I am almost at the end of my centering treatise.  Here are a few final odds and ends about centering practices which I think are valuable:

Music

Music has always been in the west what meditation has been in the east:  a way to get you out of your head, lessen the bounds of ego, and dissolve into something outside yourself.  Indeed, music has always had a healing or even a spiritual effect--it is no surprise that symphony conductors usually live long, energetic, and highly productive lives.  Whenever you give your full attention to a piece of music and become completely absorbed body, mind and spirit in it, you are centering yourself.  But make sure the music is classical or meditative; rock and roll just isn't too compatible with a centered feeling.  And make sure you actually listen to the music when you're hearing it.  In other words, don't read a book or eat your dinner while you're listening to music.  You need to do everything you can to focus on the music and the rhythm, going into it and becoming one with it.  A lot of what I've been suggesting on the preceding pages requires great self-discipline, but just letting yourself go into some superb music is some of the most enjoyable self-discipline there is.

Mandala

Contemplating a mandala as a meditative practice always produces a centering kind of sensation.  The mandalas which have been created in eastern cultures over the years have got to be some of the most wondrous works of art ever created.  Spend some time contemplating these designs, go into them as deeply as you can, and you will get the same effect as great music.  You don't necessarily have to focus your attention on a mandala:  any kind of centering design, such as that of the Tree of Life or sacred geometric design will have this effect. 

Prayer

You go into your center whenever you pray.  This is a practice which never fails:  any attempt to reach or communicate in some way with the divine will automatically bring your mind, body, soul and spirit into a unity. 

And saying a prayer or a blessing before a meal is a particularly effective way to center.  Kaiten Nukariya's The Religion of the Samurai (1913) tells us of "a contemporary Zenist who would not drink even a cup of water without first making a salutation to it."   Here is a centered human if there every way one:  a human being who is neither to be rushed nor distracted by the ephemeral, who is continually aware of the enormities of time, space and eternity, and who is humble enough to feel gratitude for even a sip of water.  Get into a mindset like this, and the grace of centeredness will be yours.

Conclusion

To conclude:  the one single thing that matters in all of the above is Buddhist idea of practice, namely that the practice itself is the goal, not the alleged goal itself.  You do it just for the sake of doing it, not in the hope that you will actually get anywhere.  So if you want to be centered, all you need to do is practice being centered, and behold...  that is what you are.

Centering   •   M.C. Richards   •   Tea   •   Stones   •   Exercises   •   Meditations   •   Breath   •   Chakras  •  
Four Elements  •   Daoist Scriptures   •   Cult of Tranquility   •   Etc.