Awakened Living Newsletter Vol.6 1/18/21

Creating Community for those in the Spiritual Process

Jan 19, 2021

Living With Kundalini

Acupressure & Qigong As Support in Awakening

Today I would like to share with you some thoughts from a client, Alan, who has sent me many pages of information about how he dealt with the challenges of his kundalini process using acupressure points and Qigong practices. This is the first of several installments that he has invited me to share with others because he wants to help, but lacks the platform to do so. He includes a description he has offered about the main issues he struggled with and some techniques he found helpful.

Acupressure is an eastern system of healing based on acupuncture points but relying on gentle pressure along meridians to release stress and help energy flow. You can practice it on yourself or on others and it is a safe way to soothe and balance your energy without the discomfort of needles. Qigong is a series of energy practices that evolved centuries past in China for awakening and balancing energy that also activates kundalini. When Qigong activates this life force is called the Qigong Crisis. It is considered a manageable influx of energy. Here are Alan’s comments on the use of Qigong and Acupressure:

Several miscellaneous pre-thought's.

One: I've never had a moments concern about doing damage to myself or worried about making myself worse with acupressure. I suppose that's possible, but I've not experienced it in any way.

Two: I will comment on the practice of the Qigong micro-orbit practice I used to bring the energy down, based on what happened for me. At the time I found the internet link I used, I had just experienced an entire weekend when I kept going into altered states and could barely focus on chores of the day-to-day. I felt like anything was better than what I was. When I tried it, and it worked, all the better. I never looked back. I have an elderly uncle who had practiced Qigong, as well many of the martial arts for years and years and so I remember him describing the microcosmic orbit to me when I was a teenager. I found it later during my own studies in the Golden Flower text.

https://realization.org/p/mantak-chia/most-effective-cure-for-kundalini-psychosis.html

So, I used this practice with the intent to bring the energy down. I wasn't trying to awaken the kundalini. There is something to intent with this process, I believe. And the energy was always grounded (in my mind's eye) deep into the earth. So, I was using it to calm me down, and for me, it worked really well. The energy might rise again later, but I could always use it again without any problem. That's basically what I know.

Symptoms I've experienced

· Sonics: these are generally high tones of various intensity. They are the same note heard for very long duration. It's a little like your ears are ringing, but it's very high pitch. I can't tell you what the cause of it, but it's not a medical problem. Its just a temporary symptom.

· head gently rotating from side to side

· feet involuntary pumping up and down

· hands trembling like a palsy patient

· an inner voice (non-threatening). This bothered me a lot.

Over time, I figured out that this voice really is mine, it just presents as many different facades. At first, it was helpful and I believed served as a guide. Then over time, I realized that it was all a masquerade, it took on many different roles of people that I just happened to know very well. What I found was that it became increasingly selfish and infantile, sort of like it was regressing or deteriorating. It will lie a lot, and it will cast blame in any direction, and refuse responsibility for its actions. I believe it to be the ego, and the process to be the deconstruction of that ego.

Don't believe anything (or maybe only 3%) of what your inner voice tells you. In the early stages, you may believe you're receiving guidance of a special sort, but as the months of this process pass, you'll realize that's not the case. The presence of the inner voice (sometimes referred to as Mental Chatter) will last a long time, but will begin to deteriorate as to quality of companionship. And then it will become just kinda gross, then annoying, and then as mine does now, it says "no" a lot. It's generally accompanied by the sensation of energy movement.

I can't explain it any better than that, it's as tiresome as anything I've ever dealt with, but that's the trajectory. When my energy moved solidly to the 6th chakra (and sustained itself there) I began to understand what this "inner voice" business is all about, and that it's part of a very important lesson. Until then I had all sorts of blockages at chakras 1-5 to clear out. That had to clear, before the lesson at the 6th chakra were understood. So, if this happens to you be patient, and trust me on this one. It works out, but in my opinion, it's obnoxious in the meantime.

-Delusional thinking, particularly the first month or two. -Probably 15 others I've forgotten about.

Advice, a miscellany

Specific points to help you relax and sleep.

1. Press just below the xyphoid process (google it) at the center of the rib cage right below the sternum, but don't break the bone itself off! This is a point that lies along the Conception Vessel. It's good for relaxation. You can also put your palms together like you're praying and then place the knuckles of your thumbs directly into this spot. It fits right in comfortably. This way you're not only pressing the spot, but you're also pressing many of the spots on your palms.

2. Draw a line from the bottom of your earlobe to the lowest edge of your hairline on the back of your neck. In the middle of that line, there's a nice little notch near the base of your skull, on the side. Press that for a few minutes, you should start to feel sleepy. If you're really tense, then do what you can to release those tensions before you press this spot, as it will make it harder to fall asleep if you're too tense. This works pretty well for me.

3. If you're having problems relaxing when you get into bed, try the following: roll on your side and get your pillow comfortable the way that you like it. Then, like a child, press your palms together and place them naturally against your cheek, also let your forearms press comfortably against each other. Now, pull your knees comfortably toward your chest, and press your thighs and legs together as if you're a little kid saying their prayers in bed under the covers. This should prove to be very relaxing. You're essentially releasing many of the points along the inner legs, forearms and palms. if you don't fall asleep this way, then reach over and press the point I just described as number two above.

Follow your intuition while you're pressing on your acupressure points. If you feel like you need to press on your elbow in conjunction with another point, then do so. You're body becomes remarkably in touch with your new skills at accupressure. Don't be afraid to follow what seems natural.

Pressure points along the back and shoulders are notoriously hard to reach. Here's a trick: go buy a package of tennis balls from walmart, and put all three into a tube sock or something similar. Since you can't reach the middle of your back or your mid-shoulder region, just place this tube of tennis balls against the back of your arm chair and lean back, or lay down on your back on the bed with the tennis ball tube underneath you, or with them stretched across the width of your shoulders. It will touch spots all up and down your spine, or across your shoulders that you couldn't reach in any other way. This is a great tip. A lot of yang energy gets stored in your back along the Governer's Vessel along your spine. So, if you're feeling irritable, try this technique, you may be surprised at the results.

I don't really like yoga poses, and I like automatic kriyas even less. But, I stumbled on one yoga pose that someone on a blog recommended, I tried it and kind of like this one. It does work, and is not too weird.

So, here's how: stand or sit somewhere comfortable. Place your palms together and point them downward toward the ground, and in between your knees, calves, or feet depending on what's comfortable for you. This position seems to be a message to your system that you are choosing to release whatever issue is currently affecting you. My hands sometimes move further toward the floor to the feet level, and on occasion my head would start pivoting back and forth gently for a little while. Then it would stop. If you like, you may make a verbal command such as "I choose to release this excess energy right now". For me, that helps.

Dealing with Emotional Breakdown

You'll have periods when you'll be extremely emotional. I've raged, cried, collapsed on the floor more times than I can count, being mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. I've laid out in the yard pressing my body into the ground (big tree trunks work well too, because they touch a lot of pressure points) because both methods seem to be able to absorb the excess energy. If you have to, take a blanket out in the yard, or on a concrete patio and lay with your face down. You'll feel energy leave your body in ways that you didn't think it could. Now, when that's done, turn over and lay on your back. You're pressing on all the pressure points on your stomach and on your back, as well as the Governor's Channel which releases excess yang (that which agitates you), and let that flow out. You'll feel better. Sleep there if you need to.

Remember, just because this bizarre-ness is happening, doesn't mean that you're mentally ill. But, if in the first stages of this kundalini rising of yours, you started hearing voices and behaving delusionally as I did, then you, like me, did indeed have a mental and emotional breakdown.

I can't speak for you, but I was extremely unhappy before my kundalini rising. I had a lot of reasons to be unhappy, and common sense can easily justify them fitting into that category. I had a lot of pain, resentment, and disappointment that I had to swallow down. Eventually, all of that "unhappy soup" festered inside of me, and had to come out. So, in my earlier delusional stage, it did. It came out in rage, and betrayal, and grief. I was like a boil that needed to be lanced. In my case, kundalini was the needle that lanced it. And like any boil, it was an ugly festering mess to clean up when it was lanced.

Now, here's the thing. It's two years later, and I'm still not quite finished with the rising, but I'm happy now. I'm content and at peace with my circumstances and my life. I like me, cornball as that may sound. I'm comfortable in my own skin. Even with the kundalini still popping around in me as it still does, especially after releasing major issues, as I've been doing lately, I'm comfortable.

And I wasn't two years ago. I was an extremely unhappy broken man at his wit's end. So for me, what had to happen, was the mental and emotional breakdown. Personally, I think that a mental breakdown really is also an emotional breakdown, we just don't call it that. I may have been temporarily mentally disturbed, but the reason for that was emotional. And I had to yell and scream, and cry and hear voices and see hateful visions in order to get all of that unhappiness out of me.

So, if you're reading this, consider your own life circumstances. Are you coming off an unhappy period in your life? Have you had to swallow that down? Well, then it's got to come out, and it isn't going to be pretty when it does. Kundalini is a cleansing process, and it takes a while to process all the layers of gunk that you've accumulated over the years. So, be patient with yourself, and cop to it, if your life has sucked the last few years. You didn't just have a "mental/emotional breakdown", you've likely been struggling for a while, and this is how the thing finally blew up. Weird process that this is, you'll feel better when it's done. And drugs will only mask the symptoms. So that's not much of a solution. You have to do the work, and this is the time to do it.

A final thought. Since you're going to be on this roller-coaster ride for a while now anyway, you may as well address and clean up any obvious issues from your past now while the energy is pumping around in you. It's my guess that this will come out anyway, but if somebody worked you over in a bad way when you were vulnerable, then that needs to be addressed. So think about how you want to do that, and if you can handle that currently. And if doing so means that you need to scream and cry and throw things, then scream and cry and throw things, and know that at the end of all this emotional/mental breakdown of yours, you will be cleaner, the truth will be out, and you'll feel better.

Acupressure for Confusion

This is a big one, we need to talk about confusion. First things first, when you get foggy-headed, press your finger tip into the space between your upper lip and your nose. There are three pressure points sandwiched in that narrow space. You'll want the middle one. Just press your finger and hold, or alternatively, tap that point repeatedly, until it seems like a good idea to stop. Your head will clear.

Excess yin energy will make you feel foggy. So, another idea is to either do the microcosmic orbit technique, or release the excess via the Conception Vessel by touching your chin below your lower lip, and then (and this gets personal) press your finger into your perineum near your rectum. Men, that's between your anus and your sack. Yes, that's what I said. I didn't put the point there, that's just where it is. I'm just the messenger. What happens is that the balance between the yin and the yang energy gets out of balance. You have to manually override the system and tell it to release that extra yin. If you know what a blow-off valve on your hot water heater does, that's basically what you're doing. You're releasing extra yin by touching these two points. Alternating them helps.

Excess yang (irritation and hyperactivity) can be released by touching the following points in order: directly below your nose, at the spot between your eyes, at the top of your head, at the spot at the top of your spine, and finally at your coccyx below your pants waistline at the end of your spine. Basically, you're following the Governer's Channel that helps to regulate your excess yang. Generally, it helps to visualize the energy flowing down the legs, and out into the ground.

Painful Spots

Now, I'm not talking about debilitating pain from a broken arm. I'm talking about a painful spot that comes out of nowhere somewhere on your body. Your big toe for instance. All of a sudden you have a burning sensation, and some spot just hurts like hell. Touch that spot. Touch it now and hold it. What's happening is that you have a blockage that is interrupting the flow down that meridian. When you press on it, it seems to lance it like a boil. Give it a minute and it should go away. Now, if it doesn't, and you really have broken your arm or your toe, or it hurts even worse, then maybe call your doctor and let go of that spot!

A practical and maybe philosophical premise you may want to consider for the long term. Apply it to yourself and liberally to everyone around you. "Most people, on most days, are doing the best they can with what they have and what they know to do". This is an important lesson, and once that begins to sink into your soul, and your mindset, you'll find that a lot of issues resolve themselves for you.

Here are 3 books Alan used for research and recommends:

Reflexology Manual by Pauline Wills This has a small, but very important section on the chakras at the end of the book. It's got an excellent image and chart I'm including of the meridian pathways, and the chart describes physical manifestations of the particular meridian when it releases. It's a little obscure in detail, but if you've experienced the symptoms, then the chart makes sense.

Accupressure's Potent Points by Michael Reed Gach This is the first text I bought, and has sections for dealing with stress, or anxiety. I've included the relative spots as well. He's a good teacher and healer, but he's not esoteric, and doesn't mention kundalini.

Fundmentals of Chinese Acupuncture By Ellis, Wiseman, and Boss, 1991 From this I learned about the sinews that each meridian has. Apparently, each meridian (connected to the appropriate organ) follows a pathway, and somewhere on that pathway is a "sinew" or storage place where the energy is processed until it can be released. So, they show where each sinew is located on the body, and I found that those particular areas of the body are where I experienced muscle relaxations when I was releasing energy.

(Thank-you Alan for this rich information! There will be more from Alan in future editions and you are welcome to leave comments here that I will forward to him)

Recommended Listening & Reading for this Month

Our Minds Are Filters: Rupert Spira

This youtube talk is part of a Q and A session from a SAND conference in which Spira speaks about the unreality of the separate self, and describes humans as having one consciousness that assumes feelings, thoughts, experiences in each of us the way an actor takes on a role. He says this is an illusion, and discusses that after realizing there is no separate self there are adjustments that can be made to how we live in the world.

Here is the link:

Our Minds Are Filters

Films and an Internet Group

Sameer Patel, in London, is (among many things) a filmmaker who has done training with me, and is now creating films related to awakening. His first two films are available on www.a-call-to-awakening.com, and he has invited me to be interviewed for some future productions.

Sameer also started a UK meet-up group for kundalini experiencers that has grown and become a bit more international and now meets on Zoom every 6 weeks. He created a website to help people share experiences and ask questions on the forums. The website if called www.kundalinicollective.com. Most of his group members were referred by me after doing consultations with me. If you are interested check out the collective, and email Sameer to join the group. His email is sameerpatel@me.com.

Awakening and Lucidity in Your Dreams

Dr.Clare Johnson at www.deepluciddreaming.com

Are you interested in meeting your dreams directly, and using them to heal conflicts, meet spiritual mentors, or gain a better understanding of your true nature. Dr. Clare Johnson is a remarkable expert and teacher of lucid dreaming, and has written many books on the topic. I encountered her recently at the Jung dream summit and loved her presence and heartfelt relationship to being awake both in daily life as well as in sleep. She offers several programs on the internet to teach you how to dream lucidly, that is, waking up within a dream and staying with the unfolding of the story, and seeing life itself unfolding like a dream. She also offers ocean retreats in Portugal when we are allowed to return to meeting in groups.

If you have a question about lucid dreaming or other sleep and dream-related phenomena such as sleep paralysis, false awakenings, night terrors, out of body experiences, or recurring nightmares, you’re welcome to ask Clare by writing in a form provided on her website.. She recommends you first read one of her books on these topics, saying that these are the best place to start if you are interested in her healing, creative, and transformative approach. If you are dreamer or wish to be, check out her site.

Helpful Guidance on Self-Realization

www.realization.org

Realization.org is a beautiful website with a range of good essays by various wisdom teachers that address questions regarding self-realization and kundalini and other topics relevant to awakening people. I just reviewed it for the first time in years and found a letter I wrote to them about 15 years ago about the kundalini process. It addresses many of the questions that arise in experiencers and seekers.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

The Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose Edited by Stephen Mitchell.

Published by HarperPerennial in 1991

This beautiful and inspiring collection of teachings from many great masters, philosophers and poets spans centuries of wisdom truths all pointing to the same Self-Realization. Teachings from the Upanishads and Bible alongside of Plato, Jesus and Shankara, Hui-hui, William Blake, Simone Weil, Ranier Maria Rilke, Dogen, and Henry Thoreau -- just to name a few. One line from the selection on William Blake, “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.” (p 169) From Shankara “See Brahman everywhere, under all circumstances, with the eye of the spirit and a tranquil heart.”(p.51)

This is a book to read and meditate upon, and to gain understanding of the universality of spiritual awakening available to all who are willing to seek within for Truth. Perhaps it is even a book that will wake you up! Mitchell also created The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, another inspired gift for the spiritual seekers among us. I suggest you gift yourself these books as spiritual support for the new year.

A Note from Bonnie Re: this Newsletter

I am assembling this newsletter as a way of communicating with the people I have known over the years who are in a spiritual awakening process, and to share with them and all else who wish to know the information I have resourced and found supportive. I hope this collection of newsletters will serve as an archive available to anyone who is looking for guidance, connections, and sound advice on living an awakened life. This cannot serve as a substitute for medical advice or psychotherapy but is instead a reflection of the many facets of a transformational process that is initiated within many seekers of Truth and freedom.

In my observation it seems likely we are all sharing one Mind or one Consciousness, but each of us has a unique play, a specialized dance of the soul as we move through our experiences together. We are energy flows dancing to various kinds of music based on our DNA, our experiences, our cultures, desires and regrets and as awakening unfolds we hope to clear away whatever is in the way of clarity, freedom and love. When kundalini energy awakens it is both a clearing process and a revelatory gift. Many believe that awakening is for the species – a movement of the human condition to a wiser and more kind appreciation of ourselves and others, and a more authentic and inspired expression founded on love and wisdom. It may seem paradoxical that a process that breaks identifications, even with the body, would somehow be a blessing to the planet or the human condition, but awakening to this felt knowing of what we are helps us know our inner-connection with all life, to feel in a sense we are all of life, and to find our unique role within it. We sense this small moment we each have, in what appears to be a line of time unfolding, is a gift -- an expression capable of bringing light and love into the collective mind stream. This knowing ultimately engenders humility and gratitude. We may enter this search to eliminate our suffering, but ultimate we discover as we heal we are breaking an illusion and opening a new channel of light into the world.

I hope for this newsletter to include you as well as serve you so if you have questions you would like to see explored, or information on what has been healing for you that you wish to share with others, let me know. Please feel free to share it with others and join my subscription list if you haven’t, which is free at this time, so I know you want to stay connected.

Awakened Living