The Solar Plexus Chakra - Manipura - The Third Chakra in The Body

The third chakra, namely the solar plexus chakra called Manipura in Sanskrit, is located above the diaphragm where another muscle rigidity gives a slouch to the upper back.nnHumanity keeps the upper back slouched.nnWhy? This, too, starts with the toilet training but this time, trying to control urination. Controlling urination when needed is not wrong but that should come naturally through the processing of body actions decided by the intelligence of the gray matter.nnWe are not animals.nnOur gray matter works! But we are in a hurry to teach our kids the lesson of toilet training way before the gray matter has developed enough to take a natural charge of the socially approved body actions. With forced and repeated training, the muscles of manipura - the solar plexus - settle down in an unconscious habit of keeping themselves contracted in order to stop and control defecation.nnThe habit gets reinforced by the kind of furniture that the humanity has designed for itself! The body settles down in a contracted Manipura (the solar plexus chakra); and the mind, in a shell around its own little self, concerned with a contradictory disposition of getting rid of the urine in the urinary bladder as well as of fearing releasing it from there. The body loses its urination sensitivity. The mind starts getting anxious of building up of more and more of worldly problems that are yet to come rather than facing them here and now. It gets obsessed with preparing for the future in the present, turns ambitious, and goes anxious.nnAmbition (it's always for the impending future!) replacing the enjoyment of the moment!nnPity!nnA contradictory life-style!nnManipura (the solar plexus chakra) gets established! Now, again compare this description of Manipura (the solar plexus chakra) with my personal experience in the episode of passion, while working with a physiotherapist along: It so happened one day that a physiotherapist came to my office asking me to train her in effecting a change in her personality. I train people in life skills - it makes me something like a life coach. The project was undertaken. By luck of chance, she had a slight myopia too, although she never wore glasses or contacts. I started by asking her to see clear near. That was no problem for her. A myopic is always quite comfortable in seeing near very clear; although s/he does not know that s/he is not doing even that too in a perfect way. The way a myopic sees near is also a faulty one, just as her/his seeing far is! It is only that it is not obviously so! Whatever, but I asked her to see me eye to eye which she did comfortably. Then I asked her to reduce the distance. She did the needful, one step nearer. The objective was to keep seeing clear throughout and not let the other's face be blurred in front of one's eyes. Slowly and gradually, we went on reducing the distance between the two sets of eyes, that ours were, till and up to we could, and still kept seeing clear. Our faces had gone taut. Our minds had stopped thinking. It was only seeing that was there in between the two of us. I suggested her to see her bodily organs with her seeing eye. It was taut, yet it was relaxed. The centering of her weight on the soles of her feet had shifted toward the padding just behind the big toes. The hips had pushed themselves back as well as out. The shoulders had gone up and back raising Manipura (the solar plexus) up. The centering of the thrust of action in her hands had shifted toward the padding just behind the thumbs. The scapulae on her back had gone perfectly plain, flat and aligned with each other. The jaws had aligned themselves with each other perfectly in their entire width. The skeletal muscles had automatically gone absolutely taut, and the skin on the face stretched in a way that would put even the best of the face-lift surgical operations to shame. The total face expression had gone anew. Her eyes were glowing with a spark into them. The positioning of lips had changed its shape. They had gone thinner and wider. It was a total face-lift in itself. No, it was not only a face-lift; rather it was a total body-lift that had taken place, especially at the diaphragm - the seat of Manipura, the solar plexus chakra. The whole body had gone taut and relaxed raising itself at the seat of Manipura (the solar plexus chakra). Her mind had gone empty too. There was not a single thought into it. The brain was working in it's full capacity (I sensed so, as well as she did!) - it wouldn't let any minutest sensation in her body pass unperceived. There was no fatigue in her body. There was no tension in her mind. And her eyes had turned into an eagle's eyes - they were seeing every single detail all around in its absolute clarity. Her myopia had instantaneously vanished into thin air! Her eyes were showing interest without, there, being any special object of desire (I was not one, not at least an object of desire!) in front of them. Her body was oozing energy raising itself at the seat of Manipura (the solar plexus chakra). It was not only oozing energy, but also feeling an intense pleasure that we, the human beings, often feel when we get a good massage or when we have a refreshing experience of sex. She said so. Only that this one was many times more than those as well as lasting much longer in time. She again said so. There was no fatigue in her temporomandibular joints at all. It was something like an out of the body experience. It was also something like an out of the world experience. And it was showing everything crystal-clear to her eyes.nnBut what on earth had triggered it? Came session two... And suspense turned passion! As we started from our state of heightened suspense, we were taken reeling together into the whirls of a maddening energy, which ultimately landed us onto our pelvic beds. We were sitting at the center of our pelvic beds - the seat of Muladhara (the root chakra). This center was one single point that was touching our chairs we were sitting in. Our bodies were in a perfect ready position. They were almost touching each other. But not at a single point did they touch the other. Sitting at the exact center of the pelvic bed was giving our bodies an upward push by an extremely piercing energy of Muladhara (the root chakra) that re-postured them (our bodies) in their wildest gesture of Svadhisthana (sacral chakra) along with Manipura (the solar plexus chakra) and turned our wondering suspense into a burning passion. But we would not touch each other! Passion ran high. Every single organ of our bodies had turned into a burning torch of passion. These torches would not stay passive! They started playing with their counterparts. They would come closer, then still closer, and then the closest, and then jump suddenly back only to come closer again! It turned into a dance - the dance of Svadhisthana (the sacral chakra) and the dance of Manipura (the solar plexus chakra). The dance of passion! There was a flow in our movements. It was the coolest thing on earth. The burning passion was the coolest fire I ever encountered in my life! There was no emotion in between the two of us. We were in no hurry to touch each other. In fact we knew we never would! We were cool. That was the condition of our game of passion we were playing with each other! I asked her if the center of the pelvic bed - Muladhara (the root chakra) - was the point of connection between the body and the mind. Her eyes looked straight into mine. She did not reply. "Is it not on the top of the head?" - she spoke out after around 30-40 seconds. I put my hand on the top of her head. It was taut. "And the jaws?" - I touched the alignment between the two jaws of hers. "These collarbones?" - her fingers were on my collarbones touching my neck on both the sides. "But then the scapulae?" - I was touching her scapulae beautifully tucked-in into the plainness of her upper back at the two extremities of theirs, the upper and the lower protrusions which was imparting the most beautiful postural shape to her chest as well as to her breasts! "Feel your plexus!" - she was indicating to Manipura (the solar plexus chakra) raised high and pulled back on the spine. My eyes fell on her Svadhisthana (the sacral chakra) around two inches below her navel, beautifully tucked in - giving an attractive shape to her posture overall! "Where, in your body, are you feeling your passion centered?" - I asked her looking deep into her eyes. Her eyes entered into mine, as if they were searching for the answer into them somewhere. Our bodies were positioned half a millimeter apart from each other and we were pondering upon the most basic question of the seat of passion in the human body. We were walking on the cool fire of hot passion - barefooted, together! Doesn't this description tell the same story in a more day-to-day language?nnEnergy gets trapped in Manipura (the solar plexus chakra), and is stopped from closing the loop.nnOpening Manipura (the solar plexus chakra) entails undoing the unconscious habit of keeping the solar plexus contracted, not as an exercise but as a way of life.nnVision therapy not only opens Manipura (the solar plexus chakra) but all the 7 chakras through a very subtle on-off switch in the body in one single go, since they are all connected anatomically as well as physiologically.