Dear All,

Are you, like me, worried about all the turmoil that is going on in the world? Do you also sometimes get the feeling of being stuck in between forces over which you have hardly any control but that can crash on your head any time, like the financial crisis? All in all our near future prospects do not seem to be as rosy as we would wish them to be. And many of us might wonder how we would cope with a crisis if – may fate prevent it – one does come to our own door-steps.

One of the most common worries is about our financial situation and one cannot help agreeing with the ABBA song when they sing:  “Money, Money, Money, must be funny, must be sunny, in a rich mans world… all the things I could do if I had a little money…”

But is that really so, is having more money the solution? Does money really make us happy? It is worth looking a bit deeper into it.

Before we do that let me tell you about one very personal experience. I was many times in India and stayed there with different people, in conditions that for the mind of a Westerner would be regarded as quite challenging. Often there was only one room, with a kitchen and bathroom attached and this room served as dining room, leisure place and sleeping room in one. In the evening a carpet was rolled out on the floor and being stacked like sardines we went to sleep, parents, children, cousins, me, all in one small room. And guess what…  despite the lack of the usual amenities, the warmth and care from my hosts more than made up for the physical discomforts. In short, it felt like no hardship at all. Of course, even in such poverty there are limits and one might see things that will stick to your mind, heart-breaking, but generally I was deeply amazed about one thing – how could people still look so satisfied despite their material scarcity?

It is said when you go to another country you might experience kind of a culture shock. What shall I say… the culture shock did come, but not in India – it was when I came home! I got a shock about my own culture. There, in the middle of wealth and well-fed people I was sitting in a metro, or walking down a street and staring at grumpy, unfriendly, discontent faces. Isn’t that kind of a curious paradox? Here we are living on a heap of riches (compared to other countries) and being unsatisfied, and there people often have the minimum of a minimum to live on and seem to be more satisfied than we?
I drew the most reasonable conclusion: satisfaction isn’t connected with having money, nor with being rich. But how could that be?

The answer lays inside us… and we have to start by better understanding the set-up of our third energy center. We learned already last week that the whole center is divided into three parts: one part that is lined up on the left channel (emotions), one part that is lined up on the right channel (actions), and one that is lined up on the center channel (our personal evolution).

Here is an overview of what is governed by these three parts:

left: satisfaction, family, household
right: attention, job and material well-being
center: balance, evolution, values

You see, although money-issues are a part of this center (at the right, to be precise), the satisfaction comes from the left part of the center, which is closely connected to family and household – “family” can also be expanded to any close relationship.
Now, if we move our attention too much on the right side of this center being busy on how to make a lot of money, we move out of balance, away from our satisfaction that is actually on the left side of the energy center….

It does work the other way round as well! Too much running after every satisfaction results in a move away from our balance, and we might not be able to keep our jobs, or the money runs through our fingers and we end up in debts that we may never be able to repay. One of the worst examples is the drug abuse that creates a kind of artificial satisfaction, but in reality drains out the energy of the left side of this Nabhi and weakens the whole center more and more.

How do we know if our Nabhi is in balance?

If you have looked already through the sites about Sahaja Meditation  and the Subtle Body you might have found hints that our inner energy, once awakened, actually communicates with us. Each finger and parts of our hands are connected to a specific energy center. On the chart above you will see that the third energy center, the Nabhi, is linked to both our middle fingers. If the Nabhi is in balance both these fingers will feel slightly cool, or light. If there is a block you might feel warmth, heaviness or a tingling. The left middle finger corresponds to the left side of the Nabhi, the right middle finger to the right side of the Nabhi. If both fingers feel warm, heavy or tingling it shows a block in the center Nabhi.

How to bring back the Nabhi into balance?

That we can easily do in our meditation where we allow the all-pervading power to flow into us, provide all needed energy to this center and take out all “bad energy”, i.e. blocks. It might however need more than just a one-time-meditation. Often we have over-worked our energy centers so much that they do need a little time to recover and come back to their full capacity but if you keep meditating, every day 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening, you will soon feel the change.

So here it is again, our 10-Minutes-Meditation with focus on the Nabhi Center

(sit comfortably wherever you like ):