This chakra shuddhi meditation is derived from tantric wisdom.
The idea is that you'll move your mind through these energy centers,
These psycho-spiritual gateways known as the chakras.
We'll keep the instructions quite simple.
It will be about journeying within your own nervous system,
Your own energy body.
And we'll use colors and shapes,
The yantras associated with the mantras,
As visualized focal points.
The practice will last approximately 15 minutes and we'll end by coming back to the heart space and breathing there.
So to begin,
Find yourself a comfortable position.
You can be sitting up or lying down,
Whatever works best in the environment that you're in.
Once you have established a comfortable position for your body,
Take a few moments to check in with how you feel physically.
Connect to your seat or the support surfaces that you're resting on.
Observe your breath.
And perhaps take a few long,
Slow breaths,
Allowing yourself to feel present where you are.
If it's comfortable to do so,
Close your eyes.
You can always leave them softly open,
But for most people,
Visualizing will require closing the eyes.
Sometimes visualization doesn't come naturally or easily,
In which case you can simply repeat the words,
The colors,
The shapes mentally.
We'll begin by withdrawing the senses.
So bringing your attention to your big toes.
Picture a point of light,
One in each big toe.
Your points of light might be white or golden in color.
Imagine moving your points of light from your big toes to the arches of your feet.
We're not moving the body,
Just moving the mind,
The awareness through the body.
Take your points of light into your ankle joints.
You can even imagine the joint is illuminated from within.
Move your two points of light from your ankles into your calf muscles,
The belly of your calves.
From there,
See the lights travel to your knee joints,
Lighting up the knee joints from within.
Move the points of light all the way up to your sitting bones.
Now bringing the two points of light together into a single point of light at the very base of your spine,
The tip of your tailbone.
Allow your mind to rest into this space at the tailbone known as Muladhara chakra.
And picture there a yellow square.
This is your Yantra at Muladhara,
Imagining,
Visualizing a yellow square at the base of your spine.
Let it come to you however it comes to you.
Even if your attention wanders,
Come back to this yellow square at the base of your spine.
Give the yellow square there,
Return to your point of light and move the point of light a little higher in your spine into the fused vertebrae of your sacrum.
Bring your awareness to rest here in your sacrum,
The nerve plexus or region known as Svarasthana chakra.
Picture here in the sacral region,
A milky white crescent moon.
Again it can come to you in whatever orientation you like.
Usually it comes shaped up like a cup,
But investigate for yourself,
Be curious and then settle in to observing this milky white crescent moon in your sacrum at Svarasthana chakra.
Leaving your crescent moon shape there,
Like an echo,
Return to your point of light and move your point of light higher up your spine again,
Bringing it to rest behind your navel,
The level of your belly button.
Keeping your awareness here in the mid to lower back,
We find ourselves in Manapura chakra.
The yantra here is a red triangle.
See how it comes to you,
The apex may point down or may point up.
Go with what feels most natural and comfortable.
And then try resting your attention on this red triangle behind your navel at Manapura chakra.
Let your red triangle rest there.
Now you may sense an echo of a yellow square at the base of your spine in Muladhara,
A white crescent moon in your sacral region at Svarasthana and a red triangle behind your navel at Manapura.
Leave those images however they are,
Return to your point of light and move it higher up your spine.
This time coming to rest between your shoulder blades about the level of your physical heart.
As we enter the atmosphere of the chakra known as Anahata or the heart space.
Here at Anahata,
The yantra is a soft green coloured circle,
Sometimes described as a cabbage leaf green.
Feel into that green circle as you rest your awareness at Anahata chakra.
Leaving your soft green circle there,
Return to your point of light and watch it travel higher up your spine again.
Coming to rest in the curve of your neck behind your throat.
Here we find ourselves in Vishuddha chakra,
The throat chakra.
The yantra here is all the colours you can imagine,
The colours of the rainbow swirling shapeless limitless.
There's a sense of movement and vitality here.
I often imagine it like a big lollipop swirling.
Find that image for yourself however it comes to you and rest your awareness in Vishuddha chakra.
Letting go of your mind.
Leaving your multicoloured swirling space.
Return to your point of light and picture it moving up to the very top of your spine right into the centre of your head where it illuminates the contents of your skull.
Now we are beyond the elements,
Beyond shapes and colours.
Feeling pure light,
White or golden in the centre of your head.
We are in Agnya chakra.
Returning to a sense of a single point of light.
Imagine that point of light is in the centre of your head behind the eyebrow centre.
Picture your point of light moving forward to the eyebrow centre and then popping out to the front of your body where it lands in the heart space and melts,
Dissolves,
Expands.
Imagine that light spreading throughout all the cells of your body.
And with an awareness of heart space at the front or the back of the body,
Beginning to cultivate a sense of breathing from the heart space.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Breathing out.
Breathing out.
Breathing out.
Beginning now to feel the edges of your body,
To notice where you end and the world begins.
Observe the sensations in your body,
Leaving any echoes of the colours and shapes of the yantras of the chakras behind.
This chakra shuddhi meditation is designed and thought to clarify and balance the chakras.
Now we return to a sense of being grounded in our bodies in the present moment.
As you feel ready to,
You might choose to take some deeper breaths.
Using the sensations of the breath.
And then as you feel to bringing some gentle movement to your body,
Perhaps wriggling fingers,
Wriggling toes,
Slowly blinking your eyes and having a stretch out,
Maybe a yawn or a sigh.
Take your time returning to the world around you as we complete our practice of chakra shuddhi meditation.
