Chakras (Sanskrit: चक्र, IAST: cakra, Pali: cakka, lit. wheel, circle) are the various focal points in the subtle body used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, or the esoteric or inner traditions of Indian religion, Chinese Taoism, Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, and in postmodernity, in new age medicine, and originally psychologically adopted to the western mind through the assistance of Carl G. Jung.
The concept is found in the early traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. They are treated as focal points, or putative nodes in the subtle body of the practitioner. These theories differ between the Indian religions, with many esoteric Buddhist texts consistently mentioning five Chakras, while separate esoteric Hindu sources will offer six, or even seven. They are believed to be embedded within the actual physical body, whilst also originating within the context of mental and spiritual fields, or complexes of electromagnetic variety, the precise degree and variety of which directly arise from a synthetic average of all positive and negative so-called "fields", this eventuating the complex Nadi. Within kundalini yoga breath exercises, visualizations, mudras, bandhas, kriyas, and mantras are focused on transmuting subtle energy through "chakras"
by Ram Dass
If you think in terms of chakras, or energy systems in the body or connected with the body, there is the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, which are called the muladhara, sradhishthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddha, anja, and sahasrara. The first one is in the bottom of the spine, the second is sort of below the navel, the third is at the navel, the fourth is in the heart region, the fifth is at the throat, the sixth is between the eyebrows, the seventh is on the top of the head.
These don’t necessarily have any physiological correlates. They’re just psychic localizations of psychic energy, let’s put it that way, in this Hindu system, a Sanskrit, Hindu system I was talking about. Now, instead of doing an MMPI or a Rorschach you could also do a chakra chart, just like you could do an astrological chart. And these all tell you certain things. An astrological chart is like an MMPI one level back in abstraction. In the same way, a chakra chart tells, in a way, where the energy is fixed or localized in a person, where it’s stuck...