly.

Fuhrman's website is http://www.drfuhrman.com The section called "library" has some very interesting articles.
His books are available through Amazon.

Before He Makes Each One

Before he makes each one
of us, God speaks.

Then, without speaking,
he takes each one
out of the darkness.

And these are the cloudy
words God speaks
before each of us begins:

"You have been sent out
by your senses. Go
to the farthest edge
of desire, and give me
clothing: burn like a great
fire so that the stretched-out
shadows of the things
of the world cover
me completely.
Let everything happen
to you: beauty and terror.
You must just go--
no feeling is the farthest
you can go. Don't let
yourself be separated
from me. The country
called life is close.
By its seriousness,
you will know it.
Give me your hand."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

(Translated by Annie Boutelle)

During my holiday visit to San Francisco, I took several pictures which I am sharing here. My visit featured reunions with old friends, resampling the incredible Asian food of S. F., and visiting the museums and their ever interesting exhibits. The latter included Venetian masters of the Renaissance, a sculpted head of Medusa (before her transition to an ugly hag) by Bernini, and certain photographs at MOMA by someone whose parents once lived near earlier friends of mine. I also attended a fascinating performance in Berkeley called "A Soldier's Tale", with music by Stravinsky and a talented (but small) cast.

When in San Francisco, one wants to immerse oneself in the high culture as well as the exquisite cuisine of that area. However, it was bitterly cold and damp there and these conditions reminded me of why I left that city and fled to the brilliant, invigorating sun of Colorado.

The pictures: (top to bottom):

The scene that awaited me a few days after I got home.

An ancient Fiat parked as an advertisement in front of a restaurant named the Mona Lisa (in "North Beach") --appearing here twice by accident.

A dear friend in reverie.

An installation in Grace Cathedral dedicated to aids victims--it is made of hypodermic needles. When it revolves, the dark image of a man is visible within.

This is Maude Gonne (named for the beloved of W. B. Yeats), my hostess where I stayed.

This is Nora Barnacle (named for the wife of James Joyce), also my hostess where I stayed.

San Francisco at twilight, taken from the top of Coit Tower.

Tesla was one of the great pioneers of electricity and its uses as an energy source. Many of his inventions are still in use today and he is recognized as a giant in the field of electrical technology.

One of his inventions has to do with the use of various energetic frequencies for healing purposes. He invented a machine that can deliver energies of various frequencies to heal different ailments. These machines are currently in use by certain alternative energy healers, and mainstream scientists are coming to be more open to their possible uses.

Energy for healing is not a new concept. Such techniques as acupuncture, tai chi, chi gong, and energetic healing from actual practitioners also utilize energy infusions or openings of certain channels in the body for the purpose of healing. (And, of course, Kundalini also opens various channels in the body to allow the energies to flow and thus healing can occur.) What is "new" is the use of an actual electronic device for such purposes.

The first reference below includes a fascinating audio discussion of this approach by Dr. Claude Swanson, a practicing scientist with impressive credentials. The second is a talk by an M. D. who uses the Tesla frequencies in his practice. Both are truly amazing discussions and well worth your time. From my perspective, science is finally coming to realize that approaches long accepted in the metaphysical community can now be tested and utilized through more technical means.


Claude Swanson, PhD.: http://globalpreneurs.com/play.php?s=b92aa

Massey, MD: http://globalpreneurs.com/play.php?s=a2896

Kent Noonan, electronic researcher and inventor: http://globalpreneurs.com/play.php?s=a216a + http://globalpreneurs.com/play.php?s=522fa

And here is a little anecdote related to the above, though somewhat different. There is another similar machine called a "beam ray" which purports to cure through settings of various frequencies. I once had a "treatment" by such a machine that a friend owned. While I was receiving the frequencies, I felt nothing unusual, but I did have a sudden flash of insight. What, I wondered, if it is not the frequencies that actually do the healing, but E. T's, who are able to come in and do their healing work on these particular frequencies. I drew no conclusion, but was intrigued by the idea.

A few days later I was crossing an asphalt street pondering this question. Just as I thought to myself, "Is it frequencies or E. T.'s that do the healing?" I looked down and there, on the pavement, embossed in silver letters, was the raised inscription,
"E T s". I was quite startled and do not insist that it was a valid response, but it was certainly one of the most remarkable synchronicities I have ever experienced.

In this passing moment

By Shodo Harada Roshi
(1940 - )



"In the presence of Sangha, in the light of Dharma,
in oneness with Buddha -- may my path
to complete enlightenment benefit everyone!"

In this passing moment karma ripens
and all things come to be.
I vow to choose what is:
If there is cost, I choose to pay.
If there is need, I choose to give.
If there is pain, I choose to feel.
If there is sorrow, I choose to grieve.
When burning -- I choose heat.
When calm -- I choose peace.
When starving -- I choose hunger.
When happy -- I choose joy.
Whom I encounter, I choose to meet.
What I shoulder, I choose to bear.
When it is my death, I choose to die.
Where this takes me, I choose to go.
Being with what is -- I respond to what is.

This life is as real as a dream;
the one who knows it can not be found;
and, truth is not a thing -- Therefore I vow
to choose THIS dharma entrance gate!
May all Buddhas and Wise Ones
help me live this vow.