THE AWAKENING OF ENERGY
Dialogue 4P: When we were discussing Tantra, you said that there is a way of awakening
energy. The Tāntrics concentrate on certain psychic centres and, thereby, release
the dormant energy in those centres. Would you say that there is any validity in
this? What is the way of awakening energy?
K: Concentrating on the various psychophysical centres implies, does it not, a
process of time? So I would like to ask: Can that energy be awakened without a
process of time?
P: The traditional way demands correct posture and an equilibrium of breath. If
the body does not know how to sit erect, and how to breathe rightly, there can be
no ending of thought. To bring body and breath to an equilibrium, a process of
time becomes inevitable.
K: There may be a totally different approach to this problem. Tradition starts
from the psychosomatic—the posture, control of the breath and, gradually,
through various forms of concentration, moves to the full awakening of energy.
That is the accepted way. Is there not an awakening of this energy without going
through all these practices?
P: It is like the Zen Masters who say that the real master is one who puts aside
effort and, yet, in Zen, to master archery a tremendous mastery over technique is
necessary. It is only when there is a total mastery that effort drops away.
K: You are beginning at this end rather than at the other—this end being time,
control, energy, perfection, perfect balance. All this seems to me like dealing
with a very small part of a very vast field. Tradition gives great importance to the
past, to breathing, to the right posture. All these are limited to a corner of the
field, and through that corner you hope to have enlightenment. The corner then
becomes a trick. Through some kind of psychosomatic acrobatics, it is hoped that
you will capture the light, the whole universe. I do not think enlightenment is
there—through one corner. It is like seeing the sky through a small window and
never going outside to look at the sky. I feel that that way is an absurd way of
approaching something totally vast, timeless.
P: Even you would admit that correct posture and right breathing strengthen the
structure of the mind.
K: I want to approach all this quite differently. In approaching it entirely
differently, it is necessary to throw out all that has been said. I see that the corner
is like a candle in sunshine: the candle is being lit very carefully, in brilliant