《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 46 (98):瑜伽輪穴

In Indian Yogic tradition, this divine secret is called kundalini shakti and is depicted as a snake who lies coiled at the base of the spine until it is released by a master's touch or by a miracle, and which then ascends up through seven chakras, or wheels (which you might also call the seven mansions of the soul), and finally through the head, exploding into union with God. These chakras do not exist in the gross body, say the Yogis, so don't look for them there; they exist only in the subtle body, in the body that the Buddhist teachers are referring to when they encourage their students to pull forth a new self from the physical body the way you pull a sword from its sheath. My friend Bob, who is both a student of Yoga and a neuros-cientist, told me that he was always agitated by this idea of the chakras, that he wanted to ac-tually see them in a dissected human body in order to believe they existed. But after a particu-larly transcendent meditative experience, he came away with a new understanding of it. He said, "Just as there exists in writing a literal truth and a poetic truth, there also exists in a hu-man being a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy. One, you can see; one, you cannot. One is made of bones and teeth and flesh; the other is made of energy and memory and faith. But they are both equally true."

印度瑜伽傳統將此種神聖祕密稱作“昆達利尼莎克蒂”，其被描繪成盤旋在脊椎底部的一條蛇，因主人的觸摸或神蹟的顯現而釋放出來，而後通過能量七輪（chakras）（亦可稱爲七個心房）而上升，最後從腦袋鑽出去，突然與神結合爲一。瑜伽士說，這些輪穴不存在於肉身，因此無法在肉身上尋找；輪穴僅存在於靈性，亦即佛教導師鼓勵學員從肉體之身所抽出的新的自我，好似從劍鞘抽出劍來。我的朋友鮑伯（Bob），是瑜伽學員也是神經科學家，他說他對輪穴的概念始終感到懷疑，很想在解剖學的人體上親眼看見輪穴，始能確信其存在。然而在一次超凡的禪修體驗中，他有了新層次的理解。他說：“就像寫作存在着字面上的真實和詩的真實，一個人類也存在着字面上的解剖和詩的解剖。一個看得見；一個看不見。一個是由骨骼、牙齒和肌肉構成；另一個則由能量、記憶和信仰構成。兩者都一樣真實。”

I like it when science and devotion find places of intersection. I found an article in The New York Times recently about a team of neurologists who had wired up a volunteer Tibetan monk for experimental brain-scanning. They wanted to see what happens to a transcendent mind, scientifically speaking, during moments of enlightenment. In the mind of a normal think-ing person, an electrical storm of thoughts and impulses whirls constantly, registering on a brain scan as yellow and red flashes. The more angry or impassioned the subject becomes, the hotter and deeper those red flashes burn. But mystics across time and cultures have all described a stilling of the brain during meditation, and say that the ultimate union with God is a blue light which they can feel radiating from the center of their skulls. In Yogic tradition, this is called "the blue pearl," and it is the goal of every seeker to find it. Sure enough, this Tibetan monk, monitored during meditation, was able to quiet his mind so completely that no red or yellow flashes could be seen. In fact, all the neurological energy of this gentleman pooled and collected at last into the center of his brain—you could see it happening right there on the monitor—into a small, cool, blue pearl of light. Just like the Yogis have always described.

我喜歡科學和信仰能找到相交之處。最近我在《紐約時報》的一篇報道中讀到，一羣神經科專家給一名自告奮勇的藏僧通上電流，做腦部掃描實驗。他們想知道，就科學而論，超凡的思維在頓悟期間發生的情況。在正常思考的腦子裏，思維與衝動的風暴不停旋轉，在腦部掃描器上顯示出黃色與紅色的閃光。實驗對象愈是憤怒激動，紅色閃光便燒得愈熱愈旺。然而跨越時代與文化的神祕主義者都曾描述腦子在禪坐期間的平靜狀態，他們說，與神的終極結合是一種從腦袋中央放射出來的藍光。瑜伽傳統稱之爲“藍珍珠”，是每個追尋者所找尋的目標。果然，這位在禪坐時刻受監測的藏僧，腦袋完全平靜無波，看不見任何紅色或黃色閃光。事實上，這位男士所有的神經能量最後都集中於腦中央——顯示在監測器上——變成一個微小、冷靜、珍珠般的藍色光點，如同瑜伽士自古以來的描述。

This is the destination of the kundalini shakti.

此即“昆達利尼莎克蒂”的終極目標。

In mystical India, as in many shamanistic traditions, kundalini shakti is considered a dan-gerous force to play around with if you are unsupervised; the inexperienced Yogi could quite literally blow his mind with it. You need a teacher—a Guru—to guide you on this path, and ideally a safe place—an Ashram—from which to practice. It is said to be the Guru's touch (either literally in person, or through a more supernatural encounter, like a dream) which re-leases the bound kundalini energy from its coil at the base of the spine and allows it to begin journeying upward toward God. This moment of release is called shaktipat, divine initiation, and it is the greatest gift of an enlightened master. After that touch, the student might still labor for years toward enlightenment, but the journey has at least begun. The energy has been freed.

在神祕主義的印度，如同在許多薩滿教傳統中，“昆達利尼莎克蒂”被視爲危險的力量，不容胡亂擺弄；若無人監督，初出茅廬的瑜伽士很可能因此讓腦袋炸掉。你需要有人教導——一位導師——帶你走這條路，最適合在安全地點——道場——進行禪修。據說，經由導師的觸摸（無論親自出面或透過某種神遇，比方夢境），能讓盤卷受縛的“昆達利尼”能量從脊椎底部釋放出來，使它得以向上朝神而去。這樣的釋放時刻稱作“莎克蒂帕（shaktipat），即神的開引，這是一位明師所給予的最佳禮物。觸摸過後，學員或許仍需努力多年，以獲得開悟，但至少旅程已經展開，能量已被釋放。