Practices for Integrated Chakra Awareness

Month 8

So far we have given a series of practices for each of the individual chakras. In this chapter we will describe practices which are concerned with overall awakening of the chakras.

Of course, the awakening of one chakra cannot take place in isolation; it must have repercussions on all the chakras to a greater or lesser extent. In this respect it can be said that the techniques for specific chakras will also influence all the chakras, but the following techniques systematically help to activate all the chakras together and bring balance into the whole mind-body-chakra axis. The practices are as follows:

1. Chakra meditation
2. Musical chakra meditation
3. Chaturtha pranayama
4. Chakra yoga nidra
5. Unmani mudra
6. Bija mantra sanchalana
7. Drawing the chakras.

Practice 1: Chakra meditation

Make yourself comfortable in a meditative asana, preferably siddhasana or siddha yoni asana. Place both hands on the knees in chin mudra ( palms facing upward, thumbs and forefingers together).

Close your eyes and make the body steady throughout. The spinal column should be absolutely upright and straight, with the back and shoulders fully relaxed. The head should be poised comfortably on top of the spinal column. The whole body is completely relaxed and immobile. It is motionless like a statue. Maintain absolute awareness of the physical body for several minutes. Become aware of the spinal column. Now bring your awareness to ajna chakra.

Ajna chakra is located inside the brain at a point directly behind the eyebrow center and on top of the spinal column, where the pineal gland is situated. Try to discover a pulsation within this ajna chakra region. Be absolutely aware of this pulsation. Now synchronize the mantra Оm with the pulsation in the ajna chakra region. Оm, Оm, Оm, Оm, Оm, should be the form of your awareness with the pulsation of ajna chakra. Count the pulsation 21 times. Now begin to practise ashwini mudra. Do not be concerned with ajna chakra, only practise ashwini mudra - contraction and relaxation of the anus. It should be practised at a medium speed - neither too quickly nor too slowly. After practising like this for a few sessions, you should be able to feel the center of ajna automatically while performing ashwini. When that happens you can begin to concentrate directly on ajna. Until then, go on with ashwini mudra for about 4 minutes. Now bring your awareness to the perineal region and the psychic center of mooladhara chakra. Discover the precise psychic point of mooladhara chakra. Now try to discover a subtle pulsation there. Localize the pulsation very precisely in the mooladhara region and count 21 pulsations. Now open your eyes and adopt nasikagra drishti; gazing at the nosetip. Do not be concerned with mooladhara chakra, but only with nosetip awareness. The simultaneous awareness of mooladhara chakra will come after some time. Continue this practice for 3 minutes. Now bring your awareness to swadhisthana chakra in the region of the tail bone. Discover the psychic point of swadhisthana chakra. Try to discover the pulsation in this center. Count this pulsation 21 times. Now perform vajroli mudra - the drawing up and releasing of the genital and urinary systems. Continue vajroii mudra for 4 minutes. Then bring your awareness to the region of the navel. Become aware of the psychic breath from mooladhara to the navel, and from the throat to the navel. Both these breaths must reach the navel at the point of full inhalation. When the two forces meet and coincide in the navel, retain the breath there, and develop the mental awareness of the single central point offeree in the navel. Then release the breath and continue this practice in your own natural rhythm. Continue for 4 minutes. Now take your awareness directly back to manipura chakra, within the spinal column, directly behind the navel. Try to isolate that point and the pulsation there. Count the pulse 21 times in manipura chakra. Now bring your awareness to the region of anahata chakra in the spinal column, at the level of the center of the chest. Isolate that point and try to discover a pulsation within it. Count the pulsation 21 times. Now bring your awareness to the space of the heart. First become aware of the ingoing breath in the throat. With the ingoing breath, feel the vast heart space filling up. Feel the heart space directly - contracting and expanding with the rhythm of the spontaneous, natural breath. Be aware of the vision which will come in the vast heart space. Allow it to come by itself. Continue for 2 minutes. Now bring your awareness to the throat pit and then take it directly back to vishuddhi chakra in the spinal column. Repeat mentally, ‘vishuddhi, vishuddhi, vishuddhi’. Try to discover the pulsation within vishuddhi and witness it for 21 pulsations. Now as the name of each chakra is given, move your awareness within sushumna passage so as to touch the chakra with a small imaginary flower. This is all that you have to feel, but your awareness of each chakra must be very precise - mooladhara, swadhisthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddhi, ajna; ajna, vishuddhi, anahata, manipura, swadhisthana, mooladhara. Guide the consciousness through the chakras in sushumna, ascending and descending 4 more times. Now chant Оm 3 times.

Practice 2: Musical chakra meditation

Sound is a particularly effective and enj oyable means of developing awareness of the chakras. This is why nada yoga is so powerful in spiritual awakening. The 7 notes of the musical scale correspond to the vibration of the 7 chakras from mooladhara to sahasrara, and this is the basis for a very effective musical meditation technique. The best instrument of all is the human voice, which can be supplemented by the harmonium. However, other instruments can also be used. Latin scale Chakra Sanskrit scale

Do mooladhara Sa Re swadhisthana Re Mi manipura Ga Fa anahata Ma So vishuddhi Pa La ajna Dha Ti bindu Ni Do sahasrara Sa

Stage 1

At first the musical scale of the harmonium is ascended very slowly while the awareness begins in mooladhara and ascends sushumna from one chakra to the next, feeling, each note vibrating in the spinal column in the region of its corresponding chakra. When sahasrara is attained, descend the awareness with the musical scale down through sushumna to mooladhara. The consciousness ascends and descends sushumna with the scale many times, slowly speeding up as chakra location becomes quick and effortless.

Stage 2

The voice is integrated with the notes. The names of the chakras are chanted very precisely. The names themselves are mantras, and if intoned with the correct note and pronunciation, each center can be set vibrating, and the sushumna passage and the whole body begin to vibrate with energy. This practice is very powerful. It can be continued for 10 minutes or more.

Stage 3

In this stage the awareness still ascends and descends through sushumna with the musical scale, but the voice makes a continuous a-a-a-a-a-a sound (as in calm) as it ascends and descends through the chakras. In the final stage the full power of the voice is released and a tremendous energy is generated, provided the pitch is maintained accurately.