Kundalini: Spiritual Perception and the Higher Element of Life

by Rudolf Steiner, Andreas Meyer (Introduction), M. Barton (Translator)

In Hindu tradition, the concept of kundalini refers to a form of primal energy located at the base of the spine. Through traditional Eastern methods, efforts were made to 'awaken' the kundalini in order to achieve transformed consciousness. Rudolf Steiner offers an entirely new perspective, integrating the kundalini idea into his spiritual philosophy. This anthology contains all relevant comments and notes by Steiner on the theme, highlighting how his thinking evolved. At the same time, it accentuates the differences – and similarities – between Western and Eastern spiritual paths, and in the process reveals what is new and original about Steiner's esoteric teachings.In contrast to most yoga traditions – which cultivate the energy rising from the lower life centre – the Western path of esoteric schooling starts in our upper centre of consciousness, in thinking and the 'I'. From there, the centre of experience is shifted downward, from the head to the heart. After development of the 'new heart centre', as Rudolf Steiner describes it, forces can be guided consciously and, through specific exercises, the 'kundalini snake' can be fully awoken. In his detailed introduction, editor Andreas Meyer distils the perspectives and instructions from Steiner's complete works, presenting a valuable synopsis for our understanding and practice of meditation today.Chapters 'The Meaning of Meditation, and the Six Exercises'; 'Developing and Cleansing the Lotus Flowers'; 'The Snake Symbol'; 'The Kundalini Fire'; 'The Kundalini Light'; 'Developing the New Heart Organ'; 'The Reversal in Thinking and Will'; 'Specific Aspects of Kundalini Schooling'; 'Transforming Physical Love and the Division of the Sexes'; 'Breathing, the Light-Soul Process, and the New Yoga Will'; 'The Polarity of Light and Love' and 'Transforming the Kundalini Fire into Fraternity'.

174 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 25, 2019

About the author

Author also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...


Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions,  differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.