Are You Centered in Hara?

We are as much aware of our self as a whole – our 'soul' - as we are aware of our body as a whole and of the entire space surrounding it, pervading and filling it. Most people’s sense of self is associated with their upper body alone. They experience consciousness or awareness itself as something bounded by their own skins, enclosed in their own ‘head space’ or felt in the form of sensations and emotions in the region of their chest, heart and stomach – all regions above the waist.

We will cultivate the capacity to remain truly centered in 'hara' – that region of the lower abdomen that is recognized in Japan as both the physical and spiritual centre of gravity of the human being.

Hara is a way of being that involves our whole being and that can put us into direct inner contact with the aware inwardness or ‘soul’ of all other beings and its divine source.

going into Hara is a

vertical descent

ocean belly

waves expanding & narrowing

then widening, finger tips together tongue to roof of mouth widen ribs, face, inner ears

Hara Inquiries: EIGHT PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

1. On a scale of 1-10, to what degree are you aware of your head, your eyes and your body as a whole, upper and lower - from top to toe, from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet - at this very moment?

2. On a scale of 1-10, to what degree are you aware of the entire felt surface of your body?

3. On a scale of 1-10 do what degree can you sense, from Your body surface as a whole, the entire space surrounding your body?

4. On a scale of 1-10, how much space to you feel you inhabit - in other words, to what extent can you feel your awareness extending out into the space around you and beyond the confines of your head and body?

5. On a scale of 1-10, to what degree can you feel the inner spaces of your head, chest and abdomen respectively, as hollow spaces of awareness, spaces that you feel yourself inhabiting or can feel yourself into?

6. On a scale of 1-10, to what extent can you sense and feel the inwardness of your body (your head, chest, belly and abdomen) as a singular hollow space of awareness?

7.On an imaginary line extending from a point behind your forehead to a point within your lower abdomen, midway between the navel and pubic bone, where do feel your breathing to be centred?

8. On the same imaginary line, where do you feel your very sense of self to be centred?

The hara is not only a still point of inner silence. It is also the gateway for a descent into silence which leads us into a world of inner sounds or ‘sounds of silence’. The relation of inner sounds to audible sounds can be compared to the relation between positive numbers on the one hand, and negative numbers – below zero – on the other. Every atom, molecule, cell and organ of our bodies is the expression of an atomic, molecular or organic awareness with its own inner sound – itself a sound shape or ‘envelope’ of a unique inner tone. Inner sounds affect our bodies more than audible, physical sounds do. If there inner tone becomes muddied or their inner sounds discordant we experience this as a state of felt dis-ease, which in turn may affect the health of our physical organs. Both external sounds and our thoughts and feeling themselves are constantly transformed into inner sounds and felt tonalities of awareness or ‘feeling tones’.