The Physical Body
Begin from the physical. Then every other step opens for you. The moment you work on the first body, you have glimpses of the second. So begin from the physical. Be aware of it moment to moment.
And not only outwardly aware. You can become aware of your body from the inside also. I can become aware of my hand as I have seen it from the outside, but there is an inner feeling to it too. When I close my eyes the hand is not seen, but there is still an inner feeling of something being there. So do not be aware of your body as seen from the outside. This cannot lead you inward. The inner feeling is quite different.
So the feeling of the body from within is the first step.- In different situations the body will feel different from within. When you are in love, you have a particular inner feeling; when you experience hate, the inner feeling is different. When you are feeling lazy, there is a difference from when you are feeling active. When you are sleepy, there is a difference. These differences must be distinctly known. Only then do you become acquainted with the inner life of your body. Then you know the inner history, the inner geography of yourself in childhood, in youth, in old age.
The Muladhara Chakra
First, and the most basic, is muladhar - that's why it is called muladhar: muladhar means the most fundamental, the basic. Mul means the basic, of the roots. The muladhar chakra is the centre where sex energy is right now available, but the society has damaged that chakra very much.
Sex has been condemned so much, you cannot enjoy it. And that's why energy remains fixated somewhere: oral, anal, genital. It cannot go upwards.
Tantra says man has to be relieved, destructured from these three things. So Tantra says that the first great work has to happen in the muladhar. For oral freedom: screaming, laughing, shouting, crying, weeping, is very helpful. That's why my choice of encounter, gestalt, primal and that type of groups - they are all helpful to relieve the oral fixation. And to relieve you of the anal fixation, pranayam, bastrika -fast chaotic breathing - is very helpful, because it hits directly on the anal centre and makes you able to relieve and relax the anal mechanism. Hence the dynamic meditation is of tremendous value.
And then the sex centre: the sex centre has to be relieved of the burden of guilt, condemnation. You have to start relearning about it; only then can the damaged sex centre function in a healthy way. You have to start relearning to enjoy it - without any guilt.
The muladhar chakra has to be relaxed- relaxed from constipation, relaxed from diarrhoea. The muladhar chakra has to function at the optimum, one hundred percent, then energy starts moving.
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As there are seven bodies, so there are also seven chakras, energy centres, and each chakra is connected in a special way with its corresponding body. The chakra of the physical body is the muladhar. This is the first chakra and it has an integral connection with the physical body. The muladhar chakra has two possibilities. Its first potentiality is a natural one that is given to us with birth; its other possibility is obtainable by meditation.
The basic natural possibility of this chakra is the sex urge of the physical body. The very first question that arises in the mind of the seeker is what to do in regard to this central principle. Now there is another possibility of this chakra, and that is brahmacharya, celibacy, which is attainable through meditation. Sex is the natural possibility and brahmacharya is its transformation. The more the mind is focused upon and gripped by sexual desire, the more difficult it will be to reach its ultimate potential of brahmacharya.
Now this means that we can utilise the situation given to us by nature in two ways. We can live in the condition that nature has placed us in - but then the process of spiritual growth cannot begin or we transform this state. The only danger in the path of transformation is that there is the possibility that we may begin to fight with our natural centre. What is the real danger in the path of a seeker? The first obstacle is that if the meditator indulges only in nature's order of things he cannot rise to the ultimate possibility of his physical body and he stagnates at the starting point. On the one hand there is a need; on the other hand there is a suppression which causes the meditator to fight the sex urge. Suppression is an obstacle on the path of meditation. This is the obstacle of the first chakra. Transformation cannot come about with suppression.
If suppression is an obstruction, what is the solution? Understanding will then solve the matter. Transformation takes place within as you begin to understand sex. There is a reason for this. All elements of nature lie blind and unconscious within us. If we become conscious of them, transformation begins. Awareness is the alchemy; awareness is the alchemy of changing them, of transforming them. If a person becomes awake toward his sexual desires with his total feelings and his total understanding, then brahmacharya will begin to take birth within him in place of sex. Unless a person reaches brahmacharya in his first body it is difficult to work on the potentiality of other centres.
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