I’m completely new to this forum. I was promted to join because of an interesting experiance I had this morning. I’ve been meditating on my chakras for a few years now, but, with the exception of minor discomforts when I first took up meditation I never had experianced pain in my chakras before. Some background info: I don’t have a teacher, and I never have had one; I do my own research, and I teach myself. I’m more into the mental side of yoga, and don’t do any asanas, although I really need to get back into that habit.
This morning I was lying on my back, focusing on my first three chakras, feet, and legs; trying to remove blocked energy from my feet so I’ll have a better flow to my base chakra- which will help me to have better balance overall, since my third eye is a bit more developed than my lower chakras. One thing I found unusual for me this morning was that I had a much greater degree of control and coordination with my energy (I attribute that to the fact that I recently started drinking coffee). All good so far. Then I got an idea. Since I usually lay on my back when I meditate, I focus on my chakras from the front; I decided to lay on my stomach and meditate “in reverse” by targeting the posterior side of my chakras, as well as my spine. That was working pretty well and I was feeling good so far; I felt all the normal sensations that let you know that your meditation in working (pressure, warmth, ect). I made the most progress with the back of my manipura chakra. A little later I started feeling hungry, so I got up to get something to eat. After taking only a few steps I was so hungry I felt sick, started coughing, gagging, felt like I was going to vomit, fell to the floor, and felt pain in my first three chakras (mostly my muladhara). After eating I felt better.
My guess is that I should have done more work on my muladhara before focusing on my manipura. But it was the pain in my chakras that really surprised me. Probably that was my muladhara sort of being ripped open in order to compensate for the increased energy demand by my manipura. So does anyone know if you can hurt yourself physically by doing what I’d done more intensely? Could you kill yourself, if the case was extreme enough? Does anybody see any flaws in my thinking? Any information would be appreciated.
Perhaps posting additional information would be helpful. Some facts:
I’m 21; I’ve been doing meditation roughly since August 2009 or for almost 2 and a half years; I was in jail most of that time so I had a lot of free time to practice and made much progress at a pace more like a monk would in an ashram than the average person meditating in their free time (with the important distinction that quiet doesn’t exist in jail, and silence is more mythological there than a sphinx- my point being that my pace was not quite as fast as someone in an ashram who has total sensory withdrawl, but still fast; it wan’t unusual for me to lay for 6 hours at a time in concentration); I’m opinionated, and think there’s quite a wealth of misinformation in books (my primary source of learning at that time) about meditation on your chakras - e.g. currently I don’t buy the theory that you shouldn’t do meditation on your legs or feet because of the supposed 7 chakras below the muladhara said to govern animalistic impulses; when I meditate my procedure is to focus on a physical location, a chakra for example; rarely do I meditate in any asana besides shavasana, or just sitting in a chair with feet flat on the floor and back straight; I also know that I can be wrong about things, and getting into an argument on the internet wouldn’t do much for my ego even if I won (too much fire energy for that, and not enough water); and finally, talking/reading about meditation is not enough for me, I am very practice oriented.
That being said, I have a furthur question or two: Does anyone know any way to prevent yourself from getting physically hurt [assuming that you can physically hurt yourself by doing too much to fast, rather than just bearing momentary pain by getting, in a sense, “spiritually hurt” (or could one even do serious damage to oneself on a non-physical level?)] without slowing ones pace?
I sent this gentleman a message, but wanted also to respond on here for anyone else experiencing the same/similar situation. To those with an awakened awareness of the super subtle energies, it is recommended that you consider ‘Maha Mudra’ - in it’s full esoteric understanding - before your usual meditation/practice. You can learn this powerful mudra from the hatha yoga pradipika, and apply your existing knowledge/power in this experiment.
I never felt pain anywhere though there has always been a sensation of stretch every single moment in my entire body that really needs an active patience to be with.
My body had opened its debilitating chakras in a spontaneous way on December 12, 2004 showing its effect in the sudden clarity of vision; and after two years of day and night experimenting with pin pointing what it was doing to itself in order to be in that open state, I was able to give a clear biological interpretation to an obscure spiritual study of chakras as well as frame a concrete methodology to open all the 7 chakras by re-posturing the body in a way that did not obstruct the flow of energy through the body in its full length from the Root Chakra on the pelvis to the Crown Chakra on the top of the head.
Since then I have been doing it to people who come to me either for the pure curiosity of opening their chakras or else troubled by the chronic health conditions, which are miraculously cured by opening the chakras alone.
Hi Giza,
What you had practiced by channeling your attention along the front and back of the spinal cord through the chakras is that you have unknowingly practiced a technique of kriya yoga - which involves channeling your life energies along the arohan and awarohan passages along the spine. If you continue practicing concentration along the arohan and awarohan passages, passing through each of the chakras ascending and descending, you can bring about a general equilibrium in the chakra system - but you may also simply achieve the opposite if you do not know what it is that you are doing and accidentally create an imbalance in the subtle energies of the subtle body.
“does anyone know if you can hurt yourself physically by doing what I’d done more intensely?”
Yes, you can.
“Could you kill yourself, if the case was extreme enough?”
Yes. If you accidentally awaken the kundalini energy at the base of the spine in the muladhara, the energy can rush spotaneously and rupture the Brahma randha (the hollow space between the two brain hemispheres). If this happens and your mind and body are not prepared to handle such an intensified energy - you can simply leave the body. Many times it has happened that people have accidentally left the body because their system was not prepared to handle such intensified states of energy. If your system is not prepared for it - then it would be a bit like trying to channel 1000 volts in a machine which can only tolerate 50 volts. But I don’t see that as much of a problem, if you leave the body. If you die through the practice of yoga - what is the problem ? You will rest in peace, and I would not depend on reincarnation or some future life. The greater problem is to continue living with all kinds of unecessary suffering. That is what people are doing to themselves - they are terrified of death, and yet they are willing to continue torturing themselves slowly.
"Any information would be appreciated. "
I would say that rather than tampering with dimension which are beyond your present understanding, seek the help of a master who can guide you through the spiritual process and help bring you to the realization of your Buddhahood.
Thank you AmirMourad for answering my questions; you also anticipated my next question, which was, if you died, would your death be worth it? As far as looking for a master goes, I will look, but I would be lucky if I could find a shower that works. I’m not exactly in a position to come across any masters in the near future. But I will persevere. In the mean time, you seem very wise, so please tell me: is a physical death the only damage I could really do to myself? Let’s say I was willing to die if it was for spiritual advancement. If I did die because I set off my Kundalini before I was ready for it physically, could I also injure one or more of my chakras?
Also, could you comment on the concept of sat guru? When I was in jail, I used to have dreams with Lord Shiva in them, and I used to go into trances where I could think very rapidly and do things mentally that I can’t do except in that state, like compose music spontaneously, or create hallucinations, it was like a powerful lucid dream. Very often I felt like I received intuitions from something outside of myself. Not just telepathy, although I had that sometimes too, but non-verbal wisdom from some higher source. I thought it came from the sat guru in the ajna chakra. Are you saying that I was wrong? Please instruct me if I’m incorrect, but my current understanding of the chakras is that they are nests of different types of karmas. My heaviest karmas seem to lie in my anahata chakra; like I said I was in jail - I was there for killing someone close to me. I’m aware that I have heavy karma, but I’m also committed to yoga. But as I understand it when a chakra is has a lot of energy flowing to it you start to develop siddhis associated with it. So, couldn’t my ajna be developed enough to serve in the place of a guru? Not when my ego says I know what I’m doing, but when I listen to my intuition? Patanjali talks about developing siddhis after absorbtion in an object in the second stage of meditation, which I believe I’ve done three times on my ajna since 2005 when I started playing with meditation. After the first time, I started seeing auras. To come to the point, do you think I really need a physical teacher? Can I not just trust in Shiva. And even without a teacher, why not simply awaken Kundalini regardless of something so trivial in comparison as physical death? Or perhaps the negative karma that the selfishness which drives me to die for yoga might create would hold me back? I know that these are a lot of questions, but any information that AmirMourad or anyone else could give would really be appreciated.