The center of fire and of longing for the outer world: the vrttis of the mańipura cakra (attachment, fear, shame, envy, irritability) and how diet, fasting, ásanas and meditation strengthen it.
- Main characteristic: fire
- Animal symbol: the goat (adventurousness and a love of adventure)
- Factor: luminous
- Glands: pancreas, adrenals
The mańipura A center of psychic energy in the body; seven major ones lie along the spine. represents the highest expression of artha vrtti, or psycho-physical longing. Here a person's extroverted tendency reaches its peak: a fascination with the outer world, which becomes for them a city of treasures. This is the center in which a person feels ambition, desire, a thirst for material objects. But compared with the svádhiśt́hána cakra, this is a considerable step up in evolution. When a person lives by the tendencies of the mańipura cakra and their energy is expressed through it, they are fully reasonable: you can talk with them, come to agreements, they understand a lot, because their intellect is developed enough.
Description
In the body the mańipura cakra controls the element of fire. A person in whom this center is developed tolerates cold and heat well. The digestive system is also under the control of the mańipura cakra.
The animal symbol of this center is the goat with its adventurous nature. The emotions represented in the mańipura cakra correspond to the level of warm-blooded animals. On this level a person does not yet feel love, but already feels attachment. In our society most people are at the level of svádhiśt́hána and mańipura; individuals with the tendencies of the anáhata cakra are rarely met, and those with the qualities of vishuddha even more rarely.
Civilization is driven by people of the mańipura cakra. If a society lives at the level of the svádhiśt́hána cakra, it is a gathering of savages: anything goes, nothing is shameful. At the level of the mańipura cakra a person cannot fully grasp prohibitions, but at least they fear outside judgment and behave decently. This is how the human personality develops, moving away from things that corrupt the mind. Society creates certain boundaries, and people keep to them out of shame and fear.
With the tendencies of the mańipura cakra, civilization flourishes: art and the culture of relationships thrive. The next stage in the development of society, one in which the anáhata cakra would dominate, is still unknown to humanity, but as the number of people who do regular spiritual practice grows, the moment of its arrival draws closer.
The emotions of the mańipura cakra
Attachment (moha) is one of the main properties of the mańipura cakra. It becomes a heavy burden when a person moves on to the next level and the capacity to love awakens in them. An attachment, once formed, programs a person for pain. It may be something minor, when you cannot imagine life without some thing. A more serious matter is blind attachment to a person. Most often it is a fixation on an imagined image, and if the person stops matching it, such "love" quickly disappears. Unlike the pure, uplifting, inspiring feeling of love, attachment brings pain and suffering.
Working with the mańipura cakra is very important in order to stay, after all, on the level of love. We need to understand that attachment is selfish by nature, while love is its complete opposite: it gives.
Attachment loosens its grip when a person begins to serve, to care that the one they love is well.
In essence, one and the same emotion has its own face in different cakras. Everything is interconnected: when one emotion is strong, others join in. If there is a lot of energy in the mańipura cakra, we see that all the emotions become strong.
The emotion that flows from attachment is fear (bhaya): fear of the unknown, fear of losing the object of one's attachment. And the fewer attachments a person has, the less they fear.
Another property of attachment is thirst, the desire to acquire and possess; it is called trśńá. Advertising, for example, works on this basis: the more often a person comes into contact with an object, the stronger the bond with it becomes, the attachment grows, and the thirst to possess appears. This leads to greater suffering.
The Buddha said: "Get rid of desires, and you will get rid of suffering."
Out of attachment grow aversion and hatred (ghrńá). So a person is more likely to feel these emotions toward those close to them than toward people far away in Africa. It is much easier to accept and love people we hardly know than, say, a husband who behaves badly. A person's level of spirituality shows itself in close relationships.
Shame (lajjá) is another emotion represented in the mańipura cakra. This feeling makes you hot and makes your face turn red. This is how an imbalance of the mańipura cakra shows itself, since it is connected with the fire of our body. On the one hand it is a positive emotion, because shame keeps us from antisocial acts. But for the next stage of development it is an obstacle, because conscience appears in the anáhata cakra. Shame binds our actions. A person will feel inwardly how to act rightly, but shame will keep them from acting according to conscience. "What will people say about me?" they will think, even if what they want to do is the right thing.
In the mańipura cakra the wish to harm others (pishunatá) appears. Compared with the svádhiśt́hána cakra, where a person is an opportunist who takes no proper action against injustice, pishunatá carries the principle that punishment is inevitable. This emotion was important for the development of humanity: without retribution human life would be worth nothing. But all the same, compared with the anáhata cakra, pishunatá is something very defective. It is there inside everyone; you only need to look closely. When someone says, "Yes, you did wrong, but God sees everything!" or "The earth is round, you'll come rolling back my way!", in veiled language they are saying, "Things will go badly for you, and then my day will come." Barbaric outer force must be controlled by civilized force, but inwardly, too, a person should not want to cause harm. This contradicts the principle of ahiḿsá.
Envy (iirśá) is characteristic of the mańipura cakra. Compared with the svádhiśt́hána cakra it is a positive quality, because when a person envies, they want to be first. Here it is no longer a meaningless existence aimed at moment-to-moment pleasures. But the high emotions of the anáhata cakra, such as warmth of heart, love and openness, cannot be reached in the mańipura cakra because of envy and rivalry.
The next property of the mańipura cakra is irritability (kaśáya). This property gives rise to stress, which destroys a person from within. Not knowing how to manage one's mańipura cakra leads to various illnesses.
There are two more A mental tendency or propensity, such as fear, longing or love; fifty are described in all. that indicate a lack of energy in the mańipura cakra: melancholy (viśáda) and inertia, laziness (suśupti). If disappointment with life and the seeming meaninglessness of existence lead a person to spiritual search, that is a positive expression of melancholy. The problem is that this state completely drains one's strength: "Why, what's the point? What's the point of going anywhere, what's the point of competing with anyone, what's the point of achieving anything?" A person under the influence of these vrttis goes nowhere and achieves nothing.
Such is the character of the mańipura cakra: spiteful, competitive, irritable, hurting other people, feeling strong attachments. At the level of the mańipura and svádhiśt́hána cakras a great deal of strength and energy is spent, and the main psychological problems are connected with them.
Once you master these two cakras, you already become an exceptional person. The qualities of animals are concentrated in the lower centers, and so it is better not to descend below the anáhata cakra. The first phase of spiritual practice is mainly about precisely this: the struggle to subdue and control these lower centers. We were born in a human body, and we need to be worthy of it.
How to strengthen the mańipura cakra
Proper diet
Do not eat the food typical of the svádhiśt́hána cakra, which stimulates crude energy. Give up meat, fish, eggs, onions, garlic, mushrooms, alcohol and tobacco. Also try to avoid food that stimulates the energy of the mańipura cakra: coffee, tea, fizzy drinks.
Physical exercise and sport
Sport burns off adrenaline, calming and balancing a person's state
Fasting
Fast twice a month (or even four times); it cleanses the digestive system and gives it a rest. A dry fast (without food or water) is recommended. If your health does not allow it, drink water. If even that is not possible, spend the day on juices; if juices are not possible, eat fruit. And if even that is not possible, remove grains and pulses from your diet for the day.
Relaxation
To strengthen the mańipura cakra you need to practice deep relaxation from the tips of the toes to the crown of the head. Relaxation makes the brain release not stress hormones but, on the contrary, relaxing ones. Here it is important not to overdo it, because a person needs a certain amount of stress as a source of motivation and stimulation.
Hardening
The mańipura cakra is responsible for fire, and the practice of hardening the body to cold supports it.
A yoga posture held steadily and comfortably; it balances the glands and quiets body and mind for meditation.
- mayúrásana, the peacock posture;
- cakrásana, the wheel posture;
- dhanurásana, the boat posture;
- karmásana, the action posture;
- padahastásana, the "hands to feet" posture;
- utkat́a pashcimottánásana, the "head to feet" posture;
- matsyendrásana, the twist;
In addition, agnisára mudrá, the gesture of fire, has a beneficial effect on the mańipura cakra. Upaviśt́a uddayana mudrá (done sitting) or uddayana mudrá (done standing) can also be added to this list. These exercises massage the organs of the digestive system and restore circulation. They act on the glands located in the area of the mańipura cakra.
And yet the most important thing in strengthening any cakra is meditation. But meditation on the cakras is given only as a personal lesson. In any case, meditation is the most powerful tool for raising life to a higher level.