Читать книгу A Woman's Guide to Tantra Yoga - Vimala McClure - Страница 33

A prominent aspect of the philosophy and practice of Tantra is Kundalini Yoga—that which brings the dormant spiritual energy in a living being into fruition, to union with its cause — infinite consciousness. According to Tantra, the human structure is a reflection of the universe. The human mind is a reflection, a replica in microcosm, of the cosmic mind.

In the cycle of creation, as you recall, there is a point at the “top” of the cycle, where consciousness is infinite, both within and beyond everything. There is also a point at the “bottom” of the cycle, where the force of static Shakti exerts the most influence possible — the densest expression of consciousness. It is at this densest point when evolution, as we know it, begins.

So, too, in the human structure, the evolution of the spirit begins at the densest point, at the base of the spine. This point is known as kula, meaning “container.” Within this container is the kundalini or the dormant force of spiritual energy, the expression of cosmic energy in human form. This cosmic energy lies asleep within your psychophysical structure. All spiritual practices strive to awaken this dormant force and to elevate it to oneness with infinite consciousness—the “top” of the cycle—represented in the human structure as the top of the head, the “crown center.”

Imagine you are sleeping soundly. Perhaps you have been on a long journey and you haven’t slept in a couple of days. Your sleep is so deep you don’t notice people going in and out of the room, the sun shining in the window in the morning, the sound of the busy street outside. Then suddenly your alarm clock rings near your ear. It’s time to catch your plane home. It takes a special instrument—an alarm, a friend nudging you, a telephone ringing nearby—to awaken you from such a deep slumber.

The kundalini has been sleeping deep inside the kula for eons, since the beginning of evolution. It takes a very special instrument to awaken it. One instrument designed to awaken the kundalini is the mantra, a sound vibration repeated in the mind during meditation. It is the key that unlocks the infinite energy residing in every human being and that propels you toward the infinite bliss of self-realization.

A mantra can be especially effective if it has been invested with the tremendous experience of a teacher who has already achieved what you seek. When a mantra is given correctly at the moment of the initial instruction, its vibration awakens the kundalini. Each time it is repeated in the mind, it vibrates the primordial spiritual energy and the kundalini rises. When repetition stops, it returns again to the kula. It is said that the kundalini, when seen with the “inner eye,” is as bright as ten million flashes of lightning but as soothing to gaze upon as ten million moons.

Meditation alone, even without the guidance of a teacher, can also awaken the kundalini. It rises through a “psychic canal,” the susumna, passing through each of the subtler energy centers. The susumna is like the information superhighway, an invisible channel for energy, connecting the subtle energy centers (chakras) to the body through a vibrational relationship to the nerves and endocrine system. As the kundalini rises, the practitioner experiences profound states of blissful consciousness, until a total merger with infinite consciousness is attained when the kundalini energy reaches the topmost center, associated with the pineal gland. You may sense the movement of the kundalini, you may not. You will probably not notice anything unusual until much later, after many months or years of meditation. At that time, glimpses of the forces at work in meditation are taken in stride and are actually paid no heed. The goal of unqualified union with the infinite is firmly implanted, and the experiences along the path are merely signs, like markers on a hiking trail.