This post intends to make a very clear distinction between the non dual message and the understanding of kundalini awakening.
A kundalini awakening is the awakening of pure awareness, consciousness, or life force that initiates mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual shifts.
Kundalini refers to the life force. The creative expression of Being. Non duality refers to Being itself, void of any impact, movement or expression.
A kundalini awakening appears on behalf of the personal self. A non dual recognition appears on behalf of Being, and does not involve the personal self what-so-ever.
There are a variety of ways that the kundalini awakening experience, or appearance, may express itself, and it is uniquely individual to each person, as each has their own life experiences, karmas, and general individuality.
A kundalini awakening may or may not appear with a non dual recognition.
The non dual recognition has no concern, reliance, or relationship to the kundalini awakening.
From the perspective of non duality, what is, which is Being, is already completely free and independent of the processes, functions, and expressions of the body and mind organism.
The body and mind organism, are arising out of, as, and returning to the substrate of Being itself.
Being itself is home to kundalini awakening, equally as it is to, let’s say, something like drug addiction or murder.
Being is what is. What is, is life appearing. Life appearing as everything. Everything, is therefore also nothing, because it is not just one thing.
To the personal self, it appears as though there are many things appearing on its behalf:
“Me and my kundalini awakening”, “me and my consciousness”, “me and my spiritual path”, “me and my body”, “me and my mind”, “me and my boyfriend”, “me and my dinner.” , “me and my realization”. etc.
To Being itself, there only appears everything all at once, happening simultaneously. Yet, it is also not happening, as the happening itself is temporal and subject to time. Being is the timelessness in which time appears.
Therefore, to being there is no duration of time pre-kundalini rising and post-kundalini rising. The kundalini rising could only appear as a part of time, and therefore arises on behalf of the dreamer and their dream.
That’s not to say that a kundalini awakening is not happening, is not experienced. It very well may be. But, as far as non duality is concerned, it has absolutely nothing to do with what is being indicated in non dualism.
This distinction must be made when the non dual subject begins to be explored, and this is simply because so many people that get into this subject, do so from a background of meditation, or the “be here now” movement, and with that comes a conditioned thinking or belief, that something called an awakening or enlightenment is going to be gotten if one is spiritual enough, or when enough time passes.
Non duality is not a process that is dependent on anything, or needs anything in order to be completed. In fact, there is no process whatsoever involved in the non dual subject.
In terms of the kundalini, there appear to be apparent shifts which the mind, spirit, body, and emotions undergo and a transformation does seem to arise.
These shifts may be appearing in conjunction with a non dual recognition, but are no more directly linked to the non dual recognition than a car driving on the road.
From my understanding, and also experience, the kundalini can be a very violent and aggressive shift, and it is recommended to look into the proper support system and resources if that is what’s being experienced.
It’s also important to be wary of trying to use non-dual concepts to address mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual shifts as these are appearing in the temporal world of time, and should be dealt with in that way, rather then approached with mental concepts of Being, non dualism or timelessness, non-doership.
Non duality is not something that I have, or “enlightened” teachers have, and will therefore be able to give to you or that you will get from them in any way. It is not something anyone has more of than you, for you are Being itself, regardless of a non dual recognition or kundalini awakening.
A non dual recognition itself leads, literally, to nothing and no where. Yet, this is what’s always, already been the case. Since Being has nothing to do with the personal self, or consciousness, it therefore cannot and will not lead to a non dual recognition. In a non dual recognition it is into the substrate of Being the consciousness appears to dissolve back into. Yet, even what was just written is tricky, because it may form the image of some “thing” happening to some “one”. Which implies two or dualism.
This isn’t something you become “aware of” or come to “know”, for that would simply be another possession for the personal self to grasp for and seek.
Non duality, or Being, is simply the return to that which is here, which has always been here, even prior to a “return”, therefore even a return is an inaccurate description, for nothing has been left.
In fact, words and descriptions like this blog, I’m sorry to say it, run the risk of doing an incredible disservice to Being, by describing it as an object, or experience, that could be gotten by the personal self. They, mistakenly, and innocently, offers spiritual food to the seeker.
The risk of expressing non duality is a grave one, as, if not done properly, simply continues to feed the dream.
…that seems to be all that has come up on this subject. If you have deeper questions about this, please leave a comment.
Kasia Jarosinska is a certified Kundalini yoga instructor and writer living in San Diego, CA. She has been published in local lifestyle magazines, Eco-living publications and international fashion magazines.