For an activity to be a peak experience, the life force must be activated. We each contain a limitless source of energy within us, the kundalini. It resides within our subtle energy body (also known as the astral body). The kundalini is the active energy of our awareness.

While we think that people enjoy extreme sports because of the “adrenaline” rush, the inner component of peak experiences is kundalini. It’s not a physical experience, but it’s what happens when you go to your edge physically or mentally: you need to pull on energy that’s beyond your physical capacity. When we deal with extreme enough circumstances, the kundalini is released: called the “serpent power”, it springs up rapidly like a cobra, and immediately shifts our awareness. This is the same energy that’s harnessed by someone seeking inner development through meditation on the energy centers. But if you find that a certain physical activity makes you feel really great and at peace with life, you are also releasing the kundalini through this activity.

When you learn energy center meditation, you can make every moment as energizing as your favorite extreme sports, even things that we think of as mundane, like waiting in a long line, or things that we consider painful, like suffering from a severe illness.

This is why in Zen they say “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water”.  After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water is a peak experience, since you’ve harnessed the energy of the kundalini to experience all of the power of life in such a simple act.