Inner & Outer Evolution

Meditation is mind management. It is remembering who we are and observing the

relationship with the mind and its activities and finding a way to manage and

integrate that. – Swami Shankardevananda Saraswati

We are beginning to understand that evolution is an integral phenomenon.  It is not just a biological process, but also an evolution of society, technology, thought and awareness.  Biological evolution has given us these body/mind vehicles through which we, as beings of consciousness experience life.  Due to the capacities of our brains we have further developed increasingly complex social structures, as well as, medical, social, information, entertainment and military technologies. 

Do you remember the dark ages before the internet, cell phones, military drones?  It is amazing how the rate of change in our world has accelerated in recent times.  These technological developments have both positive and negative impacts.  Surgical procedures are improving constantly improving our quality of life.  On the other hand more and more children are developing health problems related to a sedentary lifestyle where they sit for hours playing video games.  Agricultural science has sought to find new ways to feed our expanding species population but has also has detrimental effects on our health through the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, genetically-modified plants, etc.  Our technological progress over the last century has left us with serious consequences in terms of pollution, overpopulation, resources depletion, and the threat of nuclear destruction.  There is hope however that we can learn from and correct these imbalances as we continue to evolve both in terms of increased technological sophistication and inwardly in terms of spiritual or consciousness evolution. http://youtu.be/BltRufe5kkI

Consciousness evolution is about expanding our awareness and our sense of self beginning from our ego-centric survival concerns.  As consciousness develops it moves through stages from ego-centric to universe-centric.  As Peter Merry writes, “Each emerging stage – from ego-centric to ethno-centric to world-centric to universe-centric – transcends and includes the previous ones, thus widening its awareness and embrace, identifying with ever more of the universe, and therefore able to feel compassion for an ever expanding circle of life.” (2009, Evolutionary Leadership)  It is through this evolution of consciousness that we will be able to survive on this planet. 

On the surface we believe ourselves to be individual selves out to achieve our own needs and desires, on a deeper level we are all interconnected, not just with one another but with the planet and the universe as a whole.  As Albert Einstein famously put it, “A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Does our technology help us to expand consciousness?  If we are fixated on media consumption, it is apparent that it does not.  Instead it keeps us locked in narrow concerns, fears and an obsessive need for electronic stimulation.  On the other hand we see some of the social media helping to promote cross-cultural friendships and familiarity.  People often complain about the low level of commentary on Facebook, however, I am continually in contact with friends who are maintaining positive attitudes, posting relevant information and concerned with spirituality.  Our inner consciousness determines how and why we use our technology.  Do we use it, or do we let it distract and manipulate us?

Yoga meditation is an inner technology.  It is a means of becoming aware of our own unconscious mental constructs and seeing beyond them.  Ultimately it is a means of going beyond thought into stillness and silence where we are attuned to the infinite.  It enables us to engage with the evolutionary energy of the universe, called kundalini within the yoga tradition.  By awakening to this energy within us we can accelerate our own consciousness evolution.  It seems crucial that we utilize inner technologies along with the development of outer. 

In Tantric terms the energy of evolution within the universe is called Shakti and is seen as the Divine Feminine aspect of creation.  The deep universal consciousness is known as Shiva, the Divine Masculine.  Evolution proceeds harmoniously when these two are in balance, when the outer corresponds to the inner.  The whole process of evolution is the reunification of consciousness and energy, Shiva and Shakti.  This is the process of awakening and liberation.  God lives in and through us.  We are the universal process of evolution.  

What is Kundalini?

All Sadhanas in the form of Japa, meditation, Kirtan and prayer as well as all development of virtues, and observance of austerities like truth, non-violence and continence are at best calculated only to awaken this serpent-power and make it to pass through all the succeeding Chakras beginning from Svadhishthana to Sahasrara, the latter otherwise called as the thousand-petalled lotus, the seat of Sadasiva or the Absolute separated from whom the Kundalini or the Shakti lies at the Muladhara, and to unite with whom the Kundalini passes through all the Chakras, as explained above, conferring liberation on the aspirant who assiduously practices Yoga or the technique of uniting her with her Lord and gets success also in his effort.

– Swami Sivananda Saraswati

Among those of us who are involved in yoga practice the concept of kundalini may be very familiar, so familiar, in fact that we rarely pause to consider what it is we mean by this term.  On the other hand, some readers might be new to the term and wondering what we are talking about, sometimes I wonder if anyone knows.  Some of us have had a certain experience of this energy but still it remains mysterious.  Kundalini is intricately related to the mystery of consciousness it seems; a mystery which challenges scientific categorization.

Recently a friend noticed my body shaking at points during meditation practice.  I assured her, “It’s just kundalini.”  In one sense this is sufficient – it is enough to know that these symptoms are normal.  At the same time we don’t have any precise understanding as to what this is all about.  My particular symptoms may seem insignificant, but what we are really talking about is the evolutionary potential itself.  We are particular aspects of an unfolding process which started 13.7 billion years ago according to the most recent calculations.  In fact, we are the advancing edge of this process, as far as we know on this planet.

Kundalini challenges us to extend our thinking beyond the ordinary categories of mind/matter, consciousness/energy, emptiness/form.  According to Tantric science, we are more than our bodies, more than our rational ego-minds.  We are vehicles of the unfolding energy of a universal consciousness.  We are microcosmic aspects of a macrocosmic process and potential.  The universal process of evolution is happening in and through us.  At the same time we have the choice to temporarily resist this process, to hide in our static world-models and cling to the past.

I think one of our biggest problems is the tendency to reduce kundalini to some kind of measurable something; in other words, an attempt at spiritual materialism.  According to the tradition this energetic potential resides within the causal domain.  The causal domain, or anandamaya kosha, is a proto-material, proto-mental dimension of reality.  It manifests itself within our material and mental realities but it originates beyond both.  Kundalini is at the core of our beings as conscious entities. 

The causal domain relates to what physicist David Bohm called the “implicate order.”  He created this term to describe a hidden order of reality from which our apparent reality “explicates.”  It is a unseen order of being.  The kundalini tradition assures us that we are intimately connected with this deeper dimension.  In fact we are vehicles through which it is expressed.  This not a predetermined, mechanical process however, the way that it is expressed is up to each of us as individuals.  It is not a predetermined but a stochastic, or interactive process.

In Kundalini Tantra, Swami Satyananda Saraswati states, “All life is evolving and man is no exception. Human evolution, the evolution which we are undergoing relentlessly, both as individuals and as a race, is a journey through the different chakras.”  We tend to think of the chakras as kinds of invisible organs inside our bodies.  Instead we might think of them as quantum fields of potential which are both actualized and waiting to be actualized.  We and our worlds of experience are held within our chakras as well.  Swami Satyananda states, “As we evolve towards sahasrara, outer experiences come our way in life, and inner experiences come to us in meditation, as different capacities and centers awaken progressively within the nervous system. This occurs as energy flows at higher voltages and rates of vibration through the different nadis in the psychic body.” 

We can say that everything we experience is an aspect of our state and level of consciousness, and that state and level is based on the chakra in which kundalini is activated.  The inner and outer dimensions of our experience are correlated.  This is an essential feature of integral theory as formulated by Ken Wilber.  As consciousness evolves through the agency of kundalini our outer world of experience evolves accordingly. 

We cannot divorce kundalini from any and all spiritual practices.  Whether we are practicing prayer and meditation, ecstatic song and dance, dedicated works, compassionate intent, or kriya yoga; everything is both a means of awakening and an expression of where we’re at.  Within the Christian tradition kundalini has been equated with the Holy Spirit, albeit controversially.  However, the comparison is valid.  Kundalini, like the Holy Spirit, can come to us with intuitive wisdom and guidance and open us to new fields of perception through our prayer and devotion to God. 

    Ultimately, there is no resisting the force of universal evolution.  Some writers have equated the chakras with the various levels of developmental psychology.  To some extant this seems to be valid.  One writer associated the chakras with the Ericksonian stages of psychological development.  Ordinary development however seems to represent micro-stages within the first three chakras.  The kundalini tradition tells us that we have untapped and unsuspected potentials within us.  We are capable of siddhis, i.e. psychic superpowers.  Before we awaken these though, we need to discover our own deepest humanity; our innate wisdom and compassion.  Without them we have no future.

Love, Attachment & Nonattachment

Yoga says no to detachment. Do not avoid situations in life or even in yourself, but learn to accept the existence of the things that are around you. Once you have accepted them and know their nature, then it is possible to become non-attached. The word 'non-attachment' does not really exist in English, but it exists in Sanskrit in the form of vairagya, meaning to to be free from attachment, without rejecting anything. It represents a state of mind that is continuously observing the nature of events and is unaffected. Non-attachment can easily be developed provided we can expand our awareness to see the reality behind things.

-    Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1999/fnov99/anda.shtml

Nonattachment, or vairagya, is an essential aspect of yoga practice however few of us in the West really get it.  When I talk about it with classes it often sparks a reaction – anxious questions and debate.  I think this is partly due to our lack of understanding of the term but also the depth of our unconscious attachment.  On one hand people often feel that nonattachment equals detachment; a cold, unfeeling approach to life.  On the other, here in our consumer society we feel our very identity is threatened by the idea of nonattachment.

 This is partly true.  From the Yogic perspective our sense of “I” or ego is connected to the twin snares of attachment and aversion.  The yogi cultivates nonattachment as a means of diminishing the ego.  It is a means of switching our allegiance from the unreal to the real.  In order to evolve as spiritual beings we need to expand consciousness beyond our self-centered perspectives.

The question has come up as to whether there is something “wrong” with the attachment a parent feels for her child.  The attachment bond between child and caregiver (okay, mother) is essential to the wellbeing of a child and the failure of this bond can affect the rest of his or her life.  There is certainly nothing wrong with this.  We are so prone to feel guilty about our natural needs and desires sometimes that we completely misinterpret these instructions.

What happens, however, when the mother or child clings to the other beyond the appropriate developmental stages?  Then development can be impeded, conflicts arise and deep emotional disturbance can result.  Children need to “leave the nest” at some point and we as parents need to let go.  It is not that we don’t love them but we don’t cling to old form of the relationship.  Nonattachment means understanding that nothing in this world is permanent.  We have to know when to go with the flow.

As adults we develop various attachment relationships.  We all want to have others in our lives that we trust and feel secure with.  True psychological health requires that we develop our own sense of inner security.  Without it we are not able to have truly healthy adult relationships.  In this sense relationship issues offer us a mirror into our own unconscious fears and desires.  Spiritual growth requires that we can experience, tolerate and learn to love solitude as well.

It can be difficult at times to distinguish between love and attachment in our adult relationships.  When we confuse one for the other, though, the relationships can become stagnant and hinder the higher stages of adult development.  In The Path to Love, Deepak Chopra offers three comparisons which can help us to distinguish love and attachment:

“Love allows your beloved the freedom to be unlike you.  Attachment asks for conformity to your needs and desires.

Love imposes no demands.  Attachment expresses an overwhelming demand – “Make me feel whole.”

Love expands beyond the limits of two people.  Attachment tries to exclude everything but two people.”

Love in this sense might be much more of an ideal than a reality in our lives.  The spiritual path requires that we learn to see ourselves somewhat objectively – honestly and fearless, but with compassion at the same time.  It is a process of growth not of self judgment and condemnation.  This in fact is the essence of true vairagya.

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali defines two stages of vairagya.  The lower stage is defined as freedom from the craving for sense objects.  It is an inner state of equanimity – again something that we in the West rarely experience.  The higher stage of vairagya develops when attachment has been transferred completely from the outer world to Spirit.  When we are truly awake spiritually there is no inclination to become attached to anything and unconditional Love flows spontaneously in all directions.

Inner Peace

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.

-    H. H. The Dalai Lama

We all long for peace.  Even the most violent among us are simply acting out inner pain and seeking relief, however so unknowingly.  On the deepest level we are all seeking to return to our Source, to unity, to love.  On the surface, however, it may not seem like this at all.  The bottom line, though, is that we all want to love and be loved. 

As we look at the world through our senses, through the electronic media and through the filters of our own mental conditioning, we might get a different picture. Violent crime is the substance of the nightly news.  It might be hard to realize but all that we see “out there” in the world is really a projection of what is inside of us.  Please pause and take a breath before you react to this.  That is a start.  When we start to take responsibility for our own consciousness, we can start to change the world.

In A Gift of Change Marianne Williamson writes, “Who we ourselves become, how we grow and change and face the challenges of our own lives, is intimately and causally connected to how the world will change over the next few years.  For the world is a projection of our individual psyches, collected on a global screen; it is hurt or healed by every thought we think.”  When we buy into a belief system, or BS, based in fear, separation, jealousy, greed, lust, etc. we separate ourselves from our true selves, from love.

I used to enjoy attending meditation retreats with Chagdud Tulku Rimpoche, a teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.  He would often reiterate that we have to change inwardly before we can fix the world.  He would say that trying to develop peace in the world, before looking into yourself, is like looking into a mirror and trying to wipe the dirt off your face by wiping the mirror.  Sometimes we end up in a state where we think that if everybody else would just change things would get better.  I’ve been there – over and over.  Change, however, begins within each of us.

Meditation is the key to inner transformation, the key to inner peace.  Peace, joy and love are our own true nature.  When we can relinquish all of our BS and rest in our own Self-nature we have found a way beyond pain and suffering.  We have found a way out of our BS.