Non-Attachment and Formlessness

“…Non-attachment is a state in which a person overcomes his or her attachment to desire for things, people or concepts of the world and thus attains a heightened perspective… Non-attachment as release from desire and consequently from suffering is an important principle, or even ideal, in the Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism and Taoism” [Wikipedia]. On a practical level what is attachment and how does it work?

In 1973 I experienced what is called in India Nirvikalpa or Nirvikalpa-Samadhi. In this experience, during deep meditation, a force known as kundalini awoke at the base of my spine. This legendary energy rose up my spine through the chakras and flooded my brain with ecstatic force, reducing me to a state of nirvana.

As the ecstatic state finally ended, I descended back into my body and felt the pressure of an earthly existence reassert itself on my being. All the pressures of my personal life fell back into place. I opened my eyes and was back in my body, in that room, with a new energy that had taken place in my will.

I had experienced a state of transcendence from this world, of non-attachment. Thus, when the world came back into focus, I saw all my attachments falling back into place. I became aware of how those things limited me.

I soon changed my life to undo those obstacles. I left college and returned to my family in the redwoods. Thus began a journey to find and pursue meaning in my life.

After a few years of travel, study, and learning from others, I returned to school to be a writer. I had become a poet and philosopher. I have ever since applied the principles that I have learned in order to achieve the tasks presented to me by fate and the higher powers on my Spiritual Path.

In due course, I came across the works of Gopi Krishna, a Hindu poet and mystic who had experienced the same thing in 1937. As I read his autobiography, I recognized the same personal experiences I had gone through. His work allowed me to understood my own personal transformation, providing language and a conceptual context to understand it.

I mention this not to focus on my life, but rather to understand the experience of nirvikalpa in relation to the idea of non-attachment. Surely this is the summum bonum of spiritual endeavor, to transcend the earthly world and achieve liberation as prescribed by Siddhartha in his articulation of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.

1. Life includes Dissatisfaction (suffering)
2. Suffering is caused by Desire
3. Desirelessness is Liberation
4. The Eight-Fold Path to Liberation

In this formulation, non-attachment means to be desireless, and hence attachment is desire. Indeed, I felt liberated from desire during my experience. Over the years I have had to face fear directly, and cast myself forward on the path in spite of my fears. This addressing of material and emotional attachment has challenged me, but because of my absolute faith in the Spiritual as a result of my experience, I have let go of attachments, although it has been difficult.

Many times over the decades since my nirvikalpa experience, I have contemplated the earthly pressures I felt upon returning to everyday life after bathing in cosmic ecstasy that fulfilled all my desires. Bathed in cosmic oneness, my deepest longings were satisfied in every nerve of my being.

There is a dichotomy in our society between groundedness in the earth and transcendence. One thinks of Einstein, his head in the clouds, and all the absent minded professors, so abstract in their thinking they cannot stay conscious of their physical bodies. It reminds me of a story about Ramakrishna, the 19th century Hindu saint.

One day Ramakrishna and his assistant went into town to buy some items. The assistant went into a store, purchased some items, and returned to the wagon. Ramakrishna was gone.

Ramakrishna

The frightened assistant looked for him for hours, finally coming across him at quite a distance from where they had stopped. He went up to Ramakrishna and put his hand on his arm. Ramakrishna turned to him and exclaimed, “How could you have let me wander off like that!”

Thus is the genius often relegated to a space in their imagination that is so vivid, so expanded, that they are literally not in this world but in one of their imagination where creative concepts and images live in full reality. I can attest to having been in this state. It requires extraordinary discipline to turn away from the sheer pleasure of creative imagination and pay attention to the mundane matters of this earth.

And yet, and yet… We live in a time when the earth cannot be ignored, where we see the imbalance in our planetary ecosystem at every turn. Perhaps this is why I chose to become a professional environmentalist, because it has become a necessity for me to attend to this world both for professional and personal reasons.

The fear that one encounters in departing from the world of attachment to material objects is the fear that one’s responsibilities will not be met. Only when one’s faith overcomes one’s fears is it possible for one to open to the world of the Spirit, The Great Spirit in the Native American formulation. Through Faith, made possible only by humility and surrender to the crushing force of Truth, can the world of Spirit be activated within us, and the laws of Spirit prevail in one’s life.

One can see this change acting on the lives of the founders of religions, the prophets of our histories who forsook material reward in order to live in the world. Buddha begged, Jesus rejected materialism, Mohammed owned no property, because they did not need earthly objects to satisfy nonexistent desires. This is the nature of prophets, whose deep satisfaction is innate.

If we are indeed entering a New Age, it is a new age of harmony with Nature. This can only be achieved if we can find humility in the individual human condition. Such humility is not insincere if it acknowledges the actual plight of every individual, for the most part unable to control our fate.

We are born into a world over which we have no control. We are one amongst billions of people, in a world of billions of stars. Humility is the simple acknowledgement of reality and is the only sane conclusion one can reach about our true state as living beings on this planet.

This is aptly shown through the Hindu image of Shiva, Lord of the Dance. There dances Shiva encircled by flame, four armed, with one foot resting on the back of a dwarf lying on its belly. That dwarf is the ego, the message that life is a dance if one can keep the ego under control.

To be without egotism and attachment is to be without a distinct form, to be formless. Thus one can adapt with endless flexibility to the requirements of the moment. It is like the old Zen story about the monk whose kitchen burned down.

“Now I have a place from where I can see the moon.”

Consider the cultures of the world. Each has its values and mores, and each differs from all the others in certain respects. Some would be aghast to eat pork, others to eat beef, and still others to eat dog.

Some practice polygamy, some monogamy, and others revere celibacy. Each believes in their own way, but these attachments to the mores are not intellectually based, but rather connected to viscera and emotion. Such are the attachments that separate us from each other.

In particular, nationalism and religious dogma are deeply held and embraced attachments. Loyalty to God and Country causes people to live their lives in the service of a struggle such as a war. Such service may be justifiable under certain conditions, but blind faith serves only to prop up dictators and corrupt, archaic systems.

If the biological imperative is to adapt, then formlessness has the greatest chance for survival. Even today as we consider the causes and effects of global warming, observe with what difficulty the United States adapts to it in the face of overwhelming evidence that it is real and human-caused. Material attachments and current patterns of production and consumption are defended in an irrational manner, denying the need to change our way of living, rejecting an end to self-destructive waste and selfishness.

So here’s the challenge: How can we grow spiritually as is the direction of all religious traditions, and yet live in this world, attending to the very real threats to our existence whether ecological or sociological? How can we embrace the heavenly spirituality of Ramakrishna and yet address the material threats of global warming etc… We can only do it through non-attachment.

Hence, to live in the body is to feel emotions, so withdrawing to an ascetic existence does not serve human needs. There is such a thing as legitimate anger. Emotions are grounding.

Ultimately, the task we have, and it is by no means an easy one, is to integrate all the different streams of human existence into one – to become the super pragmatist as well as the saint. One thinks of Mother Teresa attending to the impoverished in India. This is the realm of service, and in the end it is a major path to liberation as one loses the ego in generosity and charity.

Enlightenment is not abstract, it is corporeal. The old Zen saying is, “Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.” Understanding this is the meaning of the New Age.

It is not simply living an ethereal and abstract existence. That may or may not feel good, but it does not reach the summum bonum of human existence, to act in the service of humanity. We are not embracing the New Age idealism if we are living it from an armchair.

The soul has incarnated here for a reason. Carne is meat in Spanish. True spirituality is found in living in the real world, contributing however one can.

When the soul un-incarnates, gives up the body to experience pure spirit, the body dies. As Charlie Chaplin says in the film A King in New York (1957), “I can’t stand the sight of blood, but it flows in my veins!”

A King in New York (1957) Charles Chaplin

Don’t worry about becoming spiritual. Do what you can do to help others, attend to your responsibilities, act with kindness, and protect your integrity. No one knows what happens after death, but we are here to live the lives we were granted to the best of our ability.

Spiritual development is an evolutionary process, both for the individual and the species. As the human spiritual instinct grows, all things will begin to make more sense. In another few hundred years, we’ll know more and be better people than today.

Overcoming Addiction

Have you ever watched To Catch a Predator, the Dateline-NBC show with Chris Hansen? The show that breaks for commercial with the guy lying face down on the ground and a large policeman’s knee in his back.

More Dateline-NBC Busts

These men, the ones busted on Dateline-NBC, don’t seem able to control themselves. And that’s the real story. That after being on the air for months, with all the attendant publicity and buzz around the program, men still show up to meet the 13-year old girl. They are willing to risk everything. Like moths to a flame, they can’t help themselves. They’re addicted.

The first step to overcoming any type of addiction is admitting. Without admitting, the addict simply rationalizes his behavior or makes up lies. But with the police waiting outside with drawn guns and transcripts of the chat logs, there is little wriggle room.

Part of the admitting process is understanding the addiction. But rational people don’t always act rationally; understanding addiction is only part of the solution. In fact, many addicts go back to the chat room as soon as they are released by the police.

However, not every addict ends up in desperate straights. That’s why it’s so hard to admit to addiction. It’s easy to fool yourself and others. But the curtain always comes crashing down — eventually.

The problem is we don’t have a good grasp of what addiction really is. Is it a behavioral anomaly or a disease? Until now, we’ve tended to separate addictions into two categories, one behavioral, the other substance-based. But what if all addictions: those in the substance category that we term diseases like cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs and those in the behavioral category that we term moral failures like gambling, eating, shopping, or sex all stem from the same type of brain activity?

According to New Scientist writer Helen Phillips, “Several studies of the brain and behavior back the idea that there’s very little difference between what goes on in the head of a gambling addict and that of a crack addict. Yet, there’s a common perception that overindulgence in certain behaviors is all down to individual choice. If you are overeating, oversexed, gambling away your earnings or spending all you time online, you are more likely to be considered morally abhorrent than the victim of a disease. Calling these problems ‘addictions’ has triggered debates about whether our society or our biology is to blame.”

Substance addictions have attendant withdrawal consequences, from physical indicators like sweats, nausea, cramps to psychological problems like hallucinations, depression, and moodiness. Alcohol sufferers experience DTs; drug addicts can expect physical breakdown and “cold turkey” sessions; cigarette smokers are so hooked that even a serious lung condition is not enough to make them quit. According to researchers, behavioral addicts suffer the same symptoms.

Drug addicts have drug addiction treatment centers to seek help from, while those afflicted with various behavioral addictions also have addiction facilities that specialize in dealing with such issues. 

Yet in many instances, the consequences of behavioral addictions are in some ways even harsher. For overeating there is rejection, radical surgery, diabetes, and social ostracism. For gambling there’s prison, debt collection, financial ruin. For sex addicts, the ones who commit serious crimes, there is sterilization, castration or prison. Yes, in case you didn’t know it, radical solutions like castration are widely discussed and promoted.

Because he hasn’t been caught in some serious transgression, the addict keeps coming back for more, especially since, as cited by New Scientist writer, Helen Phillips, “both drugs of abuse and pleasurable behaviors trigger the release of the same chemicals (dopamine) and gene regulators in the brain.”

So what do research, medicine, psychology, yes, and even law enforcement, offer sex addicts in the way of remedies? A variety of tools and treatments, from therapy to medication to sterilization to castration. Some of the therapies actually suggest that abstinence be part of the treatment. Abstinence?

Abstinence is the equivalent of relying on the little voice in the back of the head every time a person tells a lie, or every time an alcoholic ends up in the gutter, or every time a thief holds up a liquor store. Yes, the little voice is there all right, but the liar, the alcoholic, and the thief have long ago pushed the Mute Button. Their addiction has drowned out the voice in the back of the head.

Well, many of the men who appear on Dateline-NBC seem normal. Many are talented, creative, and gainfully employed: doctors. Rabbis, teachers. The only thing holding them back from completely functional lives is their obsessions.

To break an addiction, we need a technique that doesn’t rely on the voice in the back of the head, the conscience as some call it. But, you say, that’s impossible because you just said the sexual addict is unable to obey any moral imperative. Is there a treatment the addict can self-administer? And, if there is, why would he choose it?

The harder he works to satisfy the urges that rouse him, the longer he continues to evade admitting his problem, the less he’ll be looking for treatment. But if he gets to the point of admitting and wants to take control of his own destiny, to avoid entering the system and its enforced treatment programs that include: therapy, medication, prison, sterilization, and castration, there is sublimation. A process whose side effects are wholly positive and whose cost in dollars is zero.

Does the sublimation process change the way a person fantasizes over his obsessions? No, it’s not possible to take over someone’s fantasies and redirect them. That was the theme of Stanley Kubrick’s famous film, Clockwork Orange, using drugs and punishment to reprogram an offender. It didn’t work; reprogramming blows the mind. Rather than reprogramming the mind — a process that kills creativity — sublimation diverts the sexual energy into the brain. Implemented successfully, it changes the arousal patterns the individual feels. How does sublimation work?

Instead of flooding the brain with dopamine, the addict’s reward for pressing the "pleasure button," the body’s chemical substances are recombined and used for worthier purposes, such as self-healing, overcoming addiction, and expanding consciousness. All addicts — dopers, drinkers, smokers, eaters, gamblers, shoppers, lechers — pursue their addiction to trigger the dopamine response. That’s right, the reward takes place in the brain, not the penis, or the stomach, or any other part of the body. The craving that starts in the mind is the brain’s pleading for dopamine.

Sublimation, too, affects brain chemistry, but in a different way. Proper sexual sublimation diverts the seminal fluid up the spinal column into the brain. The introduction of this new element into the brain changes the brain chemistry such that the organ itself is completely transformed. Once transformed, the addict’s consciousness as well as his attitudes and worldview changes, too. He has the chance of starting over. Rebirth. Rediscovery. Recovery. The new Being.

Think of it as an opportunity to grow, to become the REAL you. Read Gopi Krishna's Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man and other books about awakening experiences. Notice I use the work "awakening." That's because Kundalini promotes a complete makeover, not just physical, but mental, psychic, emotional, spiritual. The "awakening" is just the beginning. There are years of learning and accepting, until he finally realizes the Kundalini energy has his best interests at heart.

If this addict — on the threshold of a Kundalini awakening — could look back at himself as he is today from a time 40 years in the future, he'd wonder who the person was that was so obsessed with sex and say to himself, "What a waste of good semen! All that porn, all that lust, all that wasted sexual energy! I could have been using it to build the REAL me."

But how does an addict, in the full denial of his addiction, find any information on self-realization, much less information on Kundalini? It's the smallest needle (no pun intended) in the largest haystack. Add to this the addict's blindness to everything besides his addiction and the odds seem impossible. And yet, many addicts are spiritual people. They're just looking for salvation in the wrong places. If they could only get a glimpse of their alternate Self — a higher consciousness version of their Being — thanks to a momentary encounter with the Energy Continuum, they might work their way free of their affliction. 

Sublimation utilizes no instruments, no surgical procedures, no medication. It requires no sworn oaths of chastity. For me, it was the result of Golden Flower Meditation. I used this method over forty years ago; it changed my entire being. The whole and complete method is discussed and elaborated on in my book, Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time.

So, what does this method entail? Basically learning to breathe in a certain manner during meditation practice, a voluntary physical action which in turn produces a series of reactions that culminate in the activation of the dormant Kundalini mechanism. No more, no less. It’s an entirely physical process.

And it doesn't end there. If you can't meditate, for whatever reason, there are other means of activating Kundalini, other ways to trigger sublimation.

So what happens when the Kundalini process runs its course? First, Kundalini doesn’t just change your body; it changes your entire being. Living with Kundalini makes your body sensitive to negative stimuli: alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, bad food. Any ingestible substance that might harm your body. One by one your addictions drop away. You’ll know exactly which substances harm your body and you’ll take steps to avoid them.

In addition, you’ll begin to make better life decisions. The fact that you are no longer addicted clears the mind. Gradually, you become a better decision maker and problem solver. You are more able to live in the moment. The sublimation process changed my being and personality. It produced a complete creative repurposing of brain chemistry. The very chemical process that once marked me for addiction was altered. Instead of dopamine — the brain chemical addicts crave — my brain was fed a new substance, an elixir distilled from seminal fluid. Sounds strange, perhaps, but if you long for a healthier life and greater overall creativity, you’ll marvel at its restorative properties.

Self-Awareness: Can it be Developed?

Success in the spiritual journey depends on one's level of self-awareness. Okay, suppose this is true: how does one become more self-aware? The first step is to recognize and accept that there is more to our minds* than we realize, more, in fact, than we use on a daily basis.

One way of developing self-awareness is to consider pain.

When I have a pain, I feel it as separate from myself, therefore who is it that is feeling the pain? If I was the pain, I wouldn't be able to observe it and see it was separate from me, therefore who is it that knows that it is separate? To begin to grasp this is the beginning of self-awareness. Awareness of the Self — which is not the ego self but is another Self, the Self that is constantly watching everything that is going on. Not the self that is having a constantly running commentary about what is going on — that is the ego self. So who is it that is watching the constant commentary from a neutral position — just like a mirror reflecting everything without adding or taking away anything? There is something that is watching, not judging. It never judges. It watches dispassionately. Begin to ponder on what it is that is watching and you have made the first breakthrough into Self-awareness. Buddhists have termed this watching "witnessing or the witness consciousness."

Don't despair if your efforts to experience this witness consciousness seem futile. In the early days it's like this. I can remember feeling very frustrated because the moment I came out of mind and connected with the witness, a thought about that connection broke the contact. Keep going and there will come a day when the witness consciousness is permanent and won't require meditation to experience it. Another good practice for cultivating this relationship is mindfulness; in fact, mindfulness is the same as the witness consciousness.

Another effective practice for developing self-awareness is to constantly monitor every thought, feeling and action. When somebody says or does something to you, notice what effect that has on you. Don't judge the reaction you have as being good or bad, just notice that it is there. On the spiritual journey the goal is never getting carried away by what someone else says or does, but in recording your reaction to it. The constant question should be: "What is this situation or person showing me about myself?"

Reaction is never about the other, it's always about the ego self. In the past, people used to tell me that I was too hard on myself because I never projected out onto others, I always took it within to see what I could learn from it. Instead of projecting or defending I used it to develop my own self-awareness.

I took this to the limit. Not only did I identify what it said about me, I judged what I saw as wrong. I judged myself as not kind/generous/patient and then used that to beat myself up and consider myself wrong. This is not the way.

Yes, watch your own reactions, but don't add to those reactions. They are just reactions. You can learn from them, but don't judge them as being right or wrong or meaning anything about you. Not indicting yourself is the biggest challenge. It leads down a cul de sac of needless suffering.

I have learned to examine my reactions to events in my life dispassionately. I am an observer watching everything that happens, but reacting to none of it. And yet...I'm not dead! I have a vibrant love of life and enter fully and completely into what I do. There's nothing vapid or morbid about me. I respond to events rather than react to them and that makes all the difference to my self-awareness and quality of life. 

Mooji tells a story of three birds who are on different branches of a tree. The bird on the first branch is busy building a nest, totally engrossed in what it is doing. The bird on the second branch is doing nothing simply watching the first bird being really busy; and then there is a third bird that is watching both the bird that is doing and the one that is watching. He directs those who are listening to him to the third bird and asks, "What is that bird?" Which suggests to me there is something beyond the second bird — the watcher.

In my spiritual journey I have experienced the second bird, and as I only speak and write about what I have experienced, I will leave the significance of the third bird for later.

* Perhaps the Sanskrit term, Atman, conveys the intention here: atman–has many meanings in Sanskrit that include: soul, breath, the Self, one's self (as a reflexive pronoun), mind, body, the Supreme Soul, etc. 

Happiness Influences DNA

Recently, researchers discovered that the type of “happiness” an individual experiences actually influences that individual’s genetic profile.

The researchers examined the biological implications of both hedonic, pleasure seeking happiness, and eudaimonic* happiness, contentment from a life of purpose and meaning, through the lens of the human genome — a system of some 21,000 genes that has evolved fundamentally to help humans survive and be well. 

The researchers drew blood samples from 80 healthy adults who were assessed for hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, as well as potentially confounding negative psychological and behavioral factors. The team used the CTRA gene-expression profile to map the potentially distinct biological effects of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. 

While those with eudaimonic well-being showed favorable gene-expression profiles in their immune cells and those with hedonic well-being showed an adverse gene-expression profile, “people with high levels of hedonic well-being didn’t feel any worse than those with high levels of eudaimonic well-being,” said Steven Cole, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor of medicine.

Both seemed to have the same high levels of positive emotion. However, their genomes were responding very differently even though their emotional states were similarly positive.

The study, published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said doing good and feeling good have very different effects on the human genome, even though they generate similar levels of positive emotion.

Apparently, the human genome is much more sensitive to different ways of achieving happiness than are conscious minds,” Cole said.

From the above, it follows that our behaviors (such as the ability to put oneself in another’s place, care for, and/or empathize with others) impacts DNA and DNA transmission. Couple this with practices (such as Yoga, meditation, Reiki, Tai Chi) that actually trigger super-consciousness and you have a well-rounded recipe not only for influencing DNA, but for self-realization as well.

Click image for more info

Imagine a feedback instrument capable of monitoring the levels of eudaimonic well-being in real-time. With this type of instrument, everyone — not just Kundalini adepts — would receive continual feedback on their behavioral states and would be able to “pull themselves back” to the eudaimonic norm when tempted to act selfishly or immoderately. Likewise, Kundalini adepts, especially those in the early disorienting stages, would be able to harmonize their behavior with the pranic forces of super-consciousness.

In the early stages after Kundalini activation, the initiate gets pulled in many directions at the same time. Eventually, he/she is able to recognize, accept, and integrate the various effects and phases of the Kundalini experience. Having a biofeedback device to monitor behavior would help initiates integrate the pranic energy Kundalini generates.

Now I realize that studies like the above may leave you scratching your head, wondering if it's for real. Is it science? Is it metaphysics? Is it gobbledygook? Does it have any real world value? Is the author citing another study and moving on, leaving me, the reader, to derive what I can, hoping I won’t question the study’s authenticity?

All I can add is: I wasn’t there when this study was conducted. So let me see if I can make it more relevant by relating it to my own experience.

After my Kundalini activated, most of my hedonistic tendencies disappeared immediately. I didn’t have to work on eradicating them, didn’t have to pray to God to deliver me from temptation. Gone was the desire for drugs and alcohol. Gone was the thrill of wild parties. Chasing women; gone overnight. This happened when I was 35. I didn’t have to grow old, watch myself continue to lust after the hedonic. I consider myself lucky. There’s nothing more pitiful than watching someone of advancing age fall victim to continued dissipation. Once I comprehended the vastness of the force I had awakened, I gave thanks at no longer being motivated solely by the pursuit of pleasure.

A couple of years before this, while I was in college. I used to hang out in a bar on Pennsylvania Avenue, close to the George Washington University campus with a disparate group: students, young couples, artists, writers, professionals, quasi-criminals, recent graduates, job hunters. One day, two guys, who obviously weren’t college students, showed up. At first, we thought they were attracted by the girls. But that wasn’t it. It was the ambiance, the camaraderie, at least at first. One guy I’ll call Frank became an everyday regular. He liked being with the students, liked talking with us.

Turns out he had just retired from the US Navy at 37-years-old. He had a small apartment in Foggy Bottom, used to invite students for chili dinners on Saturdays. Beer and chili. No drugs. Frank didn’t approve. It was in the early 60s, before drugs became a universal staple.

Frank spent more and more time in that bar, just drinking. I watched him age. His face was a journal of his condition. Day-to-day it reflected his worsening state. Not only did his whole appearance — face, skin, hands, arms — age rapidly, he became glassy-eyed, as if he was looking through you while speaking directly to you. It was graphic, but in my hedonic state — my mid-twenties — I thought Frank just another good ‘ol boy enjoying the ambiance of the bar scene.

From stopping to chat with him, I began nodding and passing by quickly. Sometimes he’d be sprawled over his table, passed out. His friend would carry him home.

Having witnessed the efficacy of AA in my father’s life, I tried to talk to Frank about it once. To no avail. The Frank that first walked into the bar shortly after his retirement was no more. He was an empty vessel, drained of sense and spirit. He lived to drink.

I frequently look back those early days with wonder at the person I once was. How I went one way and Frank another. Frank had his whole life in front of him. A generous retirement, a genuinely nice person, yet he drank himself to death at 38, one year after retiring. Why him and not me? I consumed as much as he did, was often drunker and more out of control. Yet, I have always been optimistic about life, believing that I would find ways to remove myself from the grip of bad habits and materialistic urges. This evolutionary impulse was very strong; it led me away from pessimism, fatalism, and negative emotion. It led me to Kundalini meditation. I was able to change my nature and Frank wasn’t. Thinking about Frank makes this study real for me.

By altering brain chemistry, Kundalini produces an entirely new being, one much less inclined to hedonic, pleasure seeking happiness. It actually helps eudaimonic tendencies flourish.

I found meaning in my life and Frank didn’t. I jumped five layers of Maslow’s pyramid, from Belonging & Love Needs to the Self-Actualization layer in one do-not-pass-go leap. By the way, it wasn’t me that jumped those five layers in the Maslow pyramid; It jumped me. Kundalini did. That’s the way it works if you let it. Doesn’t happen overnight. You have to surrender, not see it as some sort of character aberration or soul warp. Not fall victim to depression. And that’s difficult because Kundalini wants to erase your ego and start you over from scratch. An empty vessel that gradually integrates the wonders of super-consciousness into everyday life.

Kundalini drained me just as alcohol drained Frank. Two sorts of empty vessels: one whose ego, indoctrination, conditioning were swept away in one fell swoop by Kundalini; the other, a vessel whose soul was anathematized by alcohol.
It’s not like I went out one day to search for meaning; I didn’t. I began a meditation practice that involved breathing. One thing led to another. Relatively simple breathing exercises led to the activation of a biological process that overhauled my being. Is this so unusual, something only I could accomplish? Is feeling happy the right way really so boring, so unexciting? Before Kundalini, I felt the pull of hedonic living day and night. Felt sorry for those living normal lives. What a joke life plays on us — that the hedonistic life style our culture exalts is an illusion many discover too late. At the same time, Being Happy the right way remains largely ignored. 

*According to Aristotle, eudaimonia actually requires activity, action, so that it is not sufficient for a person to possess a squandered ability or disposition. Eudaimonia requires not only good character but rational activity.

This material is excerpted from JJ Semple's book, The Biology of Consciousness: Case Studies in Kundalini, © Life Force Books and JJ Semple, 2014. All Rights Reserved. Publication date, July 2013.

My Kundalini Experience

Kundalini was the last thing on my mind when I had my experience. I was fully entrenched in a practical life, leading a normal existence. Occasionally, I experienced stirrings of spiritual emptiness, but most of the time I was engrossed in getting through my day.

I was at a party one day and met a woman who said she was a Tantrica. Although very sweet, she seemed a bit eccentric to me. She insisted that I "eye-gaze" with her and after her reassurance that it was quite benign, I agreed. I felt a little silly, lying next to her and staring at her eyes. Sometimes I'm way too polite to say no.

A few moments later, electric shocks starting whipping up my spine. They were not painful, but I could here a "Kraa-aaa-ck" sound. It was like being hit by lighting bolts of energy, the sheer force of which, threw me onto my back. I had read about Kundalini, but I never thought it was a physical reality. After a few minutes, the bolts subsided and I sat up. I don't know who was more surprised, the Tantrica or me. She said she'd never witnessed anything like this and wanted to explore it further with me.

Intrigued, I scheduled a session with the Tantrica and a few days later I was eye-gazing with her again. At this point, I still thought it was silly, but I had nothing to lose. What's more, I could not deny the lightning bolts I had felt a few days before.

We continued to eye-gaze and suddenly, something opened in my lower spine. It felt like a dam had burst in my sacrum and as that happened, energy started pushing its way up my spine. The force was tremendous. It felt like sparkling white light. I sat up in shock, at which point the energy got stuck in the center of my chest. My chest was on fire and the Tantrica did something that "opened" the area. The energy then burst through my chest as it continued flow up my spine.

Because of the sheer force of the energy rising up my spine, I could barely sit up, so I crouched down, putting my head on my knees. That seemed to be the only position I could maintain. I lost control of my body, completely at the mercy of this energy.

After some time, I was able to sit up and the energy burst into my brain. When I closed my eyes, I found myself in a different dimension, consisting of infinite white light and I was above it. Above the white light there was nothing. Just emptiness and a feeling of peace.

I had 360° vision, as if I was flying above the cloud cover in an airplane, able to see everything.

As long as I kept my eyes closed I did not feel the sheer force of the energy rising up my spine, so I remained in that space. Suddenly I received a telepathic Knowing, as if the words were being spoken inside of me. Someone was speaking to me and I understood the words at the same instant they were uttered. Almost like, two light bulbs lighting up together. The communication was instantaneous.

The being said,"I have loved you from eternity, I did not just start loving you because I have never stopped."

I was overcome by such intense bliss It became unbearable. I opened my eyes. As I did, I returned to everyday reality, unable to exercise the usual rational control as the energy kept rising. So I closed my eyes and returned to the space of the light.

Again, It spoke, "This is just a raindrop of my power."

Telepathically I replied, "And look what It has done to me?"

Again, the feeling of intense, unbearable bliss filled my being and I opened my eyes. I lay down on the floor and let the energy course through my body.

Finally, the force of the energy slowed down. It felt like a river meandering up my spine. Eventually, it stopped as I tried to comprehend what had happened.

I looked at the time. Six hours had passed. I had completely lost track of time during this event.

When I finally came to, my rational mind could not digest the experience. I blamed the Tantrica for taking an undue risk with me. What if I'd had a seizure or become psychotic? I left her house and refused to take her calls just as I refused to acknowledge the experience. I completely shut down and fell into depression. I felt alone and frightened.

As time passed I was able to pull myself out of the depression and get on with my life. Slowly, I integrated this experience into my everyday life.

How to Hide a Monk in Plain Sight

"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches and I must make amends."
~ Mercedes Benz, lyrics by Janis Joplin

After my awakening, one revelation I had, more important than any other, was that human beings are slaves to repetitive behavioral patterns. The less awareness you bring to day-to-day actions, the more likely the possibility of remaining stuck. Uttering the same lines, repeating the same anecdotes and jokes for years, responding the same way to a favorite food, smell or sensation, and most important, reacting the same way to powerful stimuli like lust for sex and greed for money or material belongings. Especially powerful is the tendency to compare yourself with your peers. Like the song says, my friends all have Porsches, I have to make amends.

In my last post, I touched on the various Yamas and Niyamas. Before my awakening, when I was living the consumer avatar with gusto, I was buying fancy clothes. New, expensive designer stuff every month. Never even wore them twice. But the minute I saw the next new pair of designer jeans, I wanted them. Why? Because society trains us that way. To crave more and more. Desiring a nice set of clothes is not the problem. Never feeling satisfied no matter how much you have, is.



Kundalini brings unfulfilled wishes to the surface. I had a choice. Fulfill them and be done with the craving. Learn to enjoy the object without craving the next one. "Lord give me this," once granted, lived and no longer craved, is then removed, never to be replaced with more of the same. This, more than anything, is the greatest blessing. It is a cliché to say "enjoy the small things in life," but really, that is what it's all about. Whatever has been said so far echoes something very similar. Live in this moment. Drop illusions. Enjoy life as it is. Be grateful for each moment and live happily.

It is a misconception to think that kundalini leads to a rejection of the material world or wealth, or that it instills a craving for renunciation or vairagya. The true meaning of vairagya is non-attachment to wealth. If I decide to renounce my worldly possessions and live in a cave, the basic temptation is still there. It has only been suppressed. In fact, creating a polarized anti-material point of view will make the rebound that much more difficult. True renunciation includes a pragmatic aspect. When it comes from within as a consequence of a kundalini awakening, you could be a billionaire and be totally unattached to your wealth. Yes, I possess these things, but I am not described by them. Neither do I fear losing them.

Yes, you need these things, but you learn to separate needs from wants. Your needs are for living a fulfilling life, not to join the rat race to show others how much more you have. That will only lead to disappointment if the other person remains unimpressed. All illusion is created by the ego. Understanding this, you focus on real needs, you are not tempted by every new shiny object, and you do not consume to impress others.

Once an individual awakens, The Adjustment Bureau mechanism set in place by society jumps into full-rectify mode. Look, your buddy is now a CEO. He drives such and such a car. That guy has a giant screen home theater. 

Still worse is the destructive chatter the mind throws out: dire images of poverty, fears of ending up on the street begging, etc. The sub-conscious mind generates these negative images and emotions. Society feeds people fear as a control mechanism, making them more likely to live out the fate they fear most. Create dark ideas and they will manifest themselves. Create feelings of gratitude and more will find a way into your life.

Society wants you to become a robot and constantly run after another dangling carrot. If you stop and think for a minute about what you really want, the whole mechanism will collapse. What do you actually need? Food, clothing and shelter. Once those are taken care of, a life lived to the maximum of its potential is much more rewarding.

Effectively, one becomes a monk and lives hidden in plain sight. I drive a nice car; I live in a nice house; heck, I even trade stocks and make money in the stock market. I have a family. Definitely not a cave-dwelling ascetic. But within me, each of these things fulfill a purpose. My own dharma. More and more, they are done with total detachment to the outcome. Each action done for it's own sake. Being a good householder and fulfilling your karma towards your family is a good use of the three lower chakras.

The lower three chakras are firmly in the physical realm. The base chakra is involved with matters of survival and earning a living. A healthy way to deal with it is to optimize your profession and align it with your real self. To not run after making the most money. Living in a cave is actually unhealthy self-abuse and creates new blockages if you neglect survival and other basic needs. The sacral chakra, expressed in a positive way leads to healthier sexual relationships and creative expression. Lust and craving are resolved in a healthy way. Living in a monastery, but yearning for sex is not helpful. Learning to cope with success is sometimes harder than learning to cope with failure. If you keep your ego in check and stay on an even keel, despite adulation and a growing sense of accomplishment, you have prevented third chakra blockages.

That is the reason every method of kundalini awakening, raja yoga, Kabalah or the Tao emphasizes balance. If this is misunderstood, the mind creates a no-win dualistic scenario: self-deprivation and monastic abnegation on the one hand, wanton self-indulgence on the other. Neither path leads to awakening. The path towards self-realization is about two things, Intent and Balance. It is not enough to have intent; it is important to learn balance. Going to extremes of hermetic renunciation and keeping yourself away from society will have no positive impact on the quest and will only inflate the spiritual ego.

None of the measures mentioned in the Raja Yoga post need to be done with spartan discipline. A gentle nudge towards simpler means suffices. The goal is to recognize craving and programmed behavior, and to move away from them.

Desiring a comfortable existence in and of itself is not wrong or evil. Sexual desire is not wrong. But submitting to programmed indoctrination that renders you feeling dissatisfied, restless and craving has a negative impact on the smooth flow of energy within the chakras. The process of achieving balance is quite literally, a balancing act. It requires constant attention. You can't achieve it all at once; it is not a once and done process. You have to constantly train the mind to achieve mindful awareness.

Kundalini is a Gift...It's the Mind You Have to be Vigilant About

This week a man, who I will call John, phoned me to say that he'd had a Kundalini experience three years ago and his life was "falling apart." I immediately recognized this "falling apart" syndrome as the mind creating fear through its ubiquitous chatter.

If I opened up the brain and body of this man, I wouldn't find any "falling apart." I would find certain sensations, bodily experiences, thoughts, attitudes, but no "falling apart." I tried to slow his mind down by asking him to be specific about what he meant by "falling apart," asking him, "What are the thoughts, feelings, perceptions, attitudes you are having?" The difficulty he had in isolating what he meant showed me the degree to which the conceptual mind was running the show, and how much his mental activity was based on fear.

Over-stimulated Mind Creates Fear and Despair

Interestingly, or one could say ironically, he only used spiritual practices to ease the chronic back pain he had, saying that in the course of a five minute spiritual exercise, energy coursed up through his body and "everything changed."

Listening to him speak I was reminded of my state of mind three years into the experience: manic, making all kinds of connections, seeing synchronicities everywhere. Listening to him I was fascinated; it was like listening to an earlier version of myself.

Manic-like symptoms seem to be an inevitable part of a Kundalini awakening. The energy activates dormant areas in the brain, giving rise to an influx of new ideas and connections with little ability to be objective or witness these thoughts. At this stage there is little to be gained by trying to bring the consciousness down from its lofty heights because the person cannot hear it. At least, I couldn't. At this stage I was ringing up Kundalini yoga teachers berating them for advocating the raising of this energy without any information about the karmic history of the individuals in their classes.

At that time I had little trust in Kundalini, even though my own experience had been smooth. Yet, I sensed its power intuitively.

Looking back now at those conversations, I must have sounded so weird to the teachers who answered the phone and listened to my rant! If someone had tried to speak to me about "calming down" and "witnessing," I would have probably felt angry and unlistened to.

I realized it was the same situation with John. So I gave up any idea of talking to him about watching his thoughts without identifying or becoming absorbed with them and I decided to meet him on his own terms. This involved speaking about the manic ideas of religious conspiracies I'd had at the same stage of the process. I advised him not to do any spiritual practices and to find something that he could give his Word to (what I mean by WORD is to do what you said you would do when the mind says "it's the worst thing you could do"). Something that diverted his fascination with the contents of his consciousness, which are merely the result of an awakened Kundalini working on the nervous system.

The best way to do this is to make WORD more important than WANT. In saying this to him, a part of me hoped he would listen and find something he could commit to, that would divert his attention from the spiritual pitfalls of self-absorption and fascination. But at this stage, advice like this is not really heard. The ego mind is too busy trying to re-assert the control that was lost when Kundalini rose for the first time. It recognizes that the same ego-state is not possible because consciousness has shifted, but there still exists a small window of possibility for a spiritual ego which is where the insights, connections, synchronicities come from. I'm not for one moment saying that these are not real: witnessing and acknowledging that they are happening is perfectly okay. However, becoming absorbed and fascinated by them is the stumbling block in the process. I have not experienced the entire range of physical, mental and spiritual transformation which Kundalini induces. I see its effects very much on the brain and nervous system. Beyond that, I can't comment.

In 2013, I organized the First UK Conference on Kundalini. I had high hopes that the conference would promote greater understanding of Kundalini. Now I realize that Kundalini is different for everyone. There are no pat answers or sure ways of either raising or living with it. It is very much a path by the Alone for the Alone. Yes, there are fellow travelers who can share their journey, but their journey is not yours — you have to go through it alone. Just remember it is not Kundalini that is going to throw you off the path, leaving you in a spiritual wasteland, but your own mind with the thoughts it conjures up.

I wrote about the internet Satsangs, given by Mooji and the people sitting at his feet, either laughing hysterically (having apparently got the cosmic joke!) or else "falling apart," as John put it. One lady explained that she was "falling so apart," she went to the doctor who gave her anti-depressants that she takes, but doesn't want to. Mooji asked her one question, "Do you take these tablets when you are sleeping?" Confused, the woman replied "No."

Listening to this, something hit me and I realized: what happens during sleep that does not happen during the day? The answer came to me so clearly. It is mind. At night, the mind is asleep and therefore there are no thoughts of "falling apart," so the unbearable fear that accompanies such a thought cannot and does not occur. In that moment, I was grateful to Mooji for the insight I'd had. Kundalini is a gift. It is the mind you have to be vigilant about.

I AM

Meditation has been my way of learning about myself. I have been asking the question, "Who am I?"

The words "The Earth is my dream" flash in my mind and I ask, "Who am I?"

The answer I receive, "You are my creation."

And I fall deeper into myself as everything fades away and I dissolve into an energy field that is infinite. Call it the Unified Field, Energy Continuum, The Matrix, Spirit or God.

My ego says, "I am Simmi."

The field replies, "I AM."

I realize that my ego is like a looping labyrinth that always walks me back to the starting point no matter how I try to maneuver through it. Its job is to keep me identifying myself as separate from the whole. Once again, it walks me back to being Simmi and I say, "I am Simmi."

The field replies more emphatically.

"(No) I AM."

It shows me how a piece of the whole gets embodied as a separate being. Like a sliver being encased within the armor of Simmi.

"I am Simmi."

"(NO) I AM."

I feel I am in the mind of God and He has observed me into being. He has observed everything that exists into being. Creation are the thoughts of God manifested inside His being. When I lose the armor of Simmi, I am the whole. In the whole, thoughts float in an endless sea. The ego creates shape and time and dimension. It creates the illusion. I understand that since you exist you are important to the whole and you are exactly how you should be.

I ask again. "Who am I?"

And I awaken to.

I AM everything.