Kundalini the essence of Yoga
By Darryl O'Keeffe & Guru Dharam Singh Khalsa
Kundalini the essence of Yoga
Yoga is an ancient Sanskrit word it means “union” or “to yoke”. Yoga describes the means for the individualised self to reunite with the whole. Every religion is a yoga in that each points to God. Every holistic practice is in essence a yoga in that it promotes the harmony of the whole. The postures that are commonly described in the West as yoga are but one of many yogic paths, each of which take different routes back to the realisation of the One.
Kundalini is also an ancient Sanskrit word, literally it means “the coil in the hair of the beloved” but its meaning symbolises the uncoiling of the latent inner awareness of our true spiritual nature.
Kundalini Yoga is the means by which we can safely prepare to activate and channel the Kundalini energy, to raise our consciousness through our Chakra system, and through which we can transform our heightened spiritual awareness into constructive action within our communities.
Kundalini Yoga is the most inclusive yoga; all forms are embraced by it and all other paths lead to it. It is said that if each facet or sparkle from a diamond were a path of yoga then Kundalini would be the diamond itself.
Kundalini Yoga is a powerful, transformative, spiritual technology. It is fast, focussed and effective. It should only be practised under competent direction.
The first written mention of yoga is circa 600BC in the Upanishads, the last part of the Vedas, the sacred texts of the Aryans who migrated to India around 1500BC. Earlier yogic practice circa 2000BC is depicted on seals found in the Indus Valley. It is reasonable to assume that the origins of yogic practice are much older. Such records as we have derive from ancient mythology, the oral history that predates our own. Mythology ascribes the initial transmission of Kundalini Yoga to the god Shiva who instructs his consort, the divine Parvarti in the sacred art. Accordingly the teachings were originally imparted exclusively to the initiated, usually in secluded monastic or temple environments in the geographical locations now known as India, Nepal and Tibet.
We know that 10000 years ago fundamental shifts in weather patterns initiated massive migration across the globe and can assume that the consequent chaos would have eventually produced renewed cultural stimulation and revised spiritual practices. Yogi Bhajan a modern master of Kundalini Yoga has stated that early forms of yoga were systematised 100,000 years ago and then reformulated at cyclical intervals, 80000, 40000 and 10000 years ago.
Yogic practice initially comprised the forms now named Tantric Yoga, Laya Yoga and Kundalini Yoga each distinct but together forming a trinity, a sacred technology of ecstasy.
Tantric Yoga has itself followed three paths through the ages.
Red Tantric Yoga is the best known and uses physical sexual contact to raise the spiritual awareness of the participants.
Black Tantric directs energy with malevolent, selfish or egotistical intent.
White Tantric Yoga is a practice now closely associated with Kundalini Yoga. It harnesses the male and female polarities to generate and release a diagonal “z” energy amongst the participants who sit in lines opposite one another. Insert picture or diagram. This powerful energetic template is filtered through the consciousness of the Mahan Tantric to gently erase subconscious blocks in the psyche of the participants who experience spiritual healing and upliftment. White Tantra is considered by many to be the most powerful yogic practice; it requires the energetic presence of a Mahan Tantric to facilitate the transformation. The Mahan Tantric transcends religion and culture and only one is incarnate upon the planet at one time. Yogi Bhajan, an Indian Sikh, was bestowed the title in 1971 when the then Mahan Tantric Tibetan Llama Lilan Po left his body.
Laya Yoga has been absorbed within Kundalini Yoga. It is the applied science of sound to generate positive neuro-glandular responses in the hypothalamic/pituitary/pineal cortex to expand and elevate the consciousness. Although an integral part of Kundalini Yoga, this vast teaching is so comprehensive in scope, so detailed in the empirical richness of its legacy and so direct in its transformative effect on human consciousness that it is also still known by its own name of Laya Yoga.
Kundalini Yoga
The Kundalini is our latent spiritual potential. It is represented symbolically as a serpent coiled 3 and a half times at the base of the spine. We might describe this latent force, which is awakened by Kundalini Yoga, as a kind of psychic nerve energy. Its purpose is to raise the consciousness, which ascends via the chakras to the crown of the head connecting to the Infinite and realising samadhi (enlightenment). Attempting or achieving this process may be described as “raising the kundalini”. Raising the Kundalini is not the sole objective of Kundalini Yoga bringing that awareness back down and applying it in the everyday world for the greater good is the less talked about completion of the journey.
The Kundalini Master Yogi Bhajan describes this, the mother of yogas, thus:
“What is the Kundalini? It is the creative potential of the man. You experience it when the energy of the glandular system combines with the nervous system to create such a sensitivity that the totality of the brain receives signals and integrates them. Then a person understands the effect of the effect in a sequence of the causes. In other words man becomes totally and wholly aware. We call it the yoga of awareness. Just as all rivers end up in the ocean, all yogas end up raising the Kundalini in man.”
These three original yogic forms were practised together by large communities whose collective intent was to celebrate and experience infinite consciousness during the Sat Yug (the Golden Age of Truth or Golden Consciousness which drew to a close 40,000 years ago).
Through the inexorable passage of time, this sublime and complete magnum opus of yogic transcendence disintegrated into the dark clutches of the secret brotherhoods, of innocent ignorance, of deliberate obfuscation, of religious avarice and through all the elements of natural selection to which spiritual consciousness, like biological species, is subject.
The coherence of the trinity of Kundalini, Laya and Tantra gave way to a deconstruction of the whole into its constituent parts. Strands from the whole iridescent tapestry were extrapolated into separately defined paths of yoga. There is no one definitive classification of the modern paths but we would suggest that the 3 have become 9.
The 9 modern paths of Yoga
Bhakti the yoga of devotion
Hatha the yoga of the body
Jnana the yoga of wisdom
Karma the yoga of service
Kundalini the yoga of latent spiritual awareness
Mantra the yoga of sound
Raja the yoga of the mind
Tantra the yoga of sexual polarity
Yantra the yoga of vision
The Yoga Sutras attributed to Patanjali established the “8 limbs” of Raja yoga 2000 years ago as a definitive text, which is essential reading for any modern student of yoga.
The 8 limbs of Yoga
Yama self control
Niyama observance of duty
Asana posture
Pranayama breath control
Pratyahara inhibition or withdrawal of the senses
Dharana concentration
Dhayana meditation
Samadhi ecstasy
The purification and preparation of the body for the earlier yogic disciplines began, 1000 years ago, to develop into the science and mastery of asana (postures), which is now known as Hatha yoga. This, at the time of writing, is what the large majority of people understand by the word ‘yoga’. Yogis who have attempted to maintain the integrity of their tradition in the contemporary market place have raised awareness of Hatha yoga successfully in the West. The Sivananda Centres and the Iyengar Yoga Centres are fine examples of this trend in modern times.
Thus one unified sacred technology became the wellspring for all the modern forms of yoga as recorded in the Vedic scriptures and in some cases as still practiced today. The geographical arena for this process of yogic dissemination was the continent of India, which is still regarded as ‘the cradle of spirituality’ of our current civilization and irrefutably the place where the philosophy, the principals and practice of yoga reached its zenith.
The pursuit and experience of divine consciousness and the transcendence of the ego has, however, been a universal theme since time immemorial and the phenomenon of Kundalini undulates through our collective human efforts to transform, elevate and embody the truth of life. This is discovered, rediscovered and verified over and over by our great mythologists and dreamcatchers; the work of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and Sir James Gordon Fraser is redolent with tales of a global reverence and respect for the serpent as teacher. Whether in the Cadeuceus, the symbol of medical profession, or in the twined double helix of the DNA molecule, the microscopic building block of life; the coiling and uncoiling of the serpent remains a potent point of global cultural reference; as it has been through the ages for the transmission of the techniques of personal and planetary upliftment.
Through time and space the ancient knowledge has percolated across cultures and through lineages, through the blood lines of royal houses, through the adepts of secret societies, from teacher to student, from Guru to Chela and ultimately through the sound current of the Word, the Logos, the Holy Nam. As the teachings, perhaps, attempted to contain and protect themselves from the eyes of the mundane world they sought refuge encoded in scrolls in the monasteries of Tibet; living in the hearts and minds of itinerant Sadhus; in the ashrams of the Hindu sages; in the great Mayan Temples of Consciousness; in the enchanting raptures of the Sufi Quawaali; in the glorious teachings of the Bodhisattvas; in the sacred texts of the Kabbalah; in the Koans of the Zen Masters; in the pyramids of the Egyptian Magician Priests; or with the bushmen of Botswana and others in the Dance that is Africa; until the appropriate combination of time, place and cultural resonance coalesced to manifest their timeless truth once more.
The emergence of authentic Kundalini yoga as a populist and accessible form of spiritual development in the dying years of the Piscean Age is a deeply significant global event. As we attempt to shift our consciousness into an Aquarian mode of pluralist, inclusive and universally compassionate heartspace, the energetic presence of Kundalini Yoga represents an invaluable and authentic source of transformation and empowerment for all.
Yogic Energetic Physiology
The purpose of raising the Kundalini energy is to achieve samadhi/enlightenment, to experience the full energy of consciousness or the energy of full consciousness.
The process of Kundalini Yoga is used to unite and fuse the energies of Shakti, the female principle, with Shiva, the male principle, in balance and harmony.
Through the practice of Kundalini Yoga the pranic force is directed downwards as the apanaic force is directed upward using the mul bhand and uddiyana bhand. This generates the powerful psychic inner heat called tapa. These forces are mixed at the navel point in an alchemical fusion of the energies of Shakti and Shiva. The resultant energy is directed down to penetrate the muladhara chakra around which the dormant Kundalini energy lies coiled. This penetration of this root chakra initiates the awakening of Kundalini, which uncoils and rises through the central nadic channel or Sushumna.
Providing the channels of Ida and Pingala are clear, and the intent of the aspirant is pure, the Kundalini can rise, absorbing and fully activating each chakra from the muladhara, the base, through the other five chakras to the Sahasrara, the crown, at the top of the head, and thereby realising samadhi.
The ability to maintain, or to access at will, this union in the Sahasrara gives spiritual liberation and is the phenomenon of the fully awakened Kundalini.
The Kundalini Energy is like a rocket firework in that it may eventually be developed to the point where it will transcend gravity/this world but its tendency is be aroused, to rise up and then to fall back into its sleeping state once more.
The path of the rising kundalini will be inhibited or blocked if the bhanda or body locks are not in place or if one or more chakras are blocked and unable to fully activate. These are the causes of the physical, emotional or mental disturbance experienced by those in whom the rising of the Kundalini is triggered spontaneously. The practice of Kundalini Yoga, far from creating these problems actually progressively removes their causes and Kundalini Yoga is increasingly being utilised in a variety of therapeutic modalities.
Even with a regular practice of Kundalini Yoga the energy of the aspirant is unlikely to rise initially to the crown chakra. The benefits lie in regular and sustained practice and are measured in the quality of life subsequently experienced.
Extracted from:
Kundalini the Essence of Yoga aka The Kundalini Yoga Experience
by Guru Dharam Singh Khalsa and Darryl O’Keeffe
Guru Dharam and Darryl established SKY the School of Kundalini Yoga in 1996; like their teacher Yogi Bhajan before them, they are sharing with others how to practice and instruct the sacred art and science of Kundalini Yoga. www.Ssense.co.uk/sky
Darryl O’Keeffe was born in 1955 to an Irish family living in England. He enjoyed a happy childhood and early schooling. His experience of a “church” school in his teens cured him of any lingering religious tendencies and when asked, as a young man, what he believed in he would answer, “Myself.”
Darryl qualified as a teacher while attending the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. He has practised as a part time teacher of something or other since 1978. Initially his employment took him from fringe theatre, through community theatre to Director of a Youth and Community Centre, which remains the only “proper” job he has ever done.
In the early 1980’s he began to “catch” other people’s headaches and discovered that he could physically remove pain from other people’s bodies. His spiritual reawakening began consciously when he took a migraine away from a girlfriend in an Islington street. The energetic discharge knocked him over and rendered him unconscious for a moment and as he lay there contemplating the stars, he mused that what had just happened was impossible by any science that he had ever been taught. At that moment he resolved to find out what was really going on in the world. His enquiries led him to the National Federation of Spiritual Healers and by the late 1980’s he had become a practising spiritual healer and it was not long before he began teaching other people how to realise their own spiritual healing abilities. After attending a Kundalini healing course with Lilla Bek he found himself impressed to physically adopt, what he subsequently found to be, yoga postures during his own meditation practice. He also noticed that too many people on a spiritual path seemed to ignore their physical development and began to practice yoga, joining three local classes: Hatha and Iyengar and Kundalini. Although he maintained his Hatha yoga practice for several years it was the spiritual dimension of the Kundalini Yoga classes taught by Guru Dharam Singh that really resonated with him.
Guru Dharam Singh Khalsa was born in London of Yorkshire and Russian parentage.
He encountered Kundalini Yoga one day in 1981 and began a daily practice the next. He met the Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan in 1982 and started teaching Kundalini Yoga. Over the years he developed a practice in Kundalini therapeutics and was inspired to learn Oriental energetic medicine. Formal study resulted in qualifications as an acupuncturist in 1989 and as a herbalist in 1991 completing his post-graduate clinical study in Ho Chi Min City. He founded the Lotus Healing Centre in 1989 and served as the Vice Principal of the London Academy of Oriental Medicine until 1996,
A fascination with the phenomenon and presence of the gong, mantra and healing circles of his Kundalini practice led to his pioneering work in the development of Sahaj Sound, a sonic therapeutic healing modality for the 21st century. He is currently pioneering the clinical useage of Electronic Gem Lamp Therapy, a modern application of the ancient science of healing with gemstones. Study of the Kabbalah and the meso-American indigenous practice of Awakened Dreaming provide continued energetic and professional development alongside his first love, Kundalini Yoga.
Guru Dharam was the first chairperson of the Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association in the UK and is registered as a Teacher Trainer with the International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association. He facilitates contemporary applications of ancient healing techniques and teaches Kundalini Yoga around the world. Guru Dharam has an established medical practice in London and Somerset.
Darryl O’Keeffe is now a much travelled and practically minded spiritual teacher and healer with a down to earth approach and a ready sense of humour. He is registered as a Teacher Trainer with the International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association and teaches holistic healing for a variety of organisations including the National Federation of Spiritual Healers, the School of Insight and Intuition and several, more conventional, educational establishments. He has taught all over the world and conducts SAcred Tours to a number of countries with his mentor and friend Judy Fraser. He has recorded several audiotapes of an instructional and meditative nature and has made a variety of television, radio and press contributions. Darryl teaches regularly and maintains a consultative yoga and healing practice in Berkshire.
This article was posted by Darryl O'Keeffe
