Christ and the Kundalini

"The Christian Gnostics practiced a spirituality more similar to Eastern traditions than to the Western Christianity we know today. 'Gnostic' is Greek for 'knower' and it is 'Gnosis' or 'Knowledge' that they were seeking. Unlike the blind faith demanded by today's Churches, 'Gnosis' meant direct, mystical experience of the divine, which was to be found by individual spiritual evolution to Self-Realisation, and not within the confines of intellectual dogma. The experience of Gnosis was trans-rational and non-intellectual.

From the Nag Hammadi Library, the Book of Thomas, Christ tells us 'For whoever does not know self, does not know anything, but whoever knows self, already has acquired knowledge about the depth of the universe'. Compare this with a tract from the Upanishads, the Indian metaphysical treatise on Self Realisation: 'It is not by argument that the self is known... Distinguish the self from the body and mind. The self, the atman, the highest refuge of all, pervades the Universe and dwells in the hearts of all. Those who are instructed in the self and who practice constant meditation attain that changeless and self effulgent atman ( spirit/ self). Do Thou Likewise, for bliss eternal lies before you...'

In another gnostic text, the Secret Gospel of Thomas, Christ promises us spiritual fulfilment 'I shall give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched and what has never arisen in the human mind.' This description is not unlike the Upanishadic experience 'the Self is devoid of birth and death, it neither grows old nor decays and the accidents of life do not affect it. The Self transcends space and time; what is great is not too great for it to comprehend and what is small is not too small to escape its attention. It is the Self of All'.

Just as Christ warned us against sin and encourages moral perfection in the pursuit of spiritual fulfilment, so too do the Eastern texts 'No intellectual acumen can help one realise it, it can be realised only by those who surrender to it and who make themselves worthy by grace, by desisting from all that is sinful, who engage in the practice of perfection by constant meditation'(Upanishads).

The most ancient Eastern spiritual texts, the Vedas,of India, tell us that the process of spiritual awakening by which one attains truth -awareness is called 'Self-Realisation'. The Self Realised person lives in direct experience of reality—this is called 'Jnana' (a traditional sanskrit word meaning 'knowledge' or 'Gnosis'). Such a person is called a 'Jnani' ('knower' or 'gnostic') or 'dwijaha' ('twice born'; first from a human mother to the earthly plane then secondly as a child of the Goddess, or Divine Mother, who gives the seeker their second, spiritual birth, Self Realisation, into the plane of mystic awareness- gnosis! ). The traditional Indian texts extol the 'Divine Mother' as the Cosmic Matriarch, bestower of the highest treasure of Self Realisation upon Her deserving children. Many Indian mystic traditions say this same goddess is represented within the human being as the divine feminine power called Kundalini.

What of Western tradition? In the Secret Book of John Christ explains that human redemption before the Heavenly Father occurs by the mediation of a Divine Feminine principle, which he calls the Earthly Mother. It is the Earthly Mother who removes the sins of the children that they can become worthy of their divine heritage; 'when all sins and all uncleanesses are gone from your body, your blood shall become as pure as our Earthly Mother's blood and as pure as the river's foam sporting in the sunlight. And your breath shall become as pure as the breath of odorous flowers; your flesh as pure as the flesh of fresh fruits reddening upon the leaves of trees; the light of your eye as clear and bright as the brightness of the sun shining upon the blue sky. And now shall all the angels of the Earthly Mother serve you and your breath, your blood, your flesh shall be one with the breath, the blood and the flesh of the Earthly Mother, that your spirit also become one with the Spirit of your Heavenly Father. For truly no-one can reach the Heavenly Father unless through the Heavenly Mother. Even as the newborn babe cannot understand the teaching of his father until his mother has suckled him, bathed him, nursed him, put him to sleep and nurtured him'. The Earthly Mother is a divine mediator through which the seekers, the Sons of Man, are raised to the Heavenly Father. Another part of the same text says 'Honour your Earthly Mother and keep her laws that your days may be long on this earth and honour your Heavenly Father, that eternal life may be yours in the Heavens. For the Heavenly Father is a hundred times greater than all the fathers by seed and by blood, and greater is the Earthly Mother than all mothers by the body'. The Holy Trinity, then is God the Father, God the Son (ie. Christ) and, it seems, God The Mother. The Divine Mother particularly is the means and power of spiritual evolution.

The Secret Book of John relates Christ's description of the Divine Feminine as the power of God Almighty. 'She is the first power. She preceded everything, and came forth from the Father's mind as forethought of all. Her light resembles the Father's light; as the perfect power She is the image of the perfect and invisible Virgin Spirit. She is the first power, the glory, Barbello, the perfect glory among the worlds, the emerging glory, She glorified and praised the Virgin Spirit for she had come forth through the Spirit. She is the first thought, image of the Spirit. She became the universal womb, for She precedes everything, the common parent, the first humanity, the Holy Spirit'. The Holy Spirit is here described as the Divine Power of God Himself. This power is maternal in its character (universal womb, She, the common parent) and all powerful as the 'first emanation of God'. More so, She is pure (Virgin) and She glorifies purity. So ancient christian tradition seems to tell us that the holy spirit is actually the Divine Mother!

One cannot overlook the Eastern parallels. God Almighty in Indian mythology is represented as Sada-Shiva. His state is eternal perfection (Sat Chit Ananda). His power is the Adi Shakti (primordial power) who is His feminine counterpart or spouse. It is She who does all things. She created the universe and the gods who attend over it (for example, the triune Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu). The Adi Shakti is The Mother of all things. She gave birth to the universe and is the feminine power of every deity and celestial being (usually represented as their spouse). The Secret Book of John parallels this 'She became the universal womb, for She precedes everything, the common parent, the first humanity, the Holy Spirit, the triple male (Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu?) the triple power (Parvati, Saraswati, Lakshmi, who are spouses of the triple males-or the triple Goddess of Western mythological tradition?)'. Thus the Christian mystics understood that the Holy Spirit is the Divine Feminine, the Goddess, the Universal Mother herself. The Syriac Christians worshiped the Holy Ghost as the Great Mother. Phillip suggests that Mary Herself is the Holy Spirit (for who else but God The Mother can give birth to God the Son?). Other Apocryphal Scriptures describe Mary as the focus of Temple activities. Her early life was punctuated by auspicious portents all implying her own Divinity.

Just as Mary and the Holy Ghost appear to parallel aspects of the Divine Mother described in the East, so too does Christ, the son of God reflect the Eastern principle of the Divine Child. The Divine Child in the Eastern mythological tradition is commonly worshiped as the dual child-gods Ganesha and Kartikeya. Ganesha represents the fabric of the cosmos, the primordial Aum or Logos from which the creation was constructed. Christ affirmed the same primordial nature of himself when he said 'I am the first' and 'I am the alpha'. Ganesha is the primordial child who is the embodiment of purity and innocence. Similarly Christ venerated children and the innocence that they manifested. He even urged the apostles (and us) to cultivate our own childlike innocence 'let the children come to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these' and 'assuredly whoever does not receive the kingdom of god as a little child will by no means enter it' (Mark 10). Kartikeya is the same principle of innocence in dynamic action- the slayer of evil; as Christ did when he ejected the money lenders from the temple.

So, Christ seems to be telling us that the kingdom of Heaven, which is a state of God-like perfection and child-like innocence is attained by some inner phenomenon. In the Gnostic Scriptures Christ spoke directly of this as an inner transformation, self realisation. He also told us that the Holy Ghost or Divine Mother is the power by which this is accomplished.”

www.sol.com.au/kor/8_01.htm
Web. 28 February 2013

Kundalini: The Secret Doorway

"Kundalini is a god energy, and as such, it nourishes your uniqueness and upholds your sacred vocation. Since it originates from the Divine Source, it also interconnects you with all living beings, as well as the Divine itself. Because of these connections, to tap into your kundalini is to open the channel to your intuition, to begin to hear the messages in the wind, to receive revelations colored with inspiration, and to know the unknowable. In short, kundalini allows you to be you—and encourages others to be themselves.

Shall we see why the ancients taught about this power since time began? Why teachers, gurus, and saints across time and around the world have utilized it? Why even science is now validating its existence? Then let's open the door and step across the threshold. Let's embrace this divine energy and enjoy a truly divine life.

Brilliance in Your Body

What is this masterful, brilliant energy called kundlaini?

In Sanskrit, kundalini means 'life energy.' Known as the serpent energy in Hinduism, the first culture known to have labeled this mysterious force, kundalini is the natural divine energy inside of you. Your kundalini is the life force of your body that, when fully activated, leads to living as an enlightened sage.

Etymologically, the word kundalini can be broken into the following Sanskrit roots, each of which sheds more light on what exactly this divine energy really is:

kundalin=coiled, spiraled (from the word kundalam, which means 'ring' or 'coil')
kun=earth
di=can mean 'little pot of earth' or 'a single cell' and its alternative root:
da=to give or 'bestower'
lini=perpetual consciousness expressing in alpha and omega, or beginning and end.

The sum total of these phrases adds richness to our understanding of kundalini. We could, based on these root words, now define kundalini as 'the coiled earth energy that begins in a single cell and, when blessed by the Bestower, gifts us with consciousness'

In Sanskrit, a language in which every noun is accorded a gender, the word is feminine. This connection easily leads to the idea of kundalini as the feminine principle of creation, the life-giving properties within our physical bodies that lead to higher consciousness. Our kundalini is the yin, or divine feminine, to our yang, or divine masculine. it's the receiving to the giving, the intuitive behind the logic, the contentment within the striving, and the sensual within the sexual. it's what gives us life and now sustains it, linking us with the fertile, emotional, and prosperous sources of divine energy. Kundalini compels us to feel and dance, bond and create, attract and merge. Then, when kundalini—this pulsating, creative, feminine power within each of us—joins with our male spirit quality, it sparks unity within ourselves as well as with the Divine.

This feminine energy is known by many different names throughout the world, including chi in China and ki in Japan. Spiritual people might call it the 'goddess within.' The Christian and Jewish scriptures name it the Holy Spirit; Dr. Carl Jung calls this energy the anima. It is the source of fire in Moses' burning bush, the caduceus symbol of medicine, the life force in Buddhism, and the source of intimacy in Tantric sex. It is the serpent called Quetzalcoatl among the Mayans. In Hinduism, it is serpent power, personified as Shakti, the goddess. Most likely you have heard a few of its many other names: Al-Lat, the Great Mother, Ruah, Pachamama, Sophia, life energy, light flame, cosmic energy, divine force, spirit fire, living flame, mothering intelligence, mana, the supreme power, and Christ consciousness.

Though known by different names to different groups, kundalini is always the same force. It is the organic catalyst necessary to unify our body, mind, and soul. It is the divine light that invites poetry into our lives. It is the secret to living this human life as divine beings.”

Kundalini: Divine Energy, Divine Life
Cyndi Dale, Llewellyn Publications (February 8, 2011) pp. 2-4

Disclaimer: Our material may be copied, printed and distributed by referring to this site. This site also contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the education and research provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance freedom of inquiry for a better understanding of religious, spiritual and inter-faith issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.