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I've been watching videos of my sensei doing Misogi. We did Misogi no Jo last Friday in class. So naturally I've had Misogi on the brains lately. This has lead me to think that maybe my mind is really where Misogi needs to stay for a while!
You might be thinking that I'm speaking metaphorically about Misogi, but on the contrary, the mind can benefit from Misogi. For me, being able to clear out all the obstacles in my mind, like work, fear, daily distractions, is what mental Misogi means to me.
In the meditation that I have studied, it's often encouraged to simply let thoughts simply happen without any intention of repressing the thoughts. It's almost as if to say "Sensei is chasing me around the dojo and aims to strike me with a sword - OK" Notice the lack of the period. It was replaced with OK. A period would have signified an attempt to stop that thought. So instead, the period is replaced with OK and the next thought comes and goes in the same manner. Practiced like this, Misogi becomes a way of letting go of the clutter and riding the "train of thought" versus controlling it
01-28-2008 10:43 AM 