Guest guest Report post Posted April 20, 1999 Marcia Paul [jacpa] Tuesday, April 20, 1999 2:01 PM NondualitySalon [NondualitySalon] Kundalini Marcia Paul <jacpa I just ran across something I find interesting in a book of essays on Gurdjieff. This essay is by Ravi Ravindra titled "Comparative Studies". "In most religious and philosophic circles in India, especially those fascinated by occult phenomena, Kundalini is give a very high valuation. But Gurdjieff has nothing positive to say about Kundalini. Having undertaken, as he himself says, "To destroy, mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world," he ascribes to the suggestively parallel organ "kundabuffer" the property of making human beings perceive reality topsy- turvy. Ouspnesky quotes Gurdjieff as saying: "In reality Kundalini is the power of imagination, the power of fantasy, which takes the place of a real function.... Kundalini can act in all centers and with its help all the centers can be satisfied with the imaginary instead of the real...Kundalini is a force put into men in order to keep them in their present state. If men could really see their true position and could understand all the horror of it, they would be unable to remain where they are even for one second. They would begin to seek a way out and they would quickly find it, because there is a way out; but men fail to see it simply because they are hypnotized. Kundalini is the force that keeps them in a hypnotic state. "To awaken" for man means to be "dehypnotized." As one recovers from the shock dealt by Gurdjieff's merciless criticisms of one of the precious jewels of Indian philosophy, one can begin to look at the tradition again. One discovers that the most thorough and insightful authority on yoga, Patanjali, the author of the celebrated Yoga Sutras, never mentions Kundalini, and some of the very ancient and authoritative texts on yoga, such as Yoga Yajnavalkya, regard Kundalini to be a hindrance in the spiritual evolution of a person, an impediment which needs to be removed in order to be touched and trans- formed by the energy from Heaven. The human being is situated along an axis stretched from Heaven to earth, and the proper inner order demands a flow of energy (prana) from above downwards. Naturally, the powers from below, entrenched and coiled up in the organism as Kundalini, resist and try to block the entry and movement of prana from above." I have never studied Kundalini but I am curious as to what anyone thinks if anything of the above quote. Thanks. Marcia Harsha: Hi Marcia. Thanks for bringing this up. The above quote represents one perspective. To the extent that such a perspective allows transcendence (of all perspectives), it might have some value. Ouspnesky quotes Gurdjieff as saying: "In reality Kundalini is the power of imagination, the power of fantasy," etc. If we understand the nature of imagination in totality, then, this is a true but a trivial insight. Where are we now? Are we not in imagination right now? If through the arousal of Shakti, one has various types of superconscious experiences, they might appear to be as real (or more real) than the "ordinary perceptions and experiences". But such experiences can rightly also be termed imagination. So we know that there is imagination. Of that we are certain. Where there is imagination, there must be an underlying screen on which imagination plays out or takes place. Where there is imagination, there must be a hypothetical entity, one who imagines. Where there is Shakti, there must be Shakta (Self). The Vedantins say that the world is unreal as perceived but Real as Brahman. So one can say that the Imagination is real and fantasy is natural as long as Unconsciousness (veiling power of karma) dominates. When the Unconsciousness evaporates, the principle of Imagination (Kundalini Shakti) melts into its Source, the Self, Revealing It Self to be no different than the Self. This is why we say that Self is Nirvikalpa (Beyond Imagination). Yet It Is Ever Present and permeates all Imagination. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
