On February 5, 2021, Shintaido of America (SOA) held a celebration via Zoom to honor Michael Thompson, Doshu, with a Lifetime Achievement Award. During this event over 40 of his students and colleagues spoke about the impact he had on their lives through Shintaido.
Michael Thompson was born in 1938. He received a B.A. from Hamilton College in 1960, an M.A. from Middlebury College in 1963, and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York, Buffalo in 1969, specializing in French literature.
He taught high school French (and German!) for three years before becoming Assistant Professor of French at Hobart College from 1969-71.
While in France in the fall of 1971, he began his study of Shintaido with Marc Bassis, a student of Aoki-sensei and Egami-sensei. He first met Aoki-sensei in France and then, a year later, went to Japan to study with him and the Rakutenkai group.
After two years in France, he returned to the U.S. and started to teach Shintaido at Hobart College where he stayed for two years.
In 1975, he joined with H.F Ito in San Francisco where they established the first national Shintaido organization, then known as Rakuntenkai-Shintaido of California in 1976.
Michael Thompson published his book “Untying Knots: A Shintaido Chronicle in 1996. He became the first non-Japanese Doshu in 2004.
As Michael approaches his 85th year, he has been honored with this Lifetime Achievement Award and in season two of the podcast David Franklin is reading from his autobiography “Untying Knots: A Shintaido Chronicle”.
You can watch the recording of this special event on our YouTube
There were many people who spoke during the celebration. We have captured some comments for you to read. Enjoy!
Master Instructor – H.F. Ito Sensei
H.F. Ito Sensei
I have many memories, but I particularly remember the congratulations that Aoki Sensei gave me at the Shintaido America Tenth Anniversary Event, “Shintaido Ten” Gasshuku in 1986.
Aoki sensei said:
Shintaido America has come to be what it is today, firstly, because of Ito Fugaku’s “ability to carry out objectives,” which he has cultivated through his karate training, and secondly, because of Michael Thompson’s “intelligence” and “gentleness” in supporting it!
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Michael for his ability to digest my numerous unrestrained suggestions and gradually transform them into something more tangible and concrete to develop Shintaido America.
Thank you so much, Michael! Master Instructor Masashi Minagawa
Master Instructor Masashi Minagawa
I heartily congratulate you, Michael, on your Lifetime Achievement Award today.
I’d like to share three episodes with Michael. In the days of Rakuten kai, the predecessor of Shintaido, an American with an afro came along with a French instructor. Aoki Sensei took notice of this young man’s intelligence rather than the French instructor and, with the help of an interpreter, enthusiastically explained the Aoki World to him. Soon he became independent from the French instructor and became a resident of Rakuten kai, where Ito Sensei and other Rakuten kai members lived.
I would like to share my memories of the three kumites with him.
1. The Shoko team & Invisible teacher The other day in Japan, I saw Kato sensei’s wife. I told her about this ceremony and that I would like to talk about an episode of Michael and Kato sensei, which she was very pleased about.
A group of young people formed a team to introduce Shintaido to the world, and a national event was held to promote it. Shoko team of three people were formed, and Michael and I were in the same group.
Each team went into a forest nearby and we did Shoko for one hour. Kato Sensei was watching over everyone’s practice. When Michael thought Kato sensei’s presence had disappeared, he relaxed, and then Kato sensei whispered gently into Michael’s ear from behind, “Michael”. In that instant, our team became relaxed and united.
Since then, Michael often came to my house with biscuits. Later, he founded the International Shintaido Federation with Ito Sensei and others, and they, along with the American Shintaido people, warmly watched over me and encouraged me when I had lost my way in Japan.
Michael is very good at guiding young people. I was one of them, and I recently realised that he had been watching over my practice, which I didn’t really notice, invisibly.
2. International Shintaido Federation & ‘San nin ichi retsu’/ Three in a Row
Michael , Ito sensei and myself demonstrated the Sannin Ichiretsu at the international event in America.
That kumite became a new starting point for me. Instead of colliding with each other, in the open world created by Michael and Ito sensei, I was able to release unnecessary strength from my constricted body, enjoy kumite, and later I became a member of the international Shintaido movement.
This trio continues to this day.
3. Generalizing the world where heaven, earth, people, and I are one/ “Tenchi hitobito ware ittai”
The final episode is the Doshu exam in 2004, where he demonstrated Hikari with Connie.
He generalized and embodied Mr. Aoki’s world of unity of heaven, earth, and people. He showed us the world of light and play, where the other party can be freed by his very existence. It remains deeply in our hearts as a message that pointed us in a new direction.
And I am convinced that it will become a guideline not only for American Shintaido, but also for us Shintaido practitioners, and will continue to shine as eternal life.
Congratulations, Michael, on your day!
General Instructor, Jim Sterling – Michael’s Student for over 45 Years
Jim Sterling, on the left
Thank you for inviting me to say a few words on this special day honoring Michael Thompson with a special achievement award.
I first met Michael at Hobart college around 1973, although it was not in the classroom but on a field where we were playing touch football. Michael had recently returned to the campus from Paris where he was introduced to Shintaido. I caught a pass in front of him and his “touch” knocked me into the ground. I was surprised that this rather skinny and quiet academic was so strong. Guess he had his koshi turned on!
After college I eventually moved to San Francisco in 1976 and started attending regular evening classes taught by Michael and Ito. I eventually found a job where I began my day in the afternoon and needed to find another time for keiko.
I had heard Michael and Ito were practicing together in the morning in Golden Gate Park and I asked if I could join them. They agreed. Every morning, I would ride my bicycle with my bo tied to the bike’s cross bar. I arrived at their apartment around 8am and went upstairs to wait until they were ready. Typically, Michael was awake sitting in his living room chair drinking tea and reading the Bible. The three of us would walk slowly and quietly through the park to the baseball diamond where we did some brief warmups. Ito and Michael would practice by themselves and eventually do some kumibo. I was instructed to do two things for the entire hour of class, jump back and forth across the field and run Eiko with my bo. Sometimes, when I finished they would do kumite with me but that was rare. Those morning keikos got me hooked on Shintaido and I’m sure Ito and Michael were teaching me from a distance.
The first of two stories I’d like to share about Michael took place in the basement of a church in Japan Town. Ito had a relationship with the minister at the church so we were able to use the space for free. The Shintaido students at that time were very eager to have new people come to practice. We wanted to spread the word about this amazing body movement so any newcomers were welcomed and encouraged to join our group.
One evening, a pleasant couple showed up. They were very svelte, around thirty-five and dressed in fashionable active wear. Michael was teaching the class and they seemed intrigued by the keiko. After they left, I asked Michael whether or not he thought they would return. He immediately replied, “Nope, they weren’t desperate enough.” I promise I did not steal this from Burtis ! Hope it isn’t a recurring theme but as Lou Reed once sang, “those were different times.”
The second story took place at an International Gasshuku. I think it may have been in France or the Bay Area but my memory isn’t so clear. During the last keiko, Aoki Sensei presented his latest creation called Taimyo Kata. Now, many of you are familiar with this and know it is combination of various Shintaido movements. The students were fascinated and excited about this new arrangement. After the keiko ended, I asked Michael, “Well, what do you think about Taimyo?” He smiled and replied. “Microsoft upgrade to 3.0.”
I always enjoyed Michael’s teaching both in and out of the dojo and really missed him when he left the Bay Area. His sense of humor and sharp wit was a necessary counterpoint to Ito, who at the time, was very serious about his mission to spread Shintaido in the States.
Finally, my deepest impression and fondest memories of Michael came from doing kiroroshi kumite with him. He was always able to cut deeply into me. Unforgettable and transformative moments. I encourage everyone who has the opportunity to ask him for this kumite. Thank you Michael !!!
Nancy Billias – Shintaido of America Board Member and Long Time Student of Michael
Nancy Billias
Michael,
I expect you will be both happy and embarrassed by this award.
Your lifetime achievement has been to bring Shintaido out of its Japanese shell. If it hadn’t been for your sojourn at Hobart, there would have been no Bela Breslau as a Senior Instructor, and therefore no Stephen Billias as an Instructor, and therefore no Shintaido Farm, and very likely, no Shintaido North East. There would have been no David Franklin as a Senior Instructor, and therefore no Shintaido in the Czech Republic. No Gianni Rossi as a Senior Instructor, and therefore no Shintaido in Italy.
Quite an achievement, I’d say.
There’s probably much more that I’m leaving out, but that is enough to be going on with, as they say.
As for me, I can only say that we have come a long way from the early days when I was so afraid of you! And that I will always remember your only piece of feedback for me when I took and passed my Assistant exam. You told me I needed to meditate more. You were, as so annoyingly often, right.
Thank you for everything you have been and done for all of us. Thank you for showing us a new way to be in the world.
Nicole Beauvois – From France
Nicole Beauvois on the right
Thank you Michael !
You have once again been able to reunite so many “old timers” around you.
I want to share my impressions about one aspect of your nice character.
It was in England, maybe Wales, and I had taken the Assistant exam. I was very anxious about the results of the exam. Ito was sitting next to you at the same table and when my name was announced, you were both laughing and that made me even more nervous.
I thought Ito would give me the feed-back, but it was you who did it. I was very nervous at the beginning since I knew you were very sharp and honestly, I was afraid that you would tease me in front of everyone.
But, I still remember your nice smile (with a lot of teeth) and your kind feedback. I was so surprised by such supportive comments since I was sure you would list all my weak points and instead, I was very moved. You suggested that I have more confidence in myself because my demonstration was very good.
I still remember this moment and this kindness, that I have seen many times, and also the accuracy of your evaluation on the practice. But, those things have already been mentioned by other people so I must be right.
Also I want to thank you for the fun translation of Aoki speeches into French, but I do not know why they were always shorter than the actual speech …..HA HA !!
And thank you for the moments around a “nice cup of tea” and cookies.
Hoping to see you again soon “Tonton Mike.” Love, Nicole de France
Stephen Billias – Michael’s Student and Neighbor
Stephen Billias on the left
I’m grateful for the opportunity to speak about Michael Thompson Doshu. In the years since Michael moved up to Greenfield, Massachusetts to be Master Instructor in Residence at the new Shintaido Farm, I have learned so much from him! He was present at every one of the many gasshukus that Shintaido Northeast held at the Farm, either as a teacher or a thoughtful observer. For many years, we have had a strong tradition of Sunday morning informal keikos with Michael, Bela, Margaret Guay and me, with occasional visitors and guests, first at the Farm and later at the Senior Center in South Deerfield, in our back yard on Graves Street, or out by the Connecticut River in Turners Falls. Often, Michael’s contribution would be a few minutes at the end of these keikos, often with a single keen insight into our practice, which we gladly pay him for in breakfasts, either at our house or the Shady Glen Café!
I have witnessed Michael-sensei’s transformation into a kind and gentle wise elder. I’m proud and honored to consider him as a friend in addition to my main teacher since the inception of the Farm. Michael doesn’t put on airs or act like the guru. The other day I was in our local co-op the Greenfields Market, where Michael goes every day and where he is well known by all the staff. I mentioned to Judy, one of the cashiers, that Michael was one of five Master Instructors in the world in Shintaido, and she had no idea!
Some of the people on this Zoom may not know that Michael is also a grandfather figure to our daughter Sophia. They have a wonderful relationship that includes their common interest in the latest technology, and occasional beer runs to keep Michael stocked for his nightly IPA.
I hope that I can continue my studies with Michael, and our friendship, for many years to come. Thank you, Michael, from the depths of my heart.
In the Northeast, our coldest cold spell this winter came in February. It was down to zero where I live just north of NYC, and windy as well. In an otherwise mostly mild winter, it suddenly felt dangerous just to be outside. My chickens, who usually strut around happily in the open air all season, took refuge in their dog crate and did not want to come out. I was reminded that cold, very cold, and extremely cold are all quite different things.
So it was for Kangeiko weekend. I planned to join the gasshuku late, driving up to Massachusetts in time to make the second keiko, because I had business at home on Saturday morning. That morning I got voice mail from Mary Foran saying, “The dojo has no heat. We are in the basement with a space heater. Just letting you know in case you want to rethink coming all this way.” I texted back, “Unless you decide to give up and go home, I’d like to come. I want to see everybody.” Since Kangeiko means cold weather practice, and since we’ve done a lot of Kangeiko together for many years, I didn’t think there was much chance of disbanding because of cold weather, even extremely cold weather.
Sure enough, when I got to the Town Hall in Petersham, Massachusetts, I was greeted by friends in down vests and gloves, saying, “Wear whatever you want for this keiko as long as it’s warm.” They led down to the basement where, with the help of the space heater, the space was up above freezing, just barely. Bela Breslau had taught that morning, and had to start by discussing with the group what to do about the lack of heat. Unfortunately, a couple of people had needed to drop out because the cold wasn’t workable for them, including Michael Thompson who had been scheduled to give some of the instruction. The people who stayed had begun by huddling in a circle and sharing verbally some of what was going on in their lives. Then Bela led freehand sword cutting. Swords turned out not to work because the basement ceiling was too low.
For the second keiko, Matt Shorten led warmups and Stephen Billias taught. I found that the basement was really very cold! After a 3-hour drive, it was hard to feel that warmups had done much in the way of warming my body. But as we went through our usual keiko progression, bringing more vigor into our movement, the warmth started to come. We practiced more sword movements free hand: hasso and mugen. Finally, Stephen asked if we were willing to go upstairs into the dojo with no heat at all, so we could use our swords. We agreed, we went, and it was even colder! But – now we had bokutohs and boken. And Stephen had us working in pairs. There is something about the alertness that comes with kumitachi that warms my body, every time. It was especially noticeable once Stephen put us in groups of five, with four attacking one who stood in the center. The eyes, the brain, the blood, the arms and legs all went on high alert. Now it seemed good to me to be doing such a very cold weather practice, bringing life and warmth into the depths of winter.
Stephen brought us outside for a final tenso-shoko. We stood in a patch of the village green and cut forward as the church bell struck five and the bell tower of the Town Hall turned orange in the setting sun.
Dinner was at Matt and Bonnie’s home, cozy, potluck, with a dog and a fire. Some of us stayed at Hartmann’s herb farm, a place we have been before, before the pandemic, before Joe Zawielski sensei’s passing. It was good to be back. As Margaret Guay- who was my roommate – said to me, “This feels important.” The importance was not in the content of the keikos so much as in the resumption of the gasshuku kata. It was important to eat together, to do more than one keiko and experience the physical/emotional/spiritual changes from one keiko to the next. It was good that at least some of us could be together under one roof.
On Sunday morning, Margaret led us in beautiful katas: diamond eight (free hand and then with sword) and finally Taimyo Part One. As we walked out of Town Hall after saying our goodbyes, guess what! It was up to forty degrees. The cold weather lasted just as long as the Kangeiko.
It had been three years since Pacific Shintaido was able to host its annual Kangeiko gathering in person. But, after two years of surprisingly successful virtual workshops, with participants from all over North America and Europe interacting via Zoom, Shintaido practitioners came together over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend to explore the theme Hei Ho: The Strategy of Fighting, the Strategy of Peace. On Saturday, January 14, and Sunday, January 15, four keikos were held in the gymnasium at Claremont Middle School in Oakland.
General Instructor Connie Borden and Senior Instructor Rob Gaston accepted the invitation by the Pacific Shintaido Board—Shin Aoki, Cheryl Williams, and Derk Richardson—to serve as guest instructors for Kangeiko 2023. Both hold Yondan ranking in kenjutsu, which was the general subject for the workshop. The specific theme, Hei Ho: The Strategy of Fighting, the Strategy of Peace, was inspired by a 2020 interview with Master Instructor Masashi Minagawa (published in Body Dialogue on November 6, 2022). In his opening ceremony remarks, Derk quoted Minagawa Sensei’s comments on Kangeiko (“we refresh our old selves and go back to the original beginner’s mind”), Kenjutsu (“The sword can be used as a tool or compass which can show us how to manage our lives, it can show us which direction to follow”), and the concept of Hei Ho. “The word Hei Ho 兵法 … means the Strategy of War. If Hei is written differently [using another Chinese character 平] it can also mean Strategy of Peace 平法.… Therefore, there are two ways of studying martial arts, the way of war and the way of peace.”
Before we began warmups, led by Director of Instruction Shin Aoki, Rob Sensei led us in an exercise to help set our intention for both Kangeiko and the coming year. He asked the ten attendees to offer up words that spontaneously came to mind when we thought about achieving peace in the world. Responses included “love,” “empathy,” “compassion,” “forgiveness,” “community,” “diversity,” and more. Rob Sensei urged us to fold those thoughts into our intention and hold that intention throughout the workshop.
After warmups, Connie Sensei led us in several sets of Reppaku, two linked movements in Taimyo kata. Drawing fists to hips, we opened palms and extended them forward while taking a right hangetsu step. Then, bringing feet together and the backs of our hands together at the chest, we reached up overhead, twisted our hands back, and cut forward and out while taking a left hangetsu step. Connie Sensei offered the images of emptying our pockets, lightening our loads, letting go of the burdens we carry, and spreading the seeds of intention, and then flying up and opening out to see the view before us. After a couple of repetitions, we were encouraged to find our own inspirations and images as we repeated the movements.
For the next hour, Rob Sensei led us in kiri-oroshi kumite, a partner cutting and opening technique, keeping in mind the goals of reconnecting and establishing a physical and spiritual conversation. Keiko one concluded with Rob Sensei leading us in Hoten Kokyu Ho, the gentle kata of embracing the great universe, bowing, embracing the tiniest universe, and rising up again. Those of us familiar with the poem Rob Sensei had written to correspond with the movements might have envisioned expanding our awareness from ourselves to others, to greater communities and cultures, to nature, the biosphere, and cycles of birth and death, and to the solar system, galaxies, and black holes, acknowledging that we are made of stardust and the universe is in us, and finally expanding our awareness to Ten and rising up to Ten Chi Jin.
The next three keikos were dedicated almost entirely to kenjutsu, with participants using bokuto or, in some cases, bokken. Connie Sensei and Rob Sensei taught alternating segments of the curriculum they have developed together. On Saturday afternoon, after Sandra Bengtsson led warmups, Connie led us through stepping practice with bokuto—steps number one through four, plus irimukae, holding the bokuto in a vertical position close to the body and doing step number one, as if stepping into one’s sword. Rob Sensei guided us in sword-drawing techniques and in practicing the transitions between shoko and tenso. And Connie Sensei gave us instruction in bokuto kumite, dai jodan versus jodan, demonstrating with Rob Sensei and adding new partner pairings until all participants were doing the kumitachi. Keiko number two ended with 15 minutes of open-hand Tenshingoso kumite.
Keiko number three, on Sunday morning, began with Connie Sensei leading a freeform style of warmups with the aim of dissolving the roles of leader and follower, emphasizing listening, softening, releasing, and achieving fluid movement. Rob Sensei reviewed the previous afternoon’s kumitachi, which we practiced with different partners and many repetitions. Connie Sensei introduced one-hand Tenshingoso kumite, with one partner responding to the other’s four Tenshingoso movements, cultivating a tight, elastic “ma.” We did the same in two lines of partners facing each other, one side leading and the other responding, moving together in a chorale. In the end, practitioners in both lines did all four Tenshingoso movements, the lines flowing back and forth like ocean waves. Ten minutes of Wakame brought the keiko to a close.
For the last of the four keikos, after Derk led 30 minutes of warmups, we continued with our kenjutsu practice. We divided into two groups. One person stood in the middle, sword raised in tenso. One by one, the others stepped forward quickly and cut the stationary person with jodan kiri komi. Each practitioner took a turn in the center. Our final sword practice was eiko dai kumite, dai jodan versus jodan kiri komi. It started with Connie Sensei and Rob Sensei. Then it became a rotation until everyone had participated. The last few pairings became more free-flowing and continuous. The keiko closed with Connie Sensei leading us in another movement from part one of Taimyo kata, Sai-Zan, “breaking through mountains.” She has reflected deeply on this movement’s relationship to the practice of death awareness, an analog to an army’s retreat, in focused concentration, without fear. But, as a coda to our Kangeiko curriculum, it felt more like an affirmation of life and of our collective intention to move forward with what we had learned.
Overall, the kenjutsu curriculum that Connie Sensei and Rob Sensei created for Pacific Shintaido’s Kangeiko 2023 was fairly basic—simple, foundational movements with a lot of repetition and opportunities to practice with different partners. For those practitioners with less kenjutsu experience, it provided an opportunity to develop muscle memory and inhabit the form. For more senior practitioners, it opened up the space to go deeper into their relationship with the sword—bokuto or bokken—and explore the meaning within. For all, there was an exhilarating suffusion of tenso feeling. We thank Connie Sensei and Rob Sensei, and participants from the greater Bay Area and from Florida, for making Kangeiko an expanded moment of self-refection and enhanced connection with our fellow Shintaido “beginner’s mind” practitioners, the human community, and the universe.
I wrote a recent article on grief, death and loss; I now have some reflections on the benefit of practicing Taimyo Part I — specifically the movement 碎山/Sai-Zan “breaking through mountains”— using kokyu in relation to the individual practice of death awareness. As a forewarning, the subject is awareness of one’s mortality, so you may wish to pick the best time to read and reflect on this topic.
What can be practiced with Sai-Zan within Taimyo? This was a focus of study at the Quebec Gasshuku in September 2022: we step back while doing a tsuki forward, we step back a second time, while keeping our concentration, then we step back a third time bringing our fists to the center of our chest/heart and then tsuki forward to finish with our arms open wide. The analogous military strategy is when the leader retreats with their troops while keeping concentration, keeping troops from fleeing in fear, and making sure no one is left behind.
Sai-Zan and its application to living life was the focus of a dinner discussion in Quebec. I asked the group, “Can you name other (non-military) heroic efforts threatened by almost certain demise?” Here are some of the ones I thought about: the doctors and nurses in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in the stranded nursing home with its frail residents; neighbors like Ko Ueda taking food to isolated neighbors during the COVID pandemic; Mike Sheets taking sandbags in wheelbarrows up our street to prevent garages from flooding, when a large water main broke and sent rivers of brown sludge down our street. Can you think of examples?
I have been reading and reflecting on how our mind resists awareness of our mortality. Fears and regrets are often reasons to avoid this subject. What do most of us really wish for? One desire is to build an ideal world, to live fully, so we may not want to ask ourselves “What if?”
And what about our daily life awareness? I was fortunate to experience 20 years of working in hospice and palliative care, experiencing death and dying up close. I was aware of my mortality and the ever-present reminders of the shortness of life that made me stay awake and stay aware.
I see a practice for death awareness, so I explored doing the three movements of Sai-Zan, while incorporating what Thich Nhat Hanh wrote in his book, The Blooming of a Lotus:
Knowing I will get old, I breathe in, Knowing I can’t escape old age, I breathe out. Knowing I will get sick, I breathe in. Knowing I can’t escape, I breathe out. Knowing I will die, I breathe in. Knowing I can’t escape death, I breathe out.
>>>>>
Determined to live my days deeply in mindfulness, I breathe in. Seeing the joy and benefit of living mindfully, I breathe out.
I brought this practice to a local hospice during an open mic session on death and dying on November 3rd. Comments included “visceral,” “cathartic,” and “a way to process grief.” For Shintaido and students of body movement, there is focused work with the breath – kokyu – breathing in through the nose; breathing into the belly and slowly releasing. We can practice Sai-Zan with a focus on our breath while stepping backward and reaching forward with our arms/fists.
This is an unfinished essay – how might you finish it? How do you develop awareness of mortality? What parts do you resist or how do you avoid daily practice? What are your deepest fears? What are your greatest joys?
Watch the Reflection on Sai-Zan on Shintaido of America YouTube channel.
*Many ask me “What’s next Connie?”- hence my moniker: Next Steps Connie.
Phillipe Beauvois has been a student and teacher of Shintaido for 45 years along with Taichi and Shin-Anma Shiatsu. He participated in the First International Shintaido Gasshuku in 1980 and studied with Robert Breant. In 1985 he started teaching Shintaido on the French Riviera in Grasse. Phillipe, who has been diagnosed with terminal head and neck cancer, reflects on his learnings and his wishes for future students.
Consider visiting Phillipe´s website (in French, can be translated into English in a browser).
About the author Many of you may have been fortunate to have had a chance to do keiko with Robert Gaston. He is a Senior Instructor of Shintaido and has practiced and studied for almost 40 years. He is a member of the International Technical Exam Committee (ITEC).
Rob initially studied Shintaido with John Seaman while he was at college in Oregon. When he left school, he joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier. He made part of this giant ship his dojo where he taught Shintaido to his colleagues.
He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Sandra and daughter Sally both of whom practice Shintaido.
Rob teaches two classes a week; one Bojutsu and one Shintaido via Zoom. Please enjoy his movement and poetry.
This poem came to me at the end of a Zoom Master style class for the Global Taimyo Community taught by Clélie Dudon with Ito-sensei giving feedback.
She taught Taimyo part 3. Ito-sensei gave feedback to us all that focused on the Hoten-kyoku-ho. He expressed two important points, first focus on extending our reach in the bow, like a starfish encompassing and surrounding a sea urchin and second to feel ourselves being inflated from the outside, like the hairs on our entire body are being gently pulled.
I am not sure when I first learned the basic sequence of Hoten-kyoku-ho. It was probably at a Pacific Shintaido meditation workshop in the early to mid 90s.
Initially, it was a healthy body movement that helped ease my sore back after a lot of kaihokei Keiko. But when it was included in the Taimyo sequence and the subsequent Pacific Shintaido’s Taimyo workshop, it became one of the movements I began to feel connected, to others, to nature, to the universe, to something more.
It has had, like other Shintaido movements (i.e ,kirioroshi kumite) a multi-layer effect on my consciousness, peeling or cutting through levels of awareness. The effects and my awareness of Hoten-kyoku-ho have been gradual over many years and I have expressed my most recent “ah-ha” in this poem.
Thank you and please enjoy.
Hoten Kokyu Ho (“Hugging Heaven”)
I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge myself, body, present situation. Turning to the right, I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to others my family, friends, coworkers, those I struggle with.
I turn and face forward, changing my view point to face life directly. I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge them. Turning to the left, I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to a greater community the struggles we have with other viewpoints and cultures.
I turn and face forward appreciating the beauty and strength in diversity. I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge humanity. Turning to the right, I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to Nature, ecosystems, the biosphere, the earth, the struggle of survival, the cycles of life and death of all beings.
I turn and face forward changing my view point, Nature and I are inherently interlinked. I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge connection to nature. I turn to the left. I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to the solar system, the sun, the planets and all their moons, the space between and their cycles.
I turn and face forward changing my view point, I am affected by their cycles their pull and tug keeping my world safe for life. I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge our solar system.
I turn to the right, I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to the Milky Way and all galaxies. The star nurseries, nebulae, supernova and black holes.
I turn and face forward changing my view point, I am made of stardust and all that is in the universe is in me. I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge the cosmos.
I turn to the left and I feel myself invited to expand my awareness to Ten. I turn and face forward changing my view point, I am always in Ten and Ten is in me. I bow and embrace, thank and acknowledge. I rise up to Ten Chi Jin posture.
by Heather Kuhn Heather Kuhn has practiced Shintaido for 23 years with the Shintaido North East (SNE) group. Also, she is a somatic psychotherapist who provides individual therapy focused on early life trauma.
As you will read, she is launching a new group Good Enough for Me that integrates Shintaido movements with other expressive arts therapy.
I had been showing up to keiko with increasing fervor for a decade. For ten years, I cultivated the radical resources of pleasure, joy, connection, and yes, a modicum of self esteem. Simultaneously, peeling the many layers of the soma-spiritual defenses I had built up from early life neglect and narcissistic abuse. This required of me leaps of trust, courage, pacing, and apparently, oceans of tears.
The twisted shell I had formed to protect me was challenged, one muddy keiko at a time, until one day I could name what was happening as, gulp, healing. After all, I had come by these unconscious defense strategies all too honestly. They were both the shield I used to avoid grief and the arrows I threw to project my own self loathing.
Through generous gorei, and more than a few sensei willing to hang in there with me, I peeled away these layers, slowly revealing an impossibly soft belly of selfness. I could see with more and more clear how painful it actually was to live that way. I could sense the value of allowing and receiving. I began to plant the seeds of vulnerability as liberation. In a world that trains us to fight each other for scraps and trained me to stay a victim, standing tall while also being soft was nothing short of transformational.
“And the Day Came When the Risk to Remain Tight In a Bud Was More Painful Than the Risk It Took to Blossom.” – Anaïs Nin
As I peered out on the keiko field one Winter morning, I wondered to myself, is movement a recognized avenue for healing from trauma or am I the very first person to discover it? The question that has guided my purpose ever since was born.
And thankfully the simple answer was it absolutely is and no, I am definitively not.
Somatic psychology is a field that studies how our inner galaxies express, reflect, and can be influenced by our embodied awareness, movement, and relationship with our environment, the Earth and universe. It integrates wisdom traditions with grounded research and, more importantly practice to help us understand ourselves, evolve, connect, and heal.
Naturally, I chose to study somatic psychology at Naropa University, where learning is highly experiential, relational, and practice based. Naropa was a collaboration between Chögyam Trungpa and Alan Ginsberg and founded in 1974 on principles combining the wild-creative and Buddhist practice. There are compelling resonances between the Naropa and Shintaido lineages for sure.
While at Naropa, I learned to become what one of my professors calls an attention athlete, as well as how to observe and understand embodied phenomena, facilitate curiosity, and follow the threads of sensation and impulse (among much much more). I saw my studies in Dance/Movement Therapy as an extension of my Shintaido journey and learned to understand what we were up to in our practice, from a psychological perspective, along with strengths, tendencies of bias, and blind spots within it.
I saw myself as an ambassador for our modality, writing several papers integrating Shintaido principles with various therapeutic topics, including attachment theory, catharsis, issues around power and relationship dynamics, and finally in my masters paper about facilitating psychotherapeutic movement in the medium of water.
The program and working with a somatic therapist was what led me the rest of the way to total body connectivity; weaving my inner world with the outer and back again – the building blocks toward the aspiration of self awareness. For four years, I set down my Shintaido practice with an inner commitment to, in part, explore how my psyche was insidiously using my practice to avoid pain. I asked, ‘would I be ok without keiko?’, since I admit that before I began Shintaido, I was not.
I was ok, gratefully, but I discovered Shintaido provided a significant resource for me. Because of my trauma, compensatory practices will likely always be necessary. In other words, the more resilience I can cultivate through practice, the more capacity I will have to fully grieve. The more I can allow grief to move through me willingly, the more access I have to a fulfilling life without the need for defenses.
Fast forward to now. After 23 years of Shintaido, 25 years of meditation practice, 11 years of training in somatic psychology, and 9 years providing individual therapy focused on early life attachment trauma, I am thrilled to announce the launch of a program that integrates Shintaido with the expressive arts therapies to support others on similar paths.
The group is called Good Enough for Me and provides an in-depth process to support adults engaged in healing the lasting effects of childhood emotional neglect, low self-worth, and/or chronic self sabotage. It is a therapy group, complete with an intake process, one-on-one goals honing and check-in sessions, and peer support structures in place. Although there is never-ending depth to explore in Shintaido, the first 10 years of practice provided a universe of curriculum which can be shaped and shared with endless creativity. What might be considered beginning Shintaido is what I am drawing from for this group.
Good Enough for Me has been a dream in the making for 23 years. I’m incredibly proud of the work I have done to be in a place where I can support this vulnerable population and pass along the generosity I was so blessed to receive in our international Shintaido community.
There are a few call outs I would like to make to people without whom I would not have gotten this far. I will never ever forget the time Gianni said “you can do it!” at my side while I did kai kya kusho across the Shintaido farm dojo. It was the first time in my whole life someone said that to me. Or the time David encouraged me to focus on the trying rather than discerning good enoughness. Or how Joe, bless his spirit, would get tearful when he saw me after too long, letting me know I mattered, I belonged, and my presence was wanted. I could go on…
Which is to say, the movements of Shintaido are important, yes, but the opportunities afforded in the movements to help people heal and grow are the real treasures of Shintaido. I believe with all my heart we have something valuable to offer in this time of acute turmoil, volatility, and systemic narcissism.
I invoke Chapter 1 from Shintaido, The body is a message of the universe:
Shintaido is the light in the shade and the sun in the shadow. People who have been constitutionally weak and depressed from birth can discover extraordinary strength and ability through Shintaido. People who have lacked the will power or determination to express even a tenth of their talent can grow and develop in Shintaido. People who have never been aware of their true value will realize the dignity of being. Those who are too self-conscious by nature to express their ideas will find new confidence and conviction. Those whose spirits are closed and stagnant will be inspired with a new faith and purpose. Those who have become private and isolated will be able to communicate a new joy of life to others. Those who are downtrodden or oppressed will understand that all human beings are equal before God and free to express their being. This is why we call our movement Shintaido or “new body way.”
To read more about Good Enough for Me, follow this link.
