All About The 7th Chakra - The Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)

Hey this is Ish and today I want to talk to you about the seventh chakra which is the crown chakra or sahasrara chakra.

And this chakra is located a few inches above the crown of our head.

So it's actually not within our body per se but rather representing the universe and the world around us itself.

So this chakra is represented by the color of violet or white light.

And it represents the universe all around us and our connection to it.

So it's a very subtle point here.

And it is represented by the mantra of Om.

So you might have heard of Om before and it's actually a very sacred chant that represents the communion or union of everything around us.

And we also have learned from other talks that there are ways of releasing stuck energy in different chakras.

And for this particular chakra the releasing vowel is ing.

So anytime you do any yoga pose where you are targeting the crown area such as head stand or shoulder stand you would chant ing to release stuck or excess energy.

And to give you an idea of what the essence of this chakra is like I'm going to read you a poem by Amanda Coppola.

And this is all about the seventh chakra which is the crown chakra.

Lift my crown to the sky friendly with the stars.

Sea horizons as the dawn rises from the tides.

Glowing softly light reflects the magic of this work.

With little effort multi-transits plant the golden crops.

The sky above earth below the ocean splashing on the shore.

Witness this miracle other worldly visions emerge to remind me that I am that I am.

I am the ocean and the shimmering stars.

I am the sound that reaches Mars.

I am the universe.

The universe is me.

Above the crown is all I see.

So if you really understood this the whole vibe behind this little poem it's all about being expanded.

So consciousness is expanded in this talk right.

And it's all about being one with everything around you like the ocean and the sky above us and the earth below us.

Your energy and awareness is all around you into the universe.

So contrast this with the first chakra which is all about the little me or the ego as well.

So the first chakra is all about the fears your personal anxieties and your roadblocks and apathy.

Meanwhile this seventh chakra is all about being above that and actually not being so self-centered but rather expanding and connecting with the world around you.

So it's a different awareness.

So your awareness actually grows to encapsulate everything around you.

So it's a much broader scope of awareness.

And some things to touch upon the seventh chakra is to ask yourself what is my higher purpose in life?

So rather than thinking about things that really just what society expects of you to do or you know things that you have to do on a day to day basis.

Think of something that's higher than yourself.

You can call it a universe or God or whatever you call it.

What is your higher existence or higher being and ways of expressing yourself?

How can I serve humanity the way I am?

So what is your unique gift or purpose that you can give the world around you?

So this is up to you and your personal experience.

So for me right now it's all about making these spiritual talks or maybe I make talks in confidence.

Maybe for you it's baking or making videos on how to be a good chef or how to be a good gardener.

Whatever it is for you what is your gift that you can give the world?

And you want to serve humanity.

So what is what are you here to do that you can actually serve other people?

And you'll find that when this particular chakra is imbalanced the energy becomes very contracted so you're focused on materialism or attachment to things in the world because the seventh chakra is all about being one or being with unity with things around you.

So the opposite of that is actually being in a contracted state where you're being very attached to things and you have this dualistic mindset that you don't actually see the true nature of yourself but rather clinging on to ego residue.

So you're focusing on material objects like money or fame or status or perhaps you have a lack of purpose in life,

A higher purpose,

So you're just going to a job because society tells you to rather than doing things from your own accord,

From your own true nature or purpose.

Or perhaps you feel that you're alienated from other people and you're different from other people and you can relate with other people which is actually a lie because you're one with everything right?

So this is another imbalance.

Or perhaps you have an excessive ego and this also includes spiritual ego as well.

Perhaps you're saying oh yeah I meditated for 10 hours a day I'm amazing.

That's also a form of ego as well.

So these are all different qualities which disconnect you from this whole union of expanded awareness.

So in a healthy state you're able to interact with the world freely without any kind of attachment.

So it's not all about being this monk where you're just away from life but rather you can interact with life without any kind of attachment to different outcomes.

So you're able to interact freely without the grasp of your ego.

This is also called karma yoga which I'll talk about in a bit.

And you're also in a healthy state you're connected with life itself.

So you're connected with things around you,

You're not pushing things away or grasping for things rather than letting things be.

You're just freely interacting.

And in a healthy state you have this certain purpose or gift that moves you in life.

And this sort of energy is a bit more subtle than the lower energies that I've talked about earlier because obviously you think you might have this down but in reality you may be coming from a place of apathy where you don't think about your emotions.

So this sort of energy of the seven chakra is actually very subtle and it actually takes some time of integrating your lower chakras which is what I recommend before you can actually work on this particular chakra.

Because you can think that you're being one with everything but in reality you're coming from a first chakra imbalance of apathy where you're pushing everything away.

So it's a very subtle point but I want to make sure that you actually integrate your lower chakra energies.

And you know even the Buddha himself he tried to go about this whole route of just being an ascetic where he just pushed away life and was just like I'm just going to torture myself into meditation and actually didn't work for him because he obviously realized that you need to be well fed and you know sleep well and have your physiological needs met and physical needs met before you can actually work on the higher levels of spiritual growth.

And the same way applies is if you don't have your finances in order,

If you're struggling and you're homeless,

Working on this chakra doesn't really help you much because you actually need to integrate these other chakras before you can work on this quality of being one with everything.

So it's kind of ironic in a sense because you do need to work on these worldly subjects before you can actually transcend them and it's only from a place of actually experiencing it that you can actually transcend them.

So this is a bit of an irony there.

And some ways we can actually work on this seven chakra to access this is the biggest thing is actually meditation.

And in particular Zen meditation is perfect for this and also loving kindness meditation is perfect for this.

So in Zen meditation this is great because you're just being one with everything,

You're just sitting there and you're not changing energy in a certain way but being what Zen is really great about is you're being with everything that's around you.

No changing,

Nothing,

You're just being with everything and that's perfect because that drops away your attachments,

Different things and you're just able to experience a moment just as it is.

And loving kindness is great because it connects you with the world around you.

It's also great for opening up your fourth chakra,

The Anha chakra,

Which is all about love and kindness.

But in particular this also works the seven chakras as well because you're connected with the external world around you as well.

So these are two perfect things and I think meditation is the number one way to work on this chakra.

I mean sure there are yoga poses like I mentioned like headstand and shoulder stand but in reality you'll notice a much stronger effect from having a longer period of meditation and just following through with that.

And this way you'll actually allow yourself to interact with the world without being attached to different things and meditation teaches you not to be attached.

There are other things you can do as well.

So if you're into crystals you can have a clear quartz crystal in front of you and that's said to work on the seventh chakra or you can have a blue sapphire crystal.

Another thing you can do is embracing minimalism.

So this is very big in the west now,

It's kind of a trendy thing.

You can watch a bunch of youtubers talk about minimalism but all this is is just simplifying your life and material possessions where you can just have the things that you need and not getting more stuff because you just feel like collecting more.

So just being very simple with what you have and actually feeling gratitude for what you actually have.

Now the next thing is you can actually go on meditation retreats and this will actually stimulate this kind of environment where you're working on the seventh chakra.

So I personally find that meditation retreats in particular just naturally have this vibe of hitting all these prerequisites of getting that seventh chakra.

So you're in this silent space of pure meditation.

You're also in that place where you don't have a lot of material things around you so just the bare essentials of what you need.

So that also covers that materialism part and you are sometimes you take a vow of silence where you're not talking to other people so you're just very mindful of what you say and there are also a lot of rituals where you devote your practice to the greater good of society so like being a bodhisattva where you care about other people and finding liberation to other people.

So you're targeting all these perfect qualities of the seventh chakra just naturally through the course of your retreat.

So that's why I recommend going to meditation retreat if you can.

And another thing to work on the seventh chakra is going through things like karma yoga where you actually focus on the process of whatever you're doing without the end result.

So for example I'm making this talk right now you're listening to me.

Now the way to do it is just to be if I'm being totally present with what I'm saying and I'm just delivering what I say in the hopes that you like this content and you find value but what isn't good is if I try to say okay maybe I can get more likes out of this or more followers out of this and I'm trying to clasp on some result.

Well that's the opposite of karma yoga.

So karma yoga is all about being in the process of this and actually enjoying whatever I'm saying or whatever you're doing without attaching to the end result.

This is that perfect seventh chakra of actually being in this world but not attaching to the outcomes so you're not creating these excess attachments yourself.

So this leads into my next point of this quote which is be in this world but not of it.

And this is a quote that said a lot in Christianity and I've also seen this in Buddhism as well where you want to be in this world because you're obviously here as a human being listening to this but not attached to different things.

So what this means is that you can still interact with the world do things that you normally do but it's coming from a different place where you're not being needy or grasping for things or just coming up with these elaborate stories rather just allowing this gradual expression of who you are and not just needing things and that's the best way I can describe it where you can just still do the things you want to do and still express your true nature but you're not wanting your ego to take over and make these all these crazy explanations and stories and drag you into all these attachments.

So you'll even find that all these enlightened masters of the past I mean they were just people that you know went out to the market and you know bought alcohol or bought fish or whatever they did and they still interacted with people and they weren't just these hermits rather they could still find the time to interact with the world but at the same time they have this different quality where they weren't immersed with all these chaotic samskaras and cycles and all these things that other people interact with so it's coming from a different place.

So hopefully this shed light on the seven chakra it's more of a subtle point than the other chakras because the other chakras the lower chakra is all about you know the day to day stuff of conquering your fears creating this nice life for yourself or creating this creative energy but the seven chakra is all about actually getting rid of this pull gravitational pull of all the things around you and if you can learn to ideally come from this place of stillness while you do the things around you that's actually ideal.

So hopefully you like all these talks that I've had prior on working on your chakras and if you have any other talks or questions on you know how to work on specific chakras just let me know and I can totally help you out.

Thank you.