Chakras and Meditation

[Tom]

You can meditate on and through the chakras. Stimulating the chakras directly is a good thing and it is worth your time. Meditation is better. Meditation will take care of your chakras, but developing your chakras won't necessarily bring meditation.

[SilverSlider]

So what exactly does stimulating chakras do? If Meditation takes care of [stimulating] chakras, then what is the point to learning to stimulate them? Thanks for your time

Brad

[kakkarot]

i think one of the biggest reasons for doing the chakra stimulation is because it helps to bring about a trance like state on its own. by meditating you clear your thoughts and give way to increased attention to your body and increased focus on what you are doing. then the meditation is ended when you start to stimulate your chakras, but that is ok since the meditation is mainly done to get rid of distracting thoughts. while you are stimulating your chakras you tend to forget about your body a bit, and it naturally relaxes and falls into a trance state (or a deeper trance state if you started stimulating the chakras while you were in a trance state); ie, it takes your mind off your body so your body can get itself into a proper state of "being" that should make oobp easier.

stimulating chakras also might have to do with focusing on your "energy body" (i think this is what i call the spirit) so that you realize that it is indeed different from your physical body and can be seperated. a mage friend of mine from a city just outside the one i am living in currently says that he oobp's by creating a spiritual plane of force and using it to seperate most of his spirit from his body, but leaving a hole so that he can pass a tether through to connect his spirit to his body so he won't just up and die    .

so the method doesn't matter as long as it works for you, right? if you have to stimulate chakras, then do so. if you don't, then don't bother. if you don't know, then try and see if you notice anything after a month or so.

~kakkarot

Secret of Secrets

[rodentmouse]

in my opinion,  i think its worth learning how to meditate before you start on the  chakras,  think of it as farmiliarising yourself with yourself.....  and for developing your concentration
note:  i learned to meditate after i started NEW,  but before my energy raising I was constantly being interupted by surface thoughts and i was getting nowhere....

[James S]

My experiences with learning meditation agrees with what Rodentmouse has said. I learned to meditate quite deeply a few years ago, and within the last 18 months brought the chakras into it.

There may be better ways of doing it (I'm still picking my way thru NEW), but for a quick relaxing boost I just meditate and draw in white light all around me, and while doing that, open up the chakras to that light. It works well for me as kind of a "fast-charge".

James S
(Fate amenable to change)

[Tom]

You can meditate with a particular chakra as an object or you can meditate on your breathing or you can pick one of many other things to place your concentration on. Regardless of what you choose to do, you are just using a tool and the best thing to do is to use it in full awareness of what you are doing.

[steveb]

Greetings all,

One important note with meditation, what ever method, style or tecnique. If you set aside time for a practise, once you've ended it, come out of it slowly and carry it with you as long as you can. You will find the state of mind, or some might say mindlessness will stay with you a little longer each time. It takes a lot of practise, but it's well worth it.

Regards  Steve

[Penfold]

Does anyone know any good exercises for the half lotus, I sit on a chair when I meditate(try to)and don't find it that comfortable, I tried sitting normally cross-legged and thats just worse! Thanks a lot.

[Tom]

A while back I was given some advice about the lotus posture (padmasana). After doing it for a while it seems to help me stop the circulation in my legs. This actually causes my feet to turn somewhat purple and cool off. I was told to stretch out while flat on my back. It feels funny to be in padmasana but with my back flat on the floor. On the way to getting into the lotus or half lotus, though, keep one leg straight and put the foot of the other leg over the thigh of the leg that is kept straight. Then push the knee of the leg in the direction which would be "down" if you were in a normal sitting position. Then alternate legs. If you have pain in your joints, it should not be ignored. Otherwise what you are feeling is caused by the muscles and tendons being stretched. Not comfortable, but it will pass with time. The advantage to the unusual orientation is that if you only have to concern yourself with your legs (and allow the floor to support your back, keeping it both straightened and relaxed) then you can practice keeping your legs in the position correctly while giving them room to be out of place until you can develop enough flexibility to hold the posture comfortably. The full lotus is worth the effort to develop because it keeps the center of gravity low and requires little effort to sustain. Your concentration can be on your meditation and not on your posture.

[Penfold]

Thanks for the help.  Any advice on how long I should stretch the legs;I tried doing the half lotus without stretching my legs first a while back and I got a pain on the outside of my knee for a while, pretty stupid huh, so I stopped, guess have to work up slowly right.  Is stopping the circulation in your legs a good thing?  I suppose you wouldn't feel the pain!  Sounds like you know better though, thanks.

[Tom]

Lack of circulation is a very bad thing. It is painful when it happens and worse when my circulation is restored. That is why I was asking for help and that was why I was offered the advice I was.

Perhaps you could try a yoga book for warmup stretches?

[ralphm]

I first started have obe type experiences after i would wake in the night, couldn't get back to sleep so iwould lay there  and swirl energy around my chakras. this would relax me, and i would go back to sleep, later to have exit vibrations and some weak projections, all without trying.

[SilverSlider]

Hello, I wasn't sure if I should have posted this on the Energy forum or not, but I decided my my question is about meditation, just how chakras are involved in it, so I posted here. I am currently reading Astral Dynamics and am to the point where he is talking about stimulating the different chakras but I looked ahead to the part where it talks about trance and it says nothing about needing to stimulate chakras. I am just wondering why you would need to stimulate the different chakras when, correct me if I'm wrong, you don't need to in order to get into a trance. I am very eager to learn how to meditate and don't feel like reading about chakras when I could be practicing meditation, but I if need to learn about them, I will. Sorry about the long thread and I would appreciate any repsonse.