A question that I often like to ask myself is, “What is a chakra?” This can be the question that leads you into finding a map for fulfilling your purpose. Let me begin by sharing a definition that I hope points you in a fun direction for exploring this question (Quest-I-On) for living a life of purpose, passion, and true prosperity.

What is a Chakra – A Chakra is a Gateway into a level of potential within you. It is a holon, meaning it is a part of a greater whole. This greater whole is the 7 major chakra system. Your task in life is to move through these 7 major gateways in order to realize your full potential.

So let me outline a menu for answering this question, “What is a Chakra?” The understanding of this question is a key life skill for those committed to living their full potential.

So let me first share with you a menu that gives you an outline for exploring the question.

• What is a Chakra
• What is Your Full Potential.
• Traditional Understanding.
  • A Wheel of Energy
  • A Different Understanding
• Invitation to a Fuller Understanding.
  • Gateway or a doorway
  • What is a Holon
  • A Map to Finding Your True Destiny

So I hope this menu is of interest. I have added internal page links in order to allow you to move between different sections that immediately peak your interest.

However, I recommend you do not skip reading any part of this article as it is progressive in nature.

Let us begin to open the gateway of revealing your full potential.

Chakra Print by Debbie Dewitt – FineArtAmerica.com

If you Google the question “What is a Chakra?” the 1^st page item may give you the following definition:-

Chakras 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 Hinduism. The concept is found in the early traditions of Hinduism. – Wikipedia

Now when I read this definition it doesn’t set me on fire.

It gives me more information about what a chakra is but in the opinion of this writer there is little to inspire you to use this information to reveal your full potential.

Infinite Potential – Mystic Muse – Artpal.co.

Your full potential can be defined in one word. This word is the word ‘Union.’

Your purpose for existing on this planet of duality within this dimension of time and space is the journey into union.

“Union with what?” you might ask. The answer is union of the:-

• Personal with the Universal.
• Human with Being.
• Time with Eternity.
• Form with the Formless
• I am with I AM.

This experience of full potential is what is means to practice Yoga.

The word yoga translates as “union.” This is its central focus. The 7 major chakra system is the premier map for realizing this experience.

The Flow – Victoria Tara – SaachiArt.com

Most definitions of a chakra inform you that it is a wheel. The wheel represents a subtle energy centre in the body. For me personally I never really connected with that definition. I think this is true for Seers of old who probably had the ability to SEE subtle energy.

However, I don’t have that ability and most people in the West, and especially those interested in these things  do not have the ability to SEE energy.

So, while it may be true it doesn’t help me. What I want is to be inspired. I want to have something that will invite me on a journey that allows me to fulfil my true potential.

Gateway to Infinity – Vera Knocka – FineArtAmerica.com

I my homeland of Ireland I facilitate a workshop I call Companioning YOUR Greatness.(W.B. Yeats). In this workshop, my focus is on using guided meditations to reveal the creativity of the participants. I love how such creativity opens up in everyone in its unique way.

One way of answering the question, “What is a Chakra?” is to view it as a magical Gateway into a place filled with wonder that you are going to explore. Personally speaking, that excites me more than knowing that a chakra is a wheel.

It doesn’t have to be a gateway. It could be a doorway into a room. It could be a boat that you sail down a stream on an adventure to the Ocean which represents the Ocean of Love which you become at one with (union).

Whatever image works for you is the image that you follow.

It doesn’t have to be forever. The image will change as you grow. What is important, in the beginning, is that there is some degree of excitement felt in the invitation.

Do not let this question, “What is a Chakra?” simply be more information. Let it invite you into following your destiny into the KNOWING of Love.

Westwind II 

You are young.  So you know everything.  You leap into the boat and begin rowing.  But listen to me.
Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without any doubt, I talk directly to your soul.  Listen to me.

Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and your heart, and heart’s little intelligence, and listen to me.

There is life without love. It is not worth a bent penny, or a scuffed shoe.  It is not worth the body of a
dead dog nine days unburied.

When you hear, a mile away and still out of sight, the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the
sharp rocks – when you hear that unmistakable pounding – when you feel the mist on your mouth and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls plunging and steaming – then row, row for your life toward it.

~ Mary Oliver

So if the above invitation excites you in any way then let’s venture onward into answering a related question to “What is a Chakra?”,  This related question is, “What is a holon.”

Holon – Villedary Christophe – SaachiArt.com

In very simple terms a ‘holon’ is a part of something that is a larger whole. For example, a cell is part of the larger whole that is an organ. An organ is a part that of the larger whole that is the body. Here is a story that will illustrate in a more feeling way what a holon is.

The Parable of the Two Watchmakers.

There once were two watchmakers, named Bios and Mekhos, who made very fine watches. The phones in their workshops rang frequently; new customers were constantly calling them. However, Bios prospered while Mekhos became poorer and poorer. In the end, Mekhos lost his shop and worked as a mechanic for Bios. What was the reason behind this?

The watches consisted of about 1000 parts each. The watches that Mekhos made were designed such that, when he had to put down a partly assembled watch (for instance, to answer the phone), it immediately fell into pieces and had to be completely reassembled from the basic elements.

On the other hand Bios designed his watches so that he could put together subassemblies of about ten components each. Ten of these subassemblies could be put together to make a larger sub-assembly.

Finally, ten of the larger subassemblies constituted the whole watch. When Bios had to put his watches down to attend to some interruption, they did not break up into their elemental parts but only into their sub-assemblies.

Now, the watchmakers were each disturbed at the same rate of once per hundred assembly operations. However, due to their different assembly methods, it took Mekhos four thousand times longer than Bios to complete a single watch.

From A Brief History of Holons – Mark Edwards – Integral World – Exploring Theories of Everything

A chakra is a holon.

It is part of a system of chakras that form the 7 Major Chakra system. In exploring, “What is a Chakra?” you are invited on a journey of opening 7 gates or seven doors or sailing 7 seas. All of these gates, doorways or seas are interconnected and interdependent.

Ocean Mandala – Sumit Mehndiratta – Saachiart.com

So the question, “What is a Chakra,” should lead you to explore the further question, “What is the 7 Chakra System?”  or to return to using a metaphor, let me say that it is the premier map of human potential.

It is the premier map for attaining union. It puts together all the chakras – ‘holons’ that allow you to experience what it means to be whole. This is really a journey of a lifetime and a journey of 3 Stages of Life.

• Life Stage 1 – Integration of the Personal – Lower 3 Chakras.
• Mid Stage 2 – Period of Transition – 4th Chakra
• Life Stage 3 – Transformation via the Universal – Higher 3 Chakras.

This is not a precise linear journey but it gives you an overview of the fullness of the journey into realizing and revealing your full potential.

Spirituality at its Best – Dr Pkmac007 – Artpal.com

So I hope that the question,  “What is a Chakra?” will lead you into a quest. This is the quest to fulfil your potential and Companion YOUR Greatness.

Recognize that if you ask this question, “What is a Chakra?” that there may be something inside you that is looking toward something other. This is not a question that you can answer with intellectual information alone.

That is only the signpost pointing the way toward the invitation to transformation.

You can file away the Wikipedia definition but don’t let that be all you do. Take the journey through the 1^st Gateway into the Land of Magic and Mystery that is the Light of Your own Being.

This means that you would have to value the truth of who you are created to be. You would have to begin to explore the possibility that you are magnificent beyond measure. For so many of us this very idea, let alone experience, is too hard to believe in.

Let the question ‘What is a Chakra?” be a spiritual sign inviting you to the beginning of a wonderful Quest to discover the map for finding real purpose, passion and true prosperity in your life. Let this question be the 1st Gateway into the KNOWING of your magnificence.