Q. 1. As this process has deepened I find that I absorb the emotional state of people around me, by the end of the day I am a big vault of everyone's emotions. Did you ever deal with this? How to deal with this?
2. Do you have any familiarity with involuntarily sucking up another person's "bad" energy? Have you ever consciously shielded your body from others' energy?...this involuntary "sucking up", which contributes to emotional instability on some occasions.
3. ...quite a few experiences lately...dreams, precognitions, and much meaningful contact with the I Ching...increasing with my evolving capacity to perceive Oneness...an interesting way to experience the All-That-Is...being more (aware of being) plugged in to the greater Whole...seeing your warning about being too attached to these types of experiences...but perhaps if they aren't taken at all personally, there is less danger.
3. ...quite a few experiences lately...dreams, precognitions, and much meaningful contact with the I Ching...increasing with my evolving capacity to perceive Oneness...an interesting way to experience the All-That-Is...being more (aware of being) plugged in to the greater Whole...seeing your warning about being too attached to these types of experiences...but perhaps if they aren't taken at all personally, there is less danger.
G. The many questions/comments to the blog, e-mails and in skyping, re the recent blog on siddhis and paranormal powers, indicate that it is useful to have a post on kundalini and shakti energies and how one "uses" them or is used by them.
i was drawn to "shakti/kundalini" teachers from the beginning of my practices. my first real yoga teacher was the "controversial" Amrit Desai, founder of Kripalu Yoga, the largest yoga center in the US. i found Amrit on a business trip to Philadelphia in the 70s. i opened the yellow pages, looked under "yoga", and w/a crow cawing loudly outside my window, found the address in Sumneytown and drove up.
Kripalu moved to Summit Station, PA where i went to many retreats/workshops, was in the first Kripalu Yoga Teachers' Training and welcomed Amrit's guru, Swami Kripalvananda. i was deeply drawn to the beautiful, and powerful spontaneous posture flows, kundalini energy breathing practices, and the great "shakti" that appeared to manifest in Amrit's sessions. Amrit asked me to start a center in TN, where i lived, but i respectively declined (it was complicated).
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| Yogi Amrit Desai |
Kripalu moved to Summit Station, PA where i went to many retreats/workshops, was in the first Kripalu Yoga Teachers' Training and welcomed Amrit's guru, Swami Kripalvananda. i was deeply drawn to the beautiful, and powerful spontaneous posture flows, kundalini energy breathing practices, and the great "shakti" that appeared to manifest in Amrit's sessions. Amrit asked me to start a center in TN, where i lived, but i respectively declined (it was complicated).
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| Pandit Rajmani |
My next yoga teacher was the "controversial" Swami Rama, described in the "siddhis, paranormal..." blog post. i took teachers' training @ his Himalayan Institute in Saylorsburg, PA in the early 80s. Swami Rama reportedly had great powers, but they were less obvious to me than were those of his successor, Pandit Rajmani, (w/2 Ph.D.s, one from Penn) who took over from Swami Rama when he had to leave the US.
The Universe also connected me to the "controversial" Muktananda, and the "controversial" Swami Chetananda, who i was deeply "into" for years, and met in CA. IME, Chetananda had strong, "cut it with a knife" shakti. i came very close to moving to his ashram. Chetananda's teacher, Rudrananda, was connected to one of my Zen teachers, the "controversial" Eido Roshi Shimano, discussed in an earlier blog.
my strongest kundalini/shakti experiences, by far, however, came from my main teacher, Ramana Maharshi and the sacred mountain, Arunachala, on /or near which, he spent his entire adult life. my shakti experiences in his ashram, Ramanasramam, in 2010, one in the "old hall", the other in Virupaksha cave were described in earlier blogs.
The most surprising thing about Ramana's energy, however, is that it is continuous, accessible and palpable, which many have experienced. i have no idea how it works, from a "physics" perspective, as Ramana has "left his form", but his energy is the most powerful and "real" i have encountered, and it played a major role in my practice.
So, IME, there are powerful energies that can be accessed, which are "paranormal" as that they are "extraordinary" and "cannot be explained by conventional science". i have experienced them in so many places, with so many different folk, at so many unexpected times and situations, and abide in a heightened awareness and presence that feels like them, that i have no doubt that they exist.
If "i" create these energies, or the perception of them, i do not know how i do it or why it occurs apparently "randomly" (except for the ongoing presence). Has "my" brain learned how to create them continuously after having had the many previous exposures? That still doesn't explain where the "others", who i met serendipitously, got them.
Folk have asked how it was possible to totally surrender. These shakti/kundalini experiences, particularly Ramana's, were a great factor. It was not difficult to accept that "I" was not in control and that there were powers far greater than mine. i needed "someone" to take what was left of my "I" away; i surrendered it to Ramana's energy and it vanished...
Can we "use" these energies in our lives, consciously and willfully?
Let's accept that working w/our chakras or energy fields, with deep meditation practices, chanting, mantras and concentration, we might develop the ability to channel this shakti/kundalini. Let's say we develop not just strong protective powers, to deflect and neutralize any bad energy, but also strong, actively hostile powers to use against our "enemies".
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| Ramana Maharshi |
The most surprising thing about Ramana's energy, however, is that it is continuous, accessible and palpable, which many have experienced. i have no idea how it works, from a "physics" perspective, as Ramana has "left his form", but his energy is the most powerful and "real" i have encountered, and it played a major role in my practice.
So, IME, there are powerful energies that can be accessed, which are "paranormal" as that they are "extraordinary" and "cannot be explained by conventional science". i have experienced them in so many places, with so many different folk, at so many unexpected times and situations, and abide in a heightened awareness and presence that feels like them, that i have no doubt that they exist.
If "i" create these energies, or the perception of them, i do not know how i do it or why it occurs apparently "randomly" (except for the ongoing presence). Has "my" brain learned how to create them continuously after having had the many previous exposures? That still doesn't explain where the "others", who i met serendipitously, got them.
Folk have asked how it was possible to totally surrender. These shakti/kundalini experiences, particularly Ramana's, were a great factor. It was not difficult to accept that "I" was not in control and that there were powers far greater than mine. i needed "someone" to take what was left of my "I" away; i surrendered it to Ramana's energy and it vanished...
Can we "use" these energies in our lives, consciously and willfully?
Let's accept that working w/our chakras or energy fields, with deep meditation practices, chanting, mantras and concentration, we might develop the ability to channel this shakti/kundalini. Let's say we develop not just strong protective powers, to deflect and neutralize any bad energy, but also strong, actively hostile powers to use against our "enemies".
How would we use these? What happens to our ego, our "karma", and our relationship with those on whom we use those powers in either protective, or hostile ways?
As indicated in the "siddhis/paranormal" blog, IME, using these powers in a "willful" way filled w/desire, greed, revenge, jealousy, etc., always developed into a "trap", into which i spiraled in an increasingly ego-invested, conflicted and constricted way.
IME, it is more useful to direct those energies to our own awakening. Are these bad energies we are taking in, or subjected to, ones that we are truly receiving from others, or are they our projection of our relationship with that particular co-worker, partner, occasional friend, acquaintance, ex-partner, etc.? If the latter, there are more productive ways to deal with it that doesn't strengthen the ego.
As indicated in the "siddhis/paranormal" blog, IME, using these powers in a "willful" way filled w/desire, greed, revenge, jealousy, etc., always developed into a "trap", into which i spiraled in an increasingly ego-invested, conflicted and constricted way.
IME, it is more useful to direct those energies to our own awakening. Are these bad energies we are taking in, or subjected to, ones that we are truly receiving from others, or are they our projection of our relationship with that particular co-worker, partner, occasional friend, acquaintance, ex-partner, etc.? If the latter, there are more productive ways to deal with it that doesn't strengthen the ego.
Can you come to that relationship, whenever it manifests, without any "Know" in you, with no "Know" of any history of that relationship, no stories, no emotional baggage? Can you be there in "Not know"? IME, coming to such a relationship w/"Not know", even if the other person is still locked in "Know", something powerful emerges, something changes.
Perhaps it is the other seeing that reactions and responses aren't the same, so the energy and dynamics of the relationship can change. you see the other clearly, in presence, for the first time, every time. There is space for the other, operating in a "reactive" mode, to feel safe enough to move into "Not know". If one is coming from "Know" and the other from "Not know", that soon changes the relationship from one of "Know - Know" into one of "Not know - Not know".
Perhaps it is the other seeing that reactions and responses aren't the same, so the energy and dynamics of the relationship can change. you see the other clearly, in presence, for the first time, every time. There is space for the other, operating in a "reactive" mode, to feel safe enough to move into "Not know". If one is coming from "Know" and the other from "Not know", that soon changes the relationship from one of "Know - Know" into one of "Not know - Not know".
Cool to see someone mentioning Muktananda - I had read all of the controversies about him and picked up his book "Play of Consciousness". Just reading it you can feel the energy of your being shift, even holding the book has a profound effect. It's something about the energy in between the lines.
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