The Hara Centre, located just below the naval and between the hips, is a region responsible for enormous power generation. In fact, it isn’t a disconnected area but runs through the solar plexus and to the head. This is why, for optimal functioning, you will want to align the entire body correctly, for example when sitting and doing breathing exercises. In this way you will prevent any ” Chi Blockages”, which simply means trapped or dissipated energy which runs along this alignment connection. Steve Morris has often said that the hip and head, which act through “the spinal engine” should be worked on and aligned when delivering powerful hits.
The Hara Centre represents the bowls of the earth, symbolically speaking, from which energy can be drawn to send heavenward (To the head). This region can be dangerous for disciples who have not studied “The way”, that is the virtues, but once you have strengthened your character, you can plumb the depths. Feel free to ignore this advice but I think it’s prudent.
The Hara centre can be considered the true mind or body of knowledge, because when it has been fully developed and organised through breathing, mindfulness, and meditation practices, it becomes the authority which controls even the brain. Yes, because, really, the brain is a receiver which can form images and interprets sensations based on archetypal ideas which are then elaborated by experience. This is why artistic expression and creativity is so important. But it must follow certain rules. Anyway, at this point of unified understanding, the disciple can focus on any area he likes, for example the head or solar plexus, or even the arms and legs, because everything represents an interconnected whole. In other words they represent the same core, and spring from the same centre.
At the moment we tend to operate with an undeveloped Apparatus, with the head, solar plexus, and Hara Centre not doing their job properly as a unified triforce. In this state, nothing works as it should. Modern man is overburdened by cognitive activity and is constantly overanalysing, in everything from how to perform various actions, to how he looks on social media. And when he goes to the gym he is often just going though the motions paying no attention at all to how anything feels. However, when you align all these centres I’m talking about you will feel better able to breath properly and nourish better thoughts. It will then not matter what is going on externally. In this way the Brain can be used for its proper job: to intuitively sense what it has to do when, say, you are training Martial arts. You will have a superabundance of energy as the burden of work is shifted to a bigger generator.
Sun Tzu says “If a general who is strange to the troops punishes them, they cease to obey him”. This means, symbolically speaking that the fighter who does not attach himself to his troops loses their confidence. In other words, if your general (The Hara Centre) does not work properly with the troops (the body and brain), then they “cannot be usefully employed”. This is why there must be harmony in the relations between each of the centres and the body. It then becomes clear what you have to do, even if you don’t technically know all the details.
Disciples often wait for the coming of the Messiah, and if you wait and patiently make yourself receptive to the subtle energies of the Hara centre, you will get a visit sooner or later. But there is no point in waiting if you have not done the work or are looking in all the wrong places. That is why, from now on I recommend you work with the Hara Centre and its related lines of energy not only during training but in all activity. All the technical knowledge takes second, or even third, fourth or fifth place to this.
Whether it experiencing an intensive Harmony of Spirited action, a Controlled Gesture, or a contemplative meditation, it’s all the same. The important thing to remember is that there must be unity in thought, desire, action, and feeling. When you feel this centre is activated in your practice, allow if to take possession of you. When you do this often, it will begin to accompany you in everything you do throughout the day, and therefore it is easy to draw upon this force at will. In other words, you will begin to relate to it as the centre of being. For those that are ready, there is a whole way of practice to totally immerse themselves in, which is more certain than any form of objectively measurable progress. The more you are able to observe this state and conform to it, the more you will understand abstract ideas and forms alter and arrive at truth.
So Instead of acquiring new moves or increasing your fitness, think instead more about changing your perceptions and interactions between the parts and the whole. In other words cultivate the faculty of mindfully going about the most mundane activities. In this condition you will be able to spend decades drawing inspiration from and practicing even the most basic and form or move without ever losing interest or motivation.
The Brain is not designed to stand up to fretting and worrying, and due to this overloading and burdening exhausts itself in anxiety. This is why it is important to regain control over our Hara Centre, so that the burden of activity, and even the problems of existence itself can be overcome. If the Masters of the past we able to become tireless and almost all powerful, it was not because of brain power, calculations or huge muscles. No, instead it was because they were able to concentrate, develop and strengthen the life centre, the centre of gravity, the roots of the earth. The hara Centre represents these roots.
The Bulgarian spiritual Master Omraam Mikael Aivanov says that the secrets of the Hara Centre were well know to all ancient religions and and Sages of the past. Jesus says “From out of the believers belly shall flow the rivers of the living Water”. The Shaolin Drunken boxers even become intoxicated on this water, where they experience an unorthadox balance of grace and explosive power. The Hindu Sages tell us that Shiva, who represents the brain, was the “Destroyer of reality”. The Chinese system of Tai Chi says that their is an energy channel, known as a “Chi pathway” which travels from the Hara centre and out of the crown of the head. As such, when this pathway is fully operational and aligned, the Disciple is “Held by a fine golden thread” from the crown. This thread represents a spiritual thread, a link to heaven, through which almost supernatural powers are granted to the disciple in the form of increased Vitality, power, and Health.
As I have just said, the brain is very much dependant on the signals it receives from the Hara Centre. This is why by focusing and concentrating on the Hara Centre, through meditation and breathing exercises for example, the Brain is able to function more smoothly and harmoniously without nervous agitation and fatigue. This is why it is so important to make sure that the centres of the head, solar plexus, and Hara are able to work as a unified whole. It is then possible to say, concentrate on breathing, or head positioning for optimal posture, from a position of an active Hara Centre. For example, it can be helpful to concentrate on the diaphragm to feel the sensations of breathing, or the chakra in the back of the head which produces an intense surge of energy. Moderation in the latter is advised therefore.
Even if you think this is all spiritual nonsense, if you decide to cultivate this area of practice, you may begin to see that this is the only kind of practice there is. Because we can only maintain an attitude of optimism and progress if we are on the right path. And this path follows many routes, and has many different manifestations, but all lead to the same inner unity.
What I am saying is that the proper measure of whether your meditations, breathing exercises, or martial arts techniques are correct is not whether you can pulverize somebody or look superficially correct. Instead, each of these exercises should awaken and develop this triforce of nature, the head2, the solar plexus, and the Hara Centre. This is not so much something that you achieve with a rigid posture of technique, but is a “felt sense”, as Eugene Gendlin puts it. Yes, because through the intermediary of feeling we can begin to understand.
The deeper mysteries of reality are not seen with our eyes, but are instead felt. In Hindu Philosophy the eyes are said to reveal a false reality of our physical surroundings, or “Maya”1. The full reality is brought to bear when the Hara Centre is developed. Only then can we begin to accurately mentally construct reality (the brain) with our creative imagination and full array of faculties. Otherwise we are held captive by an ugly imposter which sits at the throne. This is the true enemy3.
References
1Signs and Symbols in Martial arts Part 2 https://harmanater.com/2020/06/06/signs-and-symbols-part-2-pedagogy-and-the-art-of-war/
2 Alignment and tension exercises https://harmanater.com/2020/03/22/alignment-and-tension-exercises/ . Here I have mainly used examples from Steve Morris.
3 The True Meaning of Martial Arts https://harmanater.com/2020/05/18/the-true-meaning-of-martial-arts/