Meridians and the Empty Mind
A Treatment Demonstration in Vienna
I was once invited to Vienna to teach for four days at an international Shiatsu conference.
For me, Tao Shiatsu is ultimately about results. If a treatment does not bring about a change, it has little meaning. That is why, during my workshops, I often turn to the audience and ask:
“Does anyone here have pain or some other symptom?”
I then invite a volunteer onto the stage and treat them in front of everyone.
This style of public demonstration is something I learned from Shizuto Masunaga, the founder of Meridian Shiatsu. There is, however, one difficulty: the people who volunteer are often those with the most stubborn conditions.
“I’ve had this pain for thirty years.”
“It hurts even when someone barely touches it.”
And I may have only ten minutes to demonstrate some kind of result.
If I allowed myself to think, What if it doesn’t work?, I could never do this kind of demonstration. The pressure would be overwhelming.
So I do not think about the result.
I let it go.
I simply empty my mind and treat the person in front of me with complete sincerity.
The first person to come onto the stage in Vienna was a man suffering from pain in his knees and shoulders. He had lived with these symptoms for several years. At times, the pain also travelled from his head towards his eyes.
When I examined his meridians, I found Bladder deficiency.
In Tao Shiatsu, Bladder deficiency often appears in connection with stress in human relationships. In recent years, I have also been seeing it frequently in people suffering from knee pain. The pain running from this man’s head towards his eyes followed the Bladder meridian almost exactly.
The diagnosis seemed to fit.
As I explained the meridian pattern to the audience, I continued the treatment.
Within a few minutes, the pain in his knees, shoulders and neck had disappeared.
Then the next volunteer came forward.
She was a woman who told me:
“There is a place on the top of my foot that hurts terribly, even when it is only lightly touched. I can’t sleep because of it. I’ve suffered from this for fifteen years.”
Her diagnosis was Gallbladder deficiency.
My first thought was, She must have eaten a lot of sweets.
When I asked her, she immediately confirmed it.
For just a moment, doubt entered my mind.
Can I really make a difference with something this severe?
But I refused to follow that thought.
Instead, I turned to the audience and declared:
“Once the negative ki is released, the symptoms will disappear.”
It was a little like Babe Ruth pointing towards the stands before hitting a home run there — a rather old reference, perhaps.
Of course, having said this aloud, I had only increased the pressure on myself.
So once again, I returned to no-mind.
I emptied myself.
There was only the person in front of me and the treatment that needed to be given.
Gradually, her pain began to fade.
Then something unexpected happened.
Perhaps the treatment had reached deep into her unconscious and touched a trauma she had carried for many years. Suddenly, she began to sob.
The entire hall fell silent.
For a while, the only sound was her crying.
I continued the treatment.
About ten minutes later, the pain that had troubled her for fifteen years was gone.
Still crying, she smiled.
“Thank you.”
Then she placed her palms together and quietly left the stage.
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