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An extensive comparative study of the Chakras is presented at Kheper.net
Excerpts of some pages are provided below the links (click here to go to the main kheper.net links page) All upper chakras...move naturally in clockwise manner. Until reversed by pure will, pure desire, and devotion, all chakras below the heart move counterclockwise through the force of gravity. If the etheric portion...has been purified and is turning clockwise with the spiraling upward thrust of kundalini, the astral...and the etheric disc-layer of the chakra come into balance. This results in a healthy emotional body, accompanied by the desire for purity in all physical actions. Healing power and graciousness are expressed....This is done when the ascending kundalini...is lifted to...the heart. When the kundalini fire is balanced in the mental disc-portion of the heart chakra, the mind becomes organized and steady....The astral, etheric, and mental atom-points of the heart chakra open as the petals of a flower. The heart chakra is generally associated with the ability to love deeply, feel compassion, and have a deep sense of peace and centeredness. However it is also associated with the survival instinct and the personal self (see Christopher Hills) and with (Barbara Brennan's Shoulder-Blades chakra) the assertion of the ego. In Tibetan tantra one starts from the head, which is the "lowest" level of consciousness (body, waking consciousness, wrathful deities), and progresses down to the heart, which is the highest level of consciousness. As a result of the tumo-heat, the drops melt and enter the central channel. The red "female" drops in the navel chakra ascends to the heart chakra, while the white drops in the crown chakra descend to the same chakra. The bliss of the drops flowing in the central channel is said to be a hundred times greater than that of orgasm [p.71]. The drops, moving up or down the central channel, finally enter the "indestructible drop" in the heart chakra, so called because it is said to be drop that passes from life-time to life-time, taking with it the "very subtle mind" and "very subtle wind" [p.72].
When the glistening life-thread or 'Silver Cord', shaped like twin entwined figures of '6', connecting the heart region of the Solid body with the heart region of the non-Solid body is snapped at the joint, causing the heart to stop, soul's disconnection with 'the tabernacle of flesh' is complete. The Prana Vayus containing gross consciousness with subtle Mind-sense and 80 'instinct-patterns' withdraw into Sushumna - the central nervous system at Guda chakra {4} All these techniques pertain to the inner dimensions of the nefeshic faculties. On a more subtle (i.e. ruatic and neshamic) level, the Inner Mental corresponds to "the opening of the third eye", and the Inner Emotional to "the opening of the heart chakra". Unconditional love flows when there is a connection between the open heart chakra and the open celestial chakra. In this connection, we combine the love of humanity, our basic human love for our fellow humans in the flesh, with the spiritual ecstasy found in the spiritual love that goes beyond the physical reality to all the realms of existence. Combining these two creates the experience of unconditional love. A very important concept in Sri Aurobindo's yoga is the principle of the being known as the "Psychic Being". This is not found in any other Indian teaching (where the emphasis is instead on the realization of the Universal Self or Atman), although it is referred to sometimes in Western esotericism, especially Theosophy. The Psychic Being is the individual Divine Soul, the Higher Self within that grows and develops through successive lifetimes, and which dwells (symbolically?) in the Heart (or Heart-chakra). It is also the key to the spiritual transformation. Pure Psychic: The universe or Plane below that - the psychic reality, is, like all the planes or universes, a vast region, with many subdivisions. Most often it is divided into two. The higher level is one of pure spiritual emotion or Affectivity, can be called the Angelic universe, being in part equivalent to the Kabbalistic Yetzirah and Steiner's Spiritual Heirarchies, and a region of pure Love and Compassion. It includes the Spiritual and Spiritual-Psychic World; the highest faculties normally active in a person; the higher unconscious in part. This is the lowest of the spiritual heaven realms or "pure universes", and is represented by the Anahata or Heart chakra, wherein dwells the Higher Self (hence Max Theon identifies this region with the Soul degree). Imaginal The lower subdivision is the Imaginal or Astral region, includes various psychic and occult planes of existence. Many of the higher psychic experiences, revelations, religious experiences, and so on, come from here. This is a region of great desires and passions, and a snare for the gullible and unwary, who mistake the half-luminous denizens of this Plane for an ascended master or supreme deity. In esoteric Islam this is the Imaginal Realm, the Barzakh or the Intermediate World, in which "bodies are spiritualitised and spirits corporalised". In western esotericism such as Theosophy and Hermeticism, this is or includes the Astral plane. Theon uses the term Nervo or Nervous (perhaps equivalent to "etheric" - nadis etc?). The Psychic and Imaginal also provide the blueprints for the Physical universe. The Egyptians, like many ancient civilizations, located the mind in the heart. It was only with Plato that the mind was transferred to the head. The heart chakra in Tantric thought is considered the seat of the Jivatman, the divine soul. Tantra : The Art of Philosophy This page provides a great primer on the Tantric Philosophy. This page describes the phenomena of the Red Drop and the White Drop. This page describes the workings of the lower and upper chakras. This page describes its location and relevance in our psycho-spiritual development. |