ZEN COLLECTION so you can rise and shine · I was attracted to The Secret of Gold- ... Gopi...

SHIVI DUA

If we believe that spiritualismand materialism are two sepa-rate things, then we will beable to enjoy only one of the

two: that which we are more in-clined towards.The fact is that noone can stop us from experiencingboth simultaneously, none otherthan we ourselves.If we believe thatmaterialism keeps us away from ourtrue selves, then it will.On the oth-er hand, if we have the right per-spective towards wealth and self-realisation, then we will be able toinvite both in our lives. It is not asin to long for the comforts of thephysical world. Wealth cannotshape our lives; our power packetsdo.

Wealth provides the means to improve the quality of our lives.Wecan choose to be either generous orselfish with the money we have.These options are always availableto us, irrespective of the amount ofmoney or wealth we possess.How-ever,we may have many more choic-es available to us when we have morewealth at our disposal. It does giveus a certain power in the world.Of-

ten,contentment begins to blur andgreed begins to take its place.Greedkeeps the object of desire at the high-est level of priority and provokes anindividual to do whatever it takes toacquire it.On the other hand,whenwe know that we deserve some-thing,it will come our way for sure,especially when we are free fromrestlessness or from the anxiety tocling to material things.

The desire for wealth arises outof envy. One negative emotion at-tracts another and can easily makeus give in to greed; but if we livewith complete acceptance of our-selves and our life as it is, our desirefor wealth is unlikely to throw us offbalance.

When honest people leading asimple life observe others adoptingunfair means to earn wealth and suc-

ceeding at it, they develop a beliefthat huge amounts of money canbe earned only through unfairmeans. If we see someone close tous become wealthy overnight,it af-fects us greatly.Then if we see thesame person lose most of that wealthdue to careless expenditure, wethank our stars, forwealth goes away justas fast as it comes.

We can pick upbeliefs from the neg-ative experiences ofothers and create ourlives accordingly.Onthe other hand, wecould just observethe world around usas a spectator whilebeing confident ofourselves and watchour power packetscreate a life that wedesire and deserve.We always get whatwe deserve, and wedeserve what we be-lieve we do.Let ThePower Be With You;Wisdom Tree. ■

Before you adopted a more spiritual lifestyle, you livedthrough a phase of sex, drugs,rock and roll. Do you regret your past? ■ I don’t regret my past. I was lost andnow I am found.Living that kind of lifehas taught me to be empathetic, to putmyself in the place of others. In this eraof narcissistic self-aggrandisement andself-absorption, empathy has becomean indispensable human quality.

A journey through awakeningone’s kundalini can be dangerousand agonising without personalsupervision.You moved toFrance for a year just to meditateall by yourself. Did you considerthe pitfalls of doing so?■ I didn’t know what I was doing.Head-strong trailblazing, perhaps, but my ig-norance allowed me to press forwardwithout second-guessing myself.And itjust so happened that the method I dis-covered — the Backward-FlowingMethod — doesn’t allow the energy totravel up the wrong channel in the spine.

I didn’t realise until later that I wasusing my body as a laboratory.Yes,thereare pitfalls, but as Gopi Krishna pointed out there were very few people — even in India — who couldanswer questions about kundalini withempirical authority.Yes, you can do itwith supervision,but how do you knowthe person supervising you knows morethan you do? And suppose you do en-counter problems,how can another per-son really help? Are they sufficiently re-alised to exert some magical power orwill they simply comfort you by talk-ing common sense? In the end, eachperson has to find the techniques thatwork best for them. It’s not like danc-ing or cricket where coaches can cor-rect improper form or posture.We’reworking with inner space where self-observation plays an all-important role.

How important is a guru — asyour experience clearly showsyou didn’t need one? ■ There are systems that work for somepeople and those that don’t. At the beginning, supervision is useful, butmany gurus tend to have somethingelse going on. If that something elseinvolves the cult of personality, thenit’s not useful.

You’ve said:‘Sublimation is abstinence with a higher purpose.’What is the role of

karma in defining one’s sexualappetite?■ I’m not sure that karma has anythingto do with sexual appetite.What Imeant by that statement was that ab-stinence is the attempt to regulatesex through self-control,mindingthe little voice in the back of the

head. Self-control has never provenvery effective in controlling im-

pulse or addiction.Sublimationis a kind of end run, around

sexual appetite. It divertssexual energy to the brain,thereby realising thehigher purpose.

What do you meanwhen you say,‘Spiri-

tual transformationhappens through giving up sex by diverting vital fluidinto the nerves and

up the spinal column.’■ I didn’t say,‘I’m going to sexually sub-limate.’ I simply started breathing cor-rectly.The sexual component was aseamless by-product of my breathing.Once you master diaphragmatic deepbreathing, you feel an energy build upin the lower belly. At this point, youcommand the energy to change direc-tion,which draws distilled sexual ener-gy up the spine to the brain.My book,The Backward-flowing Method:The Secretof Life and Death explains the techniquesin depth.

As for why it’s so hush-hush in India,Indian friends of mine tell me thatgurus talk about kundalini in terms ofreligious doctrine, thereby excludingthose whose practices are inconsistentwith their doctrines. Americans arecaught up in an opposite paradigm.Toraise kundalini,you have thousands try-ing everything from harmful drugs tointensive yoga to drinking exotic tinc-tures to questionable tantric practices.Gurus, whatever their origin, are ter-ritorial, out to protect their own do-mains.There’s very little collaborationand sharing of information as im-provements come to the fore.

More are turning seekers today.Would you like to advise them?■ I was attracted to The Secret of Gold-en Flower because of its stance vis-à-visthe real world:“When there is a grad-ual success in producing the circulationof the light,a man must not give up hisordinary occupation in doing so.”Theancients said,‘When occupations cometo us,we must accept them;when thingscome to us,we must understand themfrom the ground up’.Living with kun-dalini is something most people don’tthink about while they are trying toraise it.My method takes about a year,but once raised, you have to live withit for the rest of your life.There is a long

period of adjustment. Kundalini notonly changes our metabolic and somaticsystems, it affects how we relate to theworld and to others emotionally.

If we didn’t inhabit bodies, therewould be no material attachments,neg-ative emotions, war, greed, pride, fearand pain. Kundalini makes us feel weshould get rid of these things.But how-ever petty, selfish, imperfect, or foolishthe world outside may seem to us, de-spite living in a body primed with kun-dalini energy,we are still human.At thesame time, kundalini is developinggreater consciousness;we must not neg-lect real world obligations.

Is ‘awakening’ an ongoingprocess, or is it a one-time experience that stays with you? ■ There are many types of kundaliniawakenings:permanent, temporary,ac-cidental,casual.Gopi Krishna’s and minewere permanent,but that doesn’t meanwe were set for life.Kundalini only pro-vides fertile ground for continual spir-itual development. Nothing is auto-matically granted; the work is never done.

The aftermath is just as importantas the actual awakening.So are the rea-sons and the motives for undertakingthe activation process in the first place.Forty years ago,when I activated kun-dalini, I had never even heard the termkundalini. Unlike many today, I wasn’tlooking for extraordinary powers;I waspractising a breathing method, hopingit would help me find myself.Once ac-tivated, everything came together. It’sbeen that way ever since;it’s the gift thatkeeps on giving — once you realise youhave to surrender to its power. ■

poonamkjain@gmail.com

Born in1938, J JSemple

starts life in theupper echelonsof an EasternBrahmin estab-lishment. A

childhood incident robs him of histwo most precious talents which heis exceptionally gifted in.“My bodyslowly imploded.As a consequence,my abilities in maths and music dis-appeared.The changes were physi-cal, caused by interference with vi-tal nerve conduits — the result ofmy refusal to tell doctors about thesplinter lodged in my ankle.This isdifficult to understand because mostpeople live their entire lives withtheir bodies in a single morpholog-ical state.They experience normalgrowth, but do not lose faculties orabilities and do not change their basemorphology.”

The Secret RevealedIn 1972, as he is making his way,

unsuccessfully, into the Jazz scene inParis, a stranger gives him a copy ofThe Secret of the Golden Flower, a sig-nificant Taoist book about meditation.After reading the book he realisesthrough ‘serendipitous happenstance’that he is slowly correcting the effectsof his childhood accident.“It was onlyafter I started practising the methodthat I realised its empirical value as amanual for activating kundalini.”

Inevitability Of Karma?We wonder if it is the inevitabil-

ity of karma that led to his self-real-isation in 1973 as he turned 35. Hesays,“It wasn’t my ability to see be-

yond my circumstances that led meto start meditating. It was a combi-nation of detective work and luck.But something in me —some sparkof self-awareness — remained alive,allowing me to find just the rightmeans (The SGF) to restore me tomy perfect body.There was also a per-sonality component: I’m resilient.”

His friends encourage him to writeabout his kundalini experience andhe plans a trip to India so he can meetGopi Krishna,the Kashmir-born yogaand kundalini expert (1903-1984).

Meeting Gopi Krishna“My 1977 meeting with Gopi

Krishna in Kashmir was my firstencounter with a confirmed kun-dalini practitioner.He got me think-ing beyond the difficult-to-recon-cile spiritual aspects of kundalini.He got me wondering about kun-dalini meditation as a scientific ex-periment, and a kundalini awaken-ing as the result of such an exper-iment. Gopi Krishna was the firstperson who understood me com-pletely. And he provided me withpractical information on living withkundalini.”

In 2007, he authors Decipheringthe Golden Flower One Secret at aTime.Why the long wait? “Perhaps,your generation will be the one thatfinally brings kundalini to the fore-front of serious investigation. Lordknows,Gopi Krishna tried.Did youknow he raised his kundalini in1938, the year I was born? But did-n’t publish Kundalini:The Evolu-tionary Energy in Man till 30 yearslater in 1967, four years before Iraised mine? These things take time,but in the end they are the same.”

Get Down And Dirty...

so you can rise and shineJ J SEMPLE is a leading authority on the practice of kundalini — the life force science. He has been practising theart for 35 years. “I succeeded only after failing many times over, only after stumbling. Kundalini tore me apartand put me back together,” he says. He talks to POONAM K JAIN about how to live with the experience

T H E S P E A K I N G T R E EB A N G A L O R E , S E P T E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 1

Intelligence has to precede enlightenment or arousal of your kundalini. So create intelligence first— Osho

First Lesson A new monk came up to the

master, Joshu.“I have just enteredthe brotherhood and I am anxiousto learn the first principle of Zen,”he said.“Will you please teach it to

me?” Joshu asked,“Have youeaten your supper?”The noviceanswered,“I have eaten.” Joshusaid,“Now wash your bowl.”

I Don’t KnowThe emperor, who was a devoutBuddhist, invited a great Zen

master to the palace in order to askhim questions about Buddhism.“What is the highest truth of the

holy Buddhist doctrine?” theemperor inquired.“Vast

emptiness... and not a trace ofholiness,” the master replied.

“If there is no holiness,” theemperor said,“then who or what

are you?”“I do not know,”the master replied.

Strict RulesSoyen Shaku, the first Zen teacher to

come to America, said:“My heartburns like fire but my eyes are as cold

as dead ashes.” He made thefollowing rules which he practised

every day of his life.● In the morning before dressing,

light incense and meditate.● Retire at a regular hour. Partake of

food at regular intervals. Eat with moderation and never to

the point of satisfaction.● Receive a guest with the same

attitude you have when alone.Whenalone, maintain the

same attitude you have in receiving guests.

● Watch what you say, and whateveryou say, practise it.

● When an opportunity comes, donot let it pass you by, yet always

think twice before acting.● Do not regret the past.

Look to the future.● Have the fearless attitude of a hero

and the loving heart of a child.● Upon retiring, sleep as if you had

entered your last sleep. Uponawakening, leave your bed behind

you instantly as if you had cast awaya pair of old shoes.

ZEN COLLECTION

Any so-called material thing

that you want is merely a

symbol: you want it not

for itself, but because it will

content your spirit for

the moment

— Mark Twain

We Get What We Deserve

Rock Star To Yogi

GEETA BISHT