The liberating current, which is ever moving toward higher consciousness, is actually the pathway most commonly associated with the Chakra System. Until recently there has been less said about sending the energy downward, into the Earth, along the current of manifestation. This is often seen as less spiritual and, therefore, less worthy of our time and attention. Too many spiritual paths ignore the importance of grounding. Grounding is a process of dynamic contact with the Earth, with its edges, boundaries, and limitations. It allows all to become solidly real i.e. present in the here and now and also dynamically alive with the vitality that comes from the Earth. While mechanically the feet may touch the ground with every step, this contact is empty if we are cut off from the feelings in our legs and feet. Grounding involves opening the lower chakras, merging with gravity, and descending deeply into the vehicle of the body.
Without grounding, the mankind is unstable. All of us lose the center, fly off the handle, get swept off the feet, or daydream in a fantasy world. We lose our ability to contain, to have, or to hold. Natural excitement, or charge, becomes dissipated, diluted, and ineffectual. When the people lose the ground, the attention wanders from the present moment, and all of us appear to be `not all here.` In this state, all of us feel powerless and, like a vicious circle, may no longer want to be here.
The ground anchors the very roots for which this chakra is named. Through the roots, the humans gain nourishment, power, stability, and growth. Without this connection all are separated from nature, separated from our biological source. Cut off from the source, all can lose the specific path. Many people who cannot find their true path in life have simply not yet found their ground. Sometimes they are busy looking up instead of down, where the feet meet the path.
The roots are mainly made from the guts i.e. the instinctual feelings that get programmed from the memories of the past. The racial and cultural heritage is the indestructible fabric of our being. C. J. Jung describes this instinctual base as the realm of the collective unconscious, a vast and powerful realm of inherited instincts and evolutionary trends. When the human beings reclaim these roots, they strengthen who they are, and draw on the vast wisdom of this instinctual realm.
When the mankind is grounded, they are humble and close to the Earth. All of us live simply, in a state of grace. Stillness, solidity, and clarity can be embraced, `grounding out` the stresses of everyday life, and increasing the vitality of the basic life force. Resting on the ground, the people cannot fall, which provides a sense of inner security. It is through grounding that the consciousness completes the manifesting current. It is at the first chakra plane that ideas become reality. From the great diversity of imagination to the intricate requirements of the physical world, the Earth plane is the testing ground of the people`s beliefs. It can be said that which has ground, substance, and validity will find its way to manifestation. It can also be said that which has roots will endure.
In today`s urban world, there are few people who are naturally grounded. The language and cultural values reflect the superiority of the high at the expense of the low. The meaning of this is to be highly regarded, to hold one thing above another, to get high, to have things look up. Socially and economically, intellectual work is better rewarded than physical labor. The natural bodily processes such as waste elimination, sexuality, birth, breastfeeding, or nudity are considered dirty, to be done only in private and often with much guilt. Control of the health is put in the hands of an elite class, denying the sense of the own innate healing potential. The power structures in business, government, and organized religion flow hierarchically, from the top down, controlling and often trampling that which is below in order to serve the `higher cause` of that which is above.
By losing touch with the ground the people have lost the sense of intricate connection with all life. The mankind becomes ruled by a part instead of the whole and, furthermore, a part that is isolated, fragmented, and out of touch. Ignoring our ground, it is no wonder that all of us face a health care crisis and ecological destruction.
In an alienated and `ungrounded` culture, where most values do not favor the body or its pleasures, some can develop pain. The bodies hurt after a day at the computer or a day of driving. The stress of competition and fast living do not give chance to rest and renew, or to process that hurt, to release it. On developing pain ironically all become more resistant to grounding, for to ground is to be `in touch.` Getting in touch means to feel that pain. Yet this is the first step in making ourselves whole so that all of us begin to heal.
On becoming more mechanized and urbanized, the contact with the Earth and nature becomes more tenuous, and with it the health and self-worth. The power is transferred to the upper body where it, too, is tenuous and must be constantly guarded. Because all of us see ourselves as separate, power becomes an act of manipulation rather than connection. It eventually results into loosing touch with the animal nature, and with it the sense of instinctual power, grace, and peace. When a sense of self comes from the body, there is less need to affirm ourselves through ego inflation. Ground is home it`s familiar, safe, and secure. It has a power of its own.
Grounding implies limitation. While the mental energy of the upper chakras is boundless, the lower chakras are far narrower in their scope. Language limits and, therefore, specifies the thoughts. Yet there are a thousand things that could not fit in a large house, for the physical world has even more limitation. Each step down through the chakras becomes simpler, more definitive, and more constricted.
While frightening to some people, this limitation is an essential creative principle. If the activities cannot be limited the people would accomplish nothing. Far from being a negative, limitation creates a container that allows energy to build and gel into substance. To manifest, the people must be willing to accept limitation. Grounding is a harmonious acceptance of natural limitation. It is just as crucial to the development of consciousness as any meditation or raising of energy. In the words of the immortal I Ching: "Limitation has success.... Unlimited possibilities are not suited to man; if they existed, his life would only dissolve in the boundless. To become strong a man`s life needs the limitations ordained by duty and voluntarily accepted."
Grounding is a simplifying force. All the consciousness should be brought into the body which, for all practical purposes, exists in one space and one time only and i.e. the here and now. The thoughts, by contrast, are much more versatile, extending outside of space and time. It can be fantasized about being in the mountains for our next summer vacation, and perhaps even see and feel the warmth of the sunshine. But the body remains at the same place where it was and that is at the desk with snow outside the window and bills piled in front of us. If too much time is spent in fantasizing, time cannot be getting to do enough work or can take any vacation. Then it is time to get back to the Earth plane, do some grounding, and take care of survival needs.
The human organism is a finely tuned instrument capable of receiving and transmitting an enormous variety of energies. Like any stereo receiver, it is needed to plug it in before anyone can receive the various frequencies. Grounding is the process of plugging ourselves into the Earth and the world around the mankind. It completes the circuit that makes a channel for the great diversity of life energies around all of us.
Just as a lightning rod protects a building by sending excess voltage into the ground, in the same manner, the grounding protects the body from becoming `overloaded` by the tensions of everyday life. Through grounding the impact of stressful vibrations into a larger body that can handle them can be sent. A small child, for example, buries his head in his mother`s shoulder on hearing a loud noise. He is, in a sense, grounding that vibration in her body.
Measurements have shown that when the human body is standing on the ground, it is electrically grounded as well. There is an electrostatic field surrounding the Earth with a resonant frequency of about 7.5 cycles per second. The late Itzhak Bentov discussed a micro motion of the body that consists of the constant vibration of the heart, cells, and bodily fluids. He determined that this micro motion vibrates at a frequency of 6.8 to 7.5 cycles per second. Therefore, the body`s natural frequency resonates with the Earth`s ionosphere. Connecting physically to this great body, as in walking or lying on the Earth, the human being`s own bodies enter into this resonance more deeply.
Grounding is a way of coping with stress. The downward channel gives an outgoing circuit and protects from psychic overload. The physical world is safe and stable. The people can always return to the favorite chair, a good meal, and familiar surroundings when they need to feel calm and secure. This stability makes it easier to work on higher planes. When the body feels secure, well-fed, and healthy, our consciousness can flow to other levels.
Chakras filter energy from the environment. Their spinning pattern vibrates at a certain rate allowing only matching vibrations to enter into the internal core of consciousness. The rest recedes into the background, soon to be completely forgotten by the conscious mind although the subconscious mind may often remember quite well. When too much abrasive energy is found in our surroundings, the chakras will close down to protect the subtle body from this caustic invasion. Overloaded chakras are difficult to open. Grounding is a way to discharge this excess tension.
Grounding brings clarity through stillness. Every action causes a reaction. If the people can `still` the reactions to some aspect of a vicious cycle, in that case it is `stepping out of the world of karma.` Many people experience difficulty because their upper chakras are too open, while their lower chakras are not stable enough to support the barrage of psychic energy they pick up around them. At its extreme, this creates serious mental disorders, such as psychosis. A psychotic individual has lost touch with his ground and with consensus reality. Through techniques of grounding, psychic overload can be discharged, giving patients stability to match their sensitivity. Even simple physical touch can help to ground someone in intense pain. Physical exercises or making something with one`s hands is also useful, as well as any of the grounding exercises.
Grounding is like focusing a camera lens, where the object is to get two images to merge into one. As the stral body becomes firmly connected with the physical body, the senses of the physical world around the body become sharp and clear. If another person were to look at when some are particularly grounded, they would also experience a dynamic clarity about the latter section of people or can be a presence in the eyes and body, whether or not that person had ever seen an `aura.`
In this state of `groundedness,` decisions are more easily made. Worries about the future are more easily assailed, and enjoyment of the present moment takes on a new luster and challenge. This is not a state that is detrimental to expanded consciousness, but one that enhances it.
Grounding forms a foundation. A person desiring to study medicine `grounds` themselves in the physical sciences as an undergraduate. In opening a new business, one first gets `grounding` from someone more experienced in the field and finds financial support. Our first chakras are the foundations on which everything rests. The bodies are a microcosm of the world we create around. The work done and the foundations built are of utmost importance to the success of whatever follows.
For many people, work itself is a grounding activity. Aside from providing our basic tool of survival i.e. the money, the routine of working a job according to a regular schedule can provide a basic structure that supports the life around it. This routine, while it may be drudgery at times, can actually be beneficial in its limitations. It actually builds a foundation. Through focus and repetition, energies become dense enough to manifest. If anyone is involved with constant change, he or she is like a rolling stone that gathers no moss.
Chakras, however, must be balanced. While the stability of grounding is a necessary state to achieve, undue attachment to this security can be detrimental. The physical world is not the goal, but only a tool. It is possible to dominate the consciousness with addictions to material comforts, and the acquisition of more and more of them becomes the basis of many people`s lives. It is seen as a detriment to the growth of consciousness and one that makes material existence a trap. Once again, it is only undue attachment to this security that becomes a trap, not the basic satisfaction of this need.
Grounding is not dull and lifeless, but dynamic and vibrant. Generally it is our tension that makes us lethargic and tension results from alienation between various parts of ourselves. As these parts are simplified and integrated, the people experience increased vitality. Intellectually, it is easy for people to understand the need for grounding. But the experience cannot really be explained in words. It is a cumulative skill, one session of grounding meditations may produce some effect, but it is only over time that the real benefits may be achieved. As grounding is the foundation for all else the people may do, it is well worth it to take the time.
