the secret.

the secret to a seriously successful spiritual life is to open oneself up, to allow oneself to become a weee bit snaky. and i mean that in the nicest possible way. 

the kundalini, often known as the serpent power, needs be unleashed, released, freed. it’s always been there of course. it’s just apparently been dormant, trapped, waiting for the time it might escape, rise up. it would certainly leave a person amazed and inspired, with an unshakable belief that he or she could or even should found a new religion. but that’s really just the beginning, of a tremendous journey with no apparent end, one that many have gone on before. and, while the imagery of a dangerous cobra intertwining itself along the spine leads to the pervasive concept of it being fabulously dramatic or even violent, nothing could be further from the truth. 

as a matter of fact, as powerful as it is, the actual happening is profoundly relaxing, a spectacular unfoldment, a wondrous flowering. and while gross methods such as the use of drugs, jumping around madly or self-mortification may open ones kundalini, the only real sustainable method is actually to purify ones body and mind, to become more and more, and still more, subtle. 

dhyaan yog, the meditative lifestyle, is in fact the practice of going toward that subtlety in body, mind and spirit, so to speak. it’s the practice of creating an environment in which the kundalini might make its escape. the meditative lifestyle is the culturing of oneself such that one is capable of perceiving the release and the power of the kundalini when it is arisen. 

the question then begs asking: what helps that process? of course a meditation practice, alone time and good company, a more plant-based diet, the letting go of vices, not squandering ones sexual energy uselessly, and one more thing: it’s quite useful to sit close to one whose gone before. and that shouldn’t be someone who has only experienced the opening of the kundalini. that should be someone who knows kundalini intimately. somebody who is more than just a weee bit snaky.     

ps: ultimately, having said all that, i must add something the dalai lama once wrote: ‘the secret to a successful spiritual life is kindness.’