Shintaido of America

By “Next Steps” Connie*

I wrote a recent article on grief, death and loss; I now have some reflections on the benefit of practicing Taimyo Part I — specifically the movement 碎山/Sai-Zan “breaking through mountains”— using kokyu in relation to the individual practice of death awareness. As a forewarning, the subject is awareness of one’s mortality, so you may wish to pick the best time to read and reflect on this topic.

What can be practiced with Sai-Zan within Taimyo? This was a focus of study at the Quebec Gasshuku in
September 2022: we step back while doing a tsuki forward, we step back a second time, while keeping our concentration, then we step back a third time bringing our fists to the center of our chest/heart and then tsuki forward to finish with our arms open wide. The analogous military strategy is when the leader retreats with their troops while keeping concentration, keeping troops from fleeing in fear, and making sure no one is left behind.

Sai-Zan and its application to living life was the focus of a dinner discussion in Quebec. I asked the group, “Can you name other (non-military) heroic efforts threatened by almost certain demise?” Here are some of the ones I thought about: the doctors and nurses in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in the stranded nursing home with its frail residents; neighbors like Ko Ueda taking food to isolated neighbors during the COVID pandemic; Mike Sheets taking sandbags in wheelbarrows up our street to prevent garages from flooding, when a large water main broke and sent rivers of brown sludge down our street. Can you think of examples?

I have been reading and reflecting on how our mind resists awareness of our mortality. Fears and regrets are often reasons to avoid this subject. What do most of us really wish for? One desire is to build an ideal world, to live fully, so we may not want to ask ourselves “What if?”

And what about our daily life awareness? I was fortunate to experience 20 years of working in hospice and palliative care, experiencing death and dying up close. I was aware of my mortality and the ever-present reminders of the shortness of life that made me stay awake and stay aware.

I see a practice for death awareness, so I explored doing the three movements of Sai-Zan, while incorporating what Thich Nhat Hanh wrote in his book, The Blooming of a Lotus:

Knowing I will get old, I breathe in, Knowing I can’t escape old age, I breathe out.
Knowing I will get sick, I breathe in. Knowing I can’t escape, I breathe out.
Knowing I will die, I breathe in. Knowing I can’t escape death, I breathe out.

>>>>>

Determined to live my days deeply in mindfulness, I breathe in.
Seeing the joy and benefit of living mindfully, I breathe out.

I brought this practice to a local hospice during an open mic session on death and dying on November 3rd. Comments included “visceral,” “cathartic,” and “a way to process grief.” For Shintaido and students of body movement, there is focused work with the breath – kokyu – breathing in through the nose; breathing into the belly and slowly releasing. We can practice Sai-Zan with a focus on our breath while stepping backward and reaching forward with our arms/fists.

This is an unfinished essay – how might you finish it? How do you develop awareness of mortality? What parts do you resist or how do you avoid daily practice? What are your deepest fears? What are your greatest joys?

Watch the Reflection on Sai-Zan on Shintaido of America YouTube channel.

*Many ask me “What’s next Connie?”- hence my moniker: Next Steps Connie.

Phillipe Beauvois has been a student and teacher of Shintaido for 45 years along with Taichi and Shin-Anma Shiatsu. He participated in the First International Shintaido Gasshuku in 1980 and studied with Robert Breant. In 1985 he started teaching Shintaido on the French Riviera in Grasse. Phillipe, who has been diagnosed with terminal head and neck cancer, reflects on his learnings and his wishes for future students.

Consider visiting Phillipe´s website (in French, can be translated into English in a browser).

Links

Reflections on Sai-Zan video
https://youtu.be/25WQ-WtVGbE

by Robert Gaston

About the author
Many of you may have been fortunate to have had a chance to do keiko with Robert Gaston.  He is a Senior Instructor of Shintaido and has practiced and studied for almost 40 years.  He is a member of the International Technical Exam Committee (ITEC).

Rob initially studied Shintaido with John Seaman while he was at college in Oregon.  When he left school, he joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier.  He made part of this giant ship his dojo where he taught Shintaido to his colleagues.   

He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Sandra and daughter Sally both of whom practice Shintaido.

Rob teaches two classes a week; one Bojutsu and one Shintaido via Zoom.   Please enjoy his movement and poetry.

This poem came to me at the end of a Zoom Master style class for the Global Taimyo Community taught by Clélie Dudon with Ito-sensei giving feedback.  

She taught Taimyo part 3. Ito-sensei gave feedback to us all that focused on the Hoten-kyoku-ho. He expressed two important points, first focus on extending our reach in the bow, like a starfish encompassing and surrounding a sea urchin and second to feel ourselves being inflated from the outside, like the hairs on our entire body are being gently pulled.

I am not sure when I first learned the basic sequence of Hoten-kyoku-ho. It was probably at a Pacific Shintaido meditation workshop in the early to mid 90s. 

Initially, it was a healthy body movement that helped ease my sore back after a lot of kaihokei Keiko. But when it was included in the Taimyo sequence and the subsequent  Pacific Shintaido’s Taimyo workshop, it became one of the movements I began to feel connected, to others, to nature, to the universe, to something more. 

It has had, like other Shintaido movements (i.e ,kirioroshi kumite) a multi-layer effect on my consciousness, peeling or cutting through levels of awareness. The effects and my awareness of Hoten-kyoku-ho have been gradual over many years and I have expressed my most recent “ah-ha” in this poem.

Thank you and please enjoy.

Hoten Kokyu Ho
(“Hugging Heaven”)

I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge myself, body, present situation.
Turning to the right, I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to others
my family, friends, coworkers, those I struggle with.

I turn and face forward, changing my view point to face life directly.
I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge them.
Turning to the left, I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to a greater community
the struggles we have with other viewpoints and cultures.

I turn and face forward appreciating the beauty and strength in diversity.
I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge humanity.
Turning to the right, I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to Nature, ecosystems,
the biosphere, the earth, the struggle of survival, the cycles of life and death of all beings.

I turn and face forward changing my view point, Nature and I are inherently interlinked.
I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge connection to nature.
I turn to the left. I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to the solar system,
the sun, the planets and all their moons, the space between and their cycles.

I turn and face forward changing my view point, I am affected by their cycles
their pull and tug keeping my world safe for life.
I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge our solar system.

I turn to the right, I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to the Milky Way and all galaxies.
The star nurseries, nebulae, supernova and black holes.

I turn and face forward changing my view point, I am made of stardust and
all that is in the universe is in me.
I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge the cosmos.

I turn to the left and I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to Ten.
I turn and face forward changing my view point, I am always in Ten and Ten is in me.
I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge. I rise up to Ten Chi Jin posture.

Awareness.

Robert Gaston
6 November 2022