Tantric Meditation, Chakras, and the Flow of Kuṇḍalinī: A Practitioner's Guide

There are probably as many types of meditation within tantra as there are practitioners  and this, far from being a limitation, is one of the tradition's great strengths. Tantra is flexible. It meets each practitioner where they are, adapting to the particular disposition, karma, and readiness of the individual. What holds it together across this diversity is a set of underlying principles — orientations of practice that show up, in different forms, across the full range of tantrik meditation.

This post explores three of those principles — focusing the mind, breath and body awareness, and the cultivation of energy — before moving into one of the most foundational frameworks in tantric yoga: the seven-chakra system. These are not steps in a sequence. As the tradition itself emphasizes, all principles and practices are situational, relative, and complementary to one another.

Focusing the Mind

One of the key principles of tantrik meditation is focus of the mind. Developing focus involves directing the mind to one object — and for tantrikas, "objects" include both the external and the internal. You may focus on an external object such as a yantra, a flame, or a physical body sensation, or on a more internalized object such as the third eye, a mantra, or passing thoughts.

Focus will come naturally and spontaneously for some. For others, it may require the unblocking of the chakras through a devotional heart or a soft and present body. Focus may also vary based on the psychological, energetic, and karmic disposition of the tantrika. A more heart-oriented practitioner may have a more devotional focus, while a more logically oriented practitioner may have a more mental focus. Two different practitioners may utilize opposing practices within the same tradition — and no one form of focus is superior to another.

Focus becomes especially important when you seek to perform more advanced sādhanas, and in turn, focus becomes more refined through such practices. With sustained practice, each meditation has the potential to guide you toward a full, embodied realization.

Breath and Body Awareness

In daily life, it is easy to become disconnected from the body. This leads many people to wrongly identify with the constellation of thoughts and emotions in the mind, analyzing the past or worrying about the future. By becoming present with the sensations of the body and breath during tantrik meditation, you can instead come into the present moment.

When you know yourself only as a body, you suffer with the experiences of the body. However, when you observe sensations without trying to control, resist, or hold them, you will come to know yourself as the Absolute Awareness that is the container for the body. In this state, you no longer suffer in your body but witness its sensations as passing clouds.

Many of us know this state as "mindfulness," a term derived from Buddhism. By practicing breath and body awareness, you can turn your attention away from the thoughts and feelings in the mind and towards the experience of sensation within your body — without interpretation, analysis, or judgment.

Breath and body awareness can also help you achieve deep peace and restore the natural equilibrium between your body and mind. This in turn can support focus, help you feel grounded, and assist in awakening the chakras. It can even aid you in transcending both the body and mind altogether and knowing yourself as Absolute Awareness.

For some, this awakening can be permanent. For others, it is experienced in fleeting moments. When your identity is rooted in Awareness, you can turn back towards your body and embrace yourself as a divine manifestation within the field of consciousness.

Cultivating Frequencies of Energy

According to Tantra, the Universe was created when Śiva and Śakti were separated. Śiva represents Divine Consciousness, while Śakti represents the energetic force that creates and sustains life. On a universal level, this energy is known simply as Śakti. On an individual, bodily level, it is known as prāṇa. It cannot be made or destroyed; it simply changes form.

As Śakti moves throughout our bodies, it regulates all of our bodily functions while also animating and influencing our thoughts and emotions. It flows through a series of channels called nāḍīs, which converge at points called chakras.

Negative occurrences like trauma, accidents, disease, and an unhealthy lifestyle can cause energy to become blocked in the chakras. Tantrik meditation is one means of unlocking the nāḍīs and activating, circulating, and controlling the flow of energy — unblocking and balancing the chakras, purifying the entire energy system, and eventually awakening Kuṇḍalinī Śakti.

The Seven Chakras

Chakra has become something of a buzzword in modern Western culture. However, due to a lack of accurate translations of tantrik texts, this wisdom tends to be filtered through Western interpretation and diluted through cultural appropriation — which leads to misinterpretation and confusion. Essential oils, colours, and gemstones supposedly related to chakras have become commonplace and marketable in today's yoga world, but these items were not traditionally related to chakras.

Chakra can be translated literally as "wheel," and like a wheel, chakras have various spokes and a hub at the centre. The spokes are the nāḍīs — the energy currents or channels — while the hub is called the bīja. The chakras are located in the front of the body, and nāḍīs run to the spine, connecting the chakras to the spinal column. A chakra, also called a padma (lotus), is depicted as petals surrounding a circle.

A founding tantrik text, the Ṣaṭ Chakra Nirūpaṇa, describes seven chakras. The first five are associated with the five elements of the world — earth, water, fire, air, and space — while the sixth is aligned with the mind and the seventh with Śiva. Each chakra contains special characteristics, and with proper training, a practitioner can move energy through them and initiate the ascent of energy. It is important to note that there are many other lesser-known chakra systems that are equally valid yet vary considerably from the seven-chakra system.

Within the seven-chakra system, there exists a dormant energy known as Kuṇḍalinī Śakti, represented by a sleeping serpent coiled at the base of the spine in the mūlādhāra chakra. Tantrik practices such as meditating on the chakras can help balance and harmonize energy, awakening Kuṇḍalinī Śakti so that it flows through each chakra. Many people find that even a slight improvement in the energy system brings a more peaceful mind, a healthier body, and a more vibrant life. When the energy system is fully awakened and Kuṇḍalinī Śakti has risen to the seventh chakra to unite with Śiva, the tantrika experiences the deepest states of awareness and the highest realization.

Mūlādhāra Chakra (Root Chakra)

Mūlādhāra is located at the perineum and is associated with the earth element and its bīja mantra, Laṃ. It is the seat of Kuṇḍalinī Śakti herself — the dormant divine energy that the entirety of tantrik practice aims to awaken. Its ruling deities are Brahmā and Lākinī Śakti, and its meditative purpose is foundational: to create the grounding and stability from which the entire spiritual journey becomes possible. Without a living connection to mūlādhāra, the ascending energies of practice have no root to rise from.

Svādhiṣṭhāna Chakra (Sacral Chakra)

Svādhiṣṭhāna is located at the sacrum and pubic bone and is associated with the water element and its bīja mantra, Vaṃ. Its ruling deities are Rākinī and Viṣṇu. Being related with water brings the abode of sexuality and creativity — and its meditative purpose is to move the practitioner beyond attachment to and identification with sense gratification. It is not that the senses are denied here, but that the practitioner learns to relate to them from a place of awareness rather than compulsion.

Maṇipūra Chakra (Navel Chakra)

Maṇipūra is located at the navel, with its corresponding region in the lumbar spine, and is associated with the fire element and its bīja mantra, Raṃ. Its ruling deities are Rudra Śiva and Lākinī Śakti. The name itself is illuminating: maṇi means "jewel" and pura means "abundance" —with fire as the element it is the abode of will, of the power that drives sādhana forward. Its meditative purpose is to awaken the fire of Kuṇḍalinī and to purify the nāḍīs.

Anāhata Chakra (Heart Chakra)

Anāhata is located at the centre of the chest, with its corresponding region in the thoracic spine, and is associated with the air element and its bīja mantra, Yaṃ. Its ruling deity is Īśvara. The meditative purpose of anāhata is to begin the process of releasing personal desires and worldly attachments — a softening of the grip of the individual self. Significantly, the Liṅga, an icon of Śiva, is symbolized at the centre of anāhata, indicating the potential to enter into Supreme Śiva Consciousness through the heart itself.

Viśuddha Chakra (Throat Chakra)

Viśuddha is located at the centre of the throat, with its corresponding region in the cervical spine, and is associated with ākāśa — ether or space — and its bīja mantra, Haṃ. Its ruling deities are Pañcavaktra Śiva and Śaṅkinī Śakti. The name means "pure," and its meditative purpose is to move the practitioner from the immanent toward the transcendent. One nuance worth holding: the inability to express oneself does not necessarily indicate that viśuddha is blocked. Purity here is not primarily about speech but about the refinement of one's entire way of being.

Ājñā Chakra (Third Eye Chakra)

Ājñā is located at the centre of the forehead. Unlike the lower chakras, it has no associated element — because at this level, the practitioner is moving beyond the material realm entirely. Its bīja mantra is Auṃ, and its ruling deities are Ardhanārīśvara (Śiva manifested as half woman and half man) and Hākinī Śakti. The name ājñā means "command," and this chakra is sometimes understood as the mental command centre — the seat of discernment, inner authority, and direct perception. Its meditative purpose is to have mastery over the mind.

Sahasrāra Chakra (Crown Chakra)

Sahasrāra is located at the crown of the head. Like ājñā, it has no associated element, and unlike the other chakras, it has no bīja mantra and no animal symbol. Its ruling deity is Paramaśiva. With one thousand spokes, it is the most expansive of the chakras — and it is, in fact, often not considered a chakra at all, because it is beyond all form. Sahasrāra is beyond space and time, beyond symbol and element. It is the abode of Śiva, the destination of the ascending Kuṇḍalinī, and the seat of ultimate transcendence into the formless state. When Kuṇḍalinī Śakti rises to meet Paramaśiva here, the union of the manifest and unmanifest is complete.

These seven centres are a living geography of consciousness — a way of understanding how Absolute Awareness moves through and as the body, and how tantrik practice works with that movement toward liberation. To study the chakras is to study yourself.

Study Tantra Yoga with Anuttara

If something in this post has landed — a question that has opened, a recognition that has stirred, a longing for practice that goes deeper — we invite you to explore what Anuttara offers. Our trainings are rooted in the teachings explored here, held within a living lineage, and transmitted through the grace of dīkṣā — initiation — for practitioners who are ready to go further.

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