Is Kundalini a sentient being?

[Korpo]

also, kundalini raising techniques are kept secret secret secret...and i mean secret. what Americans know as "kundalini yoga" is of course different depending on who's teaching it, but it is mostly made of preparatory or purificatory postures that have nothing to do with raising K. the best hope for a person using modern methods is that they get to a point of purification such that they realize they need help and they seek out a teacher that can share with them the occult knowledge. personally, I think that is complete B.S. and i'd like to make it a point to make such information more widely available.

In my opinion the role of the teacher is an entirely different one. Occult techniques are - again in my opinion - overvalued, as are the secrets.

The benefit of having a teacher is to have someone who is where you want to go, who can act as reference point, who will give independent assessment and corrective input. It is my growing suspicion that with any technique, practice or field of spiritual study the potential for self-delusion is limitless. The teacher as a facilitator is a safety precaution and a booster, the knowledge of the teacher is transmitted into the student as the student becomes ready for it.

Knowledge cannot be only shared in books. This will always be misleading. Misunderstandings are recognised by the teacher and the teaching is refined according to the needs of the student.

Cheers,
Oliver

[ButterflyWoman]

I don't think of Kundalini as a "being", but I can see how people would experience it that way. The human mind tends to objectify and anthropomorphise pretty much everything, and we experience reality based on our own perceptions and beliefs.

Initially, I experienced Kundalini as what would traditionally be known as (and what I then thought of as) God, or perhaps the more feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit (yes, Christian tradition, and yes, it's feminine, but that's an entirely different discussion). Of course, I had no clue at all what was happening other than the vague notion that it was a healing process (took years to complete, too), but I did experience that which I regard as God, throughout the process.

My view of God is very different now (I no longer understand God in the sense of "a being" or "an entity"), and my view of Kundalini is with hindsight, so that does colour things considerably.

And, of course, the question must also be asked, what do we mean by "intelligent" or even "being"? And is it always the same for everyone? Is there some "objective" truth that can be stated about the nature of Kundalini? (My answers to those questions, btw, are "I don't know, and that's complicated", "No, obviously it is not", and "No, because we each experience our own reality in a subjective way, Kundalini, God, Holy Spirit, astral projection, materialism, or whatever, it's always subjective and it's always individual".)

[farewell2arms]

To me kundalini is a pal which I work with to develop consciousness. Is it someone else? Something separate from me? I don't know what's separate from me.

My part of the deal is to surrender, hers is beyond my understanding. But she's been taking great care of me, and for that I am grateful.

I would say that worshipping kundalini as a deity is a very unnecessary form of communication. She is there to help you and make you grow. Hubleness is probably a good approach but worship is in my opinion a time much better spent in facing ones own challenges.


John

[psionickx]

My part of the deal is to surrender, hers is beyond my understanding

very well said

[sibouleaux]

You might find my question a little bit arrogant, but my main purpose is to learn more on Kundalini. I apologize for the counter current thought that I will share!

Wouldn't it be more effective to work with her instead of workshiping her? We always tend to venerate what we don't understand, and I don't really agree with that. Fear and submission is in my opinion one of the worst characteristic of our race, and it is a barrier to understanding.

I do agree that we must respect highly advanced lifeforms, treat them with respect and so on. I see it like advanced alien beings suddenly announcing their arrival on Earth - it could be our creators, the Creators or other random creature. Would you prefer to work with them? Or would you assume that because they are more intelligent they need to be workshiped? Would you like your kid to workship you like you were a god? Most people will lock their home down, prepare for the end of the world.. close their minds to higher knowledge and wisdom.. but why?

I prefer the peaceful and cooperative approach rather than the religious approach of veneration and workshipping. My kundalini is a part of me that one day I will need to raise, help her, and respect like we do with an old person full of wisdom; keep the equal balance between me and my forces - treat her as if it was my most precious thing, my life energy.

Please explain me if you think I'm wrong.. I'm open to knowledge.

[CFTraveler]

You might find my question a little bit arrogant, but my main purpose is to learn more on Kundalini. I apologize for the counter current thought that I will share!

I don't think it's a counter to what others have been saying- I think it goes right along what most people have been saying.

Wouldn't it be more effective to work with her instead of workshiping her? We always tend to venerate what we don't understand, and I don't really agree with that. Fear and submission is in my opinion one of the worst characteristic of our race, and it is a barrier to understanding.

Agreed.

I do agree that we must respect highly advanced lifeforms, treat them with respect and so on. I see it like advanced alien beings suddenly announcing their arrival on Earth - it could be our creators, the Creators or other random creature. Would you prefer to work with them? Or would you assume that because they are more intelligent they need to be workshiped?

I don't think a highly intelligent lifeform wants or needs to be worshipped- I think the more intelligent the more such a lifeform would be beyond the need or desire for worship, because worship is part of an egoic structure, and a sign of immaturity.

[psionickx]

interesting.

[CFTraveler]

He means worshipping her. It's what we've been talking about.

[sibouleaux]

He means worshipping her. It's what we've been talking about.

Exactly, thanks and sorry for the typo

[ButterflyWoman]

for me its to invoke and interface with another sentient being

So are you worshiping us? You've invoked us (or, rather, evoked us) with your question and you're interfacing with us via our responses. I assume we're all sentient...



That being said, I'll share something, but I don't know if it will make sense to you (or most people, actually). I'll try to keep it sensible, though.

Sentience exists. Sentient beings are specific extensions of Sentience. They are not actually separated and "walled off", but a part of the All. We who are self-aware are deluded into thinking we're separate and walled-off and that we're interacting with "other beings", but it's really all just part of the One.

If you, as a "being" who sees and experiences yourself as separate, want to personify and anthropomorphise Kundalini energy (which, by the way, is just a material-world label and explanation to describe certain kinds of experience), you can certainly do so, and it can certainly work. Kundalini can be experienced as an archetypical entity, and you can interact with that. No problem.

But the question of whether Kundalini (a label) is objectively separated as you imagine yourself and others to be, well.... That's not even a question that can BE answered, because of the underlying assumptions (namely: that reality is objective, that Kundalini is a specific thing or entity, that you and/or others are separate beings, etc.).

From my point of view, I say go for it. If you want to talk to "Kundalini as Goddness" (or however you envision it/her/whatever), do that, and see if it works for you. It's YOUR reality, after all, and while we all tap into the Collective Unconsciousness for a great deal of the framework of our reality, it's about as objective as a dream.

Now, if that made no sense whatsoever, that's fine. It's not something that's easily understood, let alone grokked. But there it is, for whomever ends up reading it, maybe via some random Google search or something, maybe some forum member who wanders into this thread and has an ah-hah moment, who knows. I felt like writing it, so I did.