While we all have seven primary chakras and various sub-chakras, each of us can have a somewhat difference emphasis. Yet the heart and solar plexus chakras typically have significant roles in the post-awakening process.
We usually grow up around people with poor energy skills and hygiene. We may take on the same patterns to fit in and thus learn anxiety, fear or control. Or we may rebel with anger. None of this serves us well though.
With greater awareness, those unhealthy habits become conscious and can be resolved, freeing us from the massive energy drain that sustaining them takes.
The Heart
The heart is the center of our being and home of the soul or jiva. It is the fulcrum between the more universal upper chakras and the lower chakras related to our person. We find the higher emotions in the heart like love and gratitude and the capacity for devotion.
But in our culture, it is very difficult to maintain an open heart. We often have a thick crust protecting them. We learn to be very defended and resistant to our environment. But this also shields us from the richness of high emotion.
After becoming established in being, the playing field changes. We then have an immovable core under the waves of life. On that platform, opening and refinement can build.
During the descent post-awakening, there can be a heart opening (of Hridaya) that brings a fullness and richness to life. It is key, along with the “third eye”, to refined perception and unfolding awareness of Divinity. This is primarily associated with the God Consciousness phase.
But when this isn’t healed, many people are skipping much of this stage until later. Hence you see rather dry descriptions of awakening and little talk of fullness.
The Gut
The gut or solar plexus chakra is the primary power center of the mind and thus the ego and our sense of individuality. It can also be a center of intuitive impressions or “gut feelings.” It is a primary driver that helps us get things done. But out of balance, it flares as anger or fear and we become more self-protective.
As the highest of the “personal” chakras, it is often dominated by defensive mechanisms to protect us from others use of power. Do we feel in our power? Often not. Do we stand against others power and invite conflict?
The gut is also home to our core sense of individual identity. An ancient “grip” that resulted from a perceived separation from the divine, grasping for control and to feel safe.
For a while, I associated the core grip becoming conscious and being released with the Unity shift. Adyashanti speaks in similar ways. He and Loch Kelly associated this release with a “Barbecue” prior to Unity.
However, I’ve since found it is very possible to move into Unity and higher before either heart or gut has healed. This means there are still aspects that can revive our me sense.
To explain, I’ve talked in the past about the 3 layers of ego. The story of a me implodes with awakening, with various shrapnel resolving over time. This is followed by healing the emotional (energetic) drivers of those self-concepts. This allows the heart opening talked about above. And finally, the core grip or core identity in the gut becomes conscious and is released. Head, heart, gut.
I’ve also talked about a 4th Root release that comes later but is much more subtle.
In other words, if the core identity has not yet been seen and released, the stage is not yet complete and there can be some back-pedaling plus more potential for getting caught. Not to mention the constraints and reduced fullness that result.
However, if we cooperate with the process and don’t get caught in any concepts of being done, these aspects should unfold in time, filling out the developing enlightenment and completing the shifts.
Davidya
Hi David!
I ascociated the gut more with the lower belly (where in daoism the lower dantien is seated, little above the second chakra). That was always the gut and the other i just called solar plexus.
I have always wondered why the throat chakra is above the heart and yet has so much to do with being human (expressing ourselves authentically) and yet is “higher”?
Any Ideas David?
thanks
Yeah, there are variations in terminology. But the grip i refer to is at or just above the solar plexus chakra. It varies widely how intense this is. For me, it was very brief. Adyashanti talked about 2 weeks of release, so they gave the process a name.
Speaking is associated with the fine vibrations of the world becoming and the space element. Traditions talk of the world being spoken into being and indeed, that is the way of the devatta. So it is more universal, although we often don’t experience it that way. There’s an article on the 4 levels of speech.
It makes more sense if you see the body as cosmic and the chakras as progressive stages of manifestation.
Hi David!
Thanks for the explaination!
Ahh…. you mean that “Thing” above the solar Plexus. :-)Some yoga masters i had contact with called it “the wall above the solar Plexus” and ascociated it with the 2. knot (granti; a yoga term of 3 knots in the Body that Need to be disolved). For me it is a massive Thing that gets pelled away like an onion. 🙂
Hi Michael
Yeah, they talk of 3 caps and 3 or 4 primary knots. The wall above is a bit different. The grip may be built on the knot or may be distinct. But somewhere in this range, a kind of holding on.
And yeah, it can be peeled or popped all at once, depending. The first is a little easier and smoother.
When it completes, there will be no longer any difference between the sense of inside and outside. That can set the stage for the Unity shift.
Great article as always.
I find the term ‘third eye’ misleading. in my understanding it is our first eye. the reason why I feel the term matters is that the notion third eye putts the physical as primary and thus creates a skewed perspective on the process of perception.
Hi Rasmus
I’m sure it gained the appellation because it is discovered after the physical eyes.
And yes. The eyes don’t create the appearance of the world. They just stream data that the mind makes sense of, filtering out most of it.
Even more deeply, perception is an aspect of consciousness interacting with itself. From that perspective, it is consciousness that sees.
The 6th chakra is just where that seeing process for subtler levels is focused. Even more deeply, seeing is not dependent on any eyes and seeing can happen wherever attention is put.
For hearing, its somewhat similar, Subtle hearing is somewhat focused slightly above and behind the ears. But we don’t call that “third and fourth” ears. 🙂
indeed,
is physical life not more of a prequel than a sequel? hens the linear appearance of the experience?
*laugh* “third and fourth ears” I like it 😛
In some ways. It all depends on perspective. There can seem to be a process of unfolding. But shifts into awareness of what has always been have less of that linear sense. And when all time is experienced as simultaneous, theres also less of a sense of sequence.
But it is easier to talk sequence when we live in the world. 😉
Some of the sensory stuff can be amusing. Like when the whole body is experienced as tasting. Or we hear with the skin or feel with the eyes.
Hi David,
Am curious, what does “Barbecue” mean/feel?
Hi AB
This is a term Loch Kelly used. The gut is a fire center so a major release there can feel like a roasting or barbecue. The degree of this depends on what remains and how deep the release is. Adyashanti described 2 weeks of it but for most people I’m aware of, it was much more brief.
But don’t try to work it out – thats just expectations that get in the way of experience. The point of descriptions like this is for people to understand what has arisen in their experience. How it will unfold for this or that person will vary widely.