There is a story in Zen literature of two people meeting by the banks of a river. One is a passing traveller, and the other is a Zen master. When the traveller asked what he was doing, the Zen master replied: “selling water by the river.”
Training The Vital Centre
Teaching the power of Ki is like this. Ki is everywhere and freely available. A teacher cannot give Ki to someone. One has it already, but normally one is unaware of its potential. Training in Aikido is a way to unlock this potential, and to make one more consciously aware of what it is to be fully human and alive.
Zen training and Aikido share a common purpose: the realisation of one’s ‘true nature.’ Both are vehicles to attain this end; and although the forms of training may differ in some important respects, there are some common features.
The most relevant, in the context of Aikido, is the cultivation of mind body development that in the Zen tradition leads to the growth of ‘Jiriki’ (concentrative or spiritual power), and in Budo terms is simply called Ki. In Japan the colloquialism ‘training the belly’ generically refers to the martial arts, and reflects the belief that Ki is stored in an area of the lower abdomen, the seika tanden.
It is through the cultivation of ‘Jiriki’ that one can develop insight into one’s ‘true nature’. Implicit within all of the Arts of Japan is the Zen principle of ‘original mind’, or ‘true nature’. This is the belief that each one of us already has a higher nature that can be realised through the practice of mind body development. Aikido is a form of mind body development.
Life Energy
But here caution is required, definitions cannot be relied upon to provide too much in the way of explanation. In fact, over reliance on them can easily lead one astray. They can become so general, or so abstract, that they become either meaningless, or inaccessibly esoteric. The kanji, or written character for Ki, for example, is defined in Japanese dictionaries as: "Ki - Breath with rice; breathing rice; steaming rice."
Other definitions describe Ki as the generative life force of Heaven and Earth that governs reproduction. While the first definition is obviously analogous - Ki is like rice, and without it there would be no life - the second is too general.
Ki appears to be a kind of life force. A fuller account of Ki would involve going into the complexities of ancient Chinese cosmology, Taoism and Buddhism, and fascinating though this may be it will not aid practical understanding.
Founder of Aikido
The founder of Aikido peppered his training lectures with aspects of Shinto shamanism that few, if any, could really understand. Yamaoka Tesshu, the renowned Japanese Sword, Zen and Calligraphy Master said, “In order to understand if the water is hot or cold, first you must taste it”. The emphasis here is on personal experience - feeling what it is actually like. Ki can be taught and understood as a ‘feeling’, and can be experienced by anyone regardless of gender, race, age or physical disposition.
Similarly, the ‘one point’, or ‘tanden’ in the Zen tradition, commonly understood as the area of the body where the Ki of the universe is gathered and stored, can be misleading if taken too literally. In physiological terms no such place exists.
It is a fact, however, that when the body is sufficiently relaxed gravity naturally settles in the area of the lower abdomen. To consciously place one’s attention in this area aids relaxation and the development of calmness. During the initial stages of training the cultivation of ‘one point’ is vitally important, and is an essential component of all of the Japanese arts.
At more advanced levels, however, too great an attachment is not encouraged. ‘Too much’ is as undesirable as ‘too little’, and an experienced teacher will assist students in developing their own particular feeling appropriate to their level of practice.
The teacher student relationship is fundamental in Aikido. The process of training is one of continual refinement and depth of understanding. It is a process that, to borrow a carpentry analogy from Yamaoka Tesshu, is like rough, medium and fine planing. While practice is understandably effortful in the initial stages, this gives way to a sensitive and highly intuitive expression of dynamic movement and effortless power, as evident in Zen painting and calligraphy as it is in the graceful forms of Aikido.
On the subject of ki, according to the Founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba:
"There are two types of Ki: ordinary Ki and true Ki. Ordinary Ki is coarse and heavy; true Ki is light and versatile. In order to perform well, you have to liberate yourself from ordinary Ki and permeate you organs with true Ki. That is the basis of powerful technique."
Like Ki, one's ‘true nature’ is not something that a teacher can pass on to a student. Nor can it be regarded as an object to be grasped through self-conscious effort - the harder one tries to grasp it, the more elusive it proves to be.
Unification of Mind and Body
This can be confusing to the Western mindset which insists upon rational models of understanding, teaching and learning, and relies upon clearly defined aims, goals and objectives.
In order to accommodate concepts like Ki (life force) and true nature (essential nature), it is helpful to suspend the dominance of the Cartesian view of phenomenon, with its inherent dualism and insistence upon rigid divisions. One’s true nature is not something that can be manipulated, or bought and sold. It cannot be treated like phenomenon. A paradigm shift can help greatly to aid understanding.
Thankfully, this has already been done. From the time of Yagyu Munenori, Sword Master and student of the Zen teacher, Takuan Soho, Yamaoka Tesshu, through the development of Morihei Ueshiba’s Aikido, together with the spread of Zen Buddhism, a cultural cross-fertilisation has taken place that has provided the West with some remarkable teachers who have been able to pass their skills and knowledge on to their students. This is the traditional teaching method of both Budo and Zen – the direct transmission from teacher to student.
These teachers came, not with definitions and philosophical complexities, but with a heart-felt desire to spread the ‘Way’ (Way of the Universe) in whatever discipline they happened to be teaching. They taught a Way that would enable anyone who was sufficiently committed, to live their lives in accordance with certain principles and practices that would assist them to realise their true humanity and live happier lives.
They taught a paradigm shift that was different from the rationalist world-view, not as a replacement, but as an antidote. What they taught was non-dissension – not to struggle with one's self, or each other. They taught Ki, or what is nowadays referred to as mind body coordination, a term developed by Koichi Tohei. Often they taught it without giving it a name.
References:
Yagyu Munenori,1571-1646, Sword Master and author of The Life Giving Sword
Takuan Soho,15773-1645, Zen Master and author of The Unfettered Mind
Alister Gillies - Alister's background is in project development. He is trained in counselling and personal development, although his academic background is ...
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