The Carriers of the Kundalini
While I was writing this book, an image kept coming to my mind.
Lines and lines of people encircle me. Their backgrounds are diverse; I know this by their clothing. There are pantaloons from the Renaissance, robes from the Middle East, flamenco swirls of color across cultures and various times. A few figures shine with otherworldly light; others are covered with dust from working the land. Some cry, others laugh; there are those who speak holy words from texts, others who share from their hearts.
No two visitors are alike, but I know that each carries an understanding of—and perhaps a dream for—kundalini, the life force that magnifies our physical existence and awakens us to the higher planes. As I watch, I become excited, waiting to see which figure will separate from the crowd and teach me.
The first to do so is a woman clothed in bright red, her bare feet lined with veins and dirt. Her arms embrace a basket that barely stirs atop her head, although she jogs up a craggy Andean mountain. Kundalini empowers her climb; it enables the feeding of her people. At the summit, she swings the basket to her feet and raises her face to the sun. She receives its blessings. The kundalini has completed its circuit from earth to sky. In that moment, the Andean woman—one of many kundalini teachers—knows herself as whole.
In my mind’s eye, the woman smiles and then retreats into the backdrop. Next to move forward is an elderly man, sparkling with a golden light. Levitating in a yogic pose, he leans forward and unrolls a scroll. He grins as I watch a hologram that comes alive, transforming from a sketch into a movie. Here is a human body, the chakras and nadis, not the liver or other physical systems, highlighted within it. A red blaze slowly arises, igniting each of the centers as it moves upward from the base, until it joins a white fire at the top of the head. The subsequent explosion of bliss could light the entirety of the universe. The light dims, but it does not disappear. Instead, it is replaced by a fine glow that illuminates the entire body. This man teaches the more traditional form of kundalini.
I have met many representatives of this crowd of kundalini “informers.” Each has presented a slightly different view of kundalini, a particular way to activate, awaken, and express its organic power. There is the housewife who demonstrates how the kundalini helps her to vacuum, the pastor who calls upon kundalini in Holy Spirit form to gift her sermons. There is a man in therapy; he draws upon kundalini to heal the very issues that it triggers. There is the accountant who meditates daily in order to gain wisdom to better serve his clients. Are any of these individuals using kundalini more appropriately than the others? Are any of them right? More inspired than the others?
I don’t believe so. In fact, if I were to summarize the real message of this book, it would be that we are all already enlightened. We are already invested with the highest level of feminine power and the equivalent masculine counterpart. We are already “in bliss,” already serving a higher spiritual mission and at one with all beings around us. We are simply struggling to remember this truth.
Of course, much of the information in this book has been culled by research—the reading of scriptures, yogic practicums, the Internet—and my own experience. It has come through study, travel, and trial and error. It has not really appeared through mystical contact with spiritual beings across time. Then again, maybe it has. Central to any exploration of kundalini, however, is the story of kundalini in people’s lives—in your life.
The most important teaching of kundalini lies there, in your own story—in the story of your past, your living in the present, and the hopes for your future. Take a few moments and ask to see your own true self emerge from this crowd of teachers that has instructed me so well and kindly. What would you add to a book like this about kundalini? What would you tell yourself about how to proceed—how to reap, to sow, and to live as the enlightened sage that you are?
Know that you are already empowered to become this informed self. Do so in good health, walking forward in beauty and grace.
As expressed through this Navajo Prayer Song, found by author Leland Waldrip at the Anasazi Museum at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico:
Today I will walk out, today everything evil will leave me,
I will be as I was before,
I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body,
I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me.
I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me.
I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me.
My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful.93