On full enlightenment

Assumptions

This paper assumes that our mind is embedded in our body and that its functioning is best understood in terms of its distribution across body areas; more precisely, the idea is that our nervous system branches out in the body through a set of seven hubs, also known as chakras or gates. The job of these gates is to take in energy, or force, give it out and integrate inflow and outflow (see Fig. 1).

In addition, this paper also supposes that full enlightenment is obtained when two conditions are met: 1) the practitioner’s seventh gate is open; 2) the practitioner has succeeded in mastering the force at each gate. That is to say, the integration process has reached completion.

Please, focus on the adjective ‘full’, as it opposes to partial. 

Typically, partial enlightenment involves incomplete and fragmentary opening of the chakras. Partial enlightenment may create problems because the opening bestows energetic gifts, or powers, on who has not (been) perfected yet. As a consequence, those powers may turn out to be an hinderance along the path to full realization.

Ancient spiritual masters warned their trainees not to search for any chakra opening out of greed for the associated gift or power; for example, Patañjali in his Yogasūtra, Chapter 3, sutra 37, states:

                  te samādāhv-upasargā[ḥ]-vyutthānesiddhayaḥ

They (= these powers) are impediments to samadhi (= full enlightenment), but are acquisitions in a normal fluctuating state of mind[1]. 

Good. We have a three-point list by now: 1) enlightenment comes as a set of spiritual gifts or powers; 2) no one should desire such powers; 3) full enlightenment amounts to integration completion through opening of the seventh gate. So, the question is:  

How does the seventh chakra open?

For some time now, in Western countries, the most popular answer has been something like this: When the force lying dormient at chakra number one wakes up and climbs up the chakra ladder, and reaches the seventh chakra in full might, and all the lower numbered chakras are integrated, well, at the moment, the seventh chakra opens up in full bloom, and you feel as if you have a thousand-petal lotus on your head. In short, Westerners tend to see enlightenment as a bottom-up process. So, the second question is:

What if integration and opening were also and foremost a top-down process? What if the force, the energy, the power we need to open our chakras came from the dormient energy at the base of the spine as for our personal life force, but from above with respect to universal spiritual forces?

What if these two forces must meet across our gates, and find a point of stabilization at each rung on the ladder, in order for us to be at peace?

Going up and down the ladder

Actually, if you take a closer look at figure 1, you’ll see that an integrated bottom-up and top-down opening process could well be the way. Integration and enlightenment might result from consistent, gradual unlocking of the seventh gate and consequent retuning of lower-level chakras and related energies. The seventh gate would open partway, from ajar to wideopen, as if along a spectrum and integration would advance correspondingly.  

Supposing that is the picture, integration comes off as a parallel process, where a top-down flow carrying spiritual energies meets a bottom-up flow of ascending life energies and cools it down at six different body areas. The goal of such parallel distributed integration process would be for us to detected, realize and accept all the narratives about who we are and what we have done at each level. These narratives shape our self-identity and are anchored to our body. The tricky part of our spiritual journey – or better: our job in enlightenment – would be to discover and let go all of the anchors.

So, the final question is:

Couldn’t it be that if one concentrates too much on practices stimulating the base of their spine – or any other personal ability – what they get is not enlightenment through spiritual gifts but a new form of anchoring through enhanced personal power?

Jung’s skyscraper

Carl Gustav Jung foresaw the dangers of regarding spiritual powers as something to be exploited at a conference he held on 2 November 1932. In his speech, he explained that Western application of Eastern practices runs the risk of mistakenly identifying personal and cosmic energies.

Jung compared the system of chakras to a skyscraper. The foundations of the building are in the ground and that ground is our person. The ground contains chakras number 1 to 6.  But the skyscraper is much higher: it extends out of the ground and goes up reaching for the sky. That’s gate number 7, which is beyond our personal control and power, and is not stuck in our individual perspectives and narratives.

When people desire enlightenment as a form of personal power, then, even if they are able to go up as far as to reaching the opening of the six chakra (also called third eye), they are still trapped at the bottom of the ladder, in what Jung calls cosmic mooladhara (C.J. Jung, The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga. Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932 by C.G. Jung, Routledge, Oxford 1999).

Not being able to deny oneself seems to stay in the way of our spiritual journey and mislead us into thinking that personal light is universal light. As a matter of fact, before we are able to sail off tasting some proper spiritual gale, we need to put aside our ego and our will of power, or else we'll be stuck in the first chakra and its functioning mode, which clings to attachment and personal power [2].

The evil eye

The first gate manages our life force, our bios. It is where we sit in shadow and are innately driven to crave for super powers and perfection. It is a spiritual centre that draws energies from below, and prompts us to search for perfect application of rules of conduct, flawless liturgy and absolute prayers.

Seizing upon the energies of the first gate to open the third eye results in lifting its functioning mode up to our forehead – we let our desire to direct our spiritual life and start longing for spiritual knowledge and authority. Some practitioners might even think they have them.

The problem with drawing upon energies from below is that our light turns into darkness and our divine vision into spiritual blindness:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is simple, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Mt 6: 22-23).

Born from above

People lifting their mooladhara up to their forehead are stuck at the base of their spine and run the risk of ascending to the sixth chakra just to be “left like a flagstaff on the top of the mountain, like a signal on a hill” (Is 30: 17cd). As illustrated in Figure 2, one can parallel energies from below to our left index finger and energies from above to our right hand encompassing that finger.

You can think of true wisdom as the right hand. It is the hand of God that comes from above. It crowns the index finger (that is, a human being) and creates them anew. Alternatively, you can look at the mudra in terms of a woman encircling a man with his glory:

“The LORD has created a new thing on earth: a woman encompasses a man” (Jer 31: 22b). As it is written: “A strong wife is the crown of her husband” (Pr 12: 4), for “woman is the glory of man”(1Cor 11:7).

The point is that there are two women here. Two types of wisdom - false wisdom is “earthly, psychophysical (psychikos), devilish” (Jm 3, 15) and comes from below, while true wisdom is  “peaceable, willing to yield, full of mercy” (Jm 3, 17) and comes from above.

One last way to taste the spiritual meaning of the mudra is to resort to the image of a sacred wedding playing out between God and humankind. The right hand would be the bedchamber, also called God’s tent, the index finger would be the old man, who is limited and varies according to culture, gender, religion and time; what ensues from their integration would be the groom, the new man, who is just one, the only-begotten Son, the anointed:

“The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. In them, he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man run his course with joy” (Ps 19: 1.4c-5).

Conclusions

This paper has argued that the power we need to open our third eye and keep it simple comes from above. The dormient energy at the base of the spine is our personal life force, our bios, stimulating it without cooling it down with energies coming from above makes us to “lift up our horn in pride” and “speak with a stiff neck” (Ps 75: 5), walking in vanity.

‍

"All that is in the world - the desire of the eyes, the desire of the flesh, the pride of the life force (bios) - comes not from the Father but from the world" (1Jn 2: 16)

"Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer walk as the gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind (nous). They are darkened in their rational thinking (dianoia), alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart" (Eph 4: 17-18).

"For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it" (Rm 8: 20).

"Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls in vain" (Ps 24: 3-4).

‍

‍

‍

[1] English translation adapted from, Yoga Sutra Study, https://yogasutrastudy.info/yoga-sutra-translations/ysp-sutras3-21-3-40/)

[2] I elaborated on Jung's psychological interpretation of Kundalini-Yoga in A. Damiani (2020), Il grattacielo di Jung e la Pentecoste, in De Anima, vol. XV, l'Ombra, Moretti & Vitali, pp. 64-74.

‍