Energy Moving Through the Body
Energía moviéndose a través del cuerpo
A question about physical sensations during practice, including rushes of energy through the heart and throat, and whether these experiences are normal and how long they last.
Energy Moving Through the Body
A question about physical sensations during practice, including rushes of energy through the heart and throat, and whether these experiences are normal and how long they last.
I wanted to talk about how the body feels, the sort of symptoms. It often feels like some gas or energy rushing up through the heart center, onto the throat, and very often the body feels a bit like a balloon. It's nice, and I don't mind it, but sometimes it just feels a bit strange. I've been experiencing these sorts of symptoms for quite some time now.
My response is that this is very normal. We all experience things differently; there is such variety and complexity of experience, of energetics, and of how each body-mind perceives all of that. But what you describe is very common. When I started having those experiences, I was quite shocked and a little worried. I would talk to my teacher, and he would simply say, "You're following every chapter of the book of spiritual process. This is very standard." He said that in a way meant to remove any interpretation or thinking that something was strange or shouldn't be happening.
In my case, I was also having physical pain symptoms, so I needed to address that in case something else was going on. Physical pain can also be a normal part of a spiritual process, but I needed to rule out anything medical. What you're describing, though, sounds pleasant. It doesn't sound like there's any physical pain: the heart, the movement, the energy, the sense of waves.
How identification blocks natural energy
Our identification process solidifies a lot of energetic activity in the body. This happens very young, and it really blocks much of the natural movement of currents and energies that are otherwise normal and natural. When we start doing this undoing of identification, that energy begins to free up and the nervous system starts to activate. There are aspects of this that move through the organism, through the body, through the cells, through the nervous system, literally. And there are aspects that go beyond the physical. Various traditions map different layers or types of body; I won't go into all of that.
In my experience, it's very real. It's also confirmed by so many people who experience the same thing. And now, increasingly, aspects of it can be measured with modern tools. Shifts that happen in the brain have been recorded, which really confirms that deep, organic changes are taking place. Energies that weren't moving before begin moving through the organism, and that can be measured.
Subjectively, it takes many different forms and colors. It has been referred to as chi in the Chinese tradition, and as kundalini in the yogic tradition. With kundalini, there is the awakening, which is like an event, but kundalini is also the life force itself, constantly moving, activating more or less at different times. Then there are the chakra systems and so on. All of that is very real. What matters is that you know it's a good sign, and that you simply allow it and enjoy it. It can be very pleasurable at times.
Yes, most of the time it's fine, but sometimes it can make me cough, and I can feel like I couldn't move at times. I just had to sit there.
Yes, that can happen.
Does it stop? Is there a point when it will stop? Are you still experiencing this?
Whether it subsides over time
It doesn't stop, but it comes in waves. I think only in death will it stop. What can happen, and there is no standard pattern here, is that it can get very intense and difficult, and then it can stabilize. But there is so much variety that there is no knowing how it will be for you. My teacher had an intuition about me. When I started talking about these things, one day he simply said, "I have a really strong sense you're going to go through a lot of physical pain." Three months later it started, and it was excruciating. He just had that one intuition. But it's still a mystery how it will unfold for you.
What I do know is that when things go well, it's pleasurable. It's aliveness. There's a quality of a soft lovingness.
Yes. For me it feels good in the sense that if there were a blockage somewhere in the body, I wouldn't feel this fluidity. If I'm holding strongly onto some belief somewhere, it blocks the energy from flowing. And for me, I feel like I'm following. There's no blocking. I also feel like some people do yoga, but I don't. I go to the gym instead, and it helps.
Identification as the mechanism of blocking
That's exactly how it is. You are talking about something very insightful and intuitive. You start to realize that when identification with thought happens, when we make thought into something more solid and real than it is, there is a blocking of the energy. That is partly why the blocking occurs: there is a habit of pushing that energy down, and the way it is done is through identification, through going into thought and making thought real, interpreting the image of thought as real. That blocks the energy.
Then you start to taste the difference. You start to realize: when that happens, there is a certain quality to how thought is experienced, a certain quality in the body, a certain tension or contraction. But then you recognize it, you see the thought as thought, and the energy moves again. You realize that dynamic.
Surfing the flow
This is the surfing I talk about. You start to realize that any time you go into a solid mental construct and make it real, it's as if you stiffen up on a wave and go down. Flow happens through constant openness, constant movement, a constant refusal to solidify thought. When the flowing happens, this is the famous "action in inaction," doing without doing.
I'm happy to hear things are going well.