They have great ambitions and a shining look in their eyes, they are well built and like spicy food. When they talk, everyone listens. These are the people of the third chakra. People that can change the world.
If in the first chakra food and security are enough, and in the second chakra pleasure and good company are enough, these will not satisfy a person dominant in the third chakra. They would always want something greater, to be admired by their environment and to fulfill the ideal for which they were born for. In sanskrit, this chakra is called Manipura. This means the city of precious jewels. And indeed, in this chakra, there is an abundance of hidden treasures. The third chakra is situated just in front of the navel.
The third chakra is related to the fire element, tejas tattva in sanskrit. The harmonious activation of this chakra gives one great willpower, self confidence and dynamism. An impure activation of this chakra creates violence, thirst for power and pride.
On the physical level, the navel chakra is in charge of the digestive process, as well and the regulation of adrenaline. People who have this chakra open have a strong athletic body, they are upright, but when they gain weight they have a big belly that sticks out. They like spicy food, their body is hotter than average, so they are more resistant to cold and suffer more in the heat. Their body language is authoritative and decisive, their voice is loud and their speech is elegant and penetrating. Their gaze is sharp, sometimes even fiery – hypnotizing, like the gaze of Rasputin.
Their presence in the social sphere is very noticeable. When you come in contact with such a person you have the tendency to become silent when such a person is speaking.
Masters of ther own faith
The psychology at the level of this chakra is that of dynamism and achievement. People with a strong third chakra think from their belly. When this chakra is very active, one feels very independent – a master of his own destiny. He chooses his goals himself and is not afraid of the difficulties and efforts which are needed to accomplish them.
The centre of the being on this level is not the satisfaction of the body and the senses, as in the lower chakras, but mental satisfaction of the ideals and goals we have selected. A person on this level would sacrifice his comfort, sleeping hours and pleasures in order to attain his goal. This tendency is the basis for building willpower.
Therefore, one of the ways of opening manipura meditation is by developing willpower. The law of willpower says that willpower will increase every time we make a decision and follow it and will decrease every time we decide to do something and don’t follow it. There is a nice and efficient exercise to develop willpower in this direction. You can decide that for the coming week you will break a match every day. At the end of the week, if you followed your decision, your willpower will grow. Taking small tasks at the beginning, then investing the willpower we accumulated into bigger and bigger tasks, we will be able to gradually make bigger decisions such as stop smoking, reduce the time for entertainment or start daily practice of meditation.
Another way to develop this chakra is by third eye opening exercise and most importantly by meditating, focusing on the navel area. All you have to do is sit with your back straight without moving, and focus your awareness again and again, right outside the navel area – 3 centimeters in front of your body – and feel how the energy that the attention is carrying is gathering there and activating in the navel chakra, Manipura. As you develop this chakra through meditation you will get a feeling of an inner centre of peace and self confidence. The need for sleep is reduced and the wish to take responsibility will grow. Meditations of this kind are very common in the zen buddhist tradition. The path of zen is deeply connected to the navel chakra, it is hard to find, for example, a zen story about love. The love stories will only appear in the next chakra.
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