The Hara Breath

“You cannot do it,” explained the Master, “because you do not breathe right.”
Zen in the Art of Archery

Welcome back to the philosophy of breath. In this edition we will explore a form of breathing known as the Hara Breath. Like meditation though, the Hara Breath is not something that can be practised and consciuously applied in order to experience its benefits. No matter what form of meditation you are doing, if you have a verbalising mind then it’s not meditation. In the same instance a Hara Breath is not a Hara Breath just by merely performing the actions described below. The HB is something you initially experience with your whole being and then realise with your whole self.

The reason we are explaining the Hara Breath at length in this issue is that it will begin to impact considerably upon all other facets of Brutal including articles on Sport, Chaos and especially Awareness Training.

“For through this breathing you will not only discover the source of all spiritual strength but will also cause this source to flow more abundantly, and to poor through your limbs the more relaxed you are.”
ZAA

For us, at Brutal, training should be no less than a spiritual experience, a meditation in itself. Western thinking has been unable in general to incorporate breathing beyond the basics of relaxation and focusing within athletic endeavours.

“The breathing in … binds and combines, by holding your breath you make everything go right, and the breathing out loosens and completes by overcoming all limitations.”
ZAA

Hara is a Japanese term meaning the entire lower abdomen below the navel. The centre of the Hara is the Tanden that lays roughly 1-2 inches below the navel. In Zen traditions the Tanden is considered the psychological and physical centre of a person. This has dramatic implications to the overall philosophy of Unity consciousness, which is yet to come.

To perform a Hara breath is to perform breathing with the muscles of your Hara or centre. To inhale, the lower abdominal muscles are relaxed. Air pours in until the lower abdomen protrudes (a Buddha belly). The breath is then held only while comfortable and then exhaled slowly while pushing down with the Hara muscles (this is known as setting the Hara) so that the navel points upward at the end of the exhalation. The next breath is begun again by relaxing the lower abdominals. The exhalation takes a lot longer than the inhalation.

“I learned to lose myself so effortlessly in the breathing that sometimes I had the feeling that I myself was not breathing but … (was) being breathed.”
ZAA

I encourage you to practise Hara Breathing for a number of reasons, some of which I may never explain to you unless we train in person. For now, let it be sufficient to say, that the Hara Breath is one form of breathing that facilitates action without mind or mushin as we refer to it so often. Its many and varied applications will be addressed in other areas of the web site. Always come back to this page to review the Hara Breath though to ensure its efficacy. It’s well worth the money to also purchase both One Arrow, One Life and Zen in the Art of Archery if you’d like to explore the philosophy of the Hara Breath further. For us, at Brutal though, the HB is an extremely useful tool in our kit bag of goodies aimed at exploring the spirit of training.

I would highly recommend performing HB’s before meditation, training or athletic endeavour. When I was in Malaysia last year I witnessed a golfer performing HB’s or something similar in the locker rooms one hour before the tournament started each day. He won by 2 strokes.

But do not expect HBing to create outcomes. Outcomes create themselves, if you’ll just get out of the way for a minute.