The Spirit of Shiatsu
What is shiatsu?
One of the most common difficulties we hear from both new and experienced practitioners is the challenge of giving a brief yet clear answer to the question ‘What is shiatsu?’ Most likely you’re always working on your response to this query for friends, family or potential clients. Your answer probably takes into account their background, beliefs and familiarity with energy and healing. You may have both a brief and expanded version to offer.
It’s important to put some thought into how you answer ‘What is shiatsu?’ because many people haven’t been exposed to it much, if at all, and will definitely ask for some explanation. Your ability to communicate about it will affect their desire to enter into this unique relationship of healing touch with you.
Like any other healing art form, shiatsu has a rich and evolving history. People from diverse backgrounds practicing in different countries and cultures have developed numerous branches of theory and technique. Some practitioners are very eclectic, embracing that the ideas and techniques that create shiatsu are a compilation coming from many different backgrounds. Others find value in using a more concentrated parameter to define what shiatsu is and what it isn’t. Some practitioners may believe that shiatsu includes only certain techniques and can only be done wearing specific clothing on a particular surface, while others are more inclusive in their approach. But all would probably agree that shiatsu is a form of therapeutic bodywork that uses pressure, stretching and structural manipulations to balance energy. The ability to perceive and move energy is the key to creating positive and reliable results.
The Spiritual Roots of Shiatsu
To really understand Shiatsu we need to consider and reflect on the spiritual and cultural influences from which it emerged. The Japanese culture is one that has developed from a perception of vibration or energy.
Japanese arts and sciences are rooted in the knowledge that energy precedes matter. All physical manifestations are seen as appearances representing an ever changing flow of energetic forces. We see this expressed throughout all levels of Japanese life. There are examples in architecture, medicine/ healing, Do-In, dancing, music. calligraphy, martial arts, flower arranging, gardening, etc.
Japanese culture has developed from a perception of vibration or energy.
The Spirit of the Word ‘Shiatsu’
The study of Kotodama - the spirit of sound, words, and language - teaches that all manifestation first exists as vibration. Vibration becomes sound, and then manifests within various energetic and physical dimensions. Let’s delve into the vibrational meaning in the sound of the word ‘shiatsu'. On the most dense level it means finger or thumb pressure:
Shi means thumb. Tsu means pressure.
We can also look at other ways that the vibration (or spirit) of these syllables infuses into our human experience:
Shi also becomes fire, plasma, astral, heart, consciousness, and thumb.
In human development, the thumb appeared and made the hand our most basic tool. Simultaneously, as the thumb developed man stood up. This activated consciousness due to higher frequency energy moving through an erect spine. Man is also a sentient or emotional (astral) being. The heart organ is a condensation of fire in the body and plasma is the basic substance of the cell (protoplasm) and the quality of the energy body (bio-plasm). All of these appearances and connections are from the vibration of shi, stepping down from the infinite into different planes of reality.
Tsu means pressure and can also indicate “the cycling of electromagnetic energy." The cycling of electromagnetic energy (tsu) is the primitive expression of life force. This also creates the channels of energy called meridians. Meridians are found running through the earth, all of nature and and through the human body. Different degrees of pressure contain life force or ki and give it the possibility to become a multitude of inorganic and organic forms.
Connecting the two sounds is “a” or “ah” which is the vibration of origin or genesis.
SHI - A - TSU: Shi and tsu connected by “ah” describes the conditions and uniqueness in which vibration unfolds and creates the human as a physical, emotional, and spiritual being.
Another good example of word spirit is the Japanese term for the weather - tenki - which includes the sound “ki." Nowadays, most people using this word only recognize the superficial meaning of the sound. Tenki actually means the ki (force) of heaven.
The word hara is another interesting vibration. When it stands alone, the word represents the abdomen on a physical level. On the energetic level hara is the center of life force; it is a microcosm of the physical, emotional,and mental. It is the sum total of a person's life system and the environment in which they dwell. When the sound hara is combined with other sounds in the Japanese language, it indicates a description of life quality.
Touch to Stimulate Growth & Development
Shiatsu is an ancient form of therapeutic bodywork that uses pressure, stretching and structural manipulations to balance energy (also called ki or chi). Shiatsu uses touch to accomplish this and the touch used is unique. It’s not the touch of a friend, family member or lover. It is not centered on emotion, although it can be infused with deep non-personal love and compassion. It’s not a sexual touch, although it can activate the receiver’s sexual ki and reproductive system. Shiatsu touch is applied in a specific therapeutic manner, designed to facilitate the flow of life force through the physical layers of the body as well as its energy system. This kind of touch is applied with care and skill and is a potent gift for both the receiver and the practitioner.
In the curriculum developed by Saul Goodman in the 1980’s (taught by the International School of Shiatsu branches in the U.S. and Europe), there’s a focus on cultivating a shiatsu touch that mimics the pressure a fetus experiences in the womb. The amniotic fluid exerts a constant pressure to stimulate the growing fetus. We aim to mimic this type of pressure; by listening to the response of the body we monitor what is just the right amount to stimulate growth and development. Too much can shut it down, too little doesn’t have enough impact to generate change.
Pressing on a tsubo, stretching someone’s shoulder or adjusting a vertebra without paying any attention to the boundaries and response of the receiver is not going to create much positive shift in the body. But to apply pressure and then listen, wait and respond with awareness - that’s a recipe for freedom.
shiatsu
The Spiritual Growth of a Practitioner
Most practitioners these days have learned in a classroom which provides a methodical and informational framework of education. Due to a global emergence of accreditation requirements and education regulations, it’s possible to obtain certification by passing tests and fulfilling time requirements, but without the true inner development that was the essence of real training in former times.
Masters and teachers, particularly those rooted in the Japanese culture, traditionally delivered a more vibrational, spiritual training. This was an organic training that required surrender and mindfulness to the process. It was often crafted by the teacher to specifically challenge the physical, emotional and mental areas where the student needed to develop the most. The teacher monitored the student’s growth in character, their insight to life force and their awareness of life cycles.
Ultimately, the teacher was looking for the student’s understanding of the spiraling see-saw of Yin and Yang. Often the teacher may have seemed overly demanding and insensitive, however, the reality was just the opposite. The traditional teacher was actually honoring the student’s (or apprentice's) request to become a qualified practitioner. Even though some students might resent the demands of the training, only those with clarity, commitment, and endurance emerged as practitioners with the teacher’s blessing and the capacity to be a true healers.
In the last years, the kind of training talked about above has become quite rare. Many students now want to put in the required hours and get a certificate, without the sweat and tears or personal transformation required to become a genuine healer. Often times this person doesn’t really succeed in creating a successful practice and eventually quits. They never realize that the healer's path is not only about helping others, but is also a journey into the depths of their own awareness and truth.
Without the environment and teachers that can deliver such a training based on transformational achievement, and not just time requirements, a student/seeker must challenge themself to the rigors of discipline and sacrifice. They must find a way to exercise the body, mind and faculties of perception. They need to be persistent and develop the will to pick themselves up from hardship and failure. In the end, it is this honing of skills and submerging in the fire of life that forges the person who is able to do the work of healing.
And once someone becomes a true healer or teacher, they would never call his or her self by such a title....
Hara: the essence of training
In all the art forms of the Japanese culture, awareness of hara is the starting point. In martial arts, noh dancing, calligraphy, flower arranging, archery, the sword, wrestling, exercise etc., action and creation are seen as originating from the hara. Training this awareness has always been the most important part of developing any skill in Japanese culture.
Shiatsu is included in this list. Hara is the essential aspect of the practice. It is not the techniques that makes shiatsu, but rather the use of the practitioner's hara. From the hara, the practitioner can feel the life force or ki of the client and move in a way that brings the flow of energy to balance.
So there are many styles, some very different from the others, but all are called shiatsu. Some use meridians, some use a whole body concept without meridians. Some styles focus on the treatment of the hara and some are more energetic. But at the root, what makes it shiatsu is simply the practitioner using his or her hara with the intention to balance the receiver's ki.
The Spirit of Shiatsu
The spirit of Shiatsu is rooted in the vibration of the word Shiatsu, and the values of the culture from which it emerged.
While in modern terms shiatsu may mean finger pressure, this a very dense or linear way to see the word. It could be that, consciously, the person that first used the word only meant it this literal way. At the same time, because of the deep heritage of vibrational and spiritual practices in the culture that gave birth to shiatsu, I would say that subconsciously the expanded spirit of the word is implied.
This is understood within that culture, but often times lost in translation. The word and its full impact can not be separated. It is no coincidence that these were the sounds chosen to describe the practice, influence and effect of Shi-a-tsu.
In the 40+ years that I’ve practiced shiatsu, I’ve met various practitioners from Japan that said they were practicing shiatsu. And even though what they were doing was quite different from each other, they all agreed on several beliefs. First, the importance of hara in the training and practice. Second, all held a reverence for life force and the spirit behind the practice. It was like respect for an elder, or the honoring of higher powers in nature and the universe.
Our intention is that this kind of reflection deepens your intention and awareness as you do shiatsu. May your hands and your heart work together to unveil the health and peace within each person you touch.