Welcome to Day 24of our 40 Day Retreat 2009.
Yesterday, I spoke about the involution of consciousness into matter through various levels. Those levels were the levels of the chakras. Each chakra represents another step in the involution of the consciousness into matter. We have spoken about the evolution of consciousness, going back through those same steps into an experience of evolving consciousness.
Day and Night of God
There is involution and there is evolution. It is said that this is the continuous operation of the consciousness in coming into an involution process, involving itself into matter and then evolving itself out of matter. It is also called the night and day process and in going back into that inner space and finally, it goes into the great sleep. In getting involved in creation it comes into the day where consciousness comes back into the experience of the multiplicity, that is the daylight of creation; the going back, and then evolving and merging and going back. It goes back into the deep state and that is like the night. These are sometimes referred to as the day and night of God, the day and night of Brahma. It is an eternal pulsation of becoming involved and evolving back, like a pendulum swinging on both sides.
The Evolution Process
Today, my focus is on the evolution process. I would say based on the experiences that I have had that we are programmed to evolve, becoming involved is also a programmed operation. The consciousness is programmed to get involved and to also evolve. I said before that this process of spiritual awakening, spiritual growth on the path to freedom, begins with the energy initiation or the energy boost or sometimes the remembering; if we have been awakened before, the remembering in this lifetime once again. The journey begins.
When the journey begins, as we begin to evolve in consciousness, we go through a series of experiences in that evolving stage that are important to understand. I have also said that this process of energy awakening by Shaktipat and by true masters, powerful masters, liberated masters, the process of Maha Yoga or Siddha Yoga begins. This is a very powerful process. The kundalini inside becomes awakened and she begins this journey back to the Source. We are programmed. When she wakes up she begins to move, she pushes herself inside because she is programmed. She pushes herself inside that we may experience an expanding consciousness.
Meaningful Participation in Journey to Freedom
If we do not understand what is happening inside we can go through a lot of difficulties as many would have had on this journey. But when we begin to understand then we can participate meaningfully together with this movement of the kundalini, to journey to freedom. That meaningful participation is quite an adventure. These manifestations of experiences on the journey are called kriyas. In Sanskrit Kriya means action. In this case it means cleansing actions that clear the path so that the energy can rise. Let us remember that we are programmed to evolve spiritually. There is an energy path of different steps along the way. When we are initiated, this powerful journey begins or if we have reactivated (energy) based on initiations in past lives the journey begins. It is extremely important to understand.
Different Levels of Awakening
When we become awakened it may take place at several levels. We can have a very strong heart opening on initiation or on reactivation of the energy. We can have a very powerful heart experience: crying, laughing, happiness. Or we could have a very powerful brow experience, where the concentration becomes so powerful. We are held in this mental state of peacefulness, of ecstasy. Or we may have very powerful movements in the body. Or we may have pain along the spine, we may have headaches or we may feel a sort of pain in the chest as these centers open up.
I do believe if we do not understand this some of us may think that we are really crazy. I also believe that some people may be committed to mental homes simply because nobody understands what is happening. Of course, we cannot expect the medical doctors to really understand this unless they have knowledge of this science. This is one of the reasons I try to make people more aware of these energy experiences that take place, that we do not become confused and think that we have some sort of mental problem, or that we have some sort of physical problem, when it is really an energy experience.
Now these experiences come at different levels. If we are in the lower chakras our experiences on awakening may be different. If we are on the upper chakras it is different. We can actually see where we are when we become awakened by what manifests in us. If we are in the lower centers we may find that in the awakening there is some kind of pain in the lower back, heat surging through and we may feel strong movements of the body like in jumping or moving.
Hatha Yoga Helps To Cleanse The Channel
Also what happens on this path is that some of the exercises of hatha yoga, the physical yoga comes almost automatically. We begin to feel our body bending over or moving around or twisting or breathing very heavily and we are just witnessing the whole experience. This is how the kundalini energy on awakening can begin to stimulate these experiences in us to cleanse the channel that she may move more and more up. Exercises that you may not normally be able to perform they begin to happen, you find that the body is moving into these postures. That is why I do believe that the yoga exercises are so important because they actually help to cleanse the channel when they are performed under that kind of inspiration. On this path the exercises that you need to do, they come to you. When you begin to practice the hatha yoga you begin to feel that you love certain exercises more than others. The ones that you need you will find yourself gravitating to these exercises to want to do them.
What I have found in my own experience is that with the awakened energy these exercises of yoga come so naturally. When I practice them I can actually feel the energy wants to express itself in these postures and I can feel what it is doing. I can feel how it moves the breath and how it moves the posture. The whole thing becomes like a dance, very natural and effortless. That has been my experience of the hatha yoga after spiritual awakening.
Kriyas - Positive & Negative Experiences
The body may make spontaneous movements and they all seem in a way like dance. You will find that some people have dancing kriyas. When they listen to music the body just wants to follow the rhythm and go into different forms, different mudras and different postures where energy flows. This too is a manifestation of the energy in the chakras of the heart and the navel.
Many experiences can take place as the energy begins to awaken and move along what is called the central channel of energy where all the chakras are situated in the energy body. It is called the sushumna nadi. All these chakras project energy through subtle nerve channels throughout the entire body, much like how the nervous system is with the nerve plexus and the distribution of nerve channels. So too the chakras are in corresponding areas of the plexuses and there is a corresponding network of energy channels called nadis. It is said that we have 72,000 of these nadis within the body. When there is energy awakening you can actually feel some kind of heat moving through the body at various areas. Of course, I will have to develop this subject over a few days.
Not all the experiences of kundalini awakening that we call kriyas are positive. Some are negative experiences. Like we may feel strong pain in the heart, we may feel sad and we want to cry out. Sometimes, we feel the mind is becoming very confused. Or we feel there is strong pain in the body in the lower areas. Sometimes the old patterns inside of us that were negative begin to surface. This is happening to cleanse us. Sometimes anger may come, jealousy may come very strongly and lust may come. These patterns are very deep within us. When we are awakened they come up to be expelled. When they come up we may become confused thinking how can this be? I am in a spiritually awakened state. Well all this is happening for cleansing. When this energy comes it brings this whole cleansing process into operation. We need to understand that.
Understand, Accept & Work With Guidance Conscientiously
What is extremely important on this journey is having guidance. When you are going through this you need to have guidance, especially when you do not understand it. Of course, the inner energy or shakti is trying to guide you from within but it is doing so with every means that it has to help you. It is trying to get you to understand what is happening so it may lead you to a book, or to a person. You need to observe what it is doing to you. It will urge you to wake up at a certain time. It will urge you to sing or to meditate. It will urge you to do a number of things to help you but you need to recognize how the energy is guiding you. It can only guide you through your inner being, through your mind, through your emotional being, through the energy or from the outside. You need to be able to recognize this.
We can have wonderful kriyas when we become awakened, very positive experiences of awakening and cleansing or quite negative experiences. We need to have the ability to understand that. That is why I said before that we can go through that period on the spiritual journey that is called the dark night of the soul. If there are many old patterns inside of us that draw us into negative experiences and we cannot recognize or accept the guidance that is when we go through the experience of the dark night of the soul.
On this journey I have had only positive experiences from energy awakening, only beautiful and positive experiences. Of course, I felt the pain of separation because I felt I wanted so much more. The pain of separation was so strong. I wanted to become free. That is why it is a joy for me to be able to tell you that experiences can become very positive if we have the right guidance. I try to help people through the negative experiences by helping them to understand and being able to guide them as to what they can do to come through their negative experiences. It all depends on whether the person is ready to understand or accept it. This much I say to you today. We will continue this talk on the experiences of the kundalini on awakening. It is extremely important for the seeker to understand what happens on this journey and to know that the experiences can be very, very positive when we are guided properly and we accept and are willing to work with that guidance in a conscientious way.
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