The Chakras as a Tool for Growth

Many of the teachings teach that we are already enlightened and that we only need to realize that, live it and BE it. If this is the case then the wisdom of the 7th chakra is already throughout the rest of them and we just need to claim that. To claim that, it is necessary to live a healthy life practice in each area of life represented by each of the chakras. To really integrate our practice of life and to excel our growth, we need to cross train! And this means consciously looking at how we practice life in as many different areas, and on as many different levels, as is personally possible.

In the Life Formula practice, we take the chakra system into each of the general areas of Mind, Body, Heart and Soul so that we may deepen and expand our growth as integrally as possible.

To give you an idea as to how the chakra system can be used as a tool for growth we want to imagine that each level is like a sheath that concentrically transcends and includes each of our three bodies – gross, subtle and causal. We can move back and forth through deeper to not so deep levels with any transition of consciousness through the three bodies. So when we are in our physical body we are addressing the needs of the first three chakras. When we are at the level of our subtle body consciousness we are more likely tending to the needs of the fourth through sixth chakras, while the causal body will relate to the seventh chakra. In this way the heart is the transition point or the gate way from gross to subtle bodies and the throat or sixth chakra provides the portal to the causal realm. And of course each is interconnected and therefore intricately effects each of the others.

To put this into practical use, it is virtually impossible to be present for the upper four Chakras if the lower three are imbalanced or constricted on the physical level. For example, if basic shelter and survival needs of the first chakra have not been met, then it is more important our time and attention tends to matters of income, as opposed to hours on the meditation cushion, so that we may pay the rent and feed the family. But if that level has been addressed, and is balanced and flowing freely, then we can transcend that level, include it in our experience of life, and move beyond it to a deeper level of awareness beyond the issues of that chakra; in other words we can sit on our cushion knowing that those matters have been tended and be fully present at the chosen level of contemplation, or insight.

If we have been present for some period of time at the deeper levels and then an issue arises that causes us to bring our awareness back to the issue of shelter and survival needs, then we must shift our focus of attention to address that matter. But the idea is that now we will do so with a higher level of awareness – in other words, we go up higher, or in deeper, so that we may bring the lessons of the deeper wisdom back down, or out, to evolve the more fundamental levels more deeply. (Higher and deeper are the same, just as outer and lower also coincide. It matters not the word that is used, but the comprehension of a multi faceted, or multi dimensional, experience of existence beyond ego, beyond the outer, lower dimensional self and through to the inner, deeper/higher multi dimensional Self – or the experience of pure awareness which can only be realized on an experiential level and not simply intellectualized).

If we have not cultivated a healthy ego through tending proper psychotherapy and other beneficial processes, and we have transcended and included an unhealthy ego, then we are meditating our way more deeply into our pathologies and our ego becomes more unhealthy and our life more dysfunctional. This is why it is so important to do more than just meditate and why developmental cross training across all the levels of mind, body, heart and soul are mandatory for balanced growth.

In the workshops we go more deeply into each of the 7 main chakras so that we have a deeper, fuller understanding of the nature of consciousness available at each level. This way we can more fully navigate our way through the levels so that we can approach our enlightenment both horizontally and vertically.

In vertical enlightenment we move from 1st to 2nd to 3rd to 4th and on up through 7th. In horizontal enlightenment we deepen our perspective and understanding at each level. So you will move up and down the levels, going deeper within to the more ethereal realms at times and then coming back out to more consciously deepen and balance your experience of life at the more fundamental levels. Not one level is possible without the other and at each level there is always more work that can be done. So each time we come back to a fundamental layer we come back to it from a higher level of consciousness and awareness.

So each level, or energy centre, transcends and includes the one before. Without having achieved balance in the lower three chakras, the energy of the upper four remain blocked, stagnant or dysfunctional in some way. This teaching helps you find your personal formula for balancing the lower three levels so that you create a healthily balanced self that can transcend, include and move beyond the finite ego and experience ultimate freedom and peace while joyfully living in the physical world - and this is the fundamental goal of Life Formula!