Editing Chakra (section)

==Overview==
[[File:Chakras of the Subtle Body (detail), folio 2 from the Nath Charit. Attributed to Bulaki, 1823 (Samvat 1880); 46 x 122 cm. © Mehrangarh Museum Trust..jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|An illustration of a [[Shaivism|Shaiva]] [[Nath]] chakra system, folio 2 from the Nath Charit, 1823. Mehrangarh Museum Trust.]]

{{Quote box
| quote = '''Chakra and divine energies'''
<poem>
Shining, she holds 
the noose made of the energy of will,
the hook which is energy of knowledge,
the bow and arrows made of energy of action.
Split into support and supported,
divided into eight, bearer of weapons,
arising from the ''chakra'' with eight points,
she has the ninefold ''chakra'' as a throne.
</poem>
| source = —''Yoginihrdaya 53–54''<br />(Translator: Andre Padoux)<ref>{{cite book |first=Andre |last=Padoux |title=The Heart of the Yogini: The Yoginihrdaya, a Sanskrit Tantric Treatise |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieOdAAAAQBAJ |year=2013 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-998233-2 |page=44}}</ref>
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The Chakras are part of esoteric ideas and concepts about physiology and psychic centers that emerged across Indian traditions.<ref name="YIP14"/><ref>{{cite book|first=Basant |last=Pradhan |title=Yoga and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy: A Clinical Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=maUxBQAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=[[Springer Verlag]] |isbn=978-3-319-09105-1 |pages=154–155}}</ref> The belief held that human life simultaneously exists in two parallel dimensions, one "physical body" (''sthula sarira'') and other "psychological, emotional, mind, non-physical" it is called the "[[subtle body]]" (''sukshma sarira'').<ref name="Sharma2006p193">{{cite book|first=Arvind |last=Sharma |title=A Primal Perspective on the Philosophy of Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PiO8lKUs9-YC |year=2006 |publisher=[[Springer Verlag]] |isbn=978-1-4020-5014-5 |pages=193–196}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|The roots to this belief are found in [[Samkhya]] and [[Vedanta]] which attempt to conceptualize the permanent soul and impermanent body as interacting in three overlapping states: the gross body (sthula sarira), the subtle body (sukshma sarira), and causal body (karana sarira). These ideas emerged to address questions relating to the nature of body and soul, how and why they interact while one is awake, one is asleep and over the conception-birth-growth-decay-death-rebirth cycle.<ref name="Sharma2006p193"/><ref name=muller227>{{cite book|first=Friedrich Max |last=Müller |title=The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy|url=https://archive.org/details/sixsystemsindia00mlgoog |year=1899 |publisher=[[Longmans]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sixsystemsindia00mlgoog/page/n265 227]–236, 393–395|author-link=Friedrich Max Müller}}</ref>}} This subtle body is energy, while the physical body is mass. The psyche or mind plane corresponds to and interacts with the body plane, and the belief holds that the body and the mind mutually affect each other.<ref name="Lochtefeld2002p137"/> The subtle body consists of nadi (energy channels) connected by nodes of psychic energy called ''chakra''.<ref name=britchakra/> The belief grew into extensive elaboration, with some suggesting 88,000 chakras throughout the subtle body. The number of major chakras varied between various traditions, but they typically ranged between four and seven.<ref name=britchakra/><ref name="grimes100"/>

The important chakras are stated in Hindu and Buddhist texts to be arranged in a column along the spinal cord, from its base to the top of the head, connected by vertical channels.<ref name="Lochtefeld2002p137"/><ref name="JonesRyan2006p102">{{cite book |first1=Constance |last1=Jones |first2=James D. |last2=Ryan |title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC |year=2006 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-0-8160-7564-5 |page=102}}</ref> The tantric traditions sought to master them, awaken and energize them through various breathing exercises or with assistance of a teacher. These chakras were also symbolically mapped to specific human physiological capacity, [[seed syllable]]s (bija), sounds, subtle elements (tanmatra), in some cases deities, colors and other motifs.<ref name=britchakra/><ref name="Lochtefeld2002p137"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Klaus K. |last=Klostermaier |title=A Survey of Hinduism |edition=Third |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CVviRghVtIC |year=2010 |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |isbn=978-0-7914-8011-3 |pages=238–243}}</ref>

Belief in the chakra system of Hinduism and Buddhism differs from the historic [[Meridian (Chinese medicine)|Chinese system of meridians]] in [[acupuncture]].<ref name="JonesRyan2006p102"/> Unlike the latter, the ''chakra'' relates to subtle body, wherein it has a position but no definite nervous node or precise physical connection. The tantric systems envision it as continually present, highly relevant and a means to psychic and emotional energy. It is useful in a type of yogic rituals and meditative discovery of radiant inner energy (''prana'' flows) and mind-body connections.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p102"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Harvey |title=An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices, 2nd Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0sg9LV_rEgC |year=2013 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-85942-4|pages=190–191, 353–357}}</ref> The [[meditation]] is aided by extensive symbology, [[mantra]]s, diagrams, models (deity and [[mandala]]). The practitioner proceeds step by step from perceptible models, to increasingly abstract models where deity and external mandala are abandoned, inner self and internal mandalas are awakened.<ref>{{cite book |first1=E. A. |last1=Mayer |first2=C. B. |last2=Saper |title=The Biological Basis for Mind Body Interactions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M6Kky0bTDkkC |year=2000 |publisher=[[Elsevier]] |isbn=978-0-08-086247-7 |pages=514–516}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Annette |last1=Wilke |first2=Oliver |last2=Moebus |title=Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wmYz_OtZ_gC |year=2011 |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |isbn=978-3-11-024003-0|pages=735–740}}</ref>

These ideas are not unique to Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Similar and overlapping concepts emerged in other cultures in the East and the West, and these are variously called by other names such as subtle body, [[spirit body]], esoteric anatomy, sidereal body and etheric body.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jay |last=Johnston |editor=Elizabeth Burns Coleman and Kevin White |title=Medicine, Religion, and the Body |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omg8nBZ1IRIC |year=2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-17970-7 |pages=69–75}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Christine |last1=Göttler |first2=Wolfgang |last2=Neuber |title=Spirits Unseen: The Representation of Subtle Bodies in Early Modern European Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iciTSSs1IvUC |year=2008 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-04-16396-6 |pages=55–58, 294–300}}</ref><ref name=muller227/> According to [[Geoffrey Samuel]] and Jay Johnston, professors of Religious studies known for their studies on Yoga and esoteric traditions:

{{blockquote|Ideas and practices involving so-called 'subtle bodies' have existed for many centuries in many parts of the world. (...) Virtually all human cultures known to us have some kind of concept of mind, spirit or soul as distinct from the physical body, if only to explain experiences such as sleep and dreaming. (...) An important subset of subtle-body practices, found particularly in Indian and Tibetan Tantric traditions, and in similar Chinese practices, involves the idea of an internal 'subtle physiology' of the body (or rather of the body-mind complex) made up of channels through which substances of some kind flow, and points of intersection at which these channels come together. In the Indian tradition the channels are known as ''nadi'' and the points of intersection as ''cakra''. |Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnston, ''Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body''<ref>{{cite book |first1=Geoffrey |last1=Samuel |author1-link=Geoffrey Samuel |first2=Jay |last2=Johnston |title=Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_qOz641rV0C |year=2013 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-136-76640-4 |pages=1–5}}</ref>}}

===Contrast with classical yoga===

Chakra and related beliefs have been important to the esoteric traditions, but they are not directly related to mainstream [[yoga]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ferretti |first1=Andrea |title=The Chakras: A Beginner's Guide to Understanding the 7 Chakras |date=11 June 2021 |url=https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/yoga-sequences-level/beginners-guide-chakras/ |publisher=Yoga Journal |access-date=10 February 2022}}</ref> According to the Indologist [[Edwin Bryant (author)|Edwin Bryant]] and other scholars, the goals of classical yoga such as spiritual liberation (freedom, self-knowledge, [[moksha]]) is "attained entirely differently in classical yoga, and the ''cakra / nadi / kundalini'' physiology is completely peripheral to it."<ref>{{cite book |first=Edwin Francis |last=Bryant |title=The Yoga sūtras of Patañjali: a new edition, translation, and commentary with insights from the traditional commentators |url=https://archive.org/details/yogastrasofpataj0000brya |url-access=registration |year=2009 |publisher=North Point Press |isbn=978-0-86547-736-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/yogastrasofpataj0000brya/page/358 358]–364, 229–233}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Stefanie |last=Syman |author-link=Stefanie Syman |title=The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America |url=https://archive.org/details/subtlebodystoryo0000syma |url-access=registration |year=2010 |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |isbn=978-1-4299-3307-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/subtlebodystoryo0000syma/page/72 72]–74}}</ref>