The Principles of Ki

The Principles of Ki were developed by Koichi Tohei (head Aikido sensei, and founder of The Ki Society). What Tohei refers to as “Relaxed Strength” is what Jiu Jitsu calls supple — it’s a state between hard and soft, between rigid and flaccid. Tohei maintains that the four sub-principles contained within the Principles of Ki are something everyone can practice, regardless of age, gender or physical condition.

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Moving from Hara 腹 - with video

The basic notion of hara is that we don't want to move our body as isolated parts, but rather move as a cohesive, unified unit. We can extrapolate this concept into our everyday life practices. For example, the more disjointed I am, the less effective I am. If I put the ironing board too high or too low, I'll be stretching or bending to the point that my back aches and I start hating ironing more than ever.

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Zanshin – Feeling Attacked from All Sides?

Life is your To-Dude list. It’s not to fill it with over-achieving crap like a To-do list. It’s not to be doing one thing angrily because you really have too much to do right now, and this current task is in your way. A To-Dude list is to be filled by pointless things such as, today, I’ll take a 30-minute walk with no destination in mind, or, today, I’ll stare out of the window for 20 minutes with nothing to do.

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Living Steel

I was wondering what would happen if all the steel in high-rise buildings just quit, or got tired one day.

I’ve always taken those girders for granted. But the thing is, on a molecular level they are moving. Which may not be a particularly comforting thought. Especially pertaining to buildings.

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Here is the Point

I can say the point again, but before I do, let’s remember why and what we are here practicing. We are learning about an art…an art of giving…and way of being in the moment that can unlock the inward understandings of everything.

Now here is the point: when you practice, you have to go through the prime positions to bring anything into being.

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What Are You Really Offering in the Moment?

When we set ourselves to practice our reason for being, are we able to remember what it is? Do we look for it and stand on it, hoping for an even clearer version to appreciate? Do we respect it when it peeks through the moment at us enough to acknowledge it? Do we appreciate it and grow it into a more capable position? Do we show gratitude when the better version presents itself? Do we respect the improvements enough to live on them, sharing them and growing them more in our lives?

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Knowing the Everything

As I wrote earlier, it was eating from the tree of knowledge that separated Adam and Eve from the Known. Before they took that turn, they were dwelling in a sense of Oneness with the Known. Adam was primarily looking inward and Eve was primarily looking outward, but they shared a Known connection between themselves. As they lived in this inner connection, it provided them with a Knowing of the Known, and they became Known for it.

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True Knowing

Using the understandings is the way to understand them better and it leads to more of the Knowing aspect within when we use them as they are Known instead of how they are known or unknown. Are there gradations of knowing? Yes, there are gradations of Knowing, just as there are gradations of knowing. As you come to know me more, you will have more knowledge of me and of my understandings. As you come to Know me more, you will have more Knowledge of Me and my Understandings.

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Knowing and knowing the Living Form of the Moment

The points we are discussing are not only in every one of us, they are in our moments as well. If we consider the moment as a cross section of life’s ongoing momentum, we will have a slice of living current to examine. This slice is one part of a continuum. This cross-sectional view and the continuum it belongs to is our subject when we become aware of life as a continuum and when we become aware our relationship to it.

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Adam and Eve and The Art of Giving

It is important that we can move both inwardly and outwardly through our givings, as this enables us to navigate through life’s many circumstances and to line up with the spiritual values and matters of the moment. But I do want to once again address the outward and inward directions as I am using them. Outward values are values that are negative to a particular state of being and inward values are positive to that same state of being. By state of being, I am including any particular value, any reason, any manner or way, and any point.

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An Introductory Perspective of Adam and Eve

Let’s consider Adam and Eve. These are the names given to the Prime positions of Male and Female in this current model of humanity. Even the names have meaning. These prime points are in each application of this model, you being one and me being another. These are also the names given to the beings incarnating into those first two Prime positions. It is not the names of the souls. It is the names of those particular lives. This model, along with previous models, such as the Neanderthals, was created as an evolving species and there is an evolvement within each model. But previous models were in need of revision and the beings that created the new more evolved model set about to do just that. These beings, known as the Elohim were the creative team. Genesis says ‘They created Adam in Their own image.’ This refers to the Creators, acting as God, being seven in number, each representing the seven spirits of God, or the seven chakras, also referred to as the seven seals in humanity’s closed forms of awareness.

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Reconciling our Separation from the Oneness

This essay delves into Adam and Eve, including describing both what they symbolically represent and literally empower within each of us. The basic notion being that Adam represents the part of us that is facing inward toward source and Eve represents that part of us that is facing outward toward matter. The Christ-point describes the hovering or balancing in between these two aspects of our nature. And when we balance the most perfectly, in a 50/50 position, we are unifying the two parts into one.

The Christ is not a person. It is a way of being. Christ is the mend for the riff of separation caused by the fall of Adam. Christ is the mend for the separation in us all if we claim the place in the heart where it is the in-dwelling of. It represents a way of connecting to the ONEness. Adam was the name given to the soul entering into a new model of Humanity. That model was paired into male and female and was called Adam and Eve. They each represented an aspect of being. Christ is the way of connecting those aspects.

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The Art of Redirection

“Thoughts are like arrows. They shoot out of a person’s mind, or mouth, seeking a target. Once they are launched, it is inevitable that they fall back to the earth. You are made of earth and dirt, a soft and natural target for an arrow. But that is not all that you are made of. You are denying three fourths of your nature. Why not become fire, or wind or water? Is that so far beyond your ability to imagine?”

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My Ecumenical Cap

You’ve probably never considered the ecumenical when considering a hat. I can’t say I typically do, either. But my little cap literally transcends time and boundaries.

Is it the cap of a biker? Or maybe a Muslim? Perhaps it’s the cap of an anarchist. Then again, it just might be that I have really strange taste. And I’m open to that.

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Bookstore Coffee

I stop by the Barnes and Noble Starbucks coffee bar nearly every night. It’s a bit of a ritual. After a while you notice the regulars. Some are students, or maybe the occasional tutor sneaking in to claim her piece of camouflaged chalkboard. But being a bookstore, many of the regulars tend to be quiet folks. Studious, contemplative, polite. Some, like me, are older.

The older ones tend to notice. They see who comes in night after night, or who is considerate or respectful. Things like that. They go about their way quietly, but they’re noticing along the way. That’s their way.

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