Questions and Answers on the Contemplative Practice of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness 26

Question: Do the body's chakra diagrams actually exist?

Answer: The body does have chakras. The chakras are the main places where the body's various meridians converge. I have personally experienced the sensations of the qi channels passing through these chakras. When the qi channels first pass through any part of the body, there are corresponding reactions. The poorer your physical condition, the more severe the blockages; when passing through the chakras, the sensations are stronger, and the more blocked places are the harder to get through. The chakra diagrams that have been passed down are fairly accurate.

In our cultivation, no matter which school or tradition we belong to, and regardless of whether it is a non-Buddhist path, if it is useful to us, there is no need to reject it. Other schools and traditions are not entirely without merit; drawing on their strengths to offset our own shortcomings still brings quite a few benefits. Our bodies are constructed the same as the bodies of those on non-Buddhist paths, so during the stage of cultivating the body, the phenomena that appear are roughly similar. Even if you are not deliberately cultivating the body but rather cultivating the mind, sitting in meditation and practicing inevitably involves issues of the body—this cannot be avoided. Therefore, we should learn something about methods that are useful for cultivating the body, so that we know what to expect and know how to respond when the time comes.

Since our bodies are the same as the bodies of those on non-Buddhist paths and the bodies of people in any tradition—same structure, same chakras, and the same manner and channels of the qi channels' circulation—there is no need to reject the teachings of non-Buddhist paths. Once you understand a bit, you will know the current condition of your own material body (rūpa-kāya), and when you encounter problems, you will not be surprised or at a loss. Non-Buddhist paths focus mainly on cultivating the body, while we focus mainly on cultivating the mind. Yet cultivating the mind is inseparable from cultivating the body; we learn that knowledge of the body's qi channels and the methods for dealing with them in order to resolve our own problems well. Beyond that, there is no need to concern ourselves with anything else.