Meditation + Retreat   Self Improvement Adventure of a Lifetime

Thank you, Helen, for being the first person to ask a question, and it’s a good one too.

6 drawings of unbalanced chakras

Helen commented on the Q+A page, thus; “What happens when you tear your heart chakra?” in response to my statement; “Well, when I was in deep meditation retreat in 2001 I managed to tear (unbalance, or any other appropriate term) my heart chakra.”

First, we shall assume there is such a thing as chakras because that would be a different question. Secondly, I’ll have to say I cannot give you a description of a ‘tear’ in a chakra other than what I’ve been told (and probably misinterpreted lol), but I’d suggest the best person to ask is ex NASA scientist, Barbara Ann Brennon, of the Brennan School of Healing. This image (see right) looks like it may have come from one of her detailed books.

There is information about auric tears here:

http://www.chioshealing.com/HealingLevel2/EnergyDefects/energydefects.htm

In Tibetan Buddhism they talk about chakras (derived from Sanskrit word for ‘wheel‘ (vortex of energy). They also talk of ‘lung‘ (a Tibetan word pronounced ‘loong‘) which translates as ‘winds‘ (energy movement). The Tibetans also use the term ‘lung‘ for when the chakras become unbalanced during meditation (although it can happen at any time), so ‘meditation lung‘ is usually translated as ‘meditator’s disease‘ (To see more on ‘lung’ – CLICK HERE)

The symptoms of heart ‘lung’ (taken from the above link)

There is a big list of symptoms:

• They may experience pain in the chest or back pain, headaches;
• they may cry easily and anger easily, too.
• They may feel anxious or have panic attacks or insomnia.
• Some people become depressed.
• Some people have delusional paranoia, or hear things, or feel strange sensations in their bodies.
• Others have indigestion, constipation, or diarrhoea.
• Lung is often experienced as a negative attitude toward the practice (your mind and body want to stop!) so you experience doubts about the practice, doubts about your lama [teacher].
• Lung can become bad if it is not remedied, and if the person continues the pattern that causes it, that person can become severely mentally disturbed. But that is rare.
• Mostly it’s a good case of negative mind or a nagging obsession that won’t go away.
• Sometimes lung manifests as an aversion to meditating. You just don’t want to go back and sit on that cushion!

Personally, I experienced the 1st three symptoms on this list while in retreat and the 4th manifested when I came out of retreat. This was a huge shift away from the bliss, peace and loving feelings I felt toward others that I had been experiencing for the first 3-4 months of my retreat!

There is a good section at the bottom of the article about how to prevent it (HERE is the link again on “Retreat Lung: The Meditator’s Disease” By Ven. Lhundup Nyingje).