OTHER CHAKRA MEDITATIONS
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Let your chakras breathe!
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE
Your chakras are the points at which pranic energy enters your body. If they are kept in an energized condition, you will be free from all types of diseases. Pranic breathing from the various chakras is a quick way to rejuvenate yourself.
INSTRUCTIONS
Duration: 21 minutes Close your eyes and sit comfortably cross-legged on the floor. Inhale and exhale deeply a few times. Now place your awareness on the mooladhara chakra (root center), located at the base of your spine. As you inhale, visualize your mooladhara chakra breathing in deeply. Visualize prana going into your chakra. Feel it touching the chakra and vibrating the chakra. When you exhale, visualize the empty air being expelled from the chakra. Your mooladhara chakra is infused with pranic energy. Continue for 11 rounds of inhalation and exhalation.
Now move to the (spleen center), located two inches above the mooladhara chakra and two inches below your navel. Repeat this process with the swadhishthana chakra for 11 rounds of inhalation and exhalation. Move upwards through the other chakras up to the sahahrara chakra (crown center). Repeat the same process with each of the chakras.
Centering in the Being chakra
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE
The swadishthana chakra is known as the Being chakra. Your being is based in this chakra (swa- means self or being, adhishthana means base). This technique is useful for centering your energies in the swadishthana chakra. It can be practised just before you go to sleep and as soon as you wake up.
Duration: 11 minutes
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: When you lie down on your bed to sleep, place both your hands on the swadhistana chakra, two inches below the navel. Press very lightly, just enough so you can feel it.
Step 2: Start breathing deeply.
Breathe from the swadhistana chakra, not from the chest. Feel the chakra moving up and down as you inhale and exhale. Relax into sleep in this way. You will remain centered even in your sleep.
Step 3: In the morning, the moment you feel awake, don’t open your eyes. Again place your hands on the swadhisthana chakra and breathe deeply for 15 minutes.
Raising the consciousness through Omkaara
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE
Om or pranava mantra is the most
potent of all Vedic mantras.
The beauty of Om is that the mantra
itself represents the transition from
gross to subtle to pure consciousness.
When the mantra Om is chanted
with awareness on different chakras,
it can create different effects. For
instance, when we chant from the
manipuraka chakra (navel center), we
are invoking the gross form of Om
(sthula), and the results can also be
felt in the physical body. As we move
to higher and higher chakras, the
energy movements also become
subtler and subtler, until at the
sahasrara chakra (crown center), the
same Om chant can be experienced
as pure consciousness.
INSTRUCTIONS
Duration: 21 minutes
Sit upright with your eyes closed. Begin chanting the mantra 'Om' as deeply as possible, as loudly as possible, as lengthily as possible, with awareness on the different chakras as shown below:
Step 1: Place your awareness on the manipuraka chakra (navel center). The manipuraka chakra is the source of the pure energy of verbalization.
Chant the mantra Om, feeling clearly that the mantra is arising from the manipuraka, and not from your throat. Feel the mantra vibrating the chakra. As you chant, you will see that your body has started moving slightly in a circular way, as if making small circles in the air. The movement of energy can be clearly felt in the physical body.
Step 2: Shift your awareness to the anahata chakra (heart center). The anahata chakra is the source of love energy. Chant the mantra Om, feeling clearly that the mantra is arising from the anahata chakra. Feel the mantra vibrating the chakra. As you chant, you will experience not movements of the body, but rather movements within the body. Waves of energy can be felt rising from the heart and spreading inside the body. This is a more subtle expression of the energy generated by the Omkara (Om chanting).
INSTRUCTIONS (continuation)
Step 3: Shift your awareness to the vishuddhi chakra (throat center). The vishuddhi chakra is the source of the creative energy. Chant the mantra Om, feeling clearly that the mantra is arising from the vishuddhi chakra. Feel the mantra vibrating the chakra. As you chant, you will experience a very subtle but powerful energy 和他pulsing in the throat and engulfing your whole body.
Step 4: Shift your awareness to the ajna chakra (brow center). The ajna chakra is the source of the intelligence energy. Chant the mantra Om, feeling clearly that the mantra is arising from the ajna chakra. Feel the mantra vibrating the chakra. Here, you will experience neither the movement nor the non-movement of energy. Like a fan that is rotating in full speed appears to be neither moving nor non-moving, the energy of Om resonates in the chakra, moving without movement.
Step 5: Shift your awareness to the sahasrara chakra (crown center). The sahasrara chakra is the source of pure consciousness. Chant the mantra Om, feeling clearly that the mantra is arising from the sahasrara chakra. Feel the mantra vibrating the chakra. At this chakra, the energy is no longer moving, but remains as pure consciousness. When the Om chanting becomes constant and effortless (ajapa) at the sahasrara chakra, you enter the space of enlightenment.
Soham chanting for chakra rejuvenation
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE
Soham mantra is another name for the hamsa mantra. As with the hamsa mantra chanting, here also we focus on the natural sound made by the breath during inhalation and exhalation. When the mantra is chanted with awareness on a particular chakra, it enhances the circulation of prana (life-force) in that chakra.
DURATION: 21 minutes
INSTRUCTIONS
Sit in padmasana (lotus posture) or just cross-legged on the floor. Your spine should be straight and your eyes closed. Keep your awareness on the muladhara chakra and inhale. As you are inhaling, be aware that your breath is entering your body with the sound ‘hummmm’. When you exhale, be aware of the breath leaving your body with the sound ‘sohhh’. Continue with Soham attentiveness for seven full rounds of breath, with awareness on the mooladhara chakra. Move upwards to the swadishthana chakra and repeat the process for seven rounds of breathing.
Beeja mantra chanting for chakra rejuvenation
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE
Each chakra has its own mystic beeja mantra (seed syllable). The resonance of this beeja mantra energizes the particular chakra.
DURATION: 21 minutes
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: Sit comfortably with your spine erect and your eyes closed. Place your awareness on the muladhara chakra. Intone the mantra Lam once with your awareness on the muladhara chakra. Feel the vibration at the muladhara chakra.
Step 2: Let your awareness move up to the swadhishtana chakra. Intone the mantra Vam once with your awareness on the swadhistana chakra. Feel the vibration at the swadhistana chakra. (pronounced to rhyme with “Hum”)
Step 3: Let your awareness move up to the manipuraka chakra. Intone the mantra Ram ("Rum") once with your awareness on the manipuraka chakra. Feel the vibration at the manipuraka chakra.
INSTRUCTIONS (continuation)
Step 4: Let your awareness move up to the anahata chakra. Intone the mantra Yam ("Yum") once with your awareness on the anahata chakra. Feel the vibration at the anahata chakra.
Step 5: Let your awareness move up to the vishuddhi chakra. Intone the mantra Ham ("Hum") once with your awareness on the vishuddhi chakra. Feel the vibration at the vishuddhi chakra.
Step 6: Let your awareness move up to the ajna chakra. Intone the mantra Om ("Ohm") once with your awareness on the ajna chakra. Feel the vibration at the ajna chakra.
Step 7: Now, reverse the process. Descend to the muladhara chakra step by step, repeating the mantra for each chakra.
Repeat the whole process nine times.
Healing through energy maps: Yantra Dhyana
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE
When you meditate on any object, an energy cycle is gradually built up between you and that object.
Yantras or energy maps are essentially geometric diagrams that have been etched on metal, wood or paper. Three-dimensional yantras are those carved out of wood or molded in metal. The earliest yantras were spontaneously created by spiritual masters at the peak moments of meditation. In the early books on meditation, yantras have been referred to as the diagrammatical representations of the structure of the universe.
Just as pyramidical structures are known to absorb and retain energy, yantras also have a specific geometric structure that allows them to store energy for long periods. When a spiritually evolved person meditates upon the yantra, he transfers healing energy to the yantra. The yantra then acts as a battery that stores this healing energy.
When an ailing person meditates upon the same yantra, the energy is transferred to him, and he experiences a glimpse of the spiritual ecstasy that first gave birth to that geometric form.
Since the chakras are the energy portals of the body, we absorb energy most effectively through the chakras. This meditation uses the healing yantra to facilitate chakra healing.
DURATION: 21 minutes
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: 11 minutes
Focus on the chakra where you are experiencing a problem. Keeping your eyes continuously on the healing yantra, visualize that you are 'seeing' the yantra from that chakra. Focus your attention towards the yantra from that chakra. Feel the flowing to you from the yantra. Create a cycle of energy between you and the yantra. Feel the flow.
Step 2: 10 minutes
Close your eyes and visualize that the yantra has entered your body at the point of that chakra. Hold the yantra at that point. Allow its energy to diffuse throughout your body. Feel the healing energy flowing through the ailing organ or limb. If you wish, you can repeat the cycle. Continue this meditation for 21 days.