Learn more about the Chakras:

Here you will find some helpful information to educate yourself about the chakras, before you come to class
This link will explain in more detail about the seven energy centers, the chakras and their importance and impact to our physical bodies.

What are Chakras?

Chakras are psychic centers that lie along the axis of the spine as consciousness potentials. The chakras are not materially real and are to be understood as situated, not in the gross body, but in the subtle or etheric body. Repositories of psychic energies, they govern the whole condition of being. In the Hindy tradition they are usually represented as lotuses.

As kundalini energy reaches each chakra, that lotus opens and lift its flower; and as soon as she leaves for a higher chakra, the lotus closes its petals and hangs down, symbolizing the activation of the energies of the chakra and their assimilation to kundalini.

Each of the chakras, according to the Tantras, corresponds to one of the elements of which the known world is compounded. Muladhara represents solidity; Svadhisthana, liquidity; Manipura, the gaseous; Anahata, the aerial; Vishuddha, the etheric, or space.

This ascent through the chakras can be viewed as an upward journey through the self.
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Third Eye Chakra
Brow Chakra
Ajna Chakra

"to see"

Ajna chakra is the location of the third eye which is the conscience, the center of illumination and the luminescent source of light within.

The third eye radiates a deep blue which in the developed personality borders on violet.

The two physical eyes see the past and the present, while the third eye reveals the insight of the future.

"To see our deepest sense"

It is said to be the seed of our dreams, visions and intuition.
When this chakra is activated, we will be able to see without our eyes and go beyond our physical world into the higher planes; intuitive seeing, clairvoyance and the other paranormal forms of knowing.
It becomes the seat of Divine Intelligence.

Amongst other things, the Ajna Chakra governs our sight. We should therefore respect the eyes as a gift with which the beauty of the Divine creation is revealed to us.

Physical Level

On a physical level, it is related to the pineal gland and the small brain, the pituitary, eyes, ears and nose.
It is the center of our senses within.
The pineal gland produces seratonin as well as melatonin, which induces sleeping and dreaming.
The hypophysis has a vital role in organism, in the sense that together with the hypothalamus they act as the command system of all other endocrine glands.

Hence the name Ajna: to command, to perceive.

Within the symbolic representation of the Ajna center is the syllable Ohm which represents the beginning and end of all things. It is from this center that a person harmonizes the forces within him/herself and achieves a balance between Yin and Yang.

Ida and Pingala, (female and male), are time-bound; up to the fifth chakra as Ida and Pingala end here, the yogi moves into Sushumna, beyond time.
He is now in a state of nondual consciousness.

Negative and positive, the components of duality, become equalized. Ida (feminine, lunar) and Pingala (masculine, solar) nerve energies separate from the Sushumna channel at the Muladhara chakra, intertwine up through all chakras and are becoming one at Ajna Chakra. They then again separate, running into the left and right nostrils.

This is referring back to the exercises we did a few weeks ago with the Sushumna Nadi breathing technique.

The presiding deity is Ardhanarishvara, the half-male, half-female Shiva-Shakti, symbolic of basic polarity; the right side is male and the left side, female.
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In the text below I found this interesting excerpt on the divine male and female which relates back to the third eye chakra:

Karma, reincarnation, self-realization and the Divine Feminine as Holy Ghost -- God the Mother.
On our journey up to the Sahasrara Chakra, the Sushumna channel passes through the center Ajna Chakra. This is the place of Lord Jesus and Mary. Jesus said that He is the Path, and it is His Path that leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven in the Sahasrara, (crown chakra).

C.G. Jung recognized the link between the Divine Feminine and the Eastern principle of Kundalini. He understood that the Kundalini was the representation of the Goddess within each of us. Is the Holy Ghost the Kundalini? Was the Kundalini a central principle in early mystic Christianity? And what does this have to do with the Third Eye Chakra you may ask?

To be "born of the water and the spirit" describes the awakening of Kundalini. She is often described as a divine mother whose ascent within the spine of the seeker gives them rebirth into mystic/gnostic awareness, the 'divine water' is its nourishing energy.

The position of the Ajna chakra is such that it is the final center to be crossed before the Kundalini finishes its journey to the Sahasrara ( the 'Kingdom of God Within'). Entry of the Kundalini into the Sahasrara gives the blissful experience of divine awareness. This literally explains Christ's words, "None can enter Heaven except through me".

Christ himself told us, "When your two eyes become one, your body will be filled with light." This implies that when we go beyond the physical sight ( the two eyes) to the subtle experience or perception which occurs by opening of the third eye and thus entry of the awareness into the Sahasrara our body is filled with light, purity, grace etc.

There is further symbolism eg. the twelve apostles represent six pairs which are symbolic of the lower six chakras from Mooladhara to Ajna. These six chakras are limited to dual awareness, ie. past and present, cause and effect. However, the final chakra, Sahasrara, represented here by Christ, who was the leader of the twelve apostles is non-dual, being derived from an awareness higher than the causal plane.

from Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

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How to work with the Third Eye Chakra:

"Look deeply within! Focus your attention, follow your dreams"

The element of the sixth chakra is: Light, natural light.

(Color) Meditation:
This is the chakra were we do not work on asanas or breathing techniques, these are just a preparation for meditation. To really work on the third eye chakra is to become still and finding our way inside.

Keeping a dream journal
Having creative imagination
Practicing your memory
Trusting your intuition
Reflecting daily
Visualizing
Seeing where you would like to be in 5 years?
Recognizing your illusions, fantasies, Obsessions, nightmares
Start training your eyes through eye exercises
Follow your dreams

OHM

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