The Reality of Being contains four sections on an inner center of gravity.
The subject is a complicated one, not least because the idea sounds theoretical to most of us, and few have had any significant experience of what
Jeanne de Salzmann talks about in these notes.
As with the development of all inner capacities, the inner center of gravity is subject to levels, and evolves according to its own octave and rates of vibration. This means that, like all other characteristics and possibilities for a man or woman, it can be experienced in various ways at various times, many of which are temporary, and some of which are weak.
Others are stronger and more durable. Each one, as it becomes more durable and grows roots deeper into the body itself towards the source of Being, comes closer to the root of Being which she speaks of. But this is a long journey, and even if I experience such energy from time to time in a powerful way, it's not enough.
The inner center of gravity is a
physical center of gravity, as well as an intellectual and emotional center of gravity. It's often spoken of as being centered in the abdomen, but the true center of gravity which exists within the root of Being encompasses the entire body, and all of the gravity in each cell, as well as the stillness of an emotional center tethered to a firm anchorage, and the clarity of an intellect that is not disturbed by the nonsense I usually fill myself with.
The center of gravity provides a place in which, from a practical point of view, things stop spinning.
This concept is difficult to impart, because I generally don't see that things are spinning in the first place. That's quite odd, because I am very much like an uncentered piece of clay, with blobs of myself creating erratic motion in every direction, sometimes at great speed. This analogy of a piece of clay spinning on a wheel is very nearly perfect, because the erratic motion in my being, if I were to see it, is what would indicate to me that there is a very rapid spinning taking place.
Yet I don't. When the blobs of me that stick out in every direction smack into things, I'm surprised by it.
If I am centered, as clay is centered when two hands hold it firmly and gather it around the center of the movement until everything is properly balanced, then the movement seems to stop. If you have access to a potter's wheel, center a piece of clay and take note of how it appears to become still and motionless when it is centered, even though it's spinning at a rapid rate. The spinning is no longer of consequence to the clay; it does not affect its regularity or state.
Now, something quite extraordinary and very different takes place: the rotation becomes a force that can be put into service in the creation of something entirely new from the clay.
I can understand this in a piece of clay; and it is equally true in myself, if my being is taken within two hands, and centered.
But we can only take this analogy so far, because the center of gravity is more than just clay spinning on the wheel. The root of being is connected to a universal force that gives birth to life itself, and everything that I am emanates from that root. My journey towards it — my effort to come into relationship with it — is a difficult one, because there are many parts of me that are not only disorganized, they resist. If they have any organization at all, it is an organization that stands in opposition to the root of Being. Everyone of the elements in that organization is attached to outer life in one way or another, and doesn't want to surrender that. Each one thinks it is a primary force, rather than the servant it ought to understand itself as.
De Salzmann does an admirable job of drawing us into a practical relationship with this question in these four sections, and it would do readers good to pay close attention to what she says about it. The inner center of gravity is not a place one can imagine oneself into; and for as long as it remains a place of the imagination, there is very little there. A fundamental inner change must take place for the formation of this force to begin, and this takes, for the vast majority of us, many years of practice.
It is not the kind of thing one does in weekend workshops.
May your soul be filled with light.