Zen Shiatsu

CHAPTER 11 Zen Shiatsu


In order for any form of energy medicine to make sense there has to be a concept of the way in which ‘energy’ becomes ‘form’, and the Chinese concept, one of the most convincingly developed and best recorded in the world of energy medicine, is simply summarized thus by Lao Tzu:



The One creates the Two, the Two create the Three and the Three create the Ten Thousand Things.


This refers to the One, the Tao, from which emerges the interdependent and eternally inter-creative principles of Yin and Yang, the Two. From the Two, Yin and Yang, comes the Third, Ki. From Yin, Yang and Ki come the Ten Thousand Things, the world of phenomena, the material world as we know it (Fig. 11.1).


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Fig. 11.1 How energy becomes form.


Here Lao Tzu summarizes the East Asian philosophy of the relationship between the immaterial and the material originating from the One Source and explains the path of development from energy to form. According to this philosophy, the material physical world is created by an animating principle or energy which in turn is created by the interplay of opposing yet complementary polarities which emerge from the One, the matrix, the basic ground of being of the universe. In the same way that hundreds of descendants can be produced in a couple of generations from the partnership of one couple, so the hundreds of different objects, materials and textures that you can see if you look around you now are produced essentially from the relationship of opposing qualities of charge, a process which is discussed in Chapter 3.


Western thought, however, except in the rarefied domain of quantum physics, emphasizes the material and denies the immaterial. Its world is the world of the Ten Thousand Things in which everything has contracted into the solidly ‘real’; each object is individual and isolated from everything else. And this perspective is widely upheld as self-evidently correct all over the planet.



Things in our world today are conceptualized as nothing more than ‘objects’ by our language and rational perspective. Although this makes it simpler to deal with the world around us, it has stifled the changeable or ‘living’ aspect in everything


(Masunaga 1987)


In this way the essential unity of creation envisaged in Lao Tzu’s philosophy becomes harder to imagine as we move further and further into a complicated yet incoherent system in which everything, including ourselves, is isolated, in which each part of the body must be considered a separate entity with its own pathology, independent of other parts or systems and certainly unconnected with the rest of the universe outside the body.


When we, as inhabitants of the material world, allow ourselves to expand and relax our field, we begin to move from the Ten Thousand Things back towards the immaterial and come closer to experiencing the realm of Ki, Lao Tzu’s number Three, the basic constituent of all phenomena. As we attune ourselves to Yin and Yang through the listening and active hands we allow ourselves to embody the Two, whose interplay creates Ki itself. In this way we can work with the essential wholeness behind the separate manifestations of the Ten Thousand Things and come back towards the Source from which all things arise.


This is the ‘Zen’ in Zen Shiatsu. The process of diagnosis and practice becomes much simpler when we tune into the Two and the Three rather than undergo the lengthy training required in order to differentiate between the individual pathologies of the Ten Thousand Things: and yet it can also be much more effective, as we allow ourselves to participate effortlessly in the dance of Yin and Yang which is the origin of everything in our universe.


Zen Shiatsu is built around this experience. As well as the ‘two-hand’ technique which encourages us to experience the Yin/Yang polarity directly, another basic principle in the theory and practice of Zen Shiatsu is the concept of Kyo and Jitsu.



Kyo and Jitsu


When we learn Western styles of massage, we become aware, with a little experience, of areas of tension beneath our hands. Our automatic response is to stroke, smooth and knead the tense areas until they are less knotted.


When we first begin to learn Shiatsu, however, we are taught to be aware not only of the tense areas, those which feel knotted or bunched-up, but also of the areas which are hollow-feeling and into which our hand or thumb sinks with little or no resistance. This is our first introduction to Kyo and Jitsu in their physical manifestation as ‘empty’ and ‘full’.


Practicing in this way we become attuned to listening for both qualities, the tense and the hollow. We are opening up a little-used avenue of our awareness, the consciousness of the hidden Yin in contrast to the obvious Yang. We are training our brains and nervous systems to be conscious of the relationship between these two instead of focusing upon disparate areas of tension; we are coming closer to the Source.


‘Full’ and ‘empty’ are not the only manifestations of Kyo and Jitsu, however – the Japanese words carry a host of other meanings* and we can explore the interrelationship of these two principles on several different levels.




Kyo and Jitsu as ‘empty’ and ‘full’ – the physical level


This physical manifestation of Yin and Yang as empty and full qualities within the body tissue can be very useful by itself as a way of dealing with physical distortions in the body. In a case, for example, where the muscles on one side of the spine are tight and those on the other side weak, if we concentrate our work on the weak and empty side the tight side will relax. In local treatment of a problem, finding tsubos into which we can penetrate without resistance, finding and treating nooks and crannies empty of Ki, is an effective strategy in creating balance: as the empty areas fill up, the tense ones can let go of their effort. This brings us to another manifestation of Kyo and Jitsu.



Jitsu and Kyo as activity and inactivity – the Ki level


On the physical level described above, in the tissues, we can perceive Kyo and Jitsu as emptiness and fullness, and here we are working at the material end of the spectrum of Ki, a spectrum which extends between energy and form. But let us remember that the character for ‘Ki’ contains two radicals, that for ‘rice’ and that for ‘steam’. When we work with another dimension of Kyo and Jitsu we are engaging with the ‘steam’ aspect of Ki, the animating principle or energy.


As we train in Shiatsu, in listening to the response of our own field while differentiating between the full and empty manifestations of Ki on the physical level, gradually we become more aware of the subtle qualities of Ki under our hands. We can feel that some areas are busy or active, they have a story to tell, they respond to our touch in some way and they activate our field, we can feel their buzz. In contrast, other areas are very quiet, there seems to be nobody home. These are manifestations of the activity aspect of Jitsu and Kyo respectively.


We are able to perceive these more extreme forms more easily, since in a relatively balanced condition the contrast between activity and rest is not so noticeable and the two can morph into each other so smoothly and naturally that we are not fast or sharp enough to perceive it. The relationship and alternation between Kyo and Jitsu, like that between Yin and Yang (and Masunaga did indeed call them Yin and Yang), is the basis of all movement and change in the world; there will always be activity alternating with inactivity, it is part of the flow of Ki and it reflects our existence on even more subtle levels as we shall see below. It is when Kyo and Jitsu are extreme or stuck, unable to change and harmonize, that we can perceive them as opposing states.



Jitsu and Kyo as desire and inattention – the mind level


Masunaga’s favorite vehicle for describing his theories was the one-celled animal, the amoeba. His thinking was that in describing the most basic manifestations of Yin, Yang and Ki we can use as our model any of the Ten Thousand Things that spring from them. The most basic unit of life is a cell, and a one-celled animal will show all the processes of life energy more clearly than more complex organisms. These basic movements of life energy, however, are the foundations of all existence, and what we can see happening in Masunaga’s amoeba can happen in any one of the myriad cells of our body. The amoeba, in its ever-changing shape, also resembles our Ki-field, which is subject to exactly the same basic movements of energy. The amoeba, therefore, represents all life forms, from the tiniest physical unit of the cell to the immaterial and expanded Ki-field.


Now we have our first encounter with Masunaga’s amoeba. Figure 11.2 explains, via the amoeba, how Kyo and Jitsu act together in the process of cause and effect in all levels of our being.


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Fig. 11.2 Kyo and Jitsu states shown in the amoeba.



Stage One: the amoeba in a state of balance


The amoeba is in a state of inner balance, a temporary moment of stillness. Then, as is natural in the normal movement of life energy, a need develops.



Stage Two: the amoeba feels hungry


An emptiness or need manifests, which we will call Kyo. The need is essentially hidden; it is like a message written in invisible ink, which can be read only if another influence is brought to bear on it. Invisible ink can only be seen when heat is applied; the amoeba does not know that its emptiness is hunger until stimulated by the sight of food. Our own, human, ‘hidden’ needs can be activated in the same way by the direct perception of something that will satisfy them or by the triggering of a memory or a concept of satisfaction from the past which may or may not still be relevant.



Stage Three: the amoeba sees food


When a piece of food appears, the amoeba feels the impulse to move towards it by putting out a bulge (known as a pseudopodium in biology books). This is the visible manifestation of its emptiness and desire to satisfy it; this is what we can call Jitsu; a noticeable action, movement, symptom or distortion which is the messenger for the hidden Kyo.



Stage Four: the amoeba ingests the food


The natural purpose of the Jitsu action is to satisfy the Kyo need; then a temporary state of balance returns until the next need arises.


The meaning of this short sequence from an amoeba’s day is related to the movement of Ki in the process of life, to the alternation of cause and effect, need and action. On the psychological level it can also show us that under every perceived impulse there is a hidden cause which motivates us to act. One of the basic principles of the Huna tradition of Hawaii (from the website of Serge Kahili King) is that ‘Energy Flows where Attention Goes’ and in the application of Shiatsu this is identical to the Far Eastern saying that ‘The Mind Leads the Ki’. Ki moves into the Jitsu because the attention goes there: in Stage 3 the amoeba moves towards the food because its attention is upon the food, not its own internal state. The movement would not take place, however, if there were no hidden internal emptiness.


To over-simplify, the Jitsu areas of our being are those where we invest our energy and attention; our mind leads our Ki to them. The Kyo areas in contrast are dormant. We do not bestow our attention upon them: as ‘the mind leads the Ki’ so an emptiness of Ki develops which must eventually enlist the help of a more active function to compensate, and this the Jitsu tries to do. The analogy of the amoeba’s hunger and attempts to satisfy it applies to all aspects of our human lives, from the physical (the activity of our cells) to the emotional or mental (the activity of our field) and beyond. For every obvious motivation there is a hidden counterpart.



Kyo and Jitsu Theory in Diagnosis and Treatment


While Kyo is not always a need, it is always an aspect of which we are currently unaware while our attention is upon the Jitsu. It can, for example, be a resource which we are not currently involved in using. If we diagnose Spleen Jitsu, Heart Kyo on a receiver, it may have the meaning that she is putting her energy into processing (Spleen) some kind of information, while no attention is going into the process of integrating (Heart) the information into her life.†


At any moment in the life of any being there will be processes which engage its attention and energy (Jitsu) whether consciously or unconsciously and others which do not (Kyo). The alternation and change of Kyo and Jitsu is part of the rhythm of life and not a condition of imbalance or disease. However, it can become so in certain circumstances, often as a result of automatic responses or conditioned behavior. Circumstances in the receiver’s early cultural or social environment may tend to lead to habitual patterns of Kyo and Jitsu or, alternatively, patterns in which the Jitsu does not resolve the Kyo. It is these habitual or inappropriate patterns which tend to create imbalances in the free flow of Ki, and thus lead eventually to ill-health of some description.


Although symptoms result both from the Jitsu and the Kyo, the Jitsu symptoms often have a Yang quality of urgency, because the receiver’s attention is drawn there. Many traditional Shiatsu styles are designed to deal with these obvious Jitsu symptoms, often by fairly forceful means. In terms of the sequence described above, this would be like finding the amoeba in Stage Three, with its obvious bulge, and trying to recreate the balanced state of Stage One by pressing the bulge back into place (Fig. 11.3A). This treatment, however, would only take the amoeba back to Stage Two, with the Kyo still hidden inside (Fig. 11.3B), and after a very short time it would tend to recreate the same Jitsu in response to its unrecognized Kyo (Fig. 11.3C). The same thing happens in humans if the Shiatsu treatment concentrates on the Jitsu symptoms and ignores the Kyo: the Jitsu comes back in the same symptoms or manifests as another set of symptoms.


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Fig. 11.3 The cycle continues if only the Jitsu is treated.

Related posts:

How does Shiatsu work, practically? The history of Shiatsu Self-development, health care and injury prevention for the Shiatsu practitioner After the session Working with Shiatsu 2: Basic techniques and tools The Fire Phase: The Heart, Small Intestine, Heart Protector and Triple Heater

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Sep 4, 2016 | Posted by in MANUAL THERAPIST | Comments Off on Zen Shiatsu

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