Chapter 13 Kundalini & Energy
Kundalini exists, energy centers exist, but any knowledge about Kundalini or the mystical channels of bioenergy—the inner channels of life force—is conceptual. It varies from person to person, and its origins are different. A has A's reasons, B has B's reasons, C has C's reasons. Your inner life has an individuality, so what you learn through theory is useless; it might even be a hindrance because it's not about you. It can't be about you. Only when you enter into yourself will you know yourself.
Energy centers exist, but the number varies from person to person. Some people have seven, some have nine, some more, and some fewer. Buddhists say there are nine energy centers, Hindus say seven, and Tibetans say four, and they are all correct!
The root of Kundalini, the passage he passed through, also varies from person to person. The deeper you go, the more individual you become. For example, on your body, your face is the most individual part; and on the face, the eyes are even more individual.
The eyes are more alive than the face; they are so individual that they change every moment. Unless one is enlightened, the eyes are never fixed. Enlightenment is another kind of maturity. You see no change in the Buddha's eyes: his body ages, he dies, but his eyes remain the same. This has always been a marker. When someone attains Nirvana, the eyes are the only gateway for outsiders to judge whether he has truly attained Nirvana. The eyes are a reflection of the inner world. But Kundalini goes even deeper.
One must feel the energy center, not just know about it. You must feel it; you must reach inward. It is only beneficial when you feel your energy center, your Kundalini, and its channels. Otherwise, it is useless. In fact, knowledge has a powerful destructive effect on the inner world; the more knowledge you acquire, the less likely you are to feel what is truly real and reliable. You begin to impose what you know on yourself. If someone says, “The energy center is here, the center is here,” then you will see the energy center there, even though it may not actually be there at all. Thus, you create an imagined energy center. You can create it; your mind has this ability. You can create imagined energy centers, and because of your imagination, there will be flow, but that is not Kundalini; it is just imagination, a completely illusory, dreamlike phenomenon.
Once you can visualize the center and create your imagined Kundalini, you can create everything. Then, imagined experiences will follow, and you will develop a completely illusory world within yourself. The external world is illusory, but not as illusory as the world you create within.
Do not imagine, do not think about it, do not make any intellectual effort to understand it beforehand. There is no need for any preconceived notions; in fact, having any is certainly harmful.
There's one more thing: Kundalini and energy centers don't belong to your physical structure or physiological system. Kundalini and energy centers belong to your subtle body, your spiritual body, not to this physical body, this gross body. Of course, there are corresponding points there. Dissect your gross body, and you won't find anything. Nothing at all. So the problem isn't in the physiological structure.
There's one more thing: there's no need to go through energy centers. It's unnecessary; you can bypass them. Nor is it necessary to feel kundalini before enlightenment. This phenomenon is very different from what you might think. Kundalini is felt because it's rising, simply because you don't have a clear channel. If the channel were completely open, the energy would be flowing, but you wouldn't feel it. You only feel it when something is there preventing its flow. You only feel it when energy is flowing upwards and there's an obstacle in your channel.
The Buddha never spoke of kundalini. It wasn't that kundalini didn't exist in his body, but rather that the channels were so unobstructed that there was no resistance whatsoever. Therefore, he never felt it. Because Mahavira never spoke of kundalini, a misconception arose, and later, Jain followers of Mahavira considered kundalini pure nonsense, something that never existed. Thus, because Mahavira himself did not experience kundalini, Jainism has denied it for 2500 years, claiming it does not exist. However, there was another reason why Mahavira didn't speak of it. Because there were no obstacles in his body, he never felt it.
Therefore, you don't necessarily have to feel Kundalini; you can choose not to feel it at all. If you don't feel Kundalini, you will bypass the energy center, because the energy center operates only out of the need to break through blockages; otherwise, it is unnecessary.
Kundalini is far more profound; it is deeper than death, birth, and blood, because Kundalini is the cycle of your second body. Blood is the cycle of your physical body, while Kundalini is the cycle of your spiritual body. It is absolutely non-autonomous, and even Hatha yogis cannot control it.
One must enter a meditative state. Only then can energy begin to move; all you need to do is meditate. If you deeply engage in meditation, your inner energy begins to rise, and you will feel the change in flow. You will feel it in many ways, even physically.
For example, generally speaking, from a biological perspective, warm feet and a cool head are a sign of health, and this is indeed true from a biological standpoint. Conversely, cold feet and a hot head indicate illness. The same thing happens when the Kundalini energy flows upward: the feet become cold. In fact, warm feet are merely the downward flow of sexual energy. Once life energy, i.e., the Kundalini, begins to flow upward, sexual energy follows, and the feet become cool while the head becomes warm. From a biological perspective, warm feet are better than a warm head; but from my perspective, cool feet are better than a cool head because they are a sign of upward energy flow.