Tantra Kundalini Experiences

THE CONTROL OF PSYCHIC PRANA In Prânâyâma we know that the first step, according to the Yogis, is to control the motion of the lungs. What we want to do is to feel the finer motions that are going on in the body. Our minds have become externalised, and have lost sight of the fine motions inside. If we can begin to feel them, we can begin to control them. These nerve currents go on all over the body, bringing life and vitality to every muscle, but we do not feel them. The Yogi says we can learn to do so. How? By taking up and controlling the motion of the lungs; when we have done that for a sufficient length of time, we shall be able to control the finer motions. We now come to the exercises in Pranayama. Sit upright; the body must be kept straight. The spinal cord, although not attached to the vertebral column, is yet inside of it. If you sit crookedly you disturb this spinal cord, so let it be free. Any time that you sit crookedly and try to meditate you do yourself an injury. The t...

RAJA-YOGA IN BRIEF The following is a summary of Râja-Yoga freely translated from the Kurma-Purâna. The fire of Yoga burns the cage of sin that is around a man. Knowledge becomes purified and Nirvâna is directly obtained. From Yoga comes knowledge; knowledge again helps the Yogi. He who combines in himself both Yoga and knowledge, with him the Lord is pleased. Those that practice Mahâyoga, either once a day, or twice a day, or thrice, or always, know them to be gods. Yoga is divided into two parts. One is called Abhâva, and the other, Mahayoga. Where one's self is meditated upon as zero, and bereft of quality, that is called Abhava. That in which one sees the self as full of bliss and bereft of all impurities, and one with God, is called Mahayoga. The Yogi, by each one, realises his Self. The other Yogas that we read and hear of, do not deserve to be ranked with the excellent Mahayoga in which the Yogi finds himself and the whole universe as God. This is the highest of all Yogas. Y...

CROSS-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF KUNDALINI In Africa Katz (1973) writes of the !Kung people of the Kalahari Desert in Northwest Botswana, Africa, who dance for many hours to “heat” up the n/um so that the !kia state can be attained. He notes that n/um is analogous to the kundalini state. !K•ia is the state of transcendence. It is more than a peak experience of going beyond the ordinary self; !kia is like Satori, participation in eternity. Education for transcendence teaches the adept the way to stir up the n/um and how the threshold of fear can be crossed into the !kia state. The n/um is said to reside in the pit of the stomach. As it warms up, it rises from the base of the spine to the skull where then !kia occurs. According to the report of a tribesman: You dance, dance, dance, dance. Then n/urn lifts you in your belly and lifts you in your back, and then you start to shiver. N/urn rnakes you trernble; it’s hot. Your eyes are open but you don’t look around; you hold your eyes still and look...

The Five Phases of Vibration or the Signs on the Path To complete this survey of the various courses of Kundalini, the distinctive signs of the different stages will now be described. A vibration of the nostrils, for instance, is indicative of the movement of the breath energy (pranakundalini); however, the passages dealing with all these symptoms are deliberately scattered, and since they belong to different traditions, we cannot present all of our information together. So here we deal exclusively with the basic texts, leaving for subsequent chapters the descriptions given by treatises such as the Saktauijnana or the Amaraughasasana. The Malinivijayatantra enumerates five major signs of the stages of yoga and of their centers: bliss, giving a jump, trembling, mystical sleep, and whirling (ghurni), associated respectively with the lower triangle, the bulb, the heart, the vault of the palate, and the brahmarandhra. Mystical experiences and significant phenomena occur in rapid succession...

CONVERSATION BETWEEN GREAT DISCIPLE GORAKNATH & MASTER MACCHENDRA Gorakh -- O Lord (Svami), you are the Master Teacher (Satguru Gosain), and I am but a disciple: may I put a question, which you would kindly reply to and resent not? To start with, what ideal (lacch) should the disciple put before him? Do tell me for you are the true Teacher. Macchendra -- Let the unattached (awadhu, avadhuta) live at the monastery (hat) or be on the road, resting in the shadow of the trees; he should renounce desire, cruelty, greed, delusion, and the illusion of Samsar (Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha and Samsar ki Maya); he should hold converse (gosht) with himself and contemplate the Endless (Ananta); he should sleep little and eat little. In the beginning the disciple should live thus. Thus speaks Macchendra. [2] Gorakh -- What should he see, what contemplate, and what treat as the essence (sar); with what should he shave his head and with the knowledge of what should he try to cross (the ocean of S...

EXCERPTS FROM THE GREAT BOOK MAHANIRVANA TANTRA Mount Kailasa The scene of the revelation of this Tantra is laid in Himalaya, the "Abode of Snow," a holy land weighted with the traditions of the Aryan race. Here in these lofty uplands, encircled with everlasting snows, rose the great mountain of the north, the Sapta Kula Parvata. Hence the race itself came, and there its early legends have their setting. There are still shown at Bhimudiyar the caves where the sons of Pandu and Draupadi rested, as did Rama and his faithful wife at the point where the Kosi joins the Sita in the grove of Asoka trees. In these mountains Munis and Rishis lived. Here also is the Kshetra of Shiva Mahadeva, where His Spouse Parvvati, the daughter of the Mountain King, was born, and where Mother Ganges also has her source. From time immemorial pilgrims have toiled through these mountains to visit the three great shrines of Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. At Kangri, further north, the pilgrims make...