Defining Kundalini
What is kundalini? Whether you’re experiencing a kundalini awakening or are curious about the subject, it’s important to define kundalini. Before attempting to define kundalini, we must bow to the mystery. No definition or set of descriptions can capture kundalini–or anything for that matter–in her fullness. We run into the same, age-old issue that all spiritual aspirants have wrestled with; words and thought bewitch the mind into thinking that it understands. It does not understand. It creates an image or an intuitive impression, which is helpful for orienting us, but we must move beyond, to the direct experience, which is the very source of the mind and whoever we take ourselves to be.
A couple of notes before I begin. I’m going to define kundalini perspectivally. That means I’ll be talking about kundalini from a first person, second person, and third person perspective in order to provide a well-rounded picture. The first person perspective is our direct experience of something. The second person perspective includes the relational dimension. The third person perspective is an objective viewpoint. To use the example of a tree: the first person perspective includes all of the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that make up your experience of the tree; the second person perspective is experiencing the tree as another being that you can come into meaningful relationship with; the third person perspective is approaching the tree from an objective viewpoint or any number of abstract, theoretical, or scientific lenses, for instance biology and ecology. A final note, I will be using feminine pronouns–she, her, hers–to refer to kundalini to keep with the tradition from which the term comes, which is also the tradition from which I approach this mysterious phenomenon.
The third person perspective of kundalini has many facets. I’ll only provide an initial orientation here. At the macrocosmic level, kundalini is the ecstatic, creative impulse of The Divine. What does this mean? It means that kundalini is the energy of consciousness, and is the dancing, bliss-filled force that comprises all phenomena, subtle to gross. At the microcosmic level, kundalini is the downward movement of manifestation as the soul incarnates and the upward movement of awakening as the soul expands beyond identification with the present incarnation and into higher states of consciousness. When kundalini awakens, she begins to transform and reorganize our physical and subtle bodies so that we can embody higher frequency aspects of our own divinity and openings of consciousness. Kundalini is the bottom up movement of refinement and transformation that progressively refashions our vessel so the increasing fullness of our soul and divinity can pour in.
The second person perspective of kundalini opens up an important experiential mode. Kundalini awakening often comes with a high degree of intensity as the fire of transformation courses through every aspect of our being. It’s helpful to relate to kundalini as a being of incomparable wisdom, love, and power. From the broad tradition from which kundalini comes–tantra, particularly shakta sects–kundalini is portrayed as a goddess. She’s often the primary goddess like Adi Parakashakti, Kubjika, or Kali. We can cry out to her for mercy, for tenderness, for love. We can pray, chant mantra, or do rituals to her in deep devotion. We can have arguments with her and blame her for the intensity of our process and all the changes we are experiencing. We can give her the silent treatment and try to pretend that none of it is actually happening. Kundalini is a perfect mother, with an infinite capacity to hold you, as you are, right now. I’ll also take a page from Brent Spirit’s book, who is also a kundalini and awakening guide, and open up how you relate to kundalini. In a teaching that Brent gave, he suggested that people can relate to kundalini like a mother bear. Truly, you can use any image or metaphor that suits you and brings online a deep, loving relational quality.
The first person perspective of kundalini is vast. If you’re familiar with kundalini awakening, whether through your personal experience or through the accounts of others, you’ll know it comes with many potential experiences: Kriyas or involuntary movements, expanded states of consciousness, sudden temperature changes, bliss, subtle perceptions, physiological experiences like excessive salivation, feelings and sensations related to the processing of latent trauma, etc. This is far from an exhaustive list, but provides a small taste of what can occur in someone’s personal experience. My own kundalini awakening has been accompanied by kriyas, energies surging through the body, trauma processing, bliss, and much more.
There’s also a mystery in the first-person perspective that you will come to experience as you move along the path. Kundalini is none other than your Self. Your Self is none other than Kundalini. Remember, kundalini is the awakening power of consciousness, which is you. This is helpful to know, even before we’re experiencing it, but there’s no need to get too caught up in it. It serves us in a very limited way as a mental construct. It’s more of a finger pointing to a place on a map that you want to orient yourself towards, but you have to stop looking at the map in order to get there. Just remember, there is no division, and whatever you’re experiencing as kundalini is the ecstatic, self-organizing, evolutionary impulse of your own being. You are That.
How the kundalini process unfolds is different for everyone and it’s important to maintain a grounded, spiritual sobriety–that often comes through time and support from peer mentors and teachers–as you move through the many different kinds of experiences that can come forward. The fundamental movement of kundalini is to transform and refine your physical and subtle body for the purpose of consciousness expansion. Becoming entranced by all the phenomena that occur can be a natural part of the developmental process, but at some point becomes a blockage to your further awakening. Kundalini is not the symptoms or phenomena that arise from a 1st person perspective. Those are second-order effects of the more primary transformation and refinement that is occuring.
As a metaphor, take any country’s celebration of independence. There’s inevitably festivities that include decadent food, fun games, and engaging social activities. All of the senses are indulged and enlivened. These festivities are a form of play and should be enjoyed in their own right, but they are also in deep remembrance of something: freedom and the right to be ourselves without unnecessary constraints. Kundalini can come with many experiences, some dazzling and others harrowing, but they are all for a purpose: our remembrance of ourselves as spiritually free, as pure aware presence.
