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Ki in Daily Life, Koichi Tohei PDF
Ki in Daily Life, Koichi Tohei PDF
IN DAILY LIFE
KOICHI TOHEI
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Printed in Japan
PREFACE
With the advance of culture and civilization the structure of our world grows
more diverse and complex. The lives of primitive peoples were simple,
their area of communications was small, and all they really had to think
about was a place to live, something to eat, something to wear, and some-
thing with which to arm themselves against powerful enemies.
Now, when man covers the face of the earth and is thinking of flying to
the moon, ideas, politics, economics, and employment grow alarmingly
diverse and complicated. Driven by waves of complexity, we seem to have
been cast out of a quiet pond onto the swirling waves of the great sea itself.
At the mercy of wind and waves, we need make only one mistake and we are
cast adrift like a boat without oars facing the imminent disaster of sinking.
The universal has given us a fine boat and strong oars to navigate the
violent waves, but if we lose them, we must open our eyes, recognize our
own strength, look toward our goal, and, cleaving the billowing waves, gra-
dually rebuild ourselves to the point at which we can sail the tempestuous sea.
Few people in this world know what their real strength is. Many see only
the part of their power that floats like the visible segment of an iceberg
and forget the vastly greater part sunk beneath the surface of the water.
Perhaps such people are satisfied with themselves as they are; perhaps, on the
contrary, they are pessimistic about their own inabilities.
Certainly a man who inherited a fortune from his parents, locked the
money in a safe, forgot the key,and making no attempt to use his own re-
sources, complained of no money and borrowed from other people would be
a source of ridicule. Surely he should find that key and make free use of the
fortune that he owns.
Because it explains the basic principles and usages of ki, which are utterly
essential to the revealing of man's innate power, ki is the key to the safe.
A grasp of the principles of ki makes it possible for you to call on the ki of
the universal and to use the power that you have always possessed.
1 have organized the Ki Society and spread Tohei style Ki Development and
Aikido with Mind and Body Coordinated based on the Principles of Ki
which I grasped through my life-long training.
Lives filled with laughing and lives filled with weeping are both possible. It
is for the man himself to decide which he will choose. If you would be al-
ways healthy and always walk through life with your head held high, you
must begin by studying the uses of ki.
I am very happy that people all over the world have read the explanations
of Ki Principles and Aikido with Mind & Body Coordinated as I set them
forth in my "Book of Ki". The present work is my attempt to fill requests I
have received from other countries to explain ki more thoroughly and to
offer applications of the training methods and the principles of ki to daily
life. Nothing could make me happier than for this book to satisfy those
requests and to serve as material for my readers' further study.
Koichi Tohei
KI IN DAILY LIFE
CONTENTS
Preface
PART ONE: THE PRINCIPLES OF Kl
Chapter
1 HUMAN LIFE 13
2 THE VALUE OF OUR EXISTENCE 15
3 UNIFICATION OF MIND AND BODY 17
4 THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KI 20
5 THE FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES TO UNIFY MIND AND BODY . . . 27
1. Mind Moves Body 27
Example 1 Two Fingertips Naturally Joined 29
Example 2 The Unbreakable Circle 30
Example 3 The Unbendable Arm 31
Example 4 The Human Bridge 33
2. Keep One Point 35
Example 1 Pushing the Left Shoulder 37
Example 2 Keeping the Spot in the Forehead and the
One Point in the Lower Abdomen Aligned 38
Example 3 Concentrating on the One Point in the Lower
Abdomen Only 39
Example 4 Forgetting the One Point in the Lower Abdomen
and Concentrating on the Forehead 39
Example 5 Sitting in Living Calmness 40
Example 6 Sitting in Dead Calmness 40
3. Relax Completely 42
Example 1 Both Hands Pulled Down 43
Example 2 Relaxation with and without One Point 44
4. Keep Weight Underside 45
Example 1 The Heavy Arm 45
Example 2 The Unraisable Face 46
Example 3 The Weight in the Lowest Part of the Arm 47
5. Extend Ki 4g
6 COORDINATION OF MIND AND BODY IN DAILY LIFE 49
Example 1 The Unbendable Arm 49
Example 2 The Opponent Pushes You Back by the Wrist 50
Example 3 Standing on One Leg 51
KI IN D A I L Y L I F E , Contents (Cont'd)
When we get ready to put out to sea in a boat we first check a number of
things. Is there any damage to the rudder? Is the engine in good condition?
Are there any leaks? Only when we are sure that all is well do we feel a sense
of security and cast off for a safe voyage.
Human life is much the same. When we are born we set sail on the rough
waters of the world of man. While we are children our parents or those
around us care for and protect us. We live in safety relying on others, but
when we reach adulthood all of the responsibility becomes our own. We
become our own ship's captain and must independently sail by ourselves.
Though others may give us words of helpful advice or may assist us, the
responsibility of the voyage is ours, and we must know completely the
ability and strength of the ship we are sailing. We must also be able to check
all the parts ourselves to see if there is any trouble.
A look at the young men and women of today reveals a situation packed
with troubles. What is more, these young people do not realize the situation
they are in. Their brakes won't hold, they are hurling along in an impossible
direction, and the engine has run wild. They themselves are either sick or
spiritually on the verge of collapse. They have lost their oars, the ship is
leaking, their strength is gone, and they are in grave danger of sinking in the
roaring waves of the world of man.
Why do we not here and now reaffirm our own abilities and re-examine all
of our parts? Let us bring forth our innate power, put ourselves in order, and
make something splendid of the ship in which we must sail the seas of our
lives.
Let us stop and think. What, after all, is human life and where did it
come from? Most people when asked where they came from when they were
born reply that they came from their parents. Those parents had parents too,
and if we continue back we see that our life flows in a continuous line from
the creation of man. If we ask where life came from before the creation of
man we have no answer but that it came from the universal. If this is so, our
own lives too proceed from the universal. If someone asks what were you
before you became the adult you are now, you would usually answer,
"I was a child." Before you were a child? An infant. Before that? An em-
bryo. But suppose we were to ask what you were before you were an
embryo. What would you answer?
HUMAN LIFE 13
Before you were an embryo you were the union of an ovum from your
mother and a sperm cell from your father. Where did they come from? When
your parents were children they were incapable of producing ova and sperm
cells. They only became able to do so after they reached adulthood.
Was this ability a part of the air they breathed or the food they ate while
growing up? We can only answer no. It did not come from any place, it came
of nature. In other words, our life is born through our parents of the univer-
sal.
This line of thought leads us to the conclusion that not just humans, but
every tree, every blade of grass, all stones, water, and air are born of the
universal. Moreover, they have continued to exist since the beginning of the
universal and are a part of the universal.
When a man is elated everything looks rosy, there are no doubts, life is
easy. Life, however, is not all ups, there are downs too. Indeed, if there is
elation, depression must follow. When these times of depression come, one
feels lonely. He feels that he is cut off from the universal, isolated from
society, alone and discouraged.
If we think of ourselves as single individuals, in contrast with the great
universal we seem as tiny as a poppy seed. Our powerlessness and isolation
are lamentable. But if we keep in our hearts the knowledge that we are one
with the universal, that everything in the universe is of the one womb, what
need have we to wail or be lonely? From this knowledge should come the
mighty faith that we are one with the universal, that the universe will protect
us, that there is no need to despond and no need to be perplexed. Though
ten thousand misunderstand and slander us, if we make full use of our own
strength and hold to the right belief, the universal will know. There will be
nothing to fear.
A certain man made an irreparable business error, and hoping for death
climbed to the top of a mountain. When he got there and looked down at
the vast panorama spread before him he felt a strange emotion coursing
through his body. The story goes that he came down from the mountain
and through strenuous effort made a great success of his life.
Doubtless with death just ahead, the man's soul cleared. He saw the whole
of the universe spread before him. His real self awakened and rediscovered
itself as a part of the universal. Great strength then gushed forth from that
universal.
Man today has his eyes trained only on the society of man. This is par-
ticularly true of city dwellers who almost everyday see nothing but man-
made things. They have forgotten the universal world of nature. Turning
one's eyes to the universal and enjoying it is not the exclusive priviledge of
poets and artists. The universal will unfold itself before anyone who desires
it. Those lost in the waves must turn their gaze to the universal and redis-
cover themselves as one with it.
14 HUMAN LIFE
Chapter 2 The Value of Our Existence
Our lives are a part of the life of the universal. If we understand that our
life came from the universal and that we have come to exist in this world we
must then ask ourselves why the universal gave us life. In Japanese we use
the phrase suisei-mushi, which means to be born drunk and to die while still
dreaming, to describe the state of being born without understanding the
meaning of it and to die still not understanding. To be born like a bubble
and to spend our lives doing no more than repeating the process of eating,
evacuating, and sleeping is indeed to lead a meaningless existence. To die
still dreaming is fine, but for those who do so the time of death brings great
distress.
Among today's young people some spit out remarks like, "I didn't ask to
be born! My parents did it themselves; it's no responsibility of mine, but
now that I am born I can do just exactly as I please!" Some young people
actually follow this dictate, and their parents do not know what to say to
their children in answer.
The fact is the parents do not bring about a birth just as they like. Each
of us receives our life from the universal only through our parents. Some
parents want children very badly and cannot have them, whereas others do
not want them and do have them. It is not up to the parent. If it were,
parents would doubtless choose to have children who would never say unfilial
things or do things that are bad.
Let us borrow some knowledge from the field of medicine. In a single
emission the male ejects approximately from one to three hundred million
sperm cells. The number of sperm cells a male produces in a lifetime is
astronomical. An individual is the result of the union of only one sperm cell
with an ovum. Because one person is born from one sperm cell countless other
sperm cells are sacrificed. Surely punishment should follow such waste.
We often hear the words "a chosen life" applied to people who are more
talented or better looking than others or who lead a more brilliant life. In
fact, we should realize that all of us, from the moment we are born, enter
a chosen life. From the moment we are born of the universal we fall into a
chosen life because we were not mistakenly born a pig or a dog and because
from the countless sperm cells of one human male one single individual was
born.
To waste this rare and precious life is a regrettable thing indeed. When we
THE VALUE OF OUR EXISTENCE 15
receive the priceless gift of life we also receive a commission to achieve
something in this world. In other words, we must know the will of provi-
dence, we must know our own calling.
The heavens say not a word but act at all times. The heavens say not a
word, but all creation is constantly growing. The universal will not teach us
a single word, but acts in silence. We do not know whether the direction is
good or bad. It is a fact only that the universal is moving. If with eyes set on
the building of a brilliant paradise we also want to lead an equally brilliant
life on earth, we must believe that the universal is moving in a good direc-
tion. If on the other hand, we chose to follow the path of evil whatever
efforts we make, all is wasted. The universal is always growing and develop-
ing. We must realize that the mission entrusted to us from the universal is to
apply our efforts to this development and creation. In this world are rich and
poor and a great variety of kinds of work. But from the viewpoint of making
efforts in the universal formation of all creation everyone is equal. There is
no rich and poor, no high and low. Whatever your field of endeavor, what-
ever way you are headed, if you devote all your strength to that thing which
is suited to you something will tell you, "This is in keeping with my real
character." When you feel that you must accomplish something in a given
field, you have found your calling. Apply all of your strength to that one
thing, and you will sense the value of your work and the value of your own
life. There is no calling when you make no effort, but the universal creative
progress increases and increases as each individual carries out his own calling.
Caste aside the pessimism that holds that regardless of how much one
individual may try, the great forces of the world do not change. If only one
person becomes a better man, the universal is at least better by that one per-
son. One little light can light ten thousand, which can become the power
that illuminates the world. To create a better world we must start with
ourselves.
Once we know the substance of our lives and grasp the nature of our call-
ings our next inevitable concern is finding a way to fulfill that calling.
We received our life from the universal in two elements, the mind and the
body. We can express the relationship between these two by saying that the
body moves in accordance with the dictates of the mind and that the mind
expresses itself through the body. The two are inseparable. The continuation
of human life is impossible with only one of the two, but when they join
together we are able to manifest our highest abilities and our innate powers.
When I was in college, I heard the story of an old Zen priest who, while
still young, began practicing Zen. He was a very weak man with a serious
case of tuberculosis. Of course, now advanced medicines and remedies have
found cures for tuberculosis, but in those days it was considered inevitably
fatal. During his Zen training, the young man collapsed. The doctors pro¬
nounced him beyond help, and he, in deep distress, resigned himself to
death.
He thought to himself then, "It is a great sorrow that I had to fall ill in
the midst of my training, particularly since I had made up my mind to
follow Zen, but if I must die, I shall do it bravely seated in the Zen position
as a priest should." He got up from his sickbed, assumed the seated Zen posi¬
tion, entered a state of perfect spiritual concentration, and calmly sat await¬
ing death. But he did not die. On the following day he got up, resumed his
Zen position, and waited, but again death did not come. Day in, day out, he
lived seated in the position of meditation. Because he disciplined himself
with death constantly before his eyes, in a twinkling his mental attitude had
advanced. The priest then decided that since he had waited for death, yet
death failed to come, he would cast the question of life and death from
his mind and leave it up to the will of heaven. He also resolved that while
he lived he would follow the disciplines of Zen to the best of his ability. As
he continued his Zen studies, while he was unaware of it, his tuberculosis
went away, and as a famous priest he lived a rich life of leading and teaching
others until beyond the age of 70.
While resigned to his death and seated in thought he achieved a state of
union between mind and body and overcame his grave illness. Those who
would copy him and practice seated Zen meditation in an attempt to cure
a serious illness should be aware that rather than always cure, such a proce-
Though from ancient times in the Orient, the word ki has been in wide
use for a wide number of things from the ki of the universal to everyday
things around us, many people who use the word do not realize to what
extent everyday ki is connected with the ki of the universal, or even that the
two are connected at all.
As our five senses tell us, the universal in which we live at present has color
and form. But what is the real nature of this universal?
Anything that has form must have a beginning. For example the sun is
said to be blazing now, but there must have been a beginning to the fire.
There must also have been a fire, before the fire started. If we trace the
origins of all things, we reach a point at which nothing existed. On the other
hand, nothing cannot give birth to something. Zen uses a term mu which
means nothingness, but not a complete nothingness; that is, the Zen mu
means a state in which, though nothing exists, there is still something.
Mathematically speaking, the basic entity of mathematics is the number
one. The earth is one. A pebble is one. If it is reduced to half, what remains
is also one. If it is reduced by half infinitely, it does not become zero. If
there is one, half of it always exists, ki is the infinite gathering of infinitely
small particles. In this way the sun, the stars, the earth, plants, animals, and
human mind and body are all born of the ki of the universal.
From ki, the real substance of the universal, came movement and calm,
joining and breaking apart, tensing and slackening, and many mutual actions
which gave the present universal its form. Ki has no beginning and no end; its
absolute value neither increases nor decreases. We are one with the universal,
and our lives are part of the life of the universal. Since before the beginning
of the universal, and even now, its absolute value exists as a solid fact within
which birth and growth and death and dissolution continue to take place.
The Christian Church calls the universal essence God and its action God's
Providence. In other words, God exists in this world and God's Providence is
a never-ending process.
In Ki Society, we make a distinction between the ki we use everyday and
the universal ki—the real essence of the universal. We call the working of
Both the mind and body were born of the ki of the universal and were
originally one. There is no dividing line between the mind and body in deter-
mining that this is the mind and that is the body. The mind is refined body,
the body unrefined mind. The mind is refined and the body is coarse.
It is not really difficult to coordinate mind and body which were origi-
nally one. It seems so because people insist on thinking of the mind and the
body as separate entities. Those who preach mind preach only mind, and
those who preach body preach only body. Though born of the same mother,
our hair and skin naturally function according to different rules. Similarly,
even though the mind and the body were both born of the same ki of the
universal, the mind naturally has the rule of mind, and the body, the rule of
body. When both rules move together like the wheels of a car, for the first
time we can truly coordinate mind and body in our daily life.
We are not really conscious of using either our mind or our body, but
exactly what connection exists between the two? Even if we grasp the
importance of unity between mind and body, if we do not understand the
relationship between them we cannot effect a unity. If when we are sitting
quietly, not even thinking about our body, we manage to unify our mind,
the mind and body both enter a state of unity. The reason, however, that the
unity fails when we move about is that we do not understand the relation-
ship between mind and body and are mistaken in the way we use them.
The mind is formless, colorless, and odorless, and flies from place to place
at will. We may think it is here right now only to find that instantaneously it
has flown a thousand miles ahead. On the contrary, the body has shape,
color, and odor and its movements are restricted. Keeping these two dis-
parate elements constantly unified is very difficult. We realize that we must
EXAMPLE I
Two Fingertips Naturally Joined
Put your hands together as you see in fig 1 a. Leave your index fingers
apart.
I. Look intently at both fingers. If you think that they will come to-
gether, they will naturally do so {fig 1 b). Do not consciously think of
EXAMPLE 2
The Unbreakable Circle
Person A first makes a circle with his thumb and index finger as you see
in fig. 2 a. Using both index fingers and both thumbs, person B attempts to
force the circle apart.
1. If A simply tenses his fingers he will be unable to prevent B's break-
ing the circle ,(fig. 2 b).
2. If he does not tense his fingers but concentrates on the idea that
the circle he has formed is an unbroken one of iron, B will not be easily
able to break it, (fig. 2 c). Even if B is able to force the fingers slightly apart,
as long as A keeps his mind orderly and concentrates, his fingers will go
back together again.
In this experiment B must not try to force A's fingers apart suddenly.
As long as A keeps calm such a sudden attack will be ineffectual. Generally,
sudden pressure on the body or its parts causes the person to instantane-
ously shatter his mental composure. If this happens the test is not a valid
one of spiritual strength. In both 1 and 2, you should slowly and quietly
tense your fingers and apply strength. If you do so it will be clear when
you are using your mind and when you are not. If A keeps an immovable
mind through several repetitions of the test, B might try using a sudden all-
out application of strength, but probably he will not be able to break the
circle. A needs only to think that his mind is flowing through his fingers,
and it will do so.
EXAMPLE 3
The Unbendable Arm
A should take a half step forward and extend his right arm straight out.
Using both arms B then attempts to bend A's arm at the elbow. B must be
careful not to attempt to force A's arm in the wrong direction and cause
injury.
1. At first A clenches his right fist, tenses his arm, and thinks that B
cannot bend it. If the strengths of the two men are fairly well matched, B
will easily bend A's arm ,(fig. 3 a).
2. Next A opens his hand out, relaxes his arm, and concentrates on the
power of his mind as if it flows through his arm and leaps thousands of miles
ahead (fig. 3 b).
As long as A keeps this idea flowing, try as he will, B will be unable to
bend A's arm. If A is a beginner, B should use a slow quiet application of
strength rather a rapid violent one, to see if A's mental power is active.
Should B carelessly use quick rapid force, A's thought will lose continuity,
FIG. 3 b
and B will be able to bend A's arm. Do not worry about this point because
once you are accustomed to the experiment you will develop a mind so
strong that no one can interrupt the flow of your thought. If B is much
larger than A, A should be careful not to worry about it or B will be able
to bend his arm.
In 2, A should leave his fingers spread apart because by clenching our
fists we destroy the idea that the power of our spirit is flowing out "a
thousand miles ahead" from our fingertips. Once you master the concept
of power flowing outward you can clench your fist or leave your fingers
limp, and B still will be unable to bend your arm. This has nothing to do
with the shape of your hand. Even with your arm bent, as you see it in
fig.3 c, if you think of mental power surging to your fingertips your arm
will be unbendable.
Strength of the mind is real strength. If you believe that your mental
strength is flowing out, it is though it cannot be seen with the eyes of
the body. In these experiments, if your mental strength is coursing through
your arm, trying to bend it will be like trying to bend a fire hose through
which water is racing.
Through practice you will become stronger and better able to unify
your mind. Therefore you should train yourself as well as possible. Faith is
strength.
EXAMPLE 4
The Human Bridge
A lies flat on the floor with both legs stretched straight out and both arms
straight along the sides of his body (fig. 4 a). B supports A's head from the
back of his head and C takes A's feet. The two lift A's body.
1. If A simply lies flat or tenses his body, when B and C attempt to
lift him his body will bend at the hips (fig. 4 b).
FIG. 4 a
FIG. 4 b
FIG.4d
2. If A relaxes his body and concentrates on the idea that a steel rod
runs from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, or on the idea that his
entire body has become one steel rod, B and C will be able to lift him as you
see in fig. 4 c.
3. Set two chairs at a convenient distance in accordance with A's body
size. Set A's head or shoulders on one chair and his feet on the other. His
body forms a human bridge between the two chairs (fig. 4 d).
4. Two or three people then straddle the unsupported part of A's
body and gently, so as not to disturb A's mental condition, sit on his
body. All three lift their feet completely from the floor (Jig. 4 e). As long as
A thinks of his body as a steel rod he can support three or even four people.
The body weights of all of the people sitting on A fall directly on his body,
but he will feel no sensation of great weight. A man using his mental strength
can easily support the weight of three people. This experiment helps us
know to what extent the mind is manipulating the body and just how great
our mental strength is. At first, let only one person sit on you, then gradual-
ly increase the number to three. If the idea of the iron rod your body has
become fails in the middle of the experiment you will all fall down. Keep the
idea continuous throughout the entire experiment. Since it has no ill effects
on the body, anyone can try this test. Trying for yourself is a way to gain
confidence in your own mental strength because no words are as good as
visible proof.
Though hypnotists often use this experiment, since their subject can only
perform properly while he is in an hypnotic sleep, what they do is scarcely
anything to have confidence in. The important thing is to be able to do it
yourself while you are awake and relying on no one else. It is something we
can do while awake or even walking around.
If all you do is read this book and understand what we have been saying,
the material here will not help you become stronger. Try out these tests with
some of your friends to see to what extent your mind does control your
body and to see how strong your mind is.
Even slight daily things that come into your head operate on your body.
If you think you are bad, you are likely really to become so. If you think
you have a chronic illness, that illness will probably never leave you. You
must use your head and adopt a positive viewpoint.
Once you understand that mind controls the body, you must set out to
learn from spiritual unification how to unify mind and body and how to
make your body obey your mind.
Once we realize that to unify mind and body we must concentrate our
mind first, then we must learn where to concentrate it. It should be con-
centrated at the one point in the lower abdomen.
People of the Orient, from ancient times, have placed emphasis on the
importance of the pit of the stomach as the birth place of true human
strength. They have also, however, tended to the clearly mistaken belief
that simply concentrating bodily strength in the lower stomach would pro-
duce a powerful pit of the stomach. They failed to see that by concentrating
EXAMPLE 1
Pushing the Left Shoulder
A stands with his left leg one half step forward. B tenses his right arm and
gradually pushes with his fingertips on A's left shoulder (fig. 5 a).
1. If A tenses his shoulder or his entire body, B will easily be able to
break his stance and push his upper body back. B will be able to move him
even if A puts physical strength in the pit of his stomach. Using physical
strength in the abdomen is a mistake.
2. If A maintains the one point, B will be unable to move him easily.
To maintain the point, relax your whole body, and think with all your
will that your weight is in that one point. Simply leave everything else just as
it is. If B should suddenly apply extreme strength, A, without losing the one
point, should swing his left foot one step to the rear. B's strength will then
all flow away. A will not have to receive any of it (fig. 5 b), but B will
fall forward and probably be unable to maintain his balance.
FIG. 5 a
FIG. 5 b
EXAMPLE 2
Keeping the Spot in the Forehead and the One Point in the Lower Abdomen
Aligned.
A kneels erect with his big toes crossed and rests both hands lightly on
his thighs. He thinks that the spot in the center of his forehead and the one
point in the lower abdomen are on one line. He can either close his eyes or
open them. A will be immovable if B pushes A's shoulder.
Strictly speaking, both the spot in the forehead and the one point in
the lower abdomen are important and when they are aligned mind and body
are unified and immovable. However, there is another very important thing
to keep in mind. When the two are aligned, the mind and the body are
unified. So, if you concentrate your mind on the one point in the lower
abdomen, naturally the spot in the forehead is maintained. This means the
mind is also unified. This is the correct state to establish, (fig. 6).
FIG. 6
A forgets the spot in the forehead and concentrates on the one point in
the lower abdomen. A will be as stable as a rock, if B pushes A. A is unifying
his mind and body, (fig. 7).
On the other hand it is impossible to keep one point in the lower abdo-
men by concetrating on the forehead.
EXAMPLE 4
Forgetting the One Point in the Lower Abdomen and Concentrating
on the Forehead
A forgets his one point in the lower abdomen and concentrates on his
forehead. B will be able to move A very easily. This means that A lost his
coordination of mind and body, (fig, 8).
FIG. 7
FIG.
EXAMPLE 5
Sitting in Living Calmness
EXAMPLE 6
While condensing his one point, A thinks something like, "My one point
one point
FIG. 9
FIG. 10
has become small enough," or "I have accomplished the unification of mind
and body." Even though he doesn't and shouldn't move any part of his body,
B will be able to detect that A has stopped condensing his one point. The
eyelashes or cheeks will begin to move a little or a dark shadow will be
cast across his face. Each person has his own way of expressing this but it is
always discernible. At that instant B will be able to push A over by the
shoulder,(fig. 10).
In conclusion the one point in the lower abdomen is not a tangible point
but a point infinitely condensed. The one point in the lower abdomen is
important but don't stop your mind there. While condensing to infinite
smallness, if it becomes too small to perceive, just leave it as it is. Ki is the
infinite gathering of infinitely small particles. When the mind is refined to
this degree, for the first time one can become one with the universal.
Once you understand that you have the center of the universe in your
abdomen, try to begin every action from this point and absorb everything
and every influence into this point. Then you will be able to keep coordi-
nation of mind and body in your daily life.
Just as a bow kept strung loses its usefulness, so humans cannot stand con-
tinuous tension. Certainly, it is easy to relax in a place where nothing annoys
you, but in the bustling vicissitudes of this world where you have not finish-
ed one thing before something else is waiting to be done, it is impossible to
be always in a relaxing environment. Consequently, it is essential to be able
to relax both mind and body, as needs demand, in any place at all.
Though, of course, it is difficult to relax when you are busy, some peo-
ple's spirits are in such a rush that they cannot relax even when they are in a
suitably relaxing atmosphere. These people tend to be highly nervous and to
tire easily. In the face of some momentous event they are likely to tense and
tighten up. Children before an entrance exam often find themselves unable
to answer questions that they could answer under normal circumstance.
Athletes before some big game sometimes tighten up and do poorly. All of
this happens because the people involved do not know how to relax.
Why do people feel that it is impossible to relax when something big is
happening? First of all, this notion arises from the illusion that when one is
relaxed he is weak. The fact is that if you relax properly you are very strong,
as you will see from the examples we shall mention later. We relax at im-
portant, trying times because relaxing makes us strong.
Secondly people do not know how to relax and feel that they cannot.
To relax means to be at ease and leave things in their natural condition.
We can relax if we can make things settle down in their proper places. The
proper place for the weight of the upper body to settle is the one point in
the lower abdomen. First find the place, the one point where the upper
body's weight must settle. Settle it there, and relax the upper body, and the
weight of all the other parts of the body will settle down at their proper
places for a state of over-all relaxation. If a man does not know the house
to which he must return, even if you tell him to go home, he can't. If you
do not know the place in which to settle your strength, even if we tell you
to relax, you can't.
When you are trying to relax, and you don't know where to settle your
strength, your strength remains in some part of your body. If you try to
relax the shoulders, the belly is tense. If you try to relax your belly, your
head becomes tense. In this way some part of your body is always tense
and you cannot relax completely.
There is an old story about a magic pot. One merchant came to sell an
old pot. People complained because the pot was very expensive. The mer-
chant said, "No, it is not expensive at all. It is a magic pot." "What kind
of magic can it play?" "Put anything you like in the pot." They threw
whatever they had around into the pot and it all vanished. It was truly
a magic pot.
Such pots must be very useful. We all have such a magic pot in the one
point in the lower abdomen. This is an infinitely small point which can
engulf everything. For example, even if someone spreads false rumors about
EXAMPLE 1.
Both Hands Pulled Down
A stands and B and C hold A's hands with both hands and try to pull him
down. If A puts strength in his arms, he will be pulled down, (fig. 11 a).
Next A relaxes his arms completely thinking of absorbing their power
into the magic pot into his one point in the lower abdomen. B and C will
not be able to pull A down however hard they try. A can even stand up and
lower his hip with B and C hanging on the arms, (Jig. 11 b).
Even if you actually receive power from B and C, all you have to do is to
absorb it into your one point. By absorbing all disturbing and irksome things
in this world into the one point, you can overcome all difficulties in this
life.
A stands. B tries to push A's hand toward his shoulder with both hands.
If A keeps one point and relaxes, B will not be able to budge him even a
little. This is the true state of relaxation and is the strongest state, (fig.
12 a). Next A relaxes thinking of the top of his head or concentrating on the
forehead. B will be able to push A's hand upward easily and A will lose his
balance. This is the false state of relaxation, the weakest state, (fig. 12 b).
People in the world usually believe that relaxation means loss of power.
That is why they cannot relax in an emergency. They tense their body. You
will realize the importance of relaxation in an emergency for the first time
when you realize that relaxation is the strongest state. From ancient times
all the great men never got upset in an emergency and were always relaxed
because they knew the true relaxation. We, too, can achieve it if we want.
Recent medical reports say that 80% of modern disease are due to nervous
problems. Stresses, irritations, anger, and depression make the fine veins con-
tract and disturb the manifestation of the life power causing various diseases.
One should lead a happy healthy life by keeping the one point, relaxing
completely, activating the highest life power, and thereby keeping away
all diseases. To relax completely is the second of the Four Basic Principles
to Unify Mind and Body.
The weight of every object naturally settles at its lowest point. Since the
body of a man is also an object, if he relaxes completely, the weight of every
part should naturally be settled at the lowest point. Living calmness is a state
where the weight of an object naturally settles underside. So, if a man
relaxes completely he can always remain calm. This is the third of the Four
Basic Principles. If we keep one point, we can relax. If we relax, the weight
of every part of our body is at the lowest point. The first, second and the
third of the Four Basic Principles are inseparable.
EXAMPLE 1
The Heavy Arm
A thrusts his right arm straight out in front of him, and using only one
hand, B attempts to push A's forearm upward.
1. If A relaxes his arm and thinks of the lower edge of it (heavy line in
fig. 13 a), B will not be able to push it up easily.
2. If A thinks of the upper edge of his arm, (heavy line in fig. 13 b), B
will be able to easily push A's arm upward.
EXAMPLE 2
The Unraisable Face
A kneels properly, and B takes A's chin in his hand and attempts to raise
A's head, (fig. 14). Were the weight in the lower part of A's chin, B could
not easily lift it.
Were B to attempt to raise A's hands from his knees he could not. If he
were to attempt to lift A's knees he could not do it easily because the weight
of A's knees is in their lowest areas. If your mind is calm, your body will
naturally be in this condition. You must learn that a natural position is not
only the most correct, but also the strongest. If, though you seem calm,
EXAMPLE 3
The Weight in the Lowest Part of the Arm
A takes a half step forward with his right foot and extends his right arm
in front of him. Though B tries to force A's arm down, A will not let him.
1. It is impossible for B to strike A's arm down though A's arm tensed
because the weight in B's arm is set in the arm's upper side, (fig. 15 a).
FIG.15a FIG.15b
5. EXTEND KI
"Extend Ki" is the fourth of the Four Basic Principles to Unify Mind and
Body. Our lives are a part of the ki of the universal. Just like the amount of
sea water held in our hands, we surround a part of the ki of the universal
with our body and say, "This is I." When the ki in our body interchanges
with the ki of the universal, we are alive. When we extend ki, a new supply
of ki flows into our body and the interchange is improved. It is our natural
state that ki is extending as long as we are alive. If we keep one point,
relax, or keep weight underside, they are all the same state in which ki
is extending.
Do experiments with the "unbendable arm." The Four Basic Principles
cannot be separated. If one of them is satisfied, all the other three are
naturally maintained. If one of them is lost, the other three are also lost.
The first and fourth principles are principles of the mind and the second and
the third, principles of the body. When the principles of both go together
like wheels of a car, for the first time one can maintain the state of mind and
body coordination in his daily life.
It is rather easy to unify mind and body when one does not move his
body. The difficulty is coordination of mind and body while moving. If you
train yourself in the mountains for ten or twenty years and achieve coordina-
tion of mind and body, if it is disturbed when you come down to the city, it
is of no use. We all have to work in order to live. We should train ourselves so
that whatever movements we make, we can still keep coordination of mind
and body. The mind has its own principles and the body, likewise Tohei style
Ki exercises exist in order to examine closely all the movements according to
the Four Basic Principles to Unify Mind and Body and to train the mind
and the body so that every action is naturally according to the laws of the
universal. There are several examples.
EXAMPLE 1
The Unbendable Arm
We explained the unbendable arm before, but this time A, without con-
centrating on his mental strength's flowing a thousand miles into space,
merely thrusts his right hand out. If A maintains the one point in the lower
abdomen, B, try as he may, will be unable to bend A's arm. In other words,
if you maintain the one point, even if you do not think that your mental
strength is flooding forth, ki will be flowing out from your entire body. If
your opponent can bend your arm your ki has stopped flowing and you are
not maintaining the one point.
In daily life, we can't always be thinking about power flowing forth a thou-
sand miles ahead from our hands or from our feet. Moreover, it is unneces-
sary to constantly have this on our minds, because if we maintain the one
point we are always in a condition in which ki is flowing out from our whole
body. If our ki is not flowing out from our body, no matter how much we
try, we will be unable to maintain the one point. Though the words may be
different, extending ki and maintaining the one point are an indivisible
unit.
I only teach one point, which is always the same one point. However busy
you are, you can do it in your daily life if you have a will. The busier one is,
the more one should practice it.
A stands in the same position, with his left hand out and his left wrist
well bent. B, using one hand, attempts to push the back of A's hand in the
direction of A's shoulder,(fig. 16).
If A puts up a great resistance, B will either push him backwards or bend
his arm at the elbow. If A tenses his arm, B will find it all the easier to push
him back. Because you are standing so that though your opponent pushes
your shoulder he cannot break your posture, if you have your left arm in the
out thrust unbendable arm position you should be so stable that your op-
ponent cannot move you. However, when you begin to raise your left arm
the idea of "raising" comes into your mind, and the weight of your arm
shifts upward. Without knowing it, you tense your arm, and you lose con-
centration on the one point. Moreover, when you bend your arm, you draw
in ki. Aikido with mind and body coordinated techniques frequently demands
that we keep ki flowing forth and bend our wrists. The shoulder has joints;
movement in the arm should have no effect on the one point. If you main-
tain the one point and raise your arm naturally, the man's weight should
stay in the lower section, and ki should be constantly outflowing. If when
you bend your wrist you do not draw ki in but thrust the back of your hand
out so that ki is still flowing outward, the opponent will not be able to
move you.
FIG. 16 FIG. 17
A stands in the position in fig 16 with his left arm outstreched and with
his left thigh raised up high (fig. 17).
B attempts to push A's left hand in the direction of A's shoulder. A per-
son who puts up a great resistance will stagger backwards; some people stag-
ger and fall back just from raising their thighs, even if no one pushes them.
If you are conscious of raising your thigh, your one point will rise, your
arm becomes tense, and you will lose your balance. Let the muscles in the
base of your thigh do the lifting. The action of raising should have nothing
to do with the one point. If you maintain the one point, relax your arm com-
pletely, and raise your thigh, your opponent will not be able to move you. If
you are alone, if you do as we just said, you will be able to stand on one leg
without trembling.
EXAMPLE 4
Standing With Both Hands Raised
A stands with both legs one half step apart and with both hands raised.
B presses quietly on the center part of A's chest,(fig. 18).
EXAMPLE 5
Stooping
FIG. 19
A stands with his left foot one step forward and leans backward with the
upper part of his body. B pushes on A's left shoulder and attempts to push
him down,(fig. 20).
1. If A tenses the area around the shoulders, B can easily push him
down.
2. B will not be able to push A down easily, however, if A relaxes his
shoulders and maintains the one point.
In both examples 5 and 6, whether bending forward or backward as
long as A maintains the one point, ki courses through his body and gives it
the strength and resiliency of young bamboo. But if A tenses his shoulders,
he loses the one point and his strength and resilient power disert him and
leave him like broken bamboo.
EXAMPLE 7
A Leaning on B
B bends over half way at the waist. A puts both arms on B's back and
leans on him,(fig. 21a). If sufficient of A's weight falls on B's back, B will
fall flat to the floor. Should A also fall over forward, it would be proof that
he had lost the one point. Had he not lost it, even though he applied his
weight to B's back and even though his arms were lowered, his body's
weight would have been in the one point and he would not have had to
stagger,(fig. 21 b) .
If someone who is leaning on a wall falls should the wall happen to
crumble, or similarly if someone leaning on a bridge railing should plunge
into the river if the railing gives way, it would be because they were not
maintaining the one point. Though you lean on some object, do not rely
on it. It is careless to rely on things; you must always maintain your own
one point. The same is true in social life. You can be felled by the thing
on which you lean or the person on whom you rely.
In all of the Tohei style Ki Exercises we have shown, whatever the move-
ment of the arms and legs, whatever the posture, you can always maintain
the one point. Though, at the training hall, we can only practice for a limit-
ed amount of time, wherever you are and whatever the time, you can practice
maintaining the one point on your own if you decide to do so.
If you practice everyday you will gradually reach the state where maintain-
ing the one point becomes a matter of course, and you will feel bad if you do
not maintain it. When you get to this point, ki will be constantly emanating
from your entire body, you will be healthy, and carelessness will dis-
appear from your daily life.
Because some people think differently on this point, I should like to take
this chance to explain in more detail what I mean. Sometimes people ask
"If I spend all of my time thinking about maintaining the one point, won't I
get to the stage where I cannot think about or do anything else?" This
seems reasonable, but the fact is that maintaining the one point and con-
stantly thinking about it are not the same thing. The one point in the lower
abdomen is not a tangible point but a point infinitely condensing. If it be-
comes too small to perceive, just leave it condensing. Once you keep one
point, you can maintain it naturally without thinking as long as you keep a
correct posture. The weight of all things is in the lowest part, and this point
is the natural place for the weight of the upper body to settle. It is only
because the action of the mind can upset this arrangement that at the
beginning we say you must concentrate your mind in this point and keep
your weight settled where it should be. Then you can maintain the coordi-
nation of mind and body.
When you have managed to achieve this state, then think about how you
A stands with his left foot one half step forward, with both wrists well
bent, and with both hands at about hip level. At the first command, leaving
his wrists bent and opening his fingers, A thrusts both hands forward. He
simultaneously thrusts his upper body and hips forward, bending his left
knee forward and lightly extending his back leg,(fig. 22 a).
At the second command, he forms his fists as if he had grabbed some-
thing and simultaneously drawing his upper body and hips in, pulls his fists
back to the hip position (fig. 22 b), bending his right knee slightly and
extending his left leg. This exercise, called the rowing exercise, should be
repeated many times.
When A is in the position in fig. 22 a, B attempts to push both of A's
arms toward his shoulders. He may also attempt to push A's knees, back,
or head from the rear. If his upper body bends forward or if he tenses his
arms, he will lose the one point and will be unstable if pushed.
If A keeps his upper body in the correct position indicated by the dotted
line in fig. 22 a, and maintains the one point, B may push where he likes, but
A will not move. When A is in the posture indicated by the dotted line and
must maintain the one point. In this case, though B attempts to lift A by
his hands, A will not move because the weight of his upper body is under-
side. This exercise, in which you move the upper body back and forward and
extend and retract your arms, is good practice in maintaining the one point
while other parts of the body are in motion. B should make suitable tests of
A's stability throughout the exercise. If A is properly maintaining the one
point, B will be unable to move him.
FIG. 22 b
56 COORDINATION OF MIND & BODY IN DAILY LIFE
As you extend your arms, ki should flow out abundantly from both or
you will lose the one point and totter when you are pushed. This is not an
arm exercise. It is designed as an exercise for the one point and as an exercise
in extending ki. Through it you can greatly strengthen your hips.
You must never tense your legs and always move them naturally. Though
some people, attempting to do their best, always tense their legs, this makes
them weaker. Be careful concerning this point.
EXAMPLE 9
Being Pushed from Behind.
A extends his left foot a half step and assumes the foot position in fig.
22 a. B attempts to push A's hips downward, out of position.
1. If A tenses his legs sufficiently (fig. 23 a), B will succeed.
2. If, on the other hand, A stands comfortably with his legs relaxed and
maintains the one point, B will be unable to budge him,(fig. 23 b).
From this you can probably see that you are much stronger if you relax.
FIG. 23 a FIG. 23 b
EXAMPLE 10
Swinging the Arms
A extends his left foot a half step, lets both arms hang by his sides, and
forms relaxed fists.
1. At the first command, he relaxes and extends his fingers and swings
his arms upward to eye level,(fig. 24 a).
EXAMPLE 11
Changing Directions
FIG. 25 a FIG. 25 b
There have long been a number of methods for attaining spiritual unifica-
tion. Unification means power. Just as if we concentrate light rays on a single
spot we develop great power, so by concentrating our mind we can give birth
to equally great power. The people of old said, "If you want to, you can do
anything." People who fulfill important tasks are always those who excel in
being able to concentrate their mind. Believing in God and praying with all
your heart is certainly one way of unifying the mind. There are many clear
historical incidents of people whose true religious faith has given them great
strength. Seated quietly with one's eyes closed, as we do in Zen meditation or
in yoga, is also an outstanding way of unifying the mind. A scientist wrapped
in his work or a farmer intent on his labors are instances of people who have
unified their minds.
Many people in this world, however, are unable to concentrate their minds on
one thing. Many others, though they manage to concentrate temporarily, are
weak in powers of concentration. Just as we might expect, the ability to
concentrate requires training.
Right now, I want to introduce ki breathing methods as a method of spiritual
unification that anyone anywhere can practice daily. The number is
considerable. In some you inhale through the nose and exhale through the
mouth, inhale and exhale through the nose, inhale through the mouth and
exhale through the nose, or in others you add some motions as you breathe.
Amount them, there is one long known in Japan as misogi breathing. I
developed it into ki breathing method through applying the principles of mind
and body unification. It is not only the method which beginners can most
readily learn, it is also the most effective.
1. Ki BREATHING METHOD I
1. Kneel erect with your big toes crossed and with enough space between
your knees for two fists. Rest both hands lightly on your thighs. (Note: When
you first begin kneeling this way your legs are likely to become tired; but with
practice you will become accustomed to the position, and the strength of your
waist section will increase tremendously. Although for those who absolutely
cannot kneel this way it is all right to sit in a chair, the kneeling position is by
far the better.)
Ki BREATHING METHODS 61
FIG. 26a
Hold your upper body erect and stretch your back muscles upward. The
weight of your body should be concentrated in the one point. Relax your
shoulders, and be at ease, (fig. 26 a). From the beginning of the exercise to the
end keep your eyes closed.
62 Ki BREATHING METHODS
FIG. 26d FIG. 26e
you can tell whether you are exhaling quietly or not. The sound must be a clear
long one. Usually this breath lasts for twenty-five seconds, but since this is a
little hard on beginners, fifteen seconds will be adequate. With practice you
will be able to exhale for a longer time.
3. When you think you have exhaled enough, incline your upper body
slightly forward and force out one last breath. Even when you think you have
gone about as far as you can, usually there is a little breath left. To make sure
there is no breath left in the body take special care and force out one last
breath. This time the breath will travel in the direction shown by the arrow in
fig-26 c.
Even when you have exhaled all your breath, you must not lose the one point
in the lower abdomen, because if you do you will find it difficult to inhale in
the next step.
4. When you have completely exhaled, close your mouth, and making a
small sound begin inhaling keeping the inclined posture. If you inhale directly
into the chest you will be unable to inhale fully. You must always inhale
quietly in the direction of the arrow in fig. 26 d. From beginning to end, the
inhalation takes about 25 seconds.
5. When you inhale in the direction in fig. 26 d you have to keep yourself
not to move and when your body become full of air, now you must return to
the original position so that your weight is again located in the one point in the
lower abdomen fig. 26 e. If you do not keep one point in the lower abdomen it
will be too painful for you to inhale. The next exhalation will be disturbed. If
you keep one point, you can relax completely. Then you will be able to hold
your breath completely little while.
6. Concentrate your breath on the one point in the lower abdomen, draw
yourself up slightly and open your mouth, and quietly begin to exhale.
Ki BREATHING METHODS 63
Repeat this breathing exercise any number of times. Though actually the
process of one inhalation and exhalation should take more than forty-five
seconds, beginners may begin by setting thirty seconds.
Though some people say that when you inhale you should not inhale fully
but should hold one eighth of your breath, and others claim that when you have
inhaled you should let a little air leak out and then hold your breath, both
attitudes indicate ignorance of the one point in the lower abdomen. The idea
behind both is that if one inhales fully it will be too painful to bear. Actually,
we must learn the painless method in which we inhale completely and to
concentrate all of the breath in the one point. If our breathing stops during the
process or if it is rough, we have clear indication that the one point is lost.
Maintaining that point makes it possible always to both inhale and exhale in
long, quiet, even breaths. Making a sound is the best way for beginners to
practice on their own because it lets you know immediately when your
breathing method is mistaken. When you perform this breathing exercise,
remember that it is not merely a matter of inhaling and exhaling. You must
approach it with real spiritual concentration.
Breathe out so that your breath travels to heaven; breathe in till the breath
reaches your belly. In other words, when you exhale do it so that you feel that
your own breath will not expire before your eyes but will travel to the shores of
heaven. We say this is ki o dashite haku or exhaling as we extend ki. In this
method though our breathing is quiet it has strength. In inhalation we say we
must draw in the ki of the universal completely and concentrate it in the one
point in the lower abdomen. In other words, we feel as if we were drawing the
universal into our own abdomen. When we have exhaled all of our breath, we
are in a position of having put everything into the hands of the universal. When
we have inhaled completely we are at one with the universal. At first, you may
be uncomfortable, your breathing may be disorderly and liable to break off
midway, but if you repeat the exercise for ten or twenty minutes, your mind
will calm down, and breathing will become comfortable. With constant
practice, you will reach the stage where your breathing will be long and calm
and comfortable right from the start whenever you decide to perform the
exercise. You will by then have forgotten your own body and will have entered
into a world of nothing but breathing. You will feel as if it is the universal, not
you yourself, who is doing the breathing. Finally you will come to comprehend
yourself as a part of the universal. You will not realize the effect of breathing
methods overnight; it takes discipline to enter its world.
When you have gotten to the point where you can practice your breathing
method successfully in the proper kneeling position, you will be able to
practice it anywhere, anytime whether you are standing, sitting in a chair,
walking along, or lying down. When practicing while walking calm your mind
by concentrating on the one point in the lower abdomen, and walk gently along
the surface of the ground. Do not agitate the one point in the lower abdomen. If
you shorten both the inhalation and the exhalation time slightly and extend the
time in which you support the one point in the lower abdomen you will be able
64 Ki BREATHING METHODS
to practice quite comfortably. This is an extremely effective method of calming
your mind even as you walk along.
To practice breathing while lying down, lie flat on your back with your legs
stretched out straight. Since it is difficult to aim your inhaled air at the back of
your head while you are lying down inhale only as much as you can without
straining, and concentrate the air in the one point in your lower abdomen. In
this case also, shorten inhalation and exhalation times, and lengthen the time
you hold in the one point. This method is useful when you are sick.
You can also practice breathing while you are driving or while you are
waiting for someone. If you are in a group of people where it would be
embarrassing to open your mouth and make a sound as you breathe, follow the
same general breathing pattern, but inhale and exhale through your nose. In ten
minutes' practice you can acquire ten minutes' power, in an hour's practice an
hour's power. Even if the practice periods are short, if you use them without
waste their effect will add up to a great deal of power. Do not forget, however,
that practicing all the time can easily develop into not practicing at all. Things
are as easily lost as they are easily acquired.
The best habit to make is about fifteen minutes of practice just before
sleeping. You will certainly find that your strength will increase and you will
be healthier if you give up fifteen minutes of sleep time for the sake of
breathing practice. Incidentally, if you have been studying or doing some work
that has tired you, you will find that you will feel much better if, instead of
taking a walk to rest, you practice breathing for fifteen or twenty minutes.
If on the occasion of some great incident you are agitated and unable to get a
single good idea, resolutely practice breathing for about two hours, and you
will be able to make up your mind, as new courage surges through you.
Sometimes it is stimulating for a group of like-minded people to get together
and practice breathing. A person of irresolute temperament is likely to give up
his practice halfway through, but if there is a group to lead him he can carry on
successfully. When you practice in groups, of course, it is necessary to select a
leader whose instructions everyone must follow. The leader should have
something like wooden clappers to make a noise. When he strikes them
together, everyone exhales together. When he strikes them a second time,
everyone begins to inhale together. One more strike and everyone once again
exhales together. Continue this practice for about an hour. Do not gasp for
breath between the sounds of the clappers. Even though it may be
uncomfortable, stick it out, and follow the leader's instructions. If you do so
you can master proper breathing, but you cannot if you cheat. If your breathing
is uncomfortable because somewhere along the line you made a mistake, it is
better to make the effort to find that mistake than it is to cheat. Though the
leader himself may be able to breathe long and continuously he should not
make himself the standard. He should control his breathing by making it more
forceful and shorter so that the new members of the group can keep up.
Humans can manage to live for a time without eating, but if breathing stops
for even a little while, all is over. Though we breathe unconsciously, whether
Ki BREATHING METHODS 65
our breathing is proper or not has a great effect both on the spirit and on the
welfare of the body. A healthy person breathes in long strong breaths; a sickly
person breathes in short weak ones. A spiritually stable person breathes quietly
and evenly, whereas a nervous person breathes at random and in jerks. We can
always promote spiritual stability and preserve health by controlling our
breathing. In our body, nourishment absorbed through the digestive organs are
broken down and burned to supply the energy needed to sustain life. Oxygen is
absolutely necessary for this process. If the body cells are richly supplied with
oxygen, the transformation of food into energy takes place efficiently. As by-
products of this process, waste matters like carbon dioxide are produced. These
waste matters must be eliminated immediately.
External breathing or breathing with the lungs describes the process where
air from the external environment is inhaled into the lungs, and the carbon
dioxide gas in the lungs exhaled. Internal breathing describes the process
where oxygen is taken from the lungs by capillary vessels covering the air cells
of the lungs into the larger blood vessels, and thence into the capillary vessels
supplying the cells of the body with oxygen. In the opposite direction carbon
dioxide produced in the cells are absorbed by capillary vessels which flow into
larger blood vessels then into the capillary vessels of the lungs where it is
exhaled . The important thing is the internal breathing.
Recent medical reports say that 80% of modern diseases are due to nervous
problems. Most people get nervous, angry, or worried unnecessarily and tense
their bodies. The capillary vessels naturally contact, becoming narrower and
impeding the free circulation of blood. Being dependent on the flow of blood
to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide at the cellular level, internal breathing
cannot be complete in this state. As a result, our life power or vitality naturally
declines leaving us weakened and susceptible to diseases and disorder. Just like
it is more important to prevent fire than to extinguish it, it is better to activate
the life power than to cure diseases. The method to activate the life power is
the ki breathing method. By breathing deeply, keeping one point and relaxing
completely, all the capillary vessels open and the oxygen is sent to every part
of the body. The nourishment is completely metabolized and the life power is
manifested. The diseases of the liver, kidney, heart and diabetes and high blood
pressure can be cured easily through the manifestation of your own life power.
Ki breathing method is truly an elixir of life. Through setting aside a little time
each day for breathing practice may not bring about any visible results, if we
continue practice unfailingly we will be able to cultivate an invisible but
powerful undercurrent of strength. By and by, we will reach the stage where
we are always able to enter the realm of bodily and spiritual unification, where
we are capable of amazing displays of power and health.
Plenty of people can see a lofty tree, but few notice the roots. A tree can
grow to be lofty only if its roots are firmly planted. Such things as breathing
methods are disciplines that form the roots of progress. Use the time and
people ordinarily neglect or waste to practice these root disciplines, and you
can grow to towering stature.
66 Ki BREATHING METHODS
2. Ki BREATHING METHOD II
The roots of the Ki breathing method came originally from the Misogi
breathing method. I would like to explain why I chose to refer to the breathing
method that I teach as Ki breathing instead of as the Misogi breathing method.
When I was studying at Keio University I began to train to overcome the lack
of body and mind that I was so painfully aware of. The training methods that I
first undertook were Zazen and Misogi as taught at the Ichikukai Dojo. It was
here that I first encountered the Misogi breathing method.
Masakane Inoue originally developed the Misogi style of training during the
Tokugawa era and it went on to enjoy great popularity.
In this breathing method I was taught to incline my body forward and
"breathe out one more breath" after I had finished exhaling from my mouth.
And, likewise I was told to tilt my head back and take "one more inhalation"
into my abdomen once I had finished inhaling through my nose. I trained
fervently exactly as I was taught. But it is not possible to exhale when there is
nothing left to breathe out. This is the same for inhaling and makes for an
extremely uncomfortable state. In spite of this I forced myself to sit in "seiza"
and train in this fashion for 1 hour every night before going to bed reminding
myself that the great people who had come before me had struggled with this
pain and discomfort.
After graduating from Keio University I entered the army and was then
dispatched as a platoon leader to the war front in China shortly after graduating
from a preparatory military academy. Before departing I realized that while it
would be impossible to continue training in Zazen and Misogi once I arrived in
China it would be possible to continue working with the breathing method.
Thus determined to master the breathing technique during the span of the war,
I vowed to myself that I would do 200 breaths of the breathing method each
and every day.
With the spare time on hand while traveling by train or boat I was able to
achieve this aim. However, proceeding from Tsingtao to Nanking it was
necessary to march in formation to the country's interior. We were forced to
march around 40 kilometers a day. With this taking up almost all of my waking
time I had to somehow carry out these 200 breaths while marching. In order to
incline my body forward and exhale one final breath at the end of the
exhalation cycle, I had to bring my body to a standstill. Of course while I was
doing this the soldiers proceeded to advance ahead of me. I soon came to the
conclusion that I would not be able to work with this breathing method while
marching.
After giving it some thought I came up with a new approach. Instead of
leaning forward and straining out a final breath, I would look straight ahead,
keep my mouth open and count off 4 steps while keeping my body still and
relaxed. Then I would close my mouth and begin inhaling through my nose.
When the inhalation was completed I would then also count off 4 steps. Even if
Ki BREATHING METHODS 67
it is not perceptible to your senses, by doing this, one's breath continues on
infinitesimally throughout this relaxing and comfortable breathing cycle. Up to
this point the breathing method had been a torment because each breath would
come to a stop due to tension that would enter the body following each
inhalation and exhalation. Correctly done the breathing method can be carried
out pleasantly even while marching if one doesn't allow the breath to stop
("Teishi" in Japanese) but rather allows it to become infinitely calm (Seishi).
While these two states, Teishi and Seishi, appear to be identical they are
actually worlds apart. For example, if I were to sit down and remain stationary,
the common assumption would be that I am in a motionless state (Teishi). In
fact, the blood in my body continues to circulate without an instant of rest and
I am sitting on the surface of the Earth as it flies around the sun even as it
revolves daily around its axis. Nothing ever completely stops.
In Japanese there is a term called "Seido-ichi", which means that real
calmness is the culmination of action. The movement of the Universe never
ceases, even for an instant. When movement is stopped and reduced to a void,
it is referred to as "Teishi", or a powerless state, while movement that is
calmed down infinitesimally is called "Seishi". A genuine breathing method
must be based on an infinitely calm breathing cycle that reflects the principles
of the Universe.
A piece of writing left behind by Masakane Inoue states that one should
"allow one's exhalation to flow out naturally and one's inhalation to enter the
body freely". In other words, he is teaching us to let our breathing process
occur in a state of natural calmness without trying to control it.
He also teaches us to "exhale so as to reach the far ends of the Universe and
inhale so as to concentrate our breath infinitesimally to a point in the lower
abdomen". By performing this infinite expansion and concentration we surpass
the 5-senses and reach a point where the borderline between the Universe and
ourselves vanishes. Masakane developed and mastered a breathing method that
corresponds with the laws of the Universe. However, it often happens that what
was correctly taught by the great teachers of the past is assimilated by their
successors in a form that has gone astray from the principles of the Universe.
This is then passed on in its mistaken form.
Unfortunately the Misogi breathing method that is being carried out at
present differs from the one left behind by Masakane Inoue. In light of this, I
have termed the breathing method that I teach and which corresponds with the
laws of the Universe as "Ki breathing". When doing Ki breathing in seiza it is
correct to let your exhalation diminish, being halved infinitely after leaning
your upper body forward. When walking it is possible to do this easily, without
leaning forward, by controlling your breathing in line with your walking pace.
Moving your body forward and backward while driving may disrupt your
ability to concentrate, creating a dangerous situation. However, properly doing
Ki breathing can help to prevent danger by sharpening your powers of
perception
It is possible perform Ki breathing even if you are bedridden. Without raising
68 Ki BREATHING METHODS
and lowering your head, you only need to stretch out your arms and legs and
allow your breathing to continue naturally. The state of calmness obtained here
will lead to a rapid recovery.
Your mind and body naturally become unified whenever you correctly
perform Ki breathing. And, since you are breathing in accordance with the
laws of the Universe both your body and mind automatically become stable
and calrn. It is my hope that you will make Ki breathing a daily habit and reap
its amazing benefits.
I would also like to talk a bit about "Musoku breathing" (Literally, breathing
without breath). Breathing without breath does not mean an absence of breath.
Rather, this is similar to the idea of "observing the mind without interference
from the conscious mind" where you breathe in and out so quietly and calmly
that you completely forget the breathing process altogether. It is in this state
that you become one with the Universe.
Kneel properly with your eyes either closed or half open and gazing on a
spot about two yards in front of you. Inhale and exhale very, very quietly
without making a sound. Sink your mind into the one point in your lower
abdomen, and you will become unconscious of the act of breathing. You will
then forget yourself, become one with the universal, and enter the realm in
which nothing but the universal exists.
Though this explanation sounds very simple, in fact forgetting one's own
breathing and entering into the realm of oneness with the universal demands
much discipline. But you will be able to grasp it through the ki meditation in
which you sink your mind on the one point, it becoming infinitely small by
half.
All two of the breathing methods we have discussed depend on unifying the
mind and the body for proper breathing. Practice breathing everyday, and
without being conscious of it your breathing will become correct. Particularly
physically feeble or spiritually unstable people should practice breathing
regularly because it will help them activate their life powers and build a
healthy mind and body.
When we say that a real man can breath with his heel, we do not imply that
the heel has any special organ for breathing purposes. We mean that a man
who breathes well breathes with his whole body, even the lowest part of it, or
the heel. We also say that this is becoming one with the universal and letting
the universal do the breathing.
In Aikido with mind and body coordinated when many men attack, some
people immediately lose control of their breathing. When this happens their
body movements become dull. All of this could be cured by serious, intent
breathing practice. When the mind and body are in a state of unity, breathing
becomes proper. Then you can use your body freely as you will and perform
whatever techniques you want.
Ki BREATHING METHODS 69
Chapter 8 The Divine Spirit
We have already said that our life is a part of the life of the universal, that
our basic essence is the ki of the universal, that our life and our body are
born of the ki of the universal, and that they must return to it. If the basic
essence of the body is ki, so is the basic essence of the spirit.
Ki Development is a discipline that helps us unite the spirit (mind) and
the body and become one body with the ki of the universal. In other words,
the way to union with ki. Why, however, is it necessary to unite things that
are innately one?
We are given a spirit and a body in order to continue life in this world.
"The spirit isolates itself from the body and hinders the formation of a whole
with it. For this reason, without learning to control the spirit, we are isolated
from the universal. When we say "spirit," we mean it in a wider sense than
that usually applied to it.
To exist in this world everything, in the wider sense, is given a spirit and
a body. A stone has a stone's spirit which protects the stone's form. Air
has air's spirit which protects its formlessness, protects its movements, and
achieves its mission. Buddhism explains this by saying that all things have the
Buddha nature. This spirit of material things is what we call the property of
things. Property in itself is the wider meaning spirit.
Humans, in addition to that which we usually call "spirit," also possess
this spirit of material things. The nails have their spirit, the hair its spirit,
each cell its spirit, and without our being conscious of it, each of these things
is fulfilling its own mission. We generally call all of these things together our
"body." This body in the wider meaning is spirit.
A tree takes nourishment through the roots and breathes through the
leaves. Trees and grass have life and spirits that keep that life going. In
general we simply think of this plant spirit as the process of continuing life.
In our own bodies, however, without out being conscious of it, our food
enters our mouths and our bodies transport it to where it is digested, trans-
form it into plasma, and carry it as nourishment to all parts of the body,
this is our "plant spirit."
All things change according to the way we look at them. The universal is
constantly growing and developing, and the process of death and destruction
continuing.
Though the Christians teach that God is Love and the Buddhists that the
universal is compassion, quite a few other people hold that the universal is
heartless. If we turn our eyes to the creative developing side of the universal
it seems to be love, whereas a look at the death and destruction aspect
leads us to believe that it is indeed heartless. The universal itself says nothing
and leaves the decision to the observers. If we want to create a nasty world
and invite a miserable life all we need do is adopt minus ki, view everything
through it, and define the universal as heartless. When your spirit is negative,
whether times are dark or fair, you will always feel haunted by ghosts and
demons. Nothing you see or hear will interest you, and you will make no
attempt to understand the love of the universal.
On the other side of the coin, if your spirit is positive, whether skies are
bright or gray, you will always see them as blue, and everything you see and
hear will be pleasing to you. Though it is true that death and destruction
exist in this world, the person whose spirit is positive regards even death as
priceless. If there is death, birth must be both of great value and abundant. I
remember once reading a story about how things would be if there were no
death, if people lived for ever.
A man who had an extreme fear of death was granted eternal life. Though,
at first, he was overjoyed, he later became bored with human life and tried
to kill himself by jumping from a cliff. He did not die. He tried poisons and
hanging but was finally forced to realized that death did not exist for him.
He also learned that everlasting life is no pleasure, that it holds nothing but
the enforced agony of tedium.
We make efforts in our life and find value in our life because death exists.
Of course this is no more than a story, but it has some truth in it. Death is
a form of love sent by the universal.
We understand the goodness of food when we are hungry and the blessing
of good health when we are sick. When the sense of taste is gone, nothing is
a feast. When the sense of gratitude and happiness are forgotten, nothing in
the world brings gladness. Both lack and want come to us as a form of love
Whatever you make up your mind to do, you need a strong will. How-
ever valuable the thing you study, if you do not see it through, it will come
to nothing. A person of weak will, even though he thinks he is on the right
track, will be unable to continue what he begins and will succeed in nothing.
Although many people to whom I teach the one point in the lower
abdomen and plus ki actually practice what they learn, discipline themselves,
and get results, the number who start and stop after two or three days is
not small. Complete mastery cannot be expected from only a little effort.
You can only succeed in unifying your mind and body and in manifesting
the divine soul through ceaseless effort. People who practice for a couple of
days and then grumble and criticize ki training are only exhibiting their own
superficiality. Whatever you begin, you must call forth plus ki, maintain a
firm will, and see the thing through.
Just as a year has only one New Year's Day, a day has only one moment
when you wake up. If you awaken with an unpleasant feeling, without your
being conscious of it, that feeling will stick with you, call forth minus ki, and
make the entire day unpleasant. You will think to yourself, "I woke up this
morning feeling heavy, and nothing has gone well all day."
Tohei style Ki Development is a training for a constant outpouring of plus
ki, which you must call forth when you get up in the morning. You should
get into the habit of coming wide awake, kicking back the covers, and jump-
ing up the minute you awaken. Some people awaken and lie around refusing
to get up basically because they are weak-willed. First of all, at times like
that, nothing distinct comes into your head, your consciousness is vague,
your sense of reason is dulled, and you are in a state of subservience to
your instincts. Lying in bed drowsing can help give you the bad habit of
letting your instincts get the better of your reasoning. Because sleep is the
time when the ki of the universal flows into your body, you should sleep
soundly, but lying in bed after you have once awakened will not rest your
body. You must jump straight out of the bed resolutely because then you
will call for the plus ki that gets your day off to a positive start. Doing this
alone can do a great deal to strengthen your conscious power. Young people
GETTING UP 79
who intend to develop themselves, should be particularly careful to cultivate
this habit.
When I was young, I was frail both in spirit and in body. Because I slept
poorly at night, I was drowsy and heavy in the morning and found it ex-
tremely difficult to get up. Whatever I started, my perseverance would give
out, and I would give up halfway through. I thought it was all the fault of
my bodily weakness.
At sixteen I spent a year in treatment for pleurisy, but the illness got
steadily worse. Now, when I think back on it, I realize that I gave into the
disease and with completely minus ki retarded my own recovery. I spent all
my time worrying that maybe even if the sickness passed I would not recover
completely, and I got no stronger at all.
In that one year of treatment, on the other hand, I had an opportunity to
reflect on myself and see that I could not continue the way I had been going.
I read a number of self-improvement books that came my way. These made
me realize that I had to do something to temper my own body.
While I was reading one of these books I came to the full realization that
my own will power was weak and that I had to discipline and strengthen it.
"All right," I said, "Let's work on the will power. This at least is something
that I can do." The doctor told me that I still could not exercise, so after a
lot of thought, I decided on taking cold baths everyday.
It was summer then, and the cold water was pleasant. Every morning I
would leap up as soon as I awakened, run to the bathroom, and dash two or
three buckets of cold water over my head and body. Then I would dry off
and rub my body thoroughly with a dry towel. After a while, I would come
conscious in the morning with the immediate idea of cold water. My head
would clear up immediately, and I would say to myself, "Lolling around in
this warm bed will do you no good." My bad morning habits completely
changed, and I slept like a log at night. Gradually, of course, autumn came.
The temperatures dropped, the water got colder, but I never even thought of
stopping my training. With no sign of suffering, I continued my cold baths
all through the cold weather, and my body grew so much stronger that I
felt I could do anything I wanted.
Later, 1 head of the stern disciplines of Zen, misogi breathing and medita-
tion while seated under a waterfall. I trained in them and others diligently
until I had mastered them. Then came aikido. The cold water baths were
the first opportunity. My ki became positive, and plus called forth more
plus. I was blessed with a fine aikido teacher, and today I have reached
the stage where I am explaining plus ki to other people all over the world.
The important thing for young people who plan to start now developing
for the future is to awaken in the morning, clear their head of the fantasies
that come in the night, leap up, and face the day with the positive attitude
that, "I'm going to do my best." The first step at departure leads to a thou-
sand miles of progress. Put this early morning discipline into practice, start-
ing right now.
80 GETTING UP
Chapter 11 Sleeping
To be wide awake first thing in the morning you must sleep soundly at
night, because while you sleep your body's strength is recovering from the
work of the day. People who sleep not at all or only lightly and fitfully wake
up in the morning with eyelids as heavy as lead and with a fuzzy head. These
are the ones who lie in bed till the last minute, neither asleep nor awake.
At night, when we sleep and thus abandon ourselves entirely to the univer-
sal, the entire brain is at rest. Then the ki of the universal passes through our
brains and fills our bodies renewing our strength and making us ready to be
wide awake in the morning. If, however, our brains are in turmoil rather than
at rest, obstacles due to that block adequate flow of ki, and when we waken
in the morning, because our supply of ki is not high, we cannot get up
immediately. This is why a short deep sleep is much more beneficial than a
long light one.
We usually say that five things are indispensable to human life: something
to wear, something to eat, someplace to live, air, and water. This is true in
civilized societies, but in southern uncultivated lands these things are not
always essential. In someplaces people can live naked and sleep in the shade
of the trees. Food, air, and water, on the other hand, are basically essential
whoever you are or wherever you are.
Are these three essentials enough then? No, ki too is essential. We receive
our supply of ki as we sleep. Even if we have the five essential elements,
we cannot live without sleep. In other words, people cannot live without ki.
If during the day we maintain the one point in the lower abdomen and
keep our ki in constant active conflux with that of the universal we are in
good condition. But if we keep on this way without rest we will exhaust our
supply of ki, and the absolute amount will become depleted. To replenish
our supply we need sleep.
People who maintain an active conflux of ki throughout the day, take in
ki actively at night when they sleep. Likewise, people whose conflux of ki
in the daytime is sluggish take in ki sluggishly at night resulting in their
sleeping poorly. The results are such that a person who sleeps like a healthy
man has an active ki flow and gets healthier and healthier, whereas the sickly
person who has a poor ki flow gets weaker and weaker.
SLEEPING 81
An extremely large number of ordinary people disparage the need for
sleep as a supply source of the ki of the universal. They disregard the im-
portance of their sleep time, get an insufficient supply of ki, get sick, and
ruin their ki flow. They then have to use sleeping medicine or they cannot
sleep at night. They carelessly are shortening their own lives.
Because a person who learns correct Tohei style Ki Development always
maintains the one point in the lower abdomen and keeps up an active ki
conflux all during the day, he should put his head to the pillow at night
and within from thirty seconds to one minute be sound asleep. Moreover, if
you have ten or fifteen free minutes during the day and want to sleep you
always can quite soundly. Only by awaking alert, keeping up a constant
flow of ki through the day, and replenishing your supply of ki at night
can you walk the path of life in brightness and good health.
I once spent a couple of days with a doctor who always took some sort
of medicine at night. When I asked him what it was. he said, "Sleeping
medicine." 1 then asked if sleeping medicine was not bad for the body, and
he replied that he was well aware of its harmful effects but that without it
could not sleep. He also said that he could not stop taking the pills because
he had to have his sleep to be ready for work the next day. When he began
taking them, one a night was enough, but now he needed two. When I asked
him if he would like to try a way of sleeping without the pills, he said that
he certainly would. The next day I taught him ki principles. I also showed
him how the mind moves the body, how much strength one can derive from
unification of mind and body, and the essential importance of maintaining
the one point in the lower abdomen for mind and body unity. I then said
that when he got ready for sleep that night he should just go to bed without
taking any medicine. If he lost a night's sleep it would not kill him. I told
him that he would sleep when he got sleepy, but that if he did not sleep he
could take off work the next day or so and it would do no harm. "Try stay-
ing awake all night," I said, "If you get bored lying there doing nothing,
practice the one point in the lower abdomen that I taught you today. Ten
minutes' practice will give you ten minutes' strength. If you practice all night
you can amass a great deal of strength. After all, if you are not going to be
able to sleep, you might as well use the time effectively. Just lie on your
back with your arms and legs stretched out comfortably, and practice con-
centrating your mind in the one point in the lower abdomen."
I then told him to pay attention to the following point. People who can-
not sleep generally suffer from a condition in which all of the blood rushes
to the head. The head gets hot, and the feet and hands cold. Whenever you
feel that your pillow is too hot, your blood is accumulating in your head. We
can change this with thought. All you need to do is sink your mind in the
one point in the lower abdomen and think with all your heart that your
blood is flowing from that point to the very toenails of both feet. With
thought you can send your blood to your feet and make them as warm as
can be. Tomorrow make a test of how much power you can develop by
using the one point in the lower abdomen. With this final remark I left him.
82 SLEEPING
When I met him the next day, he said that he had intently practiced what
I told him and that at sometime or another he had fallen asleep and slept till
seven o'clock. "Ordinarily," he said, "when I take a sleeping pill and fall
asleep I wake up around four and, try as I may, cannot go back to sleep, but
this morning I slept on till seven, dead to the world." He also happily added
that he had not felt so refreshed in a long time. Since he learned how to go
to sleep without sleeping pills he has been an enthusiastic ki follower.
Pour some water into a tub and stir it up. Now try as hard as you can to
calm the water with your hands; you will succeed only in agitating it further.
Let it stand undisturbed a while, and it will calm down by itself. The human
brain works much the same way. When you think, you set up brain waves.
Trying to calm them down by thinking is only a waste. People who cannot
sleep and lie awake thinking, "Go to sleep, go to sleep," are creating more
turbulence in the brain. It is difficult for them to sleep because, as they try
to, they are constantly thinking and upsetting their minds. First they trouble
themselves with thoughts like, "If I don't get some sleep, I won't be able to
work tomorrow," and then move on to such even more useless reflections, as
"He said something nasty about me today," until sleep becomes totally im-
possible. When your mind is upset, lie completely still, and it will calm down
by itself. When it has calmed down sleep will come. The old habit of count-
ing to ten until you fall asleep works on the same principle. You do not have
to think about counting to ten, and while you repeat the series mechanically
over and over, your mind calms down, and you fall asleep. On the other
hand, many people find that this kind of simple trick does not work for
them.
First of all, we have to maintain a firm conviction that if we cannot sleep
we might as well be awake. Humans cannot live without sleep, and sooner
or later it will have to come. Because if you are really sleepy you cannot stay
awake, suffering to put yourself to sleep is foolish. When you are awake,
exercise sufficiently; and when you go to bed, you will be able to sleep.
If you cannot sleep, do not feel that you absolutely must.
The second important consideration is to keep your thoughts concentrat-
ed. When they are dispersed like the waters of the sea, if first you turn to
one wave, others arise from another quarter in unending succession. If you
concentrate your thoughts in the one point in the lower abdomen, when
thoughts float into your mind you will be able to ignore them. They will
then perish like rootless grass and leave you with a calm spirit ready to sleep.
The third thought is to keep your head cool and your feet warm, because
often the body's blood rushes to the head and makes it feel hot and heavy,
leaving the feet cold with the result that sleep is difficult. From olden
times, people have correctly held that the healthy way is to have a cool
head and warm feet. If you follow this advice you will find that you can
sleep soundly.
In cases like these, practice shifting your concentration by sinking your
ki into the one point in the lower abdomen. If you then think with all your
mind that the blood is gradually flowing down to the tips of your toes,
SLEEPING 83
it will do so, and your feet will become warm and your head cool. This
works even on feet so chilled that you cannot warm them by the fire. Re-
member that even though you shift your conscious thinking if you do not
maintain the one point in the lower abdomen, the effect will be slight. If
when you try to sleep you cannot because the pillow is too warm, try this
method.
This method will work, but do not be in a hurry. If at first you cannot
sleep, practice the one point in the lower abdomen to make good use of your
time.
We realize, however, that on the eve of some big event worry prevents
sleep, even though, as everyone will agree, if we do not take a little time for
sleep the body may be unable to go on. If you follow the procedures we just
outlined and you still cannot sleep, it is because your blood has collected at
your head to the extent that you can no longer find the one point in the
lower abdomen. When this happens, take thirty minutes or so and practice
ki breathing. If you cannot spare that much time , lie down and practice the
following.
1. Lie on your back with your hands and feet comfortably outstretched.
Breathe in through your nose, and aim the breath at the pit of your stomach.
Concentrate it and your bodily strength in the one point in the lower abdo-
men. Hold this condition for five seconds, thinking with all your spirit of
sending your blood to the tips of your toes.
2. Maintain your ki in the one point in the lower abdomen, but relax
your physical strength, and breathe outward through the nose. While you
are doing this, keep thinking of sending the blood to your toes. In other
words, when you inhale and when you exhale keep you ki in the one point,
and keep sending your blood downward.
Repeat this several times maintaining the one point and relaxing all of
your physical strength. You will be able to keep the one point correctly.
Once you have corrected your grip on the one point, you can begin with the
practice we mentioned earlier.
If you practice this procedure every night, not only will you be able to
sleep well at night, but in the daytime, whatever the noise or whatever big
event you face, if you want to sleep you will be able t o . You will think much
better if, instead of trying to use a tired brain, you take five or ten minutes
out to sleep for a while.
Anyone who cannot sleep well will envy the man who saying, "Excuse
me a while," can drop off for a brief nap. To be able to sleep whenever you
like is a special technique and an important element in good health.
Keeping your ki sunk in the one point in the lower abdomen and unify-
ing your mind as you sleep has one more important significance. As you
sleep, subconsciously you keep your mind unified so that when you do
awaken you spring wide awake. People who sleep lightly awaken sluggish,
with their minds in disunity, and loll aimlessly around in the bed. The story
goes that once a man of the martial arts immediately awakened and downed
a thief who had broken into his house and was about to touch him. He
84 SLEEPING
could do this because his mind was in a state of unity even as he slept. It
is actually more that though the mind sleeps it is unified and always ready to
awaken instantaneously.
SLEEPING 85
Chapter 12 The Subconscious
Discipline is all the more effective if we make good use of sleep, the time
when we are receiving our ki supply from the universal. We spend about one
third of our lives sleeping, and whether we use that time to good effect
or not makes a great difference to the kind of lives we lead. Training hall
practice is not all of ki training. We must be able to practice twenty four
hours a day, while we are sleeping, as well as during the waking hours.
Everyone has some kind of habits. We do not need to try to get rid of
some habits that may be humorous and do no harm, but we should absolute-
ly break ourselves of those that cause error, trouble, or unpleasantness. Be-
cause such habits as easily getting angry, getting tired of things too quickly,
melancholia, and ultra conservatism can be great obstacles, we should correct
them. It does not pay to be presumptious and defend your habits by saying
that you have grown accustomed to them or that, for instance, such and
such a thing is impossible to bear without getting angry. It also does not do
to be pessimistic and feel that, "Well I'm no good any way, what does it
matter?" If you want to correct bad habits, you can.
Our consciousness, or our usual thinking processes, involves such things as
saying, "This is a package of cigarettes." When we see the package of ciga-
rettes, however, within our conscious perception of it are all of the experi-
ences related to cigarettes that we have ever had. For instance, notions of
what brand, the price, the number per package, and the taste all enter into
the picture. This composite of past experiences is the subconscious. In other
words, at the appearance of some object, information concerning it from the
subconscious gathers to form the conscious. A person who has never seen
or has never heard of cigarettes has no subconscious material about them to
draw on, and when he sees them, does not immediately form the concept,
"This is a package of cigarettes." He can only say, "Here is something or
another that is square," and then form a general concept by observing and
touching the package.
A similar phenomenon occurs with words. Each person who hears a
given word has on hand a large store of subconscious material concerning it,
and this material results in vastly differing interpretations of the word.
86 THE SUBCONSCIOUS
If the conscious is the house, the subconscious is the warehouse in which
the building materials are kept. That is, it is the storehouse of the mind
where all our knowledge and experience are stored.
Burnt stakes will never become a good house. To build well you must have
good materials. Similarly, if you want to create a good conscious, you must
have good material stored in your subconscious. If you have only materials
for getting angry, whatever you see or hear, you will be so. Consciously tell-
ing yourself to calm down will not work because these materials will come to
the forefront, and you can do nothing to control yourself. The tendency
is to lay the blame somewhere else by saying, "I was born that way," or "I'm
no good anyway."
Scolding a child with, "I've already told you about this," when he does
something bad is no way to correct him. Though he understands he is wrong,
his subconscious will not alter, and he may take the scolding the wrong way.
In the end, he may give up, decide he is worthless after all, and go on to do
much worse things. Only when the change is complete in the subconscious,
can we entirely break ourselves of bad habits.
Many people feel that changing the subconscious itself is impossible
either because they do not themselves know a way to change it or because
even if they do, they have tried it for a while with no immediate results and
have then given up. They then decide that the change is impossible to make
oneself or that bad habits cannot be broken.
One drop of clear water added to a cup of tea will change neither its color
nor its taste. Two drops will do little more, but if drop by drop we continue
to add water, both the color and the flavor will alter. People generally leap
to the conclusion that because one or two drops of effort cannot change the
subconscious, it is impossible to change it. The truth is that, just as with the
cup of tea, if we continue the effort, it will alter.
We all receive suggestions from outside ourselves which influence us. When
the weather is fine, we feel fine too, but when the day is cloudy it is easy
to be despondent. Praise makes us happy, slander makes us sad. National
characteristics differ with the nation. History, customs, manners, climate,
and terrain all influence and bring about variations in the people of different
lands. All of these variations are the result of exterior suggestion.
In general the color green is relaxing and red exciting. Spanish bulls are
not the only creatures whose temper rises at the sight of red. Long ago, to
identify a criminal, the authorities would lock all the suspects in a room
painted red. The real criminal would see nothing but red wherever he looked.
He would have no relief; even when he closed his eyes—red! He would finally
go mad.
On the contrary, cities plant trees because of their restful green, and we
THE SUBCONSCIOUS 87
go into the country because the greenery calms our spirits. Our present sub-
conscious is a result of a long period of conscious experiences based on
suggestions from all of the things and circumstances around us. Naturally it
takes more than a drop or two of effort to change our subconscious content.
Changing your subconscious involves resolving with all your will power
from this moment on to embrace only good material. Though up till now,
you have been unprepared and have taken in anything just as it was, from
now on you must select only the good and reject everything else. The will is
man's faculty for selecting and rejecting.
Weak suggestions and powerful suggestions both exist. A weak suggestion
may not enter too deeply into our subconscious at first, but if repeated over
a long period, it can gain strength. The young man who thinks that, since
he is a stable sort, associations with bad companions can do him no harm
finds after a while, that evil suggestions repeated often enough bear fruit. He
who touches pitch shall be defiled therewith.
A powerful suggestion sinks deep into our subconscious. A fearful fire
seen in childhood can become the cause of dreams of conflagrations ten or
twelve years later. The fear of fires implanted in the subconscious remains
for many years. On the other hand, an evil man who comes in contact with a
great man can change completely for the better. Since, doubtless, you can
see the powerful action a suggestion has on the subconscious, you will agree
that as far as circumstances permit we should shun evil company and seek
the close companionship of the great and the good.
88 THE SUBCONSCIOUS
Be this as it may, it is only human to be slack or remiss at some time or
another, and that is when the unwholesome comes floating along and enters,
even if only slightly, into the subconscious. If we do nothing about this evil,
it will spread like a summer storm cloud until our entire spirit is blackened.
Sometimes just a little something gets under our skins to such an extent that
all we can do is fly into a temper. Because this sort of thing affects the
subconscious powerfully and, if let alone, will grow like those summer
clouds, we must nip it in the bud. It is easy to put an end to this feeling
when it is young, but once it has spread, eliminating it requires tremendous
effort. When such a thought comes into your head, breathe " F u t " sharply,
spit out the thought, and turn immediately to thoughts of plus ki.
For instance, if as you are getting ready to go out, you suddenly get the
feeling that something bad is going to happen and you leave that feeling to
run its course, your ki will become more and more negative, and you will
be more and more convinced that something bad will happen. Surely enough
it will. You can justify the feeling by saying that when you got ready to go
out today you felt ill at ease, but it was probably only a premonition. Of
course premonitions happen, but in many cases we ourselves invite disaster.
When this happens, breathe out strongly as if to spit out the thought, and
immediately stop the flow of it. Tell yourself, "I've got to go out now. I
must have confidence, because ample plus ki will attract only plus and help
me avoid the minus." Change your own ki to plus, and eliminate the chance
for minus ki to creep in. Take particular care that you maintain your plus
ki because premonitions do happen. We know of a case in which a policeman
about to make an arrest, felt ill at ease, changed his ki to plus, and miracul-
ously dodged three shots from a criminal's pistol.
In Japan, this has long been famous as the breathing method, a secret
technique for ridding oneself of evil. In the case of a man who could do no-
thing about his quick temper, whenever he felt that he was going to be
angry, he would exhale strongly, quickly leave his seat, go out of doors,
change his thoughts to positive ones, and return to the room. In this way
he overcame his bad habit. Belief gives birth to power. This breathing me-
thod requires faith. (If you are in company forceful exhalation sometimes
causes embarrassment. In such cases, momentarily tensing the one point is
also effective.)
We have been talking about practice in taking into the subconscious only
good suggestions while we are awake, but methods for doing the same while
we sleep are also important, because we cannot afford to permit the intru-
sion of evil suggestions into the subconscious during the one third of our
lives that we spend in sleep.
X X
THE SUBCONSCIOUS 89
In the chart above, C is the conscious, S the subconscious, s the moment
at which one falls asleep, and w the moment at which one awakens.
When a human is awake, C is on the surface, and S is concealed within,
but the two criss-cross at point s so that S is on the surface. Dreams are mani-
festations of the subconscious, manifestations of things that, at one time or
another, have gotten into the subconscious. When we awaken, (point w), the
two criss-cross again bringing C once more to the surface. Though if C and S
completely interchanged at point s, discipline during sleep would be im-
possible, this is not the case. A part of C remains to work actively together
with S. For instance, if during the day a person is almost hit by a car, he will
dream over and over of being hit by one. On the evening before an examina-
tion a student who is particularly concerned with his work will dream of
failing. All of these examples represent the carry over at point s of a power-
ful suggestion from daytime to a point at which it works together with S.
If the suggestion occurs at point s, where one is about to go to sleep, it is
even more effective. A man fond of fishing who goes to sleep thinking, "I
must get up at three and go catch some fish," even though he is the kind
who is usually still asleep at eight or nine, will, without anyone's calling
him, be wide awake at three. Long ago, when the Japanese people did not
use clocks, if someone had to get up at some particular hour, he would
rub his pillow three times asking it to please wake him at such and such
a time. He would then wake up when he wanted to because he believed that
the pillow would wake him. Of course, their waking was actually the result
of their own bedtime suggestion which worked together with their subcon-
scious.
Some people think bad thoughts as they sleep. These thoughts, active in
the subconscious, make for bad subconscious material. We should always
cleanse our hearts and think only beautiful pleasant thoughts as we sleep.
The best way is to practice the breathing methods we mentioned before
for 15 or 25 minutes before you sleep. If you maintain the one point in the
lower abdomen, and go to sleep with the refreshing positive ki of being one
with the universal, this feeling will affect your subconscious all night and will
be most effective in changing it. If you practice ki discipline while sleeping
you will awaken on the following morning with an adequate supply of posi-
tive ki. Naturally the sleeping methods we have been discussing are not just
sleeping methods, they are also conducive to maintaining the one point in
the lower abdomen and to the powerful operation of the subconscious.
If your subconscious material is rich in plus ki , the content of your
dreams will change. Gone will be the dreams of legs that fail to move, of
wolves chasing you, and of suicide over lost love. Instead of minus night-
mares, you will have dreams of the attacking wolf, turning and fleeing.
We must remember that when we have negative dreams we will leave
behind in the subconscious a great deal of negative material. Bear in mind
that regardless of the bold front one presents, if he dreams of cowardice he
is sowing the seeds of it in his inner heart. Change all of your ki to positive,
90 THE SUBCONSCIOUS
have only positive dreams, and you will feel good when you awaken.
Since we see that at point s, where C and S cross, a part of C continues to
work with S, and since we understand that the suggestions given at point s
are the most effective, we can make use of this knowledge to correct our
own bad habits.
Though of course after we have disciplined ourselves in ki training and
have progressed to the manifestation of the divine spirit where we can forget
about our bad habits because they will vanish, many people still on the road
of progress trouble themselves greatly over bad habits. For instance, anyone
who gets angry over something trifling and stops his training, can say that he
gave up his training for the sake of his bad habits. No reason exists for
stopping self training and refining. People who find that they are prone to
this kind of thing will find the following discipline useful. It is a method I
learned as a young man from my teacher Tempu Nakamura, who himself
practiced it at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, returned to Japan to
teach the unity of mind and body for over 60 years, and died at over 90
years of age.
Use a mirror. A small one or a large one will do.
1. Gaze sincerely at yourself in the mirror for from thirty seconds to
one minute.
2. With strong determination command the face in the mirror to have a
mighty will power.
3. When you have said those few words, go immediately to sleep. You
must prepare your spirit to go immediately to sleep without doing anything
else.
Since it only takes from thirty seconds to a minute, anyone can do this
exercise, but it must be done sincerely and every night without fail.
In number one, you stare in the mirror to concentrate your own will in
the self reflected there. You do the exercise sincerely for the sake of a
powerful suggestion.
In the second step, merely saying that you really should try to develop a
stronger will power is weak. Turn to the face in the mirror and command it
to have a mighty will power. Since the decisive command comes both from
your real self and from yourself in the mirror, the effect is doubled.
In the third step you only say one thing once, because greedily making a
number of suggestions weakens the effect of each and because repeating it
two or three times makes the very idea desultory and weak. You go immedi-
ately to sleep without doing anything else so that nothing can interfere with
the basic suggestion.
Do not expect immediate results from this discipline. Remember what we
said about adding clear water, drop by drop, to change the color of a cup of
tea. Once you begin this, keep it up every night till you attain your goal.
After all, it only takes thirty seconds. You have no reason not to be able to
do it.
Though it may take six months to correct a habit, that is not such a long
THE SUBCONSCIOUS 91
time when you think that you might have been carrying that habit around
with you all of your life. Fortunately humans have the gift of adaptability.
If you use the kind of suggestions we have been talking about, you will
become adapted to them and will be able to accomplish, in five months,
three months, or one month, what originally required six. Finally, you will
get to the state where results will show up on the following day.
We have only mentioned one suggestion that you can use, but you can try
any you like. For instance, if you want to stop smoking and feel that you
cannot, simply suggest to yourself that you hate cigarettes. Try as hard as
you want, and it is difficult to stop doing something you like, but if in your
subconscious you carry the idea that you really hate smoking, or anything
else, you can stop doing it with ease. Always use positive suggestions and a
decisive command.
In some cases, people put something that makes a person sick to his
stomach in whiskey and give it to people who often get drunk and make
fools of themselves. The next time that person sees a drink he will feel
repulsed . This happens because a violent distaste for whiskey associated with
actual physical suffering is deeply carved into the subconscious. You need
not go to such an extreme, but you can use the suggestion method to change
habits that you would like to break.
A person who stutters has no physical obstruction in his mouth. He
stutters because in his subconscious he is convinced that he stutters. When
he is as conscious as he can be of it, this subconscious material comes to the
surface. Such a person should tell himself not to pay any attention to
stuttering. If he ignores it he will be able to converse without stuttering just
as freely as he can sing without stuttering. In the case of older children
who still wet the bed, it is a good idea to plant in their subconscious the idea
that when they want to urinate they will awaken. The child will then wake
up when he needs to just as surely as the fisherman gets up early when he
wants to go fishing. A child who wets the bed though he is awake is not the
victim of a habit, he is a lazy brat.
If you use these various suggestions sincerely, it will take less than six
months to correct bad habits. Habits involving the temperament are more
difficult to correct and require real earnestness.
Once we understand how much we are affected by suggestions, we must
be careful to use only positive words. Without our even knowing it, a care-
lessly spoken word can enter the subconscious. It is absolutely wrong to say
such things as "I'm no good," or "I can't," because this is a way to make
yourself no good.
When you must be modest, it is better to use such words as, "I'm imma-
ture," because this implies that one will mature and leaves open possibilities
for the future. We must also be very careful of what we say to other people
because it is unkind to make bad suggestions.
Some parents scold their children by saying, "You've done that again!
What a bad child!" If they continue using words like these, the child's sub-
conscious will be completely convinced that he is indeed bad. Once only bad
92 THE SUBCONSCIOUS
material has collected in the subconscious, the child will really turn bad, and
it will be too late to do anything about it. If a scolding is needed, the parent
will do better to use words like, "You are naturally a good child so you
shouldn't do such a thing. Do not do it again." The idea that he is good and
that he should not repeat what he has done will then enter the child's sub-
conscious.
All education should involve changing the student's subconscious. The
very idea of attempting to correct the habits of students with words alone
when you are unable to correct your own errors is a mistake. The only
real way to educate is to first correct your own bad habits, be of strong
moral fiber, and have the enthusiasm and kindness to change your students'
subconscious. Though it is a different thing if you are only peddling know-
ledge as an instructor, if real education is your aim, you cannot escape
the issue by saying, "After all, teachers are human too." You must make
every effort to see that in every word, every sentence, you are imparting a
good influence and good suggestions. You must have the zeal to say "If
you burn yourself you will become a flame. If you become a flame you can
enkindle others. Be moral to teach, be moral to lead."
Teaching demands patience, particularly in the position of a leader in ki.
However bad the student's memory and whatever bad habits he may have, if
he ardently wants to learn, we cannot afford to overlook him. With no facial
expression of displeasure and with zeal and kindness, we must repeat and
repeat until what we are teaching has penetrated the student's subconscious.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS 93
Chapter 13 The Simple Way
As the world around us grow more and more complex our nervous fatigue
gets worse and worse. Large numbers of people are physically and spiritual-
ly swept away and exhausted by this complexity whether they attempt to
resist or whether they just give in.
Whatever the complications of this world, the universal controls every-
thing in strict accordance with its own rules. If we follow the broad road of
the universal we should be able to reach our goal without losing our way in
bypaths and side roads. We must not let complications perplex us because
we have a very easy and simple road that will keep us going straight.
Recently the number of psychologically ill people has increased. As one
doctor said, "An extremely large number of hospital patients today suffer
from psychological complaints. Half of the stomach ulcer cases have psycho-
logical causes, but since many of the doctors who are supposed to treat
these patients suffer from the same illnesses, what can we do?"
Though the basic factors that easily develop into psychological illness
are numerous we can divide them roughly into two categories:
1. Lack of control over one's own nervous system.
2. Too much thought given to the complexities of the world and to one's
own problems.
The nervous system, passing along the spinal chord to the brain controls
the entire body, the internal organs, the skin, etc. It transmits conditions
and stimuli to the brain, which in turn gives appropriate instructions to
the body in accordance with the stimuli it receives.
If we compare the brain with general staff headquarters, the nerves might
be called the messenger delivery service or the information service. If the
brain has firm control of these nervous organs, they will all work healthily
and correctly. If the brain is upset, command delivery and intelligence will
be too,and will seem to act anyway they please.
Let us say, for instance, that the skin receives a stimulus of one. If the
nerves convey to the brain that the skin has received a stimulus of one, the
report is correct. It is certainly not a faithful report if the nerves report
a stimulus of one hundred or one thousand times the strength of the real
stimulus.
If you have a fever, someone merely touching your hair will send chills
through your body, a slight sound will cause you to start. This is because
your nerves are transmitting abnormal information. When you are in a situa-
All things have life. We are brothers with all things, for all things are born
together of the ki of one universal. For this reason the all-loving heart of the
universal is our heart. The fact remains, however, that we live by making
sacrifices of other living things. When we eat meat or vegetables we are tak-
ing life so that our life may continue.
How can we resolve the contradiction of saying to ourselves that we
must love all things and finding ourselves in the position where we cannot
live without sacrificing other lives? Buddhism teaches that killing is wrong to
the point where it is forbidden to take the life of an animal or even of an
insect. In olden days, a Buddhist could not eat so much as a slice of meat.
Life exists, however, not in animals alone, but in each tree, each blade of
grass. Why should it be wrong to kill an animal, but not wrong to crush and
take the life of plants? In the eyes of the universal all are equal.
The Japanese have always been a people who love festivals, who love
getting together in large groups, drinking, and making an uproar. The real
meaning of the festivals, of course, lies elsewhere, but somewhere along the
way it has gotten lost, and only the drinking and the shouting remain. The
real significance can be found in such festivals as that of the five grains
celebrated by the people who have harvested the rice and beans, or in the
weavers festival, or in the fish festival celebrated by the fishermen. Knowing
that by sacrificing living things they themselves can go on living, people of all
occupations hold festivals to raise thanks to the lives they must take.
Though some people believe that man, the lord of creation, is privileged
to do as he pleases, the universal must surely eye this as self-complacency.
Though we feel it is all right to call an animal who devours human beings
a fierce killer, from the animals' viewpoint how much fiercer is man himself!
What then must man seem to the birds and rabbits and grass of the field who
can offer no resistance to what he does?
The universal permits us to go on living and sacrificing other lives. We
must always be conscious of the significance of this. It is not enough to
attempt to console those spirits by offering our thanks. As we said at the
beginning of this book, we must always be aware that we, as participants in
the governance of the universal, must cooperate with its constant develop-
ment as the being chosen to represent all other living things. We should not
make sacrifices of other things merely to satisfy our own selfish desires.
98 EATING
Other living things have a meaningful existence only when we give thanks to
these other lives and let them participate with us in the government of the
universal. Whatever plants or flesh we eat we must take gratefully with the
spirit, that the lives that have gone to nourish our bodies are not wasted
but, by becoming our flesh and blood, continue to participate with us in the
work of the universal.
When someone brings your luggage to you from a distant places, if you
thank him from your heart and do what you can to entertain him, he will
forget all of the trouble the trip cost him and be glad. If, however, you snap,
"What kind of a worthless person are you to be bringing this thing around
here now!" all his pains will go for nothing. He will grow suddenly tired and
resent you very much.
The same is true of the food we eat. If someone has prepared a meal care-
fully for you and you complain, "Who could eat mess like this?"that person
will be greatly disappointed and will harbor a grudge in his heart. The whole
situation will end unpleasantly. If, on the other hand, you say, "Thank you
for fixing this; it looks delicious," you compensate the cook for his labor
and make him happy. How much truer then is this of the vegetables and
animals we eat. Until that point, they had been for a long time fulfilling
their own mission. Suddenly, they are sacrificed and supplied to humans. If
we comment that the things we are about to eat are too unpleasant to be
edible, those beings are surely going to flare up in anger and hold ill will
against us. If we speak badly of them, there is no reason why they should
become our blood, our flesh, or our nourishment. Many people who live
on gourmet delicacies are poorly nourished. Before they see the doctor
about it, they might do well to examine their own spiritual attitude. These
sacrificed lives can only gladly become our flesh and blood when we are
grateful and express our gratitude.
We have no right to complain of whether foods are good or bad or wheth-
er we like them or not. All of them come from the universal, and we must
eat them all as if they were delicious. The very idea of tastelessness, in the
first place, is only selfishness. If you are really hungry, anything tastes
good. If you think some dish is not good, let your belly go empty until it
does look good to you. Do not attempt to put the responsibility for your
own body on the food you eat. If you realize that everything has its own
taste and are grateful for the sacrifices of the lives that make your food
and if you eat everything in this frame of mind, everything will taste good to
you.
Because I was bodily weak when I was young, I had a lot of likes and dis-
likes, but after a long period of training my enlightenment about the way of
the universal made me deeply ashamed of my former disliking of things.
Since then, for forty years, I have not once complained about food. Since
everything tastes good to me, I have no need to complain. Even during
the war when we sometimes ate and sometimes did not, I did not complain,
and I was not undernourished. Whatever land I visit, whatever I eat, every-
thing tastes good to me.
EATING 99
Once during a meal as I began to eat I was asked how a certain dish
tasted. I said, "It's very good; but perhaps it could be even better with a
little more salt." The fact was salt had not been put in it. We had a good
laugh over the incident.
The point of the story is, that since I eat everything with a sense of grati-
tude, the first thing that comes into my mouth when I eat is to say that the
food is good. The cook too, who prepares meals from the sacrificed lives of
other beings, should exert every effort to make those meals as delicious as
possible. Only when he realizes this real significance of his work can a person
make progress in preparing foods.
Table manners change from country to country, but manners of the spirit
do not. Eat with a heart full of gratitude. A family gathered together having
a meal with grateful hearts is the secret to domestic peace. This same spirit
can do much to promote world peace. In making a meal we must do all we
can to see that the lives sacrificed for it are not wasted, that in keeping with
their hopes, we exert our every effort to push forward the constant growth
and development of the universal.
100 EATING
Chapter 15 Our Faces, Our Eyes, and the
Way We Speak
Since the mind controls the body, anything that floats, even momentarily,
into the mind has an effect on the body. Things we labor for a long time in
our minds inevitably show up in our faces, our eyes, and the way we speak.
We are born with our faces. In one hundred people, no two will be exactly
alike. If some people are born with beautiful faces, others must be born with
ugly ones. Although many people think that we can do nothing about the
faces we have always had, in fact they are constantly in a state of gradual
slight change.
Today it is possible to alter the appearance of one's face with advanced
cosmetics and plastic surgery, but changes of this sort are only temporary.
We cannot keep the deception up for very long. Without doing such un-
natural things we can change our appearance through the content of our
minds.
Look for a while at portraits of people whose names are outstanding in
the world, whether they be musicians, scholars, or whatever. If we examine
their pictures carefully, we see that though in some cases the faces were not
so fine when the people were young, they gradually became splendid. Con-
versely, compare the picture of some handsome young man with the photo-
graph of the same man taken just before he faced execution for a life of
serious crime, and you will hardly be able to believe the two faces belong to
the same person.
The spiritual state can change the face completely. Though changing it for
the worse is outside our present discussion, we should be embarrassed if we
retain the same face with which we were born because this lack of change is
proof of a lack of spiritual progress. Only when we have changed our face
into something really fine can we say we are a person who has truly grown.
Just as a person, beautiful in his youth, must not settle into conceited
negligence, so a person not beautiful should not be despondent because
both can work changes on their faces through their spiritual attitudes. This is
the no cosmetic method; it is the way to real beauty.
People have always said that the eyes are the windows of the heart
because the spirit's condition is most clearly reflected in them. Spirits of
love, cruelty, tolerance, or resentment all appear in the eyes.
Since the heart of a man practicing ki should be filled with the spirit
of love and protection for all things, his spirit should naturally be one of love
All aikido with mind and body coordinated techniques which are based
on ki principles, begin and end in the principle of non-dissension.
The universal is absolute, with which we have no cause to fight. Battles
arise first when the idea of duality appears. They clothe the universal in
the light of such dualistic concepts as activity and calm, fusion and dis-
integration, tension and slackness, and union and separation. By being capti-
vated by the dual world, we have lapsed into the attitude that fighting
is the natural thing, that this is indeed a world of jungle law. We have for-
gotten the true form of the universal, and we will only be able to find it
again when we have crossed into the realm of the absolute. The true basic
spirit of the universal is the principle of non-dissension.
Because people today find this a very difficult thing to understand, we
must actually manifest it through real aikido with mind and body coordinat-
ed techniques. A person who has really practiced it has learned through
experiences involving his own body how correct and how powerful this
principle is. Though, at first, even with practice, the bigger and stronger
man has the advantage, this does not mean that the principle of non-dissen-
sion is mistaken. It simply indicates that the person losing is not yet equal to
the principle; he is still immature. Once a person has penetrated to the real
meaning of the principle, strength and body size cease to matter.
As an example, strength and size are important if, when an opponent
attacks, you receive the strength of the blow in a collision-like situation. If,
however, you brush the blow aside, the opponent must himself manage the
force he has generated. If you strain to try to throw some disagreeable
person, a fight is sure to start, but since the mind controls the body, if you
move his mind to a point you have chosen, his body will gladly follow
where his own mind leads. After all, in a case like this, you are actually
making him go where he wants to go and turn in the direction in which he
wants to turn.
We can avoid quarrels even when an opponent attacks. We must be able to
remain peaceful in our daily lives and under any circumstances, and in all
places avoid arousing the idea of battle in our hearts.
There are too many people today who feel it is impossible to live without
fighting. There are also many who, though it means oppressing others, will
stop at nothing to gain ascendency and to win by any means. Naturally,
Thinking that calm and action are diametric opposite, many people may
consider the very idea of the unity of calm and action strange. Ultimately,
however, the two unite. All true aikido with mind and body coordinated
techniques demand that the person performing them be in that state of
unity between calm and action.
Among the disciplines of calm inactivity we might mention seated Zen
meditation, breathing methods, quietly sitting, and praying, among active
disciplines, of course, the martial arts and the sports, and physical labor
itself. People who engage mainly in the quiet disciplines easily fall into the
habit of reverencing calm only and of arriving in a state of the calm that is
dead. On the other hand, those who practice only the active disciplines
respect only activity and easily become frenzied in their bustling about.
Though in speech we make the distinction between calm and activity,
since both are processes born of the ki of the universal, fundamentally they
are the same. Either state implies the existence of the other. Action within
calm, or calm within action, mean that a state of complete calm implies the
element of extremely violent activity and that violent activity, by its own
nature, implies absolute calm.
As we sit perfectly still we imagine that we are in a state of complete
calm, but the fact is, seated on the surface of the revolving earth, we are
travelling at great speeds. All of our calm includes this much activity.
Tops that children often play with approach a state of calm stability
the faster they spin. We might say that their most perfect state of calm
is reached when they move at the greatest speed. The truest calm must con-
tain the nature of the most rapid movement. This is what we mean by action
within calm. True calm is not merely sitting still and allowing your con-
sciousness to grow vague. A state of that sort makes wasted time of any
attempts to practice seated Zen meditation or breathing methods. If you feel
that this is the condition you are about to fall into as you practice some
calm discipline, it is much preferable to fall asleep and get a good supply of
the ki of the universal.
We must be able to instantaneously move with great speed even though,
to outward appearances, we remain perfectly calm. We are able to move
most rapidly and violently when we are most calm. If even when you con-
front your opponent's naked sword you remain clear-minded and as calm as
2. PERSEVERE
If you begin something you must see it through. If you are doing some-
thing just for fun it is all right to try a little here and a little there, but once
you decide that this is the path you are going to follow, it is wrong to break
off midway. To do so only proves the weakness of your will power.
Although in some cases working conditions or other limitations make it
impossible to continue something you have begun, since ki training carries
over into daily life, and since you always have your own mind and body with
you, you have no excuse for quitting it.
Whatever you decide to study, you are going to run into some stone
walls along the way. Simply starting something and leaving off right away
is a separate issue because in cases like that the person never really intends
to go very far anyway, but sometimes people, really wanting to continue,
I. GROWING TOGETHER
Sometimes in ki training we encounter people who practice diligently but
who are interested only in their own progress and look displeased when they
are asked to lead their juniors. Enthusiastic discipline is fine, of course, but
if only the techniques progress, people with a self-centered attitude can
reach a certain point, the point at which the body can progress, but they will
be unable to enter the realm of spiritual progress. The basic principle of
ki is love and protection of all things. Our spirits are one with the spirit of
the universal. For this reason our ki is in a state of perfect conflux with the
universal's ki. The attitude that, "I'm perfectly all right," selfishness, in
other words, is an obstruction to the flow of ki, and prevents our being able
to really receive into ourselves the true principles of the universal. In addi-
tion, selfishness leads directly to conceit, which in turn retards progress.
In general, in this world there is no such thing as "for the sake of other
people." We often decide to do something to the best of our ability for
others so as to gain their gratitude and then get angry when things do not
work out exactly as we planned. All things done for the sake of others are
actually for our own sakes. We do them largely to increase our own virtue.
After all, are we ourselves not the ones who profit most by becoming better
when we exert our best efforts for others? The man in ki training who stu-
The notion exists that one cannot teach until he himself has become
strong. Some people with more experience refuse to instruct their juniors
because they feel that they themselves are immature and weak. Strength
and technical skill and being a good instructor are different questions. The
strong person is not always a good instructor. Of course, all is well if a man is
both strong and a good instructor, but he can be weaker and not terribly
skilful at the techniques himself and still successfully teach others. A man
does not have to be a wonderful swimmer to be a good swimming coach.
To become a good instructor one must kindly and enthusiastically teach
others the basic principles to the limits of his mastery. Learn for one day or
one year, and you will be able to be a splendid teacher of what you learned
in that day or year.
Let us say that A asks B how to get to town C. B himself has never been
there, but he has heard that one should go straight ahead. If he says, "I've
never been to C, and I have no right to tell you how to get there," it is the
same as the man who declines to instruct another in some ki point because
he feels he is immature. Such an answer is straightforward and modest, but
scarcely kind. B might better have said, "I've never been, but I hear that
)
are mistaken and the younger men right, the elders may not want to give in
and follow their juniors. In fact, by correcting their mistake they will not be
so much following their juniors as simply doing the right thing. The younger
people will invariably trust an elder who frankly admits, "I have made a
mistake." Failure to admit a mistake will make the younger men suspicious
of everything one does and earn their distrust.
The universal is broad, and its rules are deep. Always be modest, always
strive to learn all the universal can teach, and always lend an ear to what
people have to say. Teacher or student, elder, or junior, right is right, and a
mistake is a mistake. Engrave this thought on your hearts.
These rules for instructors apply to all phases of society. We are followers
and instructors. A good follower will always be a good instructor and vice
versa. A man who is sincere in life will always be a good leader in life. My
wish is that all would give vital application to the basic principles of ki, train
and make actual proof of your training at the training halls, and go into the
world to become active and influential leaders.
In the first part of this book I explained the basic principle of ki and in the
second gave some examples of how we can apply these principles to our
training and to our daily lives. This book, however, is too small and its
author not far enough advanced to explain all of the universal in its immen-
sity. All that we can say is that the man who studies aikido with mind and
body coordinated bases his thinking on these principles and, silently facing
the enormous universal, disciplines himself in this way.
To speak of the great road of the universal is in no way strange or pecu-
liar, for a road is actually there under the feet of anyone who wishes to use
it. A person who first sees a small man trained in aikido with mind and body
coordinated throwing someone twice his size, or comfortably dealing with
four or five other men, probably considers it is all very strange because he is
thinking only in terms of the laws of the body and seeing it only with
the body's eyes. Were he to realize that the mind controls the body and view
the case from the standpoint of the laws of the spirit, he would see that it
is in no way marvelous. Of course, it requires training, but since there is
a principle for throwing people, to be able to throw people is only natural.
Those who study ki can do these things because they are following the great
road of the universal. Anyone who wants to can do likewise.
Just training at the training hall and being able to apply techniques to
your opponents is not the entire great road of the universal. The road is the
only one that humans must follows, and it extends to everything we do.
Of course, training hall practice is important, but it is not the only me-
thod. One only knows true ki principles if he maintains the one point in
the lower abdomen, makes the conflux of ki with that of the universal part
and parcel of his daily life, is able to make free use of ki, and applies the
principles of ki to everything he does.
If a person refuses to recognize a hardship no hardship exists. Confirm
yourself and your relation with the universal, and the rough waves of this
world will loose their fearsomeness. My wish is to make of this priceless
gift of life something truer, stronger, and happier so that we can walk boldly
through the world and make our own contribution to its betterment. I have
written this book in the hope that it will help spread ki to all the corners of
the world and increase, even if only one more person, the number of ki
followers.
CONCLUSION 131
Appendix
THIRTEEN RULES
FOR DISCIPLINANTS
2. As nature loves and protects all creation and help all things grow and
develop, so we must teach every student with sincerity and without dis-
crimination or partiality.
3. There is no discord in the absolute truth of the universal, but there is
discord in the realm of relative truth. To contend with others and win
brings only a relative victory. Not to contend and yet win brings abso-
lute victory. To gain only a relative victory sooner or later leads to
inevitable defeat. While you are practicing to become strong, learn how
you can avoid fighting. By learning to throw your opponent and enjoy
it and to be thrown and enjoy that too and by helping one another in
learning the correct techniques you will progress very rapidly.
4. Do not criticize any of the other martial arts. The mountain does not
laugh at the river because it is lowly, nor does the river speak ill of the
mountain because it cannot move about. Everyone has his own charac-
teristics and gains his own position in life. Speak ill of others, and it
will surely come back to you.
5. The martial arts begin and end with courtesy, not in form alone, but
in heart and mind as well. Respect the teacher who teaches you and do
not cease to be grateful especially to the founder who shows the
way. He who neglects this should not be surprised if his students make
light of him.
6. Be warned against conceit. Conceit not only halts your progress, it
causes you to regress. Nature is boundless, its principles are profound.
What brings conceit? It is brought on by shallow thinking and a cheap-
ly-bought compromise with your ideals.
7. Cultivate the calm mind that comes from making the universal a part of
the body by concentrating your thoughts on the one point in the lower
abdomen. You must know that it is a shame to be narrow-minded. Do
not dispute with others merely to defend your own views. Right is
right, wrong is wrong. Judge calmly what is right and what is wrong. If
you are convinced that you are wrong, manfully make amends. If you
meet one who is your superior, joyfully accept his teaching. If any "man
is in error, quietly explain to him the truth, and strive to make him
9. Do not become angry. If you become angry it shows that your mind
has wandered from the one point in the lower abdomen. Anger is some-
thing to be ashamed of in ki training. Do not become angry on your
own account. Be angry only when the rights of nature or of your
country are endangered. Concentrate on the one point, and become
angry all over. Know that he who is easily angered loses courage at
important moments.
10. Spare no effort when you teach. You advance as your students advance.
Do not be impatient when you teach. No one can learn everything well
at one time. Perseverance is important in teaching, as are patience,
kindness, and the ability to put yourself in your students' place.
11. Do not be a haughty instructor. The students grow in knowledge as
they obey their teacher. It is the special characteristic of training in
ki that the teacher also advances by teaching his students. Training re-
quires an atmosphere of mutual respect between teacher and students.
If you see a haughty man, you see a shallow thinker.
12. In practicing do not show your strength without some good purpose
lest you awaken resistance in the minds of those who are watching
you. Do not argue about strength, but teach the right way. Words
alone cannot explain. Sometimes by being the one to be thrown, you
can teach more effectively. Do not halt your student's throw at mid-
point or stop his ki before he can complete a movement, or you will
give him bad habits.
13. Do whatever you do with conviction. We study thoroughly the prin-
ciple of the universal and practice it, and the universal protects us. We
have nothing to be doubtful or to fear. Real conviction comes from the
belief that we are one with the universal. We must have the courage to
say with Confucius: If I have an easy conscience, I dare to face an
enemy of ten thousand men.
IN DAILY LIFE
KOICHI TOHEI
KI NO KENKYUKAI H.Q.
US$18.00
BOOK OF KI: Co-ordinating Mind and Body in Daily Life by Koichi Tohei
Technology today touches nearly every part of our lives. Through even more impressive
development of machines, the process continues. Computers put men out of work; pushing a
single button is enough to start a nuclear war.
Gradually, though, the world has begun to remember that it is man for whom the machines
must work, and not the other way around. We recognize now that science, for all its
achievements, has done little to help us understand ourselves or realize our potential.
There is no sense in waiting for science to do it for us. Each of us must now take it upon
himself to understand his true nature and strength. The Chinese classic "Saikontan" says that
we stand like beggars at the gate, forgetting the infinite power given us by the universe.
Instead of shrinking from this potential, we should be thankful for it. we should strive to
manifest it and help others to do the same.
The author regards his Four Basic Principles to Unify Mind and Body as having been given
to him by the universe to spread the way of the universe. There have been many who have
grasped unification of mind and body. Very few, however, could teach it. Fewer still could
teach how to teach it. Those who learn the four basic principles as explained in this book have
come to understand not only how to unify their own minds and bodies, but also how to teach
it to others.
The author, founder of the Ki Society International, presents the philosophical groundwork
and specific disciplines by which the individual may attune himself or herself with the ki-life
energy of the universe- and thrive in health and harmony, without fatigue or depression.
104pp. 7i/4 x 101/4 in., over 100 illus., paperback.
LCCC No. 76-029340, ISBN 0-87040-379-6