Steph S:
My practice for a long time now has been pretty much been vipassana and shamatha, mostly influenced by instructions in the Pali suttas and some texts written by Thai Forest folks. It's going well and all. Although recently my curiosity has been sparked by a Kundalini yoga class at a studio in town. The teacher uses kriyas and is pretty awesome with the gong. I have only been to one class of hers so far, but before I really dive into it I wanted to check with you all...has anyone here practiced Kundalini yoga as an addition to their vipassana and shamatha practice? Have you found it a good compliment, or that it doesn't make much difference, or does it have adverse effects when things are generally smooth? I can't say I've done all that much to learn everything ever about the chakras and all that heavily energy oriented work before... apparently she has an upcoming series on the chakras.
Thanks!
Steph
Hi Steph,
I am a vipassana/samatha practitioner myself. I learned the practice in the Goenka tradition but for years I sit to simply cultivate awareness and equanimity, no scanning. For me it means being aware of bodily sensations and thoughts or emotions when they arise, wherever the attention goes on it's own I guess, and opening up to that. I see it as bare awareness that 'does' the letting go, or unties the knots (one by one)
I've also had an inconsistent hatha yoga practice over the years that was supportive of the meditation when I was more regular about it
Regarding kundalini yoga, I would say it would support meditation very much, in the same way that Qi Gong might, or other energy work
The only caveat I would throw out is that I never found a kundalini yoga teacher that actually had personal experience with kundalini (though there are certainly plenty of turbans and gongs to go around). I didn't practice kundalini yoga, but I searched for a knowledgable teacher for some time years ago after a spontaneous kundalini awakening as I really needed guidance. No one I could locate knew anything about it, and I contacted loads of supposed senior teachers. I live in the SF Bay area, the mecca for yoga and all things woo, so that seemed weird
The pranayama practices (IME and from my studies) are great ways to 'clear' the heavier energies in the body, as is fasting and hatha yoga inversions. Problems may arise however if you actually awaken your kundalini through practice (which is the point as I understand). But if you are interested in that at all, I would just triple check out the teacher. In Taoist terms many of the kundalini yoga exercises might be termed more 'fire' practice, as opposed to 'water'
Fire stirs things up, water is gentler. That's the type of work I do because activated kundalini goes apeshit with the energy system, pretty much on it's own. I also wouldn't recommend anyone actively try to open their kundalini, it can be, um, not so fun. But I think that is much more common on longer meditation retreats than in the context of your standard kundalini yoga class