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Thread: How much do you really want Heijoshin?

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    Question How much do you really want Heijoshin?

    Dear All

    Gassho

    In the new Tokuhon, as in the old Fukudokuhon, the topic of shin ryoku, (mental strength) is discussed.

    It states

    "It is important for a Shorinji Kempo practitioner to nourish daily the guts (courage) needed so that whatever the circumstances one is not disconcerted, one feels neither dread nor confusion, one's breathing and Ki are unaffected, and one can deal with anything while maintaining a natural state of calm (Heijoshin.)"

    I was talking to my wife last night whilst watching some rubbish movie about Sandra Bullock, playing a cop, scouring a house for a murderer.

    Emma bans me from reality comments during such tripe but it was too much and I started to pour scorn; "why isn't she looking scared/breathing hard/didn't she wait for backup/go back to her car and get a pump action shotgun/switch the lights on? etc."

    Which started a conversation about what it's like to look for somebody in a dark building at night knowing that they could be dangerous if you catch them.

    I'm not afraid to say, from personal experience, that it's frightening and your heart beats very fast and you're scared.

    But I'm also of the opinion that adrenalin has a natural heightening effect on the senses and as long as you can go some way to harnessing its benefits you will be faster, more focused and better prepared to deal with whatever happens.

    I believe that few people are impervious to fear, and I'm dubious as to any claim that it's a skill that all can acquire through any practice.

    But there are some.

    In a documentary shown on channel 4 as part of "The Sopranos" season finale last Sunday evening; there was an interview with a real Mafia hit man. The program, entitled, "The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hit man" introduced Richard Kuklinski to the viewing public.

    An account of a prison visit by a writer and Kuklinski's chilling biog can be found here or here

    Interestingly at the end of the TV interview the interviewer, (a trick cyclist of distinction,) asked Kuklinski what he wanted to ask him.
    Kuklinski paused then said “what do you think of me?” and the psychiatrist passed judgement about how he was born missing something that made him feel fear and horror like the rest of us, he used analogies of famous war heroes who he stated were similar, unlike the heroes; however; Kuklinski wasn't bound by any form of restraint and experimented with others suffering in a quest to provoke a reaction in himself, testing his own limits of humanity.

    I had never seen anyone that wasn't capable of fear and thus beyond any reasonable constraint thus personifying evil, but at one point in the programme the psychiatrist annoyed Kuklinski, he recounts;

    "Then without even knowing it, I triggered a response in him that chilled me to the bone. New Jersey State Supervising Investigator Paul Smith had warned me about the “shark look.” Smith, who was a key member of the task force that investigated, arrested, and successfully prosecuted the Iceman, refused to elaborate. “You’ll know it when you see it” was all he would say. Smith was right. I did know it when I saw it.
    I had shown Kuklinski a note he had sent me along with a newspaper clipping regarding the recent sentencing of reputed Genovese crime family capo Louis “Streaky” Gatto.
    I read the items he had written on the note out loud: “Blazing Bucks Ranch… Serrone Pastries… Rt. 46 W…. Howard Johnson… 10 pops… Hawaiian Moon….”
    Suddenly his face contorted and froze, and his eyes rolled back. For a split second I could see only white in his eyes.
    Sharks roll their eyes back this way in the instant before they attack.
    The Iceman didn’t raise his hands or motion toward me in any way, but he didn’t have to.
    If the Devil has a face, for a split second I saw it.
    I immediately dropped that line of questioning and moved on to something else. (The “shark look” reappeared later in the interview when I asked Kuklinski about one of his children.)"

    I believe that Kuklinski truly demonstrates Heijoshin; indeed he spoke about his dislike of killing people with a chain saw because it ruined his shirt and makes a big mess to clean up afterwards, but would you really want it, at such a cost?

    Ade
    A man with small testes should never get involved in a fight requiring cojones

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    Dear All

    Having just re-read the post I would hurridly add that in no way am I suggesting our practice aims for this goal.

    The ending was also meant to be different but e-budo went mad and posted an unfinished draft.

    What I was trying to say was that I don't believe that normal people can ever totally control fear in all circumstances, but that Shorinji Kempo practice gives you a way to control some effects of adrenalin and to deal with stressful situations appropriately, unlike Kuklinski.

    Sorry for any upset caused.

    Ade

    PS Moderators please add this to the original post.
    A man with small testes should never get involved in a fight requiring cojones

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    Thats a really interesting post. I did write something up but couldnt think of a decent wrapup. But basically fear is a mental thing, you make fear out of situations. I hate snakes, spiders and sharks, but if im with someone whos more scared than I am its not a problem anymore....

    I guess you could overcome fear but it wouldn't be easy (or pretty....)
    Leon Appleby (Tokyo Ouji)
    半ばは自己の幸せを、半ばは他人の幸せを
    SK Blog at http://www.leonjp.com

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    I don't particularly want to develop the mentality of a psychopath. I read (sorry) the News of the World's profiles of the 50 worst offenders presently alive in UK jails. One of them, the name escapes me, was in for something like armed robbery. He then garotted two other prisoners one morning and calmly announced to the screw that "roll call will be two short today." (Later he sharpened a spoon, killed another prisoner and opened his head like a boiled egg).

    [Aside - translation of 'hara' as 'guts'?]

    Heijoshin means 'everyday mind', the aim being to have the same feeling towards everything that happens. Once in Euston dojo a window crashed shut during howa, and many people jumped, presumably with the accompanying adrenalin and increased heart rate. Mizuno Sensei used it as an example of not having heijoshin. I did it myself the other day, walking home through the park, just after dark, an animal rustled in the bushes, and my heart raced. Camping last week, I went to the loo at about 2am, and got creeped out in the sanitary block, for apparently no reason. As I left I noticed a bloke skulking around in the shadows. He said 'bon soir' when I clocked him.

    Anyway, I'm rambling. Here is the link that I wanted to provide.
    http://www.e-budo.com/vbulletin/show...threadid=15584
    Very interesting. There is some other stuff of this ilk on e-budo. I don't think that you can eradicate fear, unless you're a psycho, but you learn to operate with it, and not get overwhelmed by it.

    Talking of 'brave' fictional police officers going into murderers houses, Silence of the Lambs anyone? I'd have waited ten mins for the 1000 backup officers.
    David Dunn
    Cambridge Dojo
    BSKF

  5. #5
    Kimpatsu Guest

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    Originally posted by David Dunn
    [Aside - translation of 'hara' as 'guts'?]
    Gassho, sensei.
    Only literally. "Presence (of mind)" or "determination (of spirit)" would have been better translations.
    Kesshu.

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    Default So in that case?

    ...Hara Kiri would mean "presence" cutting or "determination" cutting.....strange?
    A man with small testes should never get involved in a fight requiring cojones

  7. #7
    Kimpatsu Guest

    Default Re: So in that case?

    Originally posted by Ade
    ...Hara Kiri would mean "presence" cutting or "determination" cutting.....strange?
    No; you are committing the sin of translitreation. Yes, the literal, word-for-word correllation of "hara" is "belly", but the concept is used differently in Japanese, as a synonym for awareness. Think of English expressions such as "guts" (courage), "bilious" (nauseous), "phlegmatic" (resigned), "saturnine"... etc., etc. These terms are all derived from prescientific European views of the body, as is "hara" from a day that precedes Old Mother Green Tea.
    Of course, once you speak Japanese, you'll be entitled to have an opinion...

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    Talking Welcome back

    Dear Tony

    I don't need to, these guys employ Japanese people that do.

    hara-kiri [här'u-kEr'E, har'u–] [Jap.,=belly-cutting], the traditional Japanese form of honorable suicide, also known by its Chinese equivalent, seppuku. It was practiced by the Japanese feudal warrior class in order to avoid falling into enemy hands. Around 1500, it became a privileged alternative to execution, granted to daimyo and samurai guilty of disloyalty to the emperor. The condemned man received a jeweled dagger from the emperor. He selected as his second a faithful friend, received official witnesses, and plunged the dagger into the left side of his abdomen, drew it across to the right, and made a slight cut upward; his second then beheaded him with one stroke of a sword, and the dagger was returned to the emperor. Around 1700, it became permissible to go through a semblance of disembowelment prior to beheading. Voluntary hara-kiri was resorted to after a private misfortune, out of loyalty to a dead master, or to protest the conduct of a living superior.

    Obligatory hara-kiri was abolished in 1868, but its voluntary form has persisted. It was performed by 40 military men in 1895 as a protest against the return of conquered territory, the Liaotung peninsula, to China; by General Nogi on the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912; and by numerous soldiers as an alternative to surrender in World War II. Hara-kiri was much discussed in recent years in connection with the death, in 1970, of Mishima, the well-known novelist and rightist political leader.

    For detailed accounts of hara-kiri, see A. B. F. Redesdale, Tales of Old Japan (1919).

    The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.


    HARA-KIRI (Japanese hara, belly, and kin, cutting), selfdisembowelment, primarily the method of suicide permitted to offenders of the noble class in feudal Japan, and later the national form of honorable suicide. Hara-kiri has been often translated as the happy dispatch in confusion with a native euphemism for the act. More usually the Japanese themselves speak of hara-kiri by its Chinese synonym, Sep puku. Hara-kiri is not an aboriginal Japanese custom. It was a growth of medieval militarism, the act probably at first being prompted by the desire of the noble to escape the humiliation. of falling into an enemys hands. By the end of the 14th century the custom had become a much valued privilege, being formally established as such under the Ashi-Kaga dynasty. Hara-kiri was of two kinds, obligatory and, voluntary. The first is the more ancient. An official or noble, who had broken the law or been disloyal, received a message from the emperor, couched always in sympathetic and gracious tones, courteously intimating that he must die. The mikado usually sent a jewelled dagger with which the deed might be done. The suicide had so many days allotted to him by immemorial custt~m in which to make dignified preparations for the ceremony, which was attended by the utmost formality. In his own. baronial hail or in a temple a daIs 3 or ~ in. from the ground was constructed. Upon this was laid a rug of red felt. The suicide, clothed in his ceremonial dress as an hereditary noble, and accompanied by his second or Kaishaku, took his place on the mat, the officials and his friends ranging themselves in a semicircle round the dais. After a minutes prayer the weapon. was handed to him with many obeisances by the mikados representative, and he then made a public confession of his fault. He then stripped to the waist. Every movement in the grim ceremony- was governed by precedent, and he had to tuck his wide sleeves under his knees to prevent himself falling backwards, for a Japanese noble must die falling forward. A moment later he plunged the dagger into his stomach below the waist on. the left side, drew it across to the right and, turning it, gave a slight cut upward. At the same moment the Kaishaku who crouched at his friends side, leaping up, brought his sword down on the outstretched neck. At the conclusion of the ceremony the bloodstained dagger was taken to the mikado as a proof of the consummation of the heroic act. The performance of hara-kiri carried with it certain privileges. If it was by order of the mikado half only of a traitors property was forfeited to the state. If the gnawings of conscience drove the disloyal noble to voluntary suicide, his dishonour was wiped out, and his family inherited all his fortune.
    Voluntary hara-kiri was the refuge of men rendered desperate by private misfortunes, or was committed from loyalty to a dead superior, or as a protest against what was deemed a false national policy. This voluntary suicide still survives, a characteristic case being that of Lieutenant Takeyoshi who in. I891.gave himself the belly-cut in front of the graves of his ancestors at TOkyo as a protest against what he considered the criminal lethargy of the government in not taking precautions against possible Russian encroachments to the north of Japan. In the RussoJapanese War, when faced by defeat at Vladivostock, the officer in command of the troops on the transport Kinshu Maru committed hara-kiri. Hara-kiri has not been uncommon among women, but in their case the mode is by cutting the throat. The popularity of this self-immolation is testified to by the fact that for centuries no fewer than 1500 hara-kiris are said to have taken place annually, at least half being entirely voluntary. Stories of amazing heroism are told in connection with the performance of the act. One noble, barely out of his teens, not content with giving himself the customary cuts, slashed himself thrice horizontally and twice vertically. Then he stabbed himself in the throat until the dirk protruded on the other side with the sharp edge to the front, and with a supreme effort drove the knife forward with both hands through his neck. Obligatory hara-kiri was obsolete in the middle of the I9th century, and was actually abolished in 1868.

    See A. B. Mitford, Tales of Old Japan; Basil Hall Chamberiain, Things Japanese (1898). Encyclopedia Britannica.

    Welcome back.

    Now that the language debate is over back to the thread......(ho hum, situation normal!)
    A man with small testes should never get involved in a fight requiring cojones

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    Harakiri is a nominal compound word, a shortened version of 'hara wo kiru' which means the same thing as the compound.

    I think the other hara with reference to guts may have come about (did they really print guts?) to a popular bit of slang, gatsu! I never really got what it meant but its similar to the english slang meaning to 'guts', related to courage.

    You missed what Tony said, just because it says hara=gut in a dictionary doesnt mean it ALWAY means that. I can dig up some amusing examples of Japanese students doing this in English if you want

    Ie. Gut Infection =/= Courage Infection (2am! what am I doing up!?)
    (edit: (Users Browsing this Forum: Kimpatsu, Nicky Geldart, Tripitaka of AA, DANG_BLUE, Ewok) - I so live in the wrong timezone too)
    Leon Appleby (Tokyo Ouji)
    半ばは自己の幸せを、半ばは他人の幸せを
    SK Blog at http://www.leonjp.com

  10. #10
    Kimpatsu Guest

    Default Re: Welcome back

    Originally posted by Ade
    I don't need to, these guys employ Japanese people that do.
    But are they linguists?
    Now that the language debate is over back to the thread......(ho hum, situation normal!) [/B][/QUOTE]
    The labguage debate will never be over until you understand why you are wrong. Read my explanation above for why "hara" in context translates as "courage". Remember: Transliteration is mistranslation. And quoting from a dictionary compiled by lexicographers who don't speak Japanese is equally silly. Remember: Even the OED lists "gi" aws a word, which means they are just plain wrong!

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    Default Re: Re: Welcome back

    Originally posted by Kimpatsu
    Remember: Even the OED lists "gi" aws a word, which means they are just plain wrong!
    It is a word but not the one I imagine they have listed. all those people proudly wearing their 'justices' while were stuck with dougi
    Leon Appleby (Tokyo Ouji)
    半ばは自己の幸せを、半ばは他人の幸せを
    SK Blog at http://www.leonjp.com

  12. #12
    Kimpatsu Guest

    Default Re: Re: Re: Welcome back

    Originally posted by Ewok
    It is a word but not the one I imagine they have listed. all those people proudly wearing their 'justices' while were stuck with dougi
    If "gi" is a word, then "geri" means "kick". And we both know that's a pile of crap...

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    Oh please Tony, not THAT example!


    But seriously, that was a fine and detailed first post, which Ade appears to have misread. His dictionary entries are not as relevant to the thread as Tony's expert opinion.


    [size=1 mo=ind you, that "Of course, once you speak Japanese, you'll be entitled to have an opinion... " is guaranteed to annoy people.
    David Noble
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    I'll think of a proper sig when I get a minute...

    For now, I'm just waiting for the smack of the Bo against a hard wooden floor....

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    I liked Ade's post, I never knew you went left to right for seppuku

    Gi IS a word.
    義 【ぎ <- GI!】 (n) justice; righteousness; morality; honour;

    Originally posted by Kimpatsu
    If "gi" is a word, then "geri" means "kick". And we both know that's a pile of crap...
    Geri is even more amusing. Diarrhea or some other kind of 'bowel' related thing.
    Leon Appleby (Tokyo Ouji)
    半ばは自己の幸せを、半ばは他人の幸せを
    SK Blog at http://www.leonjp.com

  15. #15
    Kimpatsu Guest

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    Originally posted by Ewok
    Gi IS a word.
    義 【ぎ <- GI!】 (n) justice; righteousness; morality; honour;
    No, it's still not a word. Giri and gimu are words; ‹` is an element used to make up words.

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