* * * CHAKRA SEVEN * * *

[Guest guest]

Day Seven - Seventh Chakra

 

" What we seek is the very essence of that

which is seeking. "

 

Element::Thought

 

Name:::Sahasrara (thousandfold)

 

Purpose:::Understanding

 

Issues::: (all issues in all chakras are each a

section in the book...a good read)

 

Consciousness, Awareness, The Witness, Transcendence,

Immanence, Meaning, Information, Intellegence, Meaning,

Belief Systems, Operating Systems, Universal Identity,

Attachment, Higher Power, Divinity, Union, Vision

 

Goals:::

 

Wisdom, Knowledge, Consciousness,

Spiritual Connection

 

Color:::Violet

 

Location:::Cerebral cortex

 

Orientation:::Self-knowledge

 

Basic Rights:::

To Know and to Learn

 

This includes the right to accurate information, the right

to truth, the right to knowledge, and the right to simply

know what's going on. Certainly education is an important

part of knowledge. Equally important are one's spiritual

rights: the right to connect with the divine in whatever

way we find most appropriate. To force on another a

spiritual dogma infringes upon our seventh chakra

personal and spiritual rights. To deny information and

education is to close down the natural questing of the

seventh chakra.

 

Affirmations:::

 

Divinity resides within.

I am open to new ideas.

Information I need comes to me.

The world is my teacher.

I am guided by higher power.

I am guided by inner wisdom.

 

Identity:::

 

In the crown chakra, we come to the final and largest

identity: our universal identity. The more our conscious-

ness expands, the larger our identity can become. As we

realize the magnificent scope of the cosmos, we have the

opportunity to transcend our smaller, more limited world,

and identify with the entire universe. This is a common

theme in mystical experiences where the identification

with the smaller ego states gives way to recognition of a

unitary identity with all of life, indeed all of creation.

In Eastern philosophy, this is the basis of true

self-knowledge: the knowledge of divinity within.

 

Demon:::

Attachment

 

While attachment is necessary for making and main-

taining commitments essential to the lower chakras, it

inhibits our ability to expand in the crown chakra.

Attachment denies the constantly fluid state of the

universal system. It keeps us anchored in time, unable

to move forward, trapped in a small place, unable to

embrace a larger space. In Eastern religions, attachment

is seen as the basis of suffering.

 

For some, letting go of attachment is synonymous with

letting go of responsibility. It can become a means of

escape. When the going gets rough, we simply let go of

our connection rather than work through sticky issues.

In so doing, we experience freedom but sacrifice growth.

 

In the truer sense of the word, letting go of attachment

is about how we direct our psychic energy. To let go of

attachment is to release our fixation upon something

external, to relinquish our need to control, our desire for

a certain outcome. Attachment is our way of not trusting

the wisdom of the universe while it actually tries to teach

us something. We stay attached because we are defending

against our suffering, rather than seeing that suffering

as a teaching. Attachment says we are certain we know what

is best. It does not allow the humility that opens us to

something larger.

 

Opening to the Mystery of Heaven

 

Consciousness

 

Consciousness, the final frontier. That vast and indis-

pensable key to the ultimate mystery, endless and

unfathomable. The very thing that allows us to look

into the mirror of the soul and perceive our own

existence. Consciousness is both our final destination

and the means of travel.

 

What is it that is reading these words right now,

sorting them out, making sense of them? What is it

that drew you to read this, chose your partner, walk

the path you travel each day? What is it that sees,

hears, remembers, feels, thinks, and moves your body

through its daily activities? To answer this is to find

the final piece of our Rainbow Bridge.

 

We think of consciousness as our thoughts, but

thoughts are what consciousness creates, not what it

is. We think of consciousness as our perceptions,

but there is a faculty that not only perceives, but also

remembers, discriminates, and integrates our

perceptions. Who or what does this? We feel the pull

of consciousness on our emotions, but who or what

feels those emotions, and how do we experience feeling?

This is the mystery that we embrace in the crown

chakra--a mystery that can only be experienced,

not explained.

 

To become aware of our own consciousness is to

witness a miracle. That your mind can decipher

these strange shapes on the page, put them together

into words, and then into concepts, and action--

this is a monumental skill. That we can contain within

us the words to hundreds of songs, identify countless

voices over a telephone--even these mundane skills are

miraculous. That we can run our own programs and

rewrite them at the same time, that we can learn vast

quantities about any subject we study, and transform

that knowledge into creative expression, these are

phenomenal accomplishments. Though we have

computers that can calculate beyond our human

abilities, we have yet to create a machine as remotely

sophisticated as the human brain.

 

Mystic sages describe consciousness as a unified field

in which all of existence is embedded. Sentient beings

have the capacity to tap into that universal field of

intelligence, where vast stores of information reside,

much as a personal computer can access the internet.

How much consciousness we can tap into depends on

our apparatus. A hand calculator cannot access the

Internet or store research notes. A monkey cannot tap

into the same magnitude of consciousness as a human,

and cannot do mathematics or write poetry.

 

Opening the crown chakra is not so much about increasing

our own consciousness, as it is about expanding our

operating system so that it can embrace a larger portion

of the universal field of consciousness. This occurs through

meditation, spiritual practice, mystical experiences, altered

states of consciousness, study and education, and the

elusively simple but profound act of paying attention.

 

The Witness

 

Sometimes the essence of inner awareness is referred to

as the witness. The witness sits behind our normal activity,

watching without judgment the changing emotions, the flurry

of thoughts, the impulses, and attachments. The witness is

something above and beyond the body and its experience,

beyond memories and dreams, even though it silently

observes all these events. The witness may be the soul

essence that has lived beyond this lifetime. It may be a

divine intelligence that is larger than the Self. To become

aware of the witness is to become aware of the essence that

dwells within. The witness is the core of the Self, an

indestructible spark of divinity.

 

To embrace the witness is to embrace the underlying reality

of our being. The witness can be both objective and

subjective. It can detach from the places where we suffer,

and it can teach us how to swim in the stream when we are

flailing about. The witness is the eternal guide, an invaluable

friend, the deep inner awareness of the Self. As you read

through the rest of these words and as you put down the book

and go about your life, be aware of the witness inside you.

Just be aware.

 

Transcendence and Immanence

 

Transcendence is the path of liberation. Immanence is the

path of manifestation. To embrace them both is to see the

divine within and without as an inseparable unity. The crown

chakra is a two-way gate to the beyond. It opens outward,

beyond ourselves to the infinite, and it opens inward and

downward to the world of visions, creation, and eventual

manifestation. Eastern philosophies stress transcendence

as the goal and essence of the crown chakra, indeed of the

chakra system itself. Transcendence is a cleansing bath

in the waters of spirit, a blissful relief from that which

binds us to limitation. The purpose of moving up through the

chakras is one of constant transcendence, where each new

plane encompasses the chakra below in a larger framework.

The experience of transcendence is one of liberation.

 

Eventually we have to come back down as expansion of

consciousness is of greatest value when applied. Light

shining in our eyes can be blinding, but light focused on

something that needs illumination is a blessing. Immanence

is the light of divine consciousness shining out from within.

It manifests the presence of the divine within, the divinity of

the Self in its wholeness. From the perspective of

immanence, deity exists in everything living and nonliving.

To speak with you is to speak with the God/dess nature

within you. To grow a garden or raise a child is to see deity

manifested in its multiple forms. To speak your truth is to

let the deity emanate from within you.

 

A friend once said to me, " Why bother with creation? Why

not just go straight to the source? " Being a great lover of

creation as well as the force behind it, I pondered this a while.

Should one ignore the beauty of the rivers, lakes, oceans

because they are not the clouds? Should we look only at the

sun instead of the delicate play of light on the flowers? Should

we ignore the child and go straight to the mother? If I write a

book, do I want people to ignore it and instead call me on the

telephone? Absolutely not! Creation is the expression of the

divine, and it is often more profound, refined, and detailed than

the source itself, which is enormously vast and abstract.

 

One of the differences between soul and spirit is that the soul

is an expression of immanence within the individual, whereas the

spirit seeks transcendence and universality. The soul is like

a gatherer of spirit, forming the abstract into a composite being.

In fact, the spirit may or may not be individual at all as it can

take on many forms. Like consciousness, spirit seems to be a

field that we tap into and carry within ourselves. The soul is

enhanced by the presence of spirit, as if spirit is the essence

from which it forms. Spirit is anchored and expressed through

soul, which gives it embodiment, meaning, and purpose.

Soul tends toward manifestation and spirit toward liberation.

 

To achieve transcendence is to enter the realm capable of

embracing the whole. To bring that divine state of awakened

consciousness down into our bodies and act upon it is to

experience immanence. As the vehicle that brings the gods

back down to earth, immanence is the restoration of the sacred.

 

The Separation of Spirit and Matter

 

Western civilization is founded on the belief system

that spirit and matter are separate and distinct. The

Earth is treated as an inanimate object to be used

wastefully, at our own lack of discretion. Science

examines the world rationally and methodically,

pointedly avoiding the more nebulous issue of spirit.

Corporations are built to enhance their economic

prowess, often with little regard for the spiritual

well-being of their workers or the environment.

 

People who give spirituality a high priority are often

considered fringe members of society. for many

seekers and respected masters, spiritual practice is

seen as antithetical to mundane existence. Monks

leave their homes and families and renounce all worldly

pursuits in order to obtain enlightenment. Nuns

cloister themselves to be closer to God. New Age

ascension philosophy advises transcending the body and

becoming nothing but light. Eastern philosophy tells

us to let go of worldly attachments.

 

The separation of spirituality from the rest of life

leaves us spiritually homeless. In reflection of the

archetypal divorce between Earth Mother and Sky

Father, we are taught to seek enlightenment by denying

the basic nature of our biological existence. This

chasm between Heaven and Earth creates a corresponding

abyss between spirit and soul into which many fall as

they engage in ascetic practices, sign their will over

to gurus, and disengage from the world. Denying our

basic nature in order to achieve unity is a contradiction

steeped in dualistic thinking which will never lead to unity

or wholeness.

 

The seventh chakra is about merging with divine

consciousness and realizing our true nature. The

petty concerns that occupy the bulk of our waking life

often distract us from remembering who we truly are

beneath the jobs and the cars, the kids and the

clothes. It is important to know that we are children

of the divine seeking our way back home--that there is

a deeper meaning to life than is normally perceived.

 

What is valid about this myth of separation is that we

do need to disconnect from the illusions and

attachments we place between ourselves and the divine,

from the substitutions we use to fill the emptiness of

our soul. I believe the ultimate source of these soul

wounds stems from stripping our ordinary existence of

its spiritual meaning, leaving the average person

without purpose or direction.

 

The crown chakra is the thousand-petaled lotus. Most

people think of the petals as reaching up into the

heavens; actually, the lotus petals turn downward like

a sunflower, dripping nectar into the crown and down

through the chakras. In this way, the two ends of the

spectrum are profoundly connected. How can a lotus

bloom without roots in the Earth? How can it reach

Heaven if its roots are not deep and wide?

 

The Rainbow Bridge, like any bridge, is about

connection. The two ends of the spectrum connect the

individual self with universal creation. The middle

section of the bridge takes the combination out into

the world, through appropriate action, right

relationship, and creative contributions. Our

purpose in the seventh chakra is to contact the

divine, but also to manifest divinity in our bodies and

actions and so transform the world. In the seventh chakra,

we see divinity in all matter and in all its infinite

arrangements. Crossing the Rainbow Bridge is about

stretching to connect the limited with the infinite,

while still retaining both qualities. It is through

that stretch that we grow.

 

To arrive at the fully blooming lotus crown chakra,

our stem needs to be connected all the way to Earth,

our roots deep in the ground. Through this

connection, our lotus is nourished and continues to

bloom, its petals ever unfolding. Our purpose is

indeed to liberate the spirit, but if we are to avoid

getting lost in the infinite we must retain a home to

which the spirit can return. This is the challenge of

a psychologically balanced seventh chakra.

 

Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith

 

Rumi

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