Ki and Education (5) You can understand others when you send Ki to the others

At this time, I have four apprentices to train. Here, I would like to relate an episode about the one among them.

It was four years ago, and at first, this particular apprentice was not very good at understanding what he was told. If I told him ten things to do, he was only able to accomplish one or two of them. No matter how many times I lectured him, he would become more and more timid, and less and less would he be able to do the work I had given him.

I was making a great mistake, in that I was on the verge of condemning him as an incapable person. I was half ready to abandon him.

As it happens, I had a chance to report this situation to Koichi Tohei Sensei. I was expecting him to say, “That is a difficult situation, but you are handling it well.” However, the words he said were the opposite of my expectation, “That is not his, but your problem,”

At first I did not understand what that meant. I carefully thought about it for a few days, but still I did not come up with the answer. So, I continued to try to understand this problem.

I began to observe my apprentice’s behavior. Through this observation, I began to notice one great problem. While he was listening to a person, he was completely distracted and his ki was not facing the speaker at all.

We are often taught to look into the eyes of the person who is speaking, in order to focus properly and be able to listen to what is said. But if we strongly concentrate into the speaker’s eyes, we will become tired, and what is more, unable to see anything other than the eyes. So, it is unkind just to tell someone to “focus on the speaker’s eyes.”

What we can do is to “focus in the area of the speaker’s nose.” By looking at the nose, you can see the whole face including the eyes, and you will not become tired at all. I am sure you can see by finding a partner and trying it out yourselves.

Some might say that focusing on the nose blurs the vision. Of course, if you strongly focus by staring only at the nose, it is the same to focusing only on the eyes. You can try this also with your partner. If you stare at each other’s nose, it may make you want to hide your nose! At any rate, you will have a weird feeling.

So…in order to properly focus on the speaker, focus lightly on the area of the nose.

As soon as I noticed his mistake, I began training him to focus properly. As a result, he became completely capable of listening! Now, ten out of ten chores he is able to accomplish in response to my request. These days, I strongly rely on this apprentice.

“He has gone through such a wonderful change,” we were told from the members of our society, I was as happy as if I myself was the one to be praised.

He was not an incapable person at all, but he just did not know how to focus on the speaker. I almost ruined this young man’s life. It was Koichi Tohei Sensei pointing out my lack of insight that showed me the way to help him.

Actually, most people who say that they cannot work or study well are not incapable but simply do not know the recipe for focusing. I now put great stress on focusing when I give lectures in schools and companies. Just by learning to focus, you can call fourth your best abilities.

And this is a very important matter.

For executive officers, managers, teachers and parents, anyone who is in a position of leading juniors, I strongly recommend this focusing matter.

At the same time, this is learning about Ki.