What does it mean to be centred?
In Psychosynthesis, we speak a lot about being centred, and by that we point to the stable, never changing point of pure awareness and will – embedded in all human beings. It is being aware of oneself as a loving observer and when this permanent, unchanging centre has been found, we always know how to come back to oneself, when we have forgotten ourselves in desires, fears and illusions.
The centre is never an object, a subpersonality, a role, a feeling, a sensation, our body; it is never something we can observe because we will always be the one who observes. It is such a simple and essential truth.
Assagioli in his wonderful conversation with students (The Self; A Unifying Centre) said the following: “there is something in us that is not identified, that does not change with the changing states of mind, that remains always the same, fixed, unassailable. This is our real “I”, the center or our individuality, the real substance of our being.” Read here: https://kennethsorensen.dk/en/the-self-a-unifying-center/
In his interview with Sam Keen, Assagioli stated the following:
“At the heart of the self there is both an active and a passive element, an agent and a spectator. Self-consciousness involves our being a witness – a pure, objective, loving witness – to what is happening within and without. In this sense the self is not a dynamic in itself but is a point of witness, a spectator, an observer who watches the flow. But there is another part of the inner self – the will-er or the directing agent – that actively intervenes to orchestrate the various functions and energies of the personality, to make commitments and to instigate action in the external world. So, at the centre of the self there is a unity of masculine and feminine, will and love, action and observation.”
You can read the interview here: https://kennethsorensen.dk/…/the-golden-mean-of-roberto-as…/
Q. You said there can’t be a synthesis of elements without a synthesizing centre. This seems to be so central to our them and to psychosynthesis. Could you please develop this a little more?
A. Well of course there cannot be anything without a nucleus, a core. There cannot be an atom without a core. There cannot be any living organism without a central life with keeping the life organized for the purpose of permanence and growth. So you have to say there is always inevitably a core, and what I have done is only to apply specifically to psychosynthesis of the human being, both at the personal and the transpersonal. There could not be any order, any harmony, and real life of a personality without a synthesizing centre.
But the personality is not yet synthesized. It is a constant, dramatic interplay between subsidiary centres of sub-personalities, or drives, or all kinds of contents of the personality, and the synthesizing centre which has such a hard time. But it is there, and however partial and unsatisfactory to a certain point in the so-called normal individual, it is a co-ordinating, bringing together element. Therefore psychosynthesis, first, second and third, is the working from the centre. That centre you see is synthesizing not in itself. I repeat it is a static, pure being but it acts. This is a paradox, also another central point to realize and then enough for today. The Self radiates. Aristotle called it in that fine paradox the “Immovable mover.” It is immovable but sets in motion everything else. I suggest that you meditate upon the immovable mover, and our centre the sun, that unknown mysterious entity sends enormous radiation throughout our whole solar system and beyond. Also, a jewel is static, but sparkles. (Assagioli in Talks about the Self)
