Mike,
Fascinating! I had never imagined a connection between kundalini and zen! If you have not already seen it, you and Steve and others may find the century year old work of a Canadian psychiatrist, Dr. Maurice Bucke, titled: 'Cosmic Consciousness' quite fascinating. In it, Bucke examines the 'cosmic consciousness' experiences of: The Buddha, Jesus, St. Paul, Plotinus, Mohammed, Dante, Las Casas, John Yepes, Francis Bacon, Jacob Behmen, William Blake,Honore de Balzac, Walt Whitman, Honore de Balzac, Walt Whitmen and Edward Carpenter, as well as 36 other 'lesser' cases. --ED --- In [email protected], mike brown <uerusuboyo@...> wrote: > > Steve, > > The below account is the story of how I became involved in Zen, but is by no > means the most 'important' (a hundred candles together illuminate the cave more > than one, but the first candle separates us from the dark). I welcome your > question because I also welcome your words on what I have to say. Please forgive > the clumsiness of my words, although my excuse is that the spoken/written word > can never convey the ineffability of my story. > > > I came to Zen thru an event that happened to me about 10 years ago. At that time > I was not involved in Zen, or indeed, any 'spiritual' practice whatsoever. In > fact, I was an ardent socialist and materialist. One evening, while watching tv > by myself, something clicked (literally, as in the sound) and all before me > suddenly transformed. The objects in front of me were the same, but the labels > and web of concepts we give things (cup, table, chair. 'me', time etc) just > vanished. What remained were 'things' (forms), but in there natural state or > 'suchness' before we label or conceptualise them. Although the sense of an 'I' > to experience this had also 'dropped away', there was an > overwhelming acknowledgement (and gratitude) of "This is it!" and "no mind", and > that this 'state' was not only Real, but was also so completely obvious. What > followed can only be described as a full blown kundalini experience, but after > the fact I intuitively felt this was not as important as the initial > 'experience' of clarity/awakening. I'm missing *alot* out here, but the next day > I researched what had happened to me and the nearest thing to it (gleaned from > other peoples' similar accounts) was the kensho/satori experience described > in Zen literature. Of course, it could also be described as a run of the mill > mystical experience and that's ok. I think what keeps such 'mystical' > experiences from becoming just another memory (although a profoundly pleasant > one) is if it transforms how we live in the world. And it did for me. > > Mike
