The kundalini arises in three forms

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

The kundalini arises in three forms: the para kundalini; the prana kundalini; and the shakti kundalini.

The para kundalini is infinite and universal; it is beyond all qualities, arising as the infinite ocean of consciousness. When the para kundalini folds into the envelope of formation, the prana kundalini arises.

The prana kundalini gives rise to the multiplicity of creation, the diversity of form and consciousness. The prana kundalini is the force of life, vibrating and animating everything in creation.
 
The shakti kundalini is the animate quality of consciousness, the attachment of the life force to the individual conditioned soul. The creation, having entered the envelope of the prana, lives its existence out in the infinite cycles of time on the wheel of samsara, bound by the law of cause and effect.

The guru shakti is the impulse of release from the wheel, triggering the kundalini to travel back to the source of the creation, merging back into the ocean of consciousness. That which has been created is uncreated. The guru shakti is the reset; button of creation.

About Power and Anger

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

Oftentimes we see that when a person first comes into power, the first they do is to play out their anger - 'I finally have enough power to get away with expressing my rage towards the world for every pain I ever experienced.' This is very immature and leads to disaster very quickly. What we're interested in on the Siddha path is a mature and cultivated response to the idea of power and empowerment. You need to bring that force to bear so that it arises as a positive energy in your own life, and then to go even further, and begin to express that energy positively in the world and the lives of all sentient beings.

This is not something that just happens. It has to be willed, it has to be intended, and it involves lots of trial and error. It is the ultimate test that really never ends. Once you begin to understand power and understand that its source arises from the deepest place within you, then it becomes a matter of bringing yourself to have the courage and the ability to express that power and take responsibility for it.

(click for more from this talk given as the follow up to the Joshua Tree 2008 Summer Retreat to visit our Online Store)

Bodhicitta and Enlightenment

The Bodhicitta starts as a methodology to karmically connect you with your own enlightenment. The mind absorbs what it comes into contact with and most people forget to even think about giving rise to enlightenment. When a teacher says, “Give rise to Bodhicitta,” that means to give rise to the enlightened precepts within your mind. By doing this you arouse enlightenment within your system and connect your personal identity to this enlightenment.

The Bodhicitta gives you the ability to come into contact fearlessly with both the positive and negative sides of yourself. As the karma unfolds, there will be a lot of negative stuff that comes out of you—lust, greed, jealousy, anger, envy. As these dark angels of past karmas are released they will haunt you. It's important not to recatch that virus as they are released. It's so easy to become lost in the maelstrom of your own unfoldment.

You must keep the idea of the Bodhicitta high in your heart and bright in your mind. It is the rising sun, the flag of victory going up on the hill, a point of rally. It is one of the tricks to staying on the path with unwavering attention as your karmas unfold.

Bodhicitta

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

Waking up inside this world is a very strange experience. The first thing you see is the unbelievable amount of suffering that takes place here. You think, “Oh yes, the world is a terrible place and there's an enormous amount of suffering,” but most of you still just know this theoretically.

There's an aspect to the process of awakening that puts you in touch with suffering in such a way that it cannot be avoided: the suffering of yourself; the suffering of those around you; the cruel actions that are generated by yourself and those around you; watching this suffering compound itself and generate false understanding and false actions that lead to more suffering. All this must be confronted.
 
This is one of the things that tends to throw travelers on the path. The only thing I've been able to find that is capable of dealing with the vibration of suffering and pain is the bodhicitta.

Why Do We Offer a Dedication at the End of a Meditation?

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

listen to this quote as you read:

And in this way we also always generate a dedication; we offer the merit of the event to all sentient beings. When samadhi is present when the formless nirvikalpa samadhi the pure speech of the creation is present it is boundless and on one level it is present in this room but when we offer it in dedication to the world system it traverses the world and produces an expression of total unity in truth, a total unity in dharma. Uplifting all beings and uplifting ourselves.

If we try to hold it within ourselves we haven’t understood and we think that we have something, we’ve gained something and we don’t want to lose it or if we give it to another person that we are that much diminished but in truth it is much more like a flame lighting another flame.

You can take a flame and light another flame and the original flame is undiminished. This is its nature.

Inside this dedication is a constant idea of generosity and it comes from where we are coming from. If we perceive ourselves as a bound afflicted being then we will see ourselves as being under such and such a situation and having so much. And if we give it away we are diminished by that much. We have lost.

But if we understand ourselves from the absolute sense, experience ourselves from the absolute sense there is no separation no diminishment and all beings are uplifted.

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Excerpt from the Mahasamadhi Retreat - Intersection With The Guru, October 2, 2009

The Self

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

The idea inherent in mysticism is that one uses the substance and constituents of one's own being as a pathway through the creation to connect with the innermost state of the Self.

The idea of the Self is very profound and subtle, and is one of the most recent ideas to have arisen in the scriptures; it refers to that point of union wherein individual identity and universal consciousness meet.

It is the very fabric of your own consciousness and all the qualities of your being that are the vehicle through which you travel for this conversation to occur. Nothing is transcended, nothing is left behind, everything is used.

Swift Water

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

It's the nature of the Guru's grace to keep you in swift water. Thus you must learn to navigate swift water, and this is where the Bodhicitta comes into play. What we consider our lives are the assembly of our perceptions, and the first nexus point of perception is in the Bodhicitta.

The heart and the mind need each other to operate correctly. This is the essence of the Bodhicitta—they are joined together. The mind alone is an imperfect perceiver. The heart alone is an imperfect perceiver. Knit together they begin to function as they were intended to function.

Bodhicitta is the deep, abiding relaxation of heart and mind which doesn't try to control everything but sits open—without fear, without judgment, and deeply accepting. You find yourself at the right spot, at the right time, vividly present as you become excruciatingly awake to every fiber of consciousness.