SHUGYO
(Training)
Copyright © 2002 James Deacon

The Art of Healing is not something which can be learned in a weekend 'workshop' or five-day course.

Traditionally, Japanese 'te-ate' (hand healing) disciplines are taught by means of what might be considered an "apprenticeship" - with the deshi or student learning by observation, by asking questions - and by assisting the Teacher in actual therapeutic practice.

From the outset, the deshi himself receives treatment on a regular basis as a necessary part of the developmental process, and begins to practice various meditative and energetic disciplines to develop the ability to sense and manipulate his own personal seiki or 'energetic field of force'.

As training is essentially 'experiental' as opposed to academic, this does not lend itself easily to 'textbook tuition' - however, there are certain aspects of the elementary levels of training in the Japanese Healing Arts which can undertaken in this way.

Aside from receiving treatment and practice of elementary energetic exercises, perhaps the first thing the new student will do is to gain experience in 'listening'. This does not refer to listening in an auditory sense, but to listening with the being.

The student is instructed to touch two tsubo areas - two identical points, one on either side of the patient-clients body. Touch is to be light - no pressure is exerted (the student may be reminded that this is not a pressure-point/acupressure technique). The student is instructed to clear the mind and focus in the here and now - in the moment - there is ONLY this moment. (It is important for the student to develop this ability through practice of the relevant self-developmental exercises - being 'in the moment' is an essential feature of just about all Japanese Therapeutic Arts).

The student is reminded they are not 'giving treatment' - and to refrain from (as is often a common issue with students) the urge or desire to 'do' - to 'try' to intervene, manipulate, change, exert influence, etc.

The task here is to 'listen' - to clear the mind, be fully present, be mindful of any sensations perceived via the hands.
With practice, the student must learn to differentiate between genuine sensations percieved from the patient and their own 'projections' and 'externalisations'.
They must be aware from the outset that to become a successful therapist/healer one must learn to "leave your personal baggage outside the treatment-room door".

Over time the student must learn the difference between intuitive and illusory perceptions. Initally, when new students (as with people new to meditation in general) begin to practice clearing the mind - copious quantities of 'junk -imagery' will fequently begin to surface - often, in their eagerness and enthusiasm, the student will seek meaning in, or create attatchment to, these images, sounds, emotions etc - not realising them to be simply part of the clearing-out' process.

Attchment to such imagery etc will only serve to impede student development.

When the student has demonstrated progress in 'listening' practice at the initially selected tsubo, they will be instructed in basic 'listening' application. The student is shown a sequence of 'tsubo-pair' positions to work through, taking note of perceptions received at each area-point. The sequence covers the whole body area, and may be worked through from top to bottom or vice versa.

As the student proves confidence and competence in bodywide 'listening' application, so they will move on to instruction in the initial in-yo balancing techniques.

They will by this time have gained initial experience in working with various basic hara-focussed energy-centering exercises, and also be familiarising themself with the rudiments of in-yo therapy theory, (in particular the concept that the dynamic state of flux can be interfered with by, for example, physical or psychological shock - the analogy of a pendulum becoming 'stuck' at a given point in its ark of swing - and the process of facilitating the freeing-up of the pendulum once more, thus restoring the dynamic in-yo balance)

Hara-centred, 'in the moment', with the in-yo image as a mental focus, the student will repeat the wholebody 'tsubo-pair' sequence used in the 'listening' process, still listening as before, but this time with the added intention of allowing (as opposed to causing) the state of dynamic balance to be restored (- where it has been interupted) and finetuned.
It is to be stressed that this particular practice does NOT involve the student directing or channeling 'energy' (in)to the patient. Rather it is a case of the student focussing and controlling their own 'energy' so as to elicit a sympathetic response within the patient.