Navel chakra

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Navel chakra (Manipura)

The ten-petalled lotus flower, the upper abdominal chakra, navel chakra or solar plexus chakra (sometimes also called stomach chakra or spleen chakra; Sanskrit: मणिपूर Manipūra "shining jewel"), is one of the seven main soul organs of perception in the human astral body. It is located in the upper abdominal region slightly above the navel at the level of the stomach and is closely related to the solar plexus.

„Through the sense near the so-called pit of the stomach one gains knowledge of the faculties and talents of the souls; one can see what part animals, plants, stones, metals, atmospheric phenomena and so on play in the household of nature.“ (Lit.:GA 10, p. 84)

„The cultivation of the soul, which is necessary for the development of the ten-petalled lotus flower, is of a particularly fine kind. For here it is a question of learning to control the sensory impressions themselves in a conscious way. This is particularly necessary for the future clairvoyant. Only in this way can he avoid a source of countless illusions and mental arbitrariness. Man does not usually realise by what things his ideas, his memories are dominated and by what they are caused. Consider the following case. Someone is travelling in a train. He is occupied with a thought. Suddenly his thought takes a completely different turn. He remembers an experience he had had years ago and weaves it into his present thoughts. But he has not noticed that his eyes were directed out of the window and that his gaze was fixed on a person who bore a resemblance to another involved in the remembered experience. He is not aware of what he has seen, but only of the effect. Thus he believes that the thing "occurred to him of its own accord". How many things in life do not come about in this way. How much in life does not come about in this way? How many things we have read and experienced come into play in our lives without our being aware of the connection. For example, someone does not like a certain colour, but he does not know that this is because the teacher who tormented him many years ago had a skirt in that colour. Countless illusions are based on such connections. Many things are imprinted on the soul without being incorporated into the consciousness. The following case may occur. Someone reads in the newspaper about the death of a well-known personality. And now he firmly asserts that he had foreseen this death "yesterday", although he had neither heard nor seen anything that could have given him this idea. And it is true, as if "of its own accord" the thought came to him "yesterday": the person in question was going to die. There was only one thing he did not pay attention to. A few hours before the thought struck him "yesterday", he had been visiting an acquaintance. There was a newspaper on the table. He did not read it. But unconsciously his eye fell on the news of the serious illness of the person in question. He was not aware of the impression. But the effect was the "foreboding". - If one thinks about such things, one can appreciate what a source of illusions and fantasies lies in such circumstances. And this source must be blocked by the one who wants to form his ten-petalled lotus flower. For through this lotus flower one can perceive deeply hidden qualities in souls. But truth can only be attributed to these perceptions when one has become completely free from the marked delusions. For this purpose it is necessary to make oneself master of what affects one from the outside world. One must make it so that impressions which one does not wish to receive, one really does not receive. Such an ability can only be acquired through a strong inner life. You must have the will to allow only those things to have an effect on you to which you turn your attention, and to really withdraw from impressions to which you do not turn arbitrarily. What one sees, one must want to see; and what one does not turn one's attention to, need not actually be there for one. The more lively and energetic the inner work of the soul becomes, the more this will be achieved. - The secret disciple must avoid all thoughtless looking around and listening. For him there should be only that to which he directs his ear or eye. He must practise that he need not hear anything in the greatest hustle and bustle if he does not want to hear; he must make his eye insensitive to things at which he does not particularly look. He must be surrounded as with a mental armour for all unconscious impressions. - He must take special care of the life of thought itself in this direction. He sets before himself a thought, and he tries to think on only that which he can quite consciously, in complete freedom, attach to this thought. He rejects arbitrary ideas. If he wants to relate the thought to some other, he carefully considers where this other has approached him. - He goes even further. If, for example, he has a certain antipathy to something, he fights it and seeks to establish a conscious relationship to the thing in question. In this way, less and less unconscious elements mix into his soul life. Only through such strict self-discipline does the ten-petalled lotus flower attain the form it should have. The soul-life of the secret disciple must become a life of attention, and what one does not want or should not pay attention to, one must really know how to keep away from. - If such self-discipline is accompanied by a meditation which corresponds to the instructions of spiritual science, then the lotus flower in the region of the pit of the stomach will ripen in the right way, and what had only form and warmth through the spiritual sense organs described before will receive spiritual light and colour. And through this, for example, talents and abilities of souls, powers and hidden qualities in nature are revealed. The colour aura of living beings becomes visible; that which is around us thereby announces its soul-like qualities. - It must be admitted that the greatest care is necessary in this area of development, for the play of unconscious memories is immeasurably active here. If this were not the case, many people would have the very sense in question here, for it appears almost immediately when man really has the impressions of his senses entirely under his control, so that they are only subject to his attention or inattention. Only as long as the power of the external senses maintains this soul sense in dullness and dullness does it remain ineffective.“ (Lit.:GA 10, p. 131ff)

According to the findings of the German mystic and Jakob Böhme disciple Johann Georg Gichtel, the navel chakra is under the direct influence of the Venus sphere. According to modern yoga teachings, its colour is yellow.

See also

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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