Selling Water by the River: An Eastern Paradigm Shift

Eastern traditions have a unique way of understanding the movement of energy, which Western traditions have difficulty in accommodating within their rationalist world view.

There is a story in Zen literature of two people meeting by the banks of a river. One is a passing traveller, and the other is a Zen master. When the traveller asked what he was doing, the Zen master replied: “selling water by the river”.


Training The Vital Centre

Teaching the power of Ki is like this. Ki is everywhere and freely available. A teacher cannot give Ki to someone. One has it already, but normally one is unaware of its potential. Training in Aikido is a way to unlock this potential, and to make one more consciously aware of what it is to be fully human and alive.

Zen training and Aikido share a common purpose: the realisation of one’s ‘true nature’. Both are vehicles to attain this end; and although the forms of training may differ in some important respects, there are some common features.

The most relevant, in the context of Aikido, is the cultivation of mind body development that in the Zen tradition leads to the growth of ‘Jiriki’ (concentrative or spiritual power), and in Budo terms is simply called Ki. In Japan the colloquialism ‘training the belly’ generically refers to the martial arts, and reflects the belief that Ki is stored in an area of the lower abdomen, the seika tanden.

It is through the cultivation of ‘Jiriki’ that one can develop insight into one’s ‘true nature’. Implicit within all of the Arts of Japan is the Zen principle of ‘original mind’, or ‘true nature’. This is the belief that each one of us already has a higher nature that can be realised through the practice of mind body development. Aikido is a form of mind body development.

Definitions and Limitations

But here caution is required, definitions cannot be relied upon to provide too much in the way of explanation. In fact, over reliance on them can easily lead one astray. They can become so general, or so abstract, that they become either meaningless, or inaccessibly esoteric. The kanji, or written character for Ki, for example, is defined in Japanese dictionaries as:

Ki - Breath with rice; breathing rice; steaming rice.

Other definitions describe Ki as the generative life force of Heaven and Earth that governs reproduction. While the first definition is obviously analogous - Ki is like rice, and without it there would be no life - the second is too general.

Ki appears to be a kind of life force. A fuller account of Ki would involve going into the complexities of ancient Chinese cosmology, Taoism and Buddhism, and fascinating though this may be it will not aid practical understanding.

Founder of Aikido

The founder of Aikido peppered his training lectures with aspects of Shinto shamanism that few, if any, could really understand. Yamaoka Tesshu, the renowned Japanese Sword, Zen and Calligraphy Master said, “In order to understand if the water is hot or cold, first you must taste it”. The emphasis here is on personal experience - feeling what it is actually like. Ki can be taught and understood as a ‘feeling’, and can be experienced by anyone regardless of gender, race, age or physical disposition. Read More