Exploring the Sacral Chakra: Finding the Flow
Lately I’ve been reading a lot of Alan Watts. In one of his journal entries, he describes something he calls the paradox of happiness or the backwards law. Happiness is something that we all would like to have. Ask a little kid what he wants to be when he grows up and he might say “happy”. The story then goes that the child doesn’t understand the question, but the adult doesn’t understand life. Alan Watts might suggest that nobody understands anything here.
You see, if you set out seeking happiness, you become increasingly aware of all the times that you are unhappy. By setting your sights on it, you make it more elusive, like those little floaters that appear on the edges of your eyes (that’s normal right?). Consider the restaurant critic. I assume that this career begins with a love of really exceptional food. It evolves as the years go by into a nasty game of comparison of this dish to that, and an endless search for the perfect plate that exists only in the mind. Meanwhile the beggar on the street smiles happily with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his hands.
If we are to accept this idea of the happiness paradox, and I more or less do, then it is really no wonder that in last month’s entry I was able to find more and more instances of being ungrounded despite my search for that balancing in the root chakra. I shone the spotlight on one aspect of my life and found countless ways to improve upon it. Therein lies the challenge of these spiritual practices.
You keep growing but you’re never really complete.
What I did not expect following the release of my focus on the root chakra, was how incredibly grounded I might feel! The practices that seemed so hard to cultivate last month now seem, dare I say, rooted into my day to day life. I wake up early. I make breakfast. I read and I meditate. My physical movement practices are the norm rather than the exception. My body and mind appear to be well adjusted to the relatively new idea of a day to day approach. I guess it just takes some time.
Now as I move up into the flowing waters of the sacral chakra, I start to find just how important that first month was. I’ve found that this chakra allows much more movement. There is an opportunity to look at a situation and say, that’s not for me today. There’s space to twist and turn and bob and weave into and out of whatever I want to do, but had I started here in the practice, I’m not sure I would be getting anywhere (as if there was anywhere to go). The habits need to be there first so that you can objectively decide to take a day off from them for your own betterment.
This came to mind during a morning meditation. I’ve recently been getting up around five in the morning to prepare for my day. I rise out of bed, maybe after a snooze or two, and make my way to the kitchen for a small breakfast and coffee. Following that I spend some time with a book and then sit meditation on the porch. I’ve abandoned my adorned altar and the dogmatic white wall of the zendo for my view of the neighboring beach condos or the corner of Santa Monica Beach. In truth my seat doesn’t allow me to see straight through and at times I’m just staring at a prayer flag in front of my face. This felt better somehow than the other ways in which I was meditating. I can’t say exactly how, other than it just felt like my own. Sometimes the waves crashing at the shore calm me down, sometimes I look at the little Tibetan script on a flag and sometimes I stare out at this little light coming from the house of another early riser across the way. Sometimes I even close my eyes.
Recently, I did none of the above because I came out onto my porch, carefully set down my zafu and coffee and as I assumed the position, I noticed the moon. She was out in all her glory preceding the morning sunrise. Though in all her glory, is incorrect because this was a crescent moon. I’ve spoken at length in books and articles about my tumultuous relationship with the moon. I see her as a bit of a trickster goddess who likes to laugh at my toils from far away, whether for good or bad it’s all the same to her. I’ve had a practice of sitting with her when she is full for some time now and lately, Jenna and I have modified our own practices to lead a full moon ceremony once a month at the wellness studio that we work at in Venice [California].
This has always been the means in which I, and this may seem a strong word, worship her. In her fullness.
But this morning, she was different. She was coy. She was teasing. She was half hidden and if you cocked your head at the right angle she was smiling his mischievous little smile at you. And she still deserved praise.
I have the chakras tattooed down my back with images that are personal to me. For the sacral chakra I chose the moon. She has phases, yet she is always the moon. That seemed important to me. This month in honoring the sacral chakra, I noticed that everything is always moving. Nothing stands in one place for too long. If you grasp too long into the firm rigidness of the root chakra, you’re bound to break. As we climb the ladder towards liberation, adjustments need to be made both inside and out.
In a morning reading, I found a new little mantra that might help to see us all through,
“The Middle Way of compassion - that is, of feeling for both sides, of allowing, respecting, and owning the apparently random and involuntary aspect of our karma. This means increasing tolerance for surprising and unscheduled events, for life-forms and life-styles other than our own, and for all things sinuous, slippery, wayward, and wiggly…”
What I believe Mr. Watts is trying to say here is that you’ve got to be wiggly. The nature of life is to change. The Tao Te Ching suggests that the nature of life is bending and yielding while the nature of death is rigid and cracked. When we ground down into our principles and what is important to us, we must then spin the dharma wheel again. Not everyone will have the same principles as us. Not everyone will find the same importance in things that we do. The world will not adjust for us and so we must be wiggly. We must be able to adapt in order to climb higher. The challenges and issues of everyday life that appear are simply part of everyday life. They are not walls to be broken down so much as they are little games to be played with. When I took this point of view, it didn’t seem like the world was out to get me or dissuade me from where I was going. It was trying to dance with me. And it wasn’t any fun for either of us if I just got there in a straight line.
So the sacral chakra is a bit of a give, where the root seemed to be more of a take. On one hand, I find it odd that we’re only at level two and I have to back off on some things that I learned on the previous level, but on the other hand isn’t that what balance is? We stand on the tip of a knife. Strong movements either way would blow us off course. Balance is nothing but awareness to the winds and right action to maintain your course.
And this time, thanks for flowing with me through the process.
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(She/Her)
The gal behind Held In The Heart. The Community Journal is a space for those who feel deeply to express freely. We explore all sorts of things here, from the real & raw healing stories & creative writing, to the funny & fleeting moments of everyday human life. I warmly welcome you and invite you to explore with us!