My son is almost one year old, but he has too much energy, so I struggle every day with him. One day at mealtime, my son wanted to eat by himself, so I gave him a little bit of food, but he kept knocking over his plate and scattering the food all over the table, so I had to help clean it up. There were times when I couldn’t get around to it, and I ended up running out of words. Suddenly, my son stopped eating and froze, staring into space. My wife pointed out to me from beside me, “It’s because you look scary,” and I asked, “Is that what you look like?” This gave me the opportunity to objectively reexamine my state of mind.
“The face you see on the other side of the mirror is smiling because you are smiling.” This is what I learned at the Shinkiko Retreat seminar I took in 1992. In other words, the state of your mind is directly transmitted to those around you and creates the situation around you, and depending on the Ki you emit, the Ki around you moves, so because you are happy, positive Ki gathers and that this makes the people around you more happy.
Also, because you can put out positive energy, positive energy will gather from those around you, which will act as support. I realized this once again through an incident with my son. It seems like my son let me know that I was getting irritated without even realizing it. In other words, I was able to find something to reflect on from my surroundings.
Well, the 2-night, 3-day Shinkiko Retreat seminar in Kyoto starts today, and it seems that there are many people taking the course for the first time or after a long time. For the participants, the textbook of the retreat seminar will be useful in various situations in their daily lives, so I tell them that they should review it after the seminar. This textbook contains various pledges, but this incident with my son reminded me of the “Pledge to center in Kokoro (mind-heart).” This pledge concludes with the words, “…we will study and do all things with a view to refining and enhancing our minds.”
I would like to live up to this pledge and refine my mind every day, but the reality is that it is not that easy. In particular, my heart is shaken every day by the fact that I have a growing child who I can’t do anything about. However, that is why I am able to refine and improve my mind through this valuable experience. I also feel that it is thanks to the energy of Shinkiko that I am able to notice and accept the negative and positive emotions deep within my heart through my family.