Tao Shiatsu – Revolution in Oriental Medicine

Introduction

Sometimes in life, a moment occurs where you see suddenly the entire world in a different light. Afterwards, things never look quite the same again. This happened to me while giving shiatsu treatment in 1983. The ever-changing pattern of the patient’s ki began to reflect as an image. It was as clear as a glass of water sitting on a table. When I responded through the shiatsu to the “stream of ki” I was seeing, the symptom disappeared. It was so dramatic I was shocked.  

Oriental medicine studies the flow of ki in the body. Meridians are the channels through which ki moves. Ki is in constant movement, and pain and disease are understood to result from blockages in the movement of ki. When these blockages are released, ki is able to move freely and the symptoms are relieved. Frequently I am asked, “What is ki?” How can something that has no form be explained? It’s much like being asked, “What is heart or spirit?” or “What is life?” Ki might be described as vital life energy, created by the underlying unity of heart and body. Since the Meiji period (1868?1912), a time of extensive reform in Japan, much discussion has taken place as to whether ki and meridians really exist. However, as I described, I actually saw the meridian flowing as a line of ki. It was completely different from daily life perception: the eye to behold another dimension had opened. Since that day I began to enter into the infinite world of ki.

Many people in the West wonder if ki and meridians really exist. Ki seems so far removed from “real” life that they feel it must be something supernatural or open to just a handful of people with special abilities. Even in Japan there has been debate about the existence of ki. In fact, ki is everywhere and accessible to every one of us. But like the air we breathe, it’s too close for all of us to even notice. It wasn’t until after my heart opened that I could see ki. Then I began to experience a world completely different from what I had previously known in daily life. I began to explore the infinite world of ki.

According to the Gaia hypothesis, earth and life (all life, not only human life) form a single, connected, self-regulating unit. The connector is what we call ki in Japanese. The constant, universal movement of ki affects and unites all organic existence. In other words, at the deepest level of existence, heart, mind, body, and matter are one. This is a core principle in Oriental philosophy and medicine, and now quantum theory and advances in scientific measurement are beginning to confirm it.

We have entered an age where the focus of human consciousness has shifted, and is moving away from materialism toward spirituality. The turning point was in 1985. I experienced the change, quite literally, through my skin, while practising and teaching shiatsu all over the world. The hearts of students I was teaching began to open, allowing them to recognize tsubo (meridian treatment points) empathetically. In Japan, Israel, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, students began to respond to the world of ki and meridians.

Ki and meridians belong to the world of the subconscious, and it was at this level that the initial shift took place. Changes in the heart state and consciousness of people followed.

By the new millennium, hearts and consciousness had opened even further, reducing our dependence on material existence as the primary basis for human relations.

In the future, society’s direction in economics, industry, and culture will also shift. Looking at the environment leads us to realize that many current practices must change. A similar shift will improve health care and medical treatment. The focus of medicine will move toward holistic meridian medicine, based on the unfolding of the heart.

Modern Western medicine, with its reliance on surgery, strong drugs, and advanced technology, can be dramatically effective. Emerging technologies, like genomics and proteomics, offer the possibility of effective treatment for major diseases in narrowly specific circumstances.

But high-tech medicine has failed to solve the greatest problem confronting it: the growing late twentieth-century plague of chronic, debilitating diseases. These diseases are not immediately life threatening, but they destroy quality of life and cause great suffering. I believe Tao Shiatsu, the medicine of ki, is responding and adapting to these changes in illness. The dawn of its spiritual culture can already be glimpsed. I believe the sunrise of the human heart is on the horizon.

This book is an attempt to explain what the ki world is like, how it works and what kind of heart makes it possible to see ki and enter into this world. Much has been written about ki, but usually from an occult angle, or based on analyses of ancient Oriental medical classics. This book is the story of my personal and clinical experience with ki over the last quarter century.

Ryokyu Endo