Kundalini Yoga Glossary
Chakra
Chakra means wheel: an energy center, or vortex, through which the body receives and directs energy.
Meaning
What Chakra Means
Chakra means wheel. Chakras are dynamic energy centers, or vortices, that help us understand how a human being receives and directs energy. In Kundalini Yoga, the focus is on seven major chakras, each corresponding to an area of the endocrine glands or the nervous system. Some Kundalini Yoga texts also reference an eighth chakra, corresponding to the aura, or the body's magnetic field.
The first three chakras form the Lower Triangle, and the fifth, sixth and seventh form the Upper Triangle. The Fourth Chakra, the Heart Chakra, is the point of balance between them, where experience shifts from "me" to "we." No chakra stands alone: they're part of a larger cycle of manifestation and sublimation, where the Lower Triangle focuses on elimination and reduction, and the Upper Triangle on accumulation, creation and refinement.
In Practice
How It’s Used
The first five chakras are each associated with one of the five Tattwas, or gross elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. The upper three chakras correspond to more subtle realms, with no equivalent element.
Prana, the life force, powers the chakras, clearing the emotional and physical blocks that get in the way of energy moving through them freely. Kundalini Yoga practices are built around this clearing and balancing, letting energy flow more completely through each center.
