In my last blog post, I described hara from a purely physical point of view. My original intent was to follow that with a post focusing on hara from a psychological perspective and, in so doing, go from what hara is to why one would want to develop his or her hara in the first place.

In my previous post, I explained that hara involves the intersection of physical, psychological, and spiritual elements. Perhaps a better way to express this is that hara is unification of those three elements. As such, hara is an organic whole, in which these three dimensions are interrelated. However, it is still helpful, for the sake of explanation, to consider these three elements separately.

When I began my Zen training in 1977, I was given basic instruction in zazen (Zen meditation, literally “seated Zen”). In addition to being taught how to establish my posture and concentration, I was told to breathe with my hara, not with my chest. My teachers explained further that hara is a Japanese word that refers to the lower abdomen and that I should always feel pressure in that area. Try as I might, I could not breathe with my lower abdomen, let alone keep pressure on it whether I was inhaling or exhaling.