Have you ever thought about your center? Did you know that you have one? Stop and feel for a moment...try and sense where yours is. There is only one true center through which we will feel grounded, blissful, connected, balanced, and sane. But before we get to that center, let's discuss the other centers.

In today's world the majority of people live through the head, the mind. Of course the head has its purpose. It is useful for doing business, calculations, being analytical and logical. But the mind can be powerful and tricky, and convince us that it should rule. It tells us that if we want to have a nice car and house we had better listen to it. It says "work, earn money, then you will enjoy life". But through it life has no poetry. Through it music is but a series of notes that can be appreciated only on an intellectual level. Mind looks at things in term of comparisons and associations; that is its job, its function. Mind is never here-now, never present. It is always looking into the past and calculating the future.

The Russian psychologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov illustrated how the mind functions in his laboratory when he observed his dogs salivating over food. He began to ring a bell whenever it was time to serve food and so the ringing of a bell became associated with eating food. As the dogs became so acquainted with this, the mere act of a ringing bell was enough to make the dogs salivate - no food was even needed. And this is how the mind works, with no freshness, no presentness, just associations.

The mind is always associating this and that and drawing comparisons. When one looks at a flower through the mind one will say it is a pretty flower or an ungly flower, but it will all be based on past references. Even if one says "this is a beautiful flower" one will only draw that conclusion because it was more attractive than the previous flower. The appreciation will only be on the surface and have no depth. The mind can penetrate only in scientific terms, so its appreciation of things will be based on certain criteria that it has accumulated over the years. Appreciation is really only evaluation.

And remember that our whole upbringing has been in support of the mind. The whole education system is mind-based. We are taught how to survive in this world only in terms of economics; we learn a trade, we learn that we need money to buy the things that the TV advertisements tell us we need. And this is why mind can never be satisfied, it is always looking for something new, something different, something better. This is also why in the last 100 years or so of mind dominated existence we have seen many developments, because we can not stay still, we can not still our minds. So the mind does have its pros, but as far as attaining lasting happiness it cannot be done.

The other center which a small proportion of society lives through is the heart. Through the heart we can to a degree appreciate beauty, be compassionate and experience love. I say only to a degree because no ones live totally through the heart, just as no one totally lives through the mind. Even those who live through the heart still have the mind involved. But be aware: like I mentioned, the mind is powerful and tricky; it will try to convince you that you are a heart-person, because it sounds beautiful to live through the heart. It gives the ego a level of satisfaction to believe itself to be loving and compassionate. So do not be deceived. Often your so-called love and compassion is nothing more than a mental charade your mind plays using "acts" of kindness as a tool to barter when it/you want something in return.

Nonetheless, a person who authentically lives through the heart sees deeper into the beauty of things. A heart person will walk down a street and suddenly stop to smell a flower and admire its beauty. The mind oriented person walking with the heart person will roll his eyes at this. A heart person will not just listen to music but will "feel" the music also. There is more openness for things to penetrate into one's being. But of course with this comes many emotions, and not just good ones. When a heart oriented person argues it can end up being a very distasteful experience.

For the heart person, as with the mind person, lasting happiness cannot be attained. They are like two opposite polarities of a pendulum, but somewhere in the middle is your true center. Where is your true center? It is located in what is known as the Tan Tien in Chinese and the Hara in Japanese, two fingers width below the navel and about two inches inside from there. In martial arts this center is recognized to be the center for all your power when fighting, hence, much importance is placed on the development of this point.

It is this "cauldron" in which we can grow the elixir of qi or life-force energy, as it is the converging point of 72,000 meridians which feeds energy to the rest of the body. When the Tan Tien (navel center) is developed life flows towards peace and happiness, psychic abilities develop, and the power to manifest intensifies.

This is the key to truly living, and is the goal of yoga, qigong, and all spiritual disciplines that recognize that we are not separate from this vast Universe, but all connected.

Jun 22, 2007 10:50 PM