The question is this: Is there a sun in your lower belly? Do you feel potent, full, and strong there? Like there’s life-force glowing in your tummy, all warm, open, and powerful? 

Last November, as I lay on my couch with the ‘Rona, staring, zombie-like, at Bobby Lee podcasts (both of them) on YouTube, I kept noticing that, in my lower belly, it felt like there was only a wraith-like emptiness. An airy insubstantiality. It was like my belly was two-dimensional. Not from lack of food, but just as an emotional-energetic thing.

Many teachings – yogic, tantric, martial art, and Taoist, to name a few – say that we should center our awareness (or “sink the mind”) in our lower belly (called the t’an tien in China, the hara in Japan). Zen Master Hakuin extolled this practice as well. The idea is that we should cultivate a cool, quiet head and a powerful fire in the belly (we Westerners tend toward the opposite: a busy heat in our busy heads from our compulsive, feverish over-thinking, and a vacuous, ethereal nothingness in our tummies).

As I began to recover from covid-19, I felt drawn to begin to practice Qigong (also spelled chi kung) daily – particularly those Qigong exercises that focus the life-force in the t’an tien. I started, every morning, after meditation, to stand on my trembly legs (from laying on the couch for 4 weeks) in front of our sliding glass doors that face the sunrise, and practice. Now, several months later, I can actually feel a glow of warmth and aliveness stirring in my lower belly when I do these Qigong activities. 

But Adi Da Samraj teaches that there is much more to energy than Qi. According to Him (and plenty of other teachers), Qi, or prana, is actually a pretty homely, elemental business. It is merely the natural, etheric bio-energy. It is conditional, meaning it depends on conditions – planets, cosmos, bodies, plants, sunlight – clunky paraphernalia like that.

Qi, prana, or etheric bio-energy is a crude, “stepped-down” version of the One Divine Spirit Power, the Infinite Sea of Conscious Light itself, which is Unconditional. The entire cosmos arise as an “apparent modification” (in Adi Da’s words) of this One Spiritual Radiance, or Conscious Light. 

Apparently, in mature Spiritual practice, the whole-bodily being opens to that Divine Spirit-Current. In the esoteric Traditions of the East, it is understood that, when the being is radically opened to the Spirit Force, it fills and opens the entire area from the solar plexus down to the base of the pelvis. And it does this so dramatically that actual, physical changes happen. In some Realized beings, the belly region actually gets huge and Buddha-like! Swami Nityananda, revered by millions in India, is one of countless examples. Adi Da Samraj says: 

“Look at Swami Nityananda—He severed heads all His life. Look at His belly—He was stiff with life, Full of life, so much so that His belly became huge with Spiritual Force…”

So why doesn’t energy – either Qi or the Spirit Power – course through most of us and make our bellies potent, happy, and powerful? Because of the ego, of course. 

Adi Da Samraj often calls the ego the self-contraction. That’s because the ego, He says, is not a “thing,” not an “entity.” It is, rather, an activity. It is the activity of contraction from the Divine Conscious Light. It is the contraction into being a fictional, separate “me.” And that self-contraction is manifested throughout our entire body, in a tangle of physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual knots. 

Basically, if I identify with a separate locus of inner awareness (aka a “me”), I am making white-knuckled fists throughout my body. I’m unconsciously constricting in my head, in my throat, in my solar plexus, in my pelvic floor (the notorious first chakra), and, of course, the hydraulic, steel-plated super-clench at the heart. 

In this state – collapsing, like a black hole, in and away from the Spiritual Radiance of Being – the Spirit Current cannot move through me and let my belly become full, powerful, and alive. 

In a few talks, Adi Da calls this egoic contraction “vital shock.” Vital shock, He says, is,

“…the awakening of Consciousness Itself into apparent identification with the form of life…Birth is that shock, not merely the original physical event that may be remembered, but every moment’s cognition of being alive…[meaning alive as an apparently separate, discreet, dying entity].”

And, He adds, we feel that vital shock most acutely in the belly and solar plexus region.

“This vital center is like the shutter of a camera. Like the shutter in a camera, it curls in on itself in order to close, or else it unfurls in order to open. It is like your hand. If you clench your fist and hold it together as tightly as you can, it begins to become painful. Just so, this vital center is alive, sentient, and when it contracts, like your hand, it causes a sensation. It causes not only a physical sensation, but also many other reflections in life and consciousness. Therefore, when this contraction occurs in the vital, you not only get a cramp in the stomach, but you have a whole life of suffering…Every aspect of vital existence is controlled by this image, this state, this vital shock…what people are suffering is…this original shock, in the form of a primary reaction, this contraction…”

Sam gets all advicey

From what I understand, there are no cute energy tricks or techniques that can undo the deepest psycho-energetic knots of our egoic contraction. Contra to consumer, pop-spirituality, there is no amount of diddling with our chakras or monkeying with our kundalini that will open the being at the core. Such opening requires the undoing of the entire ego-illusion itself. And that requires the odyssey of whole-bodily surrender to the Living Divine Conscious Light – a whole life of one-pointed Spiritual practice and an ocean of Grace. Which, by the way, I heartily recommend – to you and to myself. But there are groovy things we can do in the meantime.

First, simply learn to relax your belly throughout the day. Notice when you’re gripping and holding there, and let it go. Over and over. This, all by itself, can be a game-changing practice. As you do, you’ll notice your breath naturally starts to move in your tummy. Two thumbs up.

Second, start to “sink” or center your awareness more and more into your lower belly – your t’an tien or hara – rather than in your head. Feel yourself as living and orienting from there, rather than living “in your skull.” This practice, diligently applied, grounds us in a much more spontaneous, intuitive, instinctual mode of being. 

Third, you, too, might want to play with Qigong…deliberately bringing Qi, prana, or etheric bio-energy into your lower belly. There are a gazillion excellent YouTube videos on Qigong. Over time, energy will grow and gather there. Learn to radiate and circulate it throughout your body. This can make your body more resilient, quiet your mind, and strengthen your immune system. 

Coolest of all, remember a couple paragraphs ago, when I mentioned the whole life of surrender to the Living Divine? These three humble practices can be a very real part of preparing for and supporting us in that.

Subscribe! One nifty practice taught by legendary Qigong Master, Mantak Chia, is to “smile into your belly.” Well, one thing that might make your belly smile is to subscribe to this nifty blog! And then, if THAT doesn’t make your belly smile, maybe UNsubscribing will!