The Eight Chakra Model

This morning I thought that it might be a good time to revisit the Senseworld chakra model, and begin the discussion proper.  What you see above is a visual representation of the chakra system as I have come to understand it through reading and my own interior explorations.  The Chakras or wheels according to the Sanskrit, appear as energy vortices arranged along the spine.  In my first interior experience of visual contact with these energy centers they seemed to look like little galaxies, rotating counter-clockwise centered on the Sushumna energy channel in the center of the spine.  Now in order to enter in this discussion we have to postulate all kinds of things, that are as yet unprovable by modern scientific methods.  One is that there exists a mystical form of energy or prana, ( also called chi or qi by the Chinese), and that this energy forms some sort of energy body that the physical body is dependent on.  We will also have to assume that by certain methods humans can become aware of and begin to unravel the secrets of this energy.  Hopefully in making these assumptions we can hold ourselves to subjects that will bear some examination and not run headlong down a path of New Age magical thinking.  I find that when western minds encounter these mystical ideas they careen wildly down paths of woo like reiki and crystal healing and lose all sense of proportion or any healthy skepticism.  Luckily for us with Yoga, we have a 5,000 year old, refined method of examination.

Yoga as a method of examination, eliminates some of the difficulties in discussing our unprovable assertions.  Yoga is the study of the subjective, rather than objective facts.  It is a personal method of development and introspection, and therefore deals with personal facts, rather than the so-called “objective” facts of science.  This said, the system is much more highly developed than rationalistic materialistic science, and has a history of observation and experiment going back 5,000 years.  The “Truths,” that one uncovers with yoga are no less important than scientific laws, and if the advanced Yogis are to be believed, the reality they encounter makes our rational law-driven world seem like a dream in comparison.  This assertion as well as the myriad claims of superpowers or siddhis attainable through yoga makes the  practice appear to me at least as worthy of our consideration as science.

When yoga is thought of in this way, as an interior exploration, it allows us to talk about experiences like that of prana or the energy body as though they were real, by being a repeated experience of those that use this method of examination.  Not all that practice yoga have precisely these experiences, but for branches of yoga like Kundalini or Tantra they are essential.  So then whether the Chakras have any objective reality for someone like The Amazing Randi shouldn’t trouble us, because it is possible for us to have these experiences regardless of the most hard-core skeptics.  The value of these experiences is that they allow us to begin to explore and even learn  to control these mystical energies. You may already have some control of this force naturally. As an experiment you can try to focus the mind on one obscure part of the body and see if by concentration you can feel a warming or pressure in that spot.  Where the mind goes prana goes (or really vice versa) and this is the same energy that we are speaking about in this discussion.  With mastery of this primal energy the Yogis claim all sorts of magical powers can be attained like teleportation, clairvoyance, telekinesis and physical feats like living without breathing or sleeping.  The energy body and Chakras are made from this primal superior force and it is through them that we interact with it.  Here we can postulate, like Swami Vivekenanda, that all of manifested reality is in fact inferior to the higher energetic reality, so mastery of the higher gives complete control of the lower.

Coming up next time we will discuss the formulation of the energy body.  To be continued…

Original Buddha photo from Orin Optiglots Flickr stream.