Sometime in early 2006, I was sitting in the Toyota City Central Library. I suddenly heard a loud crash and a thud to my left, so loud that I immediately looked for the source of the sound, startled out of my reverie. On the ascending escalator was a little boy, probably all of two years old. He was falling down the stairs…only, because it was an ascending escalator, he wasn’t coming any closer to the ground. He would fall down one step, and you’d think he was okay…and then he would suddenly turn like a rotisserie, and fall down the next step, and the process would repeat itself. He was essentially falling in place. Something had to be done, so I stood up…
Studying social psychology in the 2002-2003 school year, I’d learned of the bystander effect. This made intuitive sense to me, and seemed to match with my life experiences. I was extremely gratified to learn of this psychological effect. Now it would not happen to me! Armed with this piece of robustly tested theory, I would not fall victim to its effects. When I was confronted with an emergency, I would act.
So, in the library in 2006, I was confronted with just such a situation. Knowing that something needed to be done, I jumped to my feet. A woman sitting two tables behind me stood at the exact same time, and together we…perfectly canceled each other out. Perceiving that she would act, I hesitated. Perceiving that I would act, she hesitated. We actually stood there, like two stupid statues, frozen with our arms up, and pathetic looks of concern and fear on our faces. Finally a library worker rushed to the escalator, stopping it and rescuing the boy. His negligent mother finally appeared, galvanized. The situation in hand, the woman behind me and I were released from our spells, and sat down, shaken.
It was my first, hard lesson on the difference between intellectually knowing something, and truly knowing something. It also made clear the difference between intellectual knowledge and physical ability. (I’ve since had this lesson repeated over and over in my study of Yagyu Shinkage Ryu.) After that day, though, I didn’t feel “right” for quite some time. It’s not everyday you come face-to-face with the realization that you’re an extra in what you had thought was the movie of your life. I was doing aikido at the time, and I hoped that training in that might make the difference for the next time. But when I began Shinkage Ryu, I realized that this very problem was at the core of its training.
Shinkage Ryu is sometimes called 心の兵法 kokoro no heiho, the heiho of the mind. Of course it has its technical elements, which are simple and practical, as you would expect from a combat system. But in a sense, they are almost an afterthought, as if to say, “Oh yes, and if you ever achieve the goals of this ryu, these will help.” In order to properly express those techniques, in order to properly use Katsuninken, first you need to free your body and mind. Shinkage Ryu doesn’t endeavor to build you into something new, it endeavors to chip and chisel away all the mental and physical cruft you’ve accumulated through life, until your true potential is achieved.
Here’s the crazy question. Did my body freeze because my mind did, or did my mind freeze because my body did? Research psychology has found that the link runs both ways. When we feel emotions our bodies undergo certain physical changes. By the same token, an emotion can be brought about by simulating the physical conditions of that emotion. Researchers have found that the physical changes occur prior to and leading to a conscious decision. Here’s a link to an article that describes this particular phenomenon.
Interestingly, this kind of understanding of the body and mind was anticipated by Shinkage Ryu 400 years ago. A key concept is 心身一如 shinshin ichinyo, mind and body as one. Control of the body gives one control of the mind, and vice-versa. Sitting in that library, I was out of shape, unfit, inflexible, hunched over in my chair reading, unmindful of my surroundings. With inertia of the mind and the body, it’s no wonder that body and mind chose the path of least resistance when I at last comprehended the situation. In order to overcome the psychology of the unconscious brain, it’s necessary to have a body ready for action.
I don’t have the right or the experience to go into detail about these particular gokui of Shinkage Ryu. But this particular aspect of Shinkage Ryu is yet another example of the 縁 en I mentioned in my first post. After finishing my psychology studies, I sought to bring that knowledge into practical use. And though I didn’t know it when first observed practice, Shinkage Ryu actually provides the tools to do just that.