Q: In regards to Kundalini, I watched a Tony Parsons YouTube clip, and someone asked about Kundalini.  He replied that “It is still part of the ‘dream,’ and is meaningless.” Would you comment on that?

 

 

 

I will give two qualitatively different responses, from two different perspectives.  So let us presuppose that Kundalini is indeed just part of a dream. As I said, there is this whole tradition, there is this whole understanding that all of this is a dream — absolutely all.  This is the dream.  One of the definitions of maya, that everything in this existence is a dream, and the only thing that is real is that which is essentially the omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent Godhead, Spirit, the Absolute — whatever name we give to it, it will not suffice — we would have to invent the traditional thousand names of Vishnu, a thousand names of Shiva.  We will keep addressing That which is unnamable — agreeing that only all that is real — everything else is unreal. There is this tradition that is sometimes known as classical Advaita Vedanta — that approach that only the Absolute (Brahman) is real, and the world is unreal.  We’ll leave it at that, although there is a third line which says that, “The world is the Absolute (Brahman).”  So this is a very, very practical response.  

 

So even if we understand Kundalini as being just part of the dream, the Goddess is all that we have — or She is all that we have as our own awareness.  This is what I want to emphasize.  Even if we consider this whole reality on all of its manifested planes of existence — from gross to subtle to causal, to just being unreal — it is all supported, sustained and illumined by the power of our own awareness —  and that is Kundalini.  When you understand that — even if you consider this world as unreal — it is all that we have…

 

This is the perspective that I want you to understand on this whole business, in relation to whether Kundalini is part of the dream or part of the reality.  Even if you adopt that Advaitic perspective, Kundalini is all that you have; She is the only Mother you ever had in this life.  She mothered you — literally — as this maya, as this existence. This is a more humane understanding of this whole relationship between the energy, the power, and the Self.  Okay?

 

Now, before I proceed with the second perspective, I want to remind you of something in the words of one of the greatest Advaita Vedanta teachers of the 20th century, of the recent past, who is being quoted and quoted over and over in terms of that absolute, direct path toward Self-recognition.  His name is Ramana Maharshi.  When he was asked, “What is Kundalini?” his reply was very short: “Kundalini is the Self – nothing but the Self.”  Kundalini is Atman; that is what it is. Kundalini is Atman – it is your soul.  And Atman is Brahman – the soul is the Self.  This is the equation…

 

Now hear it from another perspective — and that perspective is where this teaching unfolds. This is the perspective and the platform from where I deliver a lot of these discourses.  It is based on my direct experience; it is based upon my direct state of being.  It is based upon scriptural knowledge – revealed scriptural knowledge — not something that someone sat down at the bank of the river and then came up with a verse of inspiration which was written down — no.  Something that one sat in a deep state of absorption, and simply was able to cognize on the level where it was then given to a rising power of speech, so it could then be expressed as the lived reality of the innermost revelation.  This is the definition of scripture.  

 

There is a perspective and a platform of understanding that there is no possibility of the Absolute knowing Itself, unless through the power of its own Awareness.  In other words, Self-Awareness is that which Kundalini is; in other words, Self-Awareness is that power of Awareness – aware of Itself.  Kundalini as Shakti is nothing but that, it is just the term, it is just the condition — a temporal condition of Kundalini as coiled Shakti – Consciousness simply coiled to Itself.  Cosmic Consciousness contracted to Itself.  

 

However, in reality beyond this moment in time – beyond that space and moment convention – Kundalini is never separate from Consciousness Itself.  That Chit Shakti, it is still that which is the nature of Kundalini, and it is not separable from the ultimate state of Shakti as Para. Para is the Supreme, the Beyond, the Unmanifest, where the source and the energy are inseparable — there is no way to tell them apart.  But the Tantric perspective of Para, Chit, and Kundalini Shaktis — that trinity, that equilateral of whatever graphic you can imagine it as — is not three different realities.  It is always one reality, but is experienced at a certain point — because the emphasis simply dominates in the Kundalini state, where awareness is dominated by the identification with the body-mind-senses conglomerate — and then it releases Itself from that identification.  That is what we call awakening.

 

So the second perspective, is that not only is Kundalini part of the dream, but the one who dreams, dreams because of Kundalini, the one who is awakened, awakens because of Kundalini, and the one who realizes his essential nature — is because of Kundalini.  Why?  Because Awareness or the Absolute does not exist independently from the power of Self-Awareness, and the power of Self-Awareness is Shakti.  That is the dynamic.  It is the healthy way to view reality, to view the world, because this dynamic is not just out there in the recesses of the psyche, somewhere in the recesses of the cosmos — somewhere beyond this world.  No, this dynamic of Awareness and its own inherent power as Self-Awareness exists at every structure of the universe — on the subatomic level, on the atomic level, on the level of particles, of molecules and atoms, cell formations, tissue formations, and what have you.  It cannot be otherwise.

 

On every respective level of creation, that relationship is intact, and that relationship is alive.  This is understood in terms of the dynamics of the effulgence of Consciousness, the luminosity of Consciousness, and the power of its own Awareness — to be aware of its own luminosity.  So this is a second perspective for you.  Just to add to that example of “She is the Mother” because indeed, She is the Mother – the Mother Matrix — everything is born into That.  Kundalini is the very flow of your own life and love — this is the very core and the very essence of the understanding of what Kundalini is.  Those who have experienced that, they have experienced that the ability to love and to experience universal love, is brought by the power of Shakti Herself.  You see, they are inseparable; love is that Absolute, but the flow of life, and the flow of that love that flows through your veins, that flows through your being, is carried by the power of Kundalini.

 

                                                                                                        ~ Igor Kufayev, Online Darshan transcribed Q&A Costa Rica, August 16, 2014

 

Kundalini or Kundalini Shakti refers to the primordial cosmic energy, or latent spiritual power coiled three times onto itself at the base of the spine, at the Muladhara Chakra of every human being.  Kundalini Shakti literally means contracted Awareness - Shakti on the contracted level as the individual.

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Tony Parsons is a modern day nondual spiritual teacher whose teachings might be classified as “neo-Advaita.” He proclaims, “There is no me or you, no seeker, no enlightenment, no disciple and no guru.”

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Maya is held to be an illusion in Advaita Vedanta philosophy; the source that conceals our divinity, our true, unitary Self known as Brahman.  

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Vishnu is a Hindu God also known as Narayana or Hari.  He is one of Hinduism’s three supreme deities (Trimurti) in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahma as the creator, Vishnu the maintainer, preserver or protector and Shiva as the destroyer or transformer.   

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Shiva is the aspect of God known as the destroyer (of ignorance) in the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.  In Shaivism, Shiva refers to Paramashiva, the supreme Reality, that pure divine Consciousness.

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Advaita Vedanta is one of the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy, and the first school of Vedanta philosophy.  It adopts a position of absolute nonduality, and its central teaching is the oneness of the jiva, the individual soul with the Absolute – Brahman. Advaita Vedanta has no individual founder, as its roots are in the Vedas; however, the great sage Adi Shankara was responsible for consolidating these teachings around the 8th century CE. The primary texts of Advaita Vedanta are the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma-Sutra.

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Brahman is the ultimate Reality; it is the Vedantic term for the Absolute Reality or all-pervasive principle of the universe.

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Ramana Maharshi is a well-known modern day sage who at age 16, spontaneously initiated a process of self-inquiry that culminated within a few minutes, in his own permanent awakening.  Shortly thereafter, he left home to travel to the holy mountain Arunachala, Tiruvannamalai, where he remained for the rest of his life.  

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Atman is the soul, the individualized unit of consciousness, which according to Advaita Vedanta is identical with the Absolute, Brahman.

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Shakti is the divine cosmic power which projects, maintains, and dissolves the universe. She is that mother goddess, that feminine divine force that manifests to destroy evil forces and restore balance.  In Hinduism every God has his Shakti, without whose energy he has no power.  For example, Lord Vishnu’s Shakti is Lakshmi and Lord Shiva’s power is Parvati.

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Chit Shakti is the dynamic aspect of divine Consciousness which becomes the power of consciousness or subjectivity; it is that which is conscious of Itself.

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Para Shakti or Adi Para Shakti is the Divine Mother Goddess, the Supreme Being and is recognized as Para Brahman, the Absolute.  She is said to be the original creator, observer and destroyer of the entire universe.  Para Shakti is that part of energy which is not yet separated in terms of its vibration, it is absolutely in sync with the pure Awareness

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Tantra is the yogic science of cosmic principles based upon divinely revealed scripture describing spiritual discipline which worships Shakti, the creative power of God in all its forms.  The goal of Tantra is to attain Self-realization through esoteric practices, including meditation, devotion to the guru, worship of images, yantras (diagrams), mantra, etc.  

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