|
Main
Menu
External
Pages
|
Kundalini
and the Chakras
Excerpts
from ‘The Mythic
Image’ By: Joseph
Campbell
The mind is
likened to the
surface of a pond
rippled by
wind…. The
idea of yoga is to
cause that wind to
subside and let
the waters return
to rest. For
when a wind blows
and waters stir,
the waves break
and distort both
the light and its
reflections, so
that all that can
be seen are
colliding broken
forms. Not
until the waters
will have been
stilled, cleansed
of stirred-up
sediment and made
mirror-bright,
will the one
reflected image
appear that on the
rippling waves had
been broken, that
of the clouds and
pure sky above,
the trees along
the shore, and
down deep in the
still, pure water
itself, the sandy
bottom and the
fish. Then
alone will that
single image be
known of which the
wave-borne
reflections are
but fragments and
distortions.
And this
single image can
be likened to that
of the Self
realised in yoga.
It is the
Ultimate – the
Form of forms –
of which the
phenomena of this
world are but
imperfectly seen,
ephemeral
distortions: the
God-form, the
Buddha-form, which
is truly our own
knowledge-form,
and with which it
is the goal of
yoga to unite us.
[Kundalini]… the
figure of a coiled
female serpent –
a serpent goddess
not of “gross”
but of
“subtle”
substance –
which is to be
thought of as
residing in a
torpid, slumbering
state in a subtle
centre, the first
of seven, near the
base of the spine.
The aim of
the yoga then
being to rouse
this serpent, lift
her head, and
bring her up a
subtle nerve or
channel of the
spine to the
so-called
“thousand-petalled
lotus” (sahasrara)
at the crown of
the head….
She, rising
from the lowest to
the highest lotus
centre, will pass
through and wake
the five between;
and with each
waking the
psychology and
personality of the
practitioner will
be altogether and
fundamentally
transformed.
Chakra
1,
[RED], Muladhara, the
“Root
Support”, is
located at the
base of the spine.
The
world-view is of
uninspired
materialism,
governed by
‘hard
facts’… and
the psychology,
adequately
described in
behaviouristic
terms, is
reactive, not
active. There
is on this plane
no zeal for life,
no explicit
impulse to expand.
There is
simply a lethargic
avidity in hanging
on to existence;
and it is this
grim grip that
must finally be
broken so that the
spirit may be quit
of its dull zeal
simply to be….
The first task of
the yogi then must
be to break at
this level the
cold dragon grip
of his own
spiritual
lethargy. And
to release the
jewel-maid, his
own shakti, for
ascent to those
higher spheres
where she will
become his
spiritual teacher
and guide to the
bliss of an
immortal life
beyond sleep.
Chakra
2,
[ORANGE],
Svadhisthana,
“Her Special
Abode”, is at
the level of the
genitals. When
the Kundalini is
active at this
level, the whole
aim of life is in
sex. Not
only is every
thought and act
sexually
motivated, either
as a means toward
sexual ends or as
a compensating
sublimation of
frustrated sexual
zeal, but
everything seen
and heard is
interpreted
compulsively, both
consciously and
unconsciously, as
symbolic of sexual
themes. Psychic
energy, that is to
say, has the
character here of
the Freudian
libido. Myths,
deities, and
religious rites
are understood and
experienced in
sexual terms.
Chakra
3,
[YELLOW], Manipura, “City
of the Shining
Jewel”, is
located at the
level of the
navel. Here
the energy turns
to violence and
its aim is to
consume, to
master, to turn
the world into
oneself and
one’s own.
The
appropriate
Occidental
psychology would
be Adlerian of the
“will to
power”: for now
even sex becomes
an occasion, not
of erotic
experience, but of
achievement,
conquest,
self-reassurance,
and frequently,
also, revenge.
All three of these
lower chakras are
of the modes of
man’s living in
the world in his
naive state,
outward turned:
the modes of the
lovers, the
fighters, the
builders, the
accomplishers.
Joys and
sorrows on these
levels are
functions of
achievements in
the world “out
there”, what
people think of
one, what has been
gained, what lost. [These
chakra energies
are those that we
share with the
animals. Editor.]
A religion
operating only on
these levels,
having little or
nothing to do with
the fostering of
inward, mystical
realisations,
would hardly merit
the name of
religion at all.
It would be
little more than
an adjunct to
police authority,
offering in
addition to
ethical rules and
advice intangible
consolations for
life’s losses
and a promise of
future rewards for
social duties
fulfilled.
Chakra
4,
[GREEN], Anahata, meaning
“not hit”, is
at the level of
the heart. It
is the beginning
of the religious
life, the
awakening where
the new life
begins, and its
name refers to the
sound that is not
made by any two
things striking
together. All
sounds that we
hear are actually
made by two things
striking together.
It is the
sound of the
energy of which
the universe is a
manifestation.
The heart chakra,
then is the
opening of the
spiritual
dimension: all is
metaphoric of the
mystery… When
you reach the
upper chakras, you
don’t do without
the first three:
survival, sex and
power. You
don’t destroy
the first three
floors of a
building when you
get to the fourth.
Chakra
5,
[BLUE],
Vishuddha,
“Purified”, is
at the level of
the larynx
[throat]. This
is the chakra of
spiritual effort
to hold back the
animal system from
which the energies
come. One
has gone through
the lower chakras
to get to here,
but the pelvic
chakras have not
been rejected.
They now
have to be turned
to a spiritual,
rather that
physical, aim.
Chakra 6,
[INDIGO or PURPLE],
Ajna, the lotus of
“Command”,
located between
the eyebrows, is
what we would call
the chakra of
heaven, the
highest chakra in
the world of
incarnate forms…
When the
Kundalini has
reached this
point, one beholds
God. Any god
you have been
meditating on or
have been taught
to revere is the
god that will be
seen here. This
is the highest
obstacle for the
complete yogi…
Meister
Eckhart said,
“The ultimate
leave-taking is
the leaving of God
for God.”…
At Chakra 7,
you go past God
and are in the
transcendent:
“Brahman without
characteristics”.
[The impersonal
God, or Great
Mystery. Ed.]
Chakra
7,
[VIOLET or WHITE],
Sahasrara,
“Thousand
Petalled”, is
the lotus at the
crown of the head.
At this
chakra there is no
person to be
conscious of God.
There is
only
undifferentiated
consciousness: the
silence [out of
which all life
comes and
returns]. When
you hit Chakra 7,
you are inert.
It is a
catatonic
knockout, you
might say, and you
are reduced simply
to a thing.
Now as I see it,
if you come back
down to the heart,
to Chakra 4, where
spiritual life
begins, subject
and object are
together. Chakra
1 corresponds to
7. The
inertia from
Chakra 1 sets in
when you have hit
Chakra 7. Chakra
2 corresponds to
6. Chakra 3
corresponds to 5.
You are then
able to take the
war energy from
Chakra 3 and
practice self
control in Chakra
5. So you
can bend things at
Chakra 4.
For example,
through the
experiences of
Chakra 2, if they
are of love, you
are really
experiencing the
grace of God in
Chakra 6. You
transmute the lust
energy of Chakra 2
into love. If
there has been no
experience of the
discipline of
Chakra 5, you’ll
never get an
inkling of what it
is you are to be
experiencing
through the
physical [act].
If in your
physical love, you
can realise that
what you are
touching is the
grace of the
divine in its
proper form for
you, this is a
translation of
carnal adventure
into the
spiritual, without
the loss of the
carnal. The
two are together.
You are then
beholding the god
as in Chakra 6 and
experiencing the
beloved as a
manifestation of
that divine power,
that love which
informs the world.
Joseph
Campbell
Donations
If you would like to make a donation to Sitting Owl
please use this button.
|
