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Chakras – What do we really know?
BeyondTheAstral
New
Over 20 years ago I went to a talk on Chakras by a respected individual, during the talk I asked “Have you ever seen a Chakra” he stated he had not and the descriptions were common knowledge transmitted by gurus and clairvoyants, I got a similar answer for the number of petals. If you do a web search on Chakras you will get over 20 Million hits and believe the majority of sites are just repeating what they have been told or read elsewhere.
Does anybody have any input on this?
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Comments
I don't think we "know" anything about chakras. Maybe advanced practitioners actually feel energy moving through their chakras... well I don't know anything.
In fact nevermind! This is hardly "input".
I know people who claim they can see chakras if that is what you are wondering?
I cannot myself.
But I can feel the little circle and some of the "big" circle. I imagine that is connected some how.
What kind of input are you looking for?
What do you want to know, exactly? A friend of mine can see them. We went to a workshop together that was intro to chakras and healing, or psychic abilities, or something. She was the only one who could see the chakras, and could see if they were spinning properly, or had some unusual activity about them (indicating some kind of imbalance in the person's system).
They're connected to the body's main endocrine centers, which makes sense. I had a major incident involving one of my chakras years ago, and later I was diagnosed with an illness that did, indeed, involve the corresponding part of the endocrine system. I don't want to go into detail, but after that, I came to believe in chakras.
Thanks for all your great input - my question was quite vague to get a wide range of answers. To me it is important that if you want to be labelled as an authority in any area then you should have firsthand knowledge and not be repeating what you have been told.
From my prospective I saw the Crown chakra when I was initiated into Light and Sound, I have also seen the throat chakra whilst using a Kundalini mantra along with feeling energy moving through each one, – if you Google Leadbeater and chakras there are some good images what chakras look like from my observations and others.
An interesting experiment is to get somebody to lay down and move over the locations with a pendulum and watch it spin – no special pendulum required I used some cotton tied to a hex nut! Chakras are in essence are energy transformers – they slow down the energy to the point where they are connected. The chakra becomes more visible or perceivable when the energy has not been discharged.
I've done some meditation practices that focused on different chakras and noticed different energies at each one, if I'm being honest though I can't say whether it wasn't my own mental preconceptions creating the differences or if they were genuine.
Generally speaking Buddhism, in the west at least, focuses more on the practical aspects of training our mind to develop positive qualities and reduce our mental suffering rather than such metaphysical interests.
If that were the case, how many of us would be Buddhists, exactly? :scratch: .
(perspective)
You've seen more than I have then, and I used to do extensive work with chakras...
Yes, I can FEEL' that. Never seen it though.
And I thought when I practised, people counted on me as 'an authority'.
Huh.
Does that make me an ignorant pleb?
All the docs you linked so far have been very helpful, thank you.
True. Chakras don't have anything to do with Buddhism, except possibly the esoteric side of Tibetan Buddhism.
chakras have to do with the present moment if they are real.
I would change the title to "Anything and everything - what do we really know?" But now I'm just being mischievous....
.
Chakras
... / lol \ ...
You must first understand what the the subtle body really is. It's not the one you present to the world and interacts with this and that person - its the body you interact with and are - I won't give you sites to look at as they are very confusing - a basic meditative experience will enable you to see it.
Subtle
SUB TOTAL! - or is this just a WORD GAME - time to play a game where delusion must be seen as delusion - illusion as illusion, and reality as just that - reality.
Good luck with the chakras - they are as real as a duck in a pond! just don't give them white bread as that can make them sick, and if given too much attracts rats!
I've always been interested in alternative healing, so a couple of years ago, I used chakra meditation audios almost daily, in order to hopefully balance my subtle system in a holistic way.
As I was guided through each chakra, I could actually feel the energy spinning on each chakra very strongly. Feel, not see.
But then, since I am very good with visualizations, like @person, I could not quite tell whether it was all my own personal input, or the chakras really working.
One thing is sure: Western medicine does not have the last word in health, and in the East people have been working with the chakras for centuries, so we should not be too skeptical about them.
Why don't you try vipassana ?
@DhammaDragon
I very much recommend you to read Magick by David Ingram
nothing chakral, but your sentence makes me think you'll find it a valuable read
edit: found a link
http://integrateddaniel.info/magick-and-the-brahma-viharas/
There is a lot more to studying such subjects than just looking at some webpages which offer no authority or even books that anyone can write and say what they wish. There is a vast amount of worthy study on energy within the body, and yes as someone said above, it has to do with the subtle body. Simply understanding those different layers of our bodies is difficult for most people, nevermind getting into detail about how they appear (if they do).
It really all comes back to bringing yourself, your life, and everything around you into balance. A lot of the chakra stuff is made up nonsense. But not all of it. You aren't likely to solve your migraines by wearing the right color underwear. But recognizing what triggers them and how to balance those issues can. And that is what energy stuff is all about. You have to be pretty good at understanding your mind and body to get there. Filling out quizzes on Buzzfeed won't help much (not saying you do that, just saying in general, lol)
There is a lot of good, and valid reading on the subtle body, and other energy bodies in ayurveda texts and books. Look for stuff by David Frawley and Vasant Lad. They are both credible and they explain it well. Even Deepak Chopra's books "Perfect health" and "Quantum Healing" do a decent job of starting to explain it. I prefer Vasant Lad myself, he make sit easy to understand and he is easy to read. Very thorough. It is not about chakras, but it will give you a better understand of those energies and how to balance them, the same as chakra work.
Noo!!!!!!!!!
I personally don't see chakras. But I feel them. They're as real as say this computer I am typing on.
But just like everything else compounded and thus impermanent.
In Buddhism generally its not focused on unless you study Vajrayana.