Small Steps:
I guess it's luck of the draw who you wind up connecting with in these communities... I've taken yoga classes and spoken with yoga teachers and never gotten a hint of kundalini from them either. The focus on the subtle body is practically non-existant in more mainstream American venues, not surprisingly.
So, to relate my experience in the terms of kundalini... Someone with more experience or a better handle on the language, please feel free to correct this:
- My A&P last December was some kind of kundalini opening (presenting as very rough non-ejaculatory orgasmic waves).
- It was followed for a week or so by involuntary body spasms and residual visual and auditory oddness: kundalini moving through the body and encountering blockages?
- Between December and February, this calmed down a bit. In February, I was feeling peak-ish again, and I think I might have helped create another opening (by relaxing into it and just 'encouraging' it's arising). This was followed again by the same after effects (body spasms, etc)
- In March, another awakening of sorts, with the path between what I'm thinking is the sacral chakra and the crown chakra cleared out (resulting in possible 'stream entry'?)
- This was followed by eight days of very powerful after effects: bliss waves arising throughout the day, both on and off the cushion, enhanced concentration, ability to start each meditation with a very powerful presentation at the sacral chakra (kundalini says, "all systems go!")
- Eventually this came to a (kundalini) closure
- During a 7 day retreat in April, on night 2, I lay in bed and had another opening. As I sat for the rest of the week, I felt cycling and energy moving. On day 6, with paths sufficiently cleared again, I felt a rush of energy up the body, tingling along the sides of my neck, followed by a head rush that lasted two seconds, and then visual field strobing in and out for about two seconds. Felt pretty happy/serene/sated afterwards. Another movement of kundalini through a cleared path?
- Since then, with just a bit of experimentation I think I can almost re-create the opening at will now. Last times were late Monday and Tuesday nights. This most literally feels like 'mental masturbation,' though it's not nearly as ecstatic as the first few times. Following this, for the last few days, sitting meditation has again a more energetic feeling. Kundalini exasperatedly asks, "you... again?!?"
As an aside, I've heard warnings about not trying to force kundalini along, and I wonder if I'm somehow skirting something ontoward or potentially dangerous. However, if we weren't talking about kundalini, would any of this sound dangerous? In terms of progress of insight map e.g., I don't see any reference to opening energy channels. I'd have to look to kundalini or qi gong to learn about any of that. So, any monastics in Burma go nutty or crazy due to something like this, or are they all a little cuckoo? ;-)
You might be right on the average yoga schools, I have most of my contacts online because while I'm interested in the theory and what might be happening, I don't actually do any yoga myself. A while back, I found this site: http://www.swamij.com/kundalini-awakening-1.htm which I found interesting. If you read through, you'll see there are stages associated with specific mental states, and they talk about various mood tendencies (kinda like jhanas) and there are stages of cycling, etc. From a very very general perspective, IMO they are barking up a similar tree to the 4 paths, but I don't know where their stuff came from way back in history and it may have even developed from a similar source, But you can see they kind of flip it on its ear with mental states considered a bit more of a side effect to the physical movement of energy, instead of the mental being the primary object of attention and the physical being almost ignored other than sitting straight.
One thing that really surprised me with this whole enlightenment thing, I guess I had gotten an assumption from the meditation people I knew locally that it would be kind of mental thing of loving kindness and whatnot. I don't think those people had actually gotten to enlightenment though, I get that feeling now, so I would guess they were just repeating common lore on it themselves. But actually to a large extent it has been oh so physical, kind of like the best feeling sex and drugs ever invented combined. Mixed with times I felt like crap like I'd been run over by a truck. Repeat that cycle for a long time! ;-P Seems like it's finally starting to even out now though. But I do think that there is a huge physical aspect to it and some of that stuff from the website, at least at the general level do seem to be me like something like that might be happening in the process.
As far as 'going too fast' with kundalini, in the yoga schools, there seems to be two basic attitudes towards that issue. One seems to be more like run as fast as you can towards the wonderful enlightenment goal and deal with the aftermath later. No pain no gain, life is short and it's worth it! Another seems to be more like respect the kundalini and be cautious because you could really hurt yourself or go a little or even a lot insane in the membrane if you go too fast. You can read the book by Gopi Krishna for free on the internet to get an idea of possible physical side effects. I don't know if any school is fully in just one camp without considering the other camp, but you'll see quite a lot of variation between which side a group tends towards in that regard. You'll find that like any subject, there tends to be a lot of between group disagreements and angst over all kinds of things including little tiny picayune stuff, so it can be hard to separate wheat from chaff.
But I can certainly see how one might find it hard to resist that oh so good feeling that is like nectar of the gods and want to reach for it hell be damned like Gopi Krishna did that one time. The thing is, I think we as a society know close to nothing about what is going on exactly. Seems like the enlightenment systems have figured out ways that for some will yield a kind of evolution but knowledge of the specifics of what is going on is badly lacking. Yes, I can certainly understand concerns about getting attached to side effects and weird sensations for fear of getting wrapped up in that to the neglect of further progress, but on the flip side, I am not sure that long term, to completely dismiss all those weird things as not important and to stifle curiosity about them completely is the best way to understanding and long term evolution as a society in general.
Oh yeah and edited to add: I also think that at least sometimes, you have to actually ask a senior person in a group if you want information on kundalini and/or more 'advanced' types of information. Otherwise even if they have more information, they can sometimes assume you are not there yet or not ready or not interested so why bother.