Hara Meditation
Many of us spend a lot of time in our heads. We like to
work things out thoughtfully. We tend to ignore the body until it hurts and
we tend to hope that deep emotional issues will be resolved by thinking them
through. This meditation combines body and emotion in an easy way that
harmonizes them with the intellect. It's a practice that has been taught and
used for centuries.
How to Practice
Sit or lay down in a comfortable position. Relax and
breathe easily and naturally.
Put your fingertip on a point an inch or two below your
navel and imagine you can feel a point directly behind it in the centre of
your belly. Once you have the place, rest your arm and hand back down where
it was. This spot is where your centre of gravity is located. In the Far
East it is called the "Hara" or "Dantien". This is not just the centre of
gravity, it is also seen as the seat of the emotions, an incredible energy
storehouse, and in many traditions it is considered the spiritual centre of
the body - the still point, out of which comes all the activity of your
life.
Rest in the hara for as long as you like. Keep breathing
easily and gently. When your attention wanders off, make the hara a safe
place to go back to. Keep going back to it, over and over. Gently and with
kindness towards yourself. Come to see it as you still point.
If you have used a different spot in the body or breath
in the past as your focus in meditation, you may find that moving it here
stabilizes your energy more.
Notes:
At first, you may have a hard time getting a sense of
where it is. Just keep at it. After a while, you'll get a feel for it. And
before long you'll wonder how you never noticed it before.
If you do this meditation often, you'll find that this
truly becomes the seat of your power. In his book, "Finding the Still
Point," Zen Master John Daido Loori says, " .. the hara will naturally
become the center of your attentiveness. You will walk from the hara, work
from the hara, and when you get embarrassed, you will have a warm hara
instead of a red face. ... When something unusual or unexpected happens,
rather than feeling scattered, you will find that the energy will
automatically concentrate in the hara."
Final Notes:
There are no right or wrong ways to do a meditation. The
instructions are guidelines; adapt them to who you are and to your needs at
that particular time. Be curious about the process itself.
Remember most meditations become richer the more you
practice them. They reveal more of themselves. It can take practice to
remember to do a meditation when you need to, and it can take practice to go
through the steps. But that's why it is called practice, and for most of us,
we practice for the rest of our lives.
Meditations like these are a regular feature of my free monthly Ezine, Starry Night.
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