Kundalini Splendor

Krishnamurti--on Kundalini (from YouTube talk) (Some random notes and reflections)

I ran across this talk by Krishna Murti when I looked at the entry which began as:

"Is it true that yoga will awaken deeper energy, which is called kundalini?"

See www.youtube.com/watch?v=chPBmSzvStQ

Here are some random notes I took, along with some comments I wrote in response:
What we call yoga is really just exercise.  If we do these exercises, if we watch our diet, if we breathe deeply, we will naturally feel better.  But these programs will not awaken kundalini or lead to enlightenment.

I have long suspected that this is the case, though I have met a few people who felt that hatha yoga  did more than this.  Today, most yoga practices are as he says--merely exercises to tone the body.  Often even the teachers do not know the source or purpose of kundalini.

The physical part of yoga did not come into existence until a few centuries ago.  It was not part of the earlier practice.

Often, we refer to hatha yoga as "yoga."  Obviously, this was not the case until comparatively recent times.  Yoga means "join, or yoke."  It is intended as a means to connect with divine reality--and I think that connection comes about most pointedly through kundalini, where the body literally awakens to another level of consciousness.  The "yoga" that is referred to is not hatha yoga at all, but may include simple, gentle movements to awaken and circulate the energies within as bliss states or even rapture.  Other means can also work--such as music, aroma therapy, crystals, chanting, mudras, chi gong and tai chi, dancing, poetry, artwork and such.  All of these are (or can be), I believe, forms of "yoga," the path of divine connection.

Most of the writers on this topic have not themselves had the actual experience of spiritual awakening.  Mainly they quote other previous writers on the subject.

I love this observation.  I have long felt the same way.  Their "teachings" consist of what earlier writers or their own masters have repeated to them.  They do not know the subject from the inside.

Here is a story:  a disciple came to the master and asked to learn to meditate.  He assumed the "right" position, shut his eyes, breathed very deeply and waited.  Then he heard a noise.  He opened his eyes and saw that the master was rubbing two stones together.  He then asked the master what he was doing.  The master answered that he was making a mirror.  The disciple responded that he could rub the stones together forever but he would never make a mirror that way.  The master replied that the student could practice "meditation" in that way forever and he would never awaken.

Exactly.  Students are led to believe that if they follow a certain prescribed course, they will be led to "enlightenment."  Wrong.  Some practice in the traditional way for years and never feel the bliss of kundalini.  However, we do know that some of the ancient practitioners as well as some today followed and still follow rigorous practices of diet, exercise, abstinence, bodily purification and even sensory deprivation.  I think these practices were intended not to awaken the energies, but to provide a clear path for them to ascend, in case that process occurred.  Spontaneous awakening is a mysterious process––we simply do not know why some awaken with little effort, others not at all no matter how hard they try.  I suspect it has something to do with past lives––I believe we reincarnate with our energy bodies intact, even though we may lose the memories of how we came to develop these energetic capacities in earlier existences.  I also think that when we have difficult and or troubling awakening experiences, it is because we bring in an energetic body too strong for our present capacity to sustain it.

Krishnamurti added that the only way to higher awareness was through living a good life, observing moderation in one's life style, avoiding such excesses as alcohol and other addictions.  The higher energies will awaken only when the ego ceases to exist.

He did not elaborate as to how that might happen.

I think these rules for living a good life are valuable advice for any of us.  I also think that just because someone is an exemplar of moral conduct, he or she has no guarantee of awakening kundalini.  However, I also feel it is incumbent on the initiate to demonstrate moral conduct in his/her life, since (for me, at least), kundalini represents a gift of grace and is above all a means of connecting with the higher self, the transcendent realms.

As for "ego death," this is a most difficult process.  It is sometimes brought on by emotional or physical trauma, whatever brings about a sense that the self no longer exists and thus cannot exercise its normal expectation to be reckoned with equitably by others or society at large.   It feels as though it can no longer make demands or experience familiar gratifications––it senses that "it does not count."  

Oddly, the ego sometimes dissolves in high orgasmic states, where sense of self dissolves in cosmic (physical) bliss.  Some even experience awakening in that state.