Simply put, a chakra is an energy centre superimposed on your physical body. You have hundreds of chakras throughout and surrounding your body but for our purposes I will focus on the seven major chakras.
The word 'chakra' is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel or disk. A chakra is a wheel-like spinning vortex of energy. A chakra is a point of intersection between various planes or areas of your body. It is the seven major energy centres along the spinal column that have the greatest significance. These seven centres can be thought of as the "master chakras".
Like flowers, chakras can be open or closed, dying or budding, depending upon the state of well-being and consciousness within.
Chakras refer to seven basic energy centres within what is called the subtle body. The subtle body is the non-physical psychic body that is superimposed upon your physical body. It is made of the more spiritual parts of yourself.
You will experience the subtle body as thoughts, emotions and feelings. It can be measured as electromagnetic force fields that are found within and around you. Kirlian photography has actually photographed the emanations of the subtle body.
In the aura, which is the external manifestation of the subtle body, the energy field appears as a soft glow around the physical body, often made of spindle-like fibers. At the core of the body, the subtle field appears as spinning disks called chakras.
These centres are gateways between various dimensions. For example, emotional activity connects and plays upon your physical body. This interaction, in turn, plays upon your activities in day to day living and governs your interactions with others.
Take, for example, the experience of fear. Fear affects your body in certain ways. You may feel butterflies in your stomach; your breath is short and your voice and hands may shake.
These physical characteristics demonstrate a lack of confidence in yourself and may lead others to view you in a negative way, perpetuating your fear. This fear may not even be grounded in present circumstances but may be a carry-over from childhood which is still buried in the chakra and ruling your behaviour. To work with the chakras is to heal yourself of old restricting patterns.
To experience what a chakra 'feels' like, try the following simple exercise.
Extend both arms out in front of you, parallel to the floor, with elbows straight. Turn one hand up and one hand down. Now quickly open and close your hands twenty times or so. Reverse your palms and repeat. This opens the hand chakras.
To feel them, open your hands and slowly bring your palms together, starting at about two feet apart and moving slowly to a few inches.
When your hands are about four inches apart you should be able to feel a subtle ball of energy, like a magnetic field, floating between your palms. If you tune in closely you may even be able to feel the spinning quality. After a few moments this sensation will subside, but can be repeated by opening and closing of the palms again, as above.
The effect of the chakras on the physical body is strong for it is believed that the physical body shapes itself around the chakra. For example, an over-blown solar plexus chakra would show in a big, tight belly. A constricted throat chakra results in tight shoulders or a sore throat. A poor connection through the base chakra may show up in skinny legs or bad knees.
The way we feel determines the way we act. This in turn determines the type of experiences we are likely to have - - governing the energy that the chakra is likely to draw in toward itself.
Conditioning from our parents and culture, physical body shape, situations we are born into are important factors. Understanding these patterns gives you valuable insight into your behaviour. If these patterns are beneficial then this self-perpetuating may enhance your growth but, if not, then the pattern represents a personal emotional block.
In meditation, when working with the chakras, your powers of visualization are utilized. For example, to open your chakras you may choose to visualize a beautiful rosebud transforming into the rose. To close your chakras visualize the beautiful rose transforming into a rosebud.
The seven major chakras are associated with seven basic levels of consciousness. However, the seven major chakras are all inseparably inter-related. A physical, emotional or spiritual block in the functioning of one chakra may affect the activity of the one above or below it.
For example one may have trouble with his personal power (solar plexus chakra) because of a block in communication (throat chakra) or vice versa. Or perhaps the real problem may be in his heart chakra and only manifests in these other areas because it is buried so deeply; for example, an individual who is unable to feel feelings.
A student can learn to sort out these subtleties and patterns and make self-improvements according to his goals. I will explain this in greater detail as we explore each chakra in depth.
