By quieting the mind in withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara) and concentration (dharana) we can perceive different parts of the personality at work. The personality is represented in the lower three chakras according to Caroline Myss, a medical intuitive with a Ph.D. whose work on the subtle levels of the body-mind is original, well documented and, in my opinion, nothing short of phenomenal. She says the personality and the ego are contained in these lower chakras and that they are essentially tribal in orientation. The fourth through seventh chakras are personal, and the eighth is symbolic (spiritual). Dr. Myss says,
“The first three chakras reveal how linked a person is to letting the tribal mind control them. The stronger you are linked into the tribal mind, the weaker will be your personal willpower. It’s directly proportional. So, to say to somebody, ‘You create your own reality,’ is a relative truth. It is truth, but you have to water it down, because people who are tribal do not create their own reality. Their tribe does it with them and for them. So they are in the evolutionary stage of the group mind.”
She goes on to say that the process of individuation—self-realization—involves breaking free of the tribal mind and developing the upper personal chakras, which have nothing to do with time and space. She emphasizes self-examination of motivation as a means to mysticism.
Through quiet observation over time it may become apparent that the mind is part of the unified field of matter and is a self-activating force. In other words, the mind is autonomous. If it is not engaged in positive spiritual pursuits, it flows spontaneously toward sense objects. This is why it must be vigilantly watched, and such discrimination is called viveka.
Yet consciousness and reality cannot be understood by investigation and measurement alone for there is a vast portion of both that is inaccessible to the conscious mind. The heights of heaven, as it were, refuse to be assailed by the profane and uninitiated. Inquiry of this kind is by its very nature religious, which explains why the basis of knowledge is reverence.
(An excerpt from Sravaniya's upcoming Extraordinary Character. Coming soon.)
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