The Difference between Kundalini- and (Zen)Awakening

Kundalini Energy stimulates dopamine and endorphin production in the body. We become high on life. We can recognize a spiritual addiction by our ecstatic smile, our oversensitivity and a controlled self-conscious-aware presence. Being high on life is actually a serious addiction, same like sexual addiction.

Both addictions are not studied yet thoroughly and are hard to recognize for spiritual seekers. In Zen we call it the spiritual Ego. Once we activated the Kundalini, we have to slowly let it go and forget about it. This process is particularly painful for a spiritual ego, which defines her/himself through spiritual states and feelings. Forgetting yourself, becoming ordinary, that is what mature spirituality is about. Kundalini, Dao Yoga, Tantra..are all technics to widen our mind and perception. Instead of pouring life into a cup, we learn to poor life into a swimming pool and we enjoy swimming in our own pool.

On the other hand, Zen is about letting go of the container altogether and become the vast space, in which that container exists and is part of. Another way of explanation is, that by opening the Kundalini Energy, without working on our psychological-shadows and without realizing true awakening, which is spiritual death, we go up in our beingness and start to look down on all things and people. Our vibration may become very high, and we become intimate with life and others, but only through that agent of kundalini energy. In the moment that energy disappears from our perceptions, we feel drained and weak again; While in Zen, we start from down to up. From the roots, to the trunk, like any plant or tree does. We dont look down, on anything, but integrate all as a part of unity. Through practice, we can become simple and ordinary enough, that even a negative emotion or pain, can be an extraordinary experience and therefore we loose the need for extraordinary experiences or happenings and drama in our life.

Everyone who is using energy work or mind-expanding methods or hypnosis etc. for a longer period of time knows, that working with such ways, which bring fast results, has its ups and downs. Like in drug abuse, we feel high and after the high we fall down heavily, over and over. It does not stop, until we recognize, how we abuse ourself through trying to control the kundalini flow or our mind.

When we truly awaken, we can allow any moment to unfold as it is, without expecting it to be different. The intimacy here is, that there is not much separation anymore between subject and object, while in kundalini, we just feel the objects within us, “making love to us“, which is an expression of a spiritual ego, trapped still in separation and duality. In Zen this is only a phenomena, a “beginners-awakening“, to definitely enjoy, but not to abide in for to long. Lost in it, we become material spiritual “devils“. In Tibetan Buddhism it is called “the realm of heavenly beings“. So instead of controlling the weather by making kundalini sunshine, we can awaken to the reality, that we are the whole sky, including the clouds, moon, and the sun.

Jion M.Blonstein

 

Jion
Born in Transnistria (U.D.S.S.R) Former Zen(Rinzai)-Monk (in Eigenji and Sogenji-Japan, Psycho-spiritual Counselor, Zen-Meditation-Master (Ikkyu Zen Dojo) , Singer, Improvisation-Dancer, Hospice-Counsellor, Children Counsellor, Writer.

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