Yoga Psychology and The Serpent Flame

All of us have patterns and habits. Yoga psychology states that how we think, feel and perceive the world is founded deeply on previous life choices and actions, which in turn, have lent shape to the current caste of our mind and experience in this one.

Called samskaras, or cognitive traces, these mental grooves create habitual patterns (vasanas) that draw us towards, and away from certain experiences repeatedly. You can intellectually identify these patterns, but changing them is much harder given their deep-seated rooting in the psyche and subtle energetic body.

The expression and specificity of these patterns is in turn shaped by the components of our being which are encoded in our elemental makeup. These four elemental qualities (tattwas), also the product of karmic tendencies, influence our physiology, mentality and emotions.

All of these qualities (samskaras, vasanas, & tattwas) come together to shape the characteristics of the person. An individual person, driven by these often subconscious facets of being, is then led to various desires which, if not brought to awareness, create emotional obscurations (kleshas) which further occlude the essential nature of soul. This results in actions (karma) that repeat the cycle (samsara), and further obscures the relationship to truth.

What is soul? According to yoga psychology the paraatman, or "True Self" is that underlying seed core of being which exists within everyone that is beyond the bounds of time and space. This essential monad carries the soul’s code for the realization of the individual’s destiny, and thus the capacity for true happiness.

As we experience life through he habits of mind and matter mentioned above, the law of karma dictates our experiences. To purify karma and remove emotional obscurations (kleshas) mental habits (vasanas), cognitive trances (samskaras) and balance the elements (tattwas) is the goal of Yoga.

The fruits of this lead to the harmonization of mind with matter and the elevation of the vibrational quality of the individual. This in turn brings about an entrainment with the larger universe that creates a path of harmonious and bountiful experience called grace.

To attain grace requires effort; Effort implies work. Work requires action.

The key to this action is some method or practice, that "burns" away the habitual patterns of mind and matter and frees the soul from its chains so it may guide and direct the personality, and not be led by the vagaries of habit.

This is the path of Kundalini Yoga. Kundalini Shakti, or the creative fire energy of the serpent flame is the combustible energy that burns away the habits of mind and matter to make way for this awakening to one’s true potential and its ultimate fulfillment.