HARA & SEIKI

In Tenchi Seiki Te-Ate, as in many other Oriental disciplines, the abdomen or Hara is seen as the most important area of the body, partly because many of the internal organs are housed in this region, but even moreso because of its significance in terms of seiki.

Seiki development in Tenchi Seiki Te-Ate centres around a specific area of the Hara located midway between the navel and the top of the pubic bone and known as the seika tanden.

It is here that the mixing & uniting of two types of seiki occurs. The 'Tenchi' part of the name Tenchi Seiki Te-Ate means 'Heaven & Earth'. The energies of Heaven - tenki enter the body via the top of the head (crown), and the energies of Earth - chiki enter the body via the perineum. Tenki flows down and chiki wells up, to meet and unite in the seika tanden, there to form the individual's personal seiki (jinki or human energy).

Seika Tanden is the 'storehouse' for personal seiki, and it is through certain breath-regulating practices (kokyo-ho), dynamic, physical-posture & tension-relaxation exercises (taiso) & specific concentration exercises, that the practitioner begins to gain control of, develop, manipulate and utilise this vital force which has been naturally present in their organic makeup since birth, but which, in the majority of people is seldom ever developed beyond its natural 'baseline' state.

The actual kanji or ideogrammatic character used to represent the ki part of the term seiki has traditionally been interpreted as depicting steam rising from a pot in which rice is cooking over a fire. The implied meaning being that the nature of ki is something to be felt rather than seen or heard - that it has an intangible quality - and as such, each person's experience of (sei)ki will be slightly different.

One's quality of life is seen to directly correlate with the condition, quality, strength & flow of seiki in the body, and a major part of Tenchi Seiki Te-Ate is about working to balance and strengthen the client's seiki by means of a series of both 'hands-on' and non-contact manipulative techniques, many of which target specific tsubos or 'subtle-energy focal areas', both on the client's body and in their energy field.

As mentioned above, each person's experience of seiki is slightly different.

Sensations of seiki may be anything from a pulsing or mild tingling to the experience of extreme heat, or on occasion even extreme cold.

New Tenchi Seiki Te-Ate students often feel warmth in the Seika Tanden and the palms of the hands when initially practicing the basic development exercises, with the tingling sensation being most commonly felt in the fingertips and toes.

When the Tenchi Seiki Te-Ate practitioner has become slightly more advanced he or she can identify areas of blockage or disharmony (and even areas of potential blockage or disharmony) by the quality of seiki sensations when they practice their development exercises.

Copyright © 2002 James Deacon