How to Meditate on Chakras.

  

The Chakras
and their respective colors

Learn how to Meditate on Chakras

This is my way  of doing meditation on chakras – there will no doubt, be other methods, but I invite you drop all preconceptions about chakra development, and especially not to blindly believe in what I am saying here, but to go through this exercise and experience for yourself, anything that comes to you from the actual practice of this meditation. Personally, I have found that diligent practice of this method produces results.

Before you start, contemplate the chakras and their colours colours in the image (left) and familiarise yourself with them and the position of each chakra.  Get an idea of their location and colour they each resonate with.

It is best to sit upright with arms and legs uncrossed. (A chair will be fine, or  if you are already a mediator, you may have a preferred method of meditating). Close your eyes go through the following seven chakras...

The Seven Chakras

1. Base Chakra Focus:  (Red)

Take your mind to the Base Chakra the bottom of the torso – usually considered to be in the perineum. Breathe slowly and completely inward and imagine a Red light glowing from this base chakra point and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy.  Hold the in-breath for a while – it is difficult to think of anything in this gap between the two breaths, as thoughts tend to move only when the breath is flowing. This is ‘no-breath’ (in or out) – therefore it is said that ‘no-thoughts’ can occur which is the state ‘no-mind’ in Zen – there is value in experiencing this.

Next, allow the breath to slowly and gently move out of the body whilst enhancing the image of the chakra as a glowing and expanding light. Hold the breath out for a while before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

2.  Sacral Chakra Focus:  (Orange)

Take your mind to the Sacral Chakra located in the lower abdomen also known as the hara. Again, as you breathe slowly in,  imagine an Orange light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy from this point. And hold the full in-breath for a while and repeat the same process as with the previous (base) chakra – don’t forget to hold the out-breath also for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

3. Solar Plexus Chakra: (Yellow)

Take your mind to the Solar Plexus Chakra or a point in the upper-mid part of abdomen. Again,  breathe slowly inward and imagine this as a Yellow light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. And again hold the in-breath for a while and repeat the same process as with the previous chakra  – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

4. Heart Chakra: (Green)

 Take your mind to the Heart Chakra in a point in the region of the heart. Again,  breathe slowly inward and imagine this as a Green light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. Hold the in-breath for a while and repeat the same process as with the previous chakra – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

5.Throat Chakra:  (Blue)

Take your mind to the Throat Chakra or a point in the region of the throat/neck.  Breathe slowly inward and imagine this as a Blue light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. Hold the in-breath for a while and repeat the same process as with the previous chakra – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

6. Brow (Third Eye) Chakra: (Indigo)

Take your mind to the Brow (third eye) Chakra  or on a point in the region between the eyebrows/centre of the forehead. Again,  breathe slowly inward and imagine this as a Indigo light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. And hold the in-breath for a while and repeating the same process as with the previous chakra – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.

7. Crown Chakra:  (Violet or white)

Take your mind to the Crown Chakra or a point in the region just at the top the head and perhaps a little above it.  Again,  breathe slowly inward and imagine this as an violet/white light glowing and expanding outwardly into the universe like a vortex of energy. And hold the in-breath for a while and repeating the same process as with the previous chakra  – don’t forget to hold the out-breath for a while afterwards before moving on to the next chakra as you begin the next in-breath slowly.  This time when you are ready, just allow the breath to slowly exhale from the body and return to breathing in a natural rhythm, following the breaths for a while down into the body before opening your eyes and returning to normal daily activity.

And that’s the work on the seven chakras.

(My) Zen Notes on Chakra Meditation.  

First of all Zen does not foster beliefs.  Beliefs are something that may or may not be true. The objective of practising Zen is experiencing.  Experiencing in the here-now.

Beliefs are thoughts of the past based on opinion and judgement from past learning and conditioning.  Experiencing is existence, here-and-now with or without thinking.  Zen is not a way for believers, but for those who are willing to experiment with focus and experiencing mindfulness in order to transcend (ego)mind and experience emptiness or no-mind.

As there are no beliefs in Zen practice,  there are no guarantees. It's aim is the development of awareness that grows as mindfulness and focus develops more and more.

The past is thought.The mind is the storage of thoughts of past images, sounds and sensations.  The present is experiencing,  but when analysed experiences become thoughts after the manifestation of the experiencing analysis is based on past knowledge.  So the mind cannot exist as a present moment, for the present moment is not static but moves. The present moment has already gone and is now (possibly) being thought about. It is in this way that we are not experiencing experiencing.

So chakra meditation is the visualisation of each chakra, its colour and its light.  We need to drop all stored ‘knowledge’  that has been learned about chakras even what is written here and be here now with our focus. Just experiencing. Notice how thoughts come and go. Allow the to come; allow them to go.

Zen is always exposing paradox and paradox when realised, enhances the experience of the mysterious. Life is a mystery and not a thing that can be analysed as to what it is.  It is everywhere and everything.

The best I can do here is to write about how chakras are a mystery. There are some that claim to be able to see the chakras and auras around others, but personally I have not experienced that form of seeing. But what I have experienced are the various sensations that come about in my own body, as a result of what I am naming here as Chakra Meditation... Focusing on the energies as light and colour that are moving through each chakra in the body, as they have been outlined in various explanations and images in many documents throughout history.

The more I have practised chakra meditation over the years, the more vividly the imagery has become, and the more the accompanying experiences have been enhanced.  One may ask what this has to do with Zen practice.  To which I would answer that Zen can be applied to anything even a belief-system! But then Zen is not a belief system itself but the experiencing of the moment of now.
Beliefs are considered to be illusory but it doesn’t mean that we don’t hold them, they are part of our experience of the dualism of the mind.

Zen embraces all and makes no comment.  Duality exists within the context of the Whole and is the 'play' created in about our life – some would refer to this as 'the game of life'.

Words can be forever produced, but it is all just thinking, and not Zen itself.