Can the Way You Move Make You Becoming a Better Human Being ?
Influence of the daily most ordinary movements on your mindset
Way of the Aiki (2/6)
Changing the way you move is such a long and incredible journey.
Last week, I spoke about Awase and musubi at the highest level of mastering with the examples of several martial art experts.
Awase and musubi are the words of harmonization and they can encompass various facets. We could say : from the most incredible to the most ordinary.
Let’s take an example of the most common expression of these principles : when we greet someone.
Beyond politeness, there is a difference between greeting by automatism and greeting with intention.
In Japan, a Japanese person can say « onegaishimasu » and bow quicker and lower to another party. This gesture is not intended to convey their deference, their submission or even their formal consciousness of the hierarchy, etc.
The primary motivation for such actions lies elsewhere.
It is rather because they put all their heart into it, their kokoro 心. Their sincerity to make the relationship live¹ is expressed almost directly through their bodily expression.
However, even if you put all your heart and sincerity into it, you can assume that if a relationship is not established, the intention will never reach its recipient.
The gesture must certainly be driven by an intention, but it must also be conveyed to the other person in order to, beyond or through the protocol, elicit a greeting in return from them.
For this to happen, there must be a connection, a transmission channel, a link.
I offer a smile. Will it be reciprocated ?
Of course, one can smile out of politeness. But beyond conventions, is it my intention that will make the other person smile ?
In any case, the smiling movements of my face alone will not suffice (unless I remain within the convention, but that is not what interests us here).
So I need the intention.
Which enables me to establish the link with the other. But is this what it is all about ?
Let us return to the origin of my smile.
If it is neither forced nor polite, if it emerges spontaneously – naturally —, it is undoubtedly because something other than my will made this smile happen : encountering an old friend by chance, meeting the eyes of a passer-by…
The link that is established here naturally triggers the smile.
It is the existence of this link which renders the action natural.
So, for the greeting, how can a voluntary gesture that is moreover a request be natural ? Natural so that the other’s response is natural.
Something is therefore required to establish the link.
Something called awase ?
That’s how the balance of the gesture of two people greeting each other can thus find its spontaneous way without prior consultation.
So awase. Maybe musubi.
Hence the extreme difficulty of achieving a correct greeting.
Without connection, the most perfect greeting in its form will remain an empty pantomime.
The essence of Budō is therefore already contained entirely in a simple bow.
In this sense, awase already begins in the posture.
Which is also the posture of the intention — kokoro no kamae 心の構え.
And this could be the very aim of a daily practice : how to shape the right, natural body. Able therefore to make this strong bond happen naturally.
It is a state beyond (or below) words, thought, reason…
A famous samurai called Itō Ittōsai² condensed this natural phenomenon into a subtil metaphor : suigetsu isha 水月移写, the reflection of the moon in the water.
This metaphore is invaluable, so easy to understand, utterly difficult to master. Probably a life-time commitment.
Unless it is something else…
This will be continued in the next story.
¹ It is a way to understand the difference between honne 本音 (true sound) and tatemae 建前 (built façade), the first one is your true feelings and true thoughts, that you keep for yourself, and the second one, how you present yourself and interact with others. That second one is not to be misinterpreted as fake behavior, insincerity or hypocrisy. It is a social requirement that has deep influence in the way a complexe society preserves its unity. It involves a true sense of individual responsibility to contribute to its cohesion.
² Itō Ittōsai 伊東一刀斎 (1560-1653) founded the Ittō-ryū, a very famous schools of sword
