Chapter 10, Conclusion

Zen teachers often take too much for granted. We're like school teachers who find a student's spelling error and demand to know why he didn't spell the word correctly. He says, "I didn't know it was wrong. It looked all right to me." Then we look him in the eye and offer the sage advice, "If you don't know how to spell a word, look it up in the dictionary." Words to live by. Unfortunately, assuming we are sufficiently inspired by doubt to open the dictionary at all, we often have to know how to spell a word before we can look it up. English is funny that way. So is Zen.

Martial arts teachers often demand that a student focus his attention upon the Hara. It is believed, correctly so or not, that the body's weight is evenly distributed around this point and that it is a kind of balancing fulcrum. "Concentrate upon the Hara!" The instruction is everywhere the same. But nowhere, apparently, does anybody tell you precisely how to do that. An Aikido master once confided to me that his master had fervently insisted that he sit in meditation "concentrating upon his Hara" and, having been told that the Hara was a point "a couple of inches below and behind his belly button" he tried to concentrate upon this general area. He said that for months he sat there trying to visualize his intestines. This was a bit disconcerting and lacked, shall we say, a certain esthetic appeal. He decided instead to imagine that his Hara was a star and that a bunch of imaginary planets revolved around it in his abdominal universe. The effort brought him new insights into astronomy but did nothing to deepen his Zen.

The Hara is a place. It is the specific place in the abdomen where the aorta, the body's major blood vessel, splits to become the femoral (thigh) arteries. The blood which traverses the aorta moves under great pressure and when it strikes this fork in its path, it slams into it. It is easy to feel a pulse beat there in the pit of the abdomen. When we wish to concentrate upon the Hara, we relax, quiet ourselves, and focus our attention on this pulse beat. This may be too great a leap forward. It's best to begin with the following instruction:

1. Sit quietly and relax. Let your right hand rest upon your lap. Study your right hand. 2. Lightly press your thumb and index finger together until you can feel your pulse beating.

3. Count the beats until you reach ten. Open your hand and focus your attention only upon your thumb. Now, count ten beats in the thumb alone.

4. Shift your focus onto the index finger. You'll feel your pulse beat there. Count ten beats and then shift your attention to your middle finger and count ten beats there. Do the same for your ring and little fingers. 5. Feel your entire hand pulse. It will actually feel warm since by having focussed your attention upon it you are unconsciously directing blood to it.

6. Shift your attention now to your left hand. Repeat the procedure.

With a little practice, you'll soon be able to feel your pulse beating in your eyelids, lips, feet, etc. Now you're ready for the major leagues: The Hara.

Start by pressing down into your abdomen with two fingers

until you actually feel your pulse beating deep in the pit of your abdomen. Lying in bed is the best position for accomplishing this. Once you succeed, you'll know how and where to look for the pulse. But again, in order to feel it when you are "on guard" or even simply sitting in meditation, you will have to relax, draw your attention inwards, and focus upon this specific point.

Success in this exercise helps to gain several important objectives. In addition to the physical sense of security derived from feeling "balanced", concentration upon the Hara, by initiating a relaxation response, can prevent panic and the adrenalin surge associated with fear. Relaxation is as much an enemy of fear as fear is an enemy of relaxation. This one- pointed concentration also lends itself to becoming a triggering mechanism for entering the trance state. It is the equivalent of swinging a gold watch rhythmically before a subject's eyes.

There are many breathing exercises and other forms of meditation which the martial artist employs to his advantage. Several chapters of The Seventh World of Chan Buddhism on this website are devoted to these techniques. Keep in touch.

Peace.

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