As talking about the chakras has gotten more and more popular in the West, it’s a good idea to go back to the basics and cover what are the chakras. I first learned about the chakras during my yoga teacher training at Nepal Yoga Home, and then again went even deeper into chakra knowledge at Reiki School India in both 2018 and 2019 as I was working on my Reiki healing certification. I recently finished an amazing and extraordinary in-depth 500+ page book on the chakras titled, Eastern Body, Western Mind, written by Anodea Judith. I am excited to share with you some key quotes and ideas from the book, as well as divulging some of my own knowledge on chakras that I’ve learned along my journey.
What Are Chakras?
In Sanskrit, Chakra translates to “wheel” or “disk.” The reason that the word was chosen to represent these energetic structures is because they are spinning spheres of energy. There are seven wheels of energy that travel along the base of the spine all the way to the top of the head.
Of course, they are not physical entities. A chakra cannot be removed during surgery. Chakras are akin to feelings and ideas, while they cannot be contained in the physical world, they still do have a clearly strong effect on the body, mind, and energy. Although they are not physical entities in and of themselves, they do have a location, which follows the spine.
“While they cannot be seen or held as material entities, the chakras are evident in the shape of our physical bodies, the patterns manifested in our lives, and the way we think, feel, and handle situations that life presents us.”
Anodea Judith, Eastern Body, Western Mind
Each chakra represents a major area of human life. In the most broadest of brushstrokes, the seven chakras in ascending order signify: survival, sexuality, power, love, communication, intuition, and consciousness.
Each chakra receives, digests, incorporates, and expresses the energy of our life force. The author of Eastern Body, Western Mind likened chakras to commuter “disks” that stores information and programs. For humans, this would mean that chakras stores programs such as in the root chakra information on how to survive, from breathing to sleeping, and in the fourth heart chakra information on how to love and form relationships. However, we didn’t write the programs ourself, and not all of them actually serve our best interest, and don’t serve our higher selves. It’s our jobs to identify and understand these preprogrammed or culturally programmed systems, decide to rewrite them or not. This could also involve changing, balancing, liberating, expanding, or manifesting our energy. This is the process of healing.
Wait, Where Did Chakra Knowledge Come From?
The concept of the chakra system was first described in the Vedas more than 4,000 years ago. Then, it was mentioned in the Upanishads, and then in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
Why Should I Care About The Chakras?
There are millions of people who will go their entire lives without hearing the world chakra, or without developing awareness for what goes on in their inner world. But there are those who are interested in the evolution of their consciousness. They wish to actively participate in their own healing process.
Identifying and understanding the chakras and their imbalances and blockages, helps a person to lead a healthy, balanced, centered life. Then with the insight of understanding, it is possible to begin to orient ourselves and our patterns towards the changes we seek in ourselves and in our lives. Specially, as Anodea Judith asserts, it is key to “understand the dynamics of that particular chakra. This means knowing the chakra system well enough to understand both the nature of each chakra and its function in the system as a whole. This way we know what the chakra is trying to accomplish, and how it behaves in its optimal functioning.”
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