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THE SNOW LION BUDDHIST NEWS & CATALOG
176 pp., 5 photos, 30 line drawings, HEWIFO
$16.95, Snow Lion special $13.56
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Opening the Chakras: Healing with Form, Energy and Light Book Excerpt
by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, edited by Mark Dahlby
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is well known for his unusually accessible and authoritative descriptions of Tibetan Buddhist and Bon shamanism, as well as Dzogchen and dream/sleep yoga practices. This clear, pragmatic introduction to the necessity of working with the chakras is taken from Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen. He is also the author of The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep.
Why is it important to open the chakras? One metaphor has the central channel as the trunk of a tree. The chakras are the branches; the pranic energies are flowers; the qualities associated with the chakras are the fruits. The fruit is ripened when the qualities manifest in awareness. When the chakras are closed, the qualities cannot be fully expressed. For example, when the chakras are closed, there is still compassion but it is a small experience. When the chakras are completely open, the compassion is larger and more inclusive and begins to approach the global, fundamental compassion that naturally arises in the buddhas.
The practices of channels and winds unblock the channels and chakras. The process is like unblocking ice that is stuck in a pipe: you can shake it or heat it up, and then blow through it to clear it. The physical movement is like shaking the pipe; holding the breath and directing the prana with the mind heats it up. Exhaling is like blowing through the channels and chakras to clear them. The result is the feeling of openness and release. |
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As I have said before, going beyond the physical practices by using the imagination and attention will help us open to the energetic level of experience and shift the quality of consciousness. Then we find that in the heart is a buddha of compassion; in the crown, a buddha of bliss; in the throat, a buddha of peace; in the navel, a buddha of wisdom; and in the secret chakra, a buddha of generosity.
Sometimes people have specific experiences when a chakra opens. Because many people in the West have been conditioned to experience energetic blocks in the body as emotional rather than physical or energetic, they often experience the release of the block as an emotional catharsis. Traditionally, in Tibetan culture, the release of blocks manifests more as energetic and physical phenomena: the practitioner may quiver, shake, twitch, sweat, become dizzy, and so on. Other people may find that images rise in their minds as they concentrate on a chakra. These images may be tied to blocks or tensions that have constricted the flow of prana through the chakra-negative memories or traumas. Or positive images may come when the
chakra is open-spiritual symbols, deities, buddhas, goddesses, and so on. |
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
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However it's not necessary to have some kind of experience when the chakra opens-it's more likely that nothing in particular will happen. The deeper opening is not emotional nor is it about images. But if something does happen, just give it space to occur and don't hold on to it. Allow it, then allow it to go. It's only an experience of purification, nothing to hold on to.
If you have no sensation in one of the chakras, it's likely that the chakra is blocked. Try to consciously relax the area. Massage it. Breathe into it. The mind can reach it with attention and awareness. When it does, it moves prana into the area. This will help.
Whether or not you first have experiences of emotional release or images or physical manifestations, eventually the experience will be of space, openness, and positive qualities that are traditionally thought of as different aspects of wisdom.
Because people often depend on weaknesses and problems to support their identities, when those are taken away the experience of spaciousness can be frightening. Then old habits will reassert themselves and the space will be filled with whatever daydreams or emotional experiences or actions normally fill the space of life. Instead, you can use armor to protect the space: visualized sacred syllables, mantras, deities, or images of your teacher. Generate positive symbols in the space of the chakras to protect them from the return of habitual karmic tendencies and habits.
Tantra never considers the body to be sinful or impure. Instead it is a mandala or palace of the sacred. In some tantric texts there are enumerations of the number of deities in the hands, the head, the organs, and so on, so that the entire body is understood as a network of divine energies and potentialities. The sacred nature of the body needs to be recognized and lived.
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More about the Book . . .
In the shamanic world-view of Tibet, the five elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space are accessed through the raw powers of nature and through non-physical beings associated with the natural world. In the Tibetan tantric view, the elements are recognized as five kinds of energy in the body and are balanced with a program of yogic movements, breathing exercises, and visualizations. In these Dzogchen teachings, the elements are understood to be the radiance of being and are accessed through pure awareness. Healing with Form, Energy, and Light offers the reader healing meditations and yogic practices on each of these levels.
Tenzin Rinpoche's purpose is to strengthen our connection to the sacred aspect of the natural world and to present a guide that explains why certain practices are necessary and in what situations practices are effective or a hindrance. This is a manual for replacing an anxious, narrow, uncomfortable identity with one that is expansive, peaceful, and capable. And the world too is transformed from dead matter and blind processes into a sacred landscape filled with an infinite variety of living forces and beings.
"There is more detailed and at the same time easily understood and useful information about the body and meditative practice than any other book I have seen. Spoken with an elegance that melts into your mind."—Anne C. Klein, Professor, Dept of Religious Studies, Founding Director, Dawn Mountain Tibetan Temple, Houston, author of Knowledge and Liberation, Meeting the Great Bliss Queen, and Path to the Middle
"The secrets freely given in this volume can help us lay sound foundations for whatever yogic practice we may adopt. Tenzin Rinpoche has rendered all a great service."—Yoga Studies newsletter
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About the author . . .
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is one of the few Bon masters now living in the West. His skill as a teacher reflects his more than 15 years in guiding Western practitioners. He is the founder and director of The Ligmincha Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Books by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
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