In John J. Prendergast's decades of experience as a psychotherapist and spiritual teacher, the area of the body that's most difficult for people to connect with, given our survival fear and trauma, is our physical and energetic ground. This area in the lower belly and at the base of the spine corresponds with the root chakra in the Indian subtle body tradition, the lower dan tien in Taoism, and the hara in Japanese martial arts. While most spiritual traditions focus on opening the mind and the heart, they tend to avoid or undervalue the opening of the ground. Prendergast notes, "It remains largely unconscious and deeply defended."
This guide invites you to take a deep dive into your personal, archetypal, and universal ground, and to see through the false ground of your early conditioning and limited identity. Throughout Your Deepest Ground, Prendergast shares: accessible teachings to help you connect with your ground; sensitive awareness to the trauma we're often holding in this part of our physical and energetic body; sensing and inquiry practices to work with your own body and life; and anecdotes drawn from his teaching that show the power of this work. By consciously opening to our ground, we can experience a felt sense of safety and stability that supports the full flowering of inner peace, freedom, and loving awareness—a truly embodied spirituality.