Welcome to Day 33 of our 40-Day Retreat.
Yesterday we dealt with the navel chakra, the centre of subtle energy at the navel, and how we can experience more vitality when we tap into the energy of this centre.
Understanding the sacral centre
Today we focus on the chakra that is just lower. Sometimes, in my experience it is a companion to this navel chakra. It is an extremely important chakra on the journey as you can tap into it for a lot of energy. For others, however, it can be a place of distraction that takes away their energy. It is therefore an important centre to understand. When you are on the spiritual path you don’t need distraction, but to be able to use this in a very powerful way to help you on the path. It is therefore important to understand this centre.
We have this subtle energy system and there is a chakra or centre of subtle energy that is associated with all our body functions. And this second chakra or sacral centre, or in Sanskrit swadisthan is connected to the sexual power in the human being. As you know, sexual power is a powerful form of pleasure in the human experience, so people can become caught up in that. Just as they become caught up in eating and drug taking, they can become caught up in sexual pleasure, not realizing that it is stimulated by the biology of the body. The ego can then become so identified with it that it can be distracted on the journey. So it is an important chakra.
Soul and body are fundamentally different
Of course, to be able to really tap into this centre and to understand it for what it is, there must be spiritual awakening; otherwise you are heavily identified with the body and its sexual function. When you begin to become more spiritually aware, then you realize that the soul and the body are different. This is an important distinction that we need to experience as we begin the spiritual journey. The soul and the body are fundamentally different. I spoke about this when I was discussing the navel chakra. I said that this area allows you to begin to see the difference between the soul and the body. It allows you to energize your body from the soul consciousness.
As you begin to become more spiritually aware, you begin to understand that the body is a sexual creature, not the soul. So in a healthy body that seeks to procreate and protect the species for survival, and the species must be propagated, this is normal human and biological function. You see it with the trees and animals. There is a time for mating and a time for fertilization. It is the same with the human being.
Spiritual awareness gives you a choice
When that instinct comes alive in the human being and it is not seen from a spiritual level, then one will think, “I am supposed to do this. My body is guiding me to do it. I have to do this. I have to satisfy this desire.” But it is nature’s way of propagating the specie. When you become more spiritually aware, however, you realize “This is the body, not me! This desire is in the body, not in me.” Then you learn how to deal with it because it can become a stressful time in the body. The body wants to procreate, to exercise its sexual function.
When you begin to become more aware of this, you can stand back and look at it and say, “Should I use this function, or do I have a choice? When you become more spiritually aware, you have a choice. You don’t have to exercise this function when the body desires it or the body drives you. You don’t have to exercise it; you have a choice. But only true spirituality can make you aware of that choice and allow you to use this energy in other ways.
Of course, on the spiritual path you need not be distracted by this energy. You see among those who have taken up spiritual life and taken a vow of celibacy, some have great difficulty because they are still heavily body identified. They have not made the transition to spiritual awareness so they are very heavily body identified. I am sure that these are stressful times when the body is seeking to exercise its birthright to procreate, to propagate the specie and they don’t know what to do. They are caught in the desire so they don’t know what to do.
Importance of the Guide on the journey
That’s where a Guru or a teacher is important on the journey: one who has travelled the path and one who can inspire you to jump into the spiritual consciousness or to shift in the spiritual consciousness. So you can be aware that this is the biology of the body. This is nature’s game, this is nature’s way. The teacher must be one who is able to guide you into lifting the consciousness to a new space that you are able not to be caught in the body. Instead, you can move to a new space where you are aware of a choice, and be able to use this energy in more powerful ways to help you on the path. That, for me, is extremely important.
I am sorry for all those people who are so caught up in the body. They are trying to be celibate and in so doing they suppress the desire, when in truth they have to shift the consciousness to a new level where there is no suppression.
Managing this function
It is important to also say that, for those who are caught in the physical life where they have to express it; it is not a distraction if they can manage it. In fact, in some places it is a way of expressing spirituality in powerful loving relationships. It does not take away but it is managed in a very powerful way in loving relationships that are not based on selfish ego drives, but is based on selfless expressions of love in the sexual expression.
There are also schools where they teach how to shift the consciousness and to use this function in a powerful spiritual way. But here we are focused on tapping into the energy and taking it to another level. First, you have to be able to feel your body as being different from you, and be able to witness this function in the body without being distracted by it.
I want to say to you that this is an area that should be given attention. This is an area that is sometimes considered to be a very low area. In some teachings it is carnal: “It’s not spiritual, it’s human and we need to subdue it. We need to kill this desire.” You know what that can lead to: heavy suppression and all kinds of mental problems associated with it.
Awakening increases awareness of your energy system
Let’s come back to “choice”. When you become more aware of your spiritual being, you have a choice. And a spiritual being is a sexless being. For those of you who believe in past lives, you can think that a person may be born a male or female in different lifetimes, and that ultimately the soul has to go into an awareness that is beyond gender. And that’s what it is.
In the human experience there are seven chakras, of which one chakra is devoted to the sexual function, it’s an energy. So when you begin the spiritual path and this chakra is awakened, you begin to be aware of the physical body and also the energy system that is connected with the body.
If in your pervious experiences lifetimes before, you have memories of that centre and experiences of the ego associated with that centre, when that chakra is awakened they will come back. Whatever they are, all the experiences related to that chakra and they can be positive and negative experiences, they will come back to you. So when you are awakened spiritually, these things come back and we need the guidance to be able to move higher.
Transmuting sexual energy
As the chakras become more and more awakened, you learn how to transmute this energy. Transmute means taking it from the form it is there and changing it or transforming it into finer energy. This is a possibility. When you begin to explore the movement of energy along the spine and you begin to feel the awakening of energy in the different chakras: the heart, throat, navel, the brow, then you will find that in the movement upward of what we call the Kundalini energy, she brings the pranic energy. She brings the vital energy from the lower centers right to the top. Then it intensifies the experiences at whatever level you are concentrating.
Let us say that you have a very mature awakened third centre or chakra, you can move energy from the second to the third and distribute it into the physical body. That’s why you see some athletes, for example, when focused in their training, they are not involved in their sexuality. They move away from that so they can automatically bring that energy into physical expression.
For those on the spiritual path who are very much involved in bhakti or the mental discipline, they want to move that energy from there to higher levels. They want the Kundalini to rise and come to the upper levels to express itself through the heart or the brow centre. Then the experiences become more powerful. So it is exciting when this begins to happen.
Experience true power and freedom of control
I can distinctly remember my first experiences with this. The brow centre became powerfully opened, then I began to experience that when I breathe I can move energy from the second chakra right up to my brow. And it brought such sweetness, an ecstatic feeling. I said, “Wow! This is sweet.” Ultimately, when the energy went to the top of my head in 1978, I could actually feel that some kind of power was taken from my second chakra to my third. From then I had experienced this wonderful control, and this wonderful ability to transmute this energy at will, in any moment; to move the energy along the spine.
This is a powerful possibility in the human experience: that you can tap into this area and you can move that energy when you don’t need it. You can move that energy up to the higher regions and express it at the different levels. So this gives you a choice in the human experience, and it does not allow the body to dominate or control you. It allows your powerful spirit to tap into this energy and to move it to wherever you want. That is real freedom.
In yoga they teach you this. But of course, you cannot learn this without a Guru. You cannot learn this without the guidance of someone who actually knows it or experiences it. If you work with someone who has experienced it, you will begin to feel this happening within you very automatically after a little while. So this is the power of the second centre. It can joyously be used in the upper areas. I wish everyone who took a vow of celibacy will understand this, then they will experience true power and freedom.
Secret of the sacral centre
As you have seen when I spoke about the voice centre, I told you that the second chakra is also used powerfully in the voice; that the power of the voice begins from low down. When the second chakra is tapped into, you can actually feel it coming through the voice. The voice then has a different quality. So when someone says that your voice is sexy, it actually has a meaning at a deeper level. It’s the second chakra actually expressing its power through the voice.
This is the secret of the second chakra. It is not easily understood by those who are just reading books or those who are just hearing it. But when taught by someone, a teacher who knows the art of transmutation, it is a powerful experience. And of course, it gives you the power of choice, that you don’t have to be caught like ordinary human beings driven to the experience of the pursuit of sexuality. You can choose to do otherwise.
Post-Meditation note:
Just to say that in seeking to understand and to tap into this energy of the second centre, we are also giving loving attention to this area. And we are also energizing the organs of the area to keep them healthy. When that area is neglected, sometimes the health of the area can be compromised, because the area is not given loving attention. But in this exercise, they are. So this also helps in the well-being of the pelvic area or the organs associated with the second chakra.
Enjoy the human experience everyone by learning how to understand it and manage it.
Have a wonderful day.
