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Tantric Qigong, Mindfulness, and Flow

Mindfulness, which is often thought of as a Buddhist concept, is really about being Present.  Presencing is one form of self-inquiry (which can be done as a meditation or as coaching) as is Tantric Qigong.  These art forms are about getting out of your head, your mental analysis, comparison and judgment, and becoming present to what really IS.

It sounds simple, and it is. However, this is not very easy for most people. We are constantly and anxiously analyzing, comparing / contrasting, projecting our assumptions, and judging the world around and within ourselves. Our perceptions are based on our past experiences and our experiences are shaped by our perceptions.  This is why I often maintain that we are continually “lying” to ourselves and others.  Our internal stories about the world and ourselves are supreme acts of creation in that each person’s world becomes based more and more on this mental / perceptual editing.  How can we know what is real?  How can we ascertain what is truly necessary and important in our lives?  What will really sustain our Self, our heart and soul?  Thinking and analyzing isn’t gong to cut it. It hasn’t worked too well so far has it?  Perhaps no-thinking may be more useful.

Even kittens seek release from the Wheel of Karma

All of the multitudinous forms of meditation have elements of stilling the mind and its critical or judgmental aspects, these demons of discernment gone horribly wrong. But have you ever tried stilling your mind? Herding kittens is much easier. Practices such as Vipassana, Zen, T’ai Chi, Yoga, and Tantric Qigong all have techniques to bring one out of the maze of one’s thoughts and unbridled emotions as one of their goals.  The only difference in these arts is in their approach.

One approach to mindfulness and being present is to focus on the details of our experience.  Walking down the street, noticing every minute part of what is around us.  People, the sun, clouds, every caress of the air upon your cheek, the feeling of your clothes touching your body.  Internally, we can notice body sensations, the character of your emotional flow, the many mental distractions.  Notice them and let them go.

Try this exercise:   Stop and see, touch, and smell the flowers.
A particular flower, perhaps a lily.  Notice its overall form and all of its minutia. The sturdiness of the stalk.  How does it feel to lightly stroke its petals?  Kiss a leaf.  Notice its texture.  Does it kiss back?  The color.  How the hues blend on its petals and leaves.  The subtle patterns within.  The heady incense of its scent.  Pistils droozed, laden with pollen. Can you almost see and hear the grains floating down?  Take plenty of time.  The closer you come into unity with this flower, the more you will become Present and unify your consciousness.

Flow
The river of Tao encompasses all of creation, including every aspect of our lives, whether we realize it or not.  All creativity comes from being “in the zone”, being in alignment with the Tao, from being in flow.  Like water, the flow of Tao is both dynamic (Yang) and still (Yin). When we are truly present to flow, obstacles evaporate, we Do and Be effortlessly, and life is suffused with meaning, abundance, and joy. To be in harmony with the flow of Tao is both power and wisdom, knowing when to do and when to be still, when to utilize Will and when to Surrender in the moment.

Qigong as a Meditation
Using the mind alone to still the mind is fraught with great difficulty. Where you are blind to Self, by definition you cannot see what is needed for equanimity, for inner peace.  You remain blind. When you are stressed, distracted, overwrought with emotions you must keep in check, the mind is a team of horses pulling in many directions at once. It is an almost impossible challenge to attempt to use only mental processes to be present and centered, and to still the raging beasts

Tao is Flow

of the mind.

One of the great aspects of T’ai Chi and Tantric Qigong is the facility with which these arts bring you into mindful presence and flow.  You really can’t let your mind wander; you’ll forget what you are doing.  The practitioner must focus his or her attention on one’s stance, sense of grounding, the coordination of subtle movement with deep diaphragmatic breathing, alignment of the body with gravity, and the flow of life force (Chi, Qi, Ki).  The moment your mind wanders you are lost, the efficacy and consciousness of energy flow is diminished. This sort of compels you to come back to mindful presencing.  We begin anew, as we must always do each moment, to align and unify mind, body, and spirit, heart and soul, with the eternal power of Now. © Keith E. Hall and www.inner-tranquility.com

Presencing™: Growth, Meditation, Manifestation

Presencing™ is a method of self-inquiry that scans the body, mind, and emotions for what is Present at that time. What is present is often the tip of the iceberg, a barely recognizable “feeler” put out by your higher self to try and get your attention. Your higher self tries to get you to notice something, some resistance, some karmic / emotional / physical pattern that requires release before your evolution / understanding / manifestation can proceed smoothly.

What appears as something minor, can often be a significant guide to your healing and mental / emotional / spiritual progress. The small self tends to defend against this knowledge and self-responsibility, repressing self-knowledge and projecting responsibility externally. Until we are fully self-aware and claim responsibility for, and mastery of our thoughts and emotions, our progress will be slowed. Allowing the unimpeded flow of what needs to shift, heal, and be recognized within ourselves creates a profound and simple process of self-knowledge and emotional freedom. The energy trapped in subconscious repression and external projection is then freed to create empowerment, joy, and creativity.

Meditation
Often the agenda of meditation is represented as developing the ability to still the mind. Let’s be honest, the mind resists this. The brain is designed to process information for survival and growth and is loathe to let go of this function. Many people learning or practicing meditation are curious as to why their minds often seem noisier when they sit for meditation than in their daily lives! It would seem counter-intuitive, but meditation retreats can be just as “noisy” as a football game. Its just that it is all internal. This can be somewhat frustrating at times. Combine this emotional / mental content with physical discomfort or distraction, and meditation can be a bit of a challenge. The very process of “stilling the mind” can become an active repression of coded information valuable to a more highly efficient process of self-knowledge. No amount of “stilling” will negate the noise until its message is received and integrated.  Presencing™ allows these messages / feelings / distractions to reveal their hidden wisdom. For some, the Presencing Process(sm) is so efficient that within a few minutes a person can achieve deeper states of meditation, peace, and joy than they thought possible.

Therapy / Communication Skills
As a therapeutic modality, Presencing™ presents a palette of mind – body tools to create a more holistic approach to healing. One of the difficulties with verbal therapy is that, well, we lie! Even when we think we are telling the truth, we tend to edit, rationalize, and project i.e., we have defense mechanisms. Talk therapy can be like Talk Radio: we all want to be a righteous Rush Limbaugh, defending our paradigm from too much scrutiny. Not that this is entirely a conscious decision. We have “sleeper cells” deep within us that press our subconscious agenda.

The mind and the mouth can lie, but this is not so with the body. The body is always broadcasting our truth. Therapies based on the work of Reich, Lowen, et al recognize this and turn to the body for greater truth. Presencing™ is a simple and more gentle path to the same end. No stress, strain, or catharsis is required. Truth and freedom from past trauma can be achieved through attention, recognition and validation of both mental / emotional and somatic content.

Manifestation
One reason we often find it difficult to create what we want is that we are always praying for what we don’t. Affirmations often are inefficient in manifesting because we tend to broadcast affirmations mainly with the conscious mind. Our subconscious mind / emotions may be broadcasting antithetical requests sequentially or simultaneously. We are both asking for what we want and what we don’t. No wonder Universal Mind is confused! Perhaps we have delivered to us a mix of both. What we ask for can be partially negated by subconscious thought processes / emotions. One example: we want to manifest something, but fear that we cannot. Which desire is stronger? If equal, they tend to cancel each other.

The Law of Attraction states that you attract what is similar to yourself. This is not a new concept in metaphysics or religion. Thousands of years ago the Old Testament gave us a heads-up: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”; (T-5.VI.6:1; Galatians 6:7, 2 Corin 9:6). So, to effectively attract what we want, we must clear ourselves of the subconscious resistances and counter messages we are broadcasting. Simply put: the Presencing Process(sm) helps us sow the right seed. © 2009 Keith E. Hall and Inner-tranquility.com. All rights reserved.

Rev. Keith Hall has synthesized the seminal aspects of Breathwork, Bioenergetics, Neo-Reichian, Tantric, Taoist, and Buddhist practices to create the Presencing Process(sm). Presencing(sm) facilitates deep healing, joy, empowerment, and freedom from past limitations so we can manifest clearly what we desire in life.  Presencing(sm) is a simple, yet profoundly powerful process for creating our lives the way we wish to.

The Presencing Process for Enlightenment and Freedom(sm) - September 26

The Art of Being Present – release old patterns, create joy & fulfillment – Now!

Please consider joining us for this simple yet profound process for Awakening!

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The Art of Being Present

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. –Buddha

What moment do we have other than this?

The past is an illusion long gone. The future is not yet made manifest.

Each moment of our lives lands as a dew drop upon the lotus. Delicate, unique, irreplaceable. To look upon it with full attention and unfettered gaze reveals its precious and inimitable perfection. This magic moment, a crack between past and future, is an Infinity of existence; never seen before, and never to be seen again.

Can we not Be as the lotus enveloping the drop?
Does the lotus analyze and compare?
Is the lotus anticipating the dew drops yet to be?
Or does it embrace this diamond - liquid, delicate, and evanescent, and open its petals to experience the All?

Can you recall in your life a sudden revelation of beauty, deep serenity, a spontaneous awakening to Unity, excitement, joy, and vibrancy that stilled your mind and opened your heart? Ever ponder how you were able to perceive this flash of Shangri-La secreted between your history and your expectations? What is the Secret to reentering this often all too brief state of acceptance and Bliss?

Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. –Chuang Tzu

The key is to both embrace and let go of each moment simultaneously. To participate and witness at the same time. In doing this, it is perfectly possible to create a Zen-like process of attentiveness to, and reverence for, your everyday experience. Being Present to the experience of our life, moment by moment, can help awaken our capacity for extraordinary joy, freedom, compassion, and creativity.

All authentic spiritual traditions have as part of their process a centering of consciousness on the power of Now. The practices of Yoga, Taoism, Buddhism, and Tantra all involve meditation, attention, and conscious breathing. Just like the dance of breath, of both inhaling and exhaling without vacillation, we must balance will and surrender, yin and yang, Intention and letting go.

There is a way between voice and presence
where information flows.  –Rumi
This process of freeing ourselves from our patterns, habits, compulsions, and unconscious drives is often referred to as “burning karma.”  Our karma is the result of our actions, experiences, thoughts, emotions, and expectations. Our personal history is comprised of habits and subconscious drives which shape and maintain the prison of the small self in which we reside. We are at once the architects, wardens, and inmates of this institution. Unless we pardon ourselves for the crimes of complacency and inattention to our Higher Self, we will impose a life sentence upon ourselves.

Deliverance from the prison of our karmic patterning is an essential process for achieving the mastery of true emotional freedom and self-realization. In freeing ourselves from these self-imposed strictures, we develop the skills to create anew, rather than re-create over and over again what no longer serves the growth of our spirit. This freedom from karmic patterning results in self-knowledge, wisdom, and being Present with the Sublime.

We get to choose each moment and how we want to live in it. How do you want it? Realize that every moment is IT…It all comes down to Presence. Being present in the moment…And Love. -Bhagavan Das

Find an object – a burning candle, a flower, a dew bespeckled spider’s web. Still your mind and observe. What do you perceive? Use all your senses. Maybe write down your observations. Give yourself lots of time, don’t rush about with mental questing. Open yourself to the experience and to your observations. What do you notice? Take a deep, conscious breath and observe again. Pay attention with your mind. Assimilate with your body. What do you feel?

Through this process of stilling the mind, calming the emotions, and opening the doors of perception, you may become able, as Blake said, “To see a world in a grain of sand…heaven in a wild flower, (and) hold Infinity in the palm of your hand…” © 2009 Keith E. Hall and www.Inner-tranquility.com . All rights reserved.

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How does Tantric Qigong™ work?

It can be said that Qigong works by uniting heavenly and earthly energies. While Western science does not yet have a full explanation of how Qigong does this, it most likely that it works by amplifying your personal Chi (Qi, life force, vitality, Ki) by drawing in earthly and atmospheric / solar ionic energy to supplement your existing vitality. This is attained through gentle movement, breath control, mental focus, Intention, and the most efficient grounding technology yet known.

Although it may appear that many systems of meditation and yoga aspire to similar effects, in practice and effect they are quite different.

Hatha Yoga has a general objective that is comparable to that of Qigong and achieves its ends through breathing, concentration, and stretching.  Yoga tends to lower somatic resistance, which allows energy to be freed up and diffused in a general way throughout the physical and emotional bodies.

Meditation attempts to unify these polar energies through mental control and creating inner peace. Most forms of meditation reduce mental disorder; thus indirectly allowing the body to relax its resistance to a certain degree. The effects are felt most strongly in the mental and emotional bodies. Both meditation and Hatha Yoga can create some of the same effects as Qigong, but may take longer to achieve it.

Forms of Kundalini Yoga, Kriya, and pranayama quickly push energy into the body and chakras through aggressive breathing techniques and movement. The relative bioenergetic charge thus created can vary quite a bit depending on that tradition and teacher. These systems generally lack a comprehensive and efficient grounding component, which can make their practice somewhat tricky for those persons wishing to remain in the world. Forms of Kundalini practice can create dramatic physical, emotional, and mental side effects and should not be undertaken without a teacher. Preferably in an ashram, under supervision 24/7.

I have met many students and teachers of these arts that have applied them in an extremely yang fashion and none of them have seemed grounded and balanced to me. Although they do experience a lot of energy, the energy meets the resistance of their body, mind, and karmic history. This creates a lot of unnecessary drama and significant side effects. This seems to be a result of too much energy meeting too much resistance and with too little grounding. Gurus who achieve spiritual power in this manner are very much a mixed blessing.

With Qigong, both the practice and the effects are quite different. Unlike the yogic paradigm, which asserts that the first chakra is the perineal / coccygeal area, Qigong knows that the first chakra is located in the bottoms of the feet. This is the way that nature intended earthly life force (kundalini, chi) to be conducted into the body. There are built in safeguards and processes of energetic transformation that makes this raw power easier to deal with and to apply to the body, mind, and emotions in a purely positive way.

The movements of Qigong are very gentle (virtually no energy is consumed by strenuous work) and coordinated with deep breathing, supreme mental focus, and proper bioenergetic alignment of the body. The effect is to amplify one’s vitality while simultaneously reducing internal somatic, emotional, and mental resistance, all in a grounded and balanced fashion. This Taoist approach generates a lot of Chi safely and quickly, often within a few seconds. Mastery may take somewhat longer.

It has been said that Qigong supercharges the body with a balance of earthly and atmospheric ionic energy. This energy suffuses the body, mind, and spirit. The Chi that is birthed in this fashion can be used to invigorate tissues, blood, lymph, bone, and the central nervous system; purifying, soothing, and healing along the way.

Tantric Qigong™ is to regular Qigong as a Lexus on the Autobahn is to an oxcart in a muddy field. They will both get you to your destination, but differ quite a bit in speed, efficacy, and comfort. While Qigong is supreme at creating the benefits mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, the traditional Taoist process of creating personal freedom and spiritual liberation through burning karma is less well defined. The Taoist approach to chakra activation and transmuting negative emotional patterns is convoluted and obscure at best. In contrast, with Tantric Qigong™ we avail ourselves of esoteric Taoist, Tantric Kriya, Kundalini Yoga, and Tibetan techniques not yet generally known in the west to simplify and enhance our process of self mastery and liberation.

There are five basic levels of Tantric Qigong™ training that begin with elementary Qigong and culminate in powerful and efficacious practices rarely taught publicly. We employ principles of Bioenergetics, Chakra, Kriya, and Kundalini yoga, Emotional Freedom, Karma burning, Tibetan Tantra, and Tumo in a safe, balanced structure that requires only a few minutes each day to perform. © 2009 Keith E. Hall Inner-tranquility.com. All rights reserved.

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Extended Orgasm, Tantra, & Spiritual Awakening

Yab Yum is used to prevent premature ejaculation and to raise Kundalini

In Western Neo-Tantra, orgasm extension (or tantric orgasm, extended orgasm, expanded orgasm, or multiple orgasms) is represented mainly as a tool for increasing and prolonging pleasure, preventing premature ejaculation, etc. This obviously has benefit individually and on a social level, especially if your society has deep puritanical roots and ambivalence toward receiving pleasure. While this negative judgment of the value of pleasure may not seem so apparent to those immersed in it, it is a very strong societal and religious judgment, both culturally and in the individual’s subconscious.

A Cultural Rorschach Test:
Which do you find more objectionable?
1. The glorification of violence on the gridiron
2. Janet Jackson’s nipple

To a culture that represses sexual life force (Shakti Kundalini, Jing) and the creative expression and reception of pleasure, while focusing on denial, judgment, and violence, anything which promotes one’s hedonic surrender to pleasure and acceptance is desirable and healthy.

Ego, Karma, and Freedom
In authentic Tantra, the agenda goes far beyond the Pleasure Principle towards that of Awakening and Enlightenment. What keeps us asleep in the spiritual sense, is our stubborn resistance and defensiveness. As a function of ego and experience (Karma), these forces keep our perception of ourselves and our personal freedom small and limited, thus reducing our ability to perceive and encompass that which we identify as the larger external world. In fact, this barrier (Duality) between the egoistic self and the universe is artificial and perceptual. But we do insist on it.

A certain amount of ego is necessary for self-preservation, but to anyone who has had a deep experience of the mystical, it is obvious that we overuse the ego’s defensive nature and therefore limit what we can perceive, what and who we can Be. It is the function of any type of Kundalini work, whether Taoist, Tibetan, or Tantric, to increase energy and consciousness, burn karma, and set ourselves free. This goes beyond the mere extension of pleasure or the prevention of the leakage of semen.

To achieve freedom and this larger experience of Self, karma must be burnt. In a way, karmic patterns are just crappy emotional, mental and physical habits that block life force and consciousness.

But we have grown very attached to these habits.

They have become so ingratiated into our thoughts, perceptions, feelings, actions, and our very subconscious definition of Self (ego), that it seems that that these patterns are truly part of us, instead of the operational software that they really are. To alter or let go of these habits is very threatening to the ego’s sense of self survival and is resisted and defended against as if spiritual growth were a life threatening condition. That is why authentic personal growth is so unlikely, or so glacially slow.

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Shakti Kundalini and Personal Growth
Through enrolling the Shakti Kundalini, the sexual energy (Jing, Ching)), in ascending physically within the body, Tantra adds a powerful ally to the process of personal growth and evolution. If not spent through ejaculation and uncontrolled apana, this energy can rise and begin to erase karmic habits and self-limitations. This can happen in a general way through the application of delay techniques with a pure (spiritual) Intention, but can be made much more powerful by applying certain secret techniques, and directing the Shakti Kundalini through specific channels and centers.

Raising Shakti Kundalini with Yab Yum can result in Higher Consciousness and Enlightenment

Not all orgasm delay techniques are valuable for these purposes. For instance, the commonly cited technique for men, squeezing the glans as ejaculation is imminent, does little to redirect Shakti Kundalini. Neither does mentally making a shopping list, reciting sports statistics, or reviewing stock market averages.

Tantric Kundalini Techniques for Spiritual Awakening
Basic Tantric Kundalini techniques for redirecting orgasmic energy for spiritual evolution and Enlightenment include:

The Perineal Press and the Testicle Stretch in the Tantric Transformation series, part 6
Root Lock: and Prana Mudra: Tantric Transformation part 1
Transmuting to the Heart: Tantric Transformation Part 2
Belly / Chest Breath: Tantric Transformation Part 3
Sexual Hong Sau: Tantric Transformation Part 4
Sexual Surrender: Tantric Transformation Part 5

Of course, some of these techniques for raising, directing, and transmuting Kundalini energy can be done without the sexual component. In fact, for most people it will be easier and safer to learn and master these Tantric Kundalini techniques non-sexually through individual practice. © 2006 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

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Kundalini, Kali, Shaktipat, Deeksha, Indra Jaal

Q. Does anyone one of the gurus in your gathering know how to raise Kali and other deities on people? Also, do they know the art of the Indra Jaal? Can they raise the kundalini?

Kundalini, Karma, and Shaktipat
For those of you who are beginners, Kundalini is a form of one’s primal life force typically envisioned as a serpent wound around the base of the spine- in the coccygeal / sacrum (sacred bone) area. Kundalini in most normal people is usually spoken of as dormant. It’s not, of course. If your Kundalini were inactive, you would be dead. The energy is just at a low level due to our physical and emotional resistance, our fears and our defensive reaction to our fears. Waking our Kundalini necessitates a certain amount of freeing ourselves from this resistance. As our resistance decreases, our life force increases. The life force can then be enrolled in further eliminating resistances e.g., fear, pain, anger. Various Taoist and Yogic practices are helpful in this process, some being more efficient than others for individual ego types.

Chakras and Kundalini

There are some teachers who purport to be able to awaken one’s Kundalini and burn or liberate one from one’s karma, one’s patterns of limited perception, and negative emotional states and behaviors. This is both true and not true.

The practice of energy transference is usually taught or experienced in a “healing” context, such as “laying on of hands,” which has been around for millennia. Once again becoming popular, there are schools that teach various forms of the transfer of subtle energy, usually with some kind of “healing” intention. My own experience with this is that the energy, at the hands of a TRUE master, is anything but subtle.

As a young man, I consented to receive shaktipat ( sometimes known as deeksha, diksha ) from a Yogic saint. I had been doing yogic, qigong, T’ai chi, and Bioenergetic practices daily for some years and felt that I might be prepared enough to receive this blessing. I kind of expected it to be subtle, most yogis and meditators talking about it in these terms. Upon physical contact with my guru, and within seconds, I was transported into another realm, so I have to say that for me, shaktipat was about a subtle as a freight train.

Now, in my opinion, many unscrupulous “teachers” will then interject some self-promotion and tell you they are burning your karma for you. This sort of “teacher” or “priest,” no matter what tradition they are involved with, is looking to create a dependency in you. This codependency is antithetical to freedom. There is a spectrum of malformed intent here, from the subconscious to the consciously manipulative. In my experience, this is very common, more so than the opposite - the purely altruistic avatar.

Of course, the true masters never say this, because, well, it is not true, not possible. The state of shaktipat transference is much like a psychotropic. It is like a preview of coming attractions. Just like a movie trailer, it is a little taste of spiritual ecstasy. If you want to see, to live, to be the whole movie of liberation, of divine bliss, you have to earn your spiritual currency. You need to get your butt out and buy the ticket and sit yourself down in the cosmic cinema yourself. No one can do this for you. Everyone is responsible for their own inner work.

There are no shortcuts. You can’t skip any steps anymore than one could build a house and start with the roof. It just won’t work safely. A foundation and walls are a good idea. That said, it IS possible to speed up the process if you are committed to living a more joyous, liberated, and conscious life.

Tantra and a visit from Kali
For those choosing to live in the world, Taoist Tantra is perhaps the fastest path to enlightenment. Not necessarily the easiest, but definitely fast and interesting. Kundalini that is activated is to a normal person’s consciousness as fire is to cold wood. Tantra is to Kundalini as gasoline is to fire. In other words, if you are practicing TRUE Tantra, i.e., Tantric Kundalini activation, your are going to have one toasty campfire, one speedy route to liberation!

Among dedicated Tantrikas, Kali is a favorite energy to invoke. Known as the Dark Goddess of Destruction, Kali’s function is to quickly separate one from one’s ego. Often depicted with one or more swords, Kali wears a necklace of severed heads. These “dead heads” represent the self-limiting aspects of the ego. Fear, pain, hatred, envy, judgment, violence, and so forth. Like the Phoenix, Kali slashes and burns every aspect of the limited self. From the ashes, the Tumo fire of destruction, rebirth into the higher self occurs. Awakening and freedom is the result.

Aspects of Kali

Some years ago I participated in an advanced Tantric ritual where we did various Tantric practices and purifications for a couple of weeks prior to the Puja to prepare ourselves. Everyone there had some years of experience and were fairly comfortable with the various Tantric energies. This temple we were at was out in the jungle, light years from the normal American reality.

The Puja was scheduled to run all day, counting preparation and sanctification of the space, maybe 18 hours. About 12 hours into the process, one of the other teachers decided to invoke Kali.

This did cause me to pause. Kali can really be a bit pushy, a bit of a drama queen. Part of me considered leaving, just walking out the door into the jungle. Of course the mosquitoes in that area were truly impressive. They had a really voracious bloodlust, not at all like our timid American variety. Local rumor had it that they were like vampires, you would swoon from blood loss before you were aware of what was happening.

So, there I was, caught between Kali and Dracula, between exsanguination and enlightenment. What’s a poor Shiva to do? Well, I took a deep breath and decided to hang in there. After all, some years before, I had worked extensively with the Kali energy and dancing with Kali in her most alluring form might be better than a night alone in the jungle dodging vampires. Of course, my previous Kali sadhana was a grounded, well-structured daily practice during which we were Brahmacharya. This was a “puja on fire” at this point, and the Tantric “gasoline” was being poured on.

As the Puja progressed into the wee hours, I noticed successive layers of fear and resistance melting away. My body became light and highly energized. My expectations relaxed, my heart opened. I experienced layer upon layer of ecstasy, building to an almost out of body, highly energized bliss state, resulting finally in a deep serene sense of union, a transpersonal state of awareness beyond the sense of time or place. Bliss rolled over me like a great river, deep and abiding. I was so transformed by this that I wouldn’t go back to the states, just couldn’t bear coming back our culture’s vibration of acquisition and competition, of fear and anger. For the next month I wandered through the jungle, integrating my experience, meditating, practicing Tantric qigong, visiting temples, and sleeping on beaches like some Tantric Dharma bum.

In a sense, Kali is the most assertive personification of the Kundalini energy, the initial agenda of which is to cleanse that which is not pure from the psyche and soma. Fear, pain, anger, judgment, these patterns must be released before spiritual rebirth can occur. For the world in which we currently live, it is best to activate Kundalini gradually while increasing one’s ability to let go of the past fearlessly, to integrate, and to be grounded. So, I would say, be careful with Kali, she might chop off your “death head” and force you to experience timeless Bliss! Don’t try this on your own at home, boys and girls. Be prepared and have teachers who know what they are doing. Copyright 2006, Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

Part2: Indra Jaal, Magic, and Siddhis

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At the Pinnacle of Power is Surrender

In Taoist cosmology, the entire phenomenal world evolves from the interplay of the forces of yin and yang. In both an enlightened society and a healthy individual, these forces are co-equal and in a dynamic state of

Waves of Yin & Yang

balance. Just as a mountain needs the valley, and soft receives hard, impetus needs receptivity to fully empower and balance it. You can’t surf on crests alone, you need a trough to create the wave.

So it is with people. You can’t control your entire life and all of the world. The universe isn’t designed on Yang alone. And it is not wise to turn your power against yourself through resistance. This is an unhealthy effort to suppress, to freeze the flow of yin and yang. In this state you can neither will change nor surrender to it, and it takes the majority of your available energy to engage in this struggle. Attempting to use this stratagem, we eventually become like a pot ready to boil. If we do not remedy this, we are apt to harm ourselves or others through outwardly directed violence, or inwardly directed dis-ease.

“…ultimate freedom is surrender.”
–Vajrama

Many times you have heard that people can’t change. This, of course, is not true. Though it may be statistically unlikely that a person will alter their core programming, people can change. We can evolve. We just don’t want to. More precisely, we are afraid to change our defenses, our ego structure, our perception that it is our resistance that has allowed us to survive. Many of us choose the illusion of safety by erecting a fortress around our most tender parts, denying all access. The promise of joy, freedom, and fulfillment that we have yet to consistently experience is insufficient motivation to let go of the suffering, anxiety, frustration, and defensive / aggressive temperaments that make us feel so safe. Safe because we know these dysfunctions so well. They seem to have allowed us to survive, and we’ll be damned if we let them go. Better to forgo freedom and joy for a hunkered down safety. Look around you, is it not so?

We stop ourselves from surrendering to our spiritual yearning with fear and an unconscious stubbornness. Stubbornness born of our anxiety and belief that we cannot safely Be another way. So we acquiesce to both the protection and prison of our ego and habits. We allow ourselves to remain stuck between resistance and letting go, will and surrender. Between our animal history and our evolutionary future. We enlist our power in resistance, in being scared and stubborn. And a little lazy.

“At the end of our wanderings there is only the soul’s yearning to return to God.”
–Ram Dass

Throughout our lives we have been taught to use our power, our life force, to pursue the material world. We have lusted after romantic love, and for pleasures both gross and refined. At some point, it would behoove ourselves to invest similar vigor in turning our yearning to the care and nurturing of our soul. It takes all our will to journey to the threshold of self-realization. Yet we cannot enter by will alone. We have to surrender.

The mating of spiritual willpower with yearning gives birth to this Divine surrender, this yielding to the Higher Self. True emotional and spiritual freedom is really the purpose of spiritual power and its mate, surrender. Yang begets Yin and, whether directed inward for self-liberation or outward in service to others, power manifests its highest expression in surrender.

Trust. Relax. Let go. Allow yourself to fall into the waiting arms of the Divine © 2008 Keith E. Hall. all rights reserved.

The 3rd Chakra and the Spiritual Purpose of Power Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Another article on the 3rd Chakra:  Sea of Chi

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The Power, The Key, The Gate
The sense of yearning is a coded message that the soul is sending to our ego. Yearning takes on different characteristics depending on one’s state of evolution, one’s level of consciousness. To the individual awakening to higher consciousness, first the physical necessities must be met. Then desire drives us until the social / emotional domain is filled. Yet a yearning remains. It cannot be satiated by any quantity of money or sex, romance or power. We desire to attain these things, yet when we do we eventually remain unsatisfied. This is like a dirty little secret that we can tell no one.

No matter how great our material achievements are, how sexy our trophy spouse is, how much status and power, there always comes a time when we become aware of a gnawing sense that we are not fulfilled. Why are the wealthy so propelled to accrue more than they could use in a hundred lifetimes, whatever the karmic cost? Why are the socially well heeled secretly so miserable and judgmental, and control freaks so driven to manipulate others? Libertines can exhaust themselves in the pursuit of pleasures that are never enough, and career workaholics are forced by the stress of chasing their own misplaced ambitions and aspirations to dig their own graves. And why do the majority of people who marry their soulmates end up having extramarital affairs? What can be missing?

“The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness
that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love-dogs
no one knows the names of.
Give your life
to be one of them.”
– Rumi, “Love Dogs”

Sometimes alone in the wilderness, or sleepless in the wee hours of the morning, with external distractions absent, we can feel a longing for something. A vague feeling that we require something or some state of being that we know not. A longing for something that our basic drives cannot assuage. It might appear as a quiet desperation, or perhaps a personal crisis. For some it can be discerned as a yearning of the spirit so deep, so profound, that it moves one to tears.

In spite of the smiley face we put on for others, we secretly know we are not fulfilled. We suspect there is more to life than this, and we often cannot understand what we are yearning for. Our intellect and the desires of the lower chakras are no help in traversing this pit. Like Eliot’s “hollow men”, we are unable to communicate or express what might fill the secret abyss in our gut and heart. We have tried everything the material and social world has to offer; yet the chasm remains. Exhausting ourselves with work, duty, and diversion, we seek an unknown opiate to dull our aching spirit. Alone in this most secret of times, we long for a caress of compassion from One who understands, for we do not. Are we not like dogs, chained and moaning for Love in the dark night, hoping to be invited to our Master’s bed?

“Resistance is futile.”
–The Borg

Desire cannot be safely suppressed. Resisted and turned inward, those energies can only become twisted and concentrated, becoming dangerous to oneself and others. One Tantric approach to desire is to fill any edacity you have, to appease that domain of your consciousness with whatever it desires, within reason. This is not to be done reflexively, but as a meditation, with full attention on what you are doing, while taking responsibility for both your desire and your actions in filling it. This is a middle path, neither denying what the mind, body, and emotions lust for, nor chasing your desire unconsciously until exhausted.

Over time, one begins to notice that less is more. Being fully attentive and karmically responsible elevates your consciousness. You require less to satiate the hunger of the lower chakras, and the processes of attentiveness and self-responsibility become satisfying to some degree, in and of themselves. This is one of many Tantric techniques for Transmutation, the letting go of old programs, and the recycling of life force trapped in those habits. Tethered less to lower agendas, consciousness begins to yearn for more experience of its higher aspects, to agendas of the heart and soul.

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“Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.”
– Eugene Ionesco

Will and power both help us meet the needs of the lower chakras, and empower us to maintain a spiritual practice. Ten to twenty minutes of practice each day is enough to make progress, if the technique is sufficiently efficacious. When the yearning for evolution, for a relationship with the Divine becomes great enough, and joins with authentic, powerful technique and pure intention, the gateway is revealed.

The Gate of Yearning can physically be felt at the solar plexus, and this is the key. Turn that key with purity of intention and high Taoist Tantric methodology, and admittance to the next evolutionary level is attained. The intellect, with its concepts, ideologies, and philosophies cannot by itself find the Way. Our dreams of unconditional love, of living in gratitude and compassion, of being fulfilled from the tips of our toes to the top of our soul, have a somatic pathway. This dream, this promise, lies slumbering betwixt the belly and heart, dormant in the solar plexus.

Once an aspirant realizes this spiritual desire, only anguish will remain if he or she stubbornly resists. It is one thing to wander through the desert of an unconscious life, being pushed and pulled by the mandates of the material world and whatever subconscious urge or resistance that bubbles up within us. It is quite another to know that the Promised Land exists and to travel part way, only to turn back. When called to Awaken, we are compelled to let go of our old habits and antiquated self-definitions. The time comes when we must surrender our insistence on suffering, the pretense that we don’t know better, and the illusion that we are powerless to change. Only fools turn back from the Gate of the Kingdom. © 2008 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

Part 9: At the Pinnacle of Power is Surrender

The 3rd Chakra and the Spiritual Purpose of Power Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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Romance, Eros, Agape

If material acquisition, pleasure, and power cannot fully sate our most secret yearning what can? Romantic love comes closer to assuaging this questing of the soul. It is of a higher vibrational level than the mere competition for survival, status, and advantage inherent in the money and material chase. Over the millennia, a large percentage of art, music, and literature has owed its genesis to the impetus and ideal of romantic love, its power and desirability goes without saying.

Yet, after going through the trials of attaining this ideal in the form of possessing the desired Other, why does it seem to begin to slowly fade? The biologic explanation has to do with pheromone chemistry, survival, and mating instincts. The psychological explanation involves the various processes of the maturing love relationship, and “healing” of inner childhood “wounding.” One spiritual explanation is that if we do not allow the biological, karmic, and emotional energies of romantic love to be transformed into unconditional love, the energy driving us towards this evolutionary goal is thwarted, staying in the lower chakras. If we are paying attention to our internal emotional state, we might find ourselves eventually experiencing disappointment, frustration, ennui, a mid-life crisis, or general malaise. If ignored and left unaddressed, the thwarted energy may busy itself with lower chakra agendas, where it abides until consciousness or grace allows it another opportunity to be transmuted.

In the newly awakening individual, the karmic or energetic process is that, after the love object has been safely acquired, part of the energy inherent in romantic love begins to transform itself into unconditional love or agape. This is the true evolutionary function of Eros, the linking of the biological with the heart, sexus with agape, separation ultimately leading to communion
Romantic love is a high-energy state of pursuit of the love object. Individuals of both genders have their own unique styles of this dance. Agape, though also a high-energy state, manifests itself a little differently - as surrender. Surrender to the heart, to the other, to Unity, to the Divine. To be in romantic love, the love object must meet numerous requirements, physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral to be attractive. To exist in a state of agape, gratitude, and compassion, no such conditions apply. There is simply the act of Loving.

On a very deep level, this is what our soul yearns for - the giving and receiving of spiritual love. © 2008 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

Part 8: The Power, The Key, The Gate

The 3rd Chakra and the Spiritual Purpose of Power Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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Learning Self Mastery

The Spiritual Function of Yearning

The first three chakras compose a unit; a triad of our animal drives. At this stage in our evolution, it is easy to observe that, as a species, humans are still controlled by these animal motivations. There are certainly many enlightened buddhas, saints, and prophets that have appeared over the millennia, but the vast majority of people are still centered within their animal heritage, though we can see that humans have certainly invented many complex variations of the basic animal instincts. This is why the animal experiments of Skinner can be applied to people. Stripped of our technology and with our rational faculties stressed, most of us still behave much the same way rats would. And, if possible, all too often we use the gift of our higher cortical powers to serve our animal instincts.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t fulfill animal needs as best as we can. Neo-Tantra often glorifies the senses, which are extensions of the body and animal in nature. Certainly, before we can turn our attention to the spirit, our basic needs must be met. This does include the need for pleasure. It is just that we are out of control, using our technology and mental power indiscriminately to sate our animal appetites. We most often do this reflexively, blindly, and with risk to ourselves, others, and the very planet we live on. Still, if one is acutely observant, it can be noticed that however accomplished we are at gratifying our animal natures, a hunger remains.

Beyond what is needed for basic and comfortable survival, the pursuit of material possessions, power, sensuality, and wealth cannot satisfy the desires of our higher consciousness. No amount of money or social status can satiate the spirit’s longing. Inflame the passions of the lower chakras? Perhaps. But liberate the spirit and fulfill the heart’s true desire? Never. Many try at this, all fail. The game of acquisition and dominance does not feed the soul. It can only drive us to conflict, warfare, an ever-faster rate of conspicuous consumption, and the intrigue of political, financial, and technological supremacy. This extends even to the point where we are willing to destroy our selves, individually or collectively, in one way or another. Perhaps this is one expression of Thanatos. Like the mythical rush of the lemmings, we would rather stubbornly fall to our deaths than give up this dance.

So, most people find themselves trapped in this box, the unconscious drives of the first three chakras. Physically this box is described in the lower half of the body. The “lid” of the box is the solar plexus. The life force inherent in both the emotions of pain, fear and anger, and the quests for money, pleasure, and power aspires to connect with the energies of higher consciousness. Yet our vitality seems trapped in this box that we so stubbornly defend, as if it were a great palace instead of the prison that it has become. To begin to join with higher consciousness in the body, life force must literally push off the lid of this box, and physically ascend through the solar plexus. It yearns powerfully to be allowed to do so.© 2008 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

Part 7: Romance, Eros, Agape

The 3rd Chakra and the Spiritual Purpose of Power Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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