The Tantric Yoga Chakra System
The Tantric Yoga Chakra System is a model that helps us understand ourselves on all levels of our being. It divides us into seven layers, known as chakras. Each layer relates to one of our basic human instincts or qualities, as follows:-
The Root Chakra contains our instinct for survival. It is about money, and taking care of survival needs.
The Sacral Chakra contains our sexual energies. It manifests as passion, desire and the urge to reproduce.
The Solar Plexus Chakra carries our sense of personal power. It enables you to assert yourself, and express what you want.
The Heart Chakra contains our heart energies. It is about connection, sharing, forgiveness, trust and love.
The Throat Chakra is the channel of self-expression. It is about speaking our truth, and being creative.
The Third-eye Chakra contains our potential for wisdom, insight, and clarity of understanding. It allows us to see beyond the purely physical realm.
The Crown Chakra is our connection to dimensions beyond space and time. It opens us to that which is transcendental to earthly life.
The system includes the three levels of our nature:-
the animal instincts of survival and sexuality at the first two chakras
the human level of personal power, love and creativity at the third, fourth and fifth
the divine aspects at the sixth and seventh.
As a model, it is both comprehensive and non-judgmental. It recognizes our animal nature without condemning it. It also recognizes our humanity and spiritual potential.
Chakras and Relationships
The Tantric Yoga chakra system shows how the quality of our relationships depends on our internal energy pattern. In intimate relationships, we relate from various energy centers. We may wish to relate in an openhearted, loving way, yet find ourselves being insecure or controlling or unloving in some way. When it comes to actual behavior, our energy pattern will always override our wishful thinking. If we want to truly relate in an openhearted way, we have to understand how our energy pattern currently operates, and how we can transform it.
Most of our energies are caught up at the first three chakras. These are the energies of survival, sexuality and power. The energies of these chakras are primarily self-centred. They are concerned with my needs and desires and wants. When we relate from these chakras, the other person becomes someone we want to be there for us. At the same time, they will be relating to us in a similar way. Inevitably, a battle of wills ensues, in which each person tries to get what they want from the other.
Only after we have understood and become at ease with these chakras, will our energy be free to rise up to, and awaken the heart. If we are anxious about money, or attached to sex in an obsessive way, or overly controlling and demanding – our energies remain stuck at the first three chakras. Little energy is available to relate from the heart, in spite of our best efforts to do so.
To break free of stuck energy patterns, we need to understand how the first three chakras operate in a natural way, and align our thoughts and behavior with that. To give up obsessing about money or sex or personal power, and be content to simply take care of our essential needs on these levels. Energy is then naturally available to awaken the heart, and love starts to become more of a reality in our lives.
The energy of love is all about sharing. The blockages and blind spots we carry in the first three chakras will prevent much of our energy from reaching to and opening the heart. This is one of the reasons our relationships turn out to be far more challenging than we expect. By following a mindful approach, it is possible to transform these primal energies, and move them upwards to awaken the heart.
The model of the chakras illustrates how this can be done. The seven chakras are linked by a central channel and two side-channels. Through this central channel, the energies of the lower chakras can flow upwards towards the higher centres. This is the unique potential that we have as humans. We can transform our primal energies of survival and sexuality into the higher states of love and consciousness.