Breath by Dennis Hooker
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"If you stay in one spot, and spin and spin and spin, soon you will
discover that even though the world whirling about you is a vast blur,
in your own kinesthetic sphere is a clarity, a lucidness in your
vision. You can hold out your hand and see it exactly as it is. And
you realize that you are not moving, your body is moving. You are just
there, watching, motivating your action.
"Breathing is a bridge between you and your body. It may be something
required of you, but not something you are responsible for. Breathing
goes on in spite of you. If the bridge is broken, your harmony in the
universe is broken. If your breath is short, cut off, it may not make
it to your center and consequently you feel off-centered. So, even
though breath flows continuously, if we disturb its progress, we
disturb our life, our consciousness, our vitality. The Indian word,
prana, is one word for which the English has two: life (aliveness,
vitality) and breath. We may use this to understand that the
significance of breath is one which unites us with the Universe, with
the present and with time and space. When a breath comes in and then
goes out, it is but one breath: it is a circle. The same breath going
in makes a turn and goes out.
"The cycle (a single breath is a single band of a spiral) is the
motion of the Universe which has come to your body, which is nearest
to your body. Your body is a part of the Universe. In this way breath
meditation is a technique to realize the source of life. There are
many breath techniques for many kinds of people. The moving meditation
of Aikido is a breathing technique. The rhythms, motions, adjustments
to ki direction, joining with other energies, are all spiraling with
the same deep pulse of the Universe of which we inhale and exhale
constantly."
The exercises I did helped me rediscover my Makoto No Kokyu (true
breath). First I had to begin to remember my Makoto No Kokyu. This
sounds kind of strange I know, and for a kid from the south end of a
small Midwestern Indiana town it was downright spooky. As Sensei
explained it I knew it was something that some part deep within me
should remember. Because it was something that was with me from the
first second of my birth when I came into this world with a great kiai
(shout) of life and joined with the universe through my first
breath. This is true of all of us. We became part of the expansion and
contraction of the universe, the ebb and flow of the tides that bind
all living things. Kokyu does not only refer to the physical act of
breathing air in and out of the lungs. It is the pulse of the
universe. Our breath is part of that pulse as are tides of the
oceans. I learned to use the various forms of Tanden No Kokyu (center
of the body breathing) to strengthen my Makoto No Kokyu. I tell you
this much my darlings, when it starts to happen, when you start to
make that connection, the Universe shakes. It opens up new vistas in
your mind and belly and floods of new images and feelings wash over
you.
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