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Balancing the CHAKRAS

 


Mystics of many cultures describe the chakras as being energy centers along the spine. Some describe them as having the shape of trumpet flowers, extending up into the heavens on long stems. These 'flowers' funnel energy down into the person's energy field or aura. If we visualize one of the seven colors of the rainbow at each flower, we can imagine these colors flowing into the chakras, feeding the aura with a rainbow of lights. When all the chakras are fully open, and the person is able to absorb all those colors, they would eventually merge, manifesting as a halo of white light at the crown.

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Balancing the Chakras

(Excerpts on the Home Page)

The following excerpts from Vibrational Healing Through the Chakras with Light, Color, Sound, Crystals and Aromatherapy and from Pocket Guide to Chakras and Color and Crystals--
A Journey through the Chakras, Revised Edition --
all by Joy Gardner

According to the ancient teachings, as our consciousness evolves it follows a predictable path. This can be anticipated by understanding how energy moves up the spine through the chakras. Chakra means wheel or vortex. There are seven major chakras along the spine. Each is a vortex of spinning energy. When a chakra is relatively open, the rate of spin is healthy and the chakra is charged with energy. When a chakra is relatively closed, it doesn't have much energy moving through it.

The lower chakras serve the physical body; the middle chakras serve the emotions, and the higher chakras serve the mind and spirit. When you are in balance you draw abundant energy from the chakras, but when you are out of balance due to fear, stress, guilt or confusion, you have less ability to draw upon these energy centers.

When there is serious physical, emotional or spiritual imbalance, specific chakras will be less open and the corresponding colors may be impure, blotchy, muddy, or entirely missing from the area of those chakras and from the aura, and this condition will eventually lead to physical illness.

There are many different chakra systems. In the system I use, there are seven major chakras. Through the chakras, we are able to receive and transmit emotional, social, sexual and spiritual energy. The three chakras that govern the area of the torso below the chest are called the lower chakras. The heart chakra relates to the heart and lungs. The top three chakras govern the areas above the chest and are called the higher chakras.

There are seven levels of openness at each chakra. You must have at least one level of openness in each chakra in order to maintain life. Most people have a moderate amount of openness at each chakra, with a higher degree of openness at one or two chakras.

 

The first chakra concerns your connection with the earth, your birthplace, your culture, your foundations. The first chakra is influenced by your earliest relationships. If there was one person who gave you unconditional love, you are likely to have a strong first chakra, and your survival mechanism will be good. If you did not receive unconditional love, your first chakra will probably be weak.
This is the center of physical energy and vitality. It is grounded in material reality, so this is the center of manifestation. When you are trying to make things happen in the material world, in business or material possessions, the energy to succeed will come from the first chakra.

The second chakra is about sexuality, sociability, friendliness and desire. The second chakra governs your sense of self-worth, your confidence, and your ability to relate to others in an open and friendly way. It is influenced by how emotions were expressed or repressed in your family during your childhood.

The second chakra is the center of the emotions and it is in the area of the large intestines.  When you feel emotionally unbalanced, you may experience diarrhea or constipation.
This is the center of gut-level intuition. It is a basic visceral feeling. "I just knew it was going to rain," or "I had a feeling you were going to call," are statements that typify  second chakra intuition. (There is another kind of higher intuition that is found at the sixth chakra.)

The second chakra is the sexual center particularly for women, because the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries are located there. This may be one reason why women tend to be more emotional about sexual relations. When the second chakra is fully open, a person has a healthy sex life or at least a healthy attitude toward sex.
Fill your sexual organs with radiant acceptance. Feel your sexual desires finding union with your spiritual desires.Herein lies the Mystery of Mysteries. Desire itself is the Divine Motivator. Sexual energy is required to fire all other energy .The orange energy gives you the ability to reach out, to radiate, to extend yourself. It gives you the forcefulness to reach up—to your heart, and to your soul. Regard your sexual center as a precious fountainhead of vital energy. Explore that energy, learn to channel it, and eventually you will learn to use it as a part of your Total Self, to achieve whatever goal you seek.

The third chakra is the center of personal power. When the third chakra is open, you have found your own unique gift, the work that gives you pleasure and makes you feel fulfilled. When you are at the third chakra level of development, it is appropriate to build a positive self-image (ego). At the sixth chakra level you will need to let go of your attachment to that image.
One way to find your gift is to consider what you most enjoyed doing when you were a child. This will give you clues about your natural inclinations. It is quite a joy to discover that what you are supposed to do is what you most deeply desire to do.
Your gift will reflect your natural skills and aptitudes, but it will also respond to training and schooling. For example, an opera singer is born with a beautiful voice but requires training to develop that skill. According to the yogic chakra system, the third chakra is also the center of intelligence.
In the martial arts the third chakra is considered the center of chi, the life force energy. So this chakra relates to physical abilities and athletic prowess.

According to Paramahansa Yogananda this chakra is ruled by the conscious mind. It is active only while awake. However, it can be trained in introspective, creative thinking which will then provide access to and influence on the subconscious mind. This helps to explain the power of negative or positive thinking.
For people who are balanced at their third chakra, their personal will aligns with the Cosmic Will. These people are on their own path developing their intelligence and personal power, making unique contributions in the world.

When parents have specific goals for their children, this sets up a conflict in the child's will. The child will be torn between love for the parents, and the need to develop her own power. If the child is loyal to the parents' expectations, she will probably not find her own unique form of creative expression. This is how she develops what appears to be a superiority complex. The superior attitude comes as a reflection of parental pride in her achievements. But secretly, she feels inferior because she never had the opportunity to develop a true inner sense of self worth.

According to Paramahansa Yogananda this chakra is ruled by the conscious mind. It is active only while awake. However, it can be trained in introspective, creative thinking which will then provide access to and influence on the subconscious mind. This helps to explain the power of negative or positive thinking.
For people who are balanced at their third chakra, their personal will aligns with the Cosmic Will. These people are on their own path developing their intelligence and personal power, making unique contributions in the world.

In a less developed person, yellow will be mixed with red, indicating an obsession with accumulating things for one's self. Personal power will be directed in a self-serving direction and will not bring with it a sense of fulfillment.

The third chakra relates to digestion. A balance of energy here causes good digestion. A lack of energy here leads to poor digestion. Yellow relates to relaxation at meals and the flow of juices; digestive juices and bile, as well as adrenal and sexual hormones, all things that flow and radiate. Not blood because that is red and of the first chakra. But it does control dilation and constriction of the blood vessels.

Since the third chakra rules both the digestion and the mind, it is difficult to think when too full or too hungry. But fasting will calm the mind unless there is a disorder here.

Radiant relaxation comes from here. The solar plexus is the Center of Breath. The diaphragm is located at the third chakra, so the color yellow at the third chakra is helpful for someone who's not breathing deeply because of tension or fear.

The fourth or heart chakra is the center of compassion. When this chakra opens, you transcend the limits of your ego and identify with other people, plants, animals, all of life. This is the humanitarian center. When your heart chakra is open, you are likely to become involved with social causes. You will care about things like saving whales and the planet earth. You may find yourself working in one of the helping professions and participating in meditations for peace.
The heart chakra is your most vulnerable place. When you are hurt in life and love, the first impulse is to close your heart and say, "I'll never let anyone do that to me again.” Every time you experience a death or a loss, you will either go through a process of grieving, feeling all your feelings (especially anger and sadness), or you will close off your heart and remain in a state of denial, becoming numb to pain as well as pleasure. When you build a wall around your heart, you keep yourself locked in.
So many people have closed off their hearts—often at a very young age—which accounts for the alarming amount of apathy that exists in the world today. A major part of healing—with color or crystals or counseling of any kind—is to mend the heart. Your heart is at the center of your body and when your heart energy flows, your whole being is full. Then you radiate love energy to everyone around you.

There is a common affliction among people who are newly opening to their fourth chakras. Since most of them used to be third chakra people, they are often married to third chakra people. As their fourth chakra opens and they evolve spiritually, they no longer share the same values with their mates.

The first phase of opening to spirituality is a heart chakra phenomenon (usually the heart opens first, then the throat, then the third eye, then the crown--but not always in that order). This helps to explain why there are more than twice as many women becoming active in this way. Many (third chakra) men feel threatened when their (fourth chakra) wives become involved in such activities. However, there can be compatibility between a person focused in her fourth chakra and a person focused in his third chakra—provided that both personalities are well balanced, and the love is strong.

The Fifth Chakra - When you reach this level of spiritual development, you have to squeeze through a bottleneck. It is a struggle. Society doesn't require it of you. In fact, many people frown upon it. You can function perfectly well from your first three chakras. If you open your fourth, that is extraordinary. But to open your fifth is walking on thin ice. The majority of people are functioning from their lower chakras and they can't understand the person who opens to their spirituality. It makes them uncomfortable.
The fifth chakra is the center of communication, so there is a powerful desire to talk about what you are experiencing. Fortunately, people are becoming more open-minded.

Nevertheless, when you do this, some of your old friends will fall away. Your true friends will always be there for you, so try to let go of the ones who are uncomfortable with the new person you are becoming. You will find that there are new friends who will be magnetically drawn to you as your own energy changes.

Spiritual children are those who have not closed down their fifth chakra. Their parents allow them to speak freely, to sing, and when necessary, to cry and scream. They have been encouraged to trust their own perceptions and to follow their instincts.

The sixth chakra or third eye is the center of psychic powers and higher intuition. Through the power of the sixth chakra, you receive guidance, channel, and tune into your Higher Self. This is the center that enables you to experience telepathy, astral travel, and past lives. When this center is agitated, it may indicate that a person had early religious training that taught him to be afraid of the occult. Many cultures have taboos against anything vaguely metaphysical. While so-called magical powers have been severely misused throughout history, the same can be said for any kind of power, particularly political power. And it is political power, including the political power of the established churches, that has outlawed or defamed practitioners of the occult.

The irrational guilt and fear created by these taboos make it difficult for most people to judge for themselves whether a teaching is beneficial or not. First it is useful to make a distinction between black magic and white magic. White magic is the art of harnessing natural energy for positive purposes. If you are in the presence of someone who practices white magic, you will feel normal, or your energy will be enhanced. Black magic is the manipulation of energy for selfish purposes. When you are in the presence of someone who uses black magic, your energy may be temporarily boosted, but within a short time you will feel drained.

This is why, in India, when a new guru comes to town, the people of the village will sit at his feet all day and bathe in his energy. Then, at sunset, they will disappear. The next morning they will observe whether they feel better or worse. If they feel better, they will return, because then they will believe that the man is a true teacher. Being in the presence of a teacher who has a highly developed indigo or violent aura may help you to get in touch with your own higher intuition—ifˆyou are ready for it.

The powers of the third eye are accessible to all people regardless of their moral and ethical values. The ability to manipulate reality is an appealing skill for those who are power-hungry, and this includes many so-called spiritual teachers. So be discerning about who you accept as a teacher.  If you feel at all distrustful, pay careful attention to your intuition.

The word guru has disturbing implications of blind obedience and hero worship, and this has been a damaging pattern that many followers of gurus have fallen into. But guru is just another word for spiritual teacher. If you are fortunate to find a teacher you trust, who feels like an innately ethical person, this is a great blessing. A true spiritual teacher should be a person who has progressed further in her spiritual development than you have in yours. Eventually it should be someone who has opened their higher chakras and achieved self-realization. If this is your goal, then such a person can be a great help.  In every field, you look for a teacher who is more knowledgeable than yourself. The same should apply to the field of spiritual development.

Before the third eye opens, you see through two eyes: you experience a duality between your normal self (your conscious mind, intellect, ego) and your higher self (your intuitive mind, or Spirit). When the third eye opens, these two images merge—like when you see a double image through the lens of a camera and then bring it into focus as a single unified image.

I don't believe in forcing yourself to shed your ego through self-denial. I believe in working with the ego until it recognizes that the fulfillment of its highest dreams is to be found through merging with the High Self and becoming One with the Divine. Then all the masks fall away: who you thought you were, who you thought you ought to be, who your parents wanted you to be. Suddenly you let go and your True Self shines forth. "I am what I am." There is no guilt, no need for illusion or pretense. You are totally in the present and you realize that you were there all along.

The pineal gland is an endocrine organ that has the essential structure of an eye. It is located in the central part of the brain, so it relates to both the sixth and the seventh chakras. It functions as a light receptor, and is believed to be responsible for ovulation occurring in response to the phases of the moon.

When the kundalini rises up the spine, it stimulates the pineal gland, which may explain the experience of seeing the Pure White Light. The third eye is the Christ consciousness center. Everyone can have Christ consciousness. Jesus said, "The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness." Luke 11 :34.

The pineal and the pituitary are so close to each other, and various sources disagree about which chakras they correspond to.  My friend and teacher Swami K.M. Tayumanavar has experienced enlightenment, and his aura shows up clearly on aura photos as being brilliant white, radiating from his head and covering his whole body.  The way he describes what happens at the time of enlightenment is highly unconventional but rather apropos.  He says that "the pineal gland gets a hard-on and reaches out and touches the pituitary."  That is when the indescribably sweet nectar manifests at the back of the throat, which is also associated with the moment of Divine Bliss.

The seventh or crown chakra -- When a person enters the seventh chakra, there is a death. The person you were dies. Every layer of ego attachment falls away. You die to your old self.
This Vajrayana Buddhist chant captures the mood perfectly:

Gone, gone, gone beyond
Gone utterly beyond—
Whoopee!


At the fifth chakra, you may long to leave your mark for posterity. At the sixth chakra, there is no more longing. It is enough simply to help by being a living example. At the seventh chakra, even the desire to help falls away though it may reemerge unpredictably. Now you become the divine madwoman, utterly beyond laws and norms, totally unpredictable and unaccountable. Your behavior may be considered antisocial, amoral, and incomprehensible. But you are totally moral according to your own ethics.

You have the power to transmute matter into energy and energy into matter, which enables you to perform remarkable feats such as walking on water or appearing at several places at the same time. Food may be produced out of thin air, but you neeed neither food nor water to survive. However, you are not likely to attract much attention, since you are neither a martyr, a saint, nor an egotist. So you may wander around in the Himalayas if you want to be left alone, or to wander from village to village as a mad storyteller, perhaps communicating in parables.

Your spirituality is omnipresent, and since you live constantly in The Light, there is no need for a path, so there is no need for an organized religion.

Sexuality is not likely to be desirable to you, though you may have evolved a form of energy exchange that is quite ecstatic.

The seventh chakra is where the silver cord attaches when the soul enters the body before birth and detaches from the body at the time of death. The silver cord is the fine line that allows you to astral travel and then return to your body.

Death is no stranger to the seventh chakra person. Since there is no separation between self and spirit-self, the body is a joke; a trick of the mind. Bodies come and go, but life is eternal. Since all the bodily cells can be transmuted and renewed, you are capable of immortality and can perform miraculous healings and raise the dead.

The yogis say that the pineal gland is the seat of memory, so when the kundalini rises, this storehouse opens and you become a witness to your past lives, and can see into the future. You no longer require the veil of forgetfulness because you are no longer afraid of who you are and who you have been—you have nothing to hide. You are flooded with compassion, forgiveness and unconditional love toward all of your selves in all of your lives. You no longer have any karmic debts. You stand released from fear and guilt, ready to transcend the wheel of karma. You are a fully realized being.

This is self-realization, the peak experience of which is called samadhi or divine sight. It is often characterized as being the state of breathlessness. Paramahansa Yogananda describes having this experience after five hours of meditation, calling upon the stone figure of the Goddess Kali, beseeching her to show herself to him in a vision. Finally he was rewarded.

"Gradually the statue changed into a living form, smilingly nodding in greeting, thrilling me with joy indescribable. As if by a mystic syringe, the breath was withdrawn from my lungs; my body became very still, though not intert.

"An ecstatic enlargement of consciousness followed. I could see clearly for several miles over the Ganges River to my lelf, and beyond the temple into the entire Dakshineswar precincts. The walls of all buildings glimmered transparently; through them I obgserved people walking to and fro over distant acres….
Spiritual sight, X-raylike, penetrates into all matter; the divine eye is center everywhere, circumference nowhere…. the only extraordinarily enlarged objects were the tmple and the form of the Goddess. Everything else appeared in its normal dimensions, although each was enclosed in a halo of mellow light—white, blue, and pastel rainbow hues. My body seemed to be of ethereal substance, ready to levitate. Fully conscious of my material surroundings, I was looking about me and taking a few steps without disturbing the continuity of the blissful vision."

Yogananda was also able to see through the wall where his brother-in-law was standing, and could read his mind.

 

 

 

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