Krishnamacharya on Kundalini - The Origins and Coherence of his Position - Simon Atkinson
Introduction
Krishnamacharya on Kundalini - The Origins and Coherence of his Position - Simon Atkinson
Simon Atkinson [+]
scholar-practitioner
Simon Atkinson has been practising and studying yoga in the broad tradition following Krishnamacharya since the 1990s and has been learning Sanskrit since 2001. He teaches academic English and academic skills at the University of Cambridge.
Description
Chapter 1 introduces the South Indian yoga teacher Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888- 1989) and the concept of kuṇḍalinī. Most yoga traditions describe kuṇḍalinī as a serpentine energy that rises, granting liberation. Krishnamacharya, however, taught that prāṇa (breath / vital energy) rises, not kuṇḍalinī. To him, kuṇḍalinī is a blockage that prevents prāṇa from rising. Kuṇḍalinī is not something to be raised: it is something to be destroyed. This is a unique perspective among modern teachers of yoga.