Essays From The Master

Sleight of mind: Haragei

Among the masters of the Silent Way it is said that adepts can sense some emotion or thought pattern especially strongly and manipulate that pattern to their own ends without any real training or effort. This pattern is similar to a wavelength, one of both a type of energy and a concept that embodies the energy. Once an adept knows there particular frequency one can learn to tune in others, the first acting as one’s baseline. Whatever the thought-energy baseline there are two types of minds receptive and projective. A receptive type receives information and energy from around them. Gifts like empathy and mind reading are receptive manifestations of Haragei. A projective type sends energy and thought outward from them. Gifts such as thought manipulation and telepath are projective types of Haragei. Usually but not always those of the receptive bent tend to focus energy and process information through feeling fueled by soul energy. Projective types tend to focus energy and process information through the will fueled by instinct. All adepts learn feats of both sorts but for example for a projective to read thoughts said adept must will the subject to “open” themselves to the adept for the thoughts to be known to the adept, it is the approach not the effect that changes from type to type.

For the Komuso Ryu individual wavelength is derived from one’s observable elemental type (air, water, fire, earth, or wood) added to which of the four esoteric elements (metal, jewel, matter and energy) one draws upon the most. Only the individual can decide what his personal element is and how that element manifests symbolically. As one example one adept may draw on air and water as the aspects of his personal element and that being so may see his personal element as ice, while another with the same base elements might combined them to compose lightening. Whatever the personal elemental icon is, to practice Haragei the adept must develop meditations and mental signals based on his personal element. These form the jargon or Tarot deck through which the adept is able to understand input from outside him from a transpersonal source. This is also why one need not speak the same language to comprehend or to send projective thought, as thought always comes through the jargon of the mind it is sent into.

Armed with one’s personal wavelength or harmony when it is seen as a union of one’s Ki with one’s Chi one must discern whether one is a projective or a receptive type which is based on the yang (projective) or yin (receptive) nature of one’s element. Knowing the symbols one uses, whether one is projective or receptive and one’s personal element allows one to know the personal input from the transpersonal. The personal symbols serve as the words of one’s inner language, the matter of being projective or receptive serves to show the direction the language flows from. Before one can perform the feats of Haragei one must study Saiminjitsu or the way of the mind gate which is basic psychology starting with one’s self and then expanding the scope to others. The mundane aspect of Haragei is foundational to all the rest because awareness of energy without knowledge of what that input means tends to blind the individual rather than giving the individual more options. To practice Haragei one must know how one’s mind understands the energy of others and how one’s energy manifests to others in a symbolic form. With that understanding the adept is able to see the actual connections between one’s self and others verses the assumed or perceived links.
Provided the work is done as to one’s wavelength, element and so on one must actively practice Haragei. The first mode of practice in Haragei is a study of the self along the lines of the nine elements as aspects of the self micro and macro being reflective of one another. One must define themselves by the cycle of the nine elements and discern which is one’s type is as per the five and which of the four that one draws on while also deciding if one is projective or receptive. Once one has these basic facts one must test them by living or interacting along those lines and see if one is right and using trial and error one must seek the truth as to one’s self. Once the self is understood via the cycle of the nine elements one must study how the energies as behaviors of others come across to the self. An air type may be drawn or repelled by people and those persons may come across in elemental symbols that make sense only to that air type and to no other. This is not mind reading of others but rather how one’s own mind manifests data that is picked up but not mentally understood.

The second training in Haragei is a lesson on projection and reception of energy as well as form and substance. The one training in the discipline is blindfolded and a partner stands the length of the subject’s height away from the student holding a mirror. The student must send out his “Wa” or aura, his personal harmony and fill the space with it. Next the partner must stand at points around the student and at times point the mirror at the student. The student must perceive the space with his mind as the screen for his eyes based on the other senses and thus “see” the space. The student should feel when the mirror is pointed at the student through the chakra known as the hara in the stomach which should be translated by the other senses into mental sight. At first this should be done in normal light and then in less light until one is in total darkness. Next one should repeat the cycle this time sensing the person rather than an object and later with more than one person and being able to tell one presence from another. Finally the student should practice withdrawing his Wa and thus learn to cloak one’s self.

The third training in Haragei combines the projection and reception of the previous works in a particular form of projection. First the student trains in being able to sense a candle and that of a partner individually. Secondly the student must train in using his Ki to move the flame of the candle once it is felt with the hara. The student should start with the candle in sight and full light but later it must be done so with the student being blindfolded and then in total darkness. These exorcises are meant to teach the body of a person to link its senses with the energy it outputs with the mind being consciously aware of it. With time and training the student can learn to sense not only the Chi of others which would include intent but also the vibration of the Ki of others as well would include perception of an action before said action is manifest in motion of the body.

Saiminjitsu has been translated by some as “the three secrets” and the three training methods are those secrets. Reception syncs with yin energy while the control of one’s “Wa” relates to yang energy while projection relates to Ki energy. The balance between the mundane senses and the energies of Chi and Ki energy is a return to the state of the mind before the rise of civilization and culture as it often observed in animals sensing storms and earthquakes. The gifts and feats one develops through these means are reflective of the nature that one’s essence is a reflection of.
A mirror is used because as a symbol it brings the ego into play as well as the externalized projections of stagnate personal Chi that oft times manifest as inner demons i.e. health issues and emotional-mental complexes. Fire is used because of the natural fear of it on a biological level which expands the senses naturally. The natural dilation of the sensory scope reveals the natural interaction between the Chi and Ki with the mundane world. Divination on a mundane or mental level takes place via the same natural interaction when joined with a personal jargon of symbols and an understanding of how the mind works. This is known in popular thought as “cold reading” and is used to discredit such things as divination. In showing how symbol systems can resonate with anyone this also shows that the archetypes of divination are transpersonal as well as showing that the systems work regardless of how they work. This body of connections is a part of modern noetic science which is nothing more than the latest form of the same lore found in Hermeticism and Taoism.

Besides sensing energies and being able to cloak one’s own energy the student is shown how the energy interacts with the mundane world resulting in picking up data that seems outside of human normal but is in fact only outside of modern human normal. By sensing the energies of others and using the right cues one can willfully create perceptions of reality and thus confuse the perception of a target. Many people go by there “gut” or hara and this is a great gift but the hara can be fooled by another hara that has been trained and no element of the art is full proof. Haragei can give the impression that one is more astute than one is or that an individual is closer to another than one actually is. There is nothing more dangerous than delusion of awareness. Practice and trial must be constant for the period of a year or more. For obvious reasons Haragei is often taught as a part of the way of the bat as they use echo location in order to “see” even with bad vision though it is again addressed in the way of the tiger.

Haragei is about taking stock of all the body picks up in terms of sensory data not leaving out patterns and feelings that are not rational. This can be seen in grabbing a raincoat in the midst of a sunny sky based on a feeling or otherwise nonlinear basis for what one is doing yet it is the right thing to do. In esoteric terms one perceives Chi with the hara and directs Ki from the Kia Point both functions being controlled by the third eye or pineal gland. Chi is channeled from the hara to the biology of the senses which is why it manifests as vision or hearing voices in some cases before one’s answer is sent through the Kia Point. The effect of music, sights and memory on the stomach and the stability of the body are well known and demonstrate some of the lore on which Haragei is based. The student can use this connection but also must guard against it pointing to a need to be mindful of or to control what media and so on one is exposed to. Music can heal or poison but what is healing for one may not be healing for another pointing toward the need for both self knowledge and self discipline to give one example.

Haragei is not a finite discipline once it is developed and practiced it grows so long as the practice is kept up. Haragei is one reason why ninja are said to “see with the eyes of god” or as it is said in the Komuso mantra “I have no eyes; I make the flash of lightning my eyes” when such perception is only an individual making the most of what their body can pick up on all levels.