Chakras and Meridians
Chakras have a form of more or less regular spheres with the exception of the upper sahasrara chakra, which is flattened vertically and looks like a horizontally lying disk.
Chakras do not have, as some authors claim, an internal lotus-like structure; this is a fantasy. Although, an exercise involving creation of temporary images of flowers inside chakras and even feeling their delicate aroma in them is a very good exercise.
Chakras also do not have a specific color inherent to them and they are not supposed to have it. This is also nothing but a popular fantasy. And attempts of coloring the chakras in accordance with colors of the rainbow constitute a downright and serious self-injuring or injuring of the disciples, who followed such recommendations.
One has to strive to cleanse the chakras as much as possible of all impurities that are energetically coarser than a tender white color with a slight goldish-amber hue. This is the path to cognizing Atman and God. But deliberate fixation of other colors inside the chakras means tuning them to coarser modes of operation, which cripples students and prevents them from attaining Perfection.
It is beneficial to let morning sunlight or scents of flowers into the cleansed chakras.
We also may invite our favorite Divine Teacher into anahata, learn to look at everything with His eyes and ask Him for advice�
God once gave me a wonderful method of cleansing anahata and other chakras � an exercise with a tetrahedron. If this exercise is supplemented with influencing the chakras by particular sound vibrations specific for each chakra (mantras), then in a couple of months of training the chakras transform into structures shining with tenderness and purity.
Working with a tetrahedron and with yidam as well as developing other chakras � this is the level of seriousness of exercises which must not be open to everyone interested.
Under no circumstances those who did not switch totally and forever to the killing-free diet on ethical grounds or those who do not show progress in the refinement of the consciousness, should do this kind of exercises.
Otherwise, the very methods that can produce a refining and purifying effect on the organism, will fix and increase its energetic coarseness. This is the path in the opposite from God direction.
This kind of psychoenergetic work is also incompatible with taking alcohol � even in the form of kvass, kumiss or industrially manufactured kefir. The reason for this is that the fine structures of the organism, which are being built, get destroyed in this case that results in dangerous illnesses. People starting this kind of work have to give up alcohol forever.
These methods increase the practitioner�s sensitivity to energetic influence from other people as well as to information that spirits of lower levels of development may impose. Therefore there is a danger that people who are not intellectually and ethically mature will not be able to react adequately to this kind of influence, especially in precarious situations, be they real or imaginary.
Because of this people less than 20 years old must not engage in this kind of work. Actually, only few adults may benefit from it.
Psychoenergetic trainings that result in one�s reaching high levels of refinement of the consciousness and � as a consequence � to feeling of its �nakedness� under no circumstances must be conducted for the masses of people. Only the selected ones can be admitted to them. The rest of people have a possibility to grow intellectually and ethically in the conditions of exoteric work on self-improvement: by accumulating new knowledge, by serving other people, and by strengthening one�s own faith.
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There are seven chakras, in total. Sometimes another number is quoted, but this is a result of misunderstanding. For example, other energy centers or even structures artificially created inside or outside the body are referred to as chakras.
There are also erroneous opinions as to localization of the chakras. For instance, in a range of incompetent publications, anahata is placed in the stomach area and manipura �slides down� to umbilical region.
In reality the chakras are located as follows:
Sahasrara � a chakra that has a form of a lying disk and is located under the parietal bones in the region of the forebrain hemispheres. Its diameter is about 12 centimeters; its height is about 4 centimeters.
Ajna � a large chakra located in the middle of the head, coincident with the central parts of the brain.
Vishuddha � a chakra located in the lower half of the neck and at the level of collarbones.
Anahata � a chakra located in the chest between the collarbones and solar plexus.
Manipura � a chakra of the upper half of the belly.
Svadhisthana � a chakra of the lower half of the belly.
Muladhara � a chakra located in the lower part of the pelvis between the coccyx and the pubis bone.
The level of development of individual chakras corresponds with one�s psychological features. So, when the following chakras are developed:
sahasrara � there is the pronounced ability of thinking strategically, i.e. the ability to see the �big picture�, to comprehend the whole situation �from above�, which allows such people to be broad-thinking managers;
ajna � one possesses a �tactical thinking� ability, which allows dealing successfully with particular problems in science, business, family life, etc.;
vishuddha � there is the ability for esthetical perception; good painters, musicians, and other artists are people with well-developed vishuddhas;
anahata � one possesses the ability to love emotionally (to love not �from the mind�, but �from the heart�);
manipura � the ability to act energetically; but sometimes it is accompanied with a disposition towards dominance of irritation and other manifestations of anger;
svadhisthana � a well pronounced reproductive function;
muladhara � psychological stability in various situations.
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The next stage of work after cleansing and development of the chakras (it will be discussed in the next chapters) consists in bringing the main meridians of the body to proper state. These are the meridians that make up the microcosmic orbit, as well as the middle meridian.
When one has cleansed the microcosmic orbit, the energy of the two lower chakras can be raised through the spinal canals, leaped over the head meridians to the front side of the body and brought down through the front meridian, which runs like a flat hose along the front side of the body.
This exercise of circulating energy around the microcosmic orbit produces a strong positive emotional effect; it also �burns� coarse energies of the organism in the front meridian, which makes for further improvement of health as well as for the cleansing and refinement of the organism.
The middle meridian is a wide canal (corresponding to the diameter of the chakras developed at the stage of Raja Yoga), which integrates the entire �column� of the chakras.
Its significance is immense since it allows one to combine all the chakras into one complex with a spacious corridor. Working with it also allows one to perform crystallization of the consciousness in the subtle eons, in which this meridian exists, up to the volume of the body.
Cleansing the middle meridian and its walls results in further health improvement.
And on the highest stages of psychoenergetic work, this structure is essential for working with Kundalini.
Work with the middle meridian can be performed with the help of a special mantra on special energetically significant areas on the Earth�s surface (places of power) or with the help of participation of a competent instructor.
The next principal stage is moving the consciousness into the energy cocoon that surrounds the body and crystallization of the consciousness in its volume.
After that, one has to realize the segmentation of the cocoon into two bubbles of perception: the upper and the lower. The upper one includes the three upper chakras; the lower one � the four lower chakras.
With our upper bubble of perception, we perceive the world of material objects; with the lower one we perceive non-material worlds.
