Hi Bruno
Thank you for your reponse. It is very interesting to me.
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Originally posted by brunoloff
I hesitate in doing any specific exercise for grounding. It sometimes feels that if I'm too grounded, if there is too much silence, then tension will start to very quickly and globally dissolve into the silence, and release energy as it does so. And I really would like dissolution to slow down, rather than accelerate.
I know what you mean about having too much silence. Usually later in the evening, as the metabolism slows and things become more relaxed, that is the time that kundalini becomes more active. Many nights I've layed down in bed and my third eye becomes a magnetic hole, the light above my head becomes brighter and kundalini starts her "coming out to play" dance.
Today I did two strict AYP style sessions of spinal breathing and "AYAM" meditation with perfect posture. Towards the end of each session the ecstatic conductiviy was nearly overwhelming. (I think I might have overdone it a bit as right now my hands and face are hot and my perineum and lower tan tien are throbbing and tense with ecstatic energy.)
In Manigma's suggestion about grounding, I believe he is referring to the aspect of draining excess energy buildup in the body by touching the head on the ground. I wouldn't call that an 'exercise' like pushups or jogging are exercises though.. It is more like a practice. But I do agree, it seems that the more exercise a person gets when their kundalini is active, the more kundalini becomes active. Mind you, walking is a good grounding exercise because there is little exertion. I think the level of exertion is proportional to kundalini activity: high exertion results in high kundalini activity later.
Other methods of grounding the kundalini are "Eating heavy foods", having sex (although I've read that during kundalini rising sex might produce an immense drain on the body from which it might take a few days to recover), and for me, taking a hot bath helps alot.
I think it is up to you to experiment and see what works for you.
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In August 09 I went to a Goenka 10-day vipassana meditation retreat.
I think full body awareness is one of the most powerful techniques and it is no surprise to me that you participated in a Goenka retreat. I myself discovered that a similar technique of just sitting, relaxing deeply and sensing the inner body (ala Tolle) causes my kundalini to become overactive, sometimes with eruptions lasting more than four hours at a time.
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(By the way I highly recommend Daniel's book; it is a very pragmatical book on meditation and progress according to the Theravada tradition, and it will give you an idea of how different practice was before the last two turnings of the wheel of dharma, when Tantra was integrated with Buddhism. Among other things you will find that Theravada considers that alternating cycles of overload and crash are a necessary part of meditative progress.)
Yes, I have Daniel Ingram's book. Thank you for pointing that out. It is freely available on the web at this link:
http://www.interactivebuddha.com/mctb.shtmlI've also found a good site which lists the levels of attainment. It was intriguing to learn that if one just sits and impartialy observes one's inner state that a person naturally cycles through the various
levels. It was also very nice to know that once a person achieves a certain level, they can go directly to that level. (There is so much to learn, or rather, there is so much to forget)
Here is a chart:
http://kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/page/20+Major+Strata+of+Mindquote:
At that time I did some Qigong two times a week, which settled down energy somewhat. I've also learned about the microcosmic orbit, which I set out to open believing this would bring balance. I guess it did, I mean, energy stopped being violent and became pleasurable and erotic. But too much ecstasy, as people in this forum have already pointed out, can be quite a hurdle.
This is very interesting. There is an on-going debate between Taoists with the micro cosmic orbit and the hindu yogis who take the kundalini up the spine but never back down. It is interesting to note that bringing the kundalini down the front channel smoothed out the violent aspect of the current for you.. Now that I think of it, I wonder if, as in the practice of spinal breathing (Kriya Yoga), the aspect of bringing the attention back down the spine instead of down the front channel helps to balance the kundalini erruptions. I have heard that reversing the MC orbit is supposed to cool things down. So perhaps the yogis are gaining experience in controlling bi-directional flows.
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The worst aspect is that I've realized, in my retreat, that the conclusion of the process will be (or at least include) a moment-to-moment acceptance with all the common and even banal aspects of life. I've come back from my retreat with great enthusiasm for living the phenomenal aspect of life, you know, being with people, music, cinema, nature, doing my job, etc. But if ecstasy is too high, then music and cinema are way too intense, and it takes up most of my attention, preventing me from doing things such as reading and studying (I'm a phd student). So I'm left with walks in the park, which are fun, but a bit limited. I'm also finding out that manual work is very grounding.
Bummer
I know what you mean. At first I thought it was very nice to have extended periods of orgasmic sensations pulsing through my system but I soon got tired of it. Yes, not only is it distracting and very hard to ignore, but it gives me the feeling that I'm not really in control. The result has been to make me want to self pace and stay away from anything that makes my perineum start to throb (like the approach of deep silence, too much 'sensing the inner body' or trying to merge into the light during meditations). And then, if all is quiet for a few days, I seem to forget the agony of it all and start to crave the sensations again. Then, I end up overdoing it. I can always tell when I've overdone it after lying in bed at the end of the day for a few minutes because that's when kundalini will come out to play. Sometimes it is so bad that I have to describe it as "crawling the walls".
So, if it helps, I have a good idea of what you are going through, as do many others on this site.
Thank you again for your correspondence. I appreciate it.
Best of luck.
TI