Being Centered, What is Centered, How to Be Centered

Six Different Types of Centeredness

'Being centered' has fully different meanings to different people, with each meaning being a description of what each individual is himself capable of doing and comprehending. For ease of comparisons within this brief article, 'being centered' will be segregated into six categories: [1] the natural center, [2] crude selfishness, [3] self-chosen, [4] self-attained, [5] self-manifested, and [6] self-creative.

[1] Natural Center

The 'natural' center is as the naturally occurring inner self-tone from which all thoughts and emotions arise. As previously written, one name given for the self-tone is "foundational emotion". Everyone's natural center is of a different self-tone than everyone else's.

Several Confucian writings appear to possibly suggest (although likely not) the natural 'center' from which all emotions arise. An example is "Zhong Yong gives a Confucian quote of 'Happy angry, grieve laugh, it have-not expressed, call it center'..." (from Tao Wu Wei 無為).

The ability to self-observe and to recognize one's own originating self-tone is very uncommon.

[2] Crude Selfishness Centeredness

Modern beliefs believe that 'being centered' merely implies the act of consciously controlling one's expressed emotions. Basically, the crude form of centeredness is merely choosing which emotion to outwardly express, all while inwardly the individual continues to rage with uncontrollable emotions that the individual is unable to consciously observe. The purpose for the 'centeredness' is fully selfish, of performing the act for personal reasons. Psychology, science, and academia teach the crude view of selfish 'centeredness'.

[3] Self-Chosen Centeredness

Within the self-chosen form of centeredness, the state of being centered is continuous for however long the individual wishes to remain within the state. The centeredness is self-chosen and self-willed. The centeredness remains to be a selfishly chosen behavior, but the inward effect is more calm and honest of intention: the act of being centered is for the purpose of doing what is correct, and not chosen for self-profit.

[4] Self-Attained Centeredness

The self-attained centeredness begins selfishly by the individual desiring benefits from the act of following teachings of centeredness. Buddhism and Zen meditation are examples of self-attained centeredness. Within self-attained centeredness the person begins with desire, he then follows teachings that say 'do-this do-that', and after years of repeating the same 'do-this do-that', the person attains the habitual behavior that the teachings pointed to. An advantage of self-attained centeredness is that the act of being centered can become deeply habituated within the individual, of whom no longer must consciously choose which emotions to express or to not express.

[5] Self-Manifested Centeredness

Self-manifested centeredness is the natural effect of the product of one's own personal values: what goes in, comes out. Self-manifested centeredness does not begin with desires of self-profit, but rather the originating ingredients include the choice to think and to behave accurately. The product of self-manifested centeredness is easier, faster, more honorable, and more deeply rooted than the three previous categories. Of primary importance is that self-manifested centeredness is honest of origins, honest of birth, honest of nature, and honest of expression.

The following is a generalized example of self-manifested centeredness in action: "...the second method contains ingredients of skill, inner centeredness, inner calm, maturity, inner virtue, emitting (射 (she)) an actively caring heart-mind relationship (思 (si)), and several other ingredients...". (Tao Wu Wei 無為)

Some known individuals self-chose a self-manifested centeredness as infants. There was nothing magical, mystical, nor 'enlightened' about their being centered; it was merely the self-chosen act to self-choose their own manner of focused consciousness.

[6] Self-Creative Centeredness

The sixth category is one that has never been written of, nor described, within any known writing. Similar to science and academia not knowing what emotions are, so likewise science and academia are incapable of comprehending how and why a different manner of centeredness occurs. Self-creative centeredness is the natural byproduct of specific inner qualities. Self-creative centeredness does not rely upon selfishness, desires for profit, the following of teachings, meditation, nor so much as rely upon the logical choice for correctness.

What Goes In, Comes Out

The ingredients that are placed into one's own soup, become the product. The academic soup is dirty, stinky, filthy, rotting, destructive. The self-chosen soup's flavor is only agreeable to the tastes of those whose favor their own flavor. The self-attained soup was built upon, and always tastes of desire, following, and habit. The self-manifested soup is skilled of flavor artistry. Self-creative centeredness is as root of Source, giving birth to a new creation, a new soup of a flavor that is never spoken of.

Descriptions of 中 Prove Oneself

By how individuals translate 中, so does the translation describe the person's knowledge and personal firsthand experience of what centeredness is. Academicians like James Legge and Homer Dubs believed that 中 means "mean", which is an external mathematical measure. No known academic translation of the book 中庸 (Zhong Yong) interpreted 中 to imply 'center', nor 'middle'. James Legge's choice of title was "Doctrine of the Mean", which proved that Legge did not know what 'centered' is.

The Qing Jing Jing book does not use 中, but some of the descriptions within Qing Jing Jing suggest centeredness. If an individual does not know what centeredness is, then the individual cannot grasp what the descriptions may imply.

A modern private partial description: "...while listening... ... ...experienced a very good cleanliness of centeredness... quite remarkable, unlike any other I had experienced... might try to describe it later... inside, extremely peaceful... no analyses occurring beyond very faint, simply aware of self and experience, extremely thorough, good enough that I would want to return there often...". The partial description is from an individual who is most familiar with the fifth category. The description is as a prelude to the sixth.

Being Centered or Not Being Centered

The topic of being centered is, of itself, unimportant. The important thing is for people to recognize that 'being centered' is not what is popularly claimed, nor is 'being centered' a favorable thing if done incorrectly.

It has been obvious throughout history that mankind, as a whole, has no interest in self-qualities. 'Junzi bosom virtue, tiny people bosom materialism' (draft of Li Ren). Centeredness is a thing that tiny people cannot do, and, thus, do not do. Self-creative centeredness: the "I" observes in a manner that...