In the current popular yoga/tantra exposition of chakras, 7 are recognised. In ascending order they are:
- Root
- Genital
- Belly / Solar Plexus
- Chest / Heart
- Throat
- Third Eye
- Crown
It is said that most human beings operate entirely on the lowest three chakras. This is grossly oversimplified, but… Basically, the lowest three chakras represent the survival, sex, and status instincts of the human being.
Of course, these can be expressed in an animalistic/unconscious manner, as well as in a refined/sophisticated manner. They can be expressed in an ethical framework, or in a completely natural “law of the jungle” sense. They can be pleasurable or painful. All the variations are valid.
The greater point is that, when someone is operating in a particular chakra, the meaning generation and perceptual/emotional mechanism of that chakra dominates one’s consciousness.
For instance, when someone is operating at the root level – everything has to do with survival, shelter, security, and of course, food.
If you want to get a sense of what it is like to operate at this level, listen to these hunter/gatherers:
The example linked above is useful, because it helps us separate the operation of chakras. Most people, most of the time, are not operating at one chakra exclusively. They switch between multiple chakras frequently, and operate using multiple chakras simultaneously – creating a multi-colored field of experience.
But, as you can see above, it is possible to focus on a single chakra and interpret sense impressions using it’s meaning-making mechanism. The chakra becomes the interface between the individual and their environment, and dictates the rules, as well as possibilities of interaction.
While this understanding is very useful when learning about chakras, I have a higher, and more important point…
Paying attention to the example above helps one in understanding their limitations…
As you can see, concepts such as “meaning”, which operate at the heart chakra level in the personal level, throat chakra in the analytical/philosophical level, and the third eye in the existential level – completely “go over the head” of the hunter gatherer being interviewed. This is because, the root chakra is limited to a particular function, and as such, lacks the capacity to define and express concepts like “meaning”.
Make no mistake: It’s not that this hunter/gatherer doesn’t have the capacity to experience/understand meaning. It’s that, at the level of sophistication of the chakra he is operating at, both the language, and the subtlety of the concept we call “meaning” missing.
It is missing not because meaning is “higher” and his root chakra operation is “lower”. On the contrary, it is missing because it is not relevant. It is missing because, from the point of view of the root chakra, “meaning” has no value.
“Meaning” doesn’t matter. Food is important/relevant. Meat is important/relevant. Meat is meaning.
Here, it is also crucial to understand that this hunter/gatherer doesn’t need to undergo an initiation or be juiced up with special holy mantras to comprehend the concept of “meaning”. No amount of postures or psychedelics will reveal to him the secrets of meaning in a flash of insight.
In fact, even if we could stimulate the parts of his nervous system that have to do with what we call “meaning”, it wouldn’t matter. Sure, he would experience “something”. But that experience wouldn’t be equal to our sense of “meaning”. It couldn’t.
Until this hunter/gatherer develops the right language/context and storehouse of impressions… Until he is educated and embedded into our framework where we understand meaning… It will not be a possible mode of experience/perception.
You must understand that, just as the seed doesn’t become a tree overnight, one’s capacity to reflect the “tree of life” can only be manifest, if one cultivates that tree over time.
One must not only follow a natural process which nurtures the tree, but one must also prune, shape and treat the tree according to the template one is trying to emulate…
Therefore, if one wants to imbue their life with meaning by resonating to the un-struck sound of their heart… Or perceive the secret/hidden meaning behind the space of objects/phenomena by purifying their impressions down to their essence… Or unite the sense of meaning, the object of meaning, and the perceiver of meaning through one pointed concentration… One must be “initiated” into the framework of yoga/tantra.
In this sense, both the kabbalistic tree of life, and the chakras of yoga/tantra are best thought of as maps or templates of a structure – like a psychic apparatus – that one builds. They are a blueprint. They make sense in a particular context. And they relate to a particular way of being human.
Let me put it another way…
As far as this hunter/gatherer is concerned, people who read this article are dwellers of the City of Jewels (i.e. 3rd chakra, manipura means city of jewels, and it relates to the predominant game modern people play: the rat-race of status).
While he dwells among the roots and worries over where to get his next meat to eat, the city dwellers live in an alien world surrounded with shiny jewel-like objects that are filled with brilliant fires and light.
Even their approach to the halfway point between them, the sex chakra, is profoundly different. So different, in fact, that questions and concerns around “a girl one likes” – something deeply fundamental to being male – gets lost in translation!
Remember this as you try to think about your spiritual evolution…
The difficulty a hunter/gatherer has around answering questions like the meaning of the moon, or what happens after death, is NOTHING compared to the next evolutionary step that awaits those who seek Awakening.
Spiritual evolution is not just about energising psychic centers or unlocking hidden potentials that you fantasise about from your limited 3D framework embedded inside the post-industrial human culture of the post-modern era. Yes, there is some of that, but there is so much more!
The exposition of the chakras, and waking them up to fully experience the possibilities of a human incarnation, is not the end of the road. It’s the beginning.
And it’s not that you don’t have the capacity for more. It’s not your fault that you lack the context or that you don’t know where to look. You were simply born into too primitive of a planet!
That’s all…
Just as the hunter gatherer lacks context, you lack context.
In the light of this realisation, I recommend radical humility.
And I recommend paying extra attention to the fact that the humans on this planet at this time are obnoxiously primitive.
Always remember: One’s City of Jewels is the dust particle on another’s heel.