Can you make your brain cells change? Can you improve your heart rhythm by learning to meditate? Can you develop as a person if you translate learning into action? Many more questions are surely pressing in and it was perhaps not exactly these questions that the participants at Ki and meditation 2016 had intentions to ask before they came to the course. Regardless of which questions you seek answered, it is very important that you seek your answer with the right skills. In Shindenkan, we have the great honor that Kimu Sensei has achieved very high skills in Ki and meditation. Competences that he himself has used to take elevator rides up through the Densho grades. And as he says, it's something everyone can do if they want to 🙂

Friday 12 February 2016 at 17.00 sat 18 pcs. hopeful participants and eagerly awaited the Ki and Meditation to begin. After all, meditation is something that often takes place in quiet and peaceful surroundings, but for the course to set the stage, you can say that it starts with a BANG. Maybe not a Big Bang like when the earth was created and thus also Ki, but a BANG that brings the participants to life and sharpens their focus, which meditation is largely about. There is nothing accidental in the course content 🙂

Ki and meditation are topics that often challenge the participants. The challenge lies in their attitude to whether "it can be proven", "is it real" and is it not all just "hocus pocus". The question is simply whether you can ignore the history and everyday life of an entire continent? Can you question other people's lifestyle and culture just because we have another? No, not if we are to be open and whole people.

There is more to the universe than what we can see in our own picture of the world. And that is exactly one of the essential things in Ki and the Meditation course. It is not a list of facts but a course that shows that there is more to life and the universe than we ourselves believe. And there are actually things in our everyday life that actually have relations to the same thing that many people see as being "Spooky". There is no doubt that not everything can be explained and not everything needs an explanation either. Some things just have to be accepted that they work and if they are not harmful, then it is ok.

The course also gave the participants an insight into what science says about both Ki and meditation. There is no doubt that all people are probably aware that meditation gives inner peace and that through meditation you can gain greater insight into yourself. Meditation has gradually become known and soon as accepted as going for a run. But what about Ki? During the course, the participants found out that dear child has many names and that Ki is actually used by all people - just without us having thought about it 🙂

Ki is not dangerous and it is not something you can take in chemical form. Ki is reality whether you like it or not and it is something all life forms depend on. But what does science say about it? Yes, at first glance they don't say much in the West since it is something that comes from the East. Uhh, is that true now too. Ki is not something that was randomly invented, it has always existed. It is correct that in the East, Ki is considered a natural part of everyday life and a vital part of the universe. You probably also do that in the West, but it may be called something else, or science in the West is not quite aware of what it is you are dealing with.

An important topic in the course is the use of Ki and meditation in the context of martial arts/martial arts and the context of Shindenkan. It was a bit of an eye opener for some and there were others who had an aha experience. Which is fantastic, so now it is up to the individual participants to show their understanding of the context through their actions.

After approx. two hours of Ryugi (theory and philosophy) in Ki and Meditation it was time for Ryuha (practical application of what was learned). But before then, the participants were just challenged on their breathing both with exercises to improve their breathing training and with a little fun game that challenged attitude 🙂

There were three meditations that the participants had to work with. The first two focused on breathing and with two different meditation positions. The last meditation is a guided meditation with a focus on presence. This type of meditation is also called Mindfulness and is a favorite modern tool in the West for preventing stress and other states of mind that require calm.

The guided meditation took approx. 20 minutes and it was clear for the instructor to see that it was something that went down well with the participants. Meditation in Shindenkan is about inner development as a human being. A development that, as a human being, you can only do something about. You cannot leave it to others, but you can be guided in the right direction if you are about to get lost on the way into yourself - which is something all the chief instructors have tried. That's how it is when you encounter something new, you take a detour instead of going straight towards the goal and hitting it with a BANG that can create something fantastic.

Thanks to the participants for good energy and many thanks to Kimu Sensei for giving the opportunity for this learning process.