How to find out if your Kundalini rises April 3, 2013

The energy of  Kundalini  is quite present in the modern life, today more than ever before. The signs of a 3,5 coiled energy became a popular image in marketing, for it’s a beautiful design element and it echoes in our collective consciousness. Although it is being so widely used I doubt that people really know its meaning and power.

Wikipedia gives some information about Kundalini but most of it HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SUBJECT. It looks like some people tried to awaken this sacred energy being not authorized for it, and they got very strange, if not terrifying results.  I am puzzled how practitioners of so-called Kundalini yoga describe the sensations they get calling it rising Kundalini this way:

(and belive me this is NOT what Kundalini feels like)

• Involuntary jerks, tremors, shaking, itching, tingling, and crawling sensations, especially in the arms and legs
• Energy rushes or feelings of electricity circulating the body
• Intense heat (sweating) or cold, especially as energy is experienced passing through the chakras
• Headache, migraine, or pressure inside the skull
• Increased blood pressure and irregular heartbeat
• Emotional numbness
• Antisocial tendencies
• Mood swings with periods of depression or mania
• Pains in different areas of the body, especially back and neck
• Sensitivity to light, sound, and touch
• Trance-like and altered states of consciousness
• Disrupted sleep pattern (periods of insomnia or oversleeping)
• Loss of appetite or overeating

I mean are they all masochist?!? Why practice something which gives you such horrid discomfort and suffering? I believe a truly spiritual practice must give one the enlightenment and bliss and not horror.

Luckily there have been wonderful saints and prophets all over the world, in different religions and spiritual practices who have given the exact description of Kundalini as of a cool breeze. Even some musicians and artists have referred to this cooling sensation.

Since my Kundalini was awakened 17 year back, and I have felt and have been “working” with this amazing energy for such a long time, I feel authorized enough to give a list of REAL KUNDALINI RISING sensations. This list can be confirmed by many millions of people who have experienced the same (unfortunately they are all too shy or to self-sufficient to post about it).

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR KUNDALINI IS RISING?

1. If you sit with the rounded back, slowly or suddenly your back will get straight, you may even not notice that. The upright position is possible even for people with spine cord problems when their Kundalini rises.
2. Your nose will breathe much “lighter”, even without any special exercises – this is the sign that Kundalini has passed the Hamsa chakra (between the eyebrows).
3. You may feel the cooling energy rising upwards your spinal cord, mostly on the back, although some people can feel it within, inside the body.
4. You will feel cool breeze in your hands, and interestingly – when the breeze gets stronger your hand will open up on their own.
5. After meditation with well risen Kundalini you may feel the need to “wash off” your face with your hands. You eyes will glow and your face will shine with peace and beauty!
6. Tickling and warm sensation in different parts of the body can be a sign of Kundalini rising and doing it’s clearing work. Ultimately and ideally this must end up in getting the cool breeze on top of head and in the hands
7. The cool breeze pouring down your head or even all over the body gives the feeling of the absolute bliss and dissolution, feels like Nirvana and cannot be mistaken for anything else! This is the ultimate goal of any yoga and it is the easiest to reach by the sahaja yoga practice.

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder of Sahaja Yoga

LOVE, axinia

ARE WE POSSESSED? August 8, 2012

C. G. Jung, the great doctor of the soul and one of the most inspired psychologists of the twentieth century, had incredible insight into what is currently playing out, both individually and collectively, in our modern-day world. He writes, “If, for a moment, we look at mankind as one individual, we see that it is like a man carried away by unconscious powers.” We are a species carried away — “possessed” by — and acting out, the unconscious. Jung elaborates, “Possession, though old-fashioned, has by no means become obsolete; only the name has changed. Formerly they spoke of ‘evil spirits,’ now we call them ‘neurosis’ or ‘unconscious complexes.’”

To condescendingly think that we, as modern-day, rational people, are too sophisticated to believe in something as primitive as demons is to have fallen under the spell of the very evil spirits we are imagining are nonexistent. What the ancients call demons are a psychic phenomena which compel us to act out behaviors contrary to our best intentions. To quote Jung, “…the psychic conditions which breed demons are as actively at work as ever. The demons have not really disappeared but have merely taken on another form: they have become unconscious psychic forces.”

“Possession,” according to Jung is “a primordial psychic phenomenon” that “denotes a peculiar state of mind characterized by the fact that certain psychic contents, the so-called complexes, take over the control of the total personality in place of the ego, at least temporarily, to such a degree that the free will of the ego is suspended.”

The mystery of Love is revealed! February 13, 2012

The word “love” is one of the most used and most misused nowadays.

There is little or none LOVE behind what is being sold under this name. But there is still much love between people. And there is even more need of love.

The 14 February is such an example of the mankind’s longing for true love, albite through the cheap selling of the love story. Well I cannot blame the mankind for that 🙂 For I know that behind it there is a vast and deep desire for something genuine, eternal and sacred.

This is a good enough reason to re-post my earlier post about Romantic Love.

This post follows Romantic Love: A book EVERY Western man should read  and  quotes Robert A. Johnson’s bestseller “Understanding the Psychology of romantic love”  . I arranged it the way that it gives the essence of author’s investigations on the topic, but please do read the book, it’s so insightful!

Below you will find the brilliant differentiation between the so called romantic love and true love. After reading this post, be prepared for the next in which you will lean about the amazing potential of romantic love.  In the meanwhile, let’s meditate on the truthful lines below.

WHAT IS ROMANTIC LOVE?

Romantic love is the single greatest energy system in the Western psyche. In our culture it has supplanted religion as the arena in which men and women seek meaning, transcendence, wholeness, and ecstasy…We are so accustomed to living with the beliefs and assumptions of romantic love that we think it is the only form of “love” on which marriage or love relationships can be based. We think it is the only “true love”. But there is much that we can learn from the East about this. In Eastern countries, like those of India and Japan, we find that married couples love each other with great warmth, often with a stability and devotion that puts us to shame. But their love is not “romantic love” as we know it. They don’t impose the same ideals on their relationships, nor do they impose such impossible demands and expectations on each other as we do.

Romantic love has existed throughout history in many cultures. We find it in the literature of ancient Greece, the Roman empire, ancient Persia, and feudal Japan. But our modern Western society is the only culture in history that has experienced romantic love as a mass phenomenon. We are the only society that makes romance the basis of our marriages and love relationships and the cultural ideal of “true love”.

One of the greatest paradoxes in romantic love is that it never produces human relationships as long as it stays romantic. It produces drama, daring adventures, wondrous, intense love scenes, jealousies, and betrayal; but people never seem to settle into relationship with each other as flesh-and-blood human beings until they are out of the romantic love stage, until they love each other instead of “being in love”.

Romance, in its purest form, seeks only one thing – passion. It is willing to sacrifice everything else – every duty, obligation, relationship, or commitment  – in order to have passion.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROMANTIC LOVE AND TRUE LOVE

People become so wearied of the cycles and dead ends of romance that they begin to wonder if there is such a thing as “love”. There is. But sometimes we have to make profound changes of attitude before we can see what love is and make room for love in our lives. Love between human beings is one of the absolute realities of human nature.

Expecting to Fly (Book): exciting spiritual experiences January 26, 2012

As I mentioned earlier in my posts, I read little nowadays. I used to read a lot in my childhood and youth but then got fed up with books. I wanted my real experiences instead of someone else’s wise or stupid ideas. Today I try to pick up true jewels for I have no time for just good things.

A book “Expecting to Fly” is one of such diamonds. The rare beauty of it lays in the fascination and depth of author’s experiences. Yes, it is all about experiences on the seeking path. Ultimately it is all what really makes sense I belive.

The book “Expecting to Fly” is autobiographical, Patrick Sheridan is a classical seeker from the 60- 70-s with heavy alcohol and drug background. I found it an intriguing read to learn about his journey which came out to be quite spiritual. This was all totally unfamiliar to me. I always had  a natural dislike for all kinds of chemical substances like cigarets, alcohol and drugs  – never tried and never wanted them. I have been that kind of intellectual seeker who searched for Truth only on the mental level. Ultimately I found out that the Truth is something beyond the mind and can be experienced rather mundane even as a physical sensation…Yes, generally my seeking approach was of a totally different art than that of Patrick. That is why I was keen on reading about some different experiences which led a great seeker to – surprise, surprise! – the same Truth.

The author depicts his life beginning with childhood, stept by step unfolding his seeking nature. The excessive drinking and drug consume of his youth are quite impressive – although there are lots of people practicing it too, I find it remarkable to read that someone has done all that and is still alive and flourishing…trully amazing. The author stated that in fact it was his drug experiences (in particular LSD) which let him first experience the high state of consciousness and realize that there is something beyond the reality we think we live in. The LSD trips had such an impact on the author that the descriptions of it could almost be taken for a drug advertisement. However later on he admits that the occasional highs are leading nowhere because of lack of system behind and dramatic health and subtle system damage.

What comes after 2012? What the Mayan Elders are Saying About It. January 8, 2012

There is much fuss over the end of 2012 and many people are confused and scared. Among endless articles on this tpic I came across one really interesting one which I would like to share with you.

Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq’ij (is a ceremonial prieCarlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq’ij (is a ceremonial priest and spiritual guide) of the Eagle Clan. Carlos initiated an investigation into the different Mayan calendars circulating. Carlos along with his brother Gerardo studied with many teachers and interviewed nearly 600 traditional Mayan elders to widen their scope of knowledge.

Carlos Barrios: “Anthropologists visit the temple sites and read the inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It’s just their imagination. Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed.”

Well indeed many commentors speak also of transformation on the spiritual level.

He continues: “Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human. We are living in the most important era of the Mayan calendars and prophecies. All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions are converging now. There is no time for games. The spiritual ideal of this era is action.”

At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life, a tree remembered in all the world’s spiritual traditions.

Some observers say this alignment with the heart of the galaxy in 2012 will open a channel for cosmic energy to flow through the Earth, cleansing it and all that dwells upon it, raising all to a higher level of vibration. Carlos reminds us: “This process has already begun. Change is accelerating now and it will continue to accelerate.

If the people of the Earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape without having destroyed too much of the Earth, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way.”

And now here comes a note which I already addresses in some earlier posts, I was wondering why good people do not join together? It’s interesting how the Mayan Elder gets to that too:

SQ – Spiritual Intelligence March 15, 2011

The greatest criminals in human history had high IQs, but their SQ was far below the average…

image by axinia

What is SQ?

Spiritual intelligence is a term used to indicate a spiritual correlate to IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Quotient). Like EQ, SQ is becoming more mainstream in scientific inquiry and philosophical/psychological discussion. It refers to a suite or set of propensities comprising: perceptions, intuitions, cognitions, etc., related to spirituality and/or religiosity, especially spiritual capital.

 SQ is “in”!

Models for developing and measuring spiritual intelligence are also increasingly used in corporate settings, by companies such as Nokia, Unilever, McKinsey, Shell, Coca-Cola, Hewlett Packard, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Starbucks and the Co-operative Bank. It has been identified as a key component of Leadership by bestselling business author Stephen Covey, who observes that “Spiritual intelligence is the central and most fundamental of all the intelligences, because it becomes the source of guidance for the other[s]…”

Modelling Spiritual Intelligence

There is a vide range of models and definitions of SQ. The question is new to the science and thus still very much open. Here are some examples.

Zohar and Marshall (1997)

The word “spiritual” in relation to the intelligence has no necessary connection with organized religion. A person may be high in SQ but have no religious faith or belief of any kind. Equally, a person may be very religious but low in SQ (SC). The word spiritual in the Zohar/Marshal concept comes from the Latin word spiritus, which means, “that which gives life or vitality to a system”.

Zohar and Marshall introduced 12 qualities of SQ. They derive these principles from the qualities that define complex adaptive systems. In biology, complex adaptive systems are living systems that create order out of chaos, they create order and information and defy the law of entropy.

Those principles are:

To force or not to force? January 28, 2011

 

 

 

image by axinia

 

A recent article on “Chinese upbringing methods” made a splash in the web, even on the Russian Internet. If you haven’t come across it, please check the article here, I allow myself to repost it. Please read to the end! And see my comments below.

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

Can a regimen of no playdates, no TV and hours of music practice create happy kids? An excerpt from Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”

 A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I’ve done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• attend a sleepover

• have a playdate

• be in a school play

• complain about not being in a school play

• watch TV or play computer games

• choose their own extracurricular activities

• get any grade less than an A

• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama

• play any instrument other than the piano or violin

• not play the piano or violin.

I’m using the term “Chinese mother” loosely. I know some Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and Ghanaian parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some mothers of Chinese heritage, almost always born in the West, who are not Chinese mothers, by choice or otherwise. I’m also using the term “Western parents” loosely. Western parents come in all varieties.

All the same, even when Western parents think they’re being strict, they usually don’t come close to being Chinese mothers. For example, my Western friends who consider themselves strict make their children practice their instruments 30 minutes every day. An hour at most. For a Chinese mother, the first hour is the easy part. It’s hours two and three that get tough.

A new approach in self-teaching – the future of schools? December 16, 2010

Some of you may know that pedagogics is one of my favorite spheres of interest, although I don’t blog about it much. I have a dream of opening a private school that would be based on the principles, more relevant to the evolutionary level of the upcoming generations than whatever we have now.

Today I would like to share with you an interesting TED video about a new experimental approach in teaching – helping school children in self-teaching.

I find it very insightful, especially the point of collective learning – something which is missing quite a lot in the modern concepts of education.



LOVE; axinia

The higher magic October 24, 2010

One of the best quotes on Kundalini-awakening:

There is a higher magic vested in all of us that none can control but everyone can use.

(Gregoire de Klabermatten)

Kundalini is described within Eastern religious, or spiritual, tradition as an indwelling Divine feminine energy that can be awakened in order to purify the subtle system and ultimately to bestow the state of Yoga, or Divine Union (e.g. see Jnaneshwari Ch. VI).

This movement of Kundalini is felt by the presence of a cool or, in the case of imbalance, a warm breeze across the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet. Such a phenomenon can be seen to be described in a diverse array of scripture (see Aquarian Gospel of Christ, ch. 44, v19, ch. 161, v35, ch. 162, v4; Jnaneshwari, ch.6; Ezekiel, ch. 37, vs. 5-6: Old Testament; John, ch. 14 vs. 15- 17 & 25: New Testament; Koran, sura 24, vs. 24;

All we need is… a grandmother revolution! September 21, 2010

For those who have seen the film “Patch Adams”, starring Robin Williams, the interview below would be an added value to this amazing film. And the value of the film itself is high indeed, especially because it’s based on a real-life story.

Today I came across one interview with the film protagonist. The real person turned out to be even more fascinating than the film character (often it’s just vice versa).

Hunter Doherty “Patch” Adams, M.D. (born May 28, 1945 in Washington, D.C.) is an American physician, social activist, citizen diplomat and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971. Each year he organizes a group of volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries where they dress as clowns in an effort to bring humor to orphans, patients, and other people. Adams is currently based in Arlington, Virginia. In collaboration with the institute, he promotes a different health care model (i.e. one not funded by insurance policies).

In his interview to one Italian financial newspaper Patch Adams gives a genius in its simplicity answer of how to change the world to a place, full of love and compassion:

and enjoy the second part, that’s brilliant!