Atrophied from non-activity, swallowed in the quicksand of neglect, compressed under layers of tension, the soul becomes a fossil imprisoned in time. 

Regardless of where we begin our spiritual journey, or how easy or arduous it is, the great masters of the past tell us there is a common progression that takes place. Scripture provides a sophisticated understanding of the transformation we undergo, as we move from being buried under our tensions to abiding in the highest Consciousness and coming to know ourselves as God.

In nondual Tantric tradition, the upāyas describe this path of walking back into God’s heart. The journey begins the moment God says, I am you. This is an act of God’s grace, or what tradition calls śaktipata.

To support the unfolding of that grace, we meditate regularly and make conscious choices as we move through our lives. In addition, our practice includes śakti transmission, in which there is a simultaneous conveyance of both śakti (energy) and Consciousness. ...

Kuṇḍalinī, the Goddess who is known in three aspects as Parā, Parāparā, and Aparā, embodies the powers that express God’s awareness. Those five powers of the Divine are Consciousness, bliss, will, knowledge, and action. All energy and form stems from some combination of those powers.

The field of Consciousness is one of infinite, pure, unbounded awareness, and the overflowing of Its own blissful nectar is both the genesis and the expression of divine joy. Everything in life — the birds, the bees, you, the cosmos — is the manifestation of the joy of Consciousness, and Śiva knows Himself as all things. Through His own knowledge of Himself, the joy of that knowledge, and the action that emerges from that knowledge, Śiva expresses all of existence. The Goddess, as the trifold power of God, is that combined dynamic. She is three and yet She is not different from or separate from the One.

These Energies Manifest as Us

The suṣumṇa, iḍā, and piṅgala are the three primary nāḍīs, or channels,...

There are four dimensions of the central channel, each nested inside the other like a telescoping antenna. The outer sheath is the Suṣumṇa Nāḍī (the grossest channel, which goes from the base of the spine to the ajna cakra), next is the Vajra Nāḍī (from the base of the spine to the center of the head), then the Citriṇī Nāḍī (from the base of the spine to the crown). These three are all pathways for Śakti, or energy. The fourth and subtlest dimension is the Brahmanāḍī, which I call the Divine Thread.          

The Divine Thread is the rising light of pure Consciousness. It expresses Itself as the Citriṇī, Vajra, and the Suṣumṇa, as well as the Iḍā and the Piṅgala (the nāḍīs that are our mental, emotional, and physical self). The Brahmanāḍī extends to the space approximately twelve fingers above the head, to a space called dvādaśānta. This is the abode of Parā, the dwelling place of the powers of Consciousness that are will, knowledge, and action. Those powers express everything in crea...

Don’t misunderstand — freeing yourself from all of your tensions, stories, and projections is just the prerequisite for freeing yourself from the experience of separation. Freeing yourself of those only frees you from your ego. Surrendering from that place frees us from our misunderstanding of being separate from God.

Every discussion about sādhana can be boiled down to this question: Are you open or are you closed? We are either living in freedom or in the bondage and contraction that is ego — the part of us that fights to maintain an individual identity separate from God. Both freedom and bondage exist with us, and the aspect we feed with our attention is what will grow.

The purpose of sādhana is to free ourselves from egoic tension and contracted awareness so that we may gain the freedom and clarity of knowing who we really are. This perpetual tension is reinforced by the stories and projections we live in, because that is where we put our energy. It’s extraordinary how much of o...

Kuṇḍalinī is the volcanic flow of śakti that burns away all obscurity as She erupts into the central channel and our awareness. 

I often say that devotion is the full measure of surrender and in the practice of Kuṇḍalinī Sādhana, we discover that this means allowing the powerful force of śakti within us to do its work.

We can describe that energy in many ways, but in the context of Kuṇḍalinī Sādhana we are talking about Śiva’s Śakti — about the energy through which Pure Consciousness expresses and manifests Its primal urge, which is the expansion of fullness, freedom, and joy. All form arises and subsides on the field Consciousness, and this happens without Śiva losing any sense of Oneness. Manifestation comes into existence through Kuṇḍalinī Śakti, and in the nondual Trika tradition She is known as the Goddess Parā. Her primary attributes are that She is the power of will, knowledge, and action, the energies that Śiva uses to express His innate joy into form, into manifestation.

Wh...

If Consciousness and energy are present everywhere, how do we connect to them? Are they located somewhere we can feel them?

Consciousness, in its broadest sense, has no locality, because it is present everywhere, and yet we can experience it in a location. We can touch it in our heart, in our mind, and even in our toes and in the world around us.

Energy is the power of Consciousness. The two are never separate, but it is through energy (śakti) that divine Consciousness manifests everything in creation. Pure Consciousness, through Its own autonomous power of śakti, expresses all of life — including our own — on the field of Its own Oneness. And yet, except for the rare person, the capacity to recognize that omnipresent field of Consciousness is not apparent. Although I do give practices that guide students to directly becoming aware of awareness, the secret of Tantric practices is that śakti is the pathway back to its source, which is Consciousness.

How can you see the unseen? How ca...

Letting go of identity is one of the fundamental aspects of spiritual growth. In our practice, we can view the progression of that transformation in relationship to penetrating deeper and deeper into the levels of the suṣumṇa. So let’s begin by exploring those dimensions of the suṣumṇa in order to understand how accessing them would affect our sense of identity.

There are four dimensions of that central channel. You can think of them as being like a telescoping antenna, one dimension/extension with the next. What most people call the suṣumṇa is actually the outermost channel that goes from the base of the spine to the center of the eyebrows — to the ājñā cakra. Cakras are located at the points where the energy channels known as the iḍā and piṅgala cross the suṣumṇa. Although we often say that there are “seven cakras,” there are in reality only six, as the crossing of those major channels stops at the ājñā cakra.

Looking deeper within, the next, more subtle dimension of the suṣumṇa, k...

The Self is the dearest of all things, and only through the Self is anything else dear. The Self is the origin of all finite happiness, but it is itself pure bliss, transcending definition. It remains unaffected by deeds, good or bad. It is beyond feeling and beyond knowledge, but it is not beyond the meditation of the sage. —Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad

All great traditions tell us that our true nature is that of the divine Self, whose nature is unconditional bliss—yet the presence of this eternal bliss is meaningless unless we consciously make contact with it. If bliss is ever-present within us but we don’t experience it, then it’s up to us to uncover that level of consciousness. To do so we have to let go of whatever is preventing us from feeling and sustaining bliss in our lives.

It’s really a matter of picking up the phone and calling that place in ourselves, rather than choosing not to and therefore perpetuating some other, more limited experience. Making this choice requires a tr...

Holokautoma is a Greek word that means “whole burnt offering,” with the further explanation, “consumed on the altar of dedication to God.” Hercules is generally remembered for his feats of strength, which were actually feats of service. Hercules was a vira, a spiritual warrior whose death was regarded as a perfect one by the Greek gods. He had fully manifested both his mortal and divine nature during his lifetime on earth, and thus, at the end of his life, he himself ended up being the offering into the fire sacrifice on the top of the mountain. In this sense, he was a wholly burnt offering, consumed on the altar of dedication to God.

Intention Put Into Action

The essence of our intention to live in freedom is the offering of ourselves unconditionally to God in both thought and action. We may feel a beautiful desire to serve, and yet the pressures of life may seem to be in conflict with that, or at least have the capacity to derail our commitment to service. It is our willingness and...

Śaktipāta is the descent of grace that comes directly from the Divine. We experience it as an awakening of the desire to know our true Self, which leads us to seek a teacher who can provide the energy necessary to allow that initial opening to further unfold. So what exactly is the role of śakti transmission in a student’s sādhana?

To answer that question, let’s take a step back and look at the structure of Consciousness to see how we come into existence. Ultimately, we are nothing other than the manifestation of Pure Consciousness as it expresses itself in individuated form, which is called kuṇḍalinī śakti. The purpose of that expression is simply the overflowing of the joy of God’s own being, the celebration of the power of Consciousness to express itself in the universe, in form, in individuation. Kuṇḍalinī is literally the individuation of that supreme cosmic force, the power of Consciousness.

Kuṇḍalinī is understood to have three fundamental dimensions: prāṇa kuṇḍalinī, the ener...