Hara - The Haric Dimension - Some Useful Links
What is Hara?
In my own process, the development of Hara has been a game-changer.
Of all the tools my teacher, Tjitze de Jong, imparted, this has ultimately had the most powerful impact on my own healing.
As someone with strong schizoid tendencies, I was wildly ungrounded. However, I was not aware of this untiI I started doing the work. See top-down awakening
Connection
It took me about 2 years to be able to ‘feel’ my legs. And when I first ‘felt’ Earth energy, I hated it. It felt so slow - like treacle. This was coupled with deep grief - of not being connected to the earth, my mother - and my mother - the mother wound. Check out my article on schizoid wounding for more on this. In fact, connection is ultimately what it is all about.
Accessing hara enabled me to feel safe in my body.
My abilities as a healer have improved - I’m so much stronger now and able to bridge different dimensions more effectively. Yielding better results for my clients.
My body-shape and posture have changed markedly. My metabolism has shifted.
In short, it is a game-changer.
Paradigm Shift
“our body is primarily an energetic space that can unfold its potential only when its various compartments and areas can communicate with each other more freely and easily, becoming quasi-wide. Only when this space experiences itself as whole, as being expansive and connected to its environment, an the Hara become a powerful centre.”
The Hara is a centre of spiritual power. It corresponds to the the one-point (Shamanism), the lower tan tien/dan tien (Daoism), the red bindu or kanda (Tantra) .. the list goes on.. and on the physical plane, the centre of gravity.
It is located in the centre-line of the body, approximately 3 finger-widths below the navel.
“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. It is the one note with which you have drawn up your body in physical manifestation.”
The potential power and expressiveness of this centre is strongly restricted in most people.
The Hara will be more powerful as the space forming its energetic centre becomes lighter and wider. Vice versa, lightness an expansion can be experienced more vividly as the centre becomes more powerful. The power of the centre and the lightness and expansiveness of the space are mutually dependable.
Chronic tension prevents lightness and expanse.
Typical causes that limit the unity and expansiveness are the various tension and blockage patterns. These could be, to name just a few examples:
a tense diaphragm
a tight stomach
tension held in the pelvic floor
tension or rigidity in the chest
tight shoulders
tension in the wrists or ankles, or in the neck and occiput.
By resolving one or more of these tension patterns the individual will be able to experience a sense of being freer and lighter, as resting more within themself, as being more centred. The person will be more grounded.
One example of such a tension pattern is tightly held shoulders. The reason for chronically holding one’s shoulders is primarily the subconscious realisation one doesn’t feel able to cope with life.
Metaphors- Louise Hay - burden
Practices such as Yoga, Qi Gong, Martial Arts, and some forms of meditation, can increasingly relax us and allow for digestion of emotional holding patterns. Subsequently, our presence within the body spaces of the torso will become more natural. It is amazing how much more one feels to be within one’s body once the shoulders have relaxed. This is equally true for the other tension patterns mentioned above.
To be in the Hara requires letting go of tension patterns and being able to feel relaxed within ones body space. The more it is possible to allow a relaxed presence in the expansiveness of the space, the more important the Hara becomes. To be in one’s centre always means to experience relaxed expansiveness in the whole body. The relationship between the Hara and the body mirrors the principle of ‘focus and expansiveness’ – one of the basic principles This is a major reason why Yoga and other body‐exercise routines play such an important role in our work.
Hara self-‐massage (Ampuku) is a further beneficial practices to promote opening the body space based on a relaxed presence in one’s own Hara. In addition, the practice of Qi Gong which continuously promotes one’s presence in the body space.
Resonance It is absolutely exciting to experience how, during a Healing session, being present in one’s own body space (and thus in one’s Hara) influences the connection between the giver and the client. thus facilitating a deeper presence in one’s own space, can trigger a deep wave of breathing in the receiver, combined with the feeling that the giver is now palpably connected more deeply with the client. In such moments clients feel more deeply touched and ‘seen’.
The explanation for this phenomenon lies in the fact that our body space is an energetic space which communicates, by way of resonance, with the body spaces of other people. The more open and relaxed our own body space is, the louder and livelier will be the resonance. Once we have learnt to be relaxed in ourselves when doing energy work, then we can encounter the client on a deeper and more meaningful level. Many of the vital effects of energy healing take place on this level; a level which cannot be entered by certain techniques or by doing but exclusively by resonance (not doing). Resonance is also one of the foundations of enegergetic perception. Therefore the relaxed presence in one’s own space is prerequisite for using energetic perception reliably in our work.
Books on Hara
Good posture is defined as one that allows for a relaxed presence in one’s own body space (since this facilitates resonance).
Tension patterns that are necessary to maintain poor posture make it impossible to be relaxed in one’s body.
The meaning of the solar plexus, the breast bone, and the inguinal region in the context of the encounter In the majority of Europeans, the place where the presence retreats to is the solar plexus in the upper abdomen. The lack of a presence in this area sometimes gives the impression of the person having collapsed there instead of being upright as is necessary for energetic work. The collapsed area lacking in presence can sometimes extend to the whole Hara and also upwards to the lower or middle sections of the breast bone.
The solar plexus is the space in our body with which we enter into active contact with other people. Many people avoid this contact; during a true encounter they virtually flee from their solar plexus – unless they have learnt (practiced) to hold their presence there.
The open presence in the upper abdomen makes it easier to inhabit one’s body space and to direct one’s energetic field forwards towards the client. the crucial effect remains the same: to be relaxed in one’s whole body. In this way the body can establish a lively connection from the Hara and the whole body space to the floor – connection which is important for an open contact.
Maybe some readers will have gained the impression that the presence within the body space and the Hara can only be achieved through hard and laborious work. Of course, it takes patience, a certain gentle and kind discipline towards oneself, as well as a degree of persistence in order to experience the open space more and more clearly over time.
However, even at a very early stage of this development there will be rich rewards. Even right at the beginning one will find oneself again and again in this wide open space – be it after a Yoga session, during meditation, or quite simply during a Shiatsu treatment. These moments will become increasingly frequent; they feel so absolutely wonderful that one could sink to the ground for the sheer joy of it.
References
Being in the Hara Thoughts on the meaning of the Hara in Shiatsu by Wilfried Rappenecker 2012
Barbara Brennan
Head, Heart and Hara
Hara the vital centre of man