Kundalini, an ancient concept from the Hindu Yoga Upanishads, and a separate type of yoga in its own right, means “coiled” in Sanskrit and refers to either a feminine “Shakti” or a “serpent” power waiting to be awakened. This awakening involves the Kundalini physically moving up the central channel to reside within the Sahasrara Chakra at the top of the head. When it is raised in consciousness it is often symbolized as seven or more nagas, or snakes, above and behind a meditating Buddha. This implies that meditation and awakening of the kundalini go hand in hand. Many systems of yoga focus on the awakening of Kundalini through meditation, pranayama breathing, hatha yoga, or the chanting of mantras. Integral Deep Listening adds another approach, reminiscent of Tibetan Buddhist diety yoga, which involves the visualizations of personifications of qualities of enlightenment, but which uses mergence with, rather than visualization of, a much broader range of such personifications.
I learned about kundalini early, beginning in 1963, when I was thirteen, from Hugh Lynn Cayce, the son of Edgar Cayce, the medical clairvoyant, and also from reading passages in Cayce’s readings themselves. It was the opinion of those readings that the elevation of this energy was a consequence of proper meditation and that drug-induced altered states of consciousness were dangerous ways to awaken it and could do more harm than good by creating cognitive disorganization and physiological imbalances. Altered states of consciousness open us up to genuine transformational states and can impel major new growth. However, we often lack the balance and perceptual development to integrate these states, even if we have the good fortune to understand their potential. I had plenty of “openings” and experiences of enlightenment when I was young, some from mediation, some due to the inspiration of psychic readings, and some due to exposure to transformational people and ideas. However, I discovered that these experiences did not last. At best, some small memory of them propelled my growth onward and upward. They were enough to cause me to get very clear in my teens that balance and integration had to be my focus, and that the best ways to achieve it were by accessing the healer and the guru within through meditation and dreamwork. Consequently, much of my life has been spent finding practical ways to access enlightenment in safe ways.
Going into trance or spending years in monasteries doing intensive meditation are not required to heal, balance, and transform your life. Neither is belief in any particular tradition, religious, spiritual, or otherwise. You can speed your personal development toward enlightenment by removing unnecessary self-imposed blocks and sabotages, and by using reliable tools for awakening consciousness. Many have now been identified and their effectiveness demonstrated. A large number of these can be found in the excellent source book, Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. More tools and methods are found in my own Waking Up, which describes the role of scripting, drama, and cognitive distortions in keeping you dreaming your life away. In addition to explaining Integral Life Practice, it also provides specific methods for goal setting, improving your communication skills, meditation, accessing emerging potentials that are more enlightened than you are, and a powerful method for improved problem solving, called “Triangulation.”
Integral Deep Listening teaches you to access, balance, and grow core building blocks of enlightenment, including confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, inner peace, and witnessing. These essential drivers of higher order wakefulness are associated with the stages of each breath you take, the round of your daily life, and the vast arc of your entire life span. It teaches you how to access and become innate emerging potentials that have more of these qualities than you do, and who use them in a more balanced way. As you practice becoming and listening to them you grow into, by taking on, their higher order perspectives of what enlightenment is for you today, in the routine, habitual activities of your life. This teaches you to stop putting off enlightenment until “Santa Claus comes.” There will never be a perfect moment to wake up. If you can’t do it here and now, what use is it, really? Interviewing and practicing becoming emerging potentials is a way of accessing and then internalizing components of enlightenment at your present state of development. As you do so, your sense of who you are expands to transcend and include who you think you are.
The following interview is an example of a dream encounter with kundalini, as it appears not in traditional and sacred, but in a secular and novel way. It is an example of what IDL calls “cosmic humor,” and what others have called “crazy wisdom,” by which transformational truths are presented in ways that look irrational, but are in fact based in reason, yet transcend it, as “trans-rational” truth. In addition, cosmic humor involves not taking yourself or the largely self-created dramas and tragedies of your life so seriously, through cultivating an amused objectivity toward your plight.
In the dream a mother and two young boys are being kept prisoner inside an area. First a sound is heard…is it an engine? Yes…but what kind?…a large bulldozer?….Yes. The integrity of the area is maintained by at least a couple of large bulldozers that are built into the structure of the area. Either I or the mother remembers that one of the boys, about six or seven, was taught to drive all sorts of things and could drive a bulldozer. So he is asked to drive this one. It is a simple matter for him to drive it and crash it into trees or a wall or a building, which he does on purpose, even though his mother and brother are in it. He knows that the bulldozer is so big they won’t be hurt but it will hurt the bulldozer enough for them to be free of it. That is what happened – he succeeds in freeing his family, but he is put in jail where he becomes fat. Although he is very intelligent, it is not developed because he spends years misidentified as a criminal.
What were the associations to this dream? “Last night I worked on an interview of the sleeping, child part of myself, personified as a monkey. He came up in the context of being oblivious of how much I eat and also my past and future thoughts that keep me from staying centered when I meditate. This kid probably is about that.”
When the bulldozer was interviewed it said, “I am an integral part of this building. My engine is always running. I am always ready, but I don’t move. I give the building bulk and my engine runs things. I am powerful, even when I am not moving. My energy feeds other activities. However, I am not using most of my capabilities. I am not moving or working. Like the people in this compound, I am also imprisoned.”
“I personify this dreamer’s latent life force, or prana, core physical brute energy. If I could change I would be kundalini! I would rise! And as I rose, I would transform! I would be different things depending on how far I rose! At the top I would be a winged sun before I cascaded over as pure light and bliss!”
Since the energy wanted to turn into “pure light and bliss,” that is what the following questions were directed toward:
“If I were to score myself zero to ten in confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, inner peace, and witnessing, I would be a ten in all. I am a ten in confidence because there is no death! I have no fear! I am a ten in compassion because everything is a crystalization, a condensation of me! All things are my eyes and ears, my senses! I am a ten in wisdom because I am in balance. What is there not to accept? I am a ten in inner peace because I am wildly alive and at complete peace in my aliveness. Because I am one with all, I witness all. If humans were more like me they would know luminosity, cosmic humor, and abundance. I provide more life clarity, particularly when a human .wakes up and realizes they are off center somewhere, in some way.
“From my perspective, I am not in the lives of humans; they are in my life! They exist to provide me with ways to know myself. Mental fuzziness; sleepwalking; addiction to past and future; and focus on fear and scarcity are common ways humans ignore my presence.”
“This dream was about taking initiative with the human monkey mind. While it is neither the problem or the enemy, most humans have not yet figured out how to use it to free themselves and to free me. However, they are getting closer! In the dream the barrier had to be hit to free the dreamer from me. As long as humans are unconsciously identified with me, their life energy they remain trapped in me, like a seed that is in hibernation. When they separate their sense of self from me and can observe me, they become free to witness me. Then,I can also witness humanity, so we both are free to transform. There is a part of human consciousness that wants to punish itself for breaking free, as it does in this dreamer escaping the prison of his marriage. But the breakout is what is important, not how it is done. Becoming fat has to do with putting oneself back in the prison of sleepwalking through life.”
“I heard myself say that I can usefully view my prana as a bulldozer for me to drive. It maintains my life and the prison of my life drama and life script, but it can be much, much more than that. First, I have to take initiative and liberate both of us and others. Then I have to stay OK about that and not allow myself to fall back into scripted limitations, guilt, or small thinking. I am getting close to awakening my kundalini consciously. By remembering this dream, deeply listening to it, and applying it, I speed that process of waking up.”
The implication of this interview is that humans have available to them a very powerful power source that must first be recognized and then controlled in order to free oneself. There seemed to be a second such energy source on the premises as well. It is controlled by a young perspective that is reminiscent of a “monkey” potential I interviewed yesterday. There also appears to be a need to separate out individual and personal consciousness from that of life force itself – to use it, but not identify with it.
Such interviews can speed spiritual awakening by conscious participation in the agenda of those potentials that are attempting to emerge into the light of your waking awarenss. The comments of the bulldozer frame a traditionally spiritual and mystical concept, that of kundalini, in practical, understandable terms. Challenges and issues that limit its development are indicated, as well as suggestions about how to proceed. The result is that higher levels of development are de-mystified and become practically attainable. Access to kundalini, as a particularly important and valuable personal power source, is a result of choosing to identify with it in practical and effective ways on a routine, day in, day out basis. A little bit of effective identification, whether during meditation or other times, is better than a lot of sitting that involves mental games and distractions. “Throughout the day following this interview I felt more alive, with more energy of a deep, inner quality, than I have felt before. It is something different, a different sort of life force connection than I have ever felt.”
Y0u are encouraged to interview such motifs of energy when they appear in your dreams, or when you feel them in your body during meditation or at other times, and see what it has to tell you. If you do, please share your findings with us.
Here is the transcript of the actual interview from which the above was taken:
What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?
1. Waking up
2. Cosmic humor
3. Abundance
Tell me a dream you remember. It can be an old one, a repetitive dream, a nightmare, or one that you’re sure you understand.
A mother and a couple of siblings, perhaps two young boys are being kept prisoner inside an area. First a sound is heard…is it an engine? Yes…but what kind?…a large bulldozer?….Yes. The integrity of the area is maintained by at least a couple of large bulldozers that are built into the structure of the area. Either I or the mother remembers that one of the boys, about six or seven, was taught to drive all sorts of things and could drive a bulldozer. So he is asked to drive this one. It is a simple matter for him to drive it and crash it into trees or a wall or a building, which he does on purpose, even though his mother and brother are in it. He knows that the bulldozer is so big they won’t be hurt but it will hurt the bulldozer enough for them to be free of it. That is what happened – he succeeds in freeing his family, but he is put in jail where he becomes fat. Although he is very intelligent, it is not developed because he spends years misidentified as a criminal.
Why do you think that you had this dream?
Last night I worked on an interview of the sleeping, child part of myself, personified as a monkey. He came up in the context of being oblivious of how much I eat and also my past and future thoughts that keep me from staying centered when I meditate. This kid probably is about that.
If this dream were playing at a theater, what name would be on the marquee?
Driving a Bulldozer
These are the characters in the dream, beside yourself…
Mother, two boys, engine, bulldozer, imprisoning area, obstruction, jail
If one character had something especially important to tell you, what would it be?
Bulldozer
Now remember how as a child you liked to pretend you were a teacher or a doctor? It’s easy and fun for you to imagine that you are this or that character in your dream and answer some questions I ask, saying the first thing that comes to your mind. If you wait too long to answer, that’s not the character answering – that’s YOU trying to figure out the right thing to say!
Bulldozer, would you please tell me about yourself and what you are doing?
I am an integral part of this building. My engine is always running. I am always ready, but I don’t move. I give the building bulk and my engine runs things.
What do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?
I am powerful, even when I am not moving. My energy feeds other activities.
What do you dislike most about yourself? Do you have weaknesses? What are they?
I am not using most of my capabilities. I am not moving, I am not working. Like the people in this compound, I am also imprisoned.
Bulldozer, you are in Joseph’s life experience, correct? He created you, right? Bulldozer,, what aspect of Joseph do you represent or most closely personify?
I am his latent life force, prana. Core physical brute energy.
Bulldozer, if you could be anywhere you wanted to be and take any form you desired, would you change? If so, how?
I would be kundalini! I would rise! And as I rose, I would transform! I would be different things depending on how far I rose! At the top I would be a winged sun before I cascaded over as pure light and bliss!
(Continue, answering as the transformed object, if it chose to change.)
Pure Light and Bliss, how would you score yourself 0-10, in confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, peace of mind, and witnessing? Why?
Confidence: 10 There is no death! I have no fear!
Compassion: 10 Everything is a crystalization, a condensation of me! All things are my eyes and ears, my senses!
Wisdom: 10 I am in balance.
Acceptance: 10 What is there not to accept?
Inner Peace: 10 I am wildly alive and at complete peace in my aliveness.
Witnessing: 10 One with all, I witness all.
How would Joseph’s life be different if he naturally scored like you do in all six of these qualities all the time?
Luminosity. Cosmic Humor. Abundance.
If you could live Joseph’s life for him, how would you live it differently?
In my presence.
If you could live Joseph’s waking life for him today, would you handle his three life issues differently? If so, how?
Not so differently, but with increasing clarity, as he is already working to do.
What three life issues would you focus on if you were in charge of his life?
The same.
In what life situations would it be most beneficial for Joseph to imagine that he is you and act as you would?
Any time he wakes up and realizes he’s off center somewhere, in some way.
Why do you think that you are in Joseph’s life?
You mean, why do I think Joseph is in my life? To give me another way to know myself!
How is Joseph most likely to ignore what you are saying to him?
Mental fuzziness; sleepwalking; addiction to past and future; focus on fear and scarcity.
What would you recommend that he do about that?
Smile! Remember me!
I think Joseph had this dream because
This was about taking the initiative with his monkey mind. He knows it’s not the problem or the enemy but he hasn’t yet figured out how to use it to free himself and to free me. However, he’s figuring it out; he’s getting closer!
I think this dream event happened or (some character) was in the dream because…
The barrier had to be hit to free him from me. As long as he was unconsciously identified with me he was trapped in me, like a seed that is in hibernation. When he is free he can witness me and I can witness him, so we both are free to transform. There is a part of his mind that wants to punish him from breaking free, as it does in him escaping the prison of his marriage. But the breakout is what is important, not how it is done. Becoming fat has to do with putting himself back in the prison of sleepwalking through life.
What have you heard yourself say?
I can usefully view my prana as a bulldozer for me to drive. It maintains my life and the prison of my life drama and life script, but it can be much, much more than that. First, I have to take initiative and liberate both of us and others. Then I have to stay OK about that and not allow myself to fall back into scripted limitations, guilt, or small thinking.
If this experience were a wake-up call from the most central part of who you are, what do you think it would be saying to you?
I am getting close to awakening my kundalini consciously. By remembering this dream, deeply listening to it, and applying it, I speed that process of waking up.
