and genitals. Around lingam (penis) there is kundalini energy, which is coiled up eight times. 2. The Svadhisthana chakra is placed at the root of the penis. 3. The Manipura chakra is located in the middle of the body, above the navel. 4. The Anahata chakra is situated in the region of the heart. 5. The Vishuddhi chakra is located in throat area. 6. The Ajna chakra is between the eyebrows. 7. The Sahasrara chakra is above the crown of the head. According to Yoga teaching, if the kundalini energy is arisen, then this energy activates all the chakra centres gradually, one by one, up to the Sahasrara. However, it is the Manipura chakra that is activated as the first. Each of the energy centres represents individual type of experience. Higher degrees of spiritual experiences start in the fourth hearth chakra, mystical death in the sixth chakra, and liberation in the seventh chakra. Kundalini is symbolically expressed in the form of a snake, dragon, aura of the saints and so on. The most detailed teaching about the chakras and kundalini can be found in Yoga, specifically in Hatha Yoga. It can, however, be found also in other religions, for example in Tibetan Buddhism and Taoism, but we can also recognize depiction of something very close to the chakras in Kabala, Sufism, and Christian mysticism. For example, the Taoist text The Secret of the Golden Flower (Jung and Wilhelm 2004, 57, 65) mentions two centres of energy: one of them corresponds to the Manipura chakra, the other one correlates to the Sahasrara chakra in Yoga. The first representation is explained in the Taoist text by the comment that it is a “rebirth in the space of energy”. The second representation is explained as “awakening of the spiritual body to start independent existence”. There is also a different name of this representation – Golden Flower. Looking at depicting of the Golden Flower, we can certainly assume that it is beyond the body – transcendent form of existence. In Christian art we find Sahasrara or Taoist Golden Flower depicted in pictures of aura of the saints. When expressed in words, we speak about a cloud, which is a symbol that dates back between the time of Moses and the work The Cloud of Unknowing written in the Middle Ages. In its Czech translation a picture of a Luttrell psalm is applied showing the cloud along with “flowers”, similar to the chakras (lotus flowers) in Hinduism. Zen Buddhist roshi Houn Jiyu-Kennett (1997) also uses very impressive pictures of the chakras along with their descriptions. The first opened chakra is, again, Manipura (Jiyu-Kennett 1997, 70), and then there are other chakras that are activated up the spine. For a moment, Jiyu-Kennet experiences “death” when the sixth Ajna chakra is opened (1997, 74–75) and the seventh chakra, similar to the picture of “Golden Flower” from the Taoist book, gets gradually opened as well. In the Jewish mysticism of Kabbalah, the seven-candle holder Menorah symbolises something similar to the chakras in Yoga. Spirituality Studies 1 (1) Spring 2015 101 (5)
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