updated 6/27/09
Kundalini Meditation
Stressed out? Blow off some steam with some weird exercise …
by Paul Ingraham, Vancouver, Canada MOREclose
Credentials and qualifications
I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.
For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.
Credentials and qualifications
I am a writer and retired Registered Massage Therapist (unusually well-trained for a massage therapist, a 3000-hour program). I’m almost done with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. I am a peer reviewer for The Natural Standard, and a copyeditor for Science-Based Medicine. My most important qualification is more than a decade of workaholic post-graduate study, clinical experience, and constant conversations with readers from around the world, including many experts who have provided countless suggestions and criticisms.
For more information, see: Who Am I to Say? More information about my qualifications, credentials and professional experiences for my readers and customers.
Free your ass, and your mind will follow.
The Kundalini meditation is an unorthodox meditation exercise devised by “Osho,” the popular Indian mystic, philosopher, and spiritual teacher. I not an Osho fan, but I do like the idea of the Kundalini meditation as he taught it. I expect that it will become an early classic of East-West philosophical fusion. I believe that Osho developed the exercise in response to the difficulties that Western students had with conventional (sitting still) meditation. Paraphrasing heavily, and putting my own spin on it, this is what Osho has to say about the problem …
You Westerners crack me up. You are totally unprepared for the study of meditation. You have a cultural predisposition towards rigidity and noisy minds. Before you can even begin to learn meditation, you have got to loosen up a little and let off some steam, get rid of some nervous energy. Maybe when we’ve worn you out a little, then you might be ready to begin.
Therefore, the Kundalini meditation precedes meditative practice with vigorous exercise in four phases:
- a phase of intense and random shaking, flapping and vibration to music;
- a phase of improvisational dance-like movement to music;
- a phase of meditative stillness in any position with music;
- a phase of silent, “active rest” (lying flat on the back, but with the knees up and the feet connected and ‘live’ on the ground).
I encourage strong, deep (bioenergetic) breathing throughout. Although the whole meditation can be done in silence, trance-inducing music (monotonous) is helpful. The phases may range in length from just a few minutes to as long as thirty minutes for the earnest practitioner.
Fiery serpent!
The word “Kundalini” is a reference to an esoteric feature of the meditation: the sensation of a fiery serpent — the Kundalini or life force — ascending the spine. This poetic imagery is used in other meditations as well, but it is particularly well-suited to the intense kinetic energy of the classic Kundalini meditation.
I recall well that my first Kundalini meditation was a revelation: my state of mind and body was strongly affected. I was initially determined to do it at least once a week for the rest of my life — an inspiration that lasted about a month, I think. However, I have permanently included the idea of “movement before meditation” into my own personal growth practice.
Exercising one’s way to peace
Looking back, it is easy to see Osho’s idea at work in my life. I have often used exercise as a way to blow off steam and calm myself down. My career has always been mentally complex, challenging and intense. I’ve found it nearly impossible to do sitting-still meditation.
In the early days of trying to cope with the mental intensity of my work, I would go to a gym every lunch hour and exhaust myself. When I returned to the office, I was always calm. Nothing rattled me for at least an hour or two. I just couldn’t be bothered: I was too pleasantly worn out to care.
It turns out that this kind of pleasant exhaustion may be a pre-requisite for any Westerner studying meditation. Before we can begin, we must blow off some steam. I encourage you to try the Kundalini meditation as I have described it here, but also to simply take the principle and apply it wherever you have the opportunity.
