美食祈祷与恋爱意大利文化 《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 46 (98):瑜伽轮穴

《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 46 (98):瑜伽轮穴  

In Indian Yogic tradition
this divine secret is called kundalini shakti and is depicted as a snake who lies coiled at the base of the spine until it is released by a master's touch or by a miracle
and which then ascends up through seven chakras
or wheels (which you might also call the seven mansions of the soul)
and finally through the head
exploding into union with God. These chakras do not exist in the gross body
say the Yogis
so don't look for them there; they exist only in the subtle body
in the body that the Buddhist teachers are referring to when they encourage their students to pull forth a new self from the physical body the way you pull a sword from its sheath. My friend Bob
who is both a student of Yoga and a neuros-cientist
told me that he was always agitated by this idea of the chakras
that he wanted to ac-tually see them in a dissected human body in order to believe they existed. But after a particu-larly transcendent meditative experience
he came away with a new understanding of it. He said
"Just as there exists in writing a literal truth and a poetic truth
there also exists in a hu-man being a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy. One
you can see; one
you cannot. One is made of bones and teeth and flesh; the other is made of energy and memory and faith. But they are both equally true."
I like it when science and devotion find places of intersection. I found an article in The New York Times recently about a team of neurologists who had wired up a volunteer Tibetan monk for experimental brain-scanning. They wanted to see what happens to a transcendent mind
scientifically speaking
during moments of enlightenment. In the mind of a normal think-ing person
an electrical storm of thoughts and impulses whirls constantly
registering on a brain scan as yellow and red flashes. The more angry or impassioned the subject bees
the hotter and deeper those red flashes burn. But mystics across time and cultures have all described a stilling of the brain during meditation
and say that the ultimate union with God is a blue light which they can feel radiating from the center of their skulls. In Yogic tradition
this is called "the blue pearl
" and it is the goal of every seeker to find it. Sure enough
this Tibetan monk
monitored during meditation
was able to quiet his mind so pletely that no red or yellow flashes could be seen. In fact
all the neurological energy of this gentleman pooled and collected at last into the center of his brain—you could see it happening right there on the monitor—into a small
cool
blue pearl of light. Just like the Yogis have always described.
This is the destination of the kundalini shakti.
此即“昆达利尼莎克蒂”的终极目标。
In mystical India
as in many shamanistic traditions
kundalini shakti is considered a dan-gerous force to play around with if you are unsupervised; the inexperienced Yogi could quite literally blow his mind with it. You need a teacher—a Guru—to guide you on this path
and ideally a safe place—an Ashram—from which to practice. It is said to be the Guru's touch (either literally in person
or through a more supernatural encounter
like a dream) which re-leases the bound kundalini energy from its coil at the base of the spine and allows it to begin journeying upward toward God. This moment of release is called shaktipat
divine initiation
and it is the greatest gift of an enlightened master. After that touch
the student might still labor for years toward enlightenment
but the journey has at least begun. The energy has been freed.