Navel Center

Is the development of the navel center exclusively free and separate from the growth of the heart and head centers, or does the navel center develop simultaneously with the growth of the heart and the head? And also, please explain in which way the training and techniques for the navel center will differ from the training and techniques for the development of the heart and head centers.

One basic thing to be understood: the heart and head centers are to be developed, not the navel center. The navel center is just to be discovered; it is not to be developed. The navel center is already there. You have to uncover, or discover it. It is there fully developed, you are not to develop it. The heart center and the head center are developments. They are not there to be discovered, they have to be developed. Society, culture, education, conditioning help to develop them. But you are born with a navel center. Without the navel center you cannot be. You can be without the heart center, you can be without the head center. They are not necessities; it is good to have them, but you can be without them. It will be very inconvenient, but you can be without them. However, without the navel center you cannot be.…

13. Or, imagine the five-colored circles of the peacock tail to be your five senses in illimitable space. Now let their beauty melt within. Similarly, at any point in space or on a wall -- until the point dissolves. Then your wish for another comes true.

14. PLACE YOUR WHOLE ATTENTION IN THE NERVE, DELICATE AS THE LOTUS THREAD, IN THE CENTER OF YOUR SPINAL COLUMN. IN SUCH BE TRANSFORMED. I was working with a seeker on this technique. I gave him a picture of the body structure to concentrate upon so that he would begin to feel how the spinal column can be visualized inside. Then he started. Within a week he came and said, "This is very strange. I tried to see the picture you gave me, but many times that picture disappeared and I saw a different spine. It is not exactly like the picture you gave to me." So I told him, "Now you are on the right path. Forget that picture completely, and go on seeing the spine that has become visible to you." Man can see his own body structure from within. We have not tried it because it is…

If someone asks you where your consciousness is, your hand goes to the head. When consciousness is centered in thought, the head becomes the center. When it is centered in feeling and love, the heart becomes the center. So a lover will place his hand on his heart. A man working out a mathematical problem scratches his head, not his heart. His hand will not go to the heart. And if a lover, lost in love, were to place his hand on his head, it would seem absurd—love has nothing to do with the head. When consciousness is in feeling, the heart is the center. When it is in thought, the brain is the center. But the brain develops very late. The heart too begins beating only after nine months. Before even that, consciousness is centered elsewhere: at the navel. The child is connected to the mother through the navel.

Performing samyama on their power of cognition, real nature, egoism, all-pervasiveness, and functions brings mastery over the sense organs. From this follows instantaneous cognition without the use of the body, and complete mastery over pradhana, the material world.

ONLY AFTER THE AWARENESS OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SATTVA AND PURUSHA DOES SUPREMACY AND KNOWLEDGE ARISE OVER ALL STATES OF EXISTENCE. Right now when you look at a flower, the flower is there, but have you ever felt your eyes? You see the flower, but have you felt the power of your eyes? It should be there because you are using your eyes to see the flower. And of course eyes are more beautiful than any flower because all flowers have to come through the eyes. It is through the eyes that you have become aware of the world of flowers, but have you ever felt the power of the eyes? They are almost dull, dead. They have become passive, just like windows, receptive. They don't go to their object. And power means being active. Power means your eyes going and almost touching the flowers, your ears going and almost…