There is a new priest at our church who, somehow, often happens to speak about what I am reading. The fact that I often read about religion mitigates these circumstances somewhat, but still, there are a lot of religious issues out there. This Sunday was no different, with one exception: while his talk mirrored what I had read at the cabin last week, it wandered into another area that caused me to choose another book. That is, that the present now has led to the future through him. On the face of it, that is meaningless, but this is how I picked out the book, Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality, by Philip St.Romain:
The priest, a foreigner with very conservative views, slipped from discussing 'making God be part of all of our lives' to discussing the evils of chakras, kundalini and yoga, pronouncing without exception that these ideas and practices would lead us to Satan. I could hear the murmur of confusion as he said it, which mirrored my own thoughts. I have read several priests, both living and dead, who have praised many aspects of Eastern religion in the last century, including Thomas Merton, Fr Bede, and Fr. Keating, all well-known writers in good standing with the Catholic Church. But I did not think of Fr. Keating at the time of my choice of book. Rather, I was looking for something on the holy that was not hide-bound, and saw Keating in my Kindle library. Clicking on him, I saw the "what readers bought who also bought Keating," blurb and there was St. Romain's book. Ah, just what the doctor ordered!
So it was that I was brought back into the confusing realm of ecumenicism, where even the priests of the Church disagree on what passes for "holy."
And back to Eastern religion. Regarding chakras and kundalini and the like, I had gotten very interested in such things after, in my glorious youth, I had taken a tab of real, nearly pure LSD and was literally knocked off my socks by a blast of energy that traveled up my spine and exploded in a white light in my head (described in my book Dream Weaver). It was then, for a while, that I thought I knew everything, as revelation after revelation poured in. However, such enlightenment did not hold - as I found was most likely, after reading about this power. It has to be nurtured, and the body (ideally) strengthened by yoga exercises. That is what yoga is really for.
This energy is not to be toyed with. It happened that Fr Keating gave an introduction to this book, written by a man - St. Romain- who was (and is) a model Catholic, and who had no intention of awakening, or even any knowledge of, kundalini energy. It happened gradually through his standard prayer routines. Says Keating: this energy is a higher body energy, not the work of the Holy Spirit, but something like the added strength that occurs to males at adolescence: it grants great power which can be used for both good and evil. The spiritual teachers of the East know this, says Keating, and so prepare the disciple first both physically and morally before helping to stir this energy. He notes how infamous gurus "somehow" can use this energy to control disciples for their own selfish means. It may, then, indeed help the work of the devil (of evil) - but it may also do the work of God. It is power, simply put, that has to be controlled.
So, as bigoted as the local priest may seem, he has a point, but that only goes so far. This is the conundrum of ecumenicism for the modern religious leader: before he can condemn or extol another religion, he must first understand it. To do that requires an open mind. Lacking that, bias will rule out. Good religions were inspired by holy people, but were formed by society at large. Societies necessarily prefer their own truth over others; prejudice then forms, and is often validated by a slanted or incomplete view. But the antithesis, which we now see happening at an alarming rate in our own society, is also dangerous: because it is foreign does NOT make it good, or at least does not make it immediately applicable to our society. It must first be understood in the context from which it came, and then appraised for its applicability here (the Aztec sacrifices would probably never be applicable here, or at least I hope so).
So much for religion and culture. The fact is that kundalini energy is real, and that, when it happens here, it may well be misunderstood as insanity (or the devil). Like many other things of the body, it often just happens. But, unlike acid indigestion, it is a power that can bring one to the portals of the ultimate. St. Romain's account so far is fascinating. There will be much more of it in the next blog. It is a frightening account, and we find that this great energy creates no easy path - but then again, the path to enlightenment has never been portrayed as easy by any priests, be they Christian, Hindu, or Siberian shamans. FK
The priest, a foreigner with very conservative views, slipped from discussing 'making God be part of all of our lives' to discussing the evils of chakras, kundalini and yoga, pronouncing without exception that these ideas and practices would lead us to Satan. I could hear the murmur of confusion as he said it, which mirrored my own thoughts. I have read several priests, both living and dead, who have praised many aspects of Eastern religion in the last century, including Thomas Merton, Fr Bede, and Fr. Keating, all well-known writers in good standing with the Catholic Church. But I did not think of Fr. Keating at the time of my choice of book. Rather, I was looking for something on the holy that was not hide-bound, and saw Keating in my Kindle library. Clicking on him, I saw the "what readers bought who also bought Keating," blurb and there was St. Romain's book. Ah, just what the doctor ordered!
So it was that I was brought back into the confusing realm of ecumenicism, where even the priests of the Church disagree on what passes for "holy."
And back to Eastern religion. Regarding chakras and kundalini and the like, I had gotten very interested in such things after, in my glorious youth, I had taken a tab of real, nearly pure LSD and was literally knocked off my socks by a blast of energy that traveled up my spine and exploded in a white light in my head (described in my book Dream Weaver). It was then, for a while, that I thought I knew everything, as revelation after revelation poured in. However, such enlightenment did not hold - as I found was most likely, after reading about this power. It has to be nurtured, and the body (ideally) strengthened by yoga exercises. That is what yoga is really for.
This energy is not to be toyed with. It happened that Fr Keating gave an introduction to this book, written by a man - St. Romain- who was (and is) a model Catholic, and who had no intention of awakening, or even any knowledge of, kundalini energy. It happened gradually through his standard prayer routines. Says Keating: this energy is a higher body energy, not the work of the Holy Spirit, but something like the added strength that occurs to males at adolescence: it grants great power which can be used for both good and evil. The spiritual teachers of the East know this, says Keating, and so prepare the disciple first both physically and morally before helping to stir this energy. He notes how infamous gurus "somehow" can use this energy to control disciples for their own selfish means. It may, then, indeed help the work of the devil (of evil) - but it may also do the work of God. It is power, simply put, that has to be controlled.
So, as bigoted as the local priest may seem, he has a point, but that only goes so far. This is the conundrum of ecumenicism for the modern religious leader: before he can condemn or extol another religion, he must first understand it. To do that requires an open mind. Lacking that, bias will rule out. Good religions were inspired by holy people, but were formed by society at large. Societies necessarily prefer their own truth over others; prejudice then forms, and is often validated by a slanted or incomplete view. But the antithesis, which we now see happening at an alarming rate in our own society, is also dangerous: because it is foreign does NOT make it good, or at least does not make it immediately applicable to our society. It must first be understood in the context from which it came, and then appraised for its applicability here (the Aztec sacrifices would probably never be applicable here, or at least I hope so).
So much for religion and culture. The fact is that kundalini energy is real, and that, when it happens here, it may well be misunderstood as insanity (or the devil). Like many other things of the body, it often just happens. But, unlike acid indigestion, it is a power that can bring one to the portals of the ultimate. St. Romain's account so far is fascinating. There will be much more of it in the next blog. It is a frightening account, and we find that this great energy creates no easy path - but then again, the path to enlightenment has never been portrayed as easy by any priests, be they Christian, Hindu, or Siberian shamans. FK
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