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and Karmic Awareness
Llewellyn Publications 2005 ISBN #0-7387-0354-0 Most people have some idea of what karma is, that it moves with us from lifetime to lifetime, and is connected with the lessons that we face in each lifetime. A small but growing group of people know that the chakra's are the points that control the flow of energy through our body. A lesser group of people understand that karma and the chakra system are interconnected. In Chakra Healing and Karmic Awareness, author Keith Sherwood explains the foundation of our energy system, how it works, what karmic attachments are, and how to remove them. He also discusses activating our higher and lower chakras in order to strengthen our aura, and how to work with kundalini energy. Of major import is the emphasis this book places on our energy system, and its connection to our physical health, to our relationships, and to our spiritual development. Karma is not just a lesson to be learned - karma is an active force that can be very disruptive in our lives. In removing karma from our energy fields, we are better able to create and maintain health in all of our inter-dependent systems: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The concepts of equal and unequal energy are referred to throughout this book. In his glossary, Sherwood defines them as follows: Qualified Energy: Qualified energy is energy that emerges from the collective field of maya. In contrast to unqualified energy, it causes attachments to fields, objects, and living beings. Given the right circumstances, qualified energy will coalesce into subfields that have the qualities of size, shape, density, polarity, surface texture, and color. Unqualified Energy: Unqualified energy radiates from the universal consciousness (the Self) into the hierarchy of fields that compose the phenomenal universe. In one form or another, it forms the foundation of the phenomenal universe as well as the higher and lower mind. It fills all available space and connects everything on all dimensions. Everything that exists has a form and occupies space, including objects, beings, emotions, and feelings that emerge from the unqualified energy and owe their existence to unqualified energy that supports it and provides it with a medium through which it can move and express its particular vibration or resonance. Unqualified energy in the form of prana - although an essential element of consciousness - emerges as an apparently separate force by way of the tattvas. Sherwood also lists several qualities for karma that, quite frankly, I would never have thought of. They are:
* Karma obscures comprehension. As you go over the list above, you can see how a person could come to attract what Sherwood terms "karmic baggage", which he defines as: Karmic Baggage: Karmic Baggage is the total amount of qualified (Karmic) energy that has accumulated in a human being's energy field during this lifetime and previous incarnations. Karmic baggage not only causes suffering and disease, it limits awareness by creating attachment to the external world of phenomena (maya). Karmic baggage does this by disrupting the vertical integration of energy bodies and energetic vehicles and by disrupting the transmission and transmutation of unqualified energy (prana) through the higher and lower mind and the human energy system. Sherwood does a good job of introducing the reader to the various energy systems within and surrounding the human body. He does this with the use of graphics that show the energy systems in relation to each other. The structure of this book is to provide a solid foundation for working with the energy systems, and then going through a series of exercises that allow the reader to develop "second attention", scan their energy systems, and remove baggage type energy. By nature, this book needs to be worked with from beginning to end, and each exercise needs to be done in turn. (My personal suggestion for doing the exercises is to tape them and play them back - in this way the practitioner has no need to "think" about what their next step is.) There is some very interesting information about the chakra's presented here. Each chakra is composed of two parts: the front (reflecting a feminine nature) and the back (reflecting a masculine nature). We normally think of the chakra's as spinning wheels of energy, but Sherwood portrays them as wheels with a funnel-like back to them. That small change in perception brings a large change to the understanding of these energies. There is also one point that is brought up that I have, shall we say, serious reservations about. Sherwood states that when we work with channeling, or when we call on the energy of a deity or spirit to work with us, we risk attachment. He states that we should not be working at all with energy in this manner. Having worked with channeling, as well as with the energy of spirits and deities, I feel that the benefits outweigh the risks. This is a decision that each individual will have to make for themselves. I won't ask him, but he probably would also not approve of my work with the Tarot! Chakra Healing and Karmic Awareness was written for a target audience of people who had some experience in energy work. I feel that the book is written well enough, and contains such a wealth of research and information, that someone who did not have a background in energy work, but had a strong sense of purpose and intent to do the work, could do the work and reap the benefits. This book serves as a research text, while at the same time serving as a working text for understanding the bodies energy systems, the concept of karma, and how to release it from its attachment to these same energy systems. The glossary at the end of the book does a credible job of explaining esoteric terms, and the book is filled with working diagrams that further enhance the readers understanding.
Bonnie Cehovet
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