The Art & Creation in Shiatsu treatment.

Lecture by Tzvika Calisar sensei in Seiki Shiatsu International workshop.
 

With any practice requiring the heart’s honest expression, there is always a fine line between pure creativity – when this feeling flows freely or being stuck when it doesn’t. 
When an artist expresses his feeling and his heart onto the canvas, people feel it and connect with it. 
If it grows, then everything increases and he becomes well known, so he paints more and more paintings. Society’s recognition and rewards follow: but so too the desire to maintain this success. So he continues to paint but something has changed. Something has become stuck… now his mind begins to question, become troubled....
what is happening?

Shiatsu too is an art, and as therapists are the artists, 
we are facing the reality like any artist. 
Our minds and physical movements are informed by methods, charts, protocols and theory, but the heart must express itself. Feeling and sensations are what we must ultimately follow. These are our internal teacher. If we are really truthful and clear with ourselves that true expression must come directly from the heart, then we establish the foundation for working with and deepening our understanding of the meaning of the Internal Seiki. 
Internal Seiki is the spark of the infinite within us.This is the primeval energy that existed before the Creation. Every human being has this spark. It fully and naturally expresses itself through the heart’s “unconditioned” feeling. For the patient receiving shiatsu it can be felt in the quality of Ki that is light, containing and full of space. Pure expression, creation! 
It was unconditioned feeling that was the painter’s initial expression.Then admiration and ego, the world of business- money, power and position, begin to exert their conditions. Perceptions change. He feels accustomed to how things have become. 
Expectations of return are now inside of his expression acting as their own conditions. This then will be the moment when creation stops and construction starts. 
This is the juncture at which point an artistic crisis arises. 
We can see this change of circumstance as essentially being about direction. 
Creation is expressed from inside toward the outside. 
Expectation and conditioning reverse the direction – from outside toward the inside – and this creates conflict with the heart’s natural impulse. 
We feel uncomfortable deep in our being as we become stuck. 
Such a situation reflects how life contains so much that is paradoxical. 
A therapist’s clinical practice may seem great from the outside with many patients receiving treatment and really appreciating it. But the therapist, after many years of creating this situation, may feel that something is no longer fits. 
The passion of the expression has changed creating inner conflict. However, this in itself can become the stimulus to reawaken the creative process.

Naturally as a Shiatsu therapists we wish that the treatment will be deeply effective and our patients will be healed as quickly as possible. Even as well intentioned as this is, it’s also clear that expectation and conditions can come into play. 
These will help generate the intention that motivates our actions and influences what happens. 
Therefore, during the treatment we should always try to, “let it be as it is.” Both therapist and patient are able to sense the purity and lightness of the internal Seiki in this state. 
To follow this feeling with the action of applying pressure is shiatsu. 
The Internal Seiki contains everything: compassion, care, devotion, empathy, love, light, and all the elements of a noble heart & the opposite as well. In knowing and trusting this, what more is left to worry about?

Infinite study is to practice opening the heart and connecting with our Internal Seiki with others. 
The borders of two-dimensional material reality dissolve when learning in this way. 
We have no need to lean upon past experiences, protocols or acquired knowledge. The voice of our Internal teacher is our guidance system. When we expect a result during the treatment we override this to cause a conflict within. So then, the state of heart and mind of expression is one and the same as that of study and treatment. 
Naturally we understand this on some level. Just as we realize that we are living in a material world governed by the mechanisms of exchange. 
We offer treatments to our “clients” or “patients” who pay us. This is reality, However this cannot be our motivation. 
It is hopefully to always be trying to express our intention while extending the effectiveness of Internal healing force/Seiki of our patients. 
When our patients come to see us with their pains and symptoms, with their stories of misfortune and suffering, we should remember to connect deeply and directly to the Seiki within them in the Meridian & Tsubo. Feel it in yourself each moment as you recognize more and more deeply the deeper level within others. 
Listening, carrying and attention to what has created the needs for treatment – is important, but we shouldn’t focus on this or concentrate our intention to the stuck or missing part. 
It's not about ignoring or overlooking, but seeing the wellspring of goodness that is, and will continue to be, the source of their healing. In mentioning the source of healing it is interesting to consider the notion of ability. Through what force does healing occur? Clearly expressing the heart during treatment allows the internal healing energy to awakes and be felt more strongly. Much like a magnifying glass that acts as the vehicle to increase the intensity of the sun’s energy, it is the medium, but not the source of that energy. So while the therapist is not the source, it is clear that patient's self-ability is involved in developing and motivating the “lens” of the healing.

You have this power to heal yourselfers and others.So when treating by unifying our action with the expression of Internal Seiki we have no need to see it as being our ability. Therefore, at this level, we expect nothing. 
When we really observe without judgment, things are naturally changing. The Ki of observation and the Ki of studying is the same and changing each moment and not awaiting results.

Student question: Usually when we treat a patient we are awaiting a result. Are what you are saying to do is the opposite?

Answer: 
If you await results it will prevent you from giving the best treatment. Yes it seems natural as a human being to do so. But when you wait for results you become stressed because you are then no longer able to express your internal seiki strongly. 
It is really about realization and observation. If we realize this but we don’t continually observe, we will simply try to change and then do the opposite. Things will become messy both inside us and with the patient.When we are not observing we are reacting and Reacting to a situation is usually connected with being led by the ego and is often when mistakes are made. 
In the seminar we will study how to follow a framework for treatment. It is knowledge but not the kind of knowledge that allows us to lean upon it. But with this framework we can go deeper because there is no need to think consciously about what you need to do technically. As you go deeper into the feeling of internal seiki it begins to open up like an ocean. If our focus is toward the knowledge side then, we will tend to treat technically, rather than working to open space and create freedom. When we start thinking about what to do, or what we did in a similar situation in the past, we will limit ourselves and become constrained by the limits that any technical system has. Using this framework for treatment opens the potential for each therapist to work at their level while collectively increasing the expression of internal seiki. 
To connect with the receiver's seiki does not mean that you are ignoring theirsuffering or pain. Just recognize and observe the suffering but make the connection and unification with internal seiki – your own and what we can call external seiki –the patient’s healing force and healing centre. In this connection to Seiki there isn’t the judgment of the ego’s discriminating consciousness and by removing this conflict, the approach to Meridians and diagnosis is made clear.

Student Question: When the treatment becomes stuck, does it mean we are reflecting our inner conflict onto the treatment? Or is it perhaps coming from the patient’s side?

Aanswer:
We should deal firstly with our inner conflict. So we have to connect to our internal Seiki while recognizing the patient's conflict and suffering. Observe and unify with their internal seiki, helping them to connect to it. 
When we experience difficulty it is a sign that growth is taking place.