Culture, Ki and the Healer as an Artist Shiatsu, Daoyin and the Spacious Guidance of Seiki Soho PART 1

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1 Culture, Ki and the Healer as an Artist Shiatsu, Daoyin and the Spacious Guidance of Seiki Soho Paul Lundberg. PART 1 In recent years I have become increasingly convinced that culture - the background of common understanding and shared feeling in society - is not only crucial to healing itself but a rarely acknowledged influence in relation to the transfer of traditional medical treatments from one place to another. To understand the development of Shiatsu, either in Japan or in the West, the historical context at least must be recognised. By extension too, the influence of Western Culture on Japan during the short period in which Shiatsu emerged must be considered. More awareness of the whole Eastern tradition could help us focus on what is most important and unique about its healing wisdom. Then, perhaps, we will better adapt the work to our own circumstances and needs. This seems especially true now, as we review our direction and priorities in a fast changing world. SHIATSU IN CONTEXT If, as most people would agree, Shiatsu pertains to the subtler range of therapeutic or medical practices, then it could be seen as being aligned with Daoyin, the collectively named guiding and inducing methods regarded in Classical Chinese medicine as the original and ideal forms of treatment for their simplicity, communicability and ultimately transformative ways to health. Developed from the earliest human experiences of healing and deeply imbued with natural (Yin-Yang) principles, Daoyin embraces and informs all manual techniques and exercises, including refined approaches to harmonising body, breath and mind. According to the Yellow Emperor s Inner Classic (c.100bce.), the subtle Daoyin methods were developed by the people of the Middle Kingdom and stood as the central pillar of medicine, reaching out to and uniting the later, more specialised and technical methods (Acupuncture, Moxa, Herbs etc.). Legend has it that these latter were developed in the outer regions of the Chinese empire, where conditions were harder. The refinement of Daoyin implies an internal discipline by which the practitioner learns to integrate physical and mental forces and to cultivate the necessary awareness to guide others in selfregulated healing practice. For these reasons the education and classical role of the doctor was later extended to include philosophy, painting, calligraphy and poetry, opening cultural channels to support healing. For similar reasons, exercises refined in the parallel arts of self-defence culminated in the Inner School martial arts, devoted to health. In China today, Daoyin finds expression within the medical school of contemporary Qigong and, by extension, in certain aspects of Anmo-Tuina (traditional physiotherapy and massage). The aim and essential healing principle of Daoyin is relaxation and mental tranquillity. It thus converges with the subtle mental practices and the philosophies of the Buddhist

2 and Taoist schools of Qigong to form a coherent and integrated body of practice, woven into the cultural pattern of Chinese medicine and healing. When we look to Japan for similar continuity and a context for Shiatsu, the picture changes considerably. The influence of classical Chinese medicine has always been strong, but Japanese traditional medicine (Kampo) also developed a character of its own. Shiatsu, we know, was conceived fairly recently, specifically to replace the old medical massage (Anma), which was seen as degraded. Shiatsu Ryoho, the finger pressure healing method developed around 1915 by Tamai Tempeki, then belonged within Kampo, where many methods were united by an overall medical philosophy. However the retreat of tradition in the face of Western influence and the effects of war exacted a heavy toll. A fragmentation occurred in which Shiatsu lost connection with the nourishing central ground and with the lateral links that could give it breadth and authenticity. It was re-established in 1962, on the basis of research that linked it with Western physiotherapy, but its techniques were highly formalised and it was, for a time, effectively separated from its roots in traditional medicine and from other Japanese methods like Ampuku and Sotai (traditional abdominal massage and movement therapy). At this time too, Japanese Do-In appeared only as a formal self-treatment method and any deeper transmission it might have contained was largely missed. In fact, it is in relation to Hara that the subtle principles of healing find true cultural resonance in Japan. Hara is the abdominal region, but it also refers to the experience of the physical body centre as a deeply felt connection with nature that is quite normal to the Japanese. In this sense it permeates all Japanese life, and is of profound significance in traditional crafts, ceremonies, sports and high artistic endeavours. Here the Hara centre, or Tanden, functions as a collecting point of power and co-ordinating point for inspired or spontaneous action. In traditional Japanese medicine the abdominal area is an especially important focus for both diagnosis and treatment of the sick, but Hara is vital as a centre of reference for the practitioner too. Hara training takes many forms but its aim is a highly developed awareness, integrating the mind, breath and feelings with practical skills. Linking the spiritual seamlessly with the mundane, Hara consciousness is the natural base for appreciating the Japanese contribution to the subtler healing arts in their most spontaneous, simply human form. Contemporary Shiatsu generally, and the Western approach especially, has tended to concentrate on theories and techniques related to the twelve primary Meridians, including the extended versions developed by Shizuto Masunaga who was largely responsible for re-introducing elements of classical medicine. This emphasises its character as a therapeutic speciality whose benefits are obtained through traditional knowledge, and it is effective as such. But I believe this focus on the main Meridians has led to forced interpretations which can also be constraining and distract us from what touch itself can effectively communicate, especially when that touch is practised as an art based in Hara.

3 MERIDIAN SHIATSU - The Development of a Trend or Style Deep, calm and sensitive hand or finger pressure was practised on the Hara and other places in the body as a healing method. Shiatsu was conceived as a refined expression of healing touch in place of Anma, as we saw above. It was intimately connected with Japanese traditional medicine and incorporated the most subtle of diagnostic and treatment principles, though without necessary reference to classical Meridians or Points. However, following the turbulent events in the middle of the last century, it took a course of its own. Through the efforts of Tokujiro Namikoshi it was re-established in Japan as a traditional but anatomically oriented therapy which relied on a simple body grid as the basic guide for technique. Various styles of tsubo therapy also emerged, in which the treatment of selected Points was largely based on classical knowledge. It was Masunaga who created the Meridian style that we are broadly familiar with today. He continued a family tradition of Shiatsu, but also studied and taught modern psychology. He was deeply interested too in classical Chinese medicine and philosophy and eventually developed a novel approach to Shiatsu, a Meridian-based treatment which synthesised the organ/meridian functions of traditional medicine with certain ideas from biology and psychology. He had been involved, with Namikoshi, in the research that enabled Shiatsu to gain official approval in Japan and was concerned to maintain its image as a modern therapy. The old spirit of Hara-to-Hara communication and resonance, which characterised Tempeki s work and the earlier healing tradition, could not reliably be presented in the critical ambience of the time. The emphasis on the interior disciplines that ensured the mental and physical preparation of the practitioner as the instrument of healing perforce gave way to versions of Shiatsu that concentrated on the exterior objectives and technical aspects of the method. In Masunaga s system, the twelve paired vital organs became archetypes for the main life phases or functional patterns of the organism, and the Meridians were extended as they were seen to be the expression of the organ functions throughout the whole body. His theory of Kyo and Jitsu explained the harmony or disharmony of the Meridians as a dynamic interaction that could be sensed through a particular form of Hara diagnosis and followed energetically in treatment. He also described in precise terms the nervous system responses to distinct qualities of touch. Traditionally, the Japanese learn by repetition, and treatment follows a standard form into which subtle variations are introduced almost automatically according to the particular conditions encountered (this is the basis of Namikoshi s established method). Sensitivity of touch is therefore essential, and Masunaga outlined some important considerations for developing the necessary responsiveness, including Hara awareness. However, in his new system the focus inevitably shifted

4 towards treating the most prominently disharmonious Meridians in Kyo-Jitsu terms. He struggled to explain the essence of Shiatsu treatment through both traditional and contemporary Western ideas and continually modified his teaching methods, more so as the number of foreign students attending his institute increased. With the introduction of his famous chart, treating specific Meridians with objective intention became the established norm. The trend persisted, with various modifications added by successive teachers, and greatly influenced Shiatsu in the West. The value of traditional exercise was still acknowledged but mainly seen as an accessory to clinical practice. Indeed, Masunaga s Makko-Ho exercises simply reinforced his Meridian concept. Nowadays treatment is visualised and administered almost entirely via the given Meridian pathways, with the idea of contacting and regulating the associated physical, emotional or mental capacities of the person. But the mixing of models and cultures has its dangers. Traditional medicine was intuitive, pragmatic, metaphorical and holistic. Modern medicine has generally followed a rational, analytical, materialistic and reductionist trajectory which continues to exert its influence on us. The Meridians are only an approximation of the bio-energetic reality. In traditional practice this was always understood, so the system of Points and Meridians evolved as a many layered, flexible reference system which combined close observation with poetry and pragmatism and allowed experience to arbitrate for the multiple manifestations of Qi. In the West we have studied the Meridians as if they were a discrete or separately existing manifestation of subtle bio-energy, which we have subsequently tried to validate and prove. Obviously we have had only partial success, because the Meridians have only a partial, tentative and temporary existence. Undoubtedly circles keep turning, but if we differentiate Meridians in terms of name, function and even distinct vibrational qualities, and let these subtle projections justify the need to work them throughout the body, we too easily fall into a pedantic, conceptually narrow and intensely active form of treatment. While Acupuncturists are guided by the traditional dictum, use few points; just the most appropriate ones, we in Shiatsu give ourselves plenty to do, ignoring the possibility that the vital energy has an innate capacity to self-harmonise and to respond as needed to a selective, less directive and more open style of touch. We thus enmesh both ourselves and our clients in a convincing delusion, and a game of power that is subtly fixed. Even though we wish to treat the person as a whole, we are reduced to treating the specifically selected Meridians because they have become the unique vehicle and the cipher for our work. Furthermore, we may train to diagnose energetically distinct levels of physical, emotional or psychological disturbance in the Meridians when in reality these are never discrete. A client will describe their own situation and experience in a richly textured way, if we let them. Intensity or over-activity on our part tends to obscure the receiver s immediate sensing of their own inner responses and so is best avoided. It is

5 unfortunate that the Hara-centred, stationary, penetrating touch, described by Masunaga as central to Shiatsu method, became less evident in his later work and is rarely seen in practice today. It is salutary that Western Osteopaths, in developing Cranio-Sacral technique, managed to curb their enthusiasm and find a valid way to stop and listen, genuinely following their patients subtle physiology in a way that can be consciously registered and which has widely acknowledged benefits. They work with the body, guided by direct experience of Ki, but they have different descriptions and parameters. When we move away from the simpler traditional understanding of Ki as unselfconscious vitality and breath, we are easily seduced into an overly sophisticated technical approach. Such a trend reinforces the professional practitioner as a skilled operator but may separate him or her from the client as a person and from the healing potential of the total ambience. In other words, the modern Western scientific view, which always moves towards analysing and objectifying, has crept into our professional mind-set. We need to be wary of accepting it, either as a pseudo-guide or as a justification for subverting or ignoring the more naturally holistic vision of traditional Eastern ways that place more trust in the less obvious. This same view reinforces the division between the professions and schools, who fool themselves and everyone else with their own descriptions of the world. With a broader inclusive view of the Yin-Yang principles that govern it, and a fuller sense of the historic medical environment from which it grew, Shiatsu could be realigned with a wider range of manual techniques and subtle therapeutic approaches, both contemporary and traditional. The principles of Hara and breath are unique and should be the centre ground for all our practical training, not so hard to achieve within current formats. Then, I think, a more versatile, coherent approach to mind-body healing could emerge. But such change would need to be fostered - the Shiatsu community itself must reach out and make the necessary links. The Americans took a step in the right direction some years ago by forming AOBTA (The American Association for Bodywork Therapies of Asia). That opened the door for all interested parties and must have greatly helped communication. However the name still evokes the protestant work ethic and avoids explicitly stating the body-mind connection. This may not be the time or place to propose a re-naming of the Shiatsu Society or a council for the unity of Eastern Therapies. Everybody has a lot on their plate. But I think these things are in the air and we should consider the issues whenever possible. We in Shiatsu have maintained too parochial an outlook. If the Japanese tradition can stand comfortably alongside Chinese Daoyin, Tuina, Qigong, etc., the European dialogue can be extended to engage all subtle medicine and healing arts.