When performing Shinshin Toitsu Aikido techniques, it is important that Nage’s posture is solid. If one’s posture is disturbed/lost, then techniques don’t work.
To lead and throw an opponent, it is essential that the Nage has a good posture. Acquiring a correct, solid posture is a shortcut to improvement, not only when practicing at the dojo, but it is also important for daily life.
During my time as an uchideshi, I thought everyday about how to obtain a solid posture and constantly experimented to understand it within my own body.
When I was on a train or bus, I tried to stand, instead of sitting in a seat, keeping my balance following the swaying of the vehicle. I didn’t want to cause trouble to those around me in case of a sudden brake, so I held on to the suspension strap lightly, but stood without relying on it at all. As I repeated this process over and over, I learned many things.
In the beginning, I “tried not to move” against the swaying, but by doing so, the swaying affected me even more and my balance was easily thrown off. Also, when I consciously tried to maintain my posture, it didn’t work.
One time, I had been training from early morning till late at night, and I got on a bus completely exhausted. Although I was standing, I had completely forgotten to practice maintaining my posture. Then there was a sudden brake! But surprisingly I did not lose my balance.
Why was it that I could not keep my balance when I was consciously trying to do so, but I was able to do so when I was not conscious of it?
This was because I had misunderstood the meaning of “stability”, and had mistaken it for a kind of “fixedness”. If the goal is “try not to move”, then our body becomes stiff/frozen and is unable to respond to external forces and absorb the swaying of the vehicle.
Also, when we consciously try to maintain our balance, we end up using only parts of our body. In particular, when we plant our feet flat on the ground, we use our upper and lower body separately. With the lower body being fixed in place, we try to balance ourselves using only the upper body.
I realized that I was not using my whole body as one because of this desire to remain fixed in one place. I call this mistake the state of “fixedness”. The solution to this problem was to remember the “One Point in the lower abdomen”. When we calm our mind in the One Point in the lower abdomen, the whole body becomes one.
Let’s return to my experience on the trains and buses. Our posture becomes most stable following the swaying of the vehicle when our mind is calmly placed on the One Point in the lower abdomen. When this happens, our whole body unconsciously balances itself, allowing the body to respond flexibly to external forces.
However, if we resist the swaying of the vehicle by “trying not to move”, our body becomes stiff and unable to respond. In the same way, on a rocking boat, going against the swaying motion can make us more likely to get seasick.
When we are standing, even though we might appear to those around us to be not moving, our entire body is actually moving flexibly to maintain a delicate balance. This state is called “Seishi” (Living Calmness) and a fixed state is called “Teishi” (Dead Calmness). This means, even though both states appear to be “not moving”, they are qualitatively different.
During Shinshin Toitsu Aikido training, when I give Ki tests to people to check their posture during their techniques, I often find people trying “not move”. The purpose of Ki test is to check and see if we are using our body as one. The question we should ask is “Do I feel I am supporting myself with my whole body right now?” If we can focus on this, there will be no mistake.
“Stability” is not just a physical/body issue, but also a mental one.
We often think too rigidly, such as “We have to do it this way”, “We have to be this way”, and so on. Just as there is a fixedness of the body, there is a fixedness of the mind.
When the mind becomes rigid/stuck, it becomes unable to respond to external influences and it creates a lot of stress. And, if we remain mentally “stuck” in daily life, then there will be many conflicts in our relationships, and we will feel exhausted.
Recently, a person who had become a Shinshin Toitsu Aikido instructor came to me for advice. He had an idea of how a leader should be and he was worried that he was not living up to that idea.
Taking our role as a leader seriously is fundamental, but we cannot not be stuck/fixated on it. If we keep building on the effort to become a good leader one step at a time, then our abilities and skills will definitely improve. There is no such thing as a perfect leader. All we need to do is do the best we can right now for the person we are dealing with and for those around us.
Through our conversation, his state of “stuckness” (Ki blockage) seemed to have cleared.
When our Ki is extending naturally, our mind moves freely. Our mind is meant to/supposed to move freely, which is our natural state. When we say, “our mind is stable/calm”, it means our mind is able to move freely without getting stuck and is thus able to respond flexibly to all matters.
Telling oneself to “try not to mind/care/worry” or “try not to react to something” is creating the state of being stuck (fixedness of mind). When we are bothered by what other people say to us, we clash with people in our relationships or we overreact to a person or situation. In this state, we are usually fixing our mind.
Correctly understanding the difference between stability and fixedness allows us to have a stable/calm mind. A specific training method for achieving the stability/calmness of mind is “Ki no Ishiho” (Ki meditation done with Toitsutai). If you know “Ki no Ishiho”, let’s practice in our daily life.
Translated by Mayumi Case
Edited by David Shaner
Eastern Ki Federation
https://easternkifederation.org/
Original article in Japanese: 安定と固定(Antei to Kotei)
September 1, 2024
https://shinichitohei.com/japanese/04-%e3%83%a1%e3%83%bc%e3%83%ab%e3%83%9e%e3%82%ac%e3%82%b8%e3%83%b3/35024/
