Kundalini Splendor

"You may have heard how each chakra has a certain number of petals and different letters, various presiding deities, many attendant deities, different shapes and so on. Let me tell you, these are unnecessary complications. Understanding the real truth of chakras is a completely different ballgame."

by Swami Om, from "Kundalini — An Untold Story: A Himalayan Mystic's Insight into the Power of Kundalini and Chakra Sadhana", Black Lotus. Kindle Edition.

For years, I have suspected that the above assertion is true, but I never found any validation for this belief.  Today, while perusing the above book by Swami Om, I ran across this passage and was very relieved to find it.  Chakras are real, and the way you know this is by feeling their energies.  These energies will vary in tone and intensity, depending on the state you are in at the time.  Each can be extremely blissful, given the right circumstances.

I think that learning the traditional descriptions such as he lists will indeed improve your memory, but will do little to aid you in experiencing the reality of each chakra.

And, I might add, that I also do not follow the classic view that Kundalini must rise up the spine and to the crown.  My own energies are simply diffuse, all over feelings of delight and (often) bliss.  I do not try to control them.  Rather I follow where they lead me.  For me, this is the state of union with the Beloved Within.

Today, my practice began with feelings of delight near the ears, and then moved down through my body.  I do not know how the subtle energy surrounding the ears relates to the conventional notion of the chakras, but the effect is very nice.