Breathe with Misuk
Written by Meiwa Nakamura
(www.o-books.com)
The unknown secrets of Japanese culture
When you think of Japan, countless words may come to mind, including Zen, samurai, and ikigai. But what about Misoku? Breathing is a traditional Japanese breathing technique that was unconsciously used by all Japanese people before it was heavily influenced by the West during the Meiji period (starting in 1868). It is the connecting thread between all Japanese cultural practices, encompassing both past traditions such as the tea ceremony and modern Japanese global sensibilities such as manga. So, how is Missoku useful in modern society?
The basics of missok are born from posture. Westerners tend to keep their pelvis erect, but Japanese people traditionally lived with their pelvis retracted. The latter position allows more air to enter your body, allowing you to breathe deeply. The following guide is excerpted from my new book, Breathing With Missoku, and details how to start practicing Missoku.
find your breathing method
Try breathing out naturally, making the sound of breathing in. Does your abdomen expand or contract? The answer depends on how you normally breathe in the first place.
For those whose stomach expands when they breathe in
1. Stick your belly out and hold your breath.
2. Push your belly out and inhale without changing your position.
This is what Misusoku is all about. Just be careful not to change the position of your abdomen. People whose stomach expands naturally when they exhale are already breathing in a way that makes it easier to access miseok.
For people whose stomach collapses when they breathe in
1. Take a deep breath and let your stomach expand to its limit. This should feel like your abdomen below your belly button is bursting. If you touch your stomach with your hand, you can feel it better.
2. Exhale and inhale again while pushing your stomach out. Without actually moving anything, maintain the sensation of a bulging abdomen.
any type of breathing
3. Exhale and continue inhaling while pushing your stomach out. When you inhale and exhale, keep your abdomen stretched and in the same position without moving. It is quite difficult to maintain this posture. When you breathe in and out, there is no visible muscle movement; the only movement is that of your diaphragm. In other words, you are using inner muscles that you don't normally use at all.
4. Release your energy. Have you noticed that your body is tense inside? Release all tension in your body from your stomach upwards. What about your shoulders, neck, nose, and inside your nose? Be careful not to tense your legs too much.
5. Make sure that you are only feeling tension below your belly button and lower abdomen. It is more difficult to release energy than to put it in. Try to focus on one point and release energy from other places. If you take very short breaths continuously, you will notice that you are able to take in a full amount of air in an instant.
6. Pay attention to what is happening around you as you breathe. My body isn't moving. How is the situation around you? For example, the world may seem to have stopped. Your senses may be more sensitive. If you are inside a building, the building may seem solid and heavy. If you look outside, you may become more aware of the movement of leaves on the trees and the small differences in each movement. You can hear the sound of the wind and the voices of birds. Everything feels like it's moving or making sounds, creating a highly complex and clearly differentiated world.
Read detailed instructions and view photo demonstrations for advanced exercises on Breathing With Missoku.
So how can you improve your current daily life by practicing secret breathing?
Life in the 21st century moves at an incredibly fast pace. With the rise of technology, the world expects us to be constantly alert and available. With this lifestyle, it's easy to feel like your life is passing by so fast that you don't have time to reflect and process each day. However, Misusoku gives us the opportunity to sit still and actively remember and be grateful for our lives, even if it's just for 5 minutes a day.
The difference between practicing missok and simply practicing breathing for mindfulness or meditation is that when you practice misok, you are not using normal chest breathing or abdominal breathing, where your torso moves up and down continuously. Unlike breathing, the whole body does not move at all. This lack of movement stabilizes your vision, allowing you to see your surroundings as they really are, and gives you a sense of calm. Tilting your pelvis also allows you to inhale more air in a shorter amount of time, allowing for deeper breathing. Then we are transported to a new world and become fully aware of our body and the surrounding environment. The swirling thoughts in your head quiet down and your mental state relaxes. This is what everyone needs.
Misusoku has been of great benefit to modern humans, but we need to recognize where it comes from. Misusoku is the origin of all things Japanese, so mastering it opens the door to understanding Japanese culture that you can't learn any other way. For example, in Japanese tea ceremony, practicing misosoku allows you to use all five senses when entering the tea room. As quoted in “Breathing and Missing”:
“Once the ritual begins, we are unable to engage in small talk and are forced to withdraw into ourselves, becoming aware of our own breathing and the rustle of our clothes in the quiet atmosphere. Then, we enter a state of quiet ecstasy as we feel various sensual stimulations, such as the crackling of charcoal in the brazier, the bubbling of boiling water, the scent of incense, and the calligraphy hanging on a hanging scroll in a dimly lit alcove. I enter the alcove. When I drink the slowly brewed tea, I feel the bitter liquid pervading my whole body after just two or three sips.”
I myself learned about missoku through my practice as a shakuhachi player. The shakuhachi is a traditional Japanese bamboo flute, historically played by komus. A monk of the Fuke Zen sect during the Edo period (1600-1868). What about COMS? The monks did not treat the shakuhachi as a musical instrument. Instead, it was considered a tool that could be used to practice Zen Buddhism.
While collecting the repertoire of coms, I studied under an old monk at a temple in Hakata. After his tense performance, he taught me something I'll never forget.
“Your problem is that you are suppressing your sound in order to produce a good sound. That is not the method. Play as if you were in a state of nothingness. As the sun began to set, the instructor said, He spoke to me calmly. Then he opened the sliding door facing the garden and said, “It's empty!''
Since then, I have carried this advice with me and have performed with Misosoku and Shakuhachi in over 150 cities in 40 countries. I hope that my book, Breathing With Missoku, will enlighten you as it did for me all those years ago.
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Breathing With Missoku will be released on November 26, 2024 and is available for pre-order at Collective Ink, Amazon, and other online book providers.
Read here: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/o-books/our-books/breathing-with-missoku-undiscovered-zen-secret-japanese
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