user2486: Can anyone advise on experiences of "kundalini" (energy rushing up the spine and out the crown of the head) during meditation?  I have experienced this for years and am wondering if it has an understanding/meaning in the Theravada tradition.  The energy has a physical effect (jolting the body) and a mental one (like temporarily cleaning out the conscious mind).  Thank you greatly.

user-1: I practice according to Theravada texts and my sister practices likewise but the kundalini path. We have been in training for 6-9 years and have a good relationship.
In my experience there is no way to bridge anything.
My sister talks about kundalini arising and chakras activating, i can narrow this to perception of a pleasant feeling, whether this is some sort of physical response to breathing exercises, a feeling born of pelvic exertion or a pleasant feeling born of seclusion. I as a Theravadin can't tell and furthermore i don't care much.
As a Theravadin when i hear about people's meditative attainments that commonly people would talk about as "deep meditation", "meditative trance", in the "mystical" or "transcendental" or "lifechanging" categories of description.
What i care about is were you are that time experiencing discursive thought, what was the perception, can the perception be described in terms bodily sensations, color or form. If this is the case then i maybe this is a form-jhana or maybe something like a high for physiological response.
If can not be described in terms of a bodily sensation such as a pleasant feeling in the head or the body, nor a feeling of air blowing, of the hardness of the limbs, warmth or coolness, nor floating or flowing, then i think maybe this person attained to formless perception.
Either way, i don't care about these attainments and am more interested in a person not being fixated in wrong views. I hold a person who has just faith if not understanding of the correctly exposed Dhamma to the point where he can discern what is rightly spoken as Dhamma, i hold him infinitely higher than a person who mastered all feeling & perception attainments.

user157: I've experienced this myself on a number of occasions though I never heard it called kundalini. Sometimes the experience has been exactly as you describe it. Sometimes it's a tingling feeling all over the body. Sometimes it feels like electric jolts. Sometimes the jolts manifest in physical movement.
I was advised that this was probably a manifestation of piti (rapture). This would be in the context of the rupa-jhana factors going from 

applied thought (vitakka) 
sustained thought (vicāra)
joy/rapture/happiness (pīti) 
happiness/pleasure/bliss (sukha)
equanimity (upekkhā)
one-pointedness (ekaggatā)

So you could expect this to be proceeded by strengthening concentration and perhaps develop into a calmer more pleasurable state (sukka). Here is a further breakdown of piti which again feels familiar to me. Yours might fit into the last two classification - exalting and fulfilling rapture.
From conversations I had with other people the exact manifestations of these very much depend on the type of person. I'm more the anxious, type A type of person so I feel a lot of energy. I often feel it trapped in me then it comes out in great surges. Other people never feel this.
I think the important thing with these kind of experiences is not to get attached to them and not to pursue them. They are as they are and they come and go. In the experience themselves there is no insight nor is there lasting benefit. Like everything these things are ultimately impermanent and unsatisfactory.

2486: <p>Can anyone advise on experiences of "kundalini" (energy rushing up the spine and out the crown of the head) during meditation?  I have experienced this for years and am wondering if it has an understanding/meaning in the Theravada tradition.  The energy has a physical effect (jolting the body) and a mental one (like temporarily cleaning out the conscious mind).  Thank you greatly.</p>
 -1: <p>I practice according to Theravada texts and my sister practices likewise but the kundalini path. We have been in training for 6-9 years and have a good relationship.</p>
<p>In my experience there is no way to bridge anything.</p>
<p>My sister talks about kundalini arising and chakras activating, i can narrow this to perception of a pleasant feeling, whether this is some sort of physical response to breathing exercises, a feeling born of pelvic exertion or a pleasant feeling born of seclusion. I as a Theravadin can't tell and furthermore i don't care much.</p>
<p>As a Theravadin when i hear about people's meditative attainments that commonly people would talk about as &quot;deep meditation&quot;, &quot;meditative trance&quot;, in the &quot;mystical&quot; or &quot;transcendental&quot; or &quot;lifechanging&quot; categories of description.</p>
<p>What i care about is were you are that time experiencing discursive thought, what was the perception, can the perception be described in terms bodily sensations, color or form. If this is the case then i maybe this is a form-jhana or maybe something like a high for physiological response.</p>
<p>If can not be described in terms of a bodily sensation such as a pleasant feeling in the head or the body, nor a feeling of air blowing, of the hardness of the limbs, warmth or coolness, nor floating or flowing, then i think maybe this person attained to formless perception.</p>
<p>Either way, i don't care about these attainments and am more interested in a person not being fixated in wrong views. I hold a person who has just faith if not understanding of the correctly exposed Dhamma to the point where he can discern what is rightly spoken as Dhamma, i hold him infinitely higher than a person who mastered all feeling &amp; perception attainments.</p>
 157: <p>I've experienced this myself on a number of occasions though I never heard it called kundalini. Sometimes the experience has been exactly as you describe it. Sometimes it's a tingling feeling all over the body. Sometimes it feels like electric jolts. Sometimes the jolts manifest in physical movement.</p>

<p>I was advised that this was probably a manifestation of piti (rapture). This would be in the context of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhy%C4%81na_in_Buddhism#Rupa_Jhana_related_factors" rel="noreferrer">rupa-jhana</a> factors going from </p>

<ul>
<li>applied thought (vitakka) </li>
<li>sustained thought (vicāra)</li>
<li>joy/rapture/happiness (pīti) </li>
<li>happiness/pleasure/bliss (sukha)</li>
<li>equanimity (upekkhā)</li>
<li>one-pointedness (ekaggatā)</li>
</ul>

<p>So you could expect this to be proceeded by strengthening concentration and perhaps develop into a calmer more pleasurable state (sukka). <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%ABti#Fivefold_classification" rel="noreferrer">Here is a further breakdown of piti</a> which again feels familiar to me. Yours might fit into the last two classification - exalting and fulfilling rapture.</p>

<p>From conversations I had with other people the exact manifestations of these very much depend on the type of person. I'm more the anxious, type A type of person so I feel a lot of energy. I often feel it trapped in me then it comes out in great surges. Other people never feel this.</p>

<p>I think the important thing with these kind of experiences is not to get attached to them and not to pursue them. They are as they are and they come and go. In the experience themselves there is no insight nor is there lasting benefit. Like everything these things are ultimately impermanent and unsatisfactory.</p>
