Dimensions of the Central Channel - Part 2
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, within the psychic body. They are the energetic skeleton of our individuality. The same three powers that are expressing and manifesting all of life create us as individuals through those nāḍis. Everything emerges from a streak of primal essence in the womb.
Nothing exists in our experience outside of the central channel, the suṣumṇa. All of our experience — everything from our misunderstandings to pure insight — happens within our psychic body, which is a manifestation of God’s Consciousness. Parā Kuṇḍalinī has descended from the cosmic portal, known as Dvādaśānta, which is located 12 inches above the head. This is both the portal from which we are birthed, and the doorway back into cosmic awareness.
That portal is like an elevator down that manifests into individuality. The Goddess is descending into each of us, creating the three dimensions of kuṇḍalinī in the psychic body: prāṇa, citta, and parā. These energies are embedded in the depth of our awareness and give rise to our mental and emotional structures, our individuated consciousness, and our spiritual self.
Energy as the Pathway Home
The pathway down into individuality also goes back up through the central channel. As the grace of pure Consciousness descends into us (śaktipāta), we begin to awaken to the fullness that is inherent within. Grace is really descending into its Self, revealing its Self to its Self. That descent calls forth an innate awareness in us and creates a longing to let that Self-knowledge unfold. This longing is what my teacher Rudi called the “wish to grow.”
Parā is the energy of your pure Self. Parāparā and Aparā are the energies of knowledge and action as well as the energies that create the iḍā and piṅgala in the psychic body. Kuṇḍalinī Sādhana is the practice of folding all of those aspects back into one, back into the central channel without being diminished. There are deeper dimensions within the suṣumṇa, the subtlest of which is the brahmā nāḍi, from which we are birthed.
As we descend into manifestation, we misunderstand the five powers of Consciousness, bliss, will, knowledge, and action. We begin to limit our experience as we categorize, justify, negate, and judge all of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s good, and what’s bad. When they become obscured in us, God’s pure powers are called “impure” powers and we act from this limited understanding, creating tension and karma.
Our own occluded will becomes desire and the perpetual grasping for something that cannot ultimately satisfy us. It arises from the misunderstanding that we think we are incomplete and separate from God. The avenue back to the experience of the pure powers is to surrender our will to God’s will — so that our desire for things is transformed into the desire and longing for God. God’s will is always the expression of His fullness and abundance, and we can share in that sublime state.
Know the Field of God’s Joy
Knowledge and action function in the same way. God knows Himself as all things. We know ourselves as a bag of bones, our emotions, or some need. Look at the difference! Those divine powers express all of our individuality and we can harness them by turning our energy back inside and directing it into the central channel. Then, those powers rise back up the suṣumṇa, transforming and purifying all limited expressions of themselves into pure expressions.
Our practice of Kuṇḍalinī Sādhana creates the fire of transformation that will burn through all density, but it requires discipline. Do not get caught in your tensions and patterns. Where these inner blocks came from is irrelevant. But what you can be 100% confident of is that your tension, patterns, and karma are yours. Although we certainly encounter people who act from their limitations, understand that your stuff is your stuff. Take responsibility for it and have the intelligence and willingness to be committed to being freed from it.
Everything that is formed, that contracts, also has an avenue for expansion. Kuṇḍalinī is Parā, and She walks around with a blowtorch to burn up all denser energy. By penetrating into the deeper dimensions of the central channel, we can choose to burn up our misunderstandings. But you have to stay in the fire. That alchemical process of the Goddess freeing you from yourself is the essence of sādhana. That is how we come to experience that everything is happening on the field of God’s joy.