Where do we feel our awareness centred in our bodies - in our heads and hearts or lower down - or in the sensed inner space of our abdomen or hara? The hara is the womb space of our inner body and the seat of our innermost being - the body and being which Daoist alchemy called ‘the golden embryo'. Its centre - the tan tien (Chinese) or tanden (Japanese) - is a centre of awareness that can link us ‘umbilically' to the golden embryo of others - to their inner being and inner body. Head, Heart & Hara teaches us how to centre both our breathing and awareness in hara, and in this way renew a sense of inner connectedness with our own being and other beings. It contrasts the head- and heart-centred culture of the West with the hara culture of Japan, showing how hara awareness can unite the primordial wisdom of both East and West.
164pp, 138mm x 219mm, softback, 2003