Shinichi Tohei's Ki Weblog

Ki and Education(9) Noticing

What does it mean, “to notice”? I would like to explain the various ways of improving your recognizing and noticing skills.

But first, let’s think about this together before we move on:

In a narrow sense, “noticing” means “knowing the presence of a matter”.
In a broader sense, it means “understanding the bottom of the matter.”.

First, I would like to explain “knowing the presence of a matter”.

Noticing is one of the most essential things you need to live as a human being. This is because “not noticing a matter” is synonymous with “the matter does not exist”.

Even if you owe something to a person, if you do not recognize this debt, then this would be the same as not having received the kindness. You would probably not be thankful for it either. We can only be thankful to people when we notice what they have done for us.

Now, I need your participation.

Can you remember each of the people that have been kind to you, or that you owe something to? How many were there? You must feel gratitude to all of those people.

On the other hand, is it possible that there were some people that should have been recognized but weren’t remembered at the time? Can you recall them?

It certainly is a strange thought to remember people that cannot be remembered. Even so, how many were you able to come up with?

This is one of the things I recognized; some time ago, there was a great blackout in Tokyo. Simply because the electric power was cut, all urban functions ceased.

There are people who stabilize and provide power to the city; to us. Because I had not thought of this, I was not aware, and therefore I was lacking in gratitude to these people. Normally, it is natural that the light goes on with a click that enlightens the whole city. It was a good chance for me to realize once again the thankfulness to those who work in the power plants.

At the time, my recognition was ‘not there,’ even though I should have been thankful. I think it is unfair to accuse when there was an accident, while forgetting about having a bit of daily gratefulness when things are going well.

Once again, I remember to be thankful to those people.

Now, let’s go back to the former question.

There are many great problems all over the world nowadays. If you do not recognize this, it is the same to you as if nothing is happening. You probably would never take any action on those problems. You can start solving the problems in your daily lives only when you notice.

Another important recognition is your self. This is not necessarily to find fault, but only to look carefully into your self. If you do not notice your problems, then you will never resolve them. You can only develop your character when you recognize the things that can be improved.
It is because of this noticing that there can be action. Without the input, there can be no output.

We are able to enrich our lives by improving our skills of recognizing and noticing.

Notes: “to notice” or “to recognize” is explained in Japanese as “Kizuku” using the very “Ki” as in Ki-Aikido. Tsuku is a word that means “to put,” or to “fix.” This means you extend your Ki toward the object in order to notice. Ki-tsuku became the word Kizuku.

Ki & Education (8) Training to be a Self-Organized Person

Let's return to our main subject of “Ki and Education”.

My purpose in education is to train one to be “self-organized”.

In the narrowest of meanings, self-organized means “one can do things by oneself”. Some people might imagine this to mean “financially independent”. However, true meaning of “self-organized” is beyond that.

I define “self–organized” to have the following three characteristics.

“The ability to realize”
“The ability to judge”
“The ability to put into practice”

And the foundation of these three abilities is “self-control”.

Let me give an overview of these three abilities.

The ability to realize:
If we do not realize, it is as same as if object of realization does not exist. If something does not exist, then we cannot give it any attention or perform any action in relation to it. Realization is essential to our growth.

By realization, we can sense another’s state of mind, or intention. We must extend Ki for realization to take place. Our “Ability to realize” is based upon our extension of Ki. You can master “the ability to realize” by practicing Ki principles.

The ability to judge:
There is no absolute truth in human thinking. Therefore, there is no judgment which is absolutely correct in the human world. However, if we set “to follow Universal way” as correct, we can judge correctly always. “The ability to judge” is to judge correctly by oneself. You can master “the ability to judge” through learning Ki principles.

The ability to put into practice:
If you do something without Ki, you cannot obtain satisfactory results from it. To use your mind clearly, it is important to define your goal clearly, then think how to reach that goal, and then to persevere.
If you can do it by yourself, this is “the ability to put into practice.” You can master “the ability to put into practice” through learning Ki principles.

We will cover those three abilities in detail in our next article.
(to be continued)

Ki and Education (7) Offering Proper Instructions

Many participants in our Executive Officers’ Training express certain problems to me.

Some of those problems are:

“My subordinate is not capable, and cannot accomplish my assignments satisfactorily.”

Or

“My subordinate has no motivation, and I never see him work with a positive attitude.”

Perhaps others see these kinds of problems as well, not just Executive Officers. It is important to realize that these thoughts arise from a basic misunderstanding.

Before you read on, please think what this misunderstanding could be.

Consider:

Each of the thoughts listed above proceed from the idea, “It is the subordinate that is at fault, not me,”

Having this perceived notion, the boss will try to change the subordinate’s attitude before changing his or her own, and of course the subordinate will react against it. The relationship between the two will break down, and once that happens, the rest will become a negative spiral.

Still, the subordinate’s capability and motivation can be the cause of the problem. But most of the time, the problem is the boss’s poor ways of explaining and assigning.
With a small reminder and corrective suggestion, this situation can drastically improve.

In this article, I would like to introduce two problems that are often seen during the assigning process:

The first of the problems is not explaining the idea of the assignment sufficiently. When the boss assigns the subordinate a job, some bosses forget to explain why it has to be done. Without this “why,” the subordinate’s job can become a fool’s errand.

And to tell the truth, I actually made this mistake myself. I once asked my own subordinate to go and check the site where I was about to hold a training session. However, I neglected to explain thoroughly the reason “why” I needed this information.
My purpose was that I wanted him to check the site from the participant’s view. For instance, how to get to the site from the nearest station, whether there are safe lockers for luggage or not, and the location of restaurants, so that we could coordinate movements on the day of the training session.
But I failed to explain this to him, and just sent him off to check the site. So he went and came back and told me, “It is a large and very nice site they have,”

If you are explaining the idea of a task, mostly you should imagine how you would do it on your own. It is usually the boss with a poor explanation that keeps the subordinate from performing correctly.

The second of the problems is uncertain instructions.

Some people tell the subordinate to “try hard,” or to “do one’s best,”

By doing what can you try hard?
By doing what can you do your best?

In the first place, the words that the boss uses and the words that the subordinate comprehends are often different. That is because everyone has a different image of each of the words and phrases used. By telling the subordinate specifically what the purpose of the task is, or what we might call the job success, the subordinate will understand and will be able to use mind and body to accomplish the task.

If the subordinate does not understand clearly what to do, and what’s more, if he knows that if he fails he will be scorched, the subordinate will lose his or her positive attitude.
By fully understanding what needs to be done, the attitude of the subordinate can remain positive.

Some of you may think, “Do bosses have to go that far in their explanations?”

Of course it is both essential for subordinates to be able to understand the boss’s idea, and important to gather highly capable people that can actually do it. But, it is a rare person that can automatically perform well without being educated. Most will become capable through special training. Therefore most subordinates become highly capable only when the boss trains them properly.
It is always essential to offer instructions that the listener can easily understand.

I have been speaking of an employer and a subordinate in a company, but if it were at home, it would be parents and children, and if it were at school, it would be teachers and students.

The same principle prevails in all these relationships.

Let us all work on this challenge!

Ki and Education (6) “Change Yourself First”

In our mind, there are sometimes selfish thoughts that say “I want to control others to be as I want them to be.” However, if we try to control others, others will react against that control.

In communicating with others, such selfish ideas often appear. When there is a something we don’t like about others, sometimes we try to change them. This is because we hate to change ourselves.

We cannot control another’s mind. The easiest thing to do is to control our own mind.

As in the example of “the mirror image of self”, as told to us since the old days, “you should smile first if you want the mirror image to smile”. Unless the person in front of the mirror smiles, the image in the mirror will never smile. If you want to change others, you should change yourself first.
Since education is primarily communication, the same rule applies.

Occasionally you may try to impose your sense of value on another, even while telling the other that it is because you want to improve their situation. However, that is not “education”. It is “enforcement”.
I always check myself when I am called upon to offer education to our apprentices and staff. And sometimes I notice that I am actually administering enforcements instead of education.

One day, I visited a company to help with the on-the-job training of their members.

This company had 50 employees and one chief executive. The main reason for the on-the-job training request was that the chief executive wanted to motivate the employees to change from a minus mind set to plus.

In just a few minutes after I arrived at the company, I understood the cause of the problem.

What do you think was the problem? The answer is very simple. The chief executive himself used very negative words and behavior.

On the outside, this person was very friendly. But in the office, this same person was negative in addition to being very strict. This person knitted his brows and demanded attention with an aggravated voice.
Even watching from the side, it was very frightening.

The chief executive thought he did this to inspire the hearts and souls of his employees. And actually it is better for the chief executive to direct some attention to the employees, than to not say anything at all．But if the employees received only negative attention all the time, eventually they will not put up with this.

At the on-the-job training, the employees partnered with each other and experienced how their motivation was affected with plus words and minus words. This chief executive was a very diligent person, so he noticed the difference immediately.

“Sensei, I see now that I was the cause of negative mind set of the company.”

Recently, a young junior high school teacher came to my session and said “My students do not greet each other with respect”. Then this teacher asked “How can I help the students improve in this way?”

Then I asked him, “How do you greet the students?” I found out that he waited for the students’ to greet him properly, before he greeted them. Do you see the problem? Instead, this person should direct his positive attention to student first. Then the student will become accustomed to greeting properly.　This process is important.

You might think “this is nothing special". But everyone tends to make this kind of mistake.
Because of hoping to make the company better, many people are gripped by the sense of changing others and do not notice to change themselves.

The same thing can happen with parents and children, if parents are caught up in the idea of making children better and yet neglects to set a good example themselves.

In a married couple, the same thing happens if one of them wants to make the other better, and at the same time he or she neglects to change themselves.

In school, often a teacher hopes to make a student better, but forgets to set a positive example. This is also the same thing.

Education is communication. Therefore it is indispensable to change ourself first.
（To be continued）

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.

Ki and Education (4) Basic principles of mind and body

I would like to consider the basic principles of the use of mind and body.

Mind and body are fundamentally united, and it is natural that we use them together. But we often are likely to use them in a separate way, as it they are in fact apart from each other.

For instance, you have probably had an experience of doing something and thinking that you do not want to do it at the same time. It is the state of using your body without facing your mind towards the goal. We call this state “mind-body separation.” In this state, our body easily becomes tired and our efficiency drops.

Here is a particular example.

I would imagine most people surely have had the experience of waking up in the morning and wanting to sleep a little longer. This is a case of your body trying to wake up while your mind is still asleep. In this condition, the energy of both mind and body are overspent merely by getting up from your bed.

On the other hand, what happens when you are doing something that you like doing? While you are doing your favorite things, you automatically use your body with the mind facing the goal. This state is called “oneness of mind and body.” With your mind and body in this state, you become full of brightness and efficiency.

If a person is looking forward to a round of golf, even if they so not usually like to arise early, may rise very early and cheerfully on a day of going to the links. If that person tried to wake up the same way on an unenviable day, it probably would become a great challenge.

Our body has its form; we can remember its existence by seeing or touching it. But the mind, it has no color or shape; we are likely to forget its presence. The condition of the body is strongly affected by the condition of the mind. It is quite simply a matter of your way of thinking.

We say the “ki is extended,” when our mind and body are united. When our ki is extended, we are able to supremely manifest our abilities. For comparison, we say the “ki is not extended,” when our mind and body are separated. Our body and mind are fundamentally united; it is natural for us to use them united as one. This means that it is natural for us when our “ki is extended.”

I have occasionally been asked “Will Ki burn out when we use it?” Well, that could not happen.

The Ki of nature and our personal Ki are always interacting. Imagine the nature of water. Stagnate water will rot, while flowing water will not.

It is the same with Ki.

When we extend personal Ki, the Ki of nature automatically fills us; Ki interacts with itself in this way. On the other hand, when this natural flow of Ki is interrupted, we call this “byo-ki” or illness. But when Ki is extended, naturally the body condition becomes fine, but when it is not, the body suffers.

In education, it is most essential to have the Ki extended.

Ki and Education (3) Creating an environment for growth

What do we actually mean when we say “to raise”? Please take a moment to think about the meaning of this before we continue.

………
………
………

What do you think?
I say “to raise” means to organize an environment appropriately and follow the development of person. I define “to raise” in this way.

There is a reason that a definition is necessary. The reason is that most of us misunderstand and think, “I personally raise the person”.

Please imagine the process of crops growing up. The eternal heaven, earth, and nature bring crops up. It is not actually the human who grows the crop. The idea that “I raise something” could be regarded as arrogant.

For the growth of successful crops, it is necessary to cultivate the field, provide water and fertilizer as the crop requires, and protect from excessive rains and storms. Sowing seed is not enough to make a successful crop. A human being is the same in this way. It is important that we arrange a proper environment and watch over the period of growth affectionately.

The fallacy of “I am the person who brings someone up” can lead to many failures. One of these failures is to attempt to create another in our own image.

One of familiar complaints about parents-children relationship is “I tried to educate the child, but the child does not listen to me.” In other words “Is there any way to make the child humble and listen to me?”

Sometimes the children cause this problem, but in most case parents cause these problems.

Parents care for the children, but almost before realizing it, parents control children in the parents way.

Just like adults, children do not want to give their rein to another person.
As children, they have no choice but listen to their parents, but as they grow, they start turning against their parents.

Even though many parents try sincerely to raise their children in the interest of the children, unintentionally they raise the children in their own image.

This is an unfortunate circumstance

Another difficulty which causes children’s objection is the nurturing of children at the parents own pace. Because of this, the parents loose patience to wait for the children’s own growth.

You cannot harvest a crop on the very next day after planting.
According to the laws of nature, crops need time to grow.
The natural law tends to be forgotten when bringing people up.

Sometimes a “learner” cannot do a task even though we explain the same thing again and again. At a time like this we often want to complain: “Why can’t you do such a easy task?” or “How many times do I need to explain the same thing?”.

For successful education to take place, the learner needs to understand the meaning of the task clearly, perform the task without assistance, and habituate this task.

When learners do not understand our meaning clearly, then we need to explain until they do understand. When learners do not acquire the task as a habit, we need to repeat it until they acquire it as a habit. Such an attitude of repetitive communication is indispensable for education.

When companies need to develop their employees, the speed of education is the most important factor. In reality companies often cannot adopt the repetitive attitude of education. Therefore companies need to choose the employee that they feel able to develop. However, even in that case, we still need to be patient and continuously explain for the sake of the employee.

In all of creation, the eternal heaven and earth develops us all. The only thing people can do to participate is to organize environments appropriately and watch over the growth of the people.

How was this talk about “educating” and “developing”?
(To be continued)

Ki and Education (2) ‘Education is Communication’

What is correct education?

“Education” means “to teach and develop”. I define ‘”teaching and developing” as below.

First, I’ll tell you about ”teaching”.

Generally speaking, many people tend to think that “teaching” is unidirectional; a one way street.
But this is wrong.
In fact, teaching is a relationship. We must always check to see whether the student understands or not. When you perceive your partner’s Ki (plus or minus), that is the current condition of your partner’s mind.

What is important is whether your partner sends his Ki to you, or not.
It does not matter how much you lecture your partner if your partner doesn’t send his Ki to you.

In addition, it is also important to know whether your partner has a positive mind or not. People who are able to understand send plus KI. But people certainly send negative Ki if they fail to understand, because this makes them nervous.

You can know your partner’s comprehension by watching your partner sending positive Ki or negative Ki. However, sometimes a person tells something to a partner without watching partner’s Ki (state of mind). This kind of person is satisfied only with telling something, and does not care if the partner understands it or not.

This is very important. If your partner does not understand your intention correctly, it is just as if you did not say anything at all. Therefore, you should not say “I told you”, later, when they don’t understand. This understanding is essential in education.

There is a company which had a similar problem in their in-company training program.

In this company, there were so many misunderstandings, like “I told you” / “I did not hear.” “I gave it to you” / ”You did not give it to me.” This is as same as “I sent email.” / ”I did not receive email” type of problem.

These problems happened because the person responsible did not watch their partner’s Ki. First, you check if your partner sends Ki to you. Then, check if your partner sends plus Ki. This is very important, if we want to be sure we are understood.

In my seminar, I demonstrate and teach how to send Ki and how to watch another’s Ki. Then, each participant may experience it. By training in this way, participants start to understand the art of communication very well. After this, then each may practice it in their work place.

This particular company’s trouble did decrease considerably by attending this seminar. This suggests just how important it is to watch your partner’s Ki (state of mind).

Education in general does not mean telling others in a unilateral way. The true teaching is watching your partner to see if he or she understands and is able to repeat what you taught.

Education is not a one-way street, but communication.

(to be continued)

Ki and Education (1) Everyone is engaged in education

I teach Ki principles at Ki Society’s seminars to over 1,000 people a year. Besides this, I conduct seminars and lectures for business persons. I can learn much through these various seminars because each participant is very different.

If the theme of the seminar is education or development of human resources, I never fail to ask the following question to participants:
“Are you engaged in education?”

Is your answer “yes” or “no”?

When I ask this question, most of the people answer “No”. It seems people imagine that I am asking if they are a school teacher when I say “engaged in education”. This is not wrong, but this perception has a major hole, because it is too narrow a definition of “education”.
Actually, we are all engaged in education in one way or another.

Not only school teachers or educational experts educate people. If you have a child, you educate your child. If you have followers, you educate those followers. If you do not realize this, you may think “Education is irrelevant to me”. Therefore, you may not be interested in correct education.

To be able to drive a car in Japan, we go to a driver’s school and practice driving for many hours. Perhaps we should take more time to learn the correct driving principles. However, we do not have many chances to learn the principles of driving in Japan.
When we become a parent or an employer, we have the responsibility to educate others. However, if we have not been interested in how to educate, we do not know how, and sometimes we teach others in the wrong way. This is the same as driving a car on the road without knowledge of the principles of good driving.

This can be very dangerous.

Recently, I counseled the head of a company about development of human resources. The content of this counseling was “executive officers are often not aware how to educate others.”

I asked him if he helped executive officers to understand their role and if he trained them specifically to educate people. He said executive officers just took over the process from their predecessor. He did not train them how to educate people. This is the same as asking executive officers to drive a car without knowing how to drive.

This head of a company should define “ability to educate people” specifically, and then train workers who want to be executive officers in the future, how to educate people. Those workers will then start to be interested in education. Once they are interested in education, they will be able to realize what is necessary for education by themselves.

We tend to educate others in the same way that we received education in the past. If one was brought up with getting a scolding emotionally, then one tends to educate in this same way. How you educate others will always be decided by what kind of education you received. For instance, if you were brought up with a lax education, then you will tend to let others off too easily. If you were brought up with an inadequate education, then you have much to learn from this bad example set by others.

I think it is necessary to review our own education which we received in the past. By doing this, we can have a chance to make the correct use of our past education.

Of course, there is more than one right way of educating others. We cannot say which way is correct, which way is wrong. However, the essence of education always has right and wrong.
(To be continued)