In my chakra balancing workshop profiled in The Chakra Diaries, one student’s fourth chakra was profoundly closed. He was as suspicious of others as a stray cat, resentful at life for handing him not that bowl of cherries that he felt he so richly deserved, but a crate of sour grapes and buckets of ill will filled with woe-is-me. No wonder that despite his rugged good looks and stable income he was having such a “hard time” finding a lover and soul mate. His inner peace was pockmarked and fragmented, it resembled a battlefield of negative feelings littered with remnants of squandered life force. He was in every sense of the unspoken word, a mess.
I suggested that he passively meditate at every opportunity, allowing his memories of love and relationships to surface so that they could be examined and balanced. He taped ten affirmations of self acceptance on his bathroom mirror and car dashboard to guide him in becoming more grounded and open to love and compassion.
Over the course of the workshop, I saw this delightful, yet challenging man grow into a balance of his internal and external worlds. He became more open and accepting of life and less apt to sling blame, point fingers and retreat into a fortress of self-pity. He led the group in a practice of saturation blessings and appreciations of abundance, reminding the group that blessings flow where attention goes and that all power comes from within. In the final tally, he gave to the group far more than he took and I am forever thankful that he crossed my life. And I know he is sharing love wherever he goes now.
Namaste! Becca
Thanks for your question. Deepak Chopra offers sage advice on transforming your life, from a Christian perspective, in his novel "Jesus." While many Christians may not agree with his fictional account of Jesus' lost years before his ministry began, they can reap new insights from the Readers Guide - Jesus and the Path to Enlightenment. He writes that Jesus was the product of transformation and that he wanted others to be transformed also, giving up unloving, violent, selfish and narrow-minded attitudes and offering only love and peace to the world. He describes how all Jesus' teaching was in service of one objective: to find the way back home, to oneness with God. Not so different than moving from the material plane, starting with the root chakra, and working our way up to oneness by opening the crown chakra. While Christianity offers prayer as a way to "transcend," Eastern spiritual traditions offer meditation, such as used to balance our chakras. Both quiet the mind and expand it beyond everyday boundaries.
He offers a wonderful meditation on the heart chakra: Sit quietly and let your attention go to the center of your chest, focusing on your heart. Softly bring your attention back when emotions, sensations, feelings or images arise. He says hidden memories will resurface; repressed emotions will flow. Soon the experience will shift as you contact the heart as a center of tenderness and love. As you move toward silence, the door will open to an invisible presence. The more you sit with it, the more it begins to express attributes of God, such as love and tenderness, power and strength.
Deepak Chopra’s explanation is that Jesus was teaching how to find the source of all God's qualities inside yourself and ultimately to embody them. Working on the chakras will help you to embody these qualities… which to me, makes it in line with Christ consciousness.
Namaste! Becca