Heat
40 degrees celzius makes one wonder how the infirm are doing… Since there is a Z2 related to kundalini and “riding the dragon” (see intro at Julian's blog), I thought I'd write a little note on energy and intensity in their three main aspects: heat, effulgence, and luminosity.
In spiritual practice, we're encouraged to aspire to “inner heat” that cleanses and strenghtens. In Indian traditions we find “tapas”, in Japanese - “netsu”. Heat is intensity, and intensity generates incandescence, glow or luminosity (tejas). Intensity is a result of unconstrained experiential flow due to removal of karmic obstructions. The beginning experience of intensity - if not spontaneous - is a product of intense practice, arising from devotion (bhakti) and vigour (virya). Many beginners with strong faith may experience some intensity soon after they begin formal practice. Intensity is usually preceded by profound calm, and then a sense of quickening, but may also arise directly in meditation or dream or visionary immersion. Reality appears in its immediacy, without anything separating subject, object and environment, without otherness: in some way, the entire sense of being is unified in utter simplicity, the undivided totality of the present moment. There are many aspects, stages and nuances of intensity.
Some context. Traditionally, the heat is one of key features of spiritual discipline, especially in austerities, but heat is generated in every form of intense practice. In the Mahayana tradition, serious practice of bodhisattva-yoga begins with trust (shraddha) and heat (ushmagata), defined a bit differently in every school. Vajrayana calls it “candali”, or “tummo” as in six yogas of Naropa with their exquisite prana, nadi, and bindu. In Indian yoga traditions, heat and energy is found as “shakti” and “kundalini”, where distinction is made as to prana-kundalini (the energy that moves the physical body), cit-kundalini (psychic energy), and para-kundalini (also known as samashti, the universal energy). These three have there non-local “seats” in root, heart, and forehead chakras. In the Japanese tradition we similarly find three “tandens”, fields or spheres, that can be viewed as three seats of energy: lower abdomen, chest/heart, and forehead. The Buddhist esoteric tradition guides the heat through four chakras: from nirmana-chakra in abdomen through dharma-chakra at heart and sambhoga-chakra at throat to sahasrara-chakra at crown, where the highest bliss (mahasukha) is generated by merging the two aspects of bodhicitta, emptiness (shunyata) and love (karuna).
The heat of the body, the effulgence of the heart, and the luminosity of awareness - these are the three aspects of intensity to be encountered in longterm disciplined practice. Depending on individual conditioning, profile of practices and qualities of specific lineage/tradition, these three aspects may reveal themselves separately or sequentially or simultaneously. The three (heat/effulgence/luminosity) correspond to nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya and dharmakaya. Naturally, each of them may be transmitted as a form of healing, grace and initiation, depending on a variety of factors. Finally, any given experience of heat and effulgence and luminosity does not imply an understanding of their nature or their effect on self and others. This understanding is the function of twofold wisdom.
In spiritual practice, we're encouraged to aspire to “inner heat” that cleanses and strenghtens. In Indian traditions we find “tapas”, in Japanese - “netsu”. Heat is intensity, and intensity generates incandescence, glow or luminosity (tejas). Intensity is a result of unconstrained experiential flow due to removal of karmic obstructions. The beginning experience of intensity - if not spontaneous - is a product of intense practice, arising from devotion (bhakti) and vigour (virya). Many beginners with strong faith may experience some intensity soon after they begin formal practice. Intensity is usually preceded by profound calm, and then a sense of quickening, but may also arise directly in meditation or dream or visionary immersion. Reality appears in its immediacy, without anything separating subject, object and environment, without otherness: in some way, the entire sense of being is unified in utter simplicity, the undivided totality of the present moment. There are many aspects, stages and nuances of intensity.
Some context. Traditionally, the heat is one of key features of spiritual discipline, especially in austerities, but heat is generated in every form of intense practice. In the Mahayana tradition, serious practice of bodhisattva-yoga begins with trust (shraddha) and heat (ushmagata), defined a bit differently in every school. Vajrayana calls it “candali”, or “tummo” as in six yogas of Naropa with their exquisite prana, nadi, and bindu. In Indian yoga traditions, heat and energy is found as “shakti” and “kundalini”, where distinction is made as to prana-kundalini (the energy that moves the physical body), cit-kundalini (psychic energy), and para-kundalini (also known as samashti, the universal energy). These three have there non-local “seats” in root, heart, and forehead chakras. In the Japanese tradition we similarly find three “tandens”, fields or spheres, that can be viewed as three seats of energy: lower abdomen, chest/heart, and forehead. The Buddhist esoteric tradition guides the heat through four chakras: from nirmana-chakra in abdomen through dharma-chakra at heart and sambhoga-chakra at throat to sahasrara-chakra at crown, where the highest bliss (mahasukha) is generated by merging the two aspects of bodhicitta, emptiness (shunyata) and love (karuna).
The heat of the body, the effulgence of the heart, and the luminosity of awareness - these are the three aspects of intensity to be encountered in longterm disciplined practice. Depending on individual conditioning, profile of practices and qualities of specific lineage/tradition, these three aspects may reveal themselves separately or sequentially or simultaneously. The three (heat/effulgence/luminosity) correspond to nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya and dharmakaya. Naturally, each of them may be transmitted as a form of healing, grace and initiation, depending on a variety of factors. Finally, any given experience of heat and effulgence and luminosity does not imply an understanding of their nature or their effect on self and others. This understanding is the function of twofold wisdom.
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