## Metadata - Author: [[Anodea Judith]] - Full Title: Eastern Body, Western Mind - Category: #books ## Highlights - The word chakra literally means “ ([Location 299](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=299)) - We can use this analogy and think of chakras as floppy disks that contain vital programs. We have a survival program that tells us when we need to eat, how many hours to sleep, and when to put on a sweater. It contains details such as how much money we think we need, what we are willing to do for that money, what constitutes a threat to our survival, and what makes us feel secure. Likewise, we have programs for sexuality, power, love, and communication. In this analogy, the seventh chakra can be thought of as the operating system. It represents how we organize and interpret all our other programs. ([Location 300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=300)) - In the computer world, technology is advancing so rapidly that programs written ten years ago are sorely out of date today. ([Location 304](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=304)) - Human bodies are taller than they are wide, so our major energy pathways run vertically while subtler currents run in other directions. This leaves us with two essential poles: the earth-centered pole, which we contact through our bodies, and the pole of consciousness, which we experience through our minds. Between these poles runs a dynamic flow of energy that we experience as our life force. ([Location 333](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=333)) - When energetic contact is made through the body, it is called grounding. Grounding comes from the solid contact we make with the earth, especially through our feet and legs. It is rooted in sensation, feeling, action, and the solidity of the material world. Grounding provides a connection that makes us feel safe, alive, centered in ourselves, and rooted in our environment. ([Location 336](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=336)) - When consciousness is detached from the body, it is wide and vague, dreamy and empty, but capable of great journeys. When it is connected to our body, then we have a dynamic energy flow throughout our entire being. In this way, the spiritual realm becomes embodied, making it tangible and effective. In effect, we have plugged in the system, just as we plug in our radio, so we can tune in to various frequencies. The chakras then become like channels, receiving and broadcasting at different frequencies. ([Location 340](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=340)) - Soul and spirit are expressions of these polarities. In my use of these terms, I see soul as tending to coalesce toward the body, leaning toward form, attachment, and feeling, whereas spirit tends to move toward freedom and expanded consciousness. Soul is the individual expression of spirit, and spirit is the universal expression of soul. ([Location 346](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=346)) - We can think of the flow of consciousness as entering through the crown chakra and moving downward through the body. Since the chakras represent elements that become increasingly dense as they descend (from thought down to earth), I call this downward flow of energy the current of manifestation. ([Location 352](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=352)) - When we take thoughts and turn them into visualizations, then words, and finally into form, we are engaged in the process of manifesting. ([Location 354](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=354)) - The upward current, moving from dense earth to ethereal consciousness, is the current of liberation. ([Location 357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=357)) - If we cannot liberate, we cannot change, grow, or expand. We become like automatons, unconsciously stuck in monotonous routines, our consciousness lulled to sleep from boredom. By contrast, without the current of manifestation we become aimless and empty—dreamers flying into vast realms but unable to land, full of ideas but unable to make commitments or completions. When we combine both currents, we have the mating of cosmic polarities known as the hieros gamos, or sacred marriage. This union of opposites creates limitless possibilities. It is the metaphoric source of conception—a word that implies both the birth of an idea and the beginning of life. ([Location 361](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=361)) - There are also two horizontal currents flowing into and out of each chakra—the current of reception and the current of expression. We mix our two vertical currents together in order to express ourselves at different chakra levels. For example, the speech I express through my throat chakra is a mixture of my thoughts, my will, and my breath. My love is a mixture of feelings and understanding. Likewise, what we receive through these horizontal currents enters the system and travels up and down between the chakras. ([Location 387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=387)) - When a chakra is blocked, reception and expression become distorted. ([Location 391](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=391)) - Difficulties abound in life, and for each one, we develop a coping strategy. When difficulties persist, these coping strategies become chronic patterns, anchored in the body and psyche as defense structures. Eventually these defenses create holding patterns in our musculature that restrict the free flow of energy, even when real threats cease to exist. This chronic tension is known as body armor. It effects our posture, breathing, metabolism, and our emotional states, as well as our perceptions, interpretations, and belief systems. ([Location 400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=400)) - an excessive chakra can feed a deficient one. Someone who is a strong visualizer can use that same strength to imagine (and create) a healthier body. In strengthening a deficient chakra, it may also be necessary to create support by strengthening a chakra below it. ([Location 461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=461)) - Character is the shell that energy leaves behind, as such it provides a house; but the shell, as we grow, becomes too small. JOHN CONGER ([Location 488](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=488)) - Having an awareness (chakra seven) of the body (chakra one) allows us to differentiate from the body, and in so doing, to be able to operate on it and hence operate on the physical world. ([Location 780](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=780)) - Note: When we have the notion of possessing a body, we begin to treat our own body like a servant and an object. - We are taught to control the body by way of the mind, which is considered far superior. But the body has an intelligence whose mysteries the mind has yet to fathom. We read in books how to eat, how to make love, how much sleep to get, and impose these practices on the body rather than listening from within. ([Location 940](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=940)) - Without the body as a unifying figure of existence, we become fragmented. We repress our aliveness and become machinelike, easily manipulated. We lose our testing ground for truth. ([Location 942](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=942)) - Ernest Holmes, who founded the Science of Mind philosophy, describes both fear and faith as having similar qualities. Fear is a belief that something awful might happen, while faith is a belief that something good will happen. ([Location 1029](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=1029)) - If we can replace unreasonable fear with reasonable faith, then we have a natural antidote to our first chakra demon. ([Location 1032](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=1032)) - The first chakra is the most specific and limited level in the system. A limitation is a boundary, separating something from what is around it in order to define it. A boundary creates a necessary limitation that allows us to have something whole, something specific. In order to manifest, we must be able to accept limitation. We have to be able to focus on what we want, to be specific about it. We have to be able to stick with it long enough for manifestation to occur. ([Location 1090](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=1090)) - When there is guilt, we think we have to make clear decisions and are uncomfortable with approximations. As a result, it may be harder to get to the truth, harder to communicate that truth to others, and harder to work through it to a sound decision. ([Location 1993](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=1993)) - So many people in recovery are understandably concerned about feeling safe. But power is not created from staying safe; power comes from the willingness to leave the world of safety and move forward into the unknown. As we meet challenge, it strengthens us by forcing us to grow. ([Location 2784](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004G8PAH0&location=2784))