Chakras - balancing or unconditional opening?

[semipelican]

Noticing that different traditions have different goals, and different ideas about things, this is something I've been thinking about recently. I'd be interested in what others think about this.

Many systems of yoga describe chakras as structures in the subtle body that modify the quality of energy in the subtle body. In some more modern systems where people practice yoga postures mostly for the physical performance benefit, I hear people talk a lot about working on opening each chakra.

In my understanding, which comes more from an older kriya yoga system, instead of trying just to open each chakra, the goal would be more to balance them. Since each chakra is associated with a specific type of psychological tendency, if the chakra is too closed up, relative to the others, that associated tendency would be underexpressed in one's life. In the same way, if one chakra was too open relative to the others, the tendency would be overexpressed. Both cases would lead to an imbalanced state.

As one example, the manipura chakra (solar plexus) can be associated with agression. If this chakra is too closed up, relative to the others, the person might be unable to stand up for his own decisions, and be easily dominated and frustrated. If the chakra is too open, the person might tend to be abusive towards others, or overly power-hungry. Either condition would represent an imbalanced mental state.

If the goal is to learn to recognize and identify with the spiritual self nature, and this is difficult because the identification with the ego gets in the way and distracts us from the self nature, then these imbalanced states would prevent progress towards that goal. This is my understanding of why balancing the chakras is important. If one seems too closed up, then work on opening it up, but if one is already too open, relative to the other chakras, then working to close it down would seem to make more sense.

I know there are a lot of different traditions that have different goals and different ideas about these things. What ideas do the rest of you have about this? Do your systems focus more on opening them up, working to balance them, increasing the energy of each one? I'd be interested in knowing more about how different systems approach this.

Thanks!

[IA56]

I am more interested in not having any system at all, if you can develop only by focusing on stillness and silence??

Love
ia

[DarkChylde]

I know of someone who has the best astral sight as possible (not IRL) , we skype and talk and she says the same thing , no one ever has chakras opened or balanced or toned.

point I'm making is that a regular active athletic person can have very low state out of balance chakras and they'd still be has healthy as humanly possible.
Having high out put or energetically worked on chakras conversely does not mean the person in question has a lot of spiritual development.

The point me and my friend both agree on is that chakras are yet to be fully understood , often time my friend says she encounters "dead chakras" , chakras with no vitality , spin or movement or energy and yet the person is healthy in all ways.

long time , many many years ago I used to work on chakras , but soon gave up as I realized - they might not be what I think what they are - I started looking into alternate energy methods and that's how I got into RB's energy work outs.

I do other work outs too that aren't remotely similar to "energy work" yet are effective for me.This area I suspect is mostly trial and error , you have to keep at it till you get the knack of it and see what stimulates you best.

[DarkChylde]

I am more interested in not having any system at all, if you can develop only by focusing on stillness and silence??

Love
ia

profound insight , my sentiments exactly , I much rather have no system at all and and focus my work on silence and stillness.

[susan]

Hi Semipelican,
I don't practice yoga simply because I've got enough to do.
I started out practicing Roberts NEWS before I even knew what chakras were.I didn't even practice meditation.Stimulating of the energy body by bouncing, stirring, etc encouraged the OBEs. My clairvoyance started up also.

I learned of the chakra system later and what they are thought to represent. In time I started trying to stimulate the chakras more than the other body parts ( with the time I had available) and in my daily life to try to balance and be aware of my feelings and actions.

I would say that up to this date I consciously note my thoughts and actions and analyse them.( I don't mean to give a picture of being a zombie) but this helps me understand when I may be going along the wrong route and causing any imbalance or bad feelings.

So once again for health I eat healthy, don't drink alcohol, think healthy but never practice yoga and have plenty of experiences but wouldn't have a clue if my chakras were opened , closed, balanced or not.

My personal opinion is its a waste of time trying to progress spiritually and have experiences if that person practices yoga and works on chakras then goes out and gets drunk, eats junk food and thinks bad thoughts of others.

My recipe would be... Work on energy body your chosen method.
....Work on your own health by what you eat
....work on your thoughts , spoken words and actions.

[olyris]

yes open them, balance them, brighten them, clear them, violet flame them or anything else you can imagine (vivify them) and you will integrate that effect. my method is to enter them with my minds eye and just meditate away any junk until they are sane.

[CFTraveler]

You may get something out of this: http://www.tantrikstudies.org/blog/2...on-the-chakras

Please read it all the way to the end.