Under the Knife

Asheville is a kind of, well, “au naturel” sort of place you could say – especially the yoga circles in which I travel. Its not uncommon to find a furry-legged teacher with a make-up-less face leading the class.

At a recent barbecue I attended, the host polled barefooted guests with the dog or burger question – mind you, it was understood that he meant veggie dog or burger. Guests sipped ginger beer and discussed which mala beads they liked to use best and why – one person spent 10 minutes explaining to me how his guru had recently, psychically implanted a mantra in his heart chakra and how his mind had been ringing with it since. Now, that’s what I call FUN! Okay, I’m a geek, I know, but I love this place. No one asked me how my portfolio was doing.

When I visit Florida or California, I often feel like I’ve landed on a different planet. Last weekend I didn’t leave Asheville actually, I just went to the Grove Park Inn for dinner with visiting relatives. It was definitely a different planet – one, it would appear, that is inhabited primarily by silicon-enhanced beings.

According to American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) statistics, nearly 329,000 breast augmentation procedures were performed last year.  (These figures may include reconstruction surgeries as well.) That’s up 221% since 1997…

And in 2008, 8.7 million appearance changing plastic surgery procedures were performed, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) statistics, up 32 percent from 6.6. million in 2002. That increase, by the way corresponds with the onset of reality tv shows like Extreme Makeover. Breast augmentation was the number one procedure.

So if you think that you’ve been seeing more plastic surgery lately than ever before – you’re not crazy, you have.

Europeans (and most aliens) think we are insane. Personally I think little breasts are cute and comfortable, thank you very much (and they make shoulderstand a whole lot easier).

But on a compassionate note, I wonder how much psychic pain a person must be in to submit to the knife. How do we collectively ensure that people find value in their being-ness rather in their appearance?

When I was visiting my meditation teacher in Mongolia in 1995, she took me to see the dead bodies. Didi is a yogic nun who runs the Lotus Children’s Centre in the capital, Ulaan Bataar , but Mongolians are mostly Tibetan Buddhists so they throw the bodies of their dead out into the vast, wild fields to be returned to nature. I guess Didi wanted me to see all the tourists the sights before I left ;-> So we went to the fields. Didi put her scarf over her mouth as she approached a few bodies – most of them had had a tummy tuck, well actually, they had had their abdominal contents removed, most likely by wolf, wild dog or vulture surgeons.

I had a hard time remaining on my feet. The closest body I got to was a skeleton with nothing but the remains of one heel intact. That was slightly tolerable. Didi came over next to me to look at my find, then looked at me quizzically and said, “We all end up like this…It’s amazing how much time people spend on their appearance isn’t it?”

Thin is In, Even in the Yoga World

I looked at the cover of last month’s Yoga Journal without much thought. She looked like most of their covers – thin, lithe, strong, young, etc. She is doing a nice forearm balance and has a smile on her face.

Anyway, when I opened it to the editor’s letter page, there was a picture of the model with a bunch of other people – first, I felt shock. So I looked a little closer, it’s a small photo. More shock, a bit of nausea and something like a sense of optical illusion, like I’d been duped…

The woman in the lime green leotard no longer looked strong and healthy – she looked like…Well, let’s just say, very, very thin. The words “scary thin” come to mind.

Now, I certainly do not want to make any inaccurate statements about her personally, or that her body or mind is unhealthy – but surrounded by a bunch of normal-bodied women in normal clothes, she looked painfully thin and I was shocked and a bit nauseated because I realized that, to my eye, a bone-thin woman alone on the cover is normal – It is what my eye expects in a magazine cover, it is deeply etched in my psyche.

I wondered, “Are any of their other readers seeing this the way I am?”

So I was kind of curious to see the “Letters” section of this month’s magazine. But there was nothing about the cover model, only a letter gushing with gratitude for someone who had written a story which spoke about how it can be intimidating for those who don’t feel like they are good enough, thin enough, or stylish enough to go to yoga class. Hmmm. Now I have this phrase rolling around my head: “Mixed messages.”

Then I turned to the “Editor’s Letter” page. It was essentially an apology for the thin, perfect-bodied models used in the magazine – “It’s true that we feature some amazingly capable yogis – people who’ve worked hard to develop the strength and flexibility to hold advanced poses for longer than you’d dream possible and, after a moment’s pause, do it again.”

But she didn’t apologize for or address the scary thinness. However, interestingly, there are a few normal-ish women modeling this month – even the cover model has a few extra pounds (she’s probably a size 4, rather than a 0). It makes me feel optimistic and hopeful that the yoga community seems to be putting a bit of pressure on them to stop promoting dysfunctional messages in their eagerness to sell magazines.
 
Over the years I have witnessed the regular, consistent promotion of mixed messages in this magazine - yoga is about self-awareness, self-growth, even Self-liberation – but also, ya gotta be thin, hip and cool to be part of our club. When I see what they’ve done this month I think, Hmmm, maybe the uncool, but nice kid’s club is starting to grow.

It’s a Weighty Issue

There’s this sort of mechanistic, black and white equation about body weight that goes something like this:
   
                weight = what you put in - what you put out.

So don’t you know that really it’s very simple – it’s all about how many calories you put in and how many calories you burn off, right? 
I’ve long been suspicious of that equation. Because, anecdotally, it was never that evident, but also, in a deep, intuitive, yogic, very spiritual kind of way, I understand deeply, that…

I am not a car…
or any machine for that matter. And my body size depends on many factors other than the amount of fuel I inject and the amount I burn off (although those things are a factor of course!)

(dieting car…poor thing)

So I’m not sure I have an equation that would trump the above one. But I have a feeling it would not be a linear one. Into the mix with diet we have to add emotions, hormones, toxicity, lifestyle and life demands, life experience and years, enjoyment, spiritual satisfaction, etc.

I wasn’t surprised to find these aritcles. The first is about how sleep deprivation is very much linked to weight gain (I think many sleep-deprived new mothers would agree.) The second, is about the link between stress and weight gain. (Ask, well, just about anyone about this. The idea of researching it is almost redundant!)

Fortunately yoga is great for both! Sleep deprivations – get yourself upside down. Legs up the wall is an excellent pose, but there are many others as well.  And stress, well, just about all of it is useful – but especially restorative poses and yoga nidra – we’ll be exploring all this in the upcoming 6 week series at One Center. Research in India demonstrated that restorative poses, more than intense yoga, helped people lose weight. That’s exciting! 

Losing Your Cultural Baggage
Try this: don’t comment on anyone’s weight loss. Let them know you love them regardless of the size of their body. Let them know they look healthy when you see it in their face, not their waist. It’s liberating for everyone.

May 28 – What To Remember

I was thinking about Memorial Day. I’ve gone to picnics and pool parties for it since I was a kid. But what is the meaning of this holiday anyway? To remember the people who have died in war, of course. Okay, well yes, a lot of people have given their lives, necessarily or unnecessarily, to maintain some sense of freedom for people in this country. But are we celebrating that by having a cook-out? Seems to be severely lacking in gravity to me. It seems that in general, Memorial Day is not often used as a platform to engage in any sort of meaningful ritual or ceremony to commemorate the dead.

Politics being what it is, it’s hard not to be cynical about the senseless loss of more lives in the Iraq war than were lost in 9/11 – not to mention the complete devastation of that country. On CNN yesterday I heard a report about how 90% of the children in Iraq have learning disabilities from living in a constant state of fear.

I found a website that explained the history of Memorial Day.  The author lamented that the holiday has fallen into disuetude: “Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.” For more click here.

In a way, remembering the dead honors that person – but the honoring is more useful to the living than it is to the dead -  If it is about upholding the spirit with which that person walked through life. The honoring is really only for those of us still trying to live – it reminds us of what is possible and it inspires us. And then there’s the question of what do we want others to remember about us when we’re gone?

                    I have loved this world.
                    I have looked at the earth with wonder-struck eyes.
                    In days of flowering, I have composed songs.

                    Those songs are touched by my deep inner love.
                    Let those songs carry my sweet memory,
                    and let all else of me perish.

                                          -Translation of a Bengali song by Shrii Shrii Anandmurti

So who do you remember that inspires you? What do you remember about that person? What is the value of that remembrance for you?
There’s a state of remembering that the yogis talk about called Dhruva Smriti. It means being able to constantly remember who you are. In other words, the memory is not of past events or regrets. It’s just remembering that the reality of who I am is much deeper than the passing events that I get caught up in. Now that would be something to celebrate.

May 22, 2008 – Herding Cats

Has it really been a month since I blogged? Om Namah Shivaya!
How did that happen? Life somehow obliterates any semblance of linearity in the space/time continuum.

One of my students was talking to me about how she can’t meditate because of her “monkey mind.” I think it was Ramakrishna (a 20th century Bengali mystic) who coined the phrase, “The mind is like a drunken monkey stung by a scorpion.”

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not think about anything stinging my mind, and I’m not crazy about it being drunk either. And monkeys move too fast for me and they can be mean. Once when I was in India I was staying in a sort of motel place by the Ganges in Varanasi – I say sort of motel, because there were these free standing rooms on a hill up over the river, with some mosquito netting over the beds and a flimsy little door that didn’t close properly. You had to walk outside to get to the bathroom, which was essentially a porcelain-lined hole in the ground surrounded by four things mascarading as walls. For hygeine, there was a spigot outside the outhouse – bring your own soap!

Anyway one day there was a lot of monkey activity happening,  a lot of “monkeying around” you could say.  I had just gotten back from the market and I was making some rice and vegetables for lunch. I took some carrots to the spigot to wash them and left a small bag of peas on the bench in the room. I saw that the monkeys were eyeing me and my food. As I walked back into my room, I heard a lot of commotion, so I went over to the other side of the room to look out the window toward the river. At eye level, I could see that a gang of monkeys was in a tree trying to get the eggs out of a big bird’s nest. The bird was dive-bombing the monkeys – and all of this was accompanied by voluminous squawking, shrieking and a general sense of mayhem.

When I turned around to get back to my cooking, I saw a monkey scampering away with my bag of peas! “Hey!” I yelled, as if that might be productive. I ran after him out the door and saw him and three of his cronies sitting there on a wall across the courtyard - I swear they were taunting me and laughing, passing my bag of peas back and forth. I was set up by a bunch of monkeys!

So anyway, I think I’d rather think about my mind’s thoughts as being sweet, lovable wandering cats. Although I’ll admit that sometimes wandering cats are a bit nasty, or dismissive, or arrogant. At any rate, I’d rather think about cats in my head than thieving monkeys.

So maybe meditating is a bit like trying to herd cats. You can watch the cats wander around all day, they’ll probably pick up some friends on the way, maybe catch a nap in the sun, then wander some more .They’re not interested in paying attention to a herder – they’re not sheep after all (although sometimes when I’m meditating, they seem to have the same effect as sheep – I wake up to find I’ve got a kink in my neck from having my head slumped over for a while.)

But if you give the cats a bowl of milk, they’ll pay attention. And the mantra is the bowl of milk. It’s sweet and soothing. It makes them purr. Monkey’s, on the other hand, would prefer peas.

Famous last words: I will blog again soon!

April 23, 2008 – Eating Your Vegetables

My 4 year-old son Bhaerava knows he won’t get dessert unless he eats his vegetables. So after that fact is reiterated, he looks at his plate for a second or two, and then he gets up and wanders into the other room to see his father who, at this time of day, is usually in shoulderstand. Then he asks something like,
“Which planet is bigger, Jupiter or Neptune?”
His upside down father says “Jupiter, and by the way, aren’t you supposed to be eating your vegetables?”
“Yes, but Daddy, I want to know which planet is farther, Jupiter or Neptune?”
“Bhaerava,” my inverted husband remarkably manages a sigh and then says, “Go sit down and eat your vegetables, or you won’t get any dessert.”
“Oh,” he says thoughtfully, as if that never occurred to his 4 year-old mind, “okay.”
Then Bhaerava comes back and sits down and looks at his broccoli for a minute. He knows it’s the right thing to do, he wants the reward, but often, he somehow just can’t bring himself to do that very thing that will give him the bliss of dessert. So I remind him how much he likes dessert. Generally he remembers, takes a long breath, and then eats his broccoli in a hurry, amidst lavish parental confirmation.

Please excuse my family’s tendency to eat dinner in shifts (asanas after work are essential for my husband’s mental and physical well-being!). The point is, our son’s hesitancy to do what is good for him is a pretty common human predicament. I hear my students describe their relationship with meditation or even asana practice in much the same way.
“I like the idea of meditating, but I can’t actually get myself to do it.” or the wry, “I have an ambivalent relationship with meditation.”
Why is getting ourselves to meditate as difficult as getting my son to eat vegetables? We know it’s good for us, we know it will pay off in the long run, we might even get a bliss better than whipped cream out of it, but somehow, it’s so easy to get distracted. There’s always something else to do, maybe it’s not a lot of fun, we don’t enjoy it that much.
That “enjoy it” part is interesting to me. I somehow had time and space in my life 15 years ago to get the ball rolling. My meditation teacher told me to meditate twice a day – she didn’t even say for how long, but I just did it. If I hadn’t built that foundation, I don’t think I would enjoy meditating. And because I established the habit, even when i have no desire or interest, I still drag myself to my seat. You have to remember that meditation builds on itself. You have to do the groundwork and the maintenance – but it does pay off. You start to enjoy it.
But even if all you are able to do in meditation is sit there and space out for 15 minutes – and you don’t even do it every day – isn’t that a welcome respite from 12-16 plus hours of running around! Hmmm. And what if you really started to practice.
What if you started by watching your breath for a while. What if you just enjoyed the relaxing feeling of doing nothing but breathing for 15 minutes – wouldn’t that be worth it?
What does it take to sustain a practice? That’s a question to sit with.
For me meditation is about relationship. I want to live a life worth living. I want to experience love and beauty, I want to have a relationship with the divine. But relationships require work – anyone who’s been in counseling knows that. So for me meditation is a time I can be with the deepest part of myself in relationship. Relationships take time and energy. You have to nurture them, you have to be in them, you have to have them. What relationship is more important? What is more important than spiritual serenity?

April 15, 2008: The 6th and 7th Chakras – The Journey’s End

In October of 1932 in Zurich, Carl Jung gave four lectures on yoga and kundalini. When he got to the fifth chakra he said, “we are already out of breath – literally so – we are beyond the air we breathe; we are reaching, say, into the remote future of mankind, or of ourselves.” He was certain that most of our work is in the third and fourth chakras. And it would seem that the ancient yogis were in agreement. We still have a lot to do in the lower chakras. When Jung got around to talking about the crown chakra he was even less interested in the value of interpreting it: “To speak about the lotus of the thousand petals above,” he said, “is quite superfluous because that is merely a philosophical concept with no substance to us whatever; it is beyond any possible experience…It is without practical value for us.”
But the yogis would disagree with this assertion. On a purely psychological level, the upper chakras are not terribly interesting. There aren’t any great personality issues to overcome, but these chakras are the reason that meditation works. It is through them that we move into our greatest potential as human beings – to merge with the Divine and understand it as ourselves.
The Sanskrit word for the Sixth Chakra is Ajna (pronounced ah-gya) which means “The Command Center.” Like the sahasrara above it, it is beyond the five elements and therefore beyond the confines of shape, color or sound vibration which occur only in the manifest universe – not in the spiritual universe. In the sixth chakra our ego and our psyche disappear and we are absorbed into the universal mind. The ajna has only two petals – as if it were going to fly away – and it does, into the ocean of effulgent light that is the Divine.
Now the brain has two lobes, there is some indication that the wings of the sixth chakra relate to the potential of these two lobes. We have often heard that all knowledge is within us – that the brain only uses a fraction of it’s potential. Here the yogis have touched this reality in the symbolism of the sixth chakra – one petals represents all knowledge of the physical universe and the other all knowledge of the spiritual universe.
The hands come together and lift the thumbs up to touch this chakra in the ancient Indian greeting, “Namaskar” before bringing the thumbs down to the heart. While it’s easy to understand why you would want to greet someone from the heart, to touch the third eye sanctifies the gestures by connecting to the infinite wisdom of the Divine within.
Accordingly, this chakra is the place of concentration, deep understanding and intuition. Meditation practices will strengthen and develop awareness in this chakra.
The seventh chakra, the sahasrara, is beyond even the effulgence of the sixth chakra. It vibrates off the body, just above the crown of the head and is called the 1000 petaled lotus. If we take the lower six chakras with their 50 petals and multiply that number by both an internal expression and an external expression, we have 100. If we multiply 100 by the 10 motor and sensory organs, we get 1000. In other words, there are 20 ways our body-minds can express each of the 50 vrittis in each chakra. This is the meaning of the 1000 petals. The sahasrara is our deepest connection to the spiritual plane, when we have awakened this center, we have gone beyond any ego, and even beyond any connection to the Divine ocean of the sixth chakra. It is beyond words, beyond description and beyond experience. The seven chakra is the pinnacle of the journey. It is here that we come home to ourselves and our human potential.

April 3, 2008 Creating Reality – The Throat Chakra

An important theme of the throat chakra is Self-expression. And this doesn’t just mean saying what you need to say, it also means doing what you need to do and being who you need to be – expressing your fullest potential – actualizing your life. The throat is the bridge between the less evolved centers and the more refined spiritual centers. In many ways, the throat chakra is the bridge between the body and the spirit.

The throat chakra is the abode of ether. So from the air, we’ve moved up into the ether. What the heck is “ether” anyway? You can think about it as the space through which sound passes. So for example, if you yelled something to someone across the street, your words don’t jump on a particle of air and surf on over to that person’s ears. Instead they travel in a sense between the air particles to reach the other person. That space between the particles is the ether. Similarly, thoughts travel through the ether, which is why you sometimes know before you hear a ring, that your friend is going to call.

We have moved up from the expansiveness of air in the heart chakra to the almost unimaginable potential of ether. The yogis said that the throat chakra is where one acquires the “siddhis” which mean the “powers.” The person who is in control of the throat center, controls the ether. In other words, whatever is said by this person, will come to pass. An old Sanskrit shloka (aphorism) says, “Guru’s word is mantra” in other words, the Guru’s word is infused with power, it will manifest. And why? Because here the person has moved from the heart chakra question of “Who am I and what are my boundaries?” to “Everything is a manifestation of My mind.” So all that boundary stuff – which is so essential when establishing ourselves in the heart – gets chucked out the window here. It’s no longer necessary. Everything is a projecting of the cosmic mind, i realize that I am that cosmic mind, and therefore my will is done.

Now if you were to read that last sentence out of your fourth or third chakra, it would sound accordingly egotistical or power hungry. But in the throat, the ego and power centers have been purified – those needs are gone. There remains a deep desire for the welfare of all on an intra-personal level.

“Vishuddha chakra” means “pure center.” The purifying function of this chakra is physical, mental/emotional and spiritual. The throat is loaded with lymph nodes which perform a cleansing function in the body. It is also in close proximity to the thoracic inlet where the cleansed lymph dumps back into the venous system. The vrittis of this chakra have much to do with aesthetics and subtle emotions like surrender and universalism which purify our minds. The vishuddha is the center through which our spirituality takes off. We expand beyond the air and the planet, out into the vast reaches of the universe to become greater than we could have possibly imagined.

The expansiveness of the vishuddha is not limited to a distinct shape or color. The ethereal factor is beyond the realm of our earthly shapes and colors. The bija is “ham.” The vrittis of this 16-petaled chakra are quite subtle. The yogis used animals to list the first seven vrittis in order to express the musical scale and the varied resonance each note creates within us. The next three vrittis are important spiritual sounds to the meditator: om, the root sound of creation, hum the sound of the kundalini rising, phat, the sound of putting theory into practice. The other six vrittis are the ability to express knowledge vaosat, desire for the welfare of others vasat, acting positively svaha, divine surrender namah, poisonous speech visa (not all a bed of roses here – you can hurt someone very deeply with words and the yogis recognized that the powers of the throat could be used in a non-benevolent way as well) and sweet speech amrta.

The throat chakra certainly is a place of expression, but it also is the center through which we actualize our lives, our purpose for being here on this planet at this time in history. It is the bridge through which the body/mind delivers the self to the doorway of its highest potential. When our understanding of our purpose aligns itself with the universe’s purpose for our being, we can truly actualize our lives. We understand that we have come here on purpose, with a purpose, and the egoic needs which once drove us are no longer painfully compelling.

Check back next week for some thoughts on the 6th and 7th chakras.

March 27, 2008 – The Heart of the Matter: Anahata the Fourth Chakra

Many yoga masters have said the heart chakra is where we start to experience our humanity.

The fourth chakra is called the Anahata, or “the unstruck.” This can be interpreted both as “that which cannot be destroyed” as well as “that which makes a sound although it has not been hit.” Some say the sound is the Pranava, or the sound Aum and that it arises from this chakra before manifesting in the throat center (where it is one of the petals). The color of the Anahata is a smokey green, the shape is hexagonal and the mantra is “Yam.” These are the vibrations of the aerial factor – we’ve moved up from the burning intensity of the fire into the expansive potential of air.

The other meaning” “that which cannot be destroyed” was seized upon by Carl Jung – he said that the heart chakra is like a citidel – a fortress. And that the job of that fortress is to protect the sacred flame. The fire of the belly becomes small and refined in the heart and it must be guarded cautiously. In other words, the heart is the place where we establish our boundaries. What and who am I going to let into my heart and what and who am I going to refuse entry to. (Think about that Sting song) The heart is not simply about compassion, it is also about shutting out harmful elements that can hurt us. One of the vrittis or tendencies in the heart is viveka which is often translated as “discrimination.” In other words developing the capacity to know emotionally what is good for me and what isn’t is a function of the heart chakra. Boundaries are so essential for establishing who we are, what is important to us and for actualizing our lives. Getting very clear and firm with your boundaries strengthens this center.

Twelve petals ring the chakra with the following vrittis: hope asha, worry cinta, effortfulness cesta, love mamata, vanity dambha, discriminative conscience viveka, anxiety vikalata, ego ahamkara, greed lolata, hypocrisy kapatata, argumentativeness vitarka and repentance anutapa. As you can see, some of these are expansive qualities and some are more refined tendencies which at times may be useful in establishing boundaries and tapering that expansion so that the ego can be firmly established.

The heart chakra is the first center from which we can experience true spiritual expansion although this expansion must also be curtailed here in order to maintain a strong sense of self. (Check back next week – you might be surprised next week to see what happens at the throat center). The anahata is the place where we begin to experience our human potential. The archetype here, Isha, is a compassionate, accepting Christ-like figure.  We’ve moved beyond the fierceness of the warrior and into love and acceptance. The air element tells us the heart is the place from which we begin to expand, beyond selfish desires and out into our connection with others. It is the place of service, relationship and connection. The hands move from the heart to serve others and assuage their suffering. Through that service we ourselves are healed.

Through intense service our karma burns and we are left purified by the experience. This is the coordination of the functions of the third and fourth chakras. Through that burning, the heart is opened and we come into the arms of the compassionate one. From there we can start to explore who we are and begin to understand our potential.

March 20, 2008 – Into the Fire: The Third Chakra

Happy Spring! What a great day to write about the third chakra – the energy center of transformation.

The third chakra is called “Manipura” which means “The city of jewels.” It is created by the luminous element, which is often simply called “fire.” Out of the darkness of the liquid factor, light has emerged.* Manipura is located at the navel and controls digestion and assimilation. It is the place where we take in food and transform it to create energy. The manipura is the seat of physical strength and energy as well as the source for our desire to accomplish and succeeed. The color of this chakra is a fiery red, the shape is an upward pointing triangle – like a fire – and the mantra is “Ram.”

This chakra controls 10 mental-emotional tendencies which are arranged as 10 petals around the cakra. They are: shyness lajja, sadism pishunata, jealousy iirsa, lethargy susupti, melancholy visada, irritability kasaya, craving trsna, infatuation moha, disdain ghrna, and fear bhaya.

We come up from the second chakra, the subconscious mind, the place of cold liquid darkness and begin to gain awareness of ourselves – to move into the light. And with the light switched on, we can begin to see what a mess the house is. Digestive problems, addictions including drugs, alcohol, food, sex, etc., and all sorts of neurotic behaviors speak of imbalances in this chakra. Issues of craving power and money come from here. Anger, shame, envy, fear and certain types of depression all emanate from imbalances in this chakra. It is interesting that digestive problems are one of the major issues of people living in the industrialized world. From an energetic perspective, it is the struggle to gain balance in the third chakra  that manifests in these issues. As a society, the western world is steeping in a strong brew of third chakra imbalances. (Check back next week – in the fourth chakra discussion we’ll see why corruption, war and celebrity mishaps appear to dominate the collective psyche).

The third chakra is our mammalian evolutionary past. Whereas animals fight or flee in the face of danger, the modern person sits and stews, poisoning the body with stress-induced cortisol and adrenaline. Because the emotional baggage is so heavy here, the third chakra is considered one of the major granthi or “knots” that the Kundalini must pierce as it ascends  As the yogi battles these inner tendencies s/he emerges as the spiritual warrior, and is purified in the fire of the struggle. The energy that is needed to deal with our karmas comes from the manipura. It is the place of trial by fire. We “burn” our karma in order to purify ourselves and catalyze our spiritual expansion.

The diety represented in this chakra is Rudra – fierce, wizened and hard, his name literally means, “the one who makes you cry.” Rudra is not interested in hearing your complaints, he just wants your sacrifice – and he wants you to throw it into the fire – just do it. This is the energy we have to call upon within ourselves at times in order to get through certain deeply engrained negative behavioral and thought patterns. It should be noted that this is only one of the energies that gets us through rough spots and it’s an energy that is specifically associated with the third chakra. The upper chakras control the lower chakras – as we get into the higher chakras you will see that there are higher ways of dealing with imbalances as well. Nevertheless Rudra has his place.

If we choose to fuel the tendencies of the third chakra, we will eventually self-combust. You can push the coals around and simmer in your own neuroses, or you can channel the warmth to where it is meant to go. The heat of the manipura must ascend to warm and expand the heart chakra. This is the true function of the third chakra in spiritual development – to serve as fuel for a heart-centered existence.

* Just as an aside here, Christian cosmology has many parallels to Tantric cosmology. From Genesis:
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light and there was light.