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..:: Implications ::..
By
Alan Schneider
The spiritual significance of the simple
expression OM cannot be exaggerated. This is considered to be the
first expression of manifestation emerging from the ultimate and final
condition beyond all manifestation – known as the Hindu Brahman,
or the Cabalist Ain Soph Aur. These are the chaotic threshold
conditions beyond which nothing can be known, yet, there must be
something beyond all conception. This condition creates an implicit
force that emerges into perception as the Primary Mantra, OM – the
Fundamental Vibration of Existence from which all others issue, and into
which they are eventually reabsorbed.
We find ourselves
evidently existing in intimate association with a dense, persistent
material form – we call this form the body. The environment that
apparently produces, sustains, and reclaims this form in the continuity
of experience known to us as life, is called assortedly the
world, the environment, or the universe. Although we can connect to each
other superficially through language, culture, and communication, the
harsh fact of the matter is that we are all isolated by the body and its
sensory perspective on life – from the instant of conception onward, we
all experience the world differently from our different bodies. And we
can observe the world through our senses well enough to know that those
very senses themselves are the biological product of eons of evolution,
yet have barely evolved enough to permit the occurrence of an
introspective awareness of ourselves as observers. We call the
focus of this observation the ego, and believe that it is, and we
are, real, when, in fact, we only exist as social constructs for
the convenience of each others economic activity. Without continuous
social reinforcement, the ego dissolves into the stream of raw
experience that is all that our limited senses can provide. Through
that crowning achievement of life known as science, we have come
to possess an understanding of exactly how very little
information can be attained by sensory inspection, but this is still
essentially all we have to rely on as organisms challenged by
functionally permanent world conditions of competition for acutely
scarce resources. These, put as simply as possible, are the basal
human condition on what this author refers to as the Physical Plane
of Manifestation.
For those multitudes of
humanity who must struggle along with little or nothing to sustain
themselves, the opportunity to look within in the context of
observation often does not occur – their lives of primitive struggle
simply do not permit sufficient leisure to rest long enough in comfort
to allow the consciousness they possess to become still enough to even
think of the possibility. For the minute minority among us who
do have such leisure resources, the acculturated tendency is to squander
time in the frivolous pursuits of material pleasure, and still
not look. It is the post-minute, ultra-minority of human beings who
perform introspection as a regular mental exercise – constituting yet
another problematic feature of life on the Physical Plane, dominated as
it is by the senses and the ego.
Eventually, in the course of
introspective self inquiry, the phenomenon of spiritual expression
will occur in consciousness, and can differentiate from there into the
multitude of paths of spiritual investigation demonstrated by history.
If one is motivated by, and attracted to, Hinduism (as I am), the
Primary Mantra, OM, is invariably encountered early on in the study. If
we begin at the level of conscious manifestation just described in the
preceding paragraphs, we find that the inner perspective on this
condition yields a vastly different vision of meaning than does the
outer, one that is described very succinctly by OM.
This deceptively elementary
symbol is a condensed amalgam of the sustained process of dynamic
Creation emerging from the pre-existing Brahman. Whatever is present
within the Brahman that generates existence is evidently permanent
in character – OM requires nothing more whatsoever than this driver of
manifestation to persist forever in its Creative action. When
pictorially represented, this vibration takes the symbolic form of
something like a dot, followed by a small horizontal upright crescent,
and then a structure that resembles the English number three (generally
with other embellishments) that is more than half the size of the entire
symbol, with the whole form arranged vertically from the dot downward.
The first third of this symbol, the dot, represents the Hindu Creator
aspect of God, Brahma (not to be confused with the Brahman,
however – Brahma is the first form that the formless Brahman
assumes in manifestation). The crescent represents the Preserver aspect
of God, Vishnu, wherein the initial mono-dimensional vibration of
Brahma expands and differentiates into two polar dimensions across the
crescent, establishing the basic conditions needed to form the
framework of existence. Life as we know it can be thought of as
hanging suspended from this framework, just as the crescent of Vishnu
does! It is the third portion of OM that represents our condition here
on the Physical Plane, existing under the influence of the Shiva,
the Destroyer aspect of God. At this stage of manifestation, existence
has become fully differentiated into the turbulent complex of movement
and form that we detect in the ego and the senses as “reality” on the
Physical Plane. The extensive turbulence at our level of manifestation
ensures that nothing can last here indefinitely except OM itself.
Shiva’s trademark vibration is impermanence, and even the universe
itself must be consumed by Him eventually, to then be recreated in its
entirety by Brahma in another “Big Bang” from another micro-singular dot
in the eternal dance of Creation/Preservation/Destruction!
The persistent explorer will
eventually encounter the concept of Kundalini in the
introspective process. Kundalini is the mysterious driving force that
achieves manifestation initially as Brahma, the Creator, when only that
one dimension of expression is present. No one can say whether the
Kundalini is Brahma, or whether it is the force beyond form in
the Brahman that manifests Brahma, or both, but there certainly
appears to be a relationship present, even at this stage of
proto-development. Although considerations of time do not particularly
come into play in OM, Brahma at the very least rapidly
differentiates into the polarity of Vishnu, and the aforementioned
framework of Existence suspended from His crescent. Among other things,
this set of polar opposites can be thought of as male and female
in character. This is the foundational concept of the Tao – the dynamic
interaction of Yin – female energy – with Yang – male
energy, swirling around each other to achieve Creation. In the sense of
male and female dynamic interaction, Vishnu’s crescent foreshadows the
final stage in Creation – the extended display of male and female forms
present on the Physical Plane as Shiva – the male form – and
Shakti, His corresponding female expression. Here, the Kundalini
has become differentiated in the extreme, and the male/female dichotomy
is often obscure, but the determined investigator can nonetheless still
find expressions of this state everywhere on the Physical Plane.
From the perspective of the
human observer, very probably the most important consequence of the
male/female polarity of the Physical Plane forms the foundation of the
two most important aspects of Hindu spiritual philosophy – Yoga
and Tantra. These two apparently distinct schools of thought are
nonetheless deeply intertwined with each other – one is
essentially meaningless without the other – another expression of
polarity in the unity of Creation. Both Yoga and Tantra depend for
their influence in human affairs upon the Kundalini energy, as
determined through the Chakra System of Conscious Expression.
More than any other means known to this author, the fundamental seven
Chakras of Consciousness define all that is, or can ever be, known or
experienced by a human observer – they represent the very states
of conscious manifestation themselves.
In the Root, or First Chakra,
Muladhara, located at the very base of the spine, in the sacrum,
near the coccyx, is a minute psychic “package” of dormant Kundalini
energy – dormant, but still vibrating at a certain level of subconscious
manifestation. This is female Kundalini – Shakti – whether
present in a man or woman, boy or girl, or male or female
post-sexually-differentiated fetus. Just as Hindu philosophy maintains
that the fluid nature of the Brahman that allows it to permeate
everything everywhere is a female quality, so it is that this
quality vibrates all along the process of Creation in the form of the
Kundalini energy, finally taking root in the human expression as the
dormant Kundalini Shakti present in Muladhara. Possibly, this universe,
up to and including the Brahman, simply is female – at least this
is what the Yogis, Pundits, and Seers believe – and the male elements
simply serve to punctuate and define the whole.
This packet of Shakti will
eventually awaken, if nothing else through the onset of puberty, and
then begin to Ascend upward through the sequence of Chakras nominally
located along the spinal column, eventually entering manifestation as
sexual energy (called Libido by Freud, and Archetypes by
Jung) in the Second Chakra, Svadhisthana, the Reproductive Center
of Consciousness. Here, a very significant differentiation can take
place – the Kundalini can express itself through direct genital
sexuality (known in Tantra as the Left Hand Path), or through
Ascension experiences (known as the Right Hand Path), or both.
Of course, this tends to depend on the level of spiritual sophistication
of the individual – the vast majority of humanity unconsciously
practices Left Hand Tantra without suspecting the possibility of Right
Hand experience, but the Kundalini Yoga practitioner knows well the
difference, and strives to channel even the acts of genital sexuality
into Ascension experiences through various techniques of posture,
meditation, and breathing.
The lower three Chakras are
concerned with actions on the Physical Plane in one sense or another –
the upper three are concerned with the additional “actions” of Ascension
on the higher Spiritual Planes. In general, once the Kundalini begins
Ascending, it will continue to do so, perhaps encountering temporary
blockages in the form of traumas or distractions, but fated to
relentlessly resume its journey eventually. The theories of Yoga and
Tantra maintain that the persistent Kundalini Shakti is seeking reunion
with her beloved husband Shiva, who is present in the Seventh, and
highest Chakra, Sahasrara, the Crown Chakra, located immediately
above the head. When she finally reaches this destination, and reunites
with the male energy of Shiva, the result is a glorious burst of pure,
undifferentiated Kundalini energy in the experience of Samadhi, which
then explodes successively through the crescent manifestation of Vishnu,
into the Monadic Creation Essence of Brahma, and finally back into the
Brahman itself through the final dissolution of all remaining
subject-object consciousness in the ultimate state of Non-Dual
experience of Satori. This is the final, ultimate state of being, which
can only be experienced by the very fortunate, but never
described by any means to anyone else.
The portrait of the Shivaite portion of OM as being the majority of the
symbolic structure is very accurate, in fact, is an understatement,
because our manifestation as beings of (or at least in association with)
the flesh results in the flood in information that continuously impinges
upon the senses, is interpreted by the ego, and, in reality, constitutes
an enormous distraction from the pursuit of spiritual activities and
revelations of any kind. So it is that this existence in dense form is,
above all else, the battleground of Ascension, as the Kundalini energy
relentlessly calls us back to the Supreme Absolute Truth of God that is
our destiny as conscious beings. It is here on this Plane of
Manifestation that the Soul is challenged by the material condition to
clearly see its reflection in the mirror of Karma, live in Dharma and
devotion, and ultimately return through Ascension to God.
- With Love, Alan -
(Copyright 2009, by Alan Schneider)
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