We experience the world we live in through our senses.
We’ve all learned to trust our senses in what we we can taste, smell, touch, see and hear, but these sense perceptions can limit us and stunt our spiritual growth. Everyone has heard of the sixth sense; our intuition, our ability to tap into a deeper sense perception, but how can we learn to trust this too? This is what the Anja Chakra or the Third Eye Chakra is all about.
The symbolism of the Third Eye Chakra is acquiring wisdom beyond our perceptions, so we can see beyond what is illusion. It is witnessing a freedom beyond the realms of what can hold us back; stereotypes, for example, traditions, conventions, rules and regulations and powerful conditions of worth placed upon us by our parents. We can break out and realise ultimately nothing can hold us back – it is only the mind that has power over us and if we can control the mind, we can then transcend any limitations.
When I think of this, I am reminded of Victor Frankl and his book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’. A holocaust survivor, Victor Frankl believed that in the most unbearable conditions, one can survive through one’s spiritual self. He noted that animals have instincts to guide them but that we have replaced instincts with social traditions, finding guidance in conformity and conventionality, but overlooking the freedom and the responsibility to make our own choices in life and to find our own meaning.
Connection with the Third Eye Chakra helps us to see beyond what is deemed the ‘norm’ and beyond the mind and all its desires, longings, worries, fears and judgments. We then enter into the realms of knowledge, wisdom, and intuition. The Ajna Chakra is the seat of emotional intelligence and the sixth sense that regulates the five lower chakras. When Ajna Chakra is open and balanced we feel inspired and creative and are able to see intuitively.
When I was a young person, I looked to other people for guidance and advice. I sought opinions when I needed to make decisions and asked whether my thinking was sound or if I ought to choose a different way. Sometimes, I asked what I should do. I often followed other people in what they did, in all different facets of life; in career choices, in what I wore, what food I ate, in how I conducted myself in social situations and what lifestyle choices I made. As I grew older, this changed as I learnt to pay attention to my inner guide, but I still fell into the trap of social conditioning and in many situations, I didn’t follow my instincts. This only caused further trauma and difficulties in my life; damaging relationships with men, unrewarding job choices, an unhealthy lifestyle. I was suffering, but only because I wasn’t awakened to the life force within me; the ability to ‘see’ with my third eye.
Thankfully, I have left all this behind, but it wasn’t until I fully embraced yoga as a mind, body, soul practice that I realised developing the third eye is the doorway to moving beyond the physical world to a unified whole with an unyielding connection to spirit.
In my yoga practice, working with the third eye chakra can realize the following benefits:
- mental clarity
- improved concentration
- clear self-expression
- strengthened intuition
- a sense of bliss
- decisiveness
- insight
I have one more chakra to write about, the seventh chakra, or crown chaka, known as Sahasrara or Thousand Petals. This is where there is no intellectual knowing but only serenity, joy, and deep peace.
LIHazleton.
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