INTRODUCTION:
The result of true spiritual seeking is continuous, gradual self-development.
This self-development = increased activation of the upper chakras (4, 5, and 6).
For most people, one chakra is strongest - the heart, throat, or forehead -
So we might identify ourselves just that way:
“I am kind… I am smart… I am strong.”
Those most active in 4th chakra are kindly, loving and warm, with big open heart.
Those most active in 5th chakra are smart, clever and thoughtful, and they speak well.
Those most active in 6th chakra are strong, centered and aware, with spiritual power.
Yet, it’s easy for kindly people to be kindly,
Easy for smart people to be smart,
Easy for strong people to be strong.
It’s easy to do what we already do well...
To continue spiritual growth, we must go beyond what’s easy.
To process what’s difficult, that’s the greatest spiritual work!
Although all of us, in some ways are already kind, smart and strong,
Making a big deal of it makes a big blind spot in self-awareness.
Let’s look at the challenges specific to each of the higher chakras.
6th CHAKRA:
It’s very difficult for strong people to feel deep-self weakness,
To admit failure and defeat, mistakes, folly, and emotional neediness.
The strong are proud of their strength, but they still fear deep hidden weakness.
The strong don’t realize their pride is a defense against self-doubt,
Against old feelings of powerlessness, emotional dependency still unhealed, unseen, unmet.
Before final satori we all have blockages, at the core of which is fear, doubt and weakness.
5th CHAKRA:
It’s very difficult for smart people to recognize and admit their areas of stupidity,
To see the limits of their knowledge, the limits of their achieved spiritual wisdom.
The smart take pride in mind by what they know, but avoid considering all they don’t know.
Yet, what we know in 3D is a fraction of reality; naught in human life do we fully know -
Neither ourselves nor others, the world nor the cosmos, our life-plan nor our purpose.
The smart have trouble seeing that mind and thought are empty, that all spiritual ideas
And all spiritual wisdom are like clouds in the sky - while this Life is still unknown.
4th CHAKRA:
It’s very difficult for kindly people to accept their own repressed anger, blame, and disgust;
To discover they too have sour moods and frustration, and it’s quite stressful always smiling.
It’s scary for nice people to realize that sometimes they’re actually faking it...
The kindly can never appear selfish - so they’re always giving and ask little for themselves.
It’s hard for them to discover they feel used, feel resentment, or actually have strong demands -
Since the kindly never want to be greedy, they can’t be angry, can’t be critical of others,
can’t think clearly in complex situations, and have trouble talking about themselves deeply.
BALANCE AND GOING BEYOND:
Of course, it’s wonderful to be kindly, important to be smart, essential to be strong.
Yet, if we define ourselves narrowly and invest self-esteem in always being so virtuous,
Then we’ll miss and avoid the rest of personal mind- what isn’t so kindly, smart, or strong.
Balance means,
“I am this and I am that, I am all the ways that all people can be, but it’s OK.”
Let the strong feel profound weakness,
Let the smart recognize vast ignorance,
Let the kindly know they too can be selfish and mean.
Then they’ll go beyond simple self-knowledge, and enter the profound.
In the profound, Life is One, self is one with that Life, and we are all things.
I am black, I am white; I am high and I am low.
And in the end, I = One and excludes nothing.
To me, that’s true self-honesty, accepting ‘the completeness of mind.’
True freedom rejects nothing, yet always seeks harmony with the good of all.
Let us go beyond small and narrow self-definitions.
We are all quite positive - there is nothing in mind to fear.
Scott Mandelker PhD
San Francisco, CA
February 10, 2008
