Beyond the Center: Solar Plexus Chakra Meditation and the Illusion of the Seeker

It is a funny thing, isn't it? We spend so much time looking for the donkey while we are already riding it. We sit in rooms, we close our eyes, and we engage in something like a solar plexus chakra meditation, hoping to find a center, a power, or a spark of divinity that we imagine is currently missing. But who is it that is looking? And what could possibly be found that isn't already the very ground upon which the seeker stands? When we talk about the body-mind, we are talking about a functional unit, a relational mode of being that moves through the world. Sometimes this unit feels a need to balance itself, to find quiet, or to focus on a specific energy like the solar plexus. There is nothing wrong with this. If the body-mind feels a sense of ease or comfort through this stillness, that is a beautiful expression of the absolute. But let’s be very frank with one another: this stillness are not a ladder to the sky. They are not a this moment because there is nowhere to go. There is no "there" that is separate from "here." We often hear about the "I am" and we treat it as a destination. We think that if we refine our conscious presence enough, we will finally arrive at the absolute. But as we have seen, even the sense of "I am" can be a bit of a trap. It sits on the side of the body-mind. It is the first ripple in the water, the first noise in the silence. While it is the most certain thing we can point to in the relative world, it is still an appearance. The absolute, the totality, is what allows even the "I am" to appear. It is the silence that underlies the noise. It is not that silence exists and then noise exists; they are not two. The noise is just the silence vibrating. So, when we engage in a solar plexus chakra meditation, what is actually happening? If the intention is to achieve a specific state—perhaps a sense of personal power or a quiet mind—the practice usually keeps its promise. Meditation is very good at fulfilling horizontal goals. It can change the chemistry of the body-mind; it can soothe the nervous system; it can even create experiences of vastness. But none of this has anything to do with liberation. Liberation is not the liberation of the separate self; it is liberation *from* the separate self. It is the realization that the one who thinks they are meditating, the one who thinks they are "clearing their chakras," is simply a character in a dream. We often get caught up in the idea of spiritual progress. we think we are on a journey from ignorance to wisdom. But who is making the journey? If there is no separate self at the beginning, how can there be one at the end to claim the prize? There is no one who chooses to meditate and no one who chooses not to. It simply happens. In the life of one body-mind, meditation manifests as a natural expression of being. In another, it doesn't. Both are the perfect dance of the absolute.