A Short Instruction:
The purpose of this article is to apply the Ki principle (mind moves the body) which is the fundamental of Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido to our daily life.
It is not enough just to read, but it is important to positively practice the subject given each month. Learning through practice will be your lifelong asset.
Ki Meditation
When our mind firmly sticks to something, we call that state of mind “obsession”. We obsess many times in our daily life.
Dwelling on our success in the past is one of our obsessions. The present day is the only time we can act, however, we often obsess with past successes and cannot see the future correctly.
Failure in the past is also an object of obsession. The important thing is to learn from the failure and continue until arriving at achievement without giving up. But we often obsess with the failure in the past and stop challenging ourselves in the present.
We also obsess simply on past experience. No experience is repeated in this world. We should undertake all tasks with a beginners mind each time. However, we often are obsessed with past experience and tend to perform a task with a feeling of inertia.
The above examples show the state that our mind when it stops.
Obsession with something may be a fatal mistake for managers and leaders. One of the decisions that they make is to “withdraw”. On the other hand, if they have made a tremendous effort towards some activity for a long time, they may become obsessed with it, and decide to continue going ahead no matter what. This may be a strong misjudgment.
Of course it is important to have energy to achieve something, however making use of the energy is different from obsessing on it. We can understand whether our decision is correct or not by removing the obsession.
The same thing can be seen in the training of Shinshin Toitsu Aikido.
If a strong person holds your wrist, you may obsess with your wrist that is held and attempt to move from there. In this case, the part where you cannot move is only the wrist, and you can move the other parts of your body. But if you are obsessed with the wrist and only try to move from there, you will not be able to move. In this case, if you calm your mind to one point and simply allow your partner hold your wrist, you can move freely.
When standing face to face with a partner, when both are holding bokken, many people will obsess on the tip of the partner’s bokken. Then they will not be able to see anything except the tip of the bokken, and will not be able to react to his/her action. By keeping one point while holding bokken, you will be able to see the whole body of your partner and react freely to his/her action.
“Obsessing” with something is stopping mind. When you stop mind, you will not be able to do anything. With correct training, you will be able to remove the obsession and use your mind freely. The particular way of training for this is “Ki Meditation”.
Ki Meditation consists of three ways. Those are, Shuchyu-ho (Concentration), Kakudai-ho (Expansion), and repeating them.
I hope you train Ki Meditation and apply what you learn in your daily life.