Art

Week 1

For project six, my topic is understanding the process of balancing Chakras through meditation.

Meditation is an activity used to reach deep relaxation by focusing on breathing and letting the mind flow freely. Chakra's are sources of energy in the human body. There are seven chakras, i will be focusing on four.

I will use spraypaint as my medium.

Day One: The Root Chakra

Today my focus is the first of the seven, The Root Chakra. Also known as the Mūlādhāra Chakra. Mūla means root, and ādhāra means base or foundation. This located at the base of your spine and is most commonly known to resonate with the color red. Red symbolizing sleeping consciousness, energy, movement, and development that is strongly connected to earth. The positive effects of having this Chakra balanced are growth, vitality, and protection. When this energy goes unbalanced or unactivated, negative qualities can be laziness, domination, and inertia.

There are four petals on the Mūla Kamala (the lotus flower of the mūladhāra Chakra). Each one symbolizing four functions of the psyche. intellect, consciousness, mind, and ego. The upside down triangle shows expansion of consciousness. The Mantra (sound repeated to aid concentration) is LĀM.

This Chakra is the seat of unconsciousness. Opening this Chakra inhabits a dangerousness. Due to negative qualities being 'brought to the light' that is invisible to closed eyes. The concept is like that of a snake. When a snake sleeps it seems peaceful while awake the snake acts menacing and deadly. Destructive rage, passion, and excessive desires surfaces around us. We experience feelings of freedom, harmony or closeness to God as well. Balancing ANY Chakra results in finding Karma's that have been stored. This act remains questionable. Stay unconscious or stir Karma's up? We can only gain freedom when everything is in front of us, brought to the light and illuminated with Self-realization.

Week 2:
I drew out the Chakra on a piece of paper and I covered the paper in frisket. I used an exacto knife to trace out the shape of the Chakra and put it on the matboard.

Day Two: The Sacral Chakra
Today, May 15th, I focused on the Sacral or Svādhishthāna Chakra. Svā meaning self, and Adhishthāna meaning seat, or residence. Located at between the coccyx and the sacrum. The color associated with the second Chakra is orange: representing activity, joy, self-confidence, and purification. The color of a sunrise (orange) indicates strength and rising of human consciousness when activated. In the Root Chakra, we focus on unconsciousness, while in the second Sacral, we focus on the subconscious. Within the symbol, there are six petals. Each petal representing a quality we must overcome. The most common are anger, jealousy, pride, desire, hatred and can also represent greed, envy, revenge, fear, doubt, and lethargy. The circle in the symbol symbolizes it's element; water and the moon crescent shows the relationship between the energy of the moon and water. The mantra is VĀM. When activating the Svāhishthāna Chakra, the most powerful energies to use are:

PRĀNA SHAKTI - vital/life force

CHETANA SHAKTI - the power of consciousness

DHĀRANĀ SHAKTI - the power of concentration

Week 2:

Day 3: Solar Plexus Chakra
The third chakra, the Solar Plexus located near your navel and your digestive system. When you realize that taking good and oxygen are actually giving, rather than taking, then they gain high spiritual significance. This Chakra is also known as the Manipura. Mani meaning pearl, and Pūra meaning place, or city. When you reach this chakra, you are more than halfway done with your journey of realization. The "City of Jewels" is where you can find pearls of wisdom, clarity, well-being, and confidence. The element of this chakra is fire, so it does not care whether it burns enough to turn things to ash. It's important to keep this balanced. The symbol consists of 10 petals inscribed with a downward pointing triangle.

The lotus flower of this symbol indicates life, spiritual awakening, and rebirth. Each petal symbolizes Prāna and Upa Prāna. the five Prāna are PRĀNA (inhalation, reception of energy, receiving power and oxygen), APĀNA (exhalation, giving, elimination of waste, eliminating power), UDĀNA (ingestion of food) SAMĀNA (digestion), and VYĀNA (circulation and the nervous system). The Upa Prāna: NĀGA (the function of burping), KŪRMA (movement of eyelids), DEVADATTA (yawning), KRIKALA (sneezing), and DHANANJAYA (nourishing and strengthening the body while stabilizing the functions of organs). The triangle has the same meaning as it does in the Mūlādhāra- growth, and development. The color yellow represents intellectual understanding and reasoning, it also has a radiation of green which is the complementary color of red to add to the element of fire. The Mantra is RAM. When singing for a long time, make sure to let the "R" vibrate.

Heart Chakra

The Anāhata Chakra, known as the Heart Chakra, located in the Heart Centre or chest.
The element it associates with is Air. Anāhata Nāda means infinite, unlimited sound.
When we open our hearts to divine love, it becomes infinite. Our heart chakra depends on how
deep we take our relationships. When we say something as simple as I love you, or I always
think about you; the words are empty because it holds intellect only. When loving someone,
it must come and radiate from your inner Self. Our inner temple where "the flame of life"
or the divine Ātmā (our true Self) lives. God-realization or Self-Realization comes from finding
your Ātmā. It's sound or mantra, is SO HAM. When we breathe, SO HAM resounds inside of us.
SO is the sound of inhalation and HAM is exhalation. It's easy for this Chakra to become
unbalanced if the consciousness and the mind aren't pure. Thoughts and feelings that are
misleading or ideas and complexes that are fixed can rise in the Heart Chakra. Karmas from
the past rest in the subconscious. We all carry pain and wounds from disappointment in
ourselves. Physical wounds heal faster than spiritual ones. The more open this Chakra
becomes, the more deeply we feel spiritual pain - though we can let it dissolve in the light of
wisdom and love. The twelve petals of the Lotus represent the twelve most important qualities
we develop in the heart: joy, love, bliss, peace, clarity, purity, harmony, kindness, patience,
compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. There are five negative qualities that can
cause trouble in the Heart Chakra: desire, obsession, resentment, fanaticism, and dependency.
The two triangles in this show we can keep rising and grow with our true Self and spirituality,
but it also shows we easily could slip back into a lower energy, or consciousness.
This highlights the battle we have inside of us taking place between emotion and spirituality.
The color of this Chakra is green but also resonates with light blue. Light blue means unity.
When a flame on a candle is blue it is not polluted by smoke. The radiance glow from the
Manipura Chakra (yellow-orange) can cause this to be green.

Day 4: Throat Chakra

The Throat Chakra or the Vishuddhi (Visha= impurity, poison & Shuddhi= purification)

This Chakra is located the area of the Larynx. The larynx is known as a center of spiritual

and physical purification. A story by the Purānas captures the power of the Throat Chakra.

"The Devas (gods) and Āsuras (demons) wanted to raise the treasure of Amrita

(the nectar of immortality), which was hidden in the depths of the ocean, to the surface.

They used Mount Mandara as the stirring stick and the world serpent, Vāsuki, as the rope.

The gods held the tail of the snake and the demons held its head. In this way, they were able to

churn the ocean of the world with their combined power. Numerous treasures and precious

objects emerged from the ocean and, finally, the longed-for Amrita rose to the surface in a golden

vessel. But the serpent they had used to churn the oceans spat out a deadly poison that was

capable of destroying the whole earth. Quickly the Devas caught it in a bowl so it was not able

to do any harm. But as they had absolutely no idea what to do with it or how they could

permanently "dispose” of it, they turned to Lord Shiva for help. Lord Shiva is the most gracious

of all the gods, and will never refuse a request from anyone. He took the bowl of poison and

drank it down to the very last drop. However, in the process, he did not swallow the poison but

held it in the Vishuddhi Chakra and purified it by means of Ujjāyī Prānāyāma and

Jālandhara Bandha. In this way, he rid the world of a deadly peril. Through the poison, his

throat was colored dark blue, and since that day he has borne the nickname Nīlakantha

(the blue-throated one)."

(Vishuddhi Chakra, www.chakras.net/energy-centers/vishuddhi)

Our negative qualities and thoughts are the demons and the Devas are the good qualities

that exist within us. These could be wisdom, understanding, mercy, love, devotion, and

compassion. The toxin of earthly morality and ignorance exists side by side with the heavenly

food of immorality and the wisdom of the divine. This Chakra is a place of balancing. You breathe

through your throat so it plays a big role. On a physical sphere, this Chakra is from bacteria

and toxins. The mental understanding of this Chakra is the place where consciousness,

subconsciousness, and emotions are harmonized and purified. You must learn to swallow

the mental venom or spit it out. We can spew out words that are harmful, as well as behavior and

thoughts that are negative. We can swallow bad experiences or treatment, doubts, insults.

The element of this chakra is Space. So we are able to expand and distribute. People who have

their Throat Chakra closed may have a habit of blaming things on others. The color of this

Chakra is Violet, to show spirituality and wisdom. It can also be related to the color blue.

There are 16 petals, symbolizing the 16 powers we can attain through Yoga.

HAM is the Seed Mantra used to heal and open this Chakra.

Day 4 Cont.: Third Eye Chakra

This is also known as the Āgyā Chakra, meaning command, wisdom, and knowledge. Without this Chakra, we are unable to control ourselves, our qualities. We are incapable of understanding ourselves. This lotus has two petals. Each petal represents a syllable from the word GURU(master). GU means darkness and ignorance, and RU means light and knowledge. The Seed Manta for this Chakra is OM, the sound of creation. We do not need to seek for truth, because it is in front of us at all times. The color associated with it is Indigo. To open this Chakra we have to maintain the balance between our other chakras. We become free and independent on making the right choice when we anchor our consciousness here.

Day 5: Crown Chakra