Hello!
What do people mean for chakra opening? Is it analogous to awakening? And what about activating?
What are the symptoms of the three?
I suppose that the systems one follows might have different meanings to them… In that case, it is within a Kundalini Yoga system what i would like to be informed.
Thanks a lot
Pano
Dear Pano,
Your question is a broad one…a bit
complex for a quick answer here in these forums from me.
May I suggest reading a classic book, probably one of
the best intros to the subject:
[I]Wheels of Life: A User’s Guide to the Chakra System[/I], by Anodea Judith, Llewellyn Publications, 1987
(It’s about 500 pages!)
Best with Blessings,
Namaste,
Nancy
Namaste Pano,
Within the Kundalini sense we talk about awakening. Although it is not really an awakening, but rather a growing of awareness of the chakras and the results of this greater awareness of the chakras as they connect with each other through your growing awareness is what we term awakening.
I trust this makes sense to you and helps a little as this is such a vast subject.
There are two authors I would recommend reading. First is Anodea Judith, who was already mentioned by Nancy, but I would recommend her book Eastern Body, Western Mind. Another worthy read is Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss.
Thanks to both for the references!
So, could the followings be signs of an awakened chakra?
Thanks again.
[quote=panoramix;20840]Thanks to both for the references!
So, could the followings be signs of an awakened chakra?[/quote]
Your chakras are always “awakened”, they function like your heart and lungs, they are there and they do their job without you being even aware of it.
What you might experience is perhaps signs of kundalini awakening, this can be different for every person. Or it can relate to medicine you take or even food that you have eaten, you don’t tell us much about this. It is a know fact that even environmental factors such as high activity of sun spots on the sun can cause the same effects in sensitive humans.
Point I am trying to make, where is your teacher in this whole process, Pano to guide you and to reassure you? Over the internet we can only guess and I don’t like to guess when a person has questions about something as powerful as kundalini awakening, because the guidance you must receive from here on further from a teacher will determine many aspects of your awakening ahead.
I trust you understand this.
Pano,
“Opening, awakening, activating” are identical terms for describing one chakra coming into alignment with another, through which the force of kundalini, (ascending and descending), is connected and begins to flow. One might or might not be aware of this happening. It could come about in the natural course of one’s evolution and might be experienced as physical or emotional change, or through deliberate and sustained practice of yoga. Most often it is the former and is unintentional, simply because the level of mastery and awareness that are necessary to actually “cause” that alignment is achieved rarely, by a very few people. It can take many lifetimes. It is after all a coming together of “heaven and earth.” A blessed thing.
peace,
siva
[QUOTE=panoramix;20757]Hello!
What do people mean for chakra opening? Is it analogous to awakening? And what about activating?
Pano[/QUOTE]
It is said that one picture is worth many words.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8101989694941061600
Thank you all.
But i’m afraid i’m a lil bit more confused now… 
Pandara: I’m my own master. I’ve always followed books. Actually those of Yoga Publications Trust.
Personally, I’m really skeptical of the concept of chakras as sort of the organs of the subtle body. I believe they are really symbolic of real kinds of physical energies that we all experience every day. They represent the various kinds of desire in our bodies: hunger, thirst, sex, elimination, communication, love, knowledge.
Elimination, for example, is something that we must do. It’s not particularly pretty or pleasant, but is a condition of our existence. And there is a great deal of physical energy expended dealing with the problem of human waste disposal, that most people never think about. Similarly, there are lots of things in our lives that we don’t particularly want or like to do, but are required of us as a condition of our existence. When we are involved with those kinds of activities, we are working on the level of that particular chakra.
That’s my take on it. I know that there will be people who disagree with me. But this business of chakras, is it real knowledge or just a mental construct?
Being your own master will surround you with confusion frequently. With no guide you must explore in a solitary fashion. We can point out where we are going, but (especially in this medium, where you only see of us what we show you) you don’t know where we are so you don’t know if our stories pertain to yours.
We’ll do our best, but it might not be helpful. And hopefully it won’t be counterproductive for you.
he, he, Asuri – lots of yoga folks seem to be idealists. They’ll say the rock you just stubbed your toe on is a mental construct. But more than that, once you start talking about something that exists but two people can’t point at it and say it’s name, materialists (folks who figure if and only if you can stub your toe on ‘it’ then ‘it’ is real) say its just a mental construct. This is a dualism in Western thought that will continue to argue over all of human experience, so it would seem that the chakra system is fair game. But it grew up in a different culture. Just as two languages cannot always translate each other properly – even when it’s two people from different languages pointing at something and saying its name – two cultures can not always smoothly connect (even for a meaningful argument.)
And for the sake of acknowledging the point of view – folks on this forum have had experiences they might describe as stubbing their toe on a chakra: getting unexpected and unpleasant results from this existing thing they weren’t paying attention to.
Asuri, it is not expected from you to believe in anything. Practice, do what your teacher says, and in time, you will have first hand personal experience.
Just do not expect it to be easy. What you ask for, is actually the evidence of suprasensible, that there is more to the world, than our normal senses are capable to experience. And that is not a little thing to know, if you think of it.
If you really want it (because there is a subconscious fear in us regarding the spiritual reality), you will get there. It is not miraculous if one is guided well, and one steadily practices.
The true meaning of Kundalini is little understood. Ignorant teachers often associate kundalini with sex force and enshroud it in mistery to fright neophytes about the danger of awakening this sacred serpentine power. …
To think that this kundalini can be easily awakened or roused by accident is another fallacy. Awakening the kundalini force is exceedingly difficult and cannot be done accidentally. It takes years of concerted meditation under the guidance of a competent guru before one can dream of releasing the heavenly astral body from its bondage to physical confinement by awakening the kundalini. One who is able to awaken the kundalini fast approaches the state of Christhood.
The senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell are like five searchlights revealing matter. As the life energy pours outward through these sensory beams, man is attracted by beautiful faces or captivating sounds or enticing scents, flavors, and tactual sensations. It is natural; but what is natural to the body-consciousness is unnatural to the soul. But when this divine life energy is withdrawn from the autocratic senses, through the spinal path into the spiritual center of infinite perception in the brain, then the searchlight of astral energy is cast onto the boundlessness of eternity to reveal the universal Spirit.
Yogananda-The Second Coming of Christ
Well its not too difficult.
When a chakra opens, it activates. Same thing. That means that energy or prana is going to that chakra.
I am an energy worker, so I can feel which chakras are active in a person. I use my hand to feel the energy in the chakras. Usually the area over an active chakra is hoter. But there is also tingling in the area like a low voltage current. Usually there is a build up of ether (yes ether the element) too, that can be felt with the hands.
How can you be your own master if you follow books? 
Ok, i wanted to say that i trust and follow my inner guru…
Then i understand that “opening the chakra” is a broad term, it implicates various aspects related to the activity of the chakra, either pranic or spiritual.
[QUOTE=Techne;20897]he, he, Asuri – lots of yoga folks seem to be idealists. They’ll say the rock you just stubbed your toe on is a mental construct. But more than that, once you start talking about something that exists but two people can’t point at it and say it’s name, materialists (folks who figure if and only if you can stub your toe on ‘it’ then ‘it’ is real) say its just a mental construct. [/QUOTE]
I am a bit of a materialist. If something has objective reality, any two people should be able to agree on its form, color, smell, texture, etc. We all know what we mean when we talk about thoughts or emotions. Even though they aren’t physical, they are common experience. I’m always suspicious when someone tells me he is able to perceive something that I cannot.
The Samkhya philosophy, which is one of the oldest and most influential of Indian philosophies, talks extensively about the subtle body, but doesn’t mention chakras at all. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, which some consider a Samkhya document, makes only one or two vague references. So its questionable whether the concept of chakras was really a part of classical yoga. The Upanishads, though, make frequent reference to the chakras. So I think its fair to say that the concept of chakras belongs more to the Vedic religion than to Yoga.
[QUOTE=Hubert;20899]… What you ask for, is actually the evidence of suprasensible, that there is more to the world, than our normal senses are capable to experience. And that is not a little thing to know, if you think of it.
[/QUOTE]
This is true. I’m reminded of a Samkhya aphorism - Just because the blind cannot see, does not mean that others cannot also see. So I will reserve judgement for now.
[quote=oak333;20900]
To think that this kundalini can be easily awakened or roused by accident is another fallacy. Awakening the kundalini force is exceedingly difficult and cannot be done accidentally. It takes years of concerted meditation under the guidance of a competent guru before one can dream of releasing the heavenly astral body from its bondage to physical confinement by awakening the kundalini. One who is able to awaken the kundalini fast approaches the state of Christhood.
Yogananda-The Second Coming of Christ[/quote]
Without context, this demands personal faith in his words, which turns lot of people off, and understandably loses them. I think it’s important to understand here that not all realized yogis are in a position to, or want to, write a book. It’s not what qualifies knowledge in yoga. So although this is “classic,” it is also his own personal style of administering yoga awareness, which is what a teacher does, classic or not, authoring a book or not. This is no disrespect to Yogananda or any classic yogi (although he is not, born 1893, died 1952).
What Yogananda refers to here is full-blown, sushumnal awakening that one continues with deliberate control. No disputing this is not an accident and indeed needs guidance. Yet kundalini is a part of animal nature, as it is a part of our own and operates partially in either ida or pingala as soon as they form in the whom, obviously without awareness. So long as there is no conflict in its alternating freely within the body, it contributes to all bodily functions, locomotion, breath, elimination, etc.
Chakra means “wheel.” They are the pivotal points in the body around which mass and energy revolve to produce these functions. They are “subtle,” and so are their relative motions, but only because they do not correspond precisely to physical anatomy, or to voluntary control, yet they have a “geography,” a structure. They are dynamic and somewhat free-floating within their general regions, until one has the strength and control to bring them into conjunction and keep them there. That’s what you won’t do by accident. That alignment extends to the world outside of us, and is no longer confined within the physical body, not unlike being connected to your mother through the whom.
Ansuri,
What you say here revolves around itself, and is your karma. In your own words you describe here not what you “cannot” perceive, but why you “will not.” Until you can accept the contrary, you have yet to find your true teacher. It’s is a doorway through which you can look forward. I mean no disrespect here, but encourage you to keep looking.
peace, brothers & sisters,
siva
Hmmmm…
Chakra means “wheel.” They are the pivotal points in the body around which mass and energy revolve to produce these functions.
It seems like you are saying that the chakra is not the whole wheel, but the hub, and that mass and energy constitute the rest of the wheel, and revolving around the hub, they produce bodily functions? Hmmm…
They are “subtle,” and so are their relative motions, but only because they do not correspond precisely to physical anatomy, or to voluntary control, yet they have a “geography,” a structure.
So you’re saying that chakras don’t correspond exactly to physical anatomy, but you just said they were involved in producing bodily functions. You’re saying that the chakras move relative to each other? Is this an up and down or side to side motion or what?
They are dynamic and somewhat free-floating within their general regions, until one has the strength and control to bring them into conjunction and keep them there.
But didn’t you say that they do not correspond to physical anatomy or voluntary control? If we cannot control them voluntarily, how can we bring them into “conjunction”? What do you mean by “conjunction”?
That’s what you won’t do by accident. That alignment extends to the world outside of us, and is no longer confined within the physical body, not unlike being connected to your mother through the whom.
So are you disputing Yogananda’s method and saying that the correct method is to bring the chakras into alignment? But you’re saying that the alignment extends into the outside world, where Yogananda is talking about the spiritual world. Personally I’ve had some success using Yogananda’s method, i.e. pratyahara.