Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy , Chapter #6 , title: Kundalini : The Awakening of the Life Force : osho

So it is good not to talk about kundalini and chakras. Only meditation

is to be taught and to be listened to and to be understood. Then, 

everything else will just follow.

Kundalini is not itself a life force. Rather, it is a particular passage for 

the life force, a way. But the life force can take other ways also, so it

is not necessary to pass through kundalini. It is possible that one may

reach enlightenment without passing through kundalini -- but 

kundalini is the easiest passage, the shortest one.

If the life force passes through kundalini, then the brahma randhra 

will be the terminal point. But if the life force takes another route --

and infinite routes are possible -- then the brahma randhra will not be

the terminus. So the flowering of the brahma randhra is only a 

possibility,a potentiality, if the life force passes through kundalini.

There are yogas that will not even mention kundalini; then there is

nothing like the brahma randhra. But this is the easiest route, so

ordinarily ninety percent of the persons who realize pass through 

kundalini.

Kundalini and the chakras are not located in the physical body. They 

belong to the etheric body, but they have corresponding points within

the physical body. It is like when you feel love and you put your hand

on your heart. Nothing like "love" is there, but your heart, your 

physical heart, is a corresponding point. When you put your hand on

your heart, you are putting your hand at the chakra that belongs to

the etheric body, and this point is approximately parallel to your 

physical heart.Kundalini is part of the etheric body, so whatever you

achieve as progress on the path of kundalini does not die with your 

physical body; it goes with you. Whatever is achieved will remain with

you because it is not a part of your physical body. If it were a part of 

your physical body, then with each death it would be lost and you 

would have to begin from the very beginning. But if someone reaches

the third chakra, this progress will remain with him in his next life. It 

will go with him; it is stored in the etheric body.

When I say that the life energy goes through kundalini, I mean 

kundalini as a passage -- the whole passage connecting the seven 

chakras. These chakras are not in the physical body, so everything 

that can be said about kundalini is being said about the etheric body.

When the life force passes through kundalini, the chakras will begin to 

vibrate and flower. The moment energy comes to them, they become 

alive. It is just like when hydro-electricity is created; the force and 

pressure of the water rotate the dynamo. If there were no pressure 

and no water, the dynamo would stop; it would not work. The dynamo

rotates because of the pressure. In the same way, the chakras are 

there, but they are dead until the moment the life force penetrates 

them; only then do they begin to rotate.

That is why they are called chakras. "Chakra" is not exactly translated

by the word center, because center means something static and 

chakra means something moving. So the right translation would be 

wheel, not center; or, a dynamic center, or a rotating center, a

moving center.

Chakras are centers until the life force comes to them. The moment 

the life force comes to them, they begin to be chakras. Now they are 

not centers, they are wheels, rotating. And each wheel, by rotating, 

creates a new sort of energy. This energy is used again to rotate 

further chakras. So as the life force passes through each chakra, it 

becomes more vital, more alive.

Kundalini is the passage through which the life force moves. The life 

force is located in the sex center, stored in the sex center, the 

muladhar. It can be used as sex energy; then it generates a particular

life, a biological life. Then too it creates movements, then too it 

creates more energy; but this is biological. If this same energy moves 

upward, the passage of kundalini is opened.

The sex center, the muladhar, is the first to open. It can open either 

toward biological generation or it can open toward spiritual generation.

The muladhar has two openings, a lower one and an upper one. In 

the passage of kundalini, the highest center is the sahasrar, of which

the brahma randhra is the middle point. The opening of the brahma

randhra is one way toward self realization.

Other ways are also possible in which the passage of kundalini is not 

used, but they are more arduous. In these other methods there is no 

question of kundalini, then there is no movement through this 

passage. There are Hindu methods: raja yoga, mantra yoga, and all 

the many techniques of tantra. There are Christian methods, Buddhist

methods, zen methods, taoist methods. They are not concerned with 

kundalini awakening; that passage is not used. They use other 

passages, passages that do not even belong to the etheric body. Astral

passages can be used. The astral body, the third body, has its own 

passage. The mental body, the fourth body, has its own passage. All 

of the seven bodies have their own passages.

There are many yogas that have nothing to do with kundalini. Only

hatha yoga uses kundalini as a passage. But it is the most scientific 

and the least difficult. It is an easier step-by-step method for gradual 

awakening than the other yogas.

Even if the kundalini passage is not used, there are sometimes sudden

awakenings of the kundalini. Sometimes things happen that are 

beyond your capacity, sometimes things happen that you cannot

conceive; then you are completely shattered. Other passages have

their own preparations. Tantric or occult methods are not kundalini

yoga. Kundalini yoga is only one of so many methods, but it is better 

to be concerned with just one.

The Dynamic Meditation method that I am using is concerned with

kundalini. It is easier to work with kundalini because it is the second 

body that you are concerned with. The more deeply you go --

with the third or the fourth body -- the more difficult it becomes. The

second body is the nearest one to your physical body, and there are

corresponding points in your physical body, so it is easier.

If you work with the third body, the corresponding points are in the 

second body. If you work with the fourth, the corresponding points 

are in the third. Then your physical body is not concerned; you cannot

feel anything at all in your physical body. But with kundalini you can 

feel each step accurately, and you know where you are. Then you are

more confident. With the other methods you will have to learn 

techniques that will help you to feel the corresponding points in the

second body or in the third body, and that takes its own time.

The other methods will deny kundalini, but their denial is not correct;

they deny it because they are not concerned with it. Kundalini has its 

own methodology; if you are working with a zen method, you should

not be concerned with kundalini.

But sometimes, even in working with another method, kundalini 

comes, because the seven bodies penetrate one another; they are 

interlinked. So if you are working with the astral body, the third body

, the second body may begin to work. It may get a spark from the 

third.The opposite is not possible. If you are working with the second

body, the third body will not get ignited because the second is lower

than the third. But if you are working with the third, you are creating

energy that can come to the second without any effort on your part

Energy flows to lower fields. Your second body is lower than the third,

so energy generated in the third may sometimes flow to it.

Kundalini may be felt through other methods, but those who teach

methods that are not concerned with kundalini will not allow you to

pay attention to it. If you pay attention to it, more and more energy

will come; the whole method that was not concerned with kundalini

will be shattered. They do not know anything about kundalini, so they

do not know how to work with it.

Teachers of other methods will deny kundalini completely. They will 

say it is nonsense; they will say it is imagination; they will say you are 

just projecting: "Do not be concerned with it, do not be attentive to 

it." And if you are not attentive to it and you go on working on the 

third body, by and by the kundalini will stop. Energy will no longer

come to the second body. Then it is better.

So if you are concerned with any method, be concerned with it totally.

Don't be involved in any other method, don't even think about any 

other method, because then it will become confusing. And the 

passage of kundalini is so subtle and so unknown that confusion will

be harmful.

My method of Dynamic Meditation is concerned with kundalini. Even if 

you just go on watching your breath, it will be helpful to kundalini 

because breath, accompanied by prana, the life energy, is concerned 

with the etheric body, the second body. It, too, is not concerned with 

your physical body. It is being taken from your physical body, it is 

being drawn from your physical body, but your physical body is just 

the door.

Prana is concerned with the etheric body. The lungs are doing the 

breathing, but doing it for the etheric body. Your physical body, the 

first body, is working for the etheric, the second body. In the same

way, the etheric works for the astral, the third body, and the astral 

works for the mental, the fourth body.

Your physical body is the door for the second body. The second body

is so subtle that it cannot be concerned with the material world 

directly, so first your physical body transmutes every material into vital

forms; then these can become food for the second body.

Everything taken from the senses gets transformed into vital forms;

this then becomes food for the second body. Then the second body 

transforms this into even more subtle forms, and this becomes food for

the third body.

It is like this: you cannot eat mud, but in vegetables the elements of 

the mud are transformed; then it can be eaten. The vegetable world 

transforms the mud into a living, subtle form; now you can take it in

. You cannot eat grass; a cow does it for you. It goes into the cow, 

and the cow transforms it into milk; then you can take it, you can

drink the milk.

Just like this your first body takes matter into it, transforming it into

vital forms; then the second body takes it. Breath is being taken by

your lungs: the lungs are machines, working for the second body. If 

the second body dies, the lungs remain all right, but there is no 

breathing; breath has gone. The second body is the master of the first

body, and the third body is the master of the second body. Every

lower body is a servant to the upper one.

So awareness of breathing is helpful in kundalini practice. It generates

energy; it conserves energy and helps the life force to go upward.

My whole method is concerned with kundalini. Once the method has

been grasped, everything can be done by it. Now, nothing more is 

needed.

The last chakra, the sahasrar, can be reached through any method.

Sahasrar and brahma randhra are the names given to the seventh 

chakra in kundalini yoga. If you do not work on kundalini, if you work

on the third body, then too you will reach this point, but it will not be

known as brahma randhra, and the first six chakras will not be there.

You have gone through another passage, so the milestones will be

different, but the end will be the same. All the seven bodies are 

connected with the seventh chakra, so from anywhere one can reach 

it.

One must not be concerned with two passages, with two methods;

otherwise, confusion will be created and the inner energy will be 

diverted into two channels. Any method should channel the whole 

energy into one dimension. That is what my method of Dynamic 

Meditation does, and that is why it begins with ten minutes of deep,

fast breathing. 

Osho