Kundalini and the Energy Body — AI-generated illustration.
Being Yoga focuses on spiritual awakening in the Vedantic tradition, particularly Advaita Vedanta, expressed through my teaching of Knowing via Being. Kundalini and Samkhya offer related perspectives worth understanding. They have their own histories and teachings; their overlaps with Vedanta do not make them interchangeable with Advaita.
This article explores Kundalini Yoga, its subtle-body language and the philosophy of Samkhya, then considers where these meet—and where they differ from—the nondual inquiry at the heart of Being Yoga. Body-feeling and natural breath can support that inquiry without making an extraordinary energetic experience a requirement for Self-knowledge.
For that context, begin with the Spiritual Awakening guide. The connections offered here are James Traverse’s contemplative interpretation, with the traditions distinguished along the way. It offers a gentle starting point rather than a method for forcing an energetic event.
What is kundalini?
Kundalini, also written Kuṇḍalinī, is associated with the image of something coiled. In traditional accounts, Kundalini Shakti is represented as a coiled serpent at the root of the subtle body. Awakening is described as her ascent through the central channel toward union with Shiva at the crown. Swami Sivananda’s account of Kundalini Yoga presents this traditional language.
The serpent imagery conveys potential, movement and transformation. It is a way of speaking about subtle experience and a sacred understanding of life. The word does not name a physical snake or a substance that can simply be extracted and measured.
Shakti names power or creative expression; Shiva, in this context, names consciousness. Their relationship offers a way to contemplate activity and stillness together.
What does Kundalini Yoga include?
The term can refer broadly to yogic approaches concerned with Kundalini Shakti. It is also used by particular modern schools with their own sequences and teaching methods. A class labelled “Kundalini Yoga” does not identify one universally agreed practice.
Traditional approaches may include posture, breath practice, mantra, meditation, mudra and bandha, alongside ethical preparation and disciplined living. A balanced account attends to the whole person. The Himalayan Institute’s explanation emphasizes this integrated preparation rather than a merely mechanical use of techniques.
Before joining a class, ask which tradition the teacher follows, how practices are adapted and whether rest is welcomed. An appropriate teacher can explain both the intention and the limits of an exercise. Permission to stop is part of attentive practice.
Kundalini teachings are especially associated with Tantric and yogic traditions, including approaches within Hatha Yoga. Some are taught within nondual frameworks, but nonduality also has different formulations. A teaching about Shiva and Shakti should not automatically be treated as a statement of Advaita Vedanta. The Himalayan Institute’s account, for example, places its discussion within Sri Vidya Tantra.
What is Samkhya?
Samkhya—also spelled Sankhya, Sanskrit Sāṃkhya—is a classical Indian philosophical system closely associated with classical Yoga. Its central distinction is between purusha, consciousness, and prakriti, nature. Prakriti includes mind and intellect as well as the body and material world.
Classical Samkhya recognizes multiple purushas and treats consciousness and nature as distinct realities. Liberation concerns discerning their difference and ceasing to mistake nature’s activity for the Self. Its account of nature includes the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. See the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s introduction to Samkhya for background.
Samkhya is a philosophical framework, not another name for Kundalini Yoga. Its vocabulary helps explain aspects of classical Yoga, while kundalini teachings concern particular accounts of subtle power and practice. Shared language does not establish one common doctrine.
Where does Advaita differ?
Advaita Vedanta points to the identity of Atman and Brahman. In this inquiry, consciousness and the world are not two independently existing ultimate realities. Appearances are experienced, yet their existence is dependent: the language of mithya helps us speak of this without simply denying experience.
Discerning awareness from a changing thought can be useful in both inquiries. Their conclusions differ. Classical Samkhya maintains the distinction between purusha and prakriti; Advaita examines the assumption of ultimate separation itself. A similar starting question does not mean that the destination or understanding is identical.
In Being Yoga, I welcome these conversations while keeping the focus on Vedantic Self-knowledge. Knowing via Being invites direct, lived understanding of what you are—wisdom that includes and transcends intellectual knowledge. Kundalini experiences and Samkhya’s distinctions can be considered within that exploration, without making either the defining framework of this site.
For a fuller explanation of purusha, prakriti and the philosophical comparison, read Sankhya and Spiritual Awakening: Its Relationship to Advaita Vedanta.
The subtle-body vocabulary
A few terms help make the traditional map readable:
- Prana: the life-force spoken of in yoga.
- Nadi: a channel in the subtle-body account.
- Sushumna: the central channel associated with kundalini’s ascent.
- Ida and Pingala: two other principal channels described alongside Sushumna.
- Chakra: a centre within a subtle-body map.
- Mantra: a sound or phrase used in practice.
- Mudra and bandha: gestures and locks used in some yogic methods.
These terms belong to a traditional contemplative framework. They should not be casually equated with nerves, glands or measured electromagnetic fields. A relationship proposed between two maps is not the same as establishing that they describe identical structures.
A familiar chakra map
A common presentation describes six centres along the subtle axis and Sahasrara at the crown. Other traditions use different arrangements. The following gives orientation, not a diagnostic chart or an instruction to manipulate these areas.
| Centre | Traditional region | Being Yoga inquiry offered here |
|---|---|---|
| Muladhara | Root or base | Can I feel support without demanding certainty? |
| Svadhishthana | Pelvic region | Can sensation move without becoming my identity? |
| Manipura | Navel region | Can action be clear without being driven by self-proving? |
| Anahata | Heart region | Can listening include another person fully? |
| Vishuddha | Throat region | Can speech emerge from listening? |
| Ajna | Brow region | Can I notice an interpretation before believing it? |
| Sahasrara | Crown | Can openness remain free of a boundary I imagine around myself? |
The regions and names are drawn from the traditional map; the questions are contemporary Being Yoga reflections, not translations of chakra doctrine. See the Himalayan Institute’s chakra teachings for further traditional context.
Kundalini and the Energy Body in Being Yoga
In my teaching, we approach the energy body through what it does and how it is felt. We can listen to vitality, expansion, contraction, readiness and the subtle organization of movement. Description comes after the encounter.
Consider descending a flight of stairs when there is one more or one less step than you are aware of. Your movement is already organized around an expectation. The physical body abruptly registers the actual situation. I use this as an invitation to feel how movement is being led before we describe the finished action.
The example points toward my use of the term energy body. It does not, by itself, establish a scientific explanation of the event. Its practical value is to turn attention toward the living organization of experience.
In this approach, a posture is a field of listening. Feel the beginning of the movement, the breath accompanying it and the response of the whole body. If you try to impose a shape while ignoring that response, the practice loses its sensitivity.
Jean Klein’s emphasis on body-feeling is an important influence here. The direction is toward allowing sensitivity to unfold rather than commanding the body to produce a spiritual result. Explore Energy Body Yoga and Feeling Space and the Breath as Bridge.
Source and expression are not-two
In the contemplative connection I offer here, Shakti’s language of dynamic expression becomes an invitation to feel life’s movement. From Being Yoga’s Advaita perspective, Knowing via Being asks us to recognize Source without making it a separate object behind that expression. This is my teaching connection, rather than a definition shared by all kundalini traditions.
A whirlpool has movement and apparent individuality. Yet the river is not elsewhere while the whirlpool appears. The movement is the river expressing itself in that form.
In the same way, Brahman and its appearances are not-two. An energetic appearance need not be rejected in order to recognize Source. Neither does it need to be made into a permanent possession.
Vedanta and tantric kundalini teachings have distinct vocabularies and histories. The connection offered here is a contemplative conversation between them, not a claim that every tradition teaches the same method. Within Being Yoga, Atman and Brahman can name inside and limitless lenses, while limitation belongs to identification rather than to a second substance.
Is a kundalini experience the same as spiritual awakening?
Some people describe intense sensations, movement, heat, emotion or changes in perception as kundalini experiences. Such reports deserve careful listening. A sensation alone cannot tell us its cause, and an online checklist cannot establish what is happening to a particular person.
In Being Yoga, spiritual awakening concerns recognition of our nonseparate nature. An energetic event may accompany inquiry, but intensity is not a reliable measure of recognition. Quiet understanding can be easily overlooked when the imagined goal is a dramatic experience.
Ask what happens after an experience: is there greater sensitivity, steadier participation and room for another person? Or has “my awakening” become another story to protect? These questions keep the teaching close to life.
Ordinary responsibilities continue to matter. Rest, work, friendship and the ability to respond to circumstances are part of integration. An experience need not be diminished in order to be placed in that wider setting.
A gentle practice of body-feeling and presence
- Choose a comfortable position with support. Keep your eyes open if that helps you remain settled.
- Notice contact with the floor or chair. Hear the room around you.
- Allow breathing to find its own rhythm. Do not add breath-holding or rapid breathing.
- Feel the hands, feet and torso together, without searching for a special sensation.
- Make one small, comfortable movement. Notice the readiness before movement and the response afterward.
- Ask: “Can this experience be felt without turning it into an achievement?”
- Finish by looking around, standing if comfortable and returning to an ordinary activity.
This is a Being Yoga listening practice, not a kundalini-induction sequence. There is no need to visualize energy travelling upward or force a sensation to match a diagram.
Care, pacing and qualified support
Approach demanding breathing exercises, prolonged retention and intensive retreats with qualified guidance. Gentle attention is enough for the practice above. If practice leaves you overwhelmed, pause and return to ordinary support, rest and contact with your surroundings.
Persistent distress, major sleep disruption or symptoms that concern you deserve assessment by a qualified health professional. A spiritual interpretation should not delay that care. NCCIH’s safety guidance notes that difficult experiences can occur in meditation and advises against replacing conventional care.
Some people report healing through yoga and related energy practices. Such accounts can be heard openly without converting them into a promise of cure or a reason to stop treatment. This article leaves inquiry open and makes no therapeutic claim.
Questions readers often ask
Must kundalini be awakened before Self-realization?
Traditions frame this differently. Being Yoga does not set an extraordinary energetic event as an entry requirement for inquiry into Being.
Are chakras physical organs?
They are centres within subtle-body teachings. Anatomical comparisons require care; the maps should not be used to diagnose illness.
How can I explore without chasing experiences?
Begin with body-feeling, natural breath and an honest relationship with everyday life. Let sensitivity guide the pace. An experience can be felt fully without being made into evidence of spiritual rank.
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