In a discussion back on Understanding Shakti in Awakening, a few points come up that I thought worth highlighting.
Firstly, as I’ve mentioned before, kundalini is not causal. It is an effect of the process. From the Kundalini Vidya perspective, the energetic process is run by the crown chakra. We tend to notice this less as sensorial effects in other areas are more obvious than subtle impulses of vayus (air or prana).
People describe the awakening process as driven by grace. More deeply we could say grace is Brahman. That expresses in part through the functions of the crown chakra.
Also, the chakra structure is fundamental and functions in several koshas.
How fundamental is illustrated by the detail that there is a single set of chakras for our universe. At the anandamaya kosha level where they exist, all beings share the same set. They simply express differently in different forms, apparently individualizing as they become more expressed.
This makes more sense if you recognize the devata body, an expression of the one cosmic body that is the body of all beings in all universes in this creation. The devata body is a body of points of light, light beings who manage the same specific function in all beings. Your right index finger contains thousands and they orchestrate everything that happens in all beings in that part of their body. (the devata body functions from outside the universe so is not a common experience until well into Unity) The chakras are a foundational expression of that.
While all expressed objects arise in and of consciousness and share the same energetic underpinnings (koshas), chakras are unique to living beings and are the foundation for the flow of life.
How we experience the chakras depends on what layers we’re open to and the perspective we’re viewing them from.
We may see them as a vortex or spinning wheel in multiple colours* – hence the name chakra, or as a flower with roots, as a little tornado-like vortex, as a geometry, or perhaps simply as a bright or intensified area in the body. You can see where some of the artwork of chakras might be derived from, although some of that art is derived from descriptions rather than direct experience.
*the chakras are not a tidy rainbow of single colours. As their expression varies in each being, so too their colours
While the crown originates as a vortex (chakra) like the others, in expression it is much more dominant in the flower form. Hence the oft-called 1,000 petalled lotus. All the other chakras also have a flower form but in the crown it dominates. (a notable detail – the lower 6 chakras have the same number of petals as the Sanskrit alphabet has letters)
The crown is often portrayed as pointing upwards but it actually points down. We open upwards rather than the crown. Most of the others point forward, except the root. All of them are functioning or we’d be dead. The “opening” that is described is essentially a bigger expression and smoother flow with more qualities. .
Some describe the Bindu point in the head. Bindu is simply the point where the descending thread connects to this expression of the chakras. Where our subtle energetic connection to source lands. When the rising shakti meets bindu, Shakti connects with Shiva. The individual expression connects with the totality. There is an awakening.
The crown is not what causes awakening. It manages opening of the expression and preparation for awakening, but awakening, in my experience, happens at bindu. (the original article notes how it may arise at other points)
Of course, what we experience of this process may be completely unrelated. For example, in my own shift, there was a “visual” sense of going down a short transparent funnel to a point, then shifting. That point would seem to have been bindu. But that may be something else.
Bindu is not the only key point either. I’ve mentioned makara prior, for example. This creates what can for some seem like an awakening. And to a certain extent it is. But it is not The awakening of the Self to Itself as above.
Davidya
Last Updated on December 13, 2019 by Davidya
Michael pointed out that Kundalini Vidya and others describe the above Bindu as being a couple of inches above the head.
The connection I describe is at the center point of the crown at the top of the head.
When I began experiencing chakras above the head, i was shown that they were not actually above the head but were higher octaves of the same chakras curving back on themselves. This is the flow of the “descent” post awakening. Head, heart, gut, etc.
Thus the “8th” is actually a higher octave of the 6th, and so forth. The crown and root don’t repeat, leading to 12 chakras. I’ve spoken to this elsewhere.
Some of this kind of variation can be due to variations in expression here. This is why, for example, KV will describe bindu as being in a distance range.
There is also variations in perspective. For example, the core chakras are all equidistant and in a straight line. But when you bend over, the expressed chakras move with you. All bodies vary in proportion and the expressed are rarely equidistant. The core and expressed chakras are not different things, just seen from different vantage points.
Another example would be the cosmic body. One body that expresses as all beings in all universes. Even to comprehend all humans on this planet is a challenge.
In Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna shows Arjuna his cosmic form. It scares the daylights out of Arjuna. And yet we are all that.
Above the head is simply a thread rising up to the divine. We are not only of and immersed in the divine, we are directly connected, even energetically.
Hi David!
I really have to say something: Your writing has such a divine beauty to it…….thanks for sharing it with the world!!!!! 🙂
I experience the bindu around 3 inches above the head and the crown has opened and a energetic thread connects them (and through the crown with the rest of the body), but the energy not only rises from crown but also another energy descends from bindu…they mix.
With the higher chakras being just higher octaves of the 7 chakras that is exactly what i expierenced!
Though i have experienced the 8 chakra (around 30 cm above the head) as being connected to the solar plexus.
Michael
Hi Michael
Yes, the energy is both ways and also rises quite a bit higher.
There are also a gazillion other nadis or energetic connections going on in the physiology that interconnect things and that may have different emphasis in different bodies. Chinese meridians highlight some of that.
I can also note that my experience is hardly complete. It is still unfolding and I’ve not put much attention on the arena. I simply noticed things as I went along and later have gone on to share some of that because there seems to be a lot poor ideas about it floating around.
It’s well possible where I experience 8th as 6th, 9th as 5th and 10th as 4th (the key at the heart), etc that someone else may note them being a more direct octave – 8th as second, 9th as 3rd, etc. This is more like the Theosophists and some others I’ve seen have described it.
Really though, the higher truth is that there are 7 chakras. Everything else is perspective. Those 7 express through the layers of creation and through various forms in various ways that can be seen in a variety of ways. But all of that is to support the expression. The core is those 7.
complete or not……still divinely beautiful!
Thank you for this beautiful description Davidya, I do recognize the devata body and its continual awakening within myself. I also find myself connecting with the body of the Earth as a support for continued unfolding, that the root chakra feeling its rootedness like thousands of roots is a ground that supports the cosmic side of opening.
Hi Sabrina
Yes, the root has it’s inverse connection throughout the expression. In the descent through the higher stages (states) the divine comes down into the root and then out into the world. This takes the earlier Unity to whole other level.
Eventually, one becomes conscious of living as the cosmic body in the world-expression. Whatever is called for in this specific presence comes together and is expressed.