हरि: ॐ ||
Most spiritual paths trace back their source to the Vedas one way or the other, some traces are lost across eras while others have been purposefully removed for many an obvious reason. Similarly, most healing techniques trace their origin back to the Vedic wisdom. Consider even the "mistaken" caduceus or the correct asklepian symbol of medicine, the former with two snakes around a staff and the latter with a single snake. Even if one doesn't think it to be exact, its obvious that it very much represents Kundalini.
That being the case, is it any surprise then that most alternative healing techniques have something to do with Kundalini, directly or indirectly? Reiki talks of Universal (source of) energy, which is not truly divorced from Kundalini. A Reiki channel (healer) pulls energy from this universal source and directs the same towards the healee; put in other words, the channel draws kundalini energy from sahasrara chakra and directs it towards the chakra dominating the ailed area! Working with sahasrara may sound ridiculous and laughable to one initiated into and following a traditional path of kundalini yoga, but I shall fill in the gaps to clarify this point later in this post. Pranic Healing methods talk of Chi, which is same as prana, but one would rather use Chi or yin-yang kind of jargon this day to credit an unorthodox Buddhist source than an orthodox Vedic one! Then there are meditations of all sorts varying from under a minute to hours together, individual and group sessions. I landed up once, unaware of what the "course" was all about owing to trust, in such a meditation! Its a different matter that I paid through my nose for the same, but suffice it to say that meditations done for a particular physical or mental benefit are no meditations at all. (And if you know me well from my earlier blog entries, you know I don't believe that meditation can be done purposefully, its a happening).
Back to healing, it has been established that all healing methods somehow tie back to kundalini; ergo, to chakras. However, what chakras themselves are have been interpreted variously as energy centres, concentrated nerve centres and the like, there have been researches tracing the 72000 nadis into physical nerves and categorized as plexuses. Although healing and modern meditation techniques target opening chakras at various levels of the healer and the healee, they are not really the same chakras that kundalini yoga deals with! This may come as a shock to many modern "yogis" and healers alike, and they may disagree, the fact is that just the names and identifiable location of chakras being same doesn't mean that the chakras are also the same. You are free to ask how and why that is so, but one who has a background of Vedanta should revisit the five koshas to get an insight into this fact. The way the body is identified with annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya koshas, so too the chakras seeming the same at a particular location, is not really so. One cannot directly reach a particular chakra by some healing technique or short meditation, what one is doing instead is forcing physical aspects of the chakra or prana aspects or mental tendencies locked at a particular chakra to unfold thereby, seeming as if one has opened or activated a chakra. So, as mentioned above, when drawing energy from sahasrara or whichever chakra directly via some healing technique is only at a particular plane or kosha and not really a kundalini chakra. Of course, there is a good chance that all these techniques would partially affect a spiritual chakra indirectly since changes in prana movement added to heat caused by the intensity of meditation may give an indirect push to kundalini if its around that area. This effect is purely unintentional and no one other than a true spiritual guru can predict the same. Thats risky, just as in hatha yoga, except that in the latter there is a reference available as to what hatha yoga practice leads to which kundalini effect!
I think this is a good point to stop, till I wake up another day and feel like writing more. :)
श्रीगुरुपादुकार्पणमस्तु ||
Most spiritual paths trace back their source to the Vedas one way or the other, some traces are lost across eras while others have been purposefully removed for many an obvious reason. Similarly, most healing techniques trace their origin back to the Vedic wisdom. Consider even the "mistaken" caduceus or the correct asklepian symbol of medicine, the former with two snakes around a staff and the latter with a single snake. Even if one doesn't think it to be exact, its obvious that it very much represents Kundalini.
That being the case, is it any surprise then that most alternative healing techniques have something to do with Kundalini, directly or indirectly? Reiki talks of Universal (source of) energy, which is not truly divorced from Kundalini. A Reiki channel (healer) pulls energy from this universal source and directs the same towards the healee; put in other words, the channel draws kundalini energy from sahasrara chakra and directs it towards the chakra dominating the ailed area! Working with sahasrara may sound ridiculous and laughable to one initiated into and following a traditional path of kundalini yoga, but I shall fill in the gaps to clarify this point later in this post. Pranic Healing methods talk of Chi, which is same as prana, but one would rather use Chi or yin-yang kind of jargon this day to credit an unorthodox Buddhist source than an orthodox Vedic one! Then there are meditations of all sorts varying from under a minute to hours together, individual and group sessions. I landed up once, unaware of what the "course" was all about owing to trust, in such a meditation! Its a different matter that I paid through my nose for the same, but suffice it to say that meditations done for a particular physical or mental benefit are no meditations at all. (And if you know me well from my earlier blog entries, you know I don't believe that meditation can be done purposefully, its a happening).
Back to healing, it has been established that all healing methods somehow tie back to kundalini; ergo, to chakras. However, what chakras themselves are have been interpreted variously as energy centres, concentrated nerve centres and the like, there have been researches tracing the 72000 nadis into physical nerves and categorized as plexuses. Although healing and modern meditation techniques target opening chakras at various levels of the healer and the healee, they are not really the same chakras that kundalini yoga deals with! This may come as a shock to many modern "yogis" and healers alike, and they may disagree, the fact is that just the names and identifiable location of chakras being same doesn't mean that the chakras are also the same. You are free to ask how and why that is so, but one who has a background of Vedanta should revisit the five koshas to get an insight into this fact. The way the body is identified with annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya koshas, so too the chakras seeming the same at a particular location, is not really so. One cannot directly reach a particular chakra by some healing technique or short meditation, what one is doing instead is forcing physical aspects of the chakra or prana aspects or mental tendencies locked at a particular chakra to unfold thereby, seeming as if one has opened or activated a chakra. So, as mentioned above, when drawing energy from sahasrara or whichever chakra directly via some healing technique is only at a particular plane or kosha and not really a kundalini chakra. Of course, there is a good chance that all these techniques would partially affect a spiritual chakra indirectly since changes in prana movement added to heat caused by the intensity of meditation may give an indirect push to kundalini if its around that area. This effect is purely unintentional and no one other than a true spiritual guru can predict the same. Thats risky, just as in hatha yoga, except that in the latter there is a reference available as to what hatha yoga practice leads to which kundalini effect!
I think this is a good point to stop, till I wake up another day and feel like writing more. :)
श्रीगुरुपादुकार्पणमस्तु ||
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