Chakra Challenge

I challenge you!!!

There has been lots of talk about Chakras lately, and I figured we can use this space to talk about them.

Post, in this thread, one specific system of chakras and tell us about it. These systems can be found in cycles of texts, lineages, or the works of specific individuals. Treat this like a spiritual or cultural study, not a scientific study. Research the origins of the system, the history of its exponents, influence on modern yoga, and detail why it is relevant to the Jedi Path.

Lets keep it informative, and perhaps afterwards we can generate some dialogue about the pro's and con's of this topic and incorporating it into our Paths.

MTFBWY!

Oh this will be fun! Not much time now but definately want to see where this goes!

This looks like a challenging topic!

I've encountered the subject of chakras often over the years, but now that I think about it the content I've seen has always come from modern writers or self-appointed gurus who basically point to themselves as authorities. I have known that the roots of teachings about chakras stem from the East, but have not been well-informed about specific sources.

So I dug a little - just a little, and this is still kind of superficial. But I've been skimming a English translation of the Jabala Darsana Upanishad, one of the early writings of Hinduism that is somewhere between two and four millenia old. I have yet to find the word "chakra" specifically used, but the text describes meditative practices relying upon specific mantras that are often associated with several chakras in more contemporary literature, and also endorses "inhaling air and stopping it in different places" including the perineum (root chakra), stomach (solar plexus), heart, throat, forehead, and top of skull. The sacral chakra is the only one of those commonly referenced in the contemporary West that is not mentioned.

There are other Hindu writings from the same era that are claimed to also refer to chakras, but I have not had time to look at them yet.

The translation of the Jabala Darsana Upanishad I am looking at is at https://www.hinduwebsite.com/vedicsection/upanishads/jabaladarshana.asp if anyone is interested. It's certainly helpful to have it in English, though for Westerners I wouldn't recommend it over a conventional new-agey book on chakras as some of the language is either poetic or still remains in Sanskrit. I do not see any conflict between what this manuscript says about chakras and what more trendy books say, though the trendy sources elaborate more on things like the color and purpose of each chakra and I cannot say how much of those subjects come from traditional literature.

I love as much as I can get some days. Truth be told - when I first learned of this it wasn’t - chakras- I learned from a “Cudandero” lights and flows. No pictures no books no forms - no names- It wasn’t until after Bible College did I see my first actual picture of the Chakras. It wasn’t until few years ago I studied the actual different forms of what’s seems to be - the same ideas from different places. It took a few months and a lot of net searching and amid on ordering but I can say almost any info can help. Validation helped me in this sense for a few of these type of things in my real life.

That's easy to understand, Carlos; we'd expect that authentic spiritual realities would be discovered through cultures throughout the world, but using different languages. I'd bet Siberian shamans and Native American medicine workers would have their own terminology. I just know the East Indian references to chakras best because that's what I've been exposed to the most.

I've bookmarked a couple of other places where different parts of the Hindu Vedas are said to describe the chakras, and if I find time to review them I'll add to what they convey here. However, I am finding that - just as in the tradition you encountered - much of the related information has been convveyed by word of mouth, so ancient writings about chakras from the East may be fairly limited in scope.

I agree validation in an area like this, if you've had some experience of chakras making themselves evident, is so important. Otherwise, the experience mirrors a mysterious health issue or a lapse of sanity!

I've come across them a few times in Buddhist Tantra's. And explored working with them. My view on it, a biopsycho concept or phenomena (or both), based on anatomically referenced, linked, circular and/or spherical and/or toriod dynamics which seem to interface the biological and psychological with some resultant effects. The effects seem best described in metaphysical language and so support views of metaphysical realities, in effect spirituality

For me, I've settled on it being a blend of various biogical/anatomical systems and homeostatic processes upon them. I don't discount the metaphysical potentials, but rather by virtue of this approach tend to think psychological involvement caters to the diversity and intensity of experiencing results. Results in the biology and anatomy being harder to isolate or manifest to awareness, so less obvious and requiring greater durations of disciple.

Varying in number across traditions and techniques, they include resultant systems of connected channels and smaller Chakras, featuring a predominant central axis serving as the main trunk between the larger Chakras. Mental and physical practises seem to serve to mediate their activity, with significant effects reported including potential for both benefit and harm.

Further for me, the anatomical systems most directly involved are;
Flesh/Water - fascia & ligament alignment and tension
Courage/Gold - endocrine organs
Skill/Fire - gut-brain axis & systematic inflammation
Insight/Tree - balancing of proprioception & autonomic function

The remaining element, Spirit/Gaia (of the result of results), is the pyscho-spiritual dimension of the practise, as the system seems coexistant and codependant. In this regard it is a lifestyle more then an exercise or meditation.

So the original fiction, for me in this regard, C3PO, Chewie, Leia, R2D2, and Luke represent the charactutures devoid of those things respectively. C3 is dry, metal and stiff. Chewie is a juxtaposition of the fight and flight dynamic, Leia is the heroic Force sensitive kicking arse without any lightsaber (fire, etc). R2D2 is so inside itself its lost all outward expression. Luke is bumbling and ignorant as to his potential, but as the main story focus develops through a herioc journey. Visual metaphors; actors playing actors in part of a larger story.
But as can be seen, I make everything about Star Wars :S

I follow the 7 chakra system in my practice. With an emphasis on the heart, throat, and third eye chakras.