Chakras and Reiki

Chakras are among the best-known ideas in the spiritual world. Most people know them as seven energy centers along the spine, from the root chakra to the crown chakra, often shown in the colors of the rainbow. But the idea of energy centers in the body exists in many traditions, and in Japan it took on a very particular form. That's what this article is about.

What the word chakra means चक्र

Chakra is Sanskrit for "wheel" or "circle." It refers to vortices in the subtle body where energy channels (Sanskrit: nāḍī) meet. Today's best-known version has seven main chakras: mūlādhāra (root), svādhiṣṭhāna (sacral), maṇipūra (solar plexus), anāhata (heart), viśuddha (throat), ājñā (brow) and sahasrāra (crown).

What's remarkable is that the Indian tradition isn't uniform at all. Depending on the text and school, there are systems with five, six, nine or even more centers. The fact that the seven-chakra model caught on worldwide goes back largely to a single book, The Serpent Power by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), published in 1919. The rainbow colors were added later.

The five rings in Shingon 五輪

In Shingon Buddhism the five rings stand for the five great elements (Japanese: godai 五大): earth, water, fire, wind and space. Each element has its own Siddham seed syllable, shape and color. Unlike the seven chakras, the focus here isn't on individual points but on five elements that build up the body from bottom to top. Both ideas share a root in Indian tantra, namely the idea that the human body is a small image of the cosmos.

The five elements and their seed syllables 梵字

The Shingon monk Kakuban (1095–1143) described this connection in particular detail. In his treatise Gorin kuji myō himitsu shaku 五輪九字明秘密釈 he links the five elements with the five organs of Chinese medicine. By the way, the "nine syllables" in the title refer to Amida's nine-syllable mantra, not to Kuji Kiri. The correspondences look like this:

The colors vary slightly depending on the source. In meditation the five seed syllables are visualized in the body, so the practitioner becomes a mandala. In other words, microcosm and macrocosm meet.

Gorintō, the body as a pagoda 五輪塔

Walk through a cemetery or temple grounds in Japan and you'll see five-ring pagodas (Japanese: gorintō 五輪塔) everywhere. Five stones are stacked on top of each other: a cube, a sphere, a triangle, a half-sphere and at the very top a kind of jewel. Often the matching seed syllable is carved into each stone. The Okunoin cemetery on Mount Kōya has tens of thousands of them. A gorintō is a kind of three-dimensional picture of what's experienced in meditation as the body mandala, the body as a sacred place.

The hara 腹

What the chakra model calls the sacral chakra has a very particular place in Japan. The lower belly is called hara 腹, and a little below the navel lies the tanden 丹田, literally the "cinnabar field," a term from Daoist inner alchemy. In the martial arts the hara anchors every movement, and in calligraphy, seated meditation or the tea ceremony it's the area you move from as well. Besides this lower tanden, the tradition also knows a middle one in the chest and an upper one between the eyebrows.

Chakras in Shingon Reiki 靈氣

Shingon Reiki brings both views together, the chakras and the five elements of Shingon. Many Reiki hand positions already sit where the chakras are located. What Shingon adds is the connection with seed syllables, mantras and hand gestures, that is, with the three mysteries of body, speech and mind. What that looks like in practice belongs in the live events and the community. You'll find more on seed syllables in the article on Siddham syllables. Which energy center do you feel most clearly yourself?