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| Credit: Kennguru |
Christopher Wallis is an American scholar of Shaiva Tantrism, and also a practitioner of the same. The article linked below, "The Real Story on Kundalini", is quite interesting. It´s posted at Wallis´ website.
According to Wallis, most of the received wisdom on kundalini is neither recieved nor particularly wise. Originally, the Sanskrit term kundalini ("the coiled one" in feminine grammatical gender) had very different meanings than it has today. Is anyone even remotely surprised? The earliest mentions come in Tantric texts, interestingly enough both from the transgressive "Left Hand" path (in this case Kaula Trika) and the orthoprax "Right Hand" ditto (Shaiva Siddhanta). In Trika, kundalini is another name for shakti or the Goddess herself, in her aspect as the creative matrix of the universe. Kundalini is also the source of the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, in other words of mantric power (mantras are believed to have magical or mystical properties). In a Shaiva Siddhanta scripture, Kalottara, kundalini is associated with the human body, but *not* with the spine or the sexual organs. Instead, it is "fused" with all the three nadis (energy channels) and should be experienced in the heart (where the channels converge) as a "curled sprout" (or "curled sprout of fire"). Nothing about snakes, either.
In later, "classical" Tantra, there is a teaching about two kundalinis. Here, the lower kundalini is associated with sexual energy (as expected, so to speak). The upper kundalini at the crown of the head is supposed to be brought down to the heart. The two kundalinis should then merge in the central channel, which leads to awakening and enlightenment, presumably some kind of mystical experience. One important aspect of this is that it takes place in the physical body. Wallis believes that this teaching was lost in hatha yoga, where there is only a lower kundalini that is brought up to the crown. This points away from embodied balance, and towards a kind of negative transcendence. The energy of the body "wants out" to escape into the cosmos. Wallis believes that hatha yoga, despite the emphasis on physical postures, is really anti-incarnation (proven by the obsession with "cleaning" the body in this form of yoga). Since the lower kundalini rising isn´t balanced by the upper kundalini descending, psychosis follows.
The classical texts don´t say that kundalini is a serpentine energy, or that it "sleeps" or is dormant in the body. The idea that kundalini is coiled like a snake comes from Tantric scriptures where it´s identified with the prana (the life energy that exists in the entire cosmos). When a human inhales breath, the prana "coils up" in the heart or in the stomach (around the navel). It therefore looks like a sleeping snake. Of course, the coiled one uncoils when the air is exhaled again. That kundalini means "the coiled one" is also a secret code for certain mantras, which begin with the letter "h", which was "coiled" in Sanskrit script. These secret mantras are used to pierce the Rudra granthi or Maya granthi, a psychic knot in the head which hinders humans from experiencing "the true unity of things". When "pierced", the upper kundalini rushes down through the "hole", uniting with the lower kundalini in the central channel (the lower form can be stimulated by both sexual and non-sexual practices).
Wallis points out that much of the relevant material hasn´t even been properly published yet (not even in Sanskrit), only existing in raw manuscript form. The field is incredibly complex and difficult to grasp even for Sanskritists. The great Tantric teacher Abhinavagupta actually said there were *three* kundalinis! Wallis believes that kundalini isn´t properly speaking a "thing". It´s not an ontological entity waiting to be discovered somewhere in the body (he doesn´t believe the chakras are "things" either). Rather, we are dealing with a process that is the result of practice. The proper question isn´t what kundalini "is", but rather what kundalini "does"...
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