Entering the Mandala – A Chitananda Tantra Meditation Retreat

Meditation and visualization exercises are probably amongst some of the most useful and powerful techniques in use. I’ve found these meditation and visualization practices quite interesting, especially in terms of the “feeling in” aspect of them. If you’re agnostic or show a chronic allergy towards religions, simply overread the “uneasy” terms. Have fun with it 😉

Here’s the link:

http://tomkenyon.com/entering-the-mandala-a-chitananda-tantra-meditation-retreat

The Truth About Chakras

According to the Yogic literature and in this case Donald Tyson, author of Sexual Alchemy, all of that caressing of the regions around Mooladhara (genital areas) could be seen as “symptoms of awakening”.

The word chakra means wheel. In the esoteric systems of Hindus and Buddhists, the chakras are power centers within the human body that can be activated by specific exercises. Usually there are said to be seven chakras, but in traditional Hindu philosophy there are really only six — what is regarded as the seventh chakra in Western occultism is outside the body, and is different in nature from the lower six.
The lowest chakra is called the muladhara. It is located in the perineum, between the anus and the root of the penis in men, and between the anus and the opening of the vagina in women. Sometimes is it said to lie at the base of the spine, but this is an error. It lies in the fleshy tissues some two inches from the end of the tailbone.
The second chakra is called the swadhisthana, and is located just above the root of the genitals in men in the region of the bladder.
The third chakra is called the manipuraka, or alternatively the manipura, and is located just above the navel.
The fourth chakra is called the anahata, and is located in the muscles of the heart.
The fifth chakra is called the vishuddha, and is located in the pit of the throat.
The sixth chakra is called the ajna, and is located just above the nose between the eyebrows.
The seventh chakra, really not a chakra at all, is called the sahasrara, and is located just above the middle of the top of the skull. Its name means thousand-petaled lotus. The sahasrara is often represented as a flower with countless petals that lies spread out over the top of the skull.

It is important to understand that the chakras are not parts of the human body. They are esoteric centers of power that come into existence when they are pierced by the ascending of kundalini shakti, which is both an energy and a goddess. Once activated, the chakras are like beads on a vertical string, or flowers on a central stem, called the shushumna, which is described in Eastern occult texts as a hollow tube. Inside this tube is a narrower tube called the vajrini nadi (nadi means channel), and inside this a still finer tube called the chitrini nadi. Once the power of kundalini ceases to flow up the shushumna, the chakras cease to exist.
The sahasrara is accessed through a tiny pinhole in the top of the skull that is deliberately opened by yogis during intense meditation — no instrument is used to make this opening. The opening of this pinhole is marked by the presiding guru by the insertion of a single blade of grass into the hole, which aches and bleeds slightly at the time of its opening. This physical penetration of the skin over the skull is not necessary for the passage of kundalini to the sahasrara, but it is used to confirm to the guru that the chela (student) has unblocked this aperture. After this practice, the skin is permitted to heal.
From personal experience I can attest that the top of the skull tingles and pricks strongly in a very small radius — no more than the diameter of a pencil — when kundalini is awakened and made to ascend through the body. The sensation is that of being gently pricked with a needle on the top of the head. It is rarely very painful. This happens even when bleeding does not ensue.
The union of kundalini with the thousand-petaled lotus confers bliss that is both physical and spiritual. The sensation is sustained, constant, powerful without being harsh, and may be likened to an orgasm that is not localized in the genitals, and is extremely subtle and refined.

Kundalini is sometimes describes as a serpent that lies sleeping below the muladhara chakra, her body coiled in three and one-half turns around the base of the spine.

Kundalini is awakened by postures that stimulate the muladhara, primarily a sitting posture in which one of the heels is pressed against the perineum. In conjunction with this posture, breathing exercises in which the breath is held and compressed into the lower abdomen are used while the anus is rhythmically contracted. This causes a sheen of sweat over the entire surface of the body. Also used to awaken kundalini is a technique known as pore breathing, during which the vital energy of the air is visualized to enter the body through the pores of the skin, and internal chanting of a mantra (word or phrase that embodies occult power). The visualization of power symbols such as yantras is also often used.
Most important of all in awakening kundalini is a technique that is almost never openly described. It involves the contemplation with love and desire of one of the primary forms of Shakti, the Mother Goddess who represents for the Hindus all manifest things and all energies. The word shakti literally means power. It is through the grace and love of Shakti that kundalini is awakened and made to ascend.
Before this grace and love can be attained the practitioner must establish a close personal relationship with Shakti. This is done through repeated visualization of that particular form of the Goddess that has been decided upon, through prayers to the Goddess, through offerings and sacrifices to the Goddess, through contemplation of the qualities and virtues of the Goddess, through active inner communication with the Goddess, through visualization of interaction and union with the Goddess, and by filling the place of ritual communion with the Goddess with scents, symbols, forms, colors, objects, sounds, music, tastes, and textures that are in harmony with the nature of the aspect of Shakti that is being contemplated.

The awakening of kundalini is indicated by spontaneous excitation and tumescence of the genitals. In men this means strong, spontaneous erection of the penis without any erotic thoughts or imagery in the mind, and without any physical stimulation of the penis. This is accompanied by the sensation of being touched or caressed on the surface of the skin.
The muladhara chakra forms a hardness at the perineum. During the period of contemplation and communion with the chosen aspect of Shakti, the penis will rise and fall rhythmically, remaining erect for periods of ten minutes or so, then becoming flaccid for several minutes, then rising again. This goes on for hours at a time — for as long as the communion with the Goddess is maintained. In women, the external genitals become inflamed and moist, and the clitoris erect. There is a copious flow of sexual fluids in both men and women.
If, during this period, the mind is directed away from the Goddess and toward the inflamed genitals, or if the physical state of tumescence causes erotic thoughts to enter the mind, tumescence ceases almost immediately. For example, the penis can be strongly erect even to the point of discomfort, yet if the mind is allowed to wander from the Goddess, erection can completely vanish within the space of five or ten seconds.
In recent times there has been an attempt to identify the chakra with nerve centers in the human body. For this reason the chakras are often said to be arrayed along the spinal column. This is incorrect, as anyone who has actually felt the chakras will testify. They are felt near the front of the body, not on the surface of the body but closer to the front than to the back.

Each chakra has its own unique sensation. It is possible that these sensations vary in their fine details from person to person, but their general quality is probably a shared experience.
As I said above, the muladhara exists as a hard knot in the perineum. It can be uncomfortable at times, when the muladhara is intensely active. The sensation is similar to having a stone the size of a ping-pong ball lying under the skin just in front of the anus.
The swadhisthana and manipura are, in my experience, somewhat similar — they feel like a sucking or sinking pit in the flesh, almost as though an invisible hand is being pressed down inside the flesh at their locations. This is not painful. At least, I have not found it painful, but I should mention that some practitioners experience discomfort.
The anahata chakra is experienced as a contraction and irregularity of the heart. It is often accompanied by a remarkably pleasant sensation of sinking of floating. There is a distinct sense that the physical heart is being touched or caressed by some sort of spiritual hand. When this first happens, it can be somewhat alarming, since we are not usually accustomed to sensation and irregularity in the muscles of our heart. It causes no ill-effects whatsoever.
The vishuddha chakra shows itself as a tightness, and for me, a dryness and tickling sensation, in the pit of the throat.
The ajna chakra has a very curious feeling of invisible pressure between the eyes, as though pressure were being applied by an invisible finger between the eyebrows just under the skin. This might also be described as a sucking or drawing sensation, as though the pressure is being exerted from within outward.
The access to the sahasrara is signalled by a tickling and pricking in the exact center of the top of the skull. This area of sensation is so small, it may easily be covered by the tip of the index finger. In my own experience, I have often felt a coolness in the right hemisphere of my brain, a feeling as though cool water were being poured over the actual tissues of the brain itself. The opening of the sahasrara is indicated in a sensory way by a delicious, sustained and very even flow of bliss or ecstasy that, for me, usually lasts only for several minutes.

There are other minor physiological effects that accompany the arousal of kundalini and the opening or piercing of the chakras. These include feelings of coolness or heat over large areas of the body, localized pricking sensations that often occur in the fingers and toes, ringing or buzzing sounds in the ears that seem to be caused by temporary changes of blood pressure, intense flashes of white light similar to the popping of a camera flash — these are seen with eyes open or shut — as well as spontaneous trembling, twitching and jerking of various muscles of the body such as the thighs, abdominal muscles, or facial muscles, sensations of floating or sinking, feelings of touching or weight upon different parts of the body, excitation of the nerves similar to that caused by too much caffeine, lethargy or lassitude, and physical pleasure that is widely distributed through the body. This last is not as intense as the bliss of the sahasrara.
It is a false belief that kundalini is very difficult to awaken. It only requires sincere and regular practice of the correct exercises, both physical and mental. These must be done daily for several hours. It also requires the formation of a genuine personal relationship with the Goddess. Once initially awakened, kundalini may easily be aroused thereafter in a matter of minutes, or even moments.

Various siddhis or occult powers are traditionally associated with the chakras. These must be examined with a certain degree of skepticism, since it was often the practice of occult writers in ancient times to make wildly exaggerated specific claims about the powers conferred by the techniques they wrote about, in order to lend their writings greater weight and importance in the minds of their readers.

In my own experience, I have noted an increase in the precision of my intuition regarding other persons, the circumstances surrounding my life, and future events. My mind is clearer and more penetrating, particularly when I examine or write about esoteric subjects. There are other more subtle benefits, such as the ability to direct spiritual beings to accomplish general and specific material effects useful to my life and my studies, but I must refrain from writing of these things in detail.
I should mention that what you have read here will not be found elsewhere in this detailed and specific form. Those who usually write about the chakras have no firsthand knowledge of them, and those with an intimate firsthand knowledge usually consider them too dangerous and powerful, and also too sacred, to write about openly. Gurus especially conceal the techniques for establishing an intimate and personal relationship with the Goddess, which seems in my experience essential in awakening kundalini. What I have written is based on my own experiments — other practitioners of kundalini yoga may have experienced the chakras somewhat differently.
It is repeated endlessly in traditional Eastern texts that the oversight of a guru is essential to the awakening of kundalini and the piercing of the chakras. Evidently this is untrue, since I have never had a teacher, other than the ancient sages who wrote the Tantric texts that I have studied. I should qualify this remark by saying that I have never had a living, corporeal teacher. I have been guided in my practices by spiritual intelligences. Perhaps in this sense I have a guru, or gurus, but my teachers lack physical bodies.