Note to students: Read the lecture on chakras, then spend at least a week on EACH chakra meditation.
Week One: The Root Chakra
Use this time to meditate on your roots – your family tree, your physical, mental and spiritual background, your basic human state. What are your basic instincts? Your basic, primal fears and emotions? What does it truly mean to be a survivor?
Focus on feeling alive, feeling the Force flow through you. Do not think, just feel. Give thanks for life.
Think about how posture can affect the flow of energy throughout your body. What would happen if energy were trapped or blocked here? What can be done to release it?
The root chakra is characterized by raw, primal, powerful colors. What do these colors tell you about this chakra, and what is associated with it? How do you image this chakra in your mind? Draw, paint, or write a story or poem about it.
FOR FURTHER STUDY: You might sometimes notice in meditation or simply in everyday life that you suddenly experience a blurring of vision, a brief sensation of dizziness and/or nausea that is not related to illness. When this happens, it is quite probable that you are astral projecting and wandering around the lower realms. Depending on where you are at the moment, you may need to ground yourself, or come back on the physical plane. This chakra connects us to the Earth energy and helps us ground ourselves, linking ourselves to our Mother.
Grounding meditation: Sit on the ground or on the floor, if you cannot go outside. Close your eyes and relax. Visualize your root chakra glowing a blood red and reaching deep into the Earth. Feel the energy of the Earth flowing up through your body.
Week Two: The Sacral Chakra
Focus on the emotion of pleasure. This does not mean to party all week, though your studies can and should be fun. ☺ What is pleasure? What is desire? Where does it come from and where do we feel it? Often we may say that we want something so badly it hurts. What does that mean?
Freud developed something called the Pleasure Principle: that is, that one of the basic drives and instincts of the human being is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. How would you say this ties in with this chakra?
This chakra is also the one we use to center ourselves in meditation. What can happen if this chakra is blocked or imbalanced?
What can happen if energy is blocked or trapped here? How do we free it?
The color associated with this chakra is orange, which is also tied to appetite stimulation. How does this chakra tie in with appetites? If you wish, paint, draw or write a poem or story about this chakra.
Give thanks for pleasure, for happiness and joy, for creativity.
Applied situation: One of your friends just can’t seem to stop going to the Mall and spending all of her allowance. She has borrowed money off everyone she can possibly ask, and her parents refuse to give her any more until next month. She just confided in you that she has taken her mother’s credit card and is heading to the Mall to buy some new clothes. You question her about that, and she blows up: “My mom won’t care. She’s never home anyway!”
What is the problem? (hint: Look at the behavior and the underlying cause)
What would you, as a Jedi, do to help her?
Applied situation: Jimmy spends most of his time alone in his room, which is constantly a disaster area and littered with empty bags, candy wrappers, TV dinner trays, pizza boxes, and so forth. You notice, not surprisingly, that Jimmy is extremely overweight and seems to be eating constantly. You overheard a rumor in the dorm that Jimmy’s parents split up about a year ago, but of course you don’t know if that’s true.
What is the problem? Physically? Psychologically?
What would you, as a Jedi, do to help him? (Again, examine the behavior and the underlying cause)
Week Three: The Solar Plexus chakra
This week, focus on your Force instinct. The “gut feelings” that many of us get come from this chakra. This chakra also governs will, personal power and raw emotions.
Why do you think the color yellow is associated with this chakra? You may paint or draw a picture of it, or write a story or poem about it if you wish.
Focus on your willpower. What challenges have you faced thus far in your Jedi studies? How have you had to rely on your willpower to face and conquer these challenges?
Give thanks for free will and determination, for personal power and self-control.
What is power? Who seeks it and why? Does a Jedi seek power? If so, over whom or what?
You may notice several Sith on the Board who have symptoms of blockage in this chakra. Why? How can you tell? How can we free it?
ADVANCED STUDY: This is one of the most common auric healing problems a Jedi will encounter, as many people tend to tap into power they are not ready for – and end up with this chakra blown wide open (think a blown fuse or a blow-out on a car tire – much the same effect). How could this problem happen and why? (hint: think power-seeking)
Applied situation: Jeff, also known as “Mr. Perfect”, approaches you after Math class to ask for your vote as Class President. You aren’t surprised. You know the only thing he will not run for is the school bus! He is active in just about every club in school, holds several officer positions, is on the Honor Roll every time and dates the head cheerleader. In fact, Jeff really makes you sick sometimes!
You mumble something noncommittal and turn away. Jeff unexpectedly grabs you by the shoulder. “Can I talk to you?”
Being the Jedi and good listener that you are, you nod and start walking down the hall with him. He then proceeds to tell you that he feels really screwed up lately. He doesn’t know why. He came to you because people say you’re a good listener and you seem to have it all together. Maybe you see something he doesn’t. While he talks, he takes out a pack of Rolaids and starts eating them like candy. You notice that he paces constantly while he talks to you.
What is the problem? Is Jeff’s chakra blocked? If so, how can you tell?
What would you do as a Jedi to help Jeff?
Week Four: The Heart Chakra
This is perhaps the most spiritually centered of the chakras, and is where many of the spiritual virtues are centered – among them love, compassion, forgiveness, peace, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, self-control, etc.
Why do you think the color green associated with this chakra? You may paint or draw a picture of it, or write a story or poem about this chakra if you wish.
What does it mean to be a virtuous person? How does virtue tie in with being a Jedi? How does a Jedi show virtue?
Many spiritual leaders have been models of virtue: Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Ghandi, and so on. In addition, many of our friends and relatives have helped shape us. (Think back to Week One.) Who is a role model for you and why? What virtues do you value?
Think about the old song title, “You Gotta Have Heart”. What does that mean? Give thanks for love and caring.
What can happen if this chakra becomes blocked? How do we free it?
Applied situation: No one in the whole school likes Doris. Her sharp wit and even sharper tongue have been in evidence since she moved here last September. You have yet to hear her say something nice about anybody or anything. She looks down on you and your friends, and often says she wishes she were back home. A brave few tried to be friendly earlier in the school year, but nothing seems to penetrate that cold shell that Doris wears like a cloak. You can’t explain it, but you are sure there is some warmth underneath if only you can reach it.
Doris’s heart chakra is blocked. How can you tell? How would you go about breaking the ice and freeing the trapped energy?
Week Five: The Throat Chakra
This is the center of communication. Think about all the different ways we communicate with other human beings, with animals, with plants, trees, stars and all that is.
Why do you think this chakra is associated with the color blue? You may paint or draw a picture of it, or write a story or poem about this chakra if you wish.
Give thanks for the gift of speech, body language and Force sense.
What can happen if this chakra becomes blocked? How can we free it?
Applied situation: Karen, your best friend, usually is very talkative and upbeat. Lately, however, she has become quiet and withdrawn. When she does speak, she often makes very tactless and hurtful comments, which is completely unlike her. You see her often swallow hard, and rub her throat gently. She says her throat feels tight but it doesn’t hurt, and she doesn’t know what is wrong with her. “Please help me,” she pleads with you one day at lunch. “I’m at the end of my rope.”
What is Karen’s problem? What would you, as a Jedi, do to help her?
Week Six: The Third Eye Chakra
This week, think about your Jedi abilities. What are your abilities? What Jedi skills have you noticed in you? What abilities do you need to learn? To work on further?
You practice concentration in meditation. You practice visualization and imagination there as well. Think about all the ways you use your imagination. What would your imagination look like if you could draw a picture of it?
Give thanks for imagination, for visualization skills and concentration.
Try visualizing the following: an apple, an orange, a ball of white light, a blue square, a yellow triangle. Hold each image as long as possible in your mind. What happens?
What can happen if this chakra becomes blocked? How can we free it?
NO applied situation in this case. For advanced healing only.
Week Seven: The Crown Chakra
This chakra connects us with our higher selves and the Divine. It is the source of Divine knowledge, higher understanding, wisdom and enlightenment. What is wisdom? What does it mean to be enlightened? How are you moving toward wisdom?
There comes a time for all of us when we must connect to something greater than ourselves. (Remember Week Three) What is this greater something to you? How do you connect to it?
Where and how do you find inspiration? Where and how do you find wisdom?
Why do you think the color white is associated with this chakra? Keep in mind that white is the color that results from the blending of all other colors.
What would wisdom look like if you could draw a picture of it? Describe it?
Give thanks for wisdom and enlightenment. Give thanks for the connection to the Divine.
How does this connection tie in with following the Path of the Jedi?