Japanese Acupuncture （日本鍼灸、アリゾナ）

Love & Pure Abstract Potentiality*

LOVE loves loving.  LOVE wants to express itself in its totality.  When the Heart is open, your whole body shifts to undulating ecstatic vibrational energy force.  You cease to exist and so do time and space.  You are in the field of pure abstract potentiality where infinite possibilities are played out by LOVE and the loving force.  This field is deeply sensuous and undulates, contracts, expands, and bursts with ecstatic bliss.  You are in the timeless field of bliss to experience that you ARE, and that you have always have been before the beginning of time.  

Close your eyes and ease your mind, and let go.  Let instinct takes you over and not be afraid.  Let go your egoic consciousness.  Allow the Heart to be opened.  Take a deep breathe.  Connect with your body energy:  feel the energy contacting and expanding.  Take another deep breathe, and the energy would bursts as you exhale.  Let go and you are no longer there.  Just sensuous undulating energy exits, and it is YOU as your totality (you are the “This Which IS.).

“To Love Is To Know Your Innermost Nature, The Truth That I Am.”  Zeerak Khan

*Quantum Physics

Japanese Acupuncture （日本鍼灸、アリゾナ）

One dust rises,
The Universe happens.
One flower blossoms,
The Universe begins.

From the Records of the Blue Cliff, No. 19

Japanese Acupuncture, Arizona （日本鍼灸）

Many people are speculative how and why acupuncture works.
For example, sciatic pain is a compression of vertebras (mostly L-4/5 or L-5/S-1:  don't need an X-ray to know it).  Without a decompression of the vertebras involved, people wonder how acupuncture reduces pain.  For the answer, I will ask you: how does a placebo, usually a sugar pill, work for many people?  Sugar does not decompress vertebras.  If you can answer that, you have a right to ask how acupuncture works.  When you visit any acupuncturist, let go of your notion of western logic and methods.  They are not helping you, and that is why you call an acupuncturist. Any preconception you might have visiting an acupuncture clinic will work against you.  Let it go, and instead, experience something that has been working for more than 2000 years, far longer than western medicine.

Japanese Acupuncture, Arizona （日本鍼灸）

(For The Valentine’s Day)

Are You Really Making Love…?

No matter what people, churches, religions, governments, or science say, the sexual energy is the strongest energy force we have in our bodies.  Since it is the strongest, might as well utilize it to enhance your state of BE-ing.  Before you stop reading this article, I must tell you that what I write below is very good for those who are having sexual dysfunctions.

When was the last time you had a breathless, weightless, timeless, and selfless orgasm?  When was the last time you truly “made LOVE” rather than “having sex”?  You do not need to answer these:  you already know in your heart. 

True awakening is hard to achieve when the Heart is closed.  It is essential to open it up, going beyond vulnerability and fear, and to know your true Self that you ARE.  There are many ways to open the Heart, but today, I would like to emphasize on the sexual energy.

Timeless and Selfless Bliss Is Achievable:

Here are what you need to do and these exercises are great for any sexual dysfunctions, too.

#1:  It is essential that you practice, and hopefully, master the breathing technique.  Start with abdominal breathing.  This will immediately place you in the alpha brain wave stage of relaxation.  Lie down on comfortable floor, and take a slow and relaxing breathe to the abdomen.  Rather than breathing from the chest, concentrate on expanding your abdomen, especially below the navel.  If you marshal arts, you know that this area is the energy source (Tan- Tien in Chinese:  Tan-Den in Japanese).  If you have difficulties doing this, ask your lover to watch and instruct to see if the abdomen is rising before the chest.  Do this for 10 to 30 min.

#2:  Need to master the control of the diaphragm.  Change the breathing to very short inhalation from the nostril, and for exhalation, slightly longer exhalation from the nostril.  Repeat this in quick succession.  At first, you cannot do this fast, so take time to master this Short-Longer breathing technique.  As you inhale, the diaphragm should go up.  If you do not feel it going up, you are not doing right.  As you exhale, the diaphragm is doing down:  be aware of it.  If you feel dizzy or become afraid of going further, slow down or stop completely.  Relax and do it again when you are ready.  Do this for about 15-30.  For a beginner, do not over do this process.  But those of you who are serious, master this technique.

#3:  Once you are comfortable with #2 technique, take a short breath in from the nostril and contract the anal sphincter at the same time.  This is an essential technique for any sexual dysfunction.  This is how you move the sexual energy to the 7^th chakra.  Let go with a longer exhalation and relax the sphincter.  Do this exercise daily anytime you want while no one is watching.  Once you can keep the sphincter close for more than a minuet, you are mastering. 

#4:  Do the breathing and the sphincter contraction and try to bring the sexual energy along the spine to the top of the body. You need a great awareness of your body to do this.  You can undulate your body or curve your spine, but each breath and contraction, try to send the energy up.  After a few minuets of this, relax and become aware of your body.  Touch your Third Eye and the top of the head (crown chakra/7^th chakra) to see if they are softening up.  This really needs exercises.  Do not be disappointed.  Practice makes perfect.  Once you master this, you are on the way to healing and will see the reality in a totally different perspective.  Your eyes and visions become softer.  Your mind is more open because your Heart is opening up.  No more self constrains, rules, and limitations.  You experience your true Self.

#5:  Once you master #4, you can be in an orgasmic state anytime and anywhere you want.  But you will no longer do this for an intercourse.  You do this for an awakening and spiritual experience.  You will understand that this orgasm is not the orgasmic experienced through sex, but much stronger and deeper, and above all blissful (truly making LOVE).   You will float in the field that is timeless and selfless.  Here is what you do with your partner.  Once both of you learn to do the breathing technique, you copulate, but this time, one of you do the breathing and closing sphincter technique to bring the energy up, and take turns.  Once you are comfortable with it, you, two, can try at the same time.  Do not aim for an orgasm itself, but the pure sensation of it.  Orgasm and blissfulness are different.  After orgasm, completely let go.  At this moment, if I ask you “who are you?”  You will not be able to answer.  You are in a complete blissful field that is timeless and selfless.  There is absolutely no time or self:  just floating in a weightless field and for the first time in your life you experience that you ARE.

And when I say, “This,” you will know exactly what it is.

Namaste

Japanese Acupuncture, Arizona （日本鍼灸）

How Much Do You Honor Yourself?

Recovery from illness and pain totally depends on how much you honor yourself. On contrary to what many believe, it is not an acupuncturist or an MD who improves your symptoms. Ultimately, it is you who improve yourself. A health care provider is just a helping hand and real improvement comes from within you. You cannot be healthy when you are limiting yourself in your mind. If you are constantly rationalizing that you don’t have money and time, then, there is no solution. It is amazing to me that not many people know how to make time and how to spend money when comes to health.

Do you know how to create money like most of us do? Then, spending money on your health should not be a worry, and instead, it should be your top priority.

Before you call any health care provider, make sure you know your worth.

Japanese Acupuncture, Phoenix, AZ （日本鍼灸）

Living & Death-ing

From a few posts ago, I wrote about Experience v Knowledge, but I have not answered on a question that an astrophysicist asks:  What is the universe expanding into?  I mentioned that since he sought the Knowledge, he may never find an answer (please read the post first).  From spiritual perspective, the answer to the question is that the universe is expanding into the Beginning.  It is our folly, because of “time,” we believe that we must have a beginning and an ending.  From a spiritual point of view, they are one and the same. 

What is the beginning is the ending, and what is the ending is the beginning.  Notice I placed “ing” on the begin and the end.  They are not “ended” or “began.”  They are continuously beginn-ing and end-ing (from before the beginning of time and after the ending of time).

We are in the abstract field of potentiality*1 where all histories beyond time play out.  Physicists say that there are up to 11^th dimensions that fit mathematical calculations to possibly explain the universe (the string theory).  Beyond the 4^th dimension of spacetime, I know that soon or later they must include the potentiality (or probabilities) and the Consciousness.  We are seeing today that the dark matter*2 and the dark energy are real, and what we thought of the universe, once again, is radically changing. 

From spiritual perspective, what they call the dark matter is what I call the Pure Consciousness*3.  What they call the dark energy is the Intention behind the Consciousness.  The Energy comes from the undulating and sensuous field*4 (quantum fluctuation) of the Pure Abstract Potentiality*5. 

You might say, “how do you know all that?”  Remember, a spiritual person goes for the Experience.  When we are in the field of pure abstraction, we know exact what we ARE (Contradictory?  But it IS.).  No laws of any kind, nothing binds you to anything.  You are totally free and you are IT.

How do we apply the Experience to our lives?  When comes to death, for example, the true reality is that death is not an end.  It is an extension of end-ing and the beginning of the beginn-ing.  I quoted the last line from Elizabeth Browning’s famous poem, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways on my last post.  It is superbly noble to say that “I love thee more after death.”  From  spiritual perspective, we only do the best to living Life while our times last, and when so called death takes over, we only do the best to death-ing, for what is unborn never die.  Namaste.

*1:  Abstract Potentiality:  Dr. John Hagelin, PhD.

*2:  “a significant fraction of the dark matter must be in a different form from ordinary matter.”  Stephen Hawking

*3:  Maharaj Nisargadatta 

*4:  Note:  the “field” and not the “space.”

*5:  You may label this kind of thinking as “quantum mysticism.”  But quantum physics contains “imaginary numbers and time.”

Japanese Acupuncture Phoenix, AZ （日本鍼灸）

Slow Suicides:  Let Me Count The Ways

1:            Smoking a pack or more cigarettes a day will give you cancer almost 100% of the time.  Also gives you hypertension and others you already know.  You will shorten your life span for at least 3 to 5 years, and your family members are the ones suffer the most.

2:            Eating a large chunk of cheese every day will give you (almost guaranteed) cardiac problems.  Cheese is phlegm.  It will stagnate the entire circulatory system:  increasing bad cholesterol level is just a tip of an iceberg.  American cheeses are highly acidic with tons of preservatives and salts.  Do not deny in your head:  check your cholesterol level and change your diet, unless of course if you are looking for a sudden death.

3:            Excessive intake of alcohol will give you cirrhosis of the liver, and it will give you a not so pleasant death and also increase risks of cancer.  Do not drink alcohol without intake of foods:  drinking for hours and not eating will most likely give you colon cancer.

4:            High intake of sugar will give you all kinds of problems including the above three.  In our modern life, sugar is the mother of all evils.  Never to intake artificial sweeteners, and be careful with diet drinks and foods:  they are not that safe as you might think.  Add high sugar diet to high protein diet and it will give you a kidney failure or dysfunction.  Do not allow corporate giants to take control of your life span!

5:            Same is true with all junk foods and fast foods:  corporate irresponsibility to the maximum.  Do not become a victim to corporate greed.  Especially feeding kids with these substances is not doing anything good.  Most of us are sold out on the idea that we do not have time and money to feed ourselves right.  Remember, the demise of the Roman Empire is partially due to lead poisoning.  America is doing the same with food poisoning. 

6:              There are many more.  Will count as we go along.

“I shall love thee better after death.”  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

On Oneness: Knowledge v Experience （日本鍼灸）Phoenix, Arizona, USA

On Oneness:  Knowledge v Experience

A question an astrophysicist asks that “what the universe expanding into?” is similar to a spiritual person asking “what is it that becomes one with the Oneness?”  As we know that the universe is a runaway space expansion and galaxies are moving away from each other faster and faster.  We do not know if the universe has a boundary and what a purpose of the universe (if any).  On a smaller scale, within an internal dialogue, you might ask “what is the meaning of life?” 

Difference between a scientist and a spiritual person is that one seeks for knowledge (with great details, observational accuracies, and the simplest mathematical formulas) and the other seeks for experience (not a metaphysical, in our mind notion, but an actual experience).  I can write:  Knowledge v Experience. 

In quantum physics, we have become aware for the first time in scientific history that an act of observation influences an outcome (an observer v a see-er), and in the area of particle physics the velocity and the position of a particle cannot be accurately known both at the same time (Heisenberg Uncertainty).  Quantum physics is unveiling how “weird” the world of particle physics is (“weird” because it deviates from our daily and usual experiences), but the weirdness is quite real as the reality.  This knowledge has expanded our consciousness exponentially compared to that of the medieval era.  Such is the power of knowledge that frees us from conventional social norms and mores. 

Einstein once said that he wanted to know the mind of God*1 (he meant not the personal god but a harmonious perfection).  But he chose the wrong word, the “mind.” If one asks for the mind, he can glimpse on a fraction of the whole.  What he should have said was:  “I want to experience god.”  Then he had gotten the whole, 100% of what there was (and is).  Knowledge is great but Experience supersedes it.  There is one obstruction, a hurdle, we need to jump over on both cases:  that is about a “word.”   A word is an abstraction to explain and communicate easily with each other.  However, we need to understand that the true reality cannot be explained by words alone.  There is a limitation to words.  Joseph Campbell always said that words were second rate.  Why?  A minute we describe an emotional quality with words, they cheapen it*2:  for example, emotion and reverence we feel after seeing a beautiful sunset is not describable:  simply uttering “ah…” is all we can do.  Remember, the most important word on AUM (or OM) is the silence after the M.*3. 

Similarly, when we seek the meaning of life, we understand that the word “meaning” is a concept, and therefore, there is no “meaning.”  We made up the word to communicate, but since it is a word and is abstract, there are many interpretations of the same word:  if we search for it, we will never ever get an answer.  Right question to ask is:  “How do we experience the Life itself every single moment in our times?”

The answer to the astrophysicist’s question is that, since he seeks Knowledge, we don’t know what the universe is expanding into and we may never know forever since the universe is expanding so rapidly and the observable universe of about 14 billion years ago is so far away. 

Do we then have the answer to the second question?  In order to get an answer, we must know and experience the following.  What is the difference between an Observer and a See-er?  And, what is the state of mind of the See-er?   

Look at yourself in a mirror, I mean for a long time.  If you do so until your eyes and your eyes in the mirror merge, them you experience that you are no long certain who is an observer and who is a see-er.  An observer becomes being seen, yet you two are one and the same (same with a particle:  it behaves like a particle at the same time as wave).  At the deeper level of this experience we realize that most of us are not aware that our own ego makes us think that we exist.  Here is an example to ponder:  Do you look the sky and say “I exit?”  or do you realize that because the sky is blue, “you exist?”  Do you say a flag is moving or air is moving the flag, or the mind is moving? (Can you go beyond the mind?)

I give you another example:  when you look at a dying person, could be your parent, lover, friend, etc., what are you really thinking in your head and what are you experiencing?  Crying or being sorrowful is a very human response.  But what is behind the emotion?  Are you crying because your emotion (the realm of the egoic consciousness) making you or because of the past social behavioral pattern (we are all programmed)?  Are you an observer or a see-er?  Are you experiencing before the “ah” moment, something cannot be described by words?  And what is death? 

Answer to the question of what it is that we are really becoming one with the Oneness is in the Experience.  Since words cannot explain, I cannot write it down here for you.  You must experience IT.  When IT happens, you are no longer bounded by emotions and the egoic consciousness.  You look at a dying person as IT happens with pure compassion:  a true See-er, that IS.

Namaste.

*1:             I wanted to avoid word god as much as possible in my writing. 

*2:            Please do not misunderstand that words are often sacred such as in cases of poetries; making words more abstract and meaningful.

*3:            The true experience with the Oneness is THAT SOMETHING before we even utter “ah…” (before the “a” and once again after the “M.”).

Japanese Acupuncture （日本鍼灸）

Every morning before waking up, place your right hand over the heart, take a slow and gentle breathe, feeling the warmth of the hand, and tell yourself that "My heart is happy." This will creat a totally different reality than you might have without it. Namaste.

On Depression & Anxiety/Japan Acupuncture （日本鍼灸）

On Depression & Anxiety

When Prozac is the most prescribed drug in this country, there is definitely something wrong with this country!  One thing I was surprised after opening up my acupuncture clinic was that the number of clients coming in for depression and anxiety.  Most amazingly, there is no gender difference, and also, younger people are affected by them.  I believe there is no other country like ours today.

Why is this the trend?  I blame everything on American diet and drug culture.  Fast and frozen food industries and pharmaceutical companies are basically destroying our foundation of health.  They offer chemicals and  preservatives very unnatural to our body and drugs that have many side effects so that they are no longer cure.   For example, I do not call cheese made in this country cheese anymore.  It is basically an “imitation” with lots of chemical preservatives (not to mention its salt content).  Try this for yourself:  buy a Big Mac and place it in a car’s trunk for months and forget about it.  Then open the trunk to see if it has been decomposed or not*1.  Well, it does not decompose.  Do you really want this kind of foods?

What We Need To Do:

1)            Stop giving yourself a false excuse saying, “I don’t have time.”  Yes, you do.  It is a matter of how much you honor yourself.  If your health or issues with depression and anxiety are your priority, you will do something better.  Do not eat fast and junk foods or anything unhealthy.

2)            Do not excessively intake inflammatory and acidic foods (hopefully none), such as:  cheeses, white sugar, white flour, red meats, coffee, sodas, alcohol, etc.  Study online what foods are acidic and alkalizing.  On drugs, remember this:  all drugs have side effects, therefore they are not cure.

3)            Discipline yourself to do at least minimum exercises, such as daily 30 min walking, yoga, stretching, etc.  Get out of your room and breathe fresh air (it is totally free).

4)            If you are deeply into depression, you need to tell yourself that you need help.  Call someone and start talking:  asking for help is a beginning of friendship – do not hesitate.  If you cannot, then do the #5).

5)            Know what depression and anxiety are.  What are they to you if someone asks “depression is equal to what”?  Can you answer?  Become aware what they are and do not pay attention to depression/anxiety itself.  Not knowing what they are is ignorance.  You will forever in a depressive state, and that’s where suffering is (being ignorant).  For example, my definition of depression is:  creating a false statement and projecting it into the future.  Everyone has a different definition.  You must find it for yourself.  Know what is in your mind only and what is a true reality.  Depression and anxiety are 100% creations of the mind and nothing to do with reality that you are experiencing.  However, the sensation and symptoms you feel are real:  queasiness in the stomach, diarrhea or constipation, fatigue, heaviness, pain, etc.

6)            Seek out help.  Do not hesitate.  Acupuncture is great medium but there are others. 

7)            Be more spiritual.  Increase your awareness, and for the first time, find out who you truly are and more importantly what you are.  Good luck.

Namaste.

*1:  Did you know that Crest toothpaste would melt asphalt?  Try cleaning your drive way with the paste and a brush and see for yourself. 

Japan Acupuncture （日本鍼灸）

Many of my clients know that I often talk about spirituality. This is because the mind often leads us to unbalance of our body. Mind and body are not enough. There has to be spirituality to sustain the balance of the former two. As St John Perse, a French poet who won the Nobel Prize, said that in our modern time that the space between the finite and the infinity was getting far apart. Modern people are less capable today to be creative within our world of finite. We talk about conquering nature, for example, with drugs and surgeries as if they are cures.  This is the work of the mind. As long as we are limited in our mind, we will suffer forever mentally and physically. Next time you see a stone, don't break it to build a skyscraper but leave it as is and imagine upon the stone what it could be. Yes, it is the realm of poetry that leads us to the infinite possibilities and not limited in anything. Everything is possible, even getting rid of cancer, if we can imagine with the total freedom without constricts. As you know that I don't belong to any religion or church, but I can tell you that the realization of a poem is a religion, and for me it is religiously spiritual. 

Namaste.

On Transcendence

We often misunderstand the difference between transformation and transcendence.  We think transcendence is something that transforms, for example, the movie, Transcendence (incidentally, it is made by the same director, Christopher Nolan, who made Interstellar:  he was off the mark on Transcendence, and he nailed it on Interstellar).  In the movie, Johnny Depp character’s consciousness is transferred to computer.  This is a transformation and not the transcendence.  True transcendence is experiencing and realizing the True Nature of our Self and becoming THAT.  At the End (I mean really the End with a capital E) of all physics, mathematics, and sciences, there IS something that cannot be known by formulations and knowledge.  I suppose we can know everything in the universe up to 99.9%.  But there is always, 0.1% that cannot be explained.  As long as the 0.1% remains, then we are not knowing and experiencing the true fact.  Same with our existence.  If I say that we don’t exist, do you deny it and say it is not true?  It is ok to deny it, but can you really prove that you are right?  It is always that 0.1% needs to be answered.  The only way to reach the answer is by transcendence.  Namaste.

Japan Acupuncture, Phoenix, AZ （日本鍼灸アリゾナ）

How/Why Acupuncture Works:
In case if anyone wonders about how and why acupuncture works, the simplest answer is that because each one of us, no matter how sick we are, has the healing power within our body. Western medicine treats sicknesses and diseases and oriental medicine treats a human being.

About A Cicada:
Summer is to swimming, sunshine, etc. In Japan, cicada represents summer. In America, we call it a bug, but in Japan, it is more revered. Cicada spends 7 years in underground and when they metamorphosed to a cicada, it only lives for a few days (For Japanese, it is like cherry blossoms: its beauty only last few days and petals fall.) Therefore, cicada is a symbol of perseverance and reminder of how short the life is. Here is my translation of a Basho's haiku＊: "Soon death awaits, Not knowingly, The voice of a cicada." Cicada does not care how short the life is. It always sings with full voice. It does not hesitate, does not complain, and does not doubt. It simply passes on to the next generation what it has always been. So, next summer when you hear a cicada, please don't think as a bug. It is there to remind you what your true purpose is in your spiritual quest.  Namaste.

＊芭蕉：　やがて死ぬ気色も見えず蝉の声

Japanese Acupuncture (日本鍼灸) Newsletters

Volume 3, No. 4, August, 2014

Oriental Medicine & On Human Conditions

Chapter Four

Lung:  Sadness, Courage, and Dissolution No. ４

樹葉凋落時如何

When leaves shrivel and fall, how do you feel?

大露金風

The Absolute Golden Wind

(Absolute:  purest, truest, clearest, none-other-than)

(Golden Wind:  autumn wind)

Perhaps, this simple conversation is one of the most famous of all Zen utterances made by Chinese masters.  A monk, obviously himself was old and an accomplished Zen-ist, asked his master Ummon (雲門), how he felt about looking at a tree in an autumn day.  Literal translation of the answer is:  totally naked (bare) golden wind (gold-metal/fall:  Five Element).  What Ummon said was that everything and everywhere was the Golden Wind.  There is no hesitation, no uncertainty, and confusion:  clear as the autumn sky and cool as the wind, for he is in the state of absolute “Nothingness.”

The monk who asked did not have any desire (the nakedness); void of a position, fame, and money.  Only thing he knew he had was his aliveness and livingness.  I believe that he wanted assurance from his master that his as-is-ness was as close as the master’s.  (In so doing, he tested his master’s awareness:  very gutsy thing to do).  His worry was answered by a spontaneous response by the master.  Their hearts met.  They understood each other, and they were one.  When we are ready to shed everything that we believe valuable and dear, even a god, and therefore, stand totally naked, the cool autumn wind permeates through us and makes us realize that it is the “Life” that “Is” everything and everywhere.

For most of us, fall is about the following.  Cool autumn air tightens our lungs.  Leaves fall and remind us of time passing, making us feel slightly sad.  It is the time to reflect and move inward.  Sensitivity comes back after summer of activities.  It is the time to defend ourselves from pathogens once again.  Yet, it is the time to be poetic and creative.  New ideas flourish.  Renewed desire once again burns within us. 

As my readers know that fall belongs to the Metal Element and it is represented by the Lung and Sadness.   In Oriental Medicine, the contraction of the lungs is the sadness (Chinese character 悲:  the upper portion of the word characterizes the protracted lungs and the lower characterizes the heart or feeling.)  When the lungs are protracted and contracted, we cannot breathe well.  Pathogens come in and make the matter worse.  It is very important for us to strengthen the function of the lungs by drink less alcohol, less sweating, resting and sleeping well, and intake more vitamin C and phytoagents.  Some spices and plants open up the lungs such as peppers and peppermint.  Apple cider vinegar increases the immune system.  Physiologically, rubbing the sternum while taking shower, gargling with salt, keeping the neck and the feet warm help to keep the lung functions.  Acupuncture greatly helps the lung function.  I can stop coughing and a progress of cold and flu (especially caught early).  Four major acupuncture  immune points in the body system are:  the base of the neck, the navel, at the elbow where the line of crease folds, and UB-13 (at both sides, about 1 ½ inches away from the third thoracic vertebra).

Fall is the time of emotions.  Sadness prevails as it gets darker earlier in the day; colors of flowers and trees fade; and the temperature drops.  It is the time for yearning and belonging, but at the same time, it is the time to be aware of self, physically and spiritually.  The dissolution of sadness is to become a friend with the emotion.  If you feel profound sadness, go ahead and go deeper into the emotion and experience it.  From the experience, you will know how to become a friend with sadness.  Once this happens, a sensation of sadness will last only a few seconds and you will be able to put it aside in a proper place in your mind.  The ultimate dissolution happens when you can truly “experience” and understand the following poem by the same Zen master, Ummon.

The Cool Wind gently blows through my mind,

No matter what happens!

No matter what happens,

The Cool Wind gently blows through my mind.

                                                                        雲門 (Ummon)

Epilogue:

When you let go everything in your life, totally, then you understand that it is “Love*” that gives the Life

*Compassion

© 2014 Dr. Y. Frank Aoi (NM State)/Japanese Acupuncture, LLC

Happy New Year

Here is a thought for the New Year coming up.

The greatest tragedy about the human race is that we all think we are different.*1  About 3000 BC ago, something went wrong with the course of human race:   our ancestors started to invade other tribal communities and that has made what we are today, divided and conflicting.  However, no matter how different we “think” we are from others, we cannot avoid the inner feeling that we are one and the same as a human.  This is because we are intrinsically one.*2  When you become aware of the Awareness, you know it is to be true.  What we are is always the Experience experiencing itself. There are billions of consciousness on the Earth, and we are all experiencing what we feel.  Yet most of us do not realize what is feeling the feelings. 

In the realm of the Awareness, the self does not exist.  This means that you do not exist.  All senses are first memorized by the brain, and then the recognition comes in the mind.  But the brain is not trustworthy.  It is, as you know, notorious about memories.  We don’t remember all the details even from yesterday.  Our sense of smell, touch, vision, taste, and hearing are all in the faulty brain.  We cannot trust them.*3

What does this lead us to?  First drop your given names.  You did not choose them.  Let go your mind.*4  The worst case of the mind is either suicidal or homicidal.  Let it go.  Empty your mind.  Let go your self and ego.  Experience who you truly are.  Then the funny thing is that once you now who you are, you completely drop it and start address your self to be what you are.

So, I say this to all of you.  I am the evil and the good.  I am sorrow and happiness.  I am all the miseries on the Earth and I am love.  I am all these and beyond.  Kiss my forehead and you know it is to be true.

“Siddhartha silently looked at him with his still and unchanging smile.  Govinda stared into Siddhartha’s face with fear, with yearning.  Sorrow and eternal seeking were written in his gaze, eternal failure to find.  Siddhartha saw it and smiled. ‘Lean toward me!’ he whispered in Govinda’s ear.  ‘Lean toward me here!  Right, a bit closer!  Very close!  Kiss my forehead, Govinda.’  …He no longer saw his friend Siddhartha’s face; instead he saw other faces, many, a long row, a streaming river of faces, hundreds, thousands, ...He saw the face of a fish, a carp…he saw gods, saw Krishna, saw Agni…Govinda saw that his smile of the mask, this smile of the oneness…kind, perhaps, quizzical, wise, thousandfold smile of Gautama, the Buddha, as he himself…, no longer knowing whether a Siddhartha existed, or a Gautama, or I and Thou, …Govinda stood for a brief while, leaning over Siddhartha’s silent face, which he had just kissed, which had just been the setting of all formations, all Becoming, all Being…Govinda bowed low.  Tears ran over his old face, but he was unaware of them; the feeling of deepest love, of humblest veneration burned in his heart like a fire.  He bowed low, down to the ground, bowed to the motionless sitter, whose smile reminded him of everything that he had ever loved in his life, that had ever been valuable and holy to him in his life.”
                                                               Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse  

*1:  Those of us who believe in individualism and the free will might want to ponder upon the fact we did not consciously choose our  birthday dates when we were fetuses.

*2:  That we all came from Africa, perhaps from the Lucy lineage.  That we are made out of cosmic dusts.  That we came from the Big Bang.

*3:  Like Rene Descartes did:  once deceived, cannot trust the deceiver.  Like the Heart Sutra correctly chants.

*4:  The mind and the body are not enough.  There has to be spirituality in between them.

Zen & Acupuncture

Japanese Acupuncture Newsletter, Phoenix, Arizona

By this time, many of my readers understand that all dualistic questions can only be answered by the silence and cannot be answered by any word.  Immediately after you utter yes or no, you are no longer a Zen master:  fallen to our ordinary life where all sufferings are.  Remember, the most important part of AUM or OM is the silence after the “M.”

Zen is everywhere and at any time.  For example, you face “a mute” person everyday.  Let me ask you that what is a good worker to you?  A good worker is the one who does a job before you even ask.  He or she already knows what you want or your habit:  “Oh, I already bought that for you.  It is coming next week.”  “Honey, here is your favorite breakfast.” etc., etc.  Spiritual level is the same.  When Buddha raises a flower, if you are at the same level as his, then you would say, “Ah, I get it, Buddha!”*  It is the empathy you attain.  A good disciple knows what a Zen master is truly asking (You must read his mind, behind his intention, not only one step back, but two, or three steps back).  Knowing that you cannot answer with any word but must answer, all Zen disciples are asked to break the dilemma.**

Here is an absolute dilemma for you.  What if a Zen master asks you to climb up a tree and asks you to hang from a tree branch by just biting.  Your hands and feet are dangling in the air.  Then, the master asks you what is the meaning of Dharma coming to the East? (What is Buddha?)  What would you do in this situation?  If you open your mouth and answer, you fall to your death.  If you mean the silence by keep on biting, soon or later, your jaw gets tired and would fall.  If you don’t answer, you go nowhere, and the master is waiting.  Remind you that you don’t have a flower in your hand.  Whoever can break through this gate is the next Buddha.

Namaste.

*Story is that only one disciple understood what Buddha meant with a flower.

**Quantum physic dilemma:  two different particles, say, A and B, are separating from each other to the opposite direction with the speed of light, yet when A turns to B, B turns to A at the same time.  We all know that this is impossible (with Einstein’s theory), yet it happens everyday (ask any physicist).  However, we are coming closer to answering (passing and communicating without a space).***  When we do, “Scotty, beam me up” could be possible.

***Quantum Leap, New York Times, Aug. 20, 2013
"Because the bits were 'entangled,' to use quantum physics term, what happened to one happened to the other.  So, when data was written to the sender side of the chip, it would leap to the receiving side without passing through the space between."

Why We Make Bad Decisions by Noreena Hertz

New York Times, October 20, 2013

“Physicians do get things wrong, remarkably often.  Studies have shown that up to one in five patients are misdiagnosed.  In the United States and Canada it is estimated that 50,000 hospital deaths each year could have been prevented if the real cause of illness had been correctly identified…Yet people are loath to challenge experts…When we find data that supports our hopes we appear to get a dopamine rush similar to the one we get if we eat chocolate, have sex or fall in love.  But it’s often information that challenges our existing opinions or wishful desires that yields the greatest insights.  I was lucky that my boyfriend alerted me to my most dopamined drugged moments.  The dangerous allure of the information we want to hear is something we need to be more vigilant about, in the medical consulting room and beyond…I chose a surgeon who wasn’t overly confident.  I’d learned in my research that the super-confident, doctor-as-god types did not always perform well.  One study of radiologists, for example, reveals that those who perform poorly on diagnostic tests are also those most confident in their diagnostic prowess.”

A Glut of Antidepressants:  Overdiagnosis of Depression Is A Factor In Rise Of Prescriptions by Roni Caryn Rabin

New York Times, Aug 13, 2013

“Over the past two-decades, the use of antidepressants has skyrocketed.  One in ten Americans now takes an antidepressant medication; among women in their 40s and 50s, the figure is one in four.  Experts have offered numerous reasons…But a recent study suggests another explanation:  that the condition is being overdiagnosed on a remarkable scale…The study, published in April in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, found that nearly two-thirds of a sample of more than 5,000 patients who had been given a diagnosis of depression within the previous 12 months did not meet the criteria for major depressive episode as described by the psychiatrists’ bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or D.S.M.)…Most people stay on the drugs, which can have a variety of side effects, for at least two years.  Some take them for a decade or more…But Americans have become more and more willing to use medication…Ironically…many who actually have it suffer without treatment…it takes Americans eight years on average to seek care…According to the D.S.M., a diagnosis of major depressive episode is appropriate if the patient has been in a depressed mood and felt no interest in activities for at least two weeks, and also has at least five symptoms that impair function almost everyday.  These include unintentional weight gain or loss, problems sleeping, agitation or slowed reactions noticed by others, fatigue and low energy, feeling of excessive guilt or worthlessness, difficulty concentrating and recurrent thoughts of death…Many doctors have long prescribed antidepressant soon after the death of a family member, even though the D.S.M. urges clinicians to differentiate between normal grief and pathological bereavement…Doctors need to improve their diagnostic skills, Dr. Mojtabai said, and must resist the temptation 'to take out the prescription pad and write down an antidepressant and hand it to the patient.'”

Volume 3, No. 4, November, 2013

Oriental Medicine & On Human Conditions

Chapter Four

Lung:  Sadness, Courage, and Dissolution No. 4

In my last newsletter, I pointed out the importance of Ren-4, Ren-6, Ren-12 and Ren-17 acupuncture points, all on the abdomen, for treatment and diagnosis.  Sadness (the Lung element) does not turn to courage as long as the lung functions are weak.  Courage is the mother of the Will (the Kidney element:  please read my last newsletter.  If you have not received them, they are all in my website under “newsletter.”).  I also mention that the Ren-4 (about an inch above the pubic symphysis, on the centerline) is my chosen point for between the Spleem/Earth and the Lung/Metal elements.  For between the Lung/Metal and the Kid/Water is Ren-9, just a quarter inch above the navel on the centerline.  This point has a simple name:  the Water Point.  It relates to all fluid related symptoms such as ascites (accumulation of fluid – water bloated-ness), toxic body fluid, urination problems, etc.  This point connects with Du-4 (Ming Men:  the Gate of Life:  on the centerline of the spine, at the second lumber vertebrae).  Du-4 is one of the most important points, for it is the Gate of Life.  The point is exactly opposite in location to the Tantien (on the centerline of the abdomen, about an inch below the navel).  Marshal artists know that the Tantien is the power source.  The physical power comes from here.  Without the stability and firmness in the area, the legs feel wobbly, cannot control the upper torso because the pelvis is unstable, and feel weak and not focused.  Once Ren-9 is restored, it sends the energy downward to Ren-6 (about an inch below the navel on the centerline).  This is the true connecting point to the Gate of Life (Du-4).  When Ren-6 is firm and has good energy, my treatment is over. 

Once all pains on the abdomen are gone, a seed of the Will starts to spring up: a sense of wellbeing is increased, self-awareness kicks in, and a person is on the road to recovery.  No other medicines can compete with our own Will to live, and this is what acupuncture is all about.  Just like a Zen master asks to search for the ultimate affirmation (drop all illusions and know what is truly real), acupuncture asks you to find your will.  The harmony of the Five Elements, along with the mind, the body, and the spirituality, can take you there.

So, can you convert sadness to courage at “this moment”, here and now?

Namaste

© 2013 Dr. Y. Frank Aoi (NM State)/Japanese Acupuncture, LLC

Zen & Satori: Conclusion

これは何か。

（少し間を置いて）私は唖です。

何を言うか、実際に口で話しているではないか。

はい私は唖です。

ならば、なぜそのように言う。

拈華微笑 (お言葉の前にすでに答えております。）

合掌

What is this?

"…"  I am a mute.

What do you mean?  You are speaking!

Yes, I am the mute.

All right, why do you say that? (or, what is  the “The”?)
(What is the mute who speaks?)

The Buddha’s flower.*

            Namaste

*One of the last lectures by Buddha was to simply raising a flower (Tathagata).
"I am a mute.":  Of course, the right answer to all dualistic questions is the silence.  In this case, it transcends a little further, and it really means that "I answered already even before you asked because I am the Buddha."

Zen & Satori: Part II

Japanese Acupuncture Newsletter, Phoenix, Arizona

October, 2013

Zen & Satori:  Part II (if you have not read the first part, please do read)

空手把鋤頭                        歩行騎水牛

人従橋上過                        橋流水不流

                                                            傅大士 (Fu Da Shi)

Not carrying anything in hand, yet carrying a shovel (plough).

Walking, yet, riding an ox.

As a person passes over a bridge,

The bridge is washed away, yet the water is not running.

Most of you think that this is a crazy poem.  Therefore, first, I need to define what Zen is not.  Zen is not metaphysic.  Zen is not a religion, nor a philosophy.  Zen stands on the sharpest edge of a samurai sword, asking you to realize what is not.  When you see a pencil and you confirm it as a pencil, then, Zen is no longer there.

So, what is this crazy poem about?  This poem is perhaps the most revealing poem on Zen of all times.  It could only be written by a person who has “realized” which Zen calls, “satori” or the Realization.  To cut short, this poem is all about the true freedom.  Master Fu is absolutely free in the Realization, standing alone in his total clarity.  Remind you that many of us have it, and yet not carrying it.  You may call it conviction or faith (Zen does not seek these and in a different realm).  You cannot touch and carry these, yet you are carrying them, each of us, every day.  So what Master Fu carrying, yet not carrying?   A plough of the Absolute Affirmation that destroys the duality.  It is a very formidable weapon.  What kind of state is he in when he is carrying?  “Walking” here implies the Way, the Dao (aka:  Tao).  Physically, riding an ox is easier and comfortable especially for a long journey.  What he implies by riding an ox is that he is comfortable; meaning he is at peace.  With a plough of the Absolute Affirmation, he has woken and is experiencing the eternal peace (常楽). 

A person on the bridge is none other than himself.  The bridge is the dualism.  He was on it, but he broke it with the plough.  What did he attain?  Not even a drop of water remains in his clarity.  The Absolute Clarity (Freedom) which is the Realization.  He is no longer in our realm of:  1 +1 = 2, or A is not B.  He has understood that A is not A, therefore, it is A and went beyond (all encompassing).  Nothing binds him, for he is to none (我浄).  Do you still call a pencil a pencil*?  

Let me (my humble being) ask you a question.  When you see an ink drawing scroll (a calligraphy) by a Zen master of a circle, what do you see?  And when I ask you what this is, how do you answer?  Satori is at between the “whiteness” of the paper and the “emptiness” of it (白と空の間).  For English speaking people, satori is at between the “The” and the “a”:  The Circle is not a circle (円は円でない).  Again, for Zen, representation does not mean anything.  Discerning what is illusional and real is lifetime endeavor.  But once broken, you see no water left in its clarity.

Let me expand my question further.  When a Zen master points at a pencil and asks:  What is this?  How do you answer if you were mute?  Another dilemma?  I bet you can figure out yourself.  If not, “30 hits by a Zen master’s staff…”:  namaste.

Epilogue:  Some people think that I am a Buddhist or a Zen-ist.  Or, at worse, preaching something.  I am neither and don’t belong to any religion, temple, or church.  If, … I am forced to say, …then, I am a do-er. 

Namaste

*:  For example, the color brown does not exist in the light spectrum.  It is always within the yellow, but we see as brown.  And what of other optical illusions?  We simply cannot trust the brain, especially for vision.  Nuclear physicist always questioning what is real and not real.

© 2013 Dr. Y. Frank Aoi (NM State)/Japanese Acupuncture, LLC