O Sensei's Kokyu Practice
I had always heard of Morihei Ueshiba's breath powers (kokyu ryoku), however I never heard of him doing breathing exercises. I read where he had both a strong chant and kiai. I also read where he practiced kotodama. Between the chanting and kotodama, I figured that he was able to get plenty of breath training. This year I not only discovered that the founder did breathing exercise, but also one type of breathing exercise he practiced.
In January I attended the winter workshop at the St. Louis Ki Society. Mark Rubbert Sensei, lead the workshop. One of the practices done in this New Year's workshop was water misogi. One of the things that he taught was what he called his "emergency ki breathing" exercise. He had used this quick method of ki breathing to help revive a participant in a river misogi who was losing color in her face. He had gotten this method from Koichi Tohei's book Ki in Daily Life. It was listed as "2. The Ki Breathing Method 2" (pg. 67, 1984 edition). It is also given as "2 The Breathing Method used in Aikido" in his previous book Aikido in Daily Life (pg 33, 1966 edition). When Rubbert Sensei was in Japan, he asked K. Tohei about ki breathing method 2. K. Tohei replied that he didn't do this method anymore. It was what the founder had practiced. Now that I have reviewed the instructions for this method, I can see that they vary from what K. Tohei usually recommends. As Rubbert Sensei noted, it uses tensing and relaxing of the muscles that is common with yoga and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) exercises. Since this breathing exercise has usually been ignored in the Ki Society, I wanted to pass this information on to those who are interested in the founder and his training practices. |
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Re: O Sensei's Kokyu Practice
Ted, thank you for broaching such an interesting topic. Would you feel ok posting a description here? I'm afraid I don't have a copy of that book (but I'm strongly considering remedying that).
Best, Ron |
In this breathing method I was taught to incline my body forward and "breathe out one more breath" after I had finished exhaling from my mouth. And, likewise I was told to tilt my head back and take "one more inhalation" into my abdomen once I had finished inhaling through my nose. I trained fervently exactly as I was taught. But it is not possible to exhale when there is nothing left to breathe out. This is the same for inhaling and makes for an extremely uncomfortable state. In spite of this I forced myself to sit in "seiza" and train in this fashion for 1 hour every night before going to bed reminding myself that the great people who had come before me had struggled with this pain and discomfort.
to be continued ... Tohei goes on for a couple paragraphs about joining the army and not being able to do this breathing method while marching. So, he came up with a new breathing method. I'll post that one next. After giving it some thought I came up with a new approach. Instead of leaning forward and straining out a final breath, I would look straight ahead, keep my mouth open and count off 4 steps while keeping my body still and relaxed. Then I would close my mouth and begin inhaling through my nose. When the inhalation was completed I would then also count off 4 steps. Even if it is not perceptible to your senses, by doing this, one's breath continues on infinitesimally throughout this relaxing and comfortable breathing cycle. Up to this point the breathing method had been a torment because each breath would come to a stop due to tension that would enter the body following each inhalation and exhalation. Correctly done the breathing method can be carried out pleasantly even while marching if one doesn't allow the breath to stop ("Teishi" in Japanese) but rather allows it to become infinitely calm (Seishi) ... skip a few paragraphs ... Unfortunately the Misogi breathing method that is being carried out at present differs from the one left behind by Masakane Inoue. In light of this, I have termed the breathing method that I teach and which corresponds with the laws of the Universe as "Ki breathing". Gotta run ... hope that helps. Check out Sigman's post here on AikiWeb because he posted about this section, too. Somewhere. |
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Interestingly where we train we tend to practice some of these exercises deliberately after a period of hard aerobic training where we're out of breath, it's extremely hard to do but very worthwhile. I've also noticed that at kendo keiko my sensei often makes us do lots of fast okuriashi practice followed by men cuts with loud kiai so that we can 'learn to focus on our breathing because it helps learn ki ken tai ichi' in other words, basically the same exercise in terms of aerobic changing to deep controlled breathing in a short space of time. Regards Mike Haft |
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The reason I gave the edition dates of the two titles is because the "completely revised edition" of Ki in Daily Life (2001 edition) has revised this particuliar exercise out of it. In 2. Ki Breathing Method II, K. Tohei writes about misogi breathing created by Masakane Inoue. The ki breathing method 2 that I'm writing about is only in the older edition of Ki in Daily Life with the yellow cover. This is what happens when things get ignored.
The quotes that Mark is giving is from the 2001 edition. Will reply with other stuff later. |
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Regards Mike |
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Thanks for the clarification, Mark |
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Thanks to all of you for continuing this...I read anything else y'all have to add... ;)
Best, Ron |
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From "Aikido in Daily Life" by Koichi Tohei pg.33 copyright 1966 ISBN 0870402218
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Thanks Ted!
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You guys are great! Thanks! I'll print this off tomorrow and work on it over the weekend.
Best, Ron |
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Is there any chance you could post a scan of the figures that accompany this description?
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:) |
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Buying a used book doesn't help the author though... and the piece in question was taken out of the current new book.
In any case there's enough pointers for me to find a used copy, one day. I wonder what prompted the excision. |
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