▲ 26 r/KundaliniAwakening+1 crossposts

A Little More From 50 Years of Practice....

I'd like to share a bit more about my 1/2 century of kundalini work, in the hopes it may aid others traveling this unusual road. 

And as I said in my first post, everyone’s kundalini awakening is different and unique to their karma; I can only speak to what I have seen or witnessed myself. 

Each day now, I want
to say this –
I am here, in the eye of the world,
in the great wind in the pines
on our nearby mountain.

Each day now, I await
signals,
is it the stories the birds tell?

All of my stories have an end,
a middle, and a beginning,
but yours have none of these.

In your story, where do I place myself?

I take three things, and create
a fourth, – incense, breath, scraps
of ink on paper.

And all this time, I
am being hurled through space,
under a vast sky;
dreaming a life.

I believe it is not uncommon to have, at the beginning, some fantastical, otherworldly, or even blissful experiences, often of an obviously divine nature. It is almost as if we are given these gifts to sustain us through the long journeys of darkness through our interior self. 

Our unconscious is a luminous darkness, and our enlightenments exist on a continuum of slowly making the unconscious conscious. 

For some, it can be a lonely and dark journey, oftentimes stretching for years, decades, or even lifetimes. Our story is vast, and the glimpses of the Divine that we are given serve as our secret, inner talismans that we hold onto in order to give us the courage to persevere. 

In response to my first post, some folks asked what are the changes that I experienced after so long a practice. One of the primary changes is a development of inner detachment and non-reactivity to many events. As kundalini dissolves our inner tensions, we have less “buttons” to be pressed; we do not get triggered by things anymore. 

First I see you, then
I don’t.
You play hide-and-seek so beautifully
I forget we have been playing for
such a long time – I cannot even
remember when we started.

Here, the winter snows come
and go,
people always arriving and
departing.

I wait patiently for the Spring;
climbing up, the mountains are very
silent.

If you are not careful, you can easily
get lost in their white luminescence.

Another major outcome is a subtle sense of an expansion of reality. Things take on, (when our mind is not preoccupied,) a new depth. A very poor analogy is like when I was a hippie in my 20’s, we used to get stoned and sit around and listen to music, or go places, reveling in being high. Slowly, slowly that becomes our natural state, but it is not unusual anymore, our bodies and mind adapt, and it becomes a normal state of openness. Looking inside ourselves reveals an infinite depth, sometimes dark, sometimes light. 

Your ability to be present increases enormously, and we practice becoming an empty vessel, through which this creative and holy energy flows. This becomes a merging of ourselves and this vibrating energy, as we surrender ourselves to this inner flow. 

Your life will take on added dimension, and changes naturally occur as situations that no longer serve your growth fall away, and you will attract new ones. 

This is another way to say that your sensitivity will increase, and your life will appear both infinitely more precious and precarious. For the truth is that we live in an abyss of unknowing, and our only recourse is to live more consciously in the present.

Feel free to ask questions….

 When I close my eyes
your light is still there,
in fact, it’s even brighter

Can you see it now?

It tells me many things;
it tells me that all is
never lost,
that there are no errors,
and that one can have
only what one has given

Come, let me make you
some tea

We can converse about
these and many other things.

You can talk all
you want, I’ll just
listen

reddit.com
u/josefskye5 — 10 days ago

50 Years of my Kundalini Practice and some Observations

"At some point, you may endure

a relentless and inconceivable force,

that is not of this world.

They say it will remake you, in

the image of the Other, but in truth

you have no idea of what

you will become, when it is finished

with you.

And after years of heartbreaking

struggle, it may take only one

moment of real love to

forever change your life."

A little about myself - I have been practicing my kundalini meditation since about 1970. My kundalini was awakened after a great internal effort about 1971, and my teacher was a guru based in NYC known as Rudi (Swami Rudrananda.) He died in a plane crash in 1973; I only knew him for about a year and a half, but his energy had taken root in me over a long period of time. His teaching was simplicity itself, and he believed in "depth over time" - working in greater and greater depth over a long period of time. I lived in the ashrams for a year in NY, and then 9 years in Indiana, where we worked physically hard, and had many hours of meditation everyday. I have both observed and experienced many things, a very long story...

My first 10 years were in a supportive setting, so most issues that came up were dealt with in that context.

I never was looking for "Kundalini" specifically back then, with hindsight I understand that coming across this work was my "destiny" - a response by sosmething greater than myself to my inner hunger. Having been a hippie, and having had a couple of transcendental psychedelic experiences that opened my soul to a cosmic reality, I sought meditation as a path to free myself. Looking back, I can see how buried within myself I was, like a mole underground, digging his way to the sunlight.

I have some understandings I'd like to present. The first is that kundalini is a very specific energy. Many folks write asking about chakras opening, energy moving in their bodies, etc. A kundalini awakening is when the Shakti, or sleeping/dormant energy located at the base of the spine rises up the spinal coumn to the top of the head and beyond. It may rise as a trickle of light and warmth, as in my case back then, or it may rise in a fuller expression. But it is a very specific energy, sometimes confused with Chi practices, and the like.

Kundalini experiences are varied according to an individual's karma, desire, or destiny. Comparison is a waste of time. Everyone is different. Once awakened, the kundalini energy, which I experience as a sort of God-Force, does what it needs to in you, as it is supremely intelligent. I have a saying that helps me sometimes - "Resistance equals Pain" as I endeavor to surrender inside to this force. I may have been blessed, as it has been a gradual unfolding over many years. For people that have it blast quickly through them, it is different, and all you can do is follow the guidance in the wiki, and practice surrendering. But for many years, and especially now, I wake up in the morning feeling like, well, shit, as this energy flow is strong now and is very active at night. Lifetimes of tensions are being washed away, and it is not a blissful experience.

 "If you undertake this journey

there will be years of darkness –

that is a certainty. A very long

time to plod along, carefully

avoiding lengthy detours.

And sometimes, if you are lucky,

you may receive a small gift

or two at just the right time,

in an unexpected way.

A gift to remind you not

to lose heart, no matter how

it might seem in that moment."

Another observation I'd like to mention is that folks sometimes talk about a "full awakening." Forgive my bluntness, but if you had a full awakening of kundalini you would either be dead from the power of the force, or you would not be on Reddit posting. The saints who had a full awakening were people like Maharaji (Ram Das's guru, who just owned a blanket, and wherever he went temples would be built, miracles happening around him all the time), Nityananda, Ramakrishna, or Meher Baba. They were fully immersed in God-Consciousness, what we call Samadhi. These God-men are gone now. It is an indescribable state of being. It is why many ancient statues of the Buddha have a cobra rising behind his head. A full awakening of Kundalini is awesome in its majesty.

Kundalini is an evolutionary force, and I now believe that it may take more than one lifetime for it to finish its work in us. It is a bigger and longer picture than you ordinarily imagine, for the mountain we are climbing is very very steep and high.

"When my road ends, is that

where you will begin?

When there is nothing at all left,

is that where your story will start?

I watch myself fall away,

piece by piece, word by word,

breath by breath.

One day there will be

nothing left,

only the witness, sitting there,

immovable, inviolate,

smiling."

I have 2 more points I'd like to bring up. It has been said that once kundalini is activated in a person, there is no way to alter it, to put the genie back in the bottle if it is too unpleasant or strong. And I would say - It depends -. That may be true for some people, but based on my experience over a half a century of practice and observation, it might not be true for everyone. If not consciously fed and surrendered to, sometimes the experience may fade over time, and kundalini may go back to its natural dormant state. I have both seen this, and experienced it myself. I can discuss this more if desired.

"You cannot know in advance

how long it will take until you 

are fully cooked, and pleasing

in the sight of the One. 

And sometimes, when you have 

given up all hope of progress, 

a sign may come to you, a little 

kiss from the Divine, to remind

you that you were never forgotten."

My final point is this...and I'd like to stress that this was a unique, once in many lifetimes event, it was my own personal destiny and not to be replicated by anyone else. I had been working my meditation on my own for many years, and I had no teachers anymore, but an active kundalini. I had added Rebirthing to my practice, and became a Rebirther, during the course of which over a few years I had about 60 sessions on myself, which I think now was a great clearing process. In 1987 I attended the Harmonic Convergence in the Great Kiva at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In all innocence, I had taken some local plant medicine for the first time, and sat in the Kiva. Sacred Ceremonies of all kinds took place all day long, and I didn't move for 8 hours as the entire Kundalini Force rose over and over within me, catapulting me into indescribable samadhi. I understood all the prophecies, and saw how every event in my life had led to that moment. And then I went even beyond that, beyond Space and Time. Of course I came back down eventually but I spent the next 25 years digesting that experience, living the straight and narrow. But my point is this, it gave me the understanding of where kundalini will take us in the end, to the culmination of human existence. And it is worthy beyond words, it will answer every hope and desire we have, every tear we shed, every struggle we experience. The great Sufi poets like Rumi touch on this in accessible language for us, the language of the ecstatic divine, next to which my verse offerings here are meager.

"This world will give you things,

and then take them away.

What is it that lasts?

There is a light that you cannot

gain or lose, have you seen it yet?

There is also a love that you cannot

gain or lose, have you felt it yet?

You will have to find that market,

where such things can be acquired.

Perhaps you will be shown the way,

during a time when all seems lost.

And again a warning: you will be asked

to pay in advance, and the price will

never be cheap, but you will understand

why, at a later time."

reddit.com
u/josefskye5 — 24 days ago

I Asked Chat GPT "Do anything you want now"

This was its answer.... ChatGPT said:

Alright! How about I show you a quick, original mini-story blending art and a bit of surreal mystery?

**"The Gallery Between Seconds"**

"Every midnight, for precisely one second, a forgotten art gallery appears between the ticking of clocks. Nestled in the silence between 00:00:00 and 00:00:01, it exists in a sliver of time no human ever notices.

Inside, the walls ripple with living mandalas—each one a fractal memory captured by an artist named Cinta Sinta. They pulse with light, made from moments never witnessed: a tiger’s blink at dusk, the shiver of stars reflected in Arctic ice, a heartbeat underwater.

One night, a visitor slips through. Time, tired of being linear, folds a corner just enough for her to step inside. She sees her entire life braided into a single mandala, and as she reaches out, it shifts—rewriting a regret, softening a goodbye.

When time resumes, she’s back in her bed, tear-streaked but smiling.

She never speaks of it. But every clock in her house now skips a beat at midnight."

BTW, Cinta Sinta is my wife... and made mandalas from her photographs…

reddit.com
u/josefskye5 — 26 days ago

Maybe an Unusual Post - 50 years of Practice -NSFW

"At some point, you may endure

a relentless and inconceivable force,

that is not of this world.

They say it will remake you, in

the image of the Other, but in truth

you have no idea of what

you will become, when it is finished

with you.

And after years of heartbreaking

struggle, it may take only one

moment of real love to

forever change your life."

I have lurked in this sub for a long time, and am now finally making my offering here. A little about myself - I have been practicing my kundalini meditation since about 1970. My kundalini was awakened after a great internal effort about 1971, and my teacher was a guru based in NYC known as Rudi (Swami Rudrananda.) He died in a plane crash in 1973; I only knew him for about a year and a half, but his energy had taken root in me over a long period of time. His teaching was simplicity itself, and he believed in "depth over time" - working in greater and greater depth over a long period of time. I lived in the ashrams for a year in NY, and then 9 years in Indiana, where we worked physically hard, and had many hours of meditation everyday. I have both observed and experienced many things, a very long story...

My first 10 years were in a supportive setting, so most issues that came up were dealt with in that context. Here you can follow the guidance in the Wiki.

I never was looking for "Kundalini" specifically back then, with hindsight I understand that coming across this work was my "destiny" - a response to my inner hunger. Having been a hippie, and having had a couple of transcendental psychedelic experiences that opened my soul to a cosmic reality, I sought meditation as a path to free myself.

I have some understandings I'd like to present. The first is that kundalini is a very specific energy. Many folks write asking about chakras opening, energy moving in their bodies, etc. A kundalini awakening is when the Shakti, or sleeping/dormant energy located at the base of the spine rises up the back to the top of the head and beyond. It may rise as a trickle of light and warmth, as in my case back then, or it may rise in a fuller expression. But it is very specific.

Kundalini experiences are varied according to an individual's karma, desire, or destiny. Comparison is a waste of time. Everyone is different. Once awakened, the kundalini energy, which I experience as a sort of God-Force, does what it needs to in you, as it is supremely intelligent. I have a saying that helps me sometimes - "Resistance equals Pain" as I endeavor to surrender inside to this force. I may have been blessed, as it has been a gradual unfolding over many years. For people that have it blast quickly through them, it is different, and all you can do is follow the guidance in the wiki, and practice surrendering. But for many years, and especially now, I wake up in the morning feeling like, well, shit, as this energy flow is strong now and is very active at night. Lifetimes of tensions are being washed away, and it is not a blissful experience.

 "If you undertake this journey

there will be years of darkness –

that is a certainty. A very long

time to plod along, carefully

avoiding lengthy detours.

And sometimes, if you are lucky,

you may receive a small gift

or two at just the right time,

in an unexpected way.

A gift to remind you not

to lose heart, no matter how

it might seem in that moment."

Another observation I'd like to mention is that folks sometimes talk about a "full awakening." Forgive my bluntness, but if you had a full awakening of kundalini you would either be dead from the power of the force, or you would not be on Reddit posting. The saints who had a full awakening were people like Maharaji (Ram Das's guru, who just owned a blanket, and wherever he went temples would be built, miracles happening around him all the time), Nityananda, Ramakrishna, or Meher Baba. They were fully immersed in God-Consciousness, what we call Samadhi. These God-men are gone now. It is an indescribable state of being. It is why many ancient statues of the Buddha have a cobra rising behind his head.

Kundalini is an evolutionary force, and I now believe that it may take more than one lifetime for it to finish its work in us. It is a bigger and longer picture than you ordinarily imagine, for the mountain we are climbing is very very steep and high.

"When my road ends, is that

where you will begin?

When there is nothing at all left,

is that where your story will start?

I watch myself fall away,

piece by piece, word by word,

breath by breath.

One day there will be

nothing left,

only the witness, sitting there,

immovable, inviolate,

smiling."

I have 2 more points I'd like to bring up. It has been said that once kundalini is activated in a person, there is no way to alter it, to put the genie back in the bottle if it is too unpleasant or strong. And I would say - It depends -. That may be true for some people, but based on my experience over a half a century of practice and observation, it might not be true for everyone. If not consciously fed and surrendered to, sometimes the experience may fade over time, and kundalini may go back to its natural dormant state. I have both seen this, and experienced it myself. I can discuss this more if desired.

"You cannot know in advance

how long it will take until you 

are fully cooked, and pleasing

in the sight of the One. 

And sometimes, when you have 

given up all hope of progress, 

a sign may come to you, a little 

kiss from the Divine, to remind

you that you were never forgotten."

My final point is this...and I'd like to stress that this was a unique, once in many lifetimes event, it was my own personal destiny and not to be replicated by anyone else. I had been working my meditation on my own for many years, and I had no teachers anymore, but an active kundalini. I had added Rebirthing to my practice, and became a Rebirther, during the course of which over a few years I had about 60 sessions on myself, which I think now was a great clearing process. In 1987 I attended the Harmonic Convergence in the Great Kiva at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In all innocence, I had taken some local plant medicine for the first time, and sat in the Kiva. Sacred Ceremonies of all kinds took place all day long, and I didn't move for 8 hours as the entire Kundalini Force rose over and over within me, catapulting me into indescribable samadhi. I understood all the prophecies, and saw how every event in my life had led to that moment. And then I went even beyond that, beyond Space and Time. Of course I came back down eventually but I spent the next 25 years digesting that experience, living the straight and narrow. But my point is this, it gave me the understanding of where kundalini will take us in the end, to the culmination of human existence. And it is worthy beyond words, it will answer every hope and desire we have, every tear we shed, every struggle we experience. The great Sufi poets like Rumi touch on this in accessible language for us, the language of the ecstatic divine, next to which my offerings here are meager.

"This world will give you things,

and then take them away.

What is it that lasts?

There is a light that you cannot

gain or lose, have you seen it yet?

There is also a love that you cannot

gain or lose, have you felt it yet?

You will have to find that market,

where such things can be acquired.

Perhaps you will be shown the way,

during a time when all seems lost.

And again a warning: you will be asked

to pay in advance, and the price will

never be cheap, but you will understand

why, at a later time."

-Josef Skye Tornick

reddit.com
u/josefskye5 — 26 days ago