Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

matter and energy. The highest level of energy is considered the actual source of all things because it contains both Siva and Shakti, matter and energy, as well as the laws that allow it to become diversity. The mystic says everything is the mind of God. Many scientists say that at the core of atomic structure is information. Pure energy is both Siva and Shakti in union as one. When physicists designed experiments to determine whether light is a wave (a form of energy) or a particle (a form of matter), the result showed that, in effect, both are true. The answer is “it depends how you look at it.” The way in which the experiment is designed and observed affects the outcome. (The philosopher, J. Krishnamurti, often stated, “The observer is the observed,” as was also pointed out by the scientist, Werner Heisenberg, in his well-known Uncertainty Principle. The
Bhagavad Gita
talks about learning the difference and relationship between the “field” and the “knower of the field.”) Light is both a wave and a particle, with qualities of energy or matter, depending how we observe it.
    Regardless of how much energy or matter you remove from Earth, it remains essentially the same. This is because it is already one side of the polarity. When energy is added back into matter, it recapitulates the stages of matter’s creation as it coalesced down from light and seems to follow the levels mapped by chakras. For example, if we slowly add energy to a solid, it remains essentially the same until a specific critical quantum point is reached; then it jumps to the next level or plateau—liquid. Continue adding energy and it goes through the stages of fire and gas. Releasing the energy of gas, like splitting the hydrogen gas atom, is the last material stage before a quantum leap that yields a release of wave energy (sound), information, and light that merge backwith the oneness of energy. Earth-matter, water-liquid, fire-gas, sound-waves, and light are stages along the way. The seven corresponding levels, which relate to the chakras, are (1) earth-solid-matter; (2) liquid; (3) heat-fire; (4) gas; (5) dematerialization into wave energy or sound; (6) mind-thought, consciousness, information; and (7) infinity—oneness, pure energy, everything, and nothing.
    Earth spins in an outer spiral arm of our galaxy. Seen in this way, the planet Earth is a cooled manifestation, or lower frequency, of the same energy that created it. Putting religious perspectives aside, we see that life is created from the interplay of cosmic energy and matter. This broad spectrum—light, cosmic rays, and energies irradiate the earth to create Gaia or the web of life. Microscopic plants are the first children of Gaia. Plants take the energy of the sun and combine it with the elements in earth to make life. In an actual sense, then, Gaia constitutes a polarized re-expression of light, which then creates its own self-reflecting children. The circle of light creates the circle of life.

Chakras and Daily Life
    Chakra theory holds wisdom applicable to daily life. Some teachers map the chakras like a ladder to climb, rung by rung. On the contrary, the view presented here shows how each chakra signifies an important level of being that operates simultaneously with all the others. We can work concurrently with all of these levels in ourselves. Electronic law teaches that for energy to flow properly it must have a ground. The root chakra’s message is to keep your feet on the ground, to stay rooted and to keep your physical needs and affairs in order. The message from the water center teaches us to learn to flow and remain adaptable and to give conscious attention to sensual and sexual balance. Fire instructs in developing will and intention, and accepting change and transformation. Fire purifies and changes the form of that which passes through it. It is the doorway from the tangible to the intangible. The log in thecampfire is transformed back into earth, sound, heat, and light. We must keep our personal power and fire stoked and alive, developing strength of intention and will.
    The heart chakra serves as a fulcrum for all the other centers—the three higher and three lower. This center lies midway along the chakra system, where it can resonate equally above and below and balance the higher and lower. It instructs us to make the heart and love the center of our being. It implies that love should resonate through all the other levels. It is the balance