Chakras Introduction

Introduction

• Please see Energy & Subtle Body Anatomy for context.
• Chakra is a Sanskrit word that means “wheel,” “circle,” “turning” or “disk.”
• The traditional Sanskrit pronunciation is “CHUK-ra.” (Learn more here and here.)
• Life force energy (referred to as prana or kundalini) is said to gather in centers of the subtle body.
• Chakras refer to spinning centers of life force energy found in a person’s subtle body.
• A chakra is said to be a “spinning sphere of bioenergetic activity emanating from the major nerve ganglia branching from the spinal column” that “receives, assimilates, and expresses life force energy.” (Anodea Judith, Eastern Body, Western Mind 2004 p 4).
• While some sources may connect chakras with nerve plexuses and physical organs of the body, they are not considered physical organs.
• The theories related to chakras vary. Different models describe different numbers of chakras, different locations, different colors, symbols, etc. Some traditional writings refer to as many as 88,000 chakras.
• The most widely accepted model is of seven spinning energy centers within the spinal column.

WHY HAVEN’T WE SEEN THE CHAKRAS?

Doctors and scientists used to ask me, “Why, when we have witnessed many operations have we never seen the chakras?” The only reply I could give them was, “Can you show me the sound waves in a transistor radio? I have opened up radios, but I have never found the BBC there.” – Swami Satyananada Saraswati

Function

• Chakras collect and transmit energy for use physically, mentally and spiritually.
• They act as nodes “uniting the psycho-energetic and physical aspects of our being” and can be an “effective map for helping bridge realities of the inner and outer worlds.” – Rick Jarow, Creating the Work You Love 1995 p 26
• “On our journey through life, the chakras are the wheels that take the Self along our evolutionary quest to reclaim our divine nature once again.” – Anodea Judith

THE WHEELS OF LIFE

The body is a vehicle of consciousness. Chakras are the wheels of life that carry this vehicle about—through its trials, tribulations, and transformations. – Anodea Judith

PROMOTE HARMONY BETWEEN INNER & OUTER WORLD

Chakras serve as a kind of way station in which energy is collected, transmitted, and made available for the ongoing processes of an individual’s physical, mental and spiritual life…The chakras also promote harmony between one’s inner and outer world. – Kalashatra Govinda

COMMON SYMBOLISM DESCRIBING CHAKRAS

The serpent goddess, Kundalini, represents the evolutionary life force within each person. She awakens from her slumber in the earth to dance her way through each chakra, (forming) a metaphysical bridge between matter and consciousness… On our journey through life, the chakras are the wheels that take the Self along our evolutionary quest to reclaim our divine nature once again. – Anodea Judith