Chapter 31 Eastern and Western Differences

There is nothing in Christian teaching comparable to the Hindu notions of chakras, astral body, and kundalini energy. Neither will one find in Christianity anything like the spiritualities associated with the yoga system, which are designed to lead one up through the various centers to the experience of union. Nevertheless, the chakras, the astral body, and the awakening of kundalini are events that can be identified in the experiences of many, many Christian mystics. In contrast to the East, however, these experiences were not sought as means to union; they were experienced as a consequence of prayer.
Phillip St. Romain – Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality

When a person deeply rooted in Christian spirituality encounters something like Kundalini, and then has to resort to using Eastern archetypal images to provide understanding of the experience, it throws you for a loop. 

For some reason, experiencing transforming Kundalini itself seem to beckon one with this incessant need to explore for answers as to what has and is happening. But many confusing questions surface as we begin to research for answers that might provide some links between Western Judeo-Christian spirituality and the Eastern experience. What adds to the confusion is that these two branches of spirituality take such a very different approach to salvation and wholeness. 

Another quote from Phillip St. Romain:

“Where Easter religions begin with the human being

reaching out to the divine, Western religions begin with the divine reaching out to humans. Where Eastern religions emphasize practices that transform the human to a divine being, Western religions emphasize divine grace as the transforming energy. Where the East offers sophisticated spiritual “technologies” specifically designed to divinize the person, the West offers very little in the way of “how-to” spirituality. Where the East regards the Ego as an obstacle to the experience of God, the West sees grace working in and through the Ego to bring about transformation. Where the East holds that absolute non-duality is the highest level of consciousness, the West seldom drifts far from duality in its relationship with the divine.”

Ravi Ravindra, in his book “The Spiritual Roots of Yoga,

Royal Path to Freedom” also points out some fundamental differences that exist between the Western and Eastern view.

The major difference pointed out by this author is that in the Biblical tradition, emphasis is placed on "conscience" vs. "consciousness" (Eastern view). In Judeo-Christian thinking, the root cause of the human predicament is the assertion of self-will. 

Willfulness becomes the root cause of what Christians call sin, and the principal means of countering this assertion of the self-will is obedience to the will of God, which can be best effected through Divine Grace. So the Christian surrenders to Divine grace in order to experience the freedom from self-will or the sin that clings so easily to the human condition.

The Eastern tradition, on the other hand, sees the root

cause of human predicament as ignorance, this blindness caused by the ego as to who we really are before God. It is this ignorance, or blindness that gives rise to suffering (dukkha) or to illusion (maya). The path away from this suffering and illusion that flows from this ignorance is the sword of jnana or the knowledge that cuts the knots of ignorance so that we may see with greater clarity. This seeing requires that we move beyond the apparatus of the thinking, feeling mind, largely controlled by ego involvement. Illusions dissipate, and we see reality for what it really is without the distortions caused by past traumas and cultural conditioning. Many exercises in a practiced discipline are required to break free from ignorance so as to enter this non-duality existence free from suffering and illusion.

This creates another fundamental difference which is often a

source of conflict between these two views. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, emphasis is placed on the uniqueness of the human person, not only from all other creatures, but also from each other person. The Christian's lack of individuality and recognized uniqueness, even in the presence of God, is a mark of the lack of responsibility. 

In the Eastern system, separate individuality, is a mark of ignorance. The emphasis here is on oneness of all that there is. The practiced disciplines used in the Eastern approach are for the purpose of breaking the knots of ignorance in

order to establish, in an experiential way, the truth of this reality. Ravindra points out that the words “oneness” and “uniqueness” are derived from the same root, but their meanings diverge radically.

Ravindra summarizes: “The ideal of “oneness” are insight-oriented and from this much wisdom about the various levels of consciousness has been developed. The levels have always to do with degrees of steadiness of attention and graduations of clarity of perception. 

The Biblical traditions extolling uniqueness, on the other hand, are faith and obedient oriented, and have a primary focus on individual responsibility and moral conscious, corresponding to the quality of virtuous conduct or the degree and the gravity of sinfulness.”

With these differences in perspectives between Western and Eastern ideologies, it is no wonder that the experience of "Kundalini Rising" has so much trouble in finding expression in the Judeo-Christian tradition.