Buddhism, chakras and meditation techniques
When we talk about chakras, kundalini, chi, mai and other esoteric physical structures fromt eh school of Esoteric Buddhism, these all belong to the sensation and form aggregates. We might think these phenomena are quite profound spiritual occurrences, but they actually represent only minor transformations of materiality, and are quite low on the ranks of cultivation attainments. Sometimes these kung-fu manifestations are coarse and sometimes subtle or refined, but they correspond to changes in gross materiality nonetheless. As the Zen school says, these phenomena should be viewed as “guests” rather than as the “host,” so why should you bother hankering after these things which will not stay? They occur naturally as the result of practicing various meditation techniques.
All the eight major body sensations typically experienced by cultivators-pain (irritation), cold, heat, weightlessness (buoyancy), heaviness, itching or inner body movements, roughness and smoothness–are also members of the form and sensation skandhas as well. Today many people tend to neglect this eight-fold classification scheme in favor of Ramakrishna’s recounting that when his chi moved, it alternatively felt like “an ant, a fish, a monkey, a bird or a serpent.” Hatha yoga simply says that as you cultivate your chi, the body will at first perspire, and then tremble. The Gherand Samhita states, “The first stage of pranayama gives heat, the middle stage gives rise to tremor, particularly in the spinal column, whilst the final stage of pranayama leads to levitation.” This all sounds very profound, but it only applies to the most rudimentary stages of spiritual practice wherein you are mainly involved with purifying your chi channels.
In light of these various descriptions for describing what beginning cultivators sometimes experience, it seems that the eight major physical sensations identified by Buddhism and Taoism seem to be the most scientific and refined descriptions available for classifying these phenomena. But what we must really consider in evaluating such matters is that when a meditation practitioner feels these things, it means that their cultivation level hasn’t gone past the skandhas of form or sensation! That is the important point when you are starting to evaluate various stages of attainment. If you are still feeling these things, you have not yet attained samadhi.
