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2011年03月05日
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posted by 乙次郎 at 18:46| Comment(8)
| 日記
2011年03月02日
Dynamo of Life.
Dynamo of Life.
In oriental medicine, there is an idea called “Tenjin-gouitsu shisou (which is the thought that Nature and human are united)”. In fact, the meaning of “Tenjin-gouitsu” is that human beings are part of Mother nature. Therefore, since ancient times, people have observed nature for the purpose of knowing more about themselves. Through their careful observations, several laws of nature were discovered and put together into “onyo-gogyoron”. This is how oriental medicine started. Now oriental medicine has been succeeded with “onyo-gogyoron” and has grown into a form of medicine that has a logical system.
An example of “onyo-gogyoron” is the cycle that Mother nature has with the sun and sea, which can be seen as follows; the sun shines on the sea or rivers, because of this water is vaporized and the water becomes clouds, the clouds eventually form rain and this water is returned to the sea. It is thanks to this cycle that the earth can maintain its rich nature. If the sun was to stop shining for several weeks, all the living things on the earth would die out.
By the way, do you think that there is such a cycle in human beings? If there is, what do you think would correspond to the sun or sea?
In the human body, the sun would be the heart and the sea would be the kidneys. Also, in oriental medicine, the heart is believed to handle fire, which is pleasure, and the kidney is believed to handle water, which is fear (Please refer to the chart below).
The driving force of this cycle for human beings is to live life by changing fear to pleasure.
The first fear we experience is when we leave our Mother’s warm amniotic fluid to go into the unknown world. It is true that we feel fear because we don’t know what the new world is like, but we are born with everyone’s blessings, and our fear is changed to pleasure.
From the moment we are born to when we die, we experience various kinds of fear. The ability to change such fear to pleasure makes our life richer.
Thus, the wisdom of oriental medicine tells us a lot of things.
In oriental medicine, there is an idea called “Tenjin-gouitsu shisou (which is the thought that Nature and human are united)”. In fact, the meaning of “Tenjin-gouitsu” is that human beings are part of Mother nature. Therefore, since ancient times, people have observed nature for the purpose of knowing more about themselves. Through their careful observations, several laws of nature were discovered and put together into “onyo-gogyoron”. This is how oriental medicine started. Now oriental medicine has been succeeded with “onyo-gogyoron” and has grown into a form of medicine that has a logical system.
An example of “onyo-gogyoron” is the cycle that Mother nature has with the sun and sea, which can be seen as follows; the sun shines on the sea or rivers, because of this water is vaporized and the water becomes clouds, the clouds eventually form rain and this water is returned to the sea. It is thanks to this cycle that the earth can maintain its rich nature. If the sun was to stop shining for several weeks, all the living things on the earth would die out.
By the way, do you think that there is such a cycle in human beings? If there is, what do you think would correspond to the sun or sea?
In the human body, the sun would be the heart and the sea would be the kidneys. Also, in oriental medicine, the heart is believed to handle fire, which is pleasure, and the kidney is believed to handle water, which is fear (Please refer to the chart below).
The driving force of this cycle for human beings is to live life by changing fear to pleasure.
The first fear we experience is when we leave our Mother’s warm amniotic fluid to go into the unknown world. It is true that we feel fear because we don’t know what the new world is like, but we are born with everyone’s blessings, and our fear is changed to pleasure.
From the moment we are born to when we die, we experience various kinds of fear. The ability to change such fear to pleasure makes our life richer.
Thus, the wisdom of oriental medicine tells us a lot of things.
posted by 乙次郎 at 00:00| Comment(0)
| English translation
2011年03月01日
What is ‘Ki’? Part 7.
What is ‘Ki’? Part 7.
In the previous blogs, I have said that ‘Ki’ reacts with each other. In today’s blog I will write about this concept a little more, too.
We sometimes read news paper articles about a phenomenon that happens to some people soon after they see their friends suffering from hyperventilation syndrome*. They themselves will easily and rapidly start to develop the same symptoms, one after another. It is as if they have gotten infected with hyperventilation syndrome themselves. It is said that this often happens, in especially hot and small spaces such as buses.
While it is true that there are some people who are never influenced by the phenomenon, but by giving this example, I have pointed out the fact that ‘Ki’ is something that often synchronizes and spreads.
‘Ki’ seems to have the nature of being able to respond to other ‘Ki’s in both positive way and negative ways.
A classic book of acupuncture and moxibustion states that practitioners need to be in good health. The book does not mention the reason why this is so, but it may be because practitioners need to treat patients by letting their ‘Ki’ respond to patients’ ‘Ki’.
WHO (The World Health Organization) admits that acupuncture and moxibustion is effective for various kinds of diseases. However, it seems very difficult for a practitioner to treat a patient if the practitioner suffers from the same disease as a patient.
I will take ‘hay fever’ for example. Let’s imagine the situation that a practitioner with a running nose and very red itchy eyes who is trying to treat a patient with hay fever would have. Even from a layman’s point of view, it would be apparently hard for the practitioner to take care of their patient. A lot of research has been made on the mechanism of hay fever and the effective therapeutic points for hay fever have been found. The fact that a practitioner can get rid of hay fever if he or she does not suffer from it has also been found.
I have had a patient with an allergy to cats. After the treatment, she was no longer allergic to cats any more. However, if I were allergic to cats, I would not have been able to treat her.
* Hyperventilation Syndrome
Is the syndrome where you suddenly or gradually develop difficulties in breathing, this is sometimes accompanied by anxiety and an oppressive feeling in your chest. People do not die from this syndrome. As a general treatment, you would put a paper or plastic bag onto your mouth and repeat the action of deep breathing, as by breathing back in what you have already blown, you increase the density of carbon dioxide in blood.
In the previous blogs, I have said that ‘Ki’ reacts with each other. In today’s blog I will write about this concept a little more, too.
We sometimes read news paper articles about a phenomenon that happens to some people soon after they see their friends suffering from hyperventilation syndrome*. They themselves will easily and rapidly start to develop the same symptoms, one after another. It is as if they have gotten infected with hyperventilation syndrome themselves. It is said that this often happens, in especially hot and small spaces such as buses.
While it is true that there are some people who are never influenced by the phenomenon, but by giving this example, I have pointed out the fact that ‘Ki’ is something that often synchronizes and spreads.
‘Ki’ seems to have the nature of being able to respond to other ‘Ki’s in both positive way and negative ways.
A classic book of acupuncture and moxibustion states that practitioners need to be in good health. The book does not mention the reason why this is so, but it may be because practitioners need to treat patients by letting their ‘Ki’ respond to patients’ ‘Ki’.
WHO (The World Health Organization) admits that acupuncture and moxibustion is effective for various kinds of diseases. However, it seems very difficult for a practitioner to treat a patient if the practitioner suffers from the same disease as a patient.
I will take ‘hay fever’ for example. Let’s imagine the situation that a practitioner with a running nose and very red itchy eyes who is trying to treat a patient with hay fever would have. Even from a layman’s point of view, it would be apparently hard for the practitioner to take care of their patient. A lot of research has been made on the mechanism of hay fever and the effective therapeutic points for hay fever have been found. The fact that a practitioner can get rid of hay fever if he or she does not suffer from it has also been found.
I have had a patient with an allergy to cats. After the treatment, she was no longer allergic to cats any more. However, if I were allergic to cats, I would not have been able to treat her.
* Hyperventilation Syndrome
Is the syndrome where you suddenly or gradually develop difficulties in breathing, this is sometimes accompanied by anxiety and an oppressive feeling in your chest. People do not die from this syndrome. As a general treatment, you would put a paper or plastic bag onto your mouth and repeat the action of deep breathing, as by breathing back in what you have already blown, you increase the density of carbon dioxide in blood.
posted by 乙次郎 at 19:32| Comment(0)
| English translation
2011年01月23日
What is ‘Ki’? Part 6.
What is ‘Ki’? Part 6.
In the blogs of “What is ‘Ki’?” I have said that “A living body is an accumulation of ‘Ki’”. From a different point of view, it means that “A dead body is a disperser of ‘Ki’”.
If ‘Ki’ is dispersed, and our breath and heart stops, it means that we are as good as dead.
In oriental medicine the concept of death is if ‘Ki’ has dispersed far away from our body and can’t accumulate with each other again, then the person has passed away.
I have heard that there are Yoga experts or those who are spiritually awakened, who are able to accumulate ‘Ki’ which has once dispersed. There are actually ascetic practices for this, which are used to revive people who have made their body as good as dead for up to about a week (after making their breath or heart stop and their face becoming deathly pale). However, there are some people who have attempted this and have actually been unable to revive themselves. When this happens, it literally does become the final ascetic practice for them.
There was a Yoga ascetic named Nakamura Tempu (1876- 1968) whose pupils include famous persons such as Hara Takashi, Matsushita Konosuke, Inamori Kazuo, Matsumoto Koshiro, Togo Heihachiro, and so on. It is said that Mr. Kariappa, Nakamura Tempu’s teacher, had succeed twice in the ascetic practice mentioned above.
If you are interested in such stories, I recommend the following book.
Yoga ni ikiru – Nakamura Tempu to Kariappa shi no Ayumi (Live for Yoga – A course of Nakamura Tempu and Mr. Kariappa) written by Oi Mitsuru.
This book is very easy to follow and by reading this book, you can experience Nakamura Tempu’s agony and questions when he suffered from an incurable disease. The book is based on the true story of how Nakamura Tempu got over his disease and was later spiritually awakened.
In the blogs of “What is ‘Ki’?” I have said that “A living body is an accumulation of ‘Ki’”. From a different point of view, it means that “A dead body is a disperser of ‘Ki’”.
If ‘Ki’ is dispersed, and our breath and heart stops, it means that we are as good as dead.
In oriental medicine the concept of death is if ‘Ki’ has dispersed far away from our body and can’t accumulate with each other again, then the person has passed away.
I have heard that there are Yoga experts or those who are spiritually awakened, who are able to accumulate ‘Ki’ which has once dispersed. There are actually ascetic practices for this, which are used to revive people who have made their body as good as dead for up to about a week (after making their breath or heart stop and their face becoming deathly pale). However, there are some people who have attempted this and have actually been unable to revive themselves. When this happens, it literally does become the final ascetic practice for them.
There was a Yoga ascetic named Nakamura Tempu (1876- 1968) whose pupils include famous persons such as Hara Takashi, Matsushita Konosuke, Inamori Kazuo, Matsumoto Koshiro, Togo Heihachiro, and so on. It is said that Mr. Kariappa, Nakamura Tempu’s teacher, had succeed twice in the ascetic practice mentioned above.
If you are interested in such stories, I recommend the following book.
Yoga ni ikiru – Nakamura Tempu to Kariappa shi no Ayumi (Live for Yoga – A course of Nakamura Tempu and Mr. Kariappa) written by Oi Mitsuru.
This book is very easy to follow and by reading this book, you can experience Nakamura Tempu’s agony and questions when he suffered from an incurable disease. The book is based on the true story of how Nakamura Tempu got over his disease and was later spiritually awakened.
posted by 乙次郎 at 16:54| Comment(0)
| English translation
2010年12月27日
What is ‘Ki’? Part 5.
What is ‘Ki’? Part 5.
It seems that a big camphor tree is often worshiped as a god tree.
In fact, if I come closer to such trees, it helps me feel calmed down. This is because a tree has its own ‘Ki’. It is different from human’s ‘Ki’, but I guess that a tree’s ‘Ki’ and human’s ‘Ki’ somehow sympathize with each other.
If you go to Mt. Koya or the Ise Gingu shrine, you will feel another variation of ‘Ki’.
I am often asked by patients, “What do you do to take care of yourself especially when you are down or tired?” or “Aren’t you affected by some negative or bad things?”
In such cases, I go fishing, swimming in the sea, I go for a walk in the woods, and sometimes go to the Izanagi shrine. I recently haven’t done anything that I have to endure or to train myself. But if needed, I would do the above activities as it is like tuning up myself much like an instrument.
No matter how clever a doctor is, or how much medical knowledge they have, they are only able to do a good medical treatment if they have no negative noise or signals from their body. This is especially true of practitioners of acupuncture and moxibustion.
It seems that a big camphor tree is often worshiped as a god tree.
In fact, if I come closer to such trees, it helps me feel calmed down. This is because a tree has its own ‘Ki’. It is different from human’s ‘Ki’, but I guess that a tree’s ‘Ki’ and human’s ‘Ki’ somehow sympathize with each other.
If you go to Mt. Koya or the Ise Gingu shrine, you will feel another variation of ‘Ki’.
I am often asked by patients, “What do you do to take care of yourself especially when you are down or tired?” or “Aren’t you affected by some negative or bad things?”
In such cases, I go fishing, swimming in the sea, I go for a walk in the woods, and sometimes go to the Izanagi shrine. I recently haven’t done anything that I have to endure or to train myself. But if needed, I would do the above activities as it is like tuning up myself much like an instrument.
No matter how clever a doctor is, or how much medical knowledge they have, they are only able to do a good medical treatment if they have no negative noise or signals from their body. This is especially true of practitioners of acupuncture and moxibustion.
posted by 乙次郎 at 00:00| Comment(0)
| English translation
2010年12月19日
What is ‘Ki’? Part 4.
What is ‘Ki’? Part 4.
When I check a patient’s body by touching his or her stomach, I can often feel and hear his or her stomach growling.
Most people seem embarrassed when this happens and some say, “I am a little hungry…”.
I reply, “No, no, it is not that. I have touched the therapeutic point of your stomach, and it is reacting to my touch.”
To demonstrate this point, I take my hand to the therapeutic point again.
“Grr… ”
Some patients will still seem skeptical, so I put my hand on their therapeutic point again and then as expected, their stomach grumbles.
“Grrr… ”
When they hear their stomach grumbling once again, most of them then will believe that their stomach grumbles because I have touched the therapeutic point.
The reason why such a thing happens is that ‘Ki’ is responding to each other.
For example, if a vibrated turning fork is put close to a quiet one, the quiet one starts to vibrate. Thus, they resonated with each other. This is an image of how ‘Ki’ reacts with each other. If you come close to a person such as Hoshino Senichi, who is a brave leader, you feel enthusiastic. This is the another example of how ‘Ki’ reacts with each other.
If your stomach grumbles when its therapeutic points are stimulated, it means that your stomach has not been working until then. Your stomach never grumbles after treatment no matter how many times its therapeutic points are touched. Instead, your stomach which used to be cold or stiff, is warm and proper elasticity after treatment.
I am always mindful of the law that ‘Ki’ reacts to another ‘Ki’. This is why I try to adjust the unevenness of ‘Ki’ in a patients’ body.
However, I think I can only provide treatment with a hand to an extent. So instead of placing my hand on the therapeutic points, I use a needle. But I never put my soul or power into the therapeutic points. I just put a needle without thinking anything.
When I check a patient’s body by touching his or her stomach, I can often feel and hear his or her stomach growling.
Most people seem embarrassed when this happens and some say, “I am a little hungry…”.
I reply, “No, no, it is not that. I have touched the therapeutic point of your stomach, and it is reacting to my touch.”
To demonstrate this point, I take my hand to the therapeutic point again.
“Grr… ”
Some patients will still seem skeptical, so I put my hand on their therapeutic point again and then as expected, their stomach grumbles.
“Grrr… ”
When they hear their stomach grumbling once again, most of them then will believe that their stomach grumbles because I have touched the therapeutic point.
The reason why such a thing happens is that ‘Ki’ is responding to each other.
For example, if a vibrated turning fork is put close to a quiet one, the quiet one starts to vibrate. Thus, they resonated with each other. This is an image of how ‘Ki’ reacts with each other. If you come close to a person such as Hoshino Senichi, who is a brave leader, you feel enthusiastic. This is the another example of how ‘Ki’ reacts with each other.
If your stomach grumbles when its therapeutic points are stimulated, it means that your stomach has not been working until then. Your stomach never grumbles after treatment no matter how many times its therapeutic points are touched. Instead, your stomach which used to be cold or stiff, is warm and proper elasticity after treatment.
I am always mindful of the law that ‘Ki’ reacts to another ‘Ki’. This is why I try to adjust the unevenness of ‘Ki’ in a patients’ body.
However, I think I can only provide treatment with a hand to an extent. So instead of placing my hand on the therapeutic points, I use a needle. But I never put my soul or power into the therapeutic points. I just put a needle without thinking anything.
posted by 乙次郎 at 18:02| Comment(0)
| English translation
2010年12月15日
What is ‘Ki’? Part 3.
What is ‘Ki’? Part 3.
In the previous blog, I said that the living body is an accumulation of ‘Ki’ and I will be following it up with this concept in today’s blog.
There are various kinds of ‘Ki’ or ‘wills’ in our body. Each of these types does not move individually but help or control each other. So when all the ‘wills’ are harmonized well, we, humans, can demonstrate our physical ability and apply ourselves well to every behavior we experience and interact well with the surrounding environment.
As mentioned in the previous blog, when various ‘Ki’ accumulate, we are able to do complex things. Although, it is up to us to ensure we harmonize all the ‘Ki’.
For example, if Ki which digests food works too actively and Ki which discharges feces works too inactively, then we will end up eating all the time and always feel like our stomach is full.
In any organization, there are usually some parts where people are too conscious and, on the contrary too unconscious. This is what we would consider an ‘uneven’ condition.
Human beings usually have ‘uneven’ conditions, which change like waves and while it is not bad thing in itself. If the ‘uneven’ condition grows bigger or continues for quite a long period of time, we are not able to live healthily or play a proper role as a social member of organization.
We can see the same thing in such group organization as family, community and company. For those organizations to survive for a long time, there needs to be a harmony of all wills involved.
For instance, in a company where people in an administrative post are very strong and employees are forced to work too hard, the employees will get stressed and become less motivated. On the other hand, if employees are strong and cause too many strikes, then the company’s ability to compete and its productivity will become lower.
In our body, too, there are uncountable harmonized relationships happening among the upper and lower half of the body, the right and left side of the body, internal organs and skin, etc. If these components are harmonized well, we can remain healthy.
What we can do through acupuncture and moxibustion is to bring ‘uneven’ conditions to the moderate and harmonized.
In the previous blog, I said that the living body is an accumulation of ‘Ki’ and I will be following it up with this concept in today’s blog.
There are various kinds of ‘Ki’ or ‘wills’ in our body. Each of these types does not move individually but help or control each other. So when all the ‘wills’ are harmonized well, we, humans, can demonstrate our physical ability and apply ourselves well to every behavior we experience and interact well with the surrounding environment.
As mentioned in the previous blog, when various ‘Ki’ accumulate, we are able to do complex things. Although, it is up to us to ensure we harmonize all the ‘Ki’.
For example, if Ki which digests food works too actively and Ki which discharges feces works too inactively, then we will end up eating all the time and always feel like our stomach is full.
In any organization, there are usually some parts where people are too conscious and, on the contrary too unconscious. This is what we would consider an ‘uneven’ condition.
Human beings usually have ‘uneven’ conditions, which change like waves and while it is not bad thing in itself. If the ‘uneven’ condition grows bigger or continues for quite a long period of time, we are not able to live healthily or play a proper role as a social member of organization.
We can see the same thing in such group organization as family, community and company. For those organizations to survive for a long time, there needs to be a harmony of all wills involved.
For instance, in a company where people in an administrative post are very strong and employees are forced to work too hard, the employees will get stressed and become less motivated. On the other hand, if employees are strong and cause too many strikes, then the company’s ability to compete and its productivity will become lower.
In our body, too, there are uncountable harmonized relationships happening among the upper and lower half of the body, the right and left side of the body, internal organs and skin, etc. If these components are harmonized well, we can remain healthy.
What we can do through acupuncture and moxibustion is to bring ‘uneven’ conditions to the moderate and harmonized.
posted by 乙次郎 at 10:59| Comment(0)
| English translation
2010年12月06日
What is'Ki'? Part2
What is ‘Ki’? Part 2.
As I mentioned in “What is ‘Ki’? Part 1”, the foundation of oriental medicine is the idea that “certain will” has something inherently to do with things that happen around us or the things that start to change around us. I will be writing about such ‘Ki’ in this blog.
Today, I will use driving a car as an example in order to help you understand this type of ‘Ki’. Driving a car in this blog represents our ability to change objects; i.e. you can change the location of a car to move to your desired location. Let’s imagine when you drive a car for the very first time.
At first, you put on the brakes. Then, you release the hand brake and put on the indicator. You step on the clutch pedal, and put the car in to low gear. Next, you step on the accelerator until it goes up to 1500kph. Keeping the engine speed maintained, you release the clutch pedal and move the car. Once you have merged into a lane, you return the indicator back to its original position, and then…
If you had to pay attention to each process of driving a car like above, it would become a troublesome and complicated task. And at first when we are learning to drive a car it is.
However, once you get used to driving a car, you are able to enjoy BGM or talking with a person who is sitting in the front seat with you while you are driving. Of course, in both these cases, you are still conscious of driving a car (otherwise you cannot drive), but you have become accustomed to it, and are therefore performing all the required actions at the subconscious level.
This example is true for many different things as whenever you try something new, you need to gather all the “wills” you have to help you understand it. Then once you become familiar with it, you can do it at the subconscious level.
We can see the same type of situation in the case of other creatures. What an ameba can do is reach out to the next nutritious food available and prey upon it. An ameba can not do any other things. On the other hand, creatures that are more developed than amebas can do more advanced things such as searching for food, building shelters, etc.
Human have originally developed from such a monad for more than 100 millions of years. What distinguishes us is that we are able to do various motions of the body without needing to think about them.
Thanks to it, we are able to enjoy conversation with other people while eating meals.
“Put food at this time into our mouth. O.K, now let’s chew what we have bitten until it’s a proper size. Oops, I forgot to mix my saliva!”
If such thing were happening in our mouth, we couldn’t enjoy watching television while eating meals.
Living bodies are an accumulation of “wills”, in other words, “Ki” is a component of our body.
In the next blog, I am going to write about harmony of “wills of body”.
As I mentioned in “What is ‘Ki’? Part 1”, the foundation of oriental medicine is the idea that “certain will” has something inherently to do with things that happen around us or the things that start to change around us. I will be writing about such ‘Ki’ in this blog.
Today, I will use driving a car as an example in order to help you understand this type of ‘Ki’. Driving a car in this blog represents our ability to change objects; i.e. you can change the location of a car to move to your desired location. Let’s imagine when you drive a car for the very first time.
At first, you put on the brakes. Then, you release the hand brake and put on the indicator. You step on the clutch pedal, and put the car in to low gear. Next, you step on the accelerator until it goes up to 1500kph. Keeping the engine speed maintained, you release the clutch pedal and move the car. Once you have merged into a lane, you return the indicator back to its original position, and then…
If you had to pay attention to each process of driving a car like above, it would become a troublesome and complicated task. And at first when we are learning to drive a car it is.
However, once you get used to driving a car, you are able to enjoy BGM or talking with a person who is sitting in the front seat with you while you are driving. Of course, in both these cases, you are still conscious of driving a car (otherwise you cannot drive), but you have become accustomed to it, and are therefore performing all the required actions at the subconscious level.
This example is true for many different things as whenever you try something new, you need to gather all the “wills” you have to help you understand it. Then once you become familiar with it, you can do it at the subconscious level.
We can see the same type of situation in the case of other creatures. What an ameba can do is reach out to the next nutritious food available and prey upon it. An ameba can not do any other things. On the other hand, creatures that are more developed than amebas can do more advanced things such as searching for food, building shelters, etc.
Human have originally developed from such a monad for more than 100 millions of years. What distinguishes us is that we are able to do various motions of the body without needing to think about them.
Thanks to it, we are able to enjoy conversation with other people while eating meals.
“Put food at this time into our mouth. O.K, now let’s chew what we have bitten until it’s a proper size. Oops, I forgot to mix my saliva!”
If such thing were happening in our mouth, we couldn’t enjoy watching television while eating meals.
Living bodies are an accumulation of “wills”, in other words, “Ki” is a component of our body.
In the next blog, I am going to write about harmony of “wills of body”.
posted by 乙次郎 at 09:25| Comment(0)
| English translation
2010年11月03日
What is'Ki'?
What is ‘Ki’?
‘Ki’ can be translated as ‘will’, ‘spirit’, ‘mind’, ‘soul’ and ‘power’ etc and it has many different connotations. So for this blog, I would like to stick to the original Japanese meaning for the word ‘Ki’.
“What is ‘Ki’? Does it really exist?” This is the question I am often asked, so I want to explain it to you in my blog.
A lot of specialists and scholars have written books about ‘Ki’. Most of those books are very difficult to read with lots of complex ideas, can be expensive to buy (they range from a thousand to more than ten thousand!) and sometimes very thick. It is too respectful for me to refer to ‘Ki’, but I would like to attempt to explain it to you simply in order to help you understand the concept better.
The concept of ‘Ki’ becomes different according to its broader and narrower meanings. Hence, to begin, I would like to write about ‘Ki’ in my own words from its broader meaning.
O.K, let’s look at the picture screen shot below. It is from one of the film created by Studio Gibli.
This is a scene where a woman blows a breath, and clouds move as if they were blown by the wind.
Probably the person who drew this picture scene felt the spirit of Mother Nature and personified it as a woman who blows a breath toward clouds to create the wind.
Now scientists can explain how wind occurs and clouds move, by saying “the temperature or convection of the earth and surface of the ocean rise…”, “it occurs for topographical reason” or “it is related to the rotation of the earth”. While this is all true and I don’t deny it, from the oriental medicine point of view, things occur and change necessarily because there is a ‘will’ which makes it happen.
We call such will ‘Ki’.
Wind blows, thunder falls and earthquake happens. Some ‘wills’ have something to do with these events. We can say the same thing about human behavior and activity. Ahead of any behavior and activity, there is a will and because of this will, something starts to change and move.
I totally understand why most people say that we live with our will. But we cannot always associate will with many events that happen around us. Also, it is true that we cannot measure or capture will concretely, therefore, we are unable to relate will with various events. However, will is something we can feel subjectively. Take company or sports team for examples. We can feel the morale of the organizations when we are in the group although we can never measure it. Will is something like that.
It is very strange to me to say that there is no will because it is neither visible nor able to be measured.
The foundation of oriental medicine is the idea that there are many wills, in other words, ‘Ki’ in this universe that surrounds us.
‘Ki’ can be translated as ‘will’, ‘spirit’, ‘mind’, ‘soul’ and ‘power’ etc and it has many different connotations. So for this blog, I would like to stick to the original Japanese meaning for the word ‘Ki’.
“What is ‘Ki’? Does it really exist?” This is the question I am often asked, so I want to explain it to you in my blog.
A lot of specialists and scholars have written books about ‘Ki’. Most of those books are very difficult to read with lots of complex ideas, can be expensive to buy (they range from a thousand to more than ten thousand!) and sometimes very thick. It is too respectful for me to refer to ‘Ki’, but I would like to attempt to explain it to you simply in order to help you understand the concept better.
The concept of ‘Ki’ becomes different according to its broader and narrower meanings. Hence, to begin, I would like to write about ‘Ki’ in my own words from its broader meaning.
O.K, let’s look at the picture screen shot below. It is from one of the film created by Studio Gibli.
This is a scene where a woman blows a breath, and clouds move as if they were blown by the wind.
Probably the person who drew this picture scene felt the spirit of Mother Nature and personified it as a woman who blows a breath toward clouds to create the wind.
Now scientists can explain how wind occurs and clouds move, by saying “the temperature or convection of the earth and surface of the ocean rise…”, “it occurs for topographical reason” or “it is related to the rotation of the earth”. While this is all true and I don’t deny it, from the oriental medicine point of view, things occur and change necessarily because there is a ‘will’ which makes it happen.
We call such will ‘Ki’.
Wind blows, thunder falls and earthquake happens. Some ‘wills’ have something to do with these events. We can say the same thing about human behavior and activity. Ahead of any behavior and activity, there is a will and because of this will, something starts to change and move.
I totally understand why most people say that we live with our will. But we cannot always associate will with many events that happen around us. Also, it is true that we cannot measure or capture will concretely, therefore, we are unable to relate will with various events. However, will is something we can feel subjectively. Take company or sports team for examples. We can feel the morale of the organizations when we are in the group although we can never measure it. Will is something like that.
It is very strange to me to say that there is no will because it is neither visible nor able to be measured.
The foundation of oriental medicine is the idea that there are many wills, in other words, ‘Ki’ in this universe that surrounds us.
posted by 乙次郎 at 10:18| English translation
2010年10月10日
１０月の出雲はたくさんの神様が集う
出雲では１０月のことを神有月というそうな。
１０月に各地からいろんな神様が出雲に集まってくることから出雲だけそう呼ばれいているようです。
神様は創造主にたとえられますが、宇宙だったり、地球のような星を太古の人々は神様が作ったと考えていました。
最先端科学で宇宙は自分たちがいる宇宙のほかにもたくさんあると予測しています。証明は難しいようですが。
生まれてすぐ消えてしまう宇宙。
物質の存在しない宇宙。
光だけの宇宙。
時間がないが空間はある宇宙。
などなど
出雲ではいろんな神様が自分が創造した世界を持ち寄って、見せあいっこしているかもしれません。
ある神様は、
「わしが作ったのはこんな星や生物や文明になったけど、おたくのはどう？」
なんか言いながら。
例えば、この地球ではいろんな生物がいるが、オスかメスかの二つの性しかない。
だから、ある神様はじゃんけんのように三つの性を創造したりするかもしれない。
グー性、チョキ性、パー性。
グーとチョキと付き合う時はグーがオス、チョキはメス。
グーとパーが付き合う時はグーがメス、パーはオス。
という様に一つの性がつきあうものによって、人間でいうなら男も女も経験できるというような性をつくってみる。
どんな恋愛ドラマができるのか？
どんな病気が発症するのか？
どんな文明ができるのか？など
『神自身が創造した世界をよりよく知るためには、神自身が興味をもった分野の数（たぶん無限）だけ自分の心を分割して、その興味のある分野を知るのに最も適当な創造物・生物に自分の心を忍ばせておくのが最も効率がよさそうだ』
出雲では、みんなで集まって、
「君のは牧歌的すぎて、なかなか文明が発達せんな。」
「おたくの作ったのは戦争ばっかして、残骸だらけやなぁ。」
「あんたのは、個性的やな」
など言いながら。
神々の道楽や宴会はこんなかんじ？？
「見たよ〜」のポチッと押してください↓
にほんブログ村
こうおつ鍼灸院ホームページ
http://www.kouotsu-hari.com/
１０月に各地からいろんな神様が出雲に集まってくることから出雲だけそう呼ばれいているようです。
神様は創造主にたとえられますが、宇宙だったり、地球のような星を太古の人々は神様が作ったと考えていました。
最先端科学で宇宙は自分たちがいる宇宙のほかにもたくさんあると予測しています。証明は難しいようですが。
生まれてすぐ消えてしまう宇宙。
物質の存在しない宇宙。
光だけの宇宙。
時間がないが空間はある宇宙。
などなど
出雲ではいろんな神様が自分が創造した世界を持ち寄って、見せあいっこしているかもしれません。
ある神様は、
「わしが作ったのはこんな星や生物や文明になったけど、おたくのはどう？」
なんか言いながら。
例えば、この地球ではいろんな生物がいるが、オスかメスかの二つの性しかない。
だから、ある神様はじゃんけんのように三つの性を創造したりするかもしれない。
グー性、チョキ性、パー性。
グーとチョキと付き合う時はグーがオス、チョキはメス。
グーとパーが付き合う時はグーがメス、パーはオス。
という様に一つの性がつきあうものによって、人間でいうなら男も女も経験できるというような性をつくってみる。
どんな恋愛ドラマができるのか？
どんな病気が発症するのか？
どんな文明ができるのか？など
『神自身が創造した世界をよりよく知るためには、神自身が興味をもった分野の数（たぶん無限）だけ自分の心を分割して、その興味のある分野を知るのに最も適当な創造物・生物に自分の心を忍ばせておくのが最も効率がよさそうだ』
出雲では、みんなで集まって、
「君のは牧歌的すぎて、なかなか文明が発達せんな。」
「おたくの作ったのは戦争ばっかして、残骸だらけやなぁ。」
「あんたのは、個性的やな」
など言いながら。
神々の道楽や宴会はこんなかんじ？？
「見たよ〜」のポチッと押してください↓
にほんブログ村
こうおつ鍼灸院ホームページ
http://www.kouotsu-hari.com/
