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Seven Chakra System
A generic overview discussion
The Chakra System is a way to view
the operation of the human being that comes from Eastern
Mysticism.
It also
provides a framework to access and surface our programmed responses.
Exactly how a chakra is interpreted and/or used depends on the
tradition which use it. What is provided here is a generic overview
and is biased by the used and interpretation based on the
creative perspective. The creativity perspective and
energy consciousness model view of
the Chakra System
is provided in the topic “The
Energy Consciousness View of the Seven Chakra System.”
There are individuals who are able to view and/or perceive what is
called the subtle energy body. When one is able to perceive this
energy body one can see what are vortexes of energy. These vortexes
are called chakras. These vortexes are beleive to be created by the presences of
consciousness within the body. The subtle body is seen as an energy
field normally hidden from sight that carries our urges, emotions,
habits and is imprinted with all that has happened to us. The word
chakra comes from the Sanskrit word which means wheel or disk since
the chakras are perceived as vortexes of spinning energy.
Some traditions and views perceive more than seven, but thee are
seven major chakras. The location of the seven chakras correspond to
the seven nerve ganglia branching out from the spinal column. These
nerve ganglia are where there are a large collection of nerves which
spread out into the surrounding tissue. The seven chakras are seen
residing at the top of the head, the brow, the throat, the heart,
the solar plexus, the abdomen and genitals and the base of the spin.
Biologically, they correspond to the cerebral cortex of the brain,
the carotid plexus of the head, the pharyngeal plexus of the throat,
the cardiac plexus of the chest, the solar plexus of the stomach
region, the sacral plexus of the abdomen and the coccygeal plexus of
the spine.
In many ways, from the
creativity perspective and with the
energy consciousness model, the subtle energy body is how our
consciousness has localized its energy into a form that gives rise
to our body or holds the body together in it current shape and form.
Or, it can be seen as the flow of
creative life energy as it organizes itself to
give rise to and animate the body. In either case, the chakras can
act as doorways between the mind and the body. They are door ways in
the sense that the chakras can be seen as
representing a collection of beliefs about an areas or aspect of
life. The feeling we have in the corresponding area of the body
give us some indication of how the energy is or is not flowing in
those areas. The beliefs we hold and how we hold them allow, or
don’t allow, for the free flow of our
creative life energy to energize those areas of the body.
Within the traditional chakra system there are perceived to be four
flows of energy. There is an upward, downward, outward and inward
flow. The traditional yoga practices are methods used to consciously
access the flow of energy. Yoga, as a word, means to yoke or union
as one would harnessing an ox or unite it with a wagon to use its
life energy to pull the wagon. The goal of many of these yoga
practices are to unite or join the individual with the divine.
Within the
creativity perspective and
energy consciousness model, such activities are unnecessary for
one is already in full union with the divine and Source of Creation.
We can never become separate from it. It is just that we don’t
live with the conscious awareness of its presence because of what we think and
believe about Creation and who and what we are. Calibrating our
internal compass is the fastest why known to bring our conscious
awareness to the creative power/Creative Power within our being.
The upward flow of energy is the flow of energy to which most
traditional yoga and chakra system interpretations apply. It begins
at the earth and rises up through the body. The traditional yoga
practice is seen as stepping up through the chakra and their
corresponding physical and mental attachments to move toward
liberation and freedom from the attachments, constrictions and
limitations of the body. This upward current is seen as current of
liberation and traditionally called the mukti or freedom. In moving
up through the chakra one obtains awareness and moves toward
transcendence of the physical. Moving up is seen as and expansion
into consciousness and allows one to open up to new possibilities
and previously unseen and options not previously experienced. The
experience of this flow is what gives rise to the
Kundalini experience. The kundalini is seen as the awakening of
the energy at the spine, releasing it from it attachments and
flowing upward. When this energy is released it is experienced as
euphoric if not sexual. If the upward flow is blocked we cannot
experience liberation and the freedom provided in the expansion of
consciousness.
The downward flow of current is seen as a current of manifestation.
It flows downward from consciousness to the earth into
manifestation. The energy is seen as “becoming more dense” as it
moves down through the chakras until it animates the body and
manifests as a physical experience. This downward currents is seen
as catalyzing our actions in the physical to give rise to the idea
or desire we have. It has been described and bukti or enjoyment. If
the downward flow is blocked, we will have many ideas, dreams, and
desires and the like but will be unable to manifest them and never
bring them to completion. We may talk about them, plan the and the
like but for some reason or another, we can do nothing within them.
Our energy is “not grounded” and we do not complete the energy flow
to cause manifestation.
Although not necessarily practiced in many of the systems which
utilize the Seven Chakra Sytem, conceptually you want to balance
these two flows of energy. We needs to be able to free ourselves
from fixed and limiting internal and external forms to experience
our true nature and/or an expansion of our consciousness and gain
the full benefit of our creative imagination. It is here we can
imagine that which does not exist manifested in physical form.
Similarly, we need to be able to manifest our dreams, visions and
desires to fully experience the beauty of
creation/Creation. Within this system if we cannot move upward
to liberation, we cannot access both the energy to create nor can we
have the expansion of consciousness to perceive options that we can
not otherwise see. If the downward flow of energy is blocked, we
cannot bring our ideas into manifestation.
The higher chakras
are seen provide a freedom to explore options but there is little
substance. The lower chakras about substance that give us structure
and form to what we see and touch. But in this structure and form we
have much less freedom and flexibility provided in the freedom of an
expanded consciousness. Within the Seven Chakra System it is
perceived that if all the chakras are open, we can experience of our
full potential.
It is perceived that as these two flows of energy pass each other
vortexes are created, namely, the chakras. The vortexes in turn
active the body into action or are activated by outside influences.
The outward current is a current of expression where we express what
is inside and whose form is determined by the upward and downward flow of
energy. We express outwardly our thoughts, ideas, believes and
creativity and express them in what we love or hate, seek or reject
in life.
The inward or receptive flow of energy is what we received
from the outside in what we normally perceive through the five
senses. Within the energy consciousness model it would be added “and
interpreted through mind” and the unseen energy perceived through
our being. Here we mean the unseen as that which is not sensed by
the senses. In the same way our eyes only seen a narrow spectrum of
the entire electromagnetic frequency, our physical sense only perceive a
small segment of the total energy we can perceive.
If the outward flow of current is blocked, we cannot fully take into
the world what is within our being. Similarly if the inward,
receptive flow of current is blocked, we cannot fully nor accurately
perceive with is external. The general understanding of the Chakra
System is that depending on how we choose or do not choose to
respond to life we create “imbalance” within the individual chakras,
individual flows of energy or imbalances between the chakras or
flows. These imbalance result in what we experience in life. Whether
or not we consider what we experience as pleasurable or painful is
another issue.
Depending on the tradition, yogic and/or meditation methods are
provided to work with one or more chakras and/or one or more of the
flows of energy to achieve the intent of the tradition. It has been
the author’s experience that numerous traditions and practice to
which he has been exposed that utilize the Chakra System tend to
emphasis transcendence and leaving the physical or somehow fixing
the physical whether it be the body or physical Creation. These
traditions seem to perceive there is something wrong with
pain and there is the need to escape pain rather than learn to
see the
gift within pain.
In any case, many of these traditions
offer brilliant insights in our creative nature and can provided
many technique and methods useful in our creative endeavors. The
recommendation made here, as always, is to
allow effectiveness be your measure of truth. The recommendation
is to
eat and digest any technique and/or method and making it your
own as you would eat any food. Additionally, it needs to be
remembered that any system or interpretation we make about creation
will be incomplete, including the Releasing Your Unlimited
Creativity interpretation. This reason for this incompleteness is
simply that we cannot
put infinity into a box. We may be
infinite creative beings with an infinite awareness but our
minds are finite. The topic “The
problem of mind and the experience of the Source of Creation - the
trap of mind,” provides some understanding on the nature of this
issue.
Related Chakra topics
Energy Consciousness view of the Seven Chakra System
Seven Chakra Conceptual Areas
Seven
Chakra questionnaire for rituals
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