Common steps and sub-activities
Ninpo balancing techniques
What make the Ninja/Ninpo techniques valuable – if only they were more widely known - is that trainees are taught how to handle the energy flows and training given to enable the people to handle the effects. If these techniques could be more widely disseminated instead of being secret a lot of very ill people might have been saved the agony of what happened to them.
What does not appear to be widely recognised is that in some very unfortunate people, the energy is awakened in them without them having gone through all the preparatory and safety based techniques. The energy flows get going, and get going faster and go haywire, doing all sorts of damage.
Dr Masaaki Hatsumi - The Way of the Ninja – Secret techniques.
A trainee is made to sit down with both legs extended, then encouraged to stretch forwards until flat, with the aid of a Kamayari spear. With his soles held together for stability, a stick is then placed across his thighs and pressed down, to help the hip joints become more supple. These exercises help promote flexibility in the neck, spine, hips, knees, ankles and more.
And as a consequence help you to take the energy surge better.
The dangers and the need for care are also stressed.
Dr Masaaki Hatsumi - The Way of the Ninja – Secret techniques.
Human life depends on two complementary channels [ida and pingala]. The combination of two gives birth to future life, Just as a man and wife produce a child. Having said this, it can be fatal to assume that this is a hard and fast rule forgetting that Yin and yang might reverse positions or split apart, depending on the environment…
If you turn to the kundalini sections you will see that the energy is directed along the meridians to create a circular flow until such point as it is redirected up the spine from whence the experience comes.
Dr Masaaki Hatsumi - The Way of the Ninja – Secret techniques.
A Zen parable states that ‘enlightenment lies under your feet’ while there is also a proverb that teaches how having a cool head but warm feet is important for maintaining one’s health. Oriental medicine asserts that there are fifty points on the feet, each connected to a different part of the body and that the six energising routes – the six meridians – of the spleen, stomach, bladder, kidneys, liver and gall bladder all pass through the feet. This all conveys the sense that it is important to keep one’s feet warm and stimulate them correctly.
Dr Masaaki Hatsumi - The Way of the Ninja – Secret techniques.
An old poem says ‘water’s custom is to flow to low ground, yet here starts its journey up’
Normally water does flow from high places to lower ones; so says the received wisdom. However, a martial artist would not agree at all.
Rain becomes water vapour, rises into the skies, turns into clouds and then becomes rain again or a heat haze. Turning and turning it is in a perpetual cyclical motion.