Teachings of Zen Master, Dogen Zenji
Dōgen watching the moon. Hōkyōji monastery, Fukui prefecture, circa 1250.
Dogen Zenji (1200-1253), a Japanese Buddhist priest and founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan, writes the secret of attaining enlightenment as follows,
Sit upright, leaning to neither left nor right, front nor back.
Your ears should be on the same plane your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel.
Dogen emphasized the importance of sitting meditation called zazen.
Furthermore, Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk and the transmitter of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, is said to have lived in a cave near the Shaolin Monastery.
According to one report, his legs atrophied after nine years of sitting in the cave to achieve enlightenment.
“The moon through a crumbling window” in the “A Hundred Aspects of the Moon” series. Bodhidharma, by Yoshitoshi, 1887.
In this way, zazen is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition.
The aim of zazen is just sitting, that is, suspending all judgmental thinking and letting words, ideas, images and thoughts pass by without getting involved in them.
A Genius Discovered a Scientific Principle of Zazen
About 700 years after Dogen passed away, a genius discovered a scientific principle of zazen.
His name is Harumichi Hida (1883-1956), a founder of Hida-siki spirited body training system (Kyoken-jutsu) in Japan.
Harumichi Hida (1883-1956)
If you are interested in Harumichi’s amazing life to become a superman, please click the link below.
Harumichi entered three universities in parallel around the same time and he graduated all of the three universities in the top 3.
Harumichi handed in papers in 10-15 minutes and he got the highest grade in every exam.
Certificates of graduation and awards which Harumichi received from the three universities.
In this way, Harumichi was a kind of genius.
Even more surprisingly, he discovered the scientific principle of the enlightenment (satori) of zazen.
The Most Important Element of Oratory
Demosthenes (384-322 BC), a Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens is known as the greatest of ancient Greek orators.
Bust of Demosthenes (British Museum, London), Roman copy of a Greek original sculpted by Polyeuktos.
However, in his early days, Demosthenes had an inarticulate and stammering pronunciation.
Thus, he undertook a program to overcome his weaknesses.
He practiced speaking in front of a large mirror and improved his delivery, including diction, voice and gestures.
Demosthenes had a great Looking-glass made him.
He saw all his shapes at once in full proportion and symmetry and know how to correct every motion or posture of his body.
According to one story, when his friend asked him to teach the most important element of oratory, Demosthenes replied,
Delivery
Then, when his friend asked him to teach the second most important element of oratory, he replied,
Delivery
Then, when his friend asked him to teach the third most important element of oratory, he replied,
Delivery
In this way, Demosthenes regarded “delivery” (gestures, voice and postures etc.) as the most important element in oratory.
By a curious coincidence, Harumichi found the importance of the posture which Demosthenes once emphasized.
A Bitter Experience of Harumichi in His School Days
In his childhood, Harumichi was slow of speech and he had difficulty talking.
When he met two elderly neighbors, his face turned red and he could not speak at all.
Harumichi was a very bashful boy.
Thus, even after he improved his strength than others by practicing Kyoken-jutsu, he was bad at speaking.
When he was still in university, a student speech contest was held.
Harumichi hoped to participate in the speech contest.
He was chosen as a representative without any objection because Harumichi did well at university and also excelled at Judo and Kendo (Japanese art of fencing).
He had a good memory and thus he learned draft by rote without any difficulty.
Harumichi gave a speech at the podium, but his speech lacked punch, because he simply read from prepared draft which he memorized by rote.
Thus, the audience jeered and yelled at Harumichi.
He learned through this bitter experience that a person with a good memory was not necessarily good at speaking.
After he graduated from university, Harumichi published his first writing, “Simplified Kyoken-jutsu.”
Then, he became popular and he was constantly in demand as a speaker from public offices, Navy and Army, companies and schools.
Nevertheless, Harumichi had a dread of speaking in public due to the bitter experience in his school days.
A Miraculous Speech to Rowdy Miners
However, around 1920, Harumichi was asked to speak at Rendaiji mine (Kawazu mine) at Izu, Shizuoka, Japan.
At first, he hesitated before replying.
But, with a pressing request from the director, he was forced to accept the speech.
Before the speech, the director told Harumichi,
Some miners have criminal records and other miners are vulgar.
After a hard day’s work, they had a bath and usually had an evening drink and then gathered here.
Thus, I am afraid something bad may happen and you may have a terrible experience.
But, please don’t worry about it.
In advance of the speech, the director introduced Harumichi to miners.
However, most of the miners spoke aside and completely ignored the director’s introduction.
Harumichi was seated next to the director.
Looking at noisy miners, he thought that he may be incapable of speech.
Soon after the director’s introduction, Harumichi prepared himself for every possible problem.
However, when he adjusted the posture of his body and stood up, the hush fell over the room.
It was so stunned silence that Harumichi could hear a pin drop in the room.
Delivery, delivery, delivery!
That’s when he truly grasped what Demosthenes really meant.
At that time, Harumichi did not prepare a draft.
Actually, until he came to the stage, he did not even think what he should talk.
Then, he talked about the value of diligent labors.
Harumichi stood on the stage for a lecture
Amazingly, vulgar miners sat through the speech listening quietly.
Furthermore, when Harumichi walked out on the stage after the speech, the miners standing along both sides of the aisle bowed solemnly to him, saying,
Thank you very much!
Oh, thank you, sir!
Even more surprisingly, some miners were in tears, too.
Since then, Harumichi acquired eloquence and made dramatic progress in speech.
He said,
If you come to the stage with a correct posture, a passionate eloquent speech spontaneously gushes out from the center of your body.
That is, a resounding voice across the entire room spontaneously gushed from the bottom of your stomach and a strong command of the gesture also spontaneously arise from your lower back.
Actually, some people stated their impressions of Harumichi’s speech as follows.
Was that the voice of Justice, or the voice of God?
Just as the eruption of a volcano, his spirit gushed from his center of the body.
It was soul-stirring!
Never had such an awesome experience before in my life up to now.
I have never been so moved like this before.
Another feedback is as follows.
When he came to the stage, something emanated from his entire body and extended all around the room and then blended in with our body.
I felt as if we became enclosed by his invisible spiritual power.
Another person gave his impressions as follows.
His speech really blew the mind of audience as if they were struck by lightning.
I was awed by it and stopped my hand holding a pen, just looking up to him on the stage.
I was far from taking a note.
I was stunned and could not move my hand just an inch as if an electric current had passed through my whole body.
In this way, Harumichi found the relation between the posture of the body and the workings of the mind.
A Fearless Superman
Amazingly, Harumichi also discovered that the correct posture helps to clear away negative feelings of fear, dread, and uneasiness.
He said about this discovery,
I became frightened by nothing, since I got the correct posture through Kyoken-jutsu.
So, no matter what danger I encounter, I have never felt any fear.
I have never got a start.
I have never felt relieved later.
I feel nothing at all.
Thus, by holding correct posture through Kyoken-jutsu, anyone can clear away any negative feelings of fear and resentment so on and therefore, they progress in their health.
Actually, one of the practitioners said about the mental effect of Kyoken-jutsu as follows.
Since the first year of junior high school, I suffered from various symptoms such as stuttering, obsession, erythromania, neurasthenic and anthrophobia.
Then, when I was 22, I knew Kyoken-jutsu. I practiced it for half an hour a day.
To my surprise, a week after practicing Kyoken-jutsu, the symptoms completely disappeared!
Scientific Principle of Zen Enlightenment
Harumichi’s method is characterized in straining the abdomen and lower back equally to concentrate all one’s strength in the centre of the body (centre of gravity) at an accelerated pace.
In the following figure, the point A represents navel, the point B represents the lower back and the point O represents the centre of the body.
Harumichi scientifically studied the relation between the posture of the body and the mind through his own practice.
As a result, he discovered that when a person straightens his/her back holding a correct posture and concentrates all his/her strength in the centre of the body, his/her mind is also concentrated on the center of the body.
When the mind is concentrated on the center of the body, his/her all distracting thoughts and desires automatically disappears.
Therefore, the person attains spiritual state of nothingness, just as Dogen once said.
In this state, the person is free from all distracting thoughts and desires.
That was the discovery of Harumichi.
An interesting point of Harumichi’s method is that anyone can automatically attain the spiritual state of nothingness by correcting their posture and by concentrating all their body on the center of the body.
In other words, Harumichi discovered the scientific principle of bringing everyone enlightenment by modernizing the method of Dogen.
It was a revolutionary work, because Harumichi discovered that the workings of human mind are controllable by adjusting the posture of human body.
The summary of Harumichi’s method is as follows.
1. Straighten one’s back and then strain the abdomen and the lower back equally to concentrate all one’s strength in the centre of the body at an accelerated pace.
2. Relax the upper body and let it go limp
3. Maintain center of gravity over the center of both feet
4. Keep one’s body upright
That’s all.
That’s very simple.
Nevertheless, it may be difficult for beginners to hold the correct posture, because, for Harumichi himself, it took 24 years until he attained the spiritual state of nothingness by holding the correct posture.
Actually, Harumichi said,
If your posture is deviated by just 0.1 mm from the correct posture, you could not draw out this universal force.
In this way, it is not easy to attain the spiritual state of nothingness.
But, it is possible in theory that anyone can automatically attain that state by training their body to always hold the correct posture.
Curious Analogy to the Nuclear Weapon
Harumichi trained his body through Kyoken-justu for several dacades and found that the secret to pave a spiritual path is to concentrate all one’s strength to the center of the body.
He called that the power derived from the center of the body as,
Central force
Curiously, Harumichi’s method for drawing the dormant power in the center of body is similar to the idea of an explosive lens used in a nuclear weapon.
In a nuclear weapon, an array of explosive lenses is used to change the spherical diverging detonation waves into a single spherical converging one.
The converging wave compresses the core of fissionable material to a prompt critical state.
Source: Implosion schema of a nuclear weapon (Fat Man).
The example of a nuclear device using high explosive lenses is Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
A mockup of the Fat Man nuclear device.
Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Nagasaki
Nagasaki before and after the bombing and the fires had long since burnt out
Similarly, anyone can draw their psychic power by concentrating all their strength to the center of the body, where the concentration of the strength corresponds to the single spherical converging detonation and the center of the body corresponds to the core of fissionable material.
It may seem strange, but according to Japanese Shinto Philosophy, it is considered that there is similarity relationship between the physical world and spiritual one.
Thus, it is no wonder that the method for drawing the hidden psychic power of human mind is similar to that for drawing the hidden power of material.
Triggers to Psychic Power in Human Body
According to Shinto Philosophy, the workings of human mind can be controlled by the three elements, that is, food, words and the posture of the body.
Furthermore, it is considered that there are a lot of hidden triggers in human body to draw out the dormant psychic abilities.
In Shinto Philosophy, the above three elements (food, words and the posture of the body) are considered to unlock the door to the next Golden Age, that is the great age of Millennial Kingdom.
Harumichi discovered the control technique of human mind by adjusting the posture of the body, which is consistent with the ancient method of Dogen.
In other words, it can be said that he discovered one of the guidance principles of the next scientific revolution to a future spiritual science.
The Apocalypse in the Future
(Link to Amazon.co.jp)
In the Japanese animated movie “AKIRA”, an incident awakens psychic powers in a boy, Tetsuo.
The psychic power causes an explosion that destroys the entire city of Neo-Tokyo and people there disappear as they are enveloped by the psionic blast.
Some people believe that Akira is a kind of prophetic work, because 38 years ago, it predicted the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Therefore, in the near future, a boy may find a central power hidden in the center of his body like Tetsuo.
Then, he may awaken the central power by concentrating all his strength to the center of the body like an explosive lense.
As a result, the powerful central power corresponding to a nuclear weapon may be released, which causes the world into a catastrophe.
That is Apocalypse caused by a psychic power.
November 25, 2018
OTAKUPAPA
References
- Kazuyuki Takagi (1986). “Hida-siki spirited body training system for building a iron man.”
- Harumichi Hida (December 1985). “The book of the space ethics.”
- Harumichi Hida In Wikipedia.
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