I find it amazing how people fall for tricks and shortcuts so easily...

I don't understand how people value so much things like opening the chackras with sound or visualization...

Why not?

I mean, why don't you understand it? (though I'd choose another word, because of what 'understand' means in legalese)

It FEELS GOOD. It feels extremely good - in fact, that's what drugs do - they mess up with people's energies and chakras, especially the 'mind-altering drugs', 'psychedelic drugs', 'consciousness-expanding drugs' and so on.

You can do it all without drugs, by yourself, just manipulating chakras and kundalini. You don't even need any sound for it, you don't need visualizations (I know, because I don't have a viz3D-GPU in my brain).

So basically you can make yourself feel euphoric, like you are constantly on drugs, but without the usual side effects of drugs, by meditating relatively regularly for an extended period of time.

Of course, that's still hedonism, and it doesn't bring anyone closer to enlightenment or the purpose of their incarnation, unless they were meant to experience that for some life-plan/karmic reason (for example, so that they can better endure what's coming, by first experiencing a small slice of euphoria).

Manipulating your chakras is not a trick or a shortcut - it does take determination, it takes a long time (nature always takes its time, and you can't hurry it - but people can't seem to learn this), and it takes doing repetitive meditation exercizes (if you can call it that) for months, before you get any discernable results.

And it works.

But it only works for giving you euphoric feelings, and with luck, -perhaps- slightly larger consciousness with which you can process the Universe, nature, yourself, your life, your surroundings, your thoughts, and whatnot. It can also give you better physical health and easier acceptance for whatever is happening. It can also soften emotional pain, ease it or even remove it temporarily. It can act as a buffer between you and emotional or spiritual pain.

So what's not to understand?

People want to ESCAPE their misery, and the handful that doesn't want to take drugs (even things like Salvia), alcohol, coffee, overdose of food, cigarettes, or try to escape into computer and video games, hobbies, work-o-holism, relationships, drama, romance, movies, TV or any of the sub-cultures that exist, usually want to do something more "natural" and "introspective", and of course "spiritual".

The word 'spiritual' is nowadays quite laughable - there's no unified definition. Ask 20 people who wanted to 'escape' their misery what 'spirituality' is, and you get 20 wacky answers that have nothing to do with what the word is supposed to depict.

Why can't you understand people wanting to escape their misery into all kinds of things? Chakra manipulation and meditation are just a couple of things people escape into. Why focus on them so much?

In any case, escapism works only on the short-term. Especially, if your life is wiser than you. It will take that bong out of your hand and smash it - it will punch those cigarettes out of your mouth so hard that they won't even think of coming back. It will break your TV, it will malfunction your computer, it will make sure you can't afford too much food (though in USA this would probably be impossible, because the unhealthy food is so cheap there).

Eventually, you have no method to use, nowhere to escape to, and you will be forced to fully experience and live your life. It's a bummer, but it's the other side of the "escapism" coin - the stark, grey, painful 'realism' that you can't numb, dull or escape in any way.

Meditating or manipulating chakras is no more spiritual than eating potato chips, by the way. It's just another form of attempted escapism, that's all. If you are already enlightened, or your life is in a stage where meditation can help your life plan (or karmic things), then meditation can certainly be helpful.

But even the Zen-masters always downplay the 'pleasure' aspect of Zen, so that people wouldn't try to attain enlightenment (not that it can really be 'attained' anyway) purely for hedonistic/escapist reasons.

I don't think it's amazing at all that people, whose life is misery, would want to escape it. I mean, do you almost drown some lab rats, and then be completely amazed when they try to cling to any life preservers you arrange for them, or take any escape route they possibly can, if their labyrinth catches fire?

I would find it amazing if -euphoric- people would try to escape.. but such individuals seem to lack the urge.

There is such a thing as "spiritual materialism", and that's what the people will cling to, when they can't or don't want to try the gazillion of other (illusory) escape routes. So when people are doing kundalini-yoga or chakra meditations, I don't find it amazing - I find it irresponsible, I find it delusional, I find it egotistical, I find they start thinking themselves to be superior to other people, but I don't find it amazing. It's actually pretty predictable.

It's like if you were trapped in a car that was to be soon crushed to a small cube - wouldn't you try to escape, too?

reply to post by Manula

Originally posted by Manula
Life is about learning through experience, making mistakes, knowing all sides of each reallity etc, its about evolving our actions, from wrong doing, to right doing.

Well, that is one perspective. It seems to be a popular one.

Originally posted by Manula
I don't understand how people value so much things like opening the chackras with sound or visualization...

People value different things. Sometimes from our own perspective and belief systems it can be difficult to understand.

Originally posted by Manula
People want the easy way out, they want to take the magic recipe, they want to take the magic pill...

WRONG!!!

Wrong according to you. That is your judgement.

Originally posted by Manula
Life is about hard work, its about evolving with effort, dedication, devotion and glory... its not about sitting and making strange sounds....

Again, that is your perspective. There are many different perspectives of life out there.

Originally posted by Manula
But go ahead, take the easy, dumbest way....

It is only "dumb" depending on what your intention is.

Originally posted by Manula
Not my way.

Good for you, I am sure many others would agree with you and disagree with you.
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Originally posted by Manula
Sorry for being so direct! Sorry to the author of the thread but its just my opinion...

No need to apologize for expressing your perspective on things.

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If you are referring to the thread I made about using sounds to open the chakras. I didn't make that thread because I felt like I was revealing some "secret". I made that thread because I was testing it out for myself and saying the sounds in a deep voice I actually felt the vibrations in my body. I thought it was interesting and wanted to share with others and hear about their experiences with it. If thought it was interesting that these vibrations of sounds corresponded to areas considered to be "the chakras".

At no point did I suggest that anyone should give up on their lives and sit in one space forever chanting sounds. Nor did I say that they should give up on life to go into a spiritual world and not interact in the world as a form of escapism.

If people are claiming this, they are either lying or their mind is playing tricks on them adding more things than what was actually said...