Chakras and Glands
Question: have you posted about opening the chakras?
Thoughts: The word chakra has Sanskrit origins and literally means “wheel,” to describe the way the vortexes of energy spin and interact with the body. More commonly, people know of seven chakras in the body, although some traditions talk about twelve chakras in and around the physical body. I’m not a student of Sanskrit, Hinduism, Buddhism, or New Age philosophies that use the term chakras—so I can’t say much more about that. (At the same time, the term chakra is helpful, because it is so well known. It can help describe the same places in the body that Taoists call energy centers.)
Taoist teachers think about these energy centers as aligning with the major glands of the body and bodies in nature. The glands produce and release important hormones that rejuvenate and aid longevity. Taoist meditations relate each of these energy centers to parts of nature and the qualities of nature that they embody. For instance, the sacral chakra and reproductive glands relate to the moon, its energy, and the waxing and waning phases that ebb and flow. As another example, the heart relates to the sun and how it shines equally on the “just and the unjust.” If our heart can smile on others equally and lovingly, our heart and the rest of our being will be healthier. Here is a list of the seven chakras and some of the major glands:
- Root chakra: Prostate, Uterine glands
- Sacral chakra: Testes, Ovaries
- Solar Plexus chakra: Adrenal Glands, Pancreas
- Heart chakra: Thymus glands
- Throat chakra: Thyroid glands
- Third eye chakra: Pituitary glands
- Crown chakra: Pineal glands
Lastly, we can think about our habits and how they affect our endocrine glands. (Endocrine glands produce hormones which are directly released into the blood stream. Exocrine glands have ducts which connect them to the surface of the body—such as sweat, tears, saliva, breast milk.) For instance, do we rely on coffee to stimulate our adrenal glands? Do we use a lot of sugar to stimulate our pancreas? Are we scared to speak our truth and so our throat chakra and thyroid suffer? Are there chemicals in our food that hurt our pineal gland (which some Taoists feel open to the starts and help us connect to our destiny.)
How else do you interact with your glands/energy centers/chakras?
TheTaoBlog.com