You Can't Go Home Again

"Simple persons live within the happiness of their inner world."--   Transformation  by R. Johnson

In most every spiritual tradition there is a sense of growing maturity, a ripening of the self into what some call satori, enlightenment or salvation, among other descriptions of this experience. Author and Jungian psychologist Robert Johnson discusses this in his book, Transformation.

He writes there are three levels of consciousness. They are universal the world over, yet in industrialized societies the progression of these experiences is made all the more difficult by our very advances in book learning and complex societies. The level of all mankind, endowed to each of us by nature is what he describes as 'simple consciousness,' followed by 'complex consciousness,' the "usual state of educated Western man, and an 'enlightened' state of consciousness, known only to a very few individuals."

Enlightenment, Johnson reckons, comes to very few men only after much work and training by highly motivated individuals. He recounts a simple story to illustrate these notions: 'the simple man comes home in the evening wondering what's for dinner; the complex man comes home pondering the imponderables of fate, and the enlightened man comes home wondering what's for dinner.
"Simple man and enlightened man have much in common, including a direct, uncomplicated view of life, and so they react in similar ways."

The difference between them is that the enlightened are conscious of their condition in ways that simple persons are not. Complex persons, however, are often engaged with worry and often live lives marked by anxiety.
Writing Walden Pond, 19th century author Henry David Thoreau writes about his experiences and those of others he knows. He chronicles the complex, Western man's attempt to regain a sense of simplicity in their life.
Gandhi urged India in an earlier era to retain its domestic simplicity; his urgings were largely ignored. Today when one travels to India we are often aware of the tremendous poverty, illness and wants of her citizens. All true. However alongside of these ills is a clear and abundant sense of joyfulness. There is a happiness among large numbers of Indians in their daily lives. Johnson writes of his experiences there, "I was witnessing the miracle of simple man finding happiness in a rich, inner world, not in the pursuit of some desired goal.

Simple persons live within this happiness of their inner world, no matter what the exterior circumstance may be. Those of enlightened conscious also know this and live with an attitude of happiness which bridges their inner world with objective facts, a connection the Simple person does not or is unable to make.
Many a Hindu learns that the highest worship is to simply be happy. On the other hand, complex persons often live in their sense of anxiety and dread, trapped between nostalgia and anticipation of what may come, a fate that mostly eludes ones' grasp.
Despite this, complex consciousness is so highly valued by Westerners that nothing is thought to be too great or expensive in a bid "to gain freedom, self-determination and choices," wrought by his expanded perception writes Johnson.

Traditional Indian society, he observes, is based "on a caste system that allows only a few superior individuals," Brahmins, the chief caste to gain consciousness. The lower castes are less concerned with enlightened minds or methods. This keeps the vast majority of Indians in a state of their natural given, simple consciousness.
For once on the path to enlightenment, many will make significant gains before meeting frustration warned Carl Jung, Johnson's mentor.

Jung noted that once one has left the innate state of simple consciousness for more complex states, one can no longer turn around to retrace the steps of the path from where one has come. Quite simply, he believed that on the path to consciousness, Complex persons may meet with stresses and frustration from which they cannot retire. In other words, Jung believed, one can't just go home again to an earlier simplicity and peace you once knew, in recognition of a certain loss of innocence.

Some about Kundalini and the Tantra

"The general idea prevailing about Kundalini, both in the East and in the West, is of a fabulous power... lying dormant, waiting to be roused..." --The Secret of Yoga by Gopi Krishna

When the subject turns from more commonly known Western ideas present in Judeo-Christian mysticism such as Incarnation,  to ideas prevalent in the East then brought West, such as Kundalini Yoga or other Hatha practices, quickly it becomes apparent that there is little credible information about this aspect of Hatha Yoga translated into English or available for use in the West. Why so? To Westerners accustomed to an intellectual system of Scholasticism, books and works of the mind alone are an immediate draw. Yet like many elements of Eastern philosophy, person to person transmission of many types of knowledge is critical, and cannot be obtained from any text. It is like the "Golden Rosary." These texts are said to be "secret" yet for aspirants and postulants they are available with direction and guidance through oral transmission.

So the secret is that they are secret, not secret-- like a good Buddhist Koan. Within the question is the answer. One of a handful of texts written on the subject for English audiences is written by Gopi Krishna. Writing in The Secret of Yoga, Krishna delves into some of the facts and fictions of Kundalini practice. He states that one of the popular conceptions of this practice is that a person who attains the highest Chakra, "attains unlimited dominance over the forces of nature..." There is no end to the natural powers attained by "those who succeed in awakening Kundalini (Adya-Kali)... many modern seekers expect from Yoga in the wildest flights of their fancy."

But what does Krishna say Kundalini is then, beyond Adya-Kali? Well, first of all he notes that the ancient texts are undoubtedly containing great wisdom, yet knowledge of the human body through much of the time periods that the ancient texts were written was woefully inadequate. For example, until the 1920s it was not well understood how a woman became pregnant; what the hormonal processes that developed into a monthly cycle were comprised of. Most of the most basic hormones relating to reproduction were not known until further into the 20th century.

Krishna argues then for a modern Kundalini, one that is informed by this age for this modern world. Kundalini he argues is a potent energy force, one that "has not been elucidated in any rational way in any text, ancient or modern." Kundalini, the Divine energy is often described by many writers both ancient and modern as "cosmic, astral, or psychic force without any biologic connection to the human body." And yet Hatha Yoga in all its forms is intimately concerned with the body as much as the spiritual nature of such body.

Krishna also calls into consideration the notion of a Chakra. Chakras are thought to be pathways for energy flow, increasing consciousness and leading to the emergence of the Kundalini in an aspirant. Yet Krishna notes that in Buddhist Tantric practice there are only four such pathways, rather than the much discussed seven-- as though seven were the usual number. In fact he argues that the notion of "seven lotuses (chakras) on the cerebro-spinal axis is of comparatively recent origin... under the cloak of weird formulations, fantastic formulations and mythical beings... of ignorance from the past, it is not surprising that... a whole host of divinities, and strange formulations in the body account for the bewildering effect of Kundalini. But now a rational explanation is called for."

And yet Gopi Krishna does not for a minute deny that a mysterious power of energy flowing throughout a body is Kundalini. And so he writes, " it is no secret that we live in two worlds [simultaneously], one spiritual and one physical... this is the reason why real success in yoga is so very rare.' ...an overhauling of the human body is necessary to effect the transformation most often sought.... And super-normal gifts such as prophesy and clairvoyance... become available to the successful initiates within limits." This, he says, in a nutshell, is the message of all the Tantras and all the ancient treatises dealing with Kundalini-Yoga. "For the aim of every religious practice is to bring the mind into Cosmic Consciousness or the Infinite Universe of Life, hidden from the ordinary mind.