Do arts for Japan: Kamae & Inzo

In 'Do' arts of Japan, we have 'Kamae'. Kamae is used to mean a stance. It is the base from which we move. It implies both position and movement. In these arts we have pauses, or what my teacher called "stop but no stop,"  Every 'stop but no stop' posture as we pause to transition, can be said to be Kamae. As we train please keep our Kamae in mind. Our positions and stances that we take in life are very important. Kokoro no Kamae is extremely important. Please give attention to these stances between the movements.

Every Kamae is accompanied by an inzo or seal. The Kamae includes the whole posture (wholeself, both body and mind/heart and more) the inzo is this as well, but concentrated on the extremeties especially the hands, fingers and even the finger nails; the postition of the inzo seals an intent that his naturally held within the shape and directions of the hands. These seals once formed have put into place the power of the Kamae and set the direction of this power.

Japan may of had inzo before mudra arrived. But what I learned is too closely related to not be linked. Kiko and chinese qi gong must be like this too; with kiko being in existence, but then completely accepting the qi gong practices as well. I've not studied enough qi gong to be sure, but all the consenses from many is that they are thought to not only be linked, but to be identical. But I have learned some kiko that are said to be older, and that qi gong practioners have said are not in qi gong, and both my oral tradition, and their simple organic nature sets them as an earlier practice, rather than a later addition.

In actuality, though some have been chosen for particular meanings and effects, all body postures, including our hand positions effect everything else around us. The space we take up, and the way we do it with thoughts, words, and deeds; this is the teaching. Kamae and Inzo are including in all three; they go beyond the body. The more we allow them to align with eachother naturally, well... the more aligned we are. The trick is how to do that; so, there are a chosen 84,200 of them used. In Shingon they have chosen a particular 1664 +2 added later as their focus. In our Zen temple we have a dozen, plus a few dozen more, plus a few dozen more we learn along the way. But the point is just to pay attention, how we align ourselves in the world; and to recognize that everything matters, down to every detail. Even nothing; in fact, perhaps the empty space between is the most important of all.

There is, as always, a great dichotomy. Reality always has all sides. So while we learn that the direction of the fingernail is of particular importance, it is of no importance if it is not aligned with the whole. Since everything changes, we can't get stuck in the old teaching, but until we know it completely, until we have embodied it, we have to follow the old teaching.

At some point the teacher says 'Now' and we jump or wiggle or align. When we are aligned the teaching embodies us. The teacher smiles, and we are now the teacher.

Then he kicks us out.

Often they still watch over us very nicely though; or not so nicely sometimes too.

Each tradition has their practices laid out, developed and evolved over time for its participation in cause and effect. We follow the practices of our tradition knowing it has already laid out for us. It does evolve, but not by us, we allow the reality as it is to shape the practice. We resist the evolution only to the extent that it ensures any change only comes from reality.