The Hara point is an important energy center in the body. In Chinese medicine this area is called the "Medicine Field" because of the curative power of the energies gathered there. The body uses this energy to function normally. When doing the Living Light Breath™, we activate and strengthen the energy in the Hara by drawing energy from Source to this center. It's a place in the body where you can unify the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies.

The Hara is located about one and a half inches behind the navel and is the exact point of balance in the body. If you were suspended by a wire from this point your body would be perfectly balanced horizontally.

The modern Taoist Master Mantak Chia writes in his book, Awaken the Healing Light of the Tao, about the importance of the Hara point or what he calls the navel center:

The navel area was our first connection with the outside world. All oxygen, blood, and nutrients flowed into our fetal forms through this abdominal doorway. As a result, the navel center has a special sensitivity that continues far beyond the cutting of the umbilical cord at birth, it stays with us throughout our entire lives.

The navel is the physical center of the body, halfway between the upper and lower body. In martial arts, calligraphy, and other related disciplines, one often hears of the importance of centering.

The center of the body, our center of gravity, is the most effective place from which to coordinate one's movements, and in these arts one learns to move from one's center, which is called the Lower Tan Tien in Chinese, or Hara in Japanese.

When practicing the Living Light Breath™, you bring energy to the Hara and can begin to use that center for spiritual transformation. Building a strong spiritual foundation by consciously fortifying and activating the light in the Hara was a basic exercise of the ancient mystery schools. Chia calls this area the ³storage battery² because it collects, transforms, and balances energies taken in from other sources.

Noted healer, Barbara Brennan, also writes about the qualities and importance of the Hara point:

The Hara exists on a dimension deeper than the auric field. It exists on the level of intentionality. It is an area of power within the physical body that contains the tan tien (the gate of life). It is the one note with which you draw up your physical body from your mother, the earth. It is this one note that holds your body in physical manifestation. Without the one note, you would not have a body. When you change this one note, your entire body will change. Your body is a gelatinous form held together by this one note. This note is the sound the center of the earth makes.

The Hara is the second mind or brain in the body, sometimes called "the abdominal brain." In Chinese medicine this area is also called "The Mind Palace" (Shen Ch'ue). Western medical researchers have recently confirmed what the ancient ones have known for a long time; they now have a field of study called Neurogastroenterology.

On January 23, 1996, the New York Times alerted its readers about the Enteric Nervous System or abdominal brain. Eric Yudelove, author of The Tao and the Tree of Life, recently summarized this article. In writing about the "gut brain," and the findings of the medical researchers, he says:

The Enteric Nervous System is a second nervous system within our body, separate and apart from the Central Nervous System. According to the New York Times article, both nervous systems have a common source in the embryo. A clump of tissue called the Neural Crest forms early in the development of the embryo. One section of the Neural Crest develops into the Central Nervous System. A second portion splits away and migrates to form the Enteric Nervous System. For a time in the embryo's development, the two systems exist independent of each other. Later they are joined together by the Vagus Nerve. Until recently it was thought that the brain in our heads controlled the abdominal muscles and sensory nerves. This now turns out not to be true; this area is controlled by the Enteric Nervous System or Abdominal Brain.

The Enteric Nervous system is located within the sheets of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines. There is an interaction between the two brains, when one get upset the other one does too. For example when you are worried, you are prone to getting an upset stomach. The Abdominal Brain can effect the Central Nervous System as well, usually this takes the form of negative messages of pain and discomfort accompanied by a lot of chatter in the head whose source you never seem to be able to locate. Let me quote the article, 'The brain in the gut plays a major role in human happiness and misery. But few people know it exists.'

Yudelove goes on to explain that the Vagus Nerve is also connected to the main organs in the body. When we draw light to the Hara point, or Abdominal Mind, we are also helping ourselves to energize the entire body. The first seven breaths of the Living Light Breath™ are drawn into the Hara. In the eight breath we center in the pineal gland and connect the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies with the Universal Mind and the Collective Consciousness.

Home | table of Contents | next chapter