What is kundabuffer?

Answer 1

George Gurdjieff was an Armenian mystic who taught his ideas, often called Fourth Way, in schools and literature at the turn of the 20th century. He traveled extensively, including Asia and Egypt, and collected his ideas from these cultures and politico-religious traditions. His most famous work is a 1200 page novel, Beelzebub's Tale's to His Grandson, where Beelzebub tells his grandson during a space ride about the human race. This story includes the creation and removal of the kundabuffer organ, which is often represented as a tail in artwork. It purportedly causes men to perceive the reality of things in the world as "topsy-turvy." It also causes pleasure. According to Beelzebub, (Gurdjieff) the Saint Buddha taught that "intentional suffering" was the only way to tame it, and that meant basically being tolerant of others (which often does feel like torture with some folks).

Supposedly this "kundabuffer" is another interpretation of kundalini, which was popularized in Gurdjieff's time by the Theosophists. Kundalini seems to refer to the libido, which is an energy similar to Wilhelm Reich's orgone, and resides in the base of the spine or tail bone. (Taoism has a similar concept called Jing or Ching, which is very much like Chi or even a type of Chi or Qi.) Through esoteric practice, supposedly, this kundalini can be awakened and then activated, traveling up the spine through each subsequent chakra, causing physical and mystical affects. There is something called Kundalini Syndrome, related to Spiritual Emergency, which are basically neurological and psychological problems associated with kundalini yoga practice and sometimes Qigong exercises.

Kundalini is in some ways like the Holy Spirit, and some charismatic/Pentecostal churches use techniques similar to esoteric traditions to channel this very similar sort of energy, which is almost always described in esoteric tradition as serpentine, which adds to that particular controversy within Christianity.

Kundabuffer seems to be interpreted to mean the negative aspects of kundalini. Originally Gurdjieff described the concept in philosophical and moral terms, but since then it's taken on a new-agey, almost literal connotation, like a tail chakra that we're still affected by even though we no longer have tails, etc. Unlike kundalini, however, kundabuffer doesn't need to be awakened. If anything, it's the cause of our "sleep."