Wake Up from Death and Return to Life

WAKE UP FROM DEATH AND RETURN TO LIFE

'Kishi Kaisei' is an old Japanese idiom that translates to: "Wake from death and return to life". It is often used when someone is encouraging another person to push on through difficult times. Another more difficult scenario, and the more dangerous if you ask me, is when people fall into a “lethargic lifestyle” but don’t even acknowledge that they are doing so.

While in the first scenario there is more likely that one can be aware of his crisis, and as a consequence do something to go out, in the second one is not so easy. That’s because when someone does not recognize that he is going through a difficult period, will not even put himself in a state where he has to give some efforts to overcome it.

In Iaido, a Japanese art of drawing the Sword (Katana), the Iaidoka (Iaido Practitioner) trains by drawing the Katana, making a few cuts or thrusts, and returning it to the Scabbard. All this, must be done with lighting speed and precision. How can we tell how skillet a Iaidoka is? All we have to do is check his Koiguchi (the open slot of his Scabbard). If there is no scratch in it, then he is a master.

Normally someone would think such things as that what’s the use in all this, or that repeating this exercise over and over is boring.

Well, first of all, one thing is for sure, it’s very hard to draw a Katana and returning it without a scratch in the Scabbard without pure concentration. It takes a lot of practice, failing, time and effort to do that. Having said that, we are presented with two points of view.

The first is the interpretation of the outside viewer. He see just someone repeating some fancy moves over and over mechanically. But… is that really what’s going on?

The second interpretation, is that of the Iaidoka. He surely is not just moving mechanically. He has a purpose in his mind. An inner challenge to overcome. What he is going up against? A part of his own mind. As the Iaidoka is practicing, he is overwhelmed by tens of other random thoughts, that will disperse his concentration and thus potentially put some scratches one his scabbard. Yes, the scratches are a sing that in that particular moment one could not discipline his own mind.

It’s crazy how much things can be going on with just a simingly mechanical movement, isn’t it? And here we covered just one part of what’s going on. The important part for this article is understanding that we have the power to give life and meaning to a particular moment.

Do you remember the first time when you started to learn your new bicycle, or when played with the new toy that your parents gave you? You can tell that time flew by without you noticing. Why was that? Because you found something interesting, a little purpose in that moment.

Who said that we can’t do the same with what we see as boring, especially during the Quarantine period that we are experiencing right now? It’s not that you have to practice Iaido to do that, you can find anything that interests you and look to find something that you didn’t notice before. The last one happens to use more than we can imagine. The key is to listen & see, not in a mechanical way but with the desire and purpose to understand and learn more.

If you manage to put yourself in that state, you will start to experience the magic of Breathing Life and Meaning into something. Maybe it can start with a hobby or something intriguing at the moment, but as you move one you might grow something that really inspires you, like a seed that goes above the soil by passing through the dark. All it takes is constant effort until you find the match that gives you a moment of Epiphany.

By using the word Epiphany I’m not referring it in the religious context, but as it is written in the dictionary:

“A sudden insight or intuitive understanding about a subject.”