April 2009 post translated in English by Mihai Vladu sensei

Tuesday, 21st of April 2009

Dojo’s schedule

Between 22.04.2009 – 04.05.2009 I will not be able to be present at the dojo, so, the trainings will be led by Master G. The schedule remains unchanged, except the day 24.04.2009 when there will be no practice because the dojo is not available..


Tuesday, 14th of April 2009

The seminar in Sovata, 10th – 12th of April 2009

I just came back from the seminar in Sovata, organized by our friend Florin (dojo-cho in Reghin and Targu-Mures), where I had a very good time. The organization was extraordinary and I want to thank Florin again for his really remarkable efforts and the participation was the same. Probably – I do not have yet the exact data – there wee around 140 Aikido practitioners, children and adults. Adding also the children’s escorts, the deployment of forces was impressive.
Both daily practices were inspired by Dorin Marchis sensei, who knew how to drive us and make us give our most on the tatami, thus the ones present felt the enthusiasm and pleasure of the practice. There was also an examination session where we had the pleasure to see only well prepared people, both technically and physically. Congratulations for Ciprian (sandan, Pitesti), Laura, Oana and Marius (nidan, Cluj), Bogan (shodan, Cluj) and Nicu (shodan, Pitesti).
There are also regrets because the seminar ended quickly but we wait with impatience next occasion to meet all in May, in Cluj, to practice under the leading of Master Fukakusa Motohiro (nanadan, Japan).





Tuesday, 7th of April 2009

The spirit of the Dojo

The Dojo (the place for practicing the Way) exists as a fix ambient for practice and for the manifestation of the attitudes previously described. Either standing or sitting in the formal position (seiza), only in this sacred place, the student experiences a great peace, a sense of unity with the nature and with all those who already made the way of personal development. When the practice (keiko) started, we are absorbed by the living study of the Aikido’s movements and everything else is forgotten. Practicing the spontaneously manifestation of the Aikido’s principles, we experience our own natural existential state. In the end of practice we feel reinvigorated and refreshed.
(Extract from “The spiritual fundaments of the way of harmony” by William Gleason.)


The Aikido dojo exists today thanks to the efforts of those who have created and protected the Way since the antiquity.  In modern times this spirit was relit thanks to the spiritual genius, dedication and enlightenment of Morihei Ueshiba sensei. The Dojo is not a sport hall or a place for the exhibition of the ego. It is a space which solicits sincerity, respect and humility – essential qualities for the safety and progress of each student.
For the goal of not making errors on the Way, the students have to be trusty to the obligations regarding themselves, regarding their colleagues, instructor, dojo and Aikido itself. In the times of O-sensei, the internal students (uci-deshi) took care of the dojo and the master’s needs, day and night. Their way of life was always in front of the master’s eyes. But today, the time spent inside the dojo represents few hours per day. In this agitated times it is necessary a serious implication in practice.
Aikido can not be practiced from a conceptual perspective. We use the real resistance of a partner to study the resolution of conflicts. In Aikido, like in Zen, even the sudden intuitions can be useful to us, though they can not ensure a permanent ability or a deep understanding and the experience teaches us to do not attach ourselves to them; they represent only the crest of the development’s wave.



More important is the daily implication which builds the body and mind. Aikido’s objective is not an unexpected revelation but constantly leaving starting from hara: to experience everything in our life with our full body and mind and to manifest the joy and wonder of the natural existential state. It is not a walk-through searching for an individual and illusory salvation. Aikido is a spiritual Way which demands years to exert and manifest itself, not only in technique but in our whole being. The constant practice is necessary in order for our spirit and understanding of Aikido to be able to grow inside us. The external observatories of Aikido are often surprised to see students practicing seriously, even if just in a friendly manner. An excessive chatter on the tatami is not acceptable. The words are not taboo but they do not have to interrupt the isshin-den-shin, the intuitive and direct transmission between the teacher and the students.
The tradition of the Orient is usually not only verbal but the words have their weight as guiding lines for the students. The verbal explanations can never communicate the effective experience (“The way you can speak about is not a correct one.”), but, for the westerners used to detailed explanations, the non-verbal teaching might seem unacceptable. Even in Japan, very few persons still manage today to follow an exclusively non-verbal path.
The direct transmission is possible only when the student receives constantly a personal attention from the teacher. In other words, it is difficult to teach Aikido for big groups. The verbal teachings, even if not completely understood by the student in that moment, bring in his mind the realization of the basic principles. This leads us to the use of the apparently paradoxical questions (koan) in Zen practice. Either in Zen, or Aikido, the realization of the meaning behind the words depends on the continuity in practice and meditation.
In Aikido there are many precious “key” experiences: the examples include “ashi mimi” (the ear of your own foot), “ashi moto” (in the forehead of your own foot), “koshi ga suwaru” (being well implanted in the earth), “chikara wo nuku” (to loose your own rigidity). These are very short explanations and, immediately transmitted, help the student understanding the correct working manner. Even the direct transmission is often made easier by a well chosen word or phrase which makes the student to go through the solution of a difficult problem. Even trying to understand the teachings of the ancient masters helps the students to go deeper to their own experiences.



The verbal teachings provide a fundament of comparing for the validation of own experiences. We can also tell this using the Buddhist saying of Hee-Jin Kim: “Despite the inherent fragility of their composition, the words are bricks of the supreme truth”. Speaking and turning onto outside in order to help the others, it is realized the ki of fire, which is balanced with the inner development, the ki of water. We should become like the Shinto deity Omotaru no Kami which constantly radiates spiritual energy to others, but remaining full and complete inside us.
The ceremonial aspect serves in dominating the arrogance. If we are excessively trustful or arrogant, we will be easily defeated. Aikido requires that you receive the attack of our opponent and unite with it in such a way to do not have weak points that can be attacked; and also, when is necessary, to be able to roll without problems. This is the art of Ukemi. You have to receive the attack of your partner with an open defense but impenetrable. Calm a sensitive consciousness, devoid by arrogance and aggressiveness, is developed through the observation of the opportune etiquette. Bowing correctly, for example, it helps not only to eliminate the attachment to the close centralism of the ego, but it will teach you also the correct distance and the calculation of times (“ma-ai”), developing precaution and discernment. We should not bow too much when the ma-ai is too short. This shows lack of respect towards the partner and invites him to attack.
Entering the dojo, each person bows from standing, towards the side (shomen) were the altar is. A salute is properly done to the master, to the elder practitioners and to the others. When we leave we have to excuse ourselves. The recognition of the relationships between the elder practitioners and the young ones (senpai – kohai) is essential for the etiquette in the dojo. In the beginning of the lesson, the master and also the students, sitting formally (seiza) on their knees, bow towards the main side of the dojo, clapping their hands two times and bow again. In some cases, when the dojo is situated inside a Shinto sanctuary, everybody bows two times, claps his/her hands two times and then bows one more time. The three bowings symbolize the three fundaments: spirit, mind and body. The clapping of the hands is a symbol for the unity of the nature’s dynamic forces. Between other things, frees the mind from stasis. When the hands are united, the physical part (right hand) and the spiritual part (left hand) of our constitution, unite. In Buddhism the gesture is named gassho and is often accompanied by bowings; in Christianity is the form of praying. In Aikido, like also in Shinto, is known as Musubi, bounding together yin and yang.


Each movement in Aikido is a praying, a method to unite own volition with the universal volition. About this, the Founder, Ueshiba Morihei, said: “Aikido begins ritually and ends ritually”.
The Aikido Master, Yamaguchi Seigo, had already his eight degree black belt when I first met him. Ten years later, little before leaving Japan, I attended one of his seminars for the black belts (kuro obo kai). In that occasion, he gave to each student a brochure, from which introduction, I extracted the following fragments:
“At fifty years old, I begin to receive again the true difficulty of Aikido. Truly, this is necessary in order to maintain always alive the mind of the beginner. Only repeating with enthusiasm the things you learned, you will not be able in any way to obtain a real progress. It is true that, the old masters, like they are quoted, said that we have to train through continuously repetition but they did not refer only to the mechanical repetition. They said that we do not have only to be pleased with extirpating the bad habits. We have also to eradicate the good habits. Those bad, either in technique or life, are easily recognized by everybody. Even when they seem always to accompany us, they are relatively easy to correct.
When we become conscious of these one, they cause us relatively few problems. Comparing to these ones, presumably, for sure, our good habits are well defined attributes and represent real virtues. Their bad effect is rarely understood. It has no importance how good with think we are, we rather remain conscious that we are immature and imperfect! We should receive and critic with a feeling of modesty and without hard feelings. Concentrating to become strong and, in the same time, to maintain the mind of the beginner, is not at all a simple thing. Being strong and firm, without any toughness or rigidity, is the state of the true positive spirit, which accepts everything and, in the same time, does never lose the consciousness of its true existence”.
The deepness of these words makes clear the true spirit of Aikido. The beginner’s mind is innocent or little convinced. It means to know ourselves; to eliminate the doubts regarding the sense of or own existence. Ueshiba sensei said once:
“Exactly like you, I am also on the path of my own practice”.
At the same time, another time he said:
“Without me Aikido does not exist”.
Such an apparent contradiction can also be found in the words of the legendary Japanese swordsman, Musashi Miyamoto. He claimed he had no masters but said that anything is his master. The truth and the contradiction are inseparable.
Ueshiba sensei’s words:
 “Takemusu aiki is the mind which makes stop all the different intellectual approaching. Is not about a passive or conceptual effort. The way of the Japanese warrior is the way of Gods. It is a manifestation of the divine creating work which gives life to the sky and earth. It is a manifestation of the God Izanagi and the Goddess Izanami, the ancestors of the humanity. The way takemusu aiki is to learn the law and order of the universe, the work of cosmos, directly from the divine consciousness of kannagara”.
There is no place, in the Aikido practice, for conceptualization and opinions: no kind of perfection, nothing right or wrong, only the reality of the experience. We cannot pretend to understand something but only if we effectively do that thing. Such an attitude stands at the basic of many traditional things of the Japanese society. It is very well expressed by this Zen koan: “When you meet in the street a Zen master, you cannot speak or stand in front of him quietly. What are you going to do then?”. The answer should have, more or less, this spirit: “Do not confront him neither with words nor with silence: punch him!”. In other words, you have to destroy Buddha; and this can be done only becoming yourselves a Buddha. In Aikido practice, the conflict and the confrontation against the ego are substituted by intuition and wisdom. To quote O-sensei:
 “When the practitioner becomes fulfilled mentally and spiritually it is said that, “Hara ga dekite iru” – hara perfected itself”. In that moment there is no possibility of the irrationality as a way of resolving the difficulties. Through the Aikido practice life becomes a joy and deeply intuitive. We reach the point to appreciate the continuous process of self-development and we learn to see the immediate searching’s madness of the gratification or instantaneously success.
Each of us is the individual centre of the universe, we are the ones who create our own lives and each of us is responsible for any condition that we are in. If by some reason we are unhappy, we have to change ourselves. In Mahayana Buddhism, this decision of changing is named belief. This is the type of belief which comes only from experience and is total acceptance of our true nature, exactly how we are. In the esoteric Buddhism, this attitude of changing is named “the wisdom which cultivates the will to practice compassion”.





Friday, 3rd of April 2009

Keiko

The term Keiko (literally, to think in the ancient manner) means to perceive the way, directly and intuitively. Which is impossible for us before we free ourselves from the competitive mind and we do not overpass the idea of manipulating the others.
(Extract from “The spiritual fundaments of the way of harmony” by William Gleason.)

In the Japanese traditional sword schools, students were not permitted  to fight anyone from outside their own dojo or school, before they received a competence degree. This served, in part, to avoid the impression the school was an inferior quality one but also to ensure the progresses of the students would not have been stopped by external pressures or competition.
The great goals of Aikido forbid this practice and, even the mentality of competing. A competitive mind creates obstacles in the subtle process of the accord. The competition requires rules to ensure the safety of the practitioners and, in this way, destroys a higher reality based on complete consciousness. Budo will never be able to become a form of sport. The proper respect also includes the consciousness of all the possibilities opened to your opponent in the moment when you attack. You have to be relaxed but, totally conscious, abandoning the physical rigidity and also the idea of success or failure.
In Zen practice, the absolute base of reality is perceived as “letting the body and mind fall”. A Zen monk was in front of the old Master Joshu and said: “If there is nothing in my mind, what do I have to do?”. Joshu answered: “Throw it!”. Letting “fall” your defensive attitude, relaxing your shoulders. Is also a mental fact. It is possible to have a flexible body but, confronting others, to become stiff or react irrationally. Letting “fall” the mental and physical resistance is one and the same thing and, this can not happen but only if we have a deep confidence in ourselves.
Step-by-step discovering a new type of inner strength makes possible getting rid of the old protective mechanisms of the ego. The capacity of remaining calm in a threatening situation requires spiritual strength, shortage of ego and reconciliation with our own nature.


Thursday, 2nd of April 2009

Ki

I present to you a translation of the first two chapters from Master Koichi Tohei’s “The book of Ki”, appeared in French edition at the Guy Tredaniei publishing house. I strongly recommend you buying this book. Also, here it is a link to an interesting site where, among others, some ki development techniques are presented:
 http://www.bodymindandmodem.com/KiEx/KiEx.html

1. What is the Ki?

To extend the Ki

Let’s make a list with everything necessary for life: food, shelter, clothes, water, air. I did not forget anything? Yes, the Ki – something so fundamental that is often forgotten.
One man walks towards the sea, bends and takes a little water in his hands. “It is my water” he says. In a certain sense he is right, of course. The water is, temporary, his. Either he lets it leak between his fingers on the sand or it will evaporate, condensate and integrate into a cloud and fall as rain, “his water” will still return in the ocean.
The same is happening also with our lives. We circle a little piece from the Ki of the universe with our body and say: “It is me”. The Ki that gives us life is only a little piece from the Ki of the universe, the same as the water taken by our man belongs to the ocean.
Though, differently by the new represented for the passerby, bending to take salt water, receiving the vital strength is constant and spontaneous. Our personal Ki, inseparable from the Ki of the universe, is in constant relationship with this one. Is the essence of life: a mutual flux and tide between our Ki and the one of the universe. When the flux is strong and does not meet obstacles, we are healthy; when the flux temporary breaks, we become unconscious. When the flux stops completely and irreversible, we die.
A strong parallelism can be established with an automobile battery. In the same way a battery remains charged when the car frequently circulates, the Ki consumed by us during daily activities is replaced by the Ki of the universe. Starting a car abandoned for a long period of time has the same result like when we do not develop our Ki – a dead battery.
Periodically, of course, a battery has to be recharged. The same thing is also valid for our own Ki. This complete renewing of the Ki takes place during deep sleep, the only moment when the most part of people are capable to truly relax. The Ki of the universe is received by the brain during times of deep relaxation, when the signals of the electrical waves continuously sent by the brain, become regulate.
It is the reason for which, even nine or ten hours of restless sleep represent a little utility for feeling rested, when five or six hours are enough if they are calmed and without problems. Sleep is the fundamental necessity of life. A man who has a strong Ki, can survive ten or twenty days without food but five days without sleep are enough to kill him. In Japanese, the word for this is kishi, death through shortage of Ki. During the history, a way proved to break the resistance of a prisoner, was to force him staying awake for long periods of time. Three days without sleep are normally enough to pull out the statement for the worst criminal.
For ten or fifteen years sleeping drugs have been in vogue. These drugs’ effect is the anesthesia of the brain. In this state, similar to death, the Ki of the universe can not provide for the personal Ki and the familiar signs of utilizing these drugs are: vitality shortage, depression and, finally, a precarious health.  Evidently, these effects are not due to a corporal fatigue; the drugged body is usually like a cloth. No, these are the inexorable signs to an insufficiency of fresh Ki.
Let’s come back to our comparison to a battery: the new Ki flows in your body, as far as you develop your own Ki. The better you extend your Ki, he more efficient this “recharging moment” will become, making you capable to recover the physical and mental strength, with only a short nocturnal sleep.
If you want to live joyful and vigorously, you have first to learn develop your Ki, the last from the four fundamental principles to unify the spirit and the body.









Reduce infinitely

What is the universal Ki?

Watch the sky. The sun shines. In which state was it before shining? If we ask ourselves like this about all the things in the universe, inside an unending spiral of the questions, we approach something that it is nothing and, that still exists.
What were you before your birth? A fetus inside mother’s uterus. But before this? An union between paternal sperm with a maternal egg cell, of course. But before this? Your parents had neither sperm, nor egg cell, before they reach the puberty. Where wee you then?
The human being, like all the creatures or any other object, appears from “almost nothing”, from the invisible substance from which the universe is formed. It is the Ki. The Christians name it “God”. The Buddhists name it “Buddha” and the adherents of Soka Gakkai name it “ohonzan”. These are the names given in different languages and cultures in the same manner in which we say “te” in Japanese, to what in English is called “hand”. In the beginning, the absolute universe was one. Two forces appeared and the relative world was born. We have the tendency to think that the relative world, which we see and hear around us, is the only one, forgetting about the absolute world, which is behind it. The absolute quantity of Ki in the universe is constant an in permanent circulation. In the Buddhist teachings it is said: “Nothing is born, nothing is annihilated. Nothing is dirty, nothing is immaculate. Nothing is growing. Nothing is receding”.
In 1974, for six weeks, I have conducted a seminar, during the summer session of Fullerton College, in California. The school created a new course named “The development of the Ki”. “The development of the Ki” is a bridge between psychology, which takes thought exclusively of spirit, and physical education, which takes care exclusively of the body. Finally, the body and the spirit are one – there is no difference between them. The spirit is the body delimited, the body is the spirit not delimited. It is without sense to consider them as two different things.
I have tried during several years to introduce The Unification of the Spirit and Body in the academic environment.  No college from Japan listened to me. But in USA, the University from Hawaii and the Lewis and Clark College, paid me attention and the Fullerton College went so far that started a new course. More than three hundred persons participated in my first seminar – doctors, jurists, teachers and students. Doctors Gunther and Geaorge Bread from South Dakota University’s psychology department and doctor and Mrs. Melvin from Pennsylvania University’s physics and music departments also participated. In the audience were also Doctor Steve Simon (philosophy) and Doctor Lau San Tsai (psychology) from Fullerton College. Doctor Tsai fostered together one dog, one cat and one mouse and the experiment was the subject of an article in Life Magazine. It ironically commented the incapacity of the human beings to live together, while dogs and cats can do it. It was proposed for the Nobel Prize.
I was leading the development of Ki’s courses and the Aikido classes in the big gymnasium of the school and, every day, at lunch time, I was organizing reunions to answer questions, even though, obviously, I have never tried to teach classes for the academic teachers. One day, Doctor Melvin asked me: “Sound and light can be mathematically expressed? Is it possible to do the same with the Ki? Has anybody done this?”.
I knew from the way he asked that he was considering the Ki in terms of vibrations per second and that he missed its fundamental nature. Thus I decided to explain him using the only possible mathematical terms: “Yes” I said, “it is possible”. “Indeed, someone gave already a mathematical explanation of the Ki”.
“Oh” said Doctor Melvin, “who?”.
“Me” I answered smiling. Everybody laughed.
The teacher continued, seriously: Then, can you give a mathematical explanation of the Ki?”.
“Of course. The fundamental entity in mathematics is the digit 1, isn’t it?”.
Doctor Melvin agreed.
“The universe is one. Human is one. A stone is one. All of these can be represented with the digit 1.”. I lifted a finger. “This is one. If I reduce it to a half, what will remain will still be one. If I will reduce it to half infinitely, will it ever become zero?”.
“No” the teacher said.
“It does not become zero. If it is one, half always exists. The Ki is the infinitely multitude of these infinitely small particles.”.
Everybody applauded. It was not what Doctor Melvin expected, but it surely was a mathematical explanation.
It is the subject of a very difficult passage from an old Buddhist text,  Hanya Shingyo. Expressed in words, the idea is very difficult to be caught but, expressed in this mathematical form, can be understood even by a child.
Mrs. Melvin, the music teacher, endowed with a good intuition, was satisfied. Her husband though, was perplexed: “It is very difficult”, he commented, “to calculate an infinitely multitude”. Everybody smiled.

The positive using of the spirit

The Ki is the fundamental unity of the universe. Is the infinitely multitude of the infinitely small particles. Each thing is, in last instance, composed from Ki. If you follow this concept so far as the deepness of the human consciousness, you will understand the universal spirit that governs the whole creation, loving and protecting the life. The understanding of the universal spirit is fundamental in order to achieve a spirit of peace and unity with the nature.
Today, the human species, in its abandon from the principles and concepts of the relative world, is on its way to miscarry. Its only hope is to manage to perceive the absolute world which is behind the relative one, to understand the principle of Ki.
Everything has, as origin, the Ki of the universe. The interaction of two opposite forces created the relative world we are also living in. These forces are named Yin and Yang, in the Far East, positive and negative in the West. Edison said that universe is made from electricity. He was speaking about what it is the basic of electricity which supplies our domestic installations – the Ki of the universe. In the same way in which nothing can not emanate from nothing, it is false to say that the electricity is “produced” by generators. This power exists all the time. We call it “electricity” when is captured by a generating group, in a form that we may perceive with the five sense.
The electricity is composed by the negative force and the positive force. The same is also the personal Ki. The Ki of the universe is a whole, without component parts. But, the Ki gets, through the human brain, either a positive character or a negative character. The wall’s side exposed to the light is bright; the other side is dark. The two parts, of course, constitute the “real” wall. It can not be said that one part of the wall is more authentic than the other. It is correct to say that God is synonym with love. It is justifiable to say that the universe is merciless. Everything depends on our point of view. If you want to live a pleasant, vigorous and healthy life, you have to watch the bright side. If you are attracted by sadness and suffering, you watch the dark side. If you want to go south than you go south. You will not reach there continuing to go north. You can spend your life crying or smiling. It is up to you. If you want to watch the positive side of things, you have to believe that, the way of the universe is a way of love. You have to use your spirit in a positive way and to develop your Ki. If, on the other hand, you want to watch the negative side of life, the way is in front of you: believe that the source of life is merciless, use your spirit in a negative way, lament and create obstacles for the Ki.
If you want to strengthen your Ki, the physical power and resistance and to manage in your life’s undertakings, you have to force yourselves in becoming one with the Ki of the universe.
A charge of fresh Ki enters in your body when you increase your Ki. But is necessary to use your spirit in a positive way and increase your Ki. It is essential to coordinate your spirit and body in order to become one with the Ki of the universe. The unification of the spirit and body is the fundament of an edifice, the root of a tree. A skyscraper can be built only on firm foundations. A tall oak with many branches, is only a poetic idea if it does not also have strong roots. The modern man miscarries because he tries to produce flowers before his roots are developed. If you want to live a vigorous life, you have first to force yourselves to unify your spirit and body.


2. The four fundamental principles to reunite the spirit and the body

The majority of the people, without examining to much the subject, consider the iceberg being the scrap of ice which flows on the ocean’s surface. Because they cannot see, they forget about the 85% percent which are bellow. In the same way, many people measure the power of a man after his physical strength. Because they can not see it, they forget about the more enormous power of the spirit.
But, the same as an iceberg is formed from visible and invisible elements, the real power of the man is that of the spirit and the body. Only when we unify our spirit and body, we can use our true power, the power of the Ki.
An old Japanese story speaks of a thin woman whose house was on fire. Because the fire was extending, she took an enormous chest having inside everything precious for the family and took outside the house. After the fire was extinguished he tried to take the chest back in house but she was not able to move it. Almost everybody heard about things like this. During the fire, the old woman was capable to coordinate her spirit and body and to use her true power. But after the danger, the coordination between the spirit and the body disappeared and the weakness of the old age reappeared.
Even if they drink impure water, the soldiers on the battle field have no digestive problem. More than once, during the Second World War, on the battle fields in China, I ate rice which was washed in the river’s water, without any kind of intestinal problems.
If people do things like this in normal circumstances, they become sick very quickly.
The marathon runners, when they approach the end line, are close to unify the spirit and body, because they develop their Ki. But, once the race is finished they stop developing their Ki. The spirit and the body separate so completely, that often they can not even stand. Everybody recognizes the enormous difference which is between the separation of the spirit and the body and the coordination of the spirit and the body.
Why so few people unify them? Because, although they consider this impressive or important, they think the unification of the spirit and the body is over their capacities. The spirit has no color, form or limits. The body is substantial and finite. Unifying things so different seems impossible, especially in the daily life. Anguishes and problems appear from everywhere in order to stop touching this goal. “Buddha and Jesus were capable of doing it”, says the normal person, “but not me”.
But, the unification of the spirit and the body is not at all difficult. It seems that way because people think about spirit and body in completely different terms. But both have, as origin, the Ki of the universe and they are, definitively, one and the same. Why it should be so difficult to unify that which, in a fundamental manner, is the same?

Calming the spirit

A watery body, in his natural state, is without undulations. Put a little bit of water inside a stable recipient and it will remain calm. If you think about tides and storms, you will have the crazy idea hat the normal state of the water is with undulations and then you will put your hand inside to calm it, what it has to happen.
The water becomes agitated, exactly the opposite of what you wish.
What is the spirit? The brain constantly emits electromagnetic vibrations – we usually name them “brain waves”. These waves are sent as long as the brain is alive. If you live from the premise that your spirit is agitated, the waves cannot become regulate and you will strive for nothing to calm them. The order given to the brain to calm it self, also produces waves. If you think you are completely calm, this thought also creates waves. You can not unify your spirit and body – becoming one with the Ki of the universe – if you continuously disturb the brain waves with thoughts.
First, you have to think that the fundamental state of the spirit is calmness. Think about a wave. Half calm it. Continue indefinitely this process and the wave will become indefinitely calm. But it will not become zero. The Ki of the universe resides in infinite, never touching zero. If you stop the movement of the wave at zero, it will loose its dynamism. It becomes zero. It is the calmness of death. The living calmness is infinitely dynamic and contains an infinitely power. The calmness of death is without vital strength and it does not contain power. They are completely different. You have to keep your spirit on the path of the little infinite. It is the calmness. Is the unification of the spirit and the body.
But, speaking is easy. What it matters is how to do it. The modern time does not lend to the zazen practice in the mountains, for ten or twenty years. The discipline of the spirit and body which cannot be applied in your daily life, is pointless. Through a life of experiences and metaphysic trainings, I managed to establish four fundamental principles, which, I feel it, have to make anyone capable of unifying his spirit and body in daily life.