Kundalini and Prana
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 6 years before Feb 19, 2017
MiBeloved 6 years ago
Is raising kundalini the same as stimulating prana in the psyche?
Prana is a general term for the energy which moves about the subtle body, just as blood or plasma is a term for the red liquid which moves about through the arteries and veins of the physical body.
Just as there are different kinds of plasma in the body depending on the location of it and on if it has expended its useful charge or not, so there are different kinds of prana or subtle energy listed in the yogic system.
However for the purpose of kriya yoga, we regard prana and apana, which means prana as the charged subtle energy and apana as unwanted subtle energy.
Prana is to kundalini as gasoline is to an automobile. The vehicle moves when it extracts energy from the gasoline. Kundalini is energized and it can move if it is infused with a certain amount of prana or subtle energy. Kundalini is not prana but it uses prana and is infused by prana in the kundalini yoga exercises and also in other types of pranayama exercises.
Kundalini is the same force which causes sexual expression in the form of sexual pleasure in the body. Thus since most of us are familiar with the sex drive and its basic operation, we can study how it operates and uses that information to predict and assume what it will do when it rises through the spine.
I was sitting there in the park reading a book. I was out for a little stroll just to see what the trees were blooming and what the birds were sitting. I had no idea in my mind about sex arousal.
But then a lady passed by the park bench. She was wearing a very short skirt and a low-cut sweater. As soon as I saw her I experienced a sex arousal. How was that possible since I had no thought of sex and I did not know the lady?
Obviously in this case there must be at least three forces involved:
1. A sexual energy latently stored in my body
2. A mechanism which converted that energy into an active force
3. A trigger or switch which was activated by my sight of the woman
These three aspects can be listed simply as:
1. Sex hormones
2. Kundalini
3. the energy taken in by the visual sense
So what really happened?
The visual sense absorbed energy from the woman. This energy was transmitted to the kundalini, which took that energy as a signal to activate the potential power of the stored sex hormones.
If I was using a child body which was 8 years of age, the kundalini would not use the visual energy in that way because there would be no stored sex hormones which it could activate in the body.
Now let us see how this fits into what occurs when one does pranayama or an aggressive kundalini yoga practice.
The infused breath mixes with various types of hormonal energies (especially with the sexual hormonal energies. Then it strikes kundalini. Kundalini then absorbs that energy and rises through the spine where it might or might not raise high enough to enter the brain.
I used the term hormonal energy because in that case it is occurring in the physical body. But simultaneously it happens in the subtle body and in that system we use the term prana.
So the infused prana mixes with other types of stored prana, (especially with sex energy prana). Then that combined energy strikes kundalini which becomes activated. Once it is activated it will try to spread out in the subtle body.
The idea is to make kundalini spread through the spine primarily and then go into the head.
In the example of the woman and the park bench, the sight of the woman was the trigger. In other words the visual information of the woman’s form which entered into the brain was the trigger.
In the case of kundalini practice, the infusion of the breath into the lungs was the trigger.
Quite interesting isn’t it.
Marcia Beloved 6 years ago
How does the yogi direct the kundalini up the spine, instead of having it disperse all throughout the body?
MiBeloved 6 years ago
Admittedly at first the main method is using the locks which begin with the anus lock, sex lock stomach lock, neck lock and third-eye focus mind-lock. But there are other inner body locks which come into play as one advances in the practice. These deprive kundalini of its ability to spread itself through various parts of the body to pursue mundane existence.
In the advanced stages, along with these locks, one locks down on kundalini’s interest. For instance it has an interest is sex. It has an interest in retaining stools in the body for longer periods, until the stools dry out, so that it can extract strong chemicals from the stools. It has an interest in over-eating. It has an interest in less breathing so that it can stock pile carbon dioxide. It has an interest in bodily emotions so that it can better promote social existence in the physical world. It has an interest in speech for the purpose of defending itself and laying out its plans to expand its material existence.
And the list goes on and on. The yogi has his or her job cut out, in sabotaging these interests of kundalini. When those avenues of expression are effectively closed off, kundalini remains trapped in the base chakra and has only one way out which is to go up into the brain.
If you position yourself in the brain in the central place where the I-self usually remains, and if you then try to call kundalini up into the brain by will power or by visualization, 99% of the time kundalini will totally ignore you. It is for this reason that we do aggressive breath infusion in kundalini yoga, in the way Yogi Bhajan taught. This system pumps fresh air and hormonal energy into the base chakra. This stirs kundalini and forces it to do something. But as soon as it tries to use that infusement to go into its favorite channels, it is blocked by the yogi. It then is forced to go upwards because it has no choice.
There is no doubt about it, that kundalini yoga is a forced process. Those who do not want to force kundalini has the option to just sit to meditate and try to induce kundalini to come up by will power, by uttering sounds in the body, by music, by visualization, by ingesting drugs and any other such less-aggressive methods.
Some persons have experienced kundalini suddenly rising into the brain, after or during a fall. Others have had it happen while meditating. Others while dreaming. Others while listening to music. And of course the usual method of kundalini experience is given to us free of charge in sexual stimulation. Sometimes suddenly without warning, kundalini rises into the head when one bends down or when one gets up from a chair. It can happen in that way but these methods are controlled behaviors.
Marcia Beloved 6 years ago
Is one of the goals of kundalini or kriya yoga practice, to reach a point where kundalini circulates evenly throughout the body and is not concentrated in the lower body only?
If so, in this case, is the daily raising of kundalini still required? Or is the raising experienced differently?
MiBeloved 6 years ago
The word evenly should be changed to efficiently. The idea is to have the energy circulate through the gross and subtle body with such efficiency that the least amount of kundalini’s energy is used for bodily concerns.
If the least amount is used most efficiently then a greater portion will remain for spiritual practice and for enlightenment in the subtle head.
Concentration of kundalini in the lower trunk of the body, which is at the anal, sexual and nutritional chakras, is a no-no for yogis. So this concentration has to be diverted up the spine into the head.
The convention of nature is to compile nutritional energy for sexual purposes and a yogi has to violate the convention by restricting the sexual access of the energy. Unless one is begetting children and intends to raise that progeny responsibly, a yogi or yogini should divert the hormonal energy from its sexual functions. Needless to say, this is unnatural but unless it is achieved, yoga success won’t happen.
Yoga like everything else hinges on what you want to attain and what you have to do to get that. If for instance a high school graduate wants to get a professional job which requires a college degree, then guess what? He or she will have to play the education game for at least another four years.
If one wants full success in yoga and especially if one wants to go to higher dimensions, one has to qualify oneself to go there. Raising kundalini on a daily basis is a must for those persons who want to go to the brahma level of existence, the spiritual plane where everything is spiritual, the people, the environment, the vegetation, everything.
Just as there are forms in this world and all the forms are made of material energy and we are advised to keep that in mind, so there are forms in the spiritual dimensions where there are spiritual environments.
To go to such a place permanently, one has to elevate one’s psyche by some effective method here during this life.
Patanjali gave us the formula for transiting to higher dimensions in this verse:
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jātyantara = jāti – category + antara – other, another; pariṇāmaḥ – transformation; prakṛiti – subtle material nature; āpūrāt – due to filling up or saturation.
The transformation from one category to another is by the saturation of the subtle material nature. (Yoga Sutras 4.2)
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So that means that for my psyche to change into that of a celestial or spiritual being, I must cause a saturation of the energy from that higher place in my psyche by some effective method.
Suppose my idea is to go to a heaven where Jesus Christ is reigning. Then I need to find out the type of existence, feelings, and so on which the bodies have there. Once I know what that is, I would have to change my psychology to that type of nature and then that heaven would be mine at the end of this physical body.
