Chakra opening

'The awakening of Kundalini and it's union with Shiva is immediately and intimately connected with the whole brain. To explain it simply, we can say the brain has ten compartments, and of these nine are dormant and one is active. Whatever you know, whatever you think or do is coming from one-tenth of your brain.

Why are these compartments inactive? Because there is no energy. The active portions of the brain function on the energies of Ida and Pingala, but the other nine tenths have only pingala. Pingala is life and Ida is consciousness.' From 'Kunadalini Tantra'.

Without our ability to be a little objective there will be no sense of perspective in our 'progress' in our ongoing practise. The essence of practise in my opinion and according to more then a few books I've read on the subject is to activate 'intelligence'.

I know I'm repeating myself but just one more time the essence of it all: By opening and purifying the 'nadi's', especially IDA - PINGALA - SUSHUMNA we can move 'Kundalini' up towards the 'Crown'. Once this is completed we activate full intelligence.

Each chakra as it awakens may contain some 'Samskara'. In other words the unconscious may become activated, you may become aware of past trauma etc. If the unconscious becomes activated you may be 'freaked out' if you are unprepared for it.

A Quote from Kundalini Tantra. SWami Satyananda Saraswati : "There are so many whispers about the dangers of awakening and dark hints about people going crazy or developing disturbing powers, but everything in life is risky and there are far more dangers in everyday life than you will encounter on the path of kundalini. Every time you walk across the street or travel by car or plane you take a risk. In the pursuit of desires, passions and ambitions, people take great risks every day without thinking twice about it. Yet they allow the relatively minor risk of kundalini to deter them from pursuing the supreme goal of higher consciousness"

He goes on to say: "Without involving yourself in risk, nothing great in life can be achieved. Every great yogi, scientist, explorer and adventurer has faced great dangers and risks and in this way has invented, discovered or made progress. People who think and talk about risks are cowards, and should not even practise yoga. It is better they eat, drink and be merry and die unenlightened".

Phew strong stuff from the great Swami! But a man after my own heart I think.

Activation of the 'Ajna' Chakra is important as a first step. This is the chakra of the mind. Self enquiry and really asking some fundamental questions about what you are doing and where you have come from in a very realistic way regarding your next step in yoga is of the utmost importance I think.

If you are happy to 'do' yoga for relaxation purposes and have no interest in expanding intelligence and/or consciousness then you continue on that path. If on the other hand you have become bored with that you may be ready to take the next step and in order to do that you need to be a little bit grounded at the very least.

Some questions to ask yourself may be. What has been your past history relating to psycho-emotional balance or not and are you worried about re-activating these old wounds? Have you had any major illnesses? Are you in steady employment and earning a living from your own means? Do you take drugs and alcohol either addictively or recreationally? In other words are you 'stable' enough to be able to deal with 'stuff' emanating from the unconscious?

An interesting question for me is; Does Yoga work even if you don't know what you are doing? I think it does. So fore-warned is fore-armed, I think.

Activate Ajna through meditating on the space between the eyes, see whats there. Spend some time writing about your fears and worries in an objective way and see if there is any relevance to them. There is a saying that goes: "Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered and there was no-one there".

Without the 'ajna' there is no perspective of progress, no objectivity, so this should be the first chakra to be opened.

All of the books talk of pranayama as an essential part of the process of awakening. It is a dynamic way and is not for everyone. Work it our for yourself there is plenty of time in spite of what the doom and gloom merchants are telling us. Remember we live in and infinite universe with infinite time and we only have a tenth of our brain functioning!

'Making the simple complicated is commonplace. Making the complicated awesomely simple, that's creative'. Charlie Mingus. Jazzman.