Zelig Zachary - Kundalini awakening: a gentle guide to chakra activation and spiritual growth

W ithin the great spiritual traditions of the world there exists the wise teaching that at any given moment we are always being confronted with exactly what we need to experience, in order to progress into a higher level of mystic realization. This means that if only we tune in, the universe at this very moment is offering us access to the specific spiritual insights and instructions were presently ready to encounter.

I remember vividly how this seemingly magical process brought kundalini meditation to my attention back in 1966, one cold November night at Princeton University where I was studying at the time. Perhaps if I share with you the drama of my own initial exposure to kundalini consciousness, you may sense directly the spiritual excitement and promise of the meditation techniques we will be exploring in this book.

Id made plans that night to have an early dinner with a good friend. At the appointed hour I went running up two flights of dormitory steps and into his room, without bothering to knock. Quite unexpectedly, I found myself in the presence of a lovely woman, sitting cross-legged on my roommates bed, her spine straight and her eyes closed, with the most remarkable, radiant expression on her face.

I stood awestruck in front of her. Id seen pictures of various paintings and statues of ancient Buddhas in the act of deep contemplation. But having grown up in a cattle-ranching environment where Oriental meditation simply didnt exist, Id never before encountered a real live person fully immersed in such a potent state of inner reflection.

This woman in front of me, sitting with her hands palms-up on her knees, her breasts rising and falling slowly and evenly with deep full breaths, her lips relaxed in a Mona Lisa smileI immediately recognized that there was something extraordinary going on inside her. She seemed to be almost visibly broadcasting some sort of inner spiritual peace and energy. I felt face-to-face with something radically newsomething that evoked both fright and intense fascination inside me.

As I stood there staring at her, before I could regain my composure and turn to leave so as not to disturb her meditation, her eyes slowly opened and looked directly into mine. Neither of us spoke a word. I felt momentarily transported beyond normal levels of consciousness. Her expression expanded into a friendly, beatific smile. I experienced a most peculiar and extremely pleasurable sensation in my heart regiona feeling that I would come to know more intimately when I began my own kundalini training.

The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs outside the room brought us back to more customary states of mind. My friend came running in, introducing the young woman as his sister from the West Coast, who had arrived unexpectedly. With little more said, we went off to dinner.

Somewhere between salad and baked potatoes, the woman started telling her brother about a spiritual teacher from Asia with whom she was studyinga quite young but already fully enlightened man whod radically altered her understanding of life. Her brother, a physics major who considered such esoteric topics the height of nonscientific foolishness, immediately made a joke of her confession. She accepted his harsh attack without arguing, and said no more about her new spiritual path.

I for my part, having observed firsthand the blissful, transcendent state her meditative technique had moved her into an hour before, was all ears to find out what sort of mental tricks could induce such an illumined condition. When her brother excused himself to attend an evening lecture, I encouraged her to talk further about her spiritual explorations.

Well, the technique that Im practicing is called kundalini meditation, she said.

Ive never heard the word before, I confessed. Whats it mean?

Kundalinis a very old term, she explained, from the Sanskrit language of ancient India. It refers to the basic lifeforce thats inside all of us.

So you meditate on your lifeforce?

Thats where we begin. Kundalini energys infinite, but its mostly blocked in our bodies. We dont need very much to survive physically.

So whats the purpose of your meditating?

Well, she said, reflecting a moment. Its to open up and experience who I am more deeplyto encourage more lifeforce energy to flow through my body. Its based on the fact that we all have seven subtle energy centers in our bodies. Kundalini meditation is a powerful, and pleasurable, way to wake them all up.