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Understanding Kan & Li in Taoist Alchemy in terms of Godai and Kundalini,
from a Facebook Post by Tao Semko in response to a series of student questions.
Student Query:
“Tao
I know I should probably know this but what is the
Lesser Kan & Li ??
Greater Kan & Li ??
Greatest Kan & Li ??
How do they pertain to Kundalini? …
Thank you”
Tao Semko February 11, 2010 at 10:11am:
“In terms of Taoist alchemy, Mantak gives excellent definitions.
There are practices to achieve each of those realizations/ energy flows, and there are the realizations/ energy flows themselves… so, you can have a Lesser Kan and Li practice, (edit: without yet having achieved the Lesser “enlightenment” of Kan and Li) just like you can have a microcosmic orbit practice, even if you can’t yet achieve the fullness of the flow…
To correlate the Taoist alchemical definitions with the Godai/ chakra system used in Hindu, Buddhist, and Greek systems,
In the Lesser Enlightenment of Kan & Li, kundalini has pierced the bindu (center point of emptiness/bliss awareness) at the center of each of the first 4 or 5 chakras: earth, water, fire, air, and possibly the throat center as well… A deep shift has occurred towards transpersonal consciousness, oneness with one’s fellow man, expansion into a feeling of freedom, and deep compassion for one’s fellow man and all sentient consciousnesses… Realization of Compassion and Interconnectedness of all things. The 6th and 7th chakras may have quite a bit of prana/chi, or none at all, depending on the practitioner and practices, but the bindus of the 6th and 7th chakras have not been pierced yet. However, there may still be minor siddhis in those chakras from the chi development in the “outer layers of the onion” in those chakras. Sometimes people think that because they have psychic vision, their third eye is wide open — but it’s only a crack in the window shade, so to speak…
In the Greater Enlightenment of Kan & Li, kundalini proceeds to pierce the 6th chakra, resulting in deep states of unified consciousness, and non-dual awareness of the individual personality not being inherently separated from that which is “other.” Deep absorptions occur almost spontaneously…
Kundalini takes on a more electrical feeling, and a deep awareness of the clear-light emptiness within the central channel arises. “Self Realization” may occur- the experiential realization that your consciousness, as a drop of universal consciousness, transcends the sum of your body and personality,
In the Greatest Enlightenment of Kan & Li, kundalini proceeds to pierce the crown center, and the central channel within the body merges with and widens the antakharana (“bridge of light”) stretching from the crown upwards into the higher chakras outside of the physical body…. A new and different experience of oneness with the cosmos, and the unmanifest consciousness beyond the cosmos, takes place. “God Realization,” so to speak – the droplet that merges with the cosmic ocean and experiences itself as “ocean” rather than “droplet”. Immortality of Consciousness.
then, continuing to follow the standard formulas of Taoist Alchemy, we have the re-integration, from cosmic consciousness into human consciousness:
Reunification of Heaven and Man (or Woman):
Kundalini re-descends from above the crown, through Amrit Nadi (edit: or through various central-channel pathways), to the Sacred Heart (Hrit Padma), at the 2nd dan’tien. The “Return to the Heart” – integration of one’s experience of humanity and compassion with the sense of cosmic oneness experienced during the Greatest Kan and Li….
Then it returns to the lower dan’tien, integrating one’s own sense of individual humanity with the voidness….
If one lets go and surrenders all thoughts and emotions, surrendering even bliss, while maintaining equipoise, one can slip into Nirbija Samadhi (absorption without object) before returning to Sabija Samadhi (absorption in the object of meditation, or absorption in a particular karmic seed) during either of these stages…
Reunification of Heaven and Earth:
kundalini continues to reconnect downwards through the roots into mother earth and the deeper chakras below the physical body. Man becomes a bridge between heaven and earth.
Once consciousness and energy form this full continuum between heaven, man, and earth, then one’s focus moves back to the dan’tiens, to the natural evolution and involution of thoughts, emotions, energies, karmas, from the emptiness and to the emptiness… the standard meditations of Cha’an or Zen or Mahamudra, or Dzogchen, which have infinitely more power now that the kundalini pathway is open.
Kundalini no longer appears linear, or even a loop now, but is realized as multi-dimensional, moving in mobius loops, streams, elipses, figure eights, lightning bolts, in and out of time and space, connecting the body’s kundalini to the kundalini of the ground and atmosphere, and the kundalini streams of the cosmos and unmanifest absolute itself, within and without… it can be directed by placement of your awareness to further unify and clear out the chakras, meridians, peripheral nervous system, past life issues, etc as you practice…”
Student Comment:
“I have never seen these correspondences made outside of Glenn Morris’ circle. Where do they come from?”
Tao Semko responded:
“Performing the esoteric practices of many different cultures, which result in universal experiences.
Paying attention to cause and effect in each practice (basis and resultant),
and reading and comparing our experiences with historical commentaries on each practice,
again paying attention to similarities in commentaries on the expected results on consciousness and energy and understanding the shadow language and metaphors.
Dr Morris did this in his original KAP program with Nei Gong and Internal Alchemy practices, vs zazen, kriya yoga, laya yoga practices, and raja yoga practices in from Zen, Hinduism and Mikkyo tantric buddhism.
Since then we’ve continued to explore, noting experiential correspondences in the mysticism these and other cultures (Native American, Bonpo, Tibetan tantric buddhism, Sufi, Western Alchemy, Esoteric Christian, Cabbalic, Sumerian, Babylonian, etc.)
Taking an author’s word, or a master’s word, as authoritative, is not the same as experiencing reality for yourself.
So I invite you to verify everything I said in the above correspondences for yourself, in your own practices!”
