Part Three - Chakra Awareness:

seven points at which the physical body and the subtle body meet the causal body are the locations of the seven energy centers. These seven energy centers are present at the intersection of the physical, subtle and the causal body. They exist at a metaphysical plane. Some recent research in aura photography has been able to even photograph these energy centers.

These seven energy centers are associated to particular emotions in our Being. These emotions are a result of the engraved memories or samskaras which we have accumulated in the past. These samskaras block the particular energy center causing physical and mental disturbances. The samskaras are present in our being because of the absence of awareness.

When we flood awareness on these energy centers, the energy center starts becoming unblocked from negative emotions and then we start emitting positive emotions like love and compassion. Most of our diseases are psychosomatic. They have their roots in the mind. What we see is just the effect and so we never really understand this mindbody connection. When a particular energy center gets blocked, the part of the body near that energy center gets affected. We can see when we worry too much our stomach gets upset. It is important to keep the energy centers cleansed to promote mental health.

All of these emotions like fantasies, imaginations, fear, worry, attention need, jealousy, ego and discontentment have negative existence. If there is some object in the room and you are asked to take the object out of the room, you can pick up the object and take it out. In this case, the object has positive existence. However, let us say that there is a dark room and you are asked to take the darkness out of room. You cannot really take out the darkness because darkness has negative existence and therefore cannot be taken out. If we turn on a light however, the darkness will be removed automatically. All of these emotions have negative existence just like the darkness in the room and we cannot really take them out. What we have to do is bring in the light of awareness in our being and the negative emotions will disappear automatically.

Once Buddha tied a knot and asked one of his disciples to untie the knot. The disciple tried to pull the knot hard making the knot tighter. Then Buddha asked another disciple to untie the knot. This disciple first looked at the knot carefully. Then he slowly untied the knot. Buddha then explained that if you have to untie the knot of ignorance in your Being, you first have to learn to look carefully. You have to flood your Being with awareness and the negativity will be instantaneously obliterated.

In this step we will put our complete awareness on each energy center starting from the muladhara chakra to the sahasrara chakra. This way, step by step we move upwards, reaching the crown center. We should become the energy center when we are asked to put awareness on the energy center. We should feel the energy center completely

Just be un-clutched for the next seven minutes.

The mind is nothing but a collection of thoughts. One thought after the other coming in succession. By our very nature our thoughts are unconnected. They are like bubbles in a fish tank. The bubbles in the fish tank are not connected, they are distinctly separate. But they just appear to be connected. In a similar manner our thoughts are not connected though they appear to be connected.

You can try this small exercise. Sit for ten

minutes silently and simply start recording your thoughts. Write down all your thoughts as and when they come. Don't try to control or stop thinking. Just be silent and witness the thoughts coming. The moment a thought comes quickly write it down on paper. Do this for ten minutes. At the end of ten minutes read out whatever is written. You will see that it's a mad man's diary. There is utter chaos. There is no connection between the previous thought and the next thought. All the thoughts are un-clutched and unconnected. Only when you write down your thoughts you come to know that the thoughts have no real connection. You may be thinking about having a cup of coffee and the next moment you may think about some office work, which is pending. There is no real connection between having a cup of tea and the office work. Both are independent events. Even if there are two consecutive thoughts about the same event the thoughts are unconnected as there is no continuity. There is always a gap between these thoughts.

There is a time of silence between the thoughts. The thoughts by their very nature are un-clutched. The problem happens when we connect these thoughts. We connect these unconnected thoughts and suffer. For example; we might have eaten ice cream ten years ago, we might have eaten ice cream seven years ago, we might have eaten ice cream two years ago and we might have eaten ice cream yesterday. All these experiences might have been very pleasurable for us. We might have enjoyed

THE NITHYA YOGA PRACTICE 77