Buddha never talked about kundalini. It is not that there was no kundalini in his body, but the passage was so clear that there was no resistance. Thus, he never felt it. Mahavira never talked about kundalini. Because of this, a very false notion was created, and then Jainas, who followed Mahavira, thought that kundalini was all nonsense, that there was nothing like it. Thus, because Mahavira himself did not feel kundalini, twenty-five centuries of Jaina tradition has continued to deny it, claiming it does not exist. But Mahavira's reason for not talking about it was very different. Because there were no blocks in his body, he never felt it.
So it is not necessary for you to feel kundalini. You may not feel it at all. And if you do not feel kundalini, then you will bypass chakras, because the working of the chakras is needed only to break the blocks. Otherwise, they are not needed.
When there is a block, and the kundalini is blocked, then the nearby chakra begins to move because of the blocked kundalini. It becomes dynamic. The chakra begins to move because of the blocked kundalini and it moves so fast that, because of the movement, a particular energy is created which breaks the block.
If the passage is clear no chakra is needed, and you will never feel anything. Really, the existence of chakras is just to help you. If kundalini is blocked, then the help is just nearby. Some chakra will take the energy that is being blocked. If the energy cannot move further it will fall back. Before it falls back the chakra will absorb the energy completely, and the kundalini will move in the chakra. Through movement the energy becomes more vital, it becomes more alive, and when it again comes to the block it can break it. So it is just an arrangement, a help.
If kundalini moves and there are no blocks, then you will never feel any chakras. That is why someone may feel nine chakras, someone else may feel ten chakras, and someone else may feel only three or four, or one, or none. It depends. In actual fact, there are infinite chakras and at every movement, every step of the kundalini, a chakra is by the side to help. If the help is needed, it can be given.
That is why I insist that a theoretical acquaintance is not helpful. And meditation as such is not really concerned with kundalini at all. If kundalini comes, that is another thing -- but meditation has nothing to do with it. Meditation can be explained without even mentioning kundalini; there is no need. And by mentioning kundalini it creates even more conflicts to explain the thing. Meditation can be explained directly; you need not bother about chakras, you begin with meditation. If the passage is blocked you may come to feel kundalini, and chakras will be there, but that is completely nonvoluntary. You must remember that it is nonvoluntary; your volition is not needed at all.
The deeper the path, the more nonvoluntary. I can move my hand -- this is a voluntary path -- but I cannot move my blood. I can try. Years and years of training can make a person capable of making blood circulation voluntary -- hatha yoga can do that; it has been done, it is not impossible, but it is futile. Thirty years of training just to control the movement of the blood is meaningless and stupid because with the control comes nothing. The blood circulation is nonvoluntary; your will is not needed. You take food and the moment it goes in, your will is not needed: the body machinery, the body mechanism, has taken over, and it goes on doing whatever is needed. Your sleep is not voluntary, your birth is not voluntary, your death is not voluntary. These are nonvoluntary mechanisms.
Kundalini is still deeper, deeper than your death, deeper than your birth, deeper than your blood, because kundalini is a circulation of your second body. Blood is the circulation of your physiological body; kundalini is the circulation of your etheric body. It is absolutely nonvoluntary; even a hatha yogi cannot do anything with it voluntarily.
One has to go into meditation, then the energy begins to move. The part that is to be done by you is meditation. If you are deep in it, then the inner energy begins to move upward, and you will feel the change of flow. It will be felt in so many ways: even physiologically the change can be known.
For example, ordinarily, biologically, it is a sign of good health for your feet to be warm and your head to be cool. Biologically it is a healthy sign. When the reverse occurs -- the feet become cool and the head becomes warm -- a person is ill. But the same thing happens when the kundalini flows upward: the feet become cool.
Really, the warmth in the feet is nothing but sex energy flowing downward. The moment the vital energy, the kundalini, begins to flow upward, sex energy follows. It begins to flow upward: the feet become cool and the head becomes warm. Biologically it is better for the feet to be warmer than the head, but spiritually it is healthier for the feet to be cooler because this is a sign that the energy is flowing upward.
So it is not necessary for you to feel kundalini. You may not feel it at all. And if you do not feel kundalini, then you will bypass chakras, because the working of the chakras is needed only to break the blocks. Otherwise, they are not needed.
When there is a block, and the kundalini is blocked, then the nearby chakra begins to move because of the blocked kundalini. It becomes dynamic. The chakra begins to move because of the blocked kundalini and it moves so fast that, because of the movement, a particular energy is created which breaks the block.
If the passage is clear no chakra is needed, and you will never feel anything. Really, the existence of chakras is just to help you. If kundalini is blocked, then the help is just nearby. Some chakra will take the energy that is being blocked. If the energy cannot move further it will fall back. Before it falls back the chakra will absorb the energy completely, and the kundalini will move in the chakra. Through movement the energy becomes more vital, it becomes more alive, and when it again comes to the block it can break it. So it is just an arrangement, a help.
If kundalini moves and there are no blocks, then you will never feel any chakras. That is why someone may feel nine chakras, someone else may feel ten chakras, and someone else may feel only three or four, or one, or none. It depends. In actual fact, there are infinite chakras and at every movement, every step of the kundalini, a chakra is by the side to help. If the help is needed, it can be given.
That is why I insist that a theoretical acquaintance is not helpful. And meditation as such is not really concerned with kundalini at all. If kundalini comes, that is another thing -- but meditation has nothing to do with it. Meditation can be explained without even mentioning kundalini; there is no need. And by mentioning kundalini it creates even more conflicts to explain the thing. Meditation can be explained directly; you need not bother about chakras, you begin with meditation. If the passage is blocked you may come to feel kundalini, and chakras will be there, but that is completely nonvoluntary. You must remember that it is nonvoluntary; your volition is not needed at all.
The deeper the path, the more nonvoluntary. I can move my hand -- this is a voluntary path -- but I cannot move my blood. I can try. Years and years of training can make a person capable of making blood circulation voluntary -- hatha yoga can do that; it has been done, it is not impossible, but it is futile. Thirty years of training just to control the movement of the blood is meaningless and stupid because with the control comes nothing. The blood circulation is nonvoluntary; your will is not needed. You take food and the moment it goes in, your will is not needed: the body machinery, the body mechanism, has taken over, and it goes on doing whatever is needed. Your sleep is not voluntary, your birth is not voluntary, your death is not voluntary. These are nonvoluntary mechanisms.
Kundalini is still deeper, deeper than your death, deeper than your birth, deeper than your blood, because kundalini is a circulation of your second body. Blood is the circulation of your physiological body; kundalini is the circulation of your etheric body. It is absolutely nonvoluntary; even a hatha yogi cannot do anything with it voluntarily.
One has to go into meditation, then the energy begins to move. The part that is to be done by you is meditation. If you are deep in it, then the inner energy begins to move upward, and you will feel the change of flow. It will be felt in so many ways: even physiologically the change can be known.
For example, ordinarily, biologically, it is a sign of good health for your feet to be warm and your head to be cool. Biologically it is a healthy sign. When the reverse occurs -- the feet become cool and the head becomes warm -- a person is ill. But the same thing happens when the kundalini flows upward: the feet become cool.
Really, the warmth in the feet is nothing but sex energy flowing downward. The moment the vital energy, the kundalini, begins to flow upward, sex energy follows. It begins to flow upward: the feet become cool and the head becomes warm. Biologically it is better for the feet to be warmer than the head, but spiritually it is healthier for the feet to be cooler because this is a sign that the energy is flowing upward.
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.
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
Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy
Chapter #6
Chapter title: Kundalini: The Awakening of the Life Force
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