from cover

Technology today touches nearly every part of our lives. Through ever more impressive development of machines, the process continues. Computers put men out of work; pushing a single button is enough to start nuclear war.

Gradually, though, the world has begun to remember that it is man for whom the machines must work, and not the other way around. We recognize now that science, for all its achievement, has done little to help us understand ourselves or realize our potential.

There is no snese in waiting for science to do it for us. Each of us must now take it upon himself to understand his true nature and strength: The Chinese classic Saikontan says that we stand like beggars at the gate, forgetting the infinite power given us by the universe. Of course great men through the ages have not ignored the infinite power offered them. Persons such as the Buddha and many others less famous have been able to unify their minds and bodies to realize their true nature and strength. But the average man sees such people as a world apart from himself. He thinks of them as having been touched by a magic wand and fails to recognize that the power of a Buddhi, a Christian saint, or even a great business or political leader is available to us all. Instead of shrinking from this potential, we should be thankful for it. We should strive to manifest it and help others to do the same.

The author regards his Four Principles to Unify Mind and Body as having been given to him by the universe to spread the way of the universe. There have been many who have grasped unification of mind and body. Very few, however, could teach it. Fewer still could teach how to teach it. Those who learn the four basic principles as explained in this book have come to understand not only how to unify their own minds and bodies, but also how to teach it to others. I ask each person who learns from this book to pass his knowledge on to others, so that the chain of understanding will remain unbroken.

The author, founder of the Ki Society International, presents the philosophical groundwork and specific disciplines by which the individual may attune himself or herself with the Ki-life energy of the universe-and thrive in health and harmony, without fatigue or depression.

Author Koichi Tohei was born in 1920. As a child, Tohei was sickly and spent a great deal of his time under the care of doctors. His father, a fourth dan in judo, felt that training in that martial art would do much for his young son's constitution. By the age of fifteen, Tohei had achieved black belt. At sixteen, he entered preparatory schooling for Keio University where he continuied his judo practice. He trained with such ardor that shortly after beginning school work, he developed pleurisy and had to leave school for one year. As he lay ill, he reflected on the human condiiton ahd his meditations made it painfully clear to him that the human body and spirit were weak and vulnerable. To strengthen himself physically and mentally he devoted much time to Zen meditation and misogi breathing exercises. He learned Zen from Master Josei Ohta, president of the Daitokuji Temple in Kyoto, and misogi from Master Tesso Hino. At the age of 19, he started to learn aikido under Master Morihei Ueshiba.

During the Second World War, after graduating from Keio University at the age of 23, he served for four years in the army as a first lieutienant in central China. On the battlefields where even a slight slip could mean death, he resolved to involve himself after the war in the greater game of life rather than mere martial arts as sport. He discovered the mysterious significance of concentrating one's spirit in the one point in the lower abdomen which he feels helped in his safely surviving the war with no serious casualty among his soldiers.

After the war, he returned to study Zen misogi training and, also, continued to study aikido now altered by his wartime experiences. From 1953 to 1976, he made seventeen trips to the united States where he spread aikido and established aikido training halls in twenty states, beginning with Hawaii.

In September of 1971, he founded Ki Society International in which the principles of Ki and the coordination of mind and body are taught in detail. Also, on May 1, 1974 he established Shinshin Toitsu Aikido (Aikido with mind and body Coordinated). At present he is the president of the Ki Society International.

Contents

Preface
1 What is Ki?
Extend Ki
Infinitely Half
Using the Mind Positively
2 Four Basic Principles to unify Mind and Body
Calming the Mind
The Four Basic Principles--1. Keep One Point; 2. Relax Completely; 3. Keep Weight Underside; 4. Extend Ki
The Relationship Between the Four Principles
3 How to Become Strong
How to Train the Body--1. Exercise the Right and Left Equally; 2. Stretch the Muscles Behind; 3. How to Relax
How to Strengthen the mnd--1. Unify Your MInd; 2. Using the Mind Positively
How to Develop INtelligence--1. Understanding; 2. Judgment; 3. Memory
How to Cure Whiplash
How to Stay Calm in Front of People
How to Sleep Soundly
How to Overcome Disease
How to Imporve Your Luck in Gambling
How to Raise Your Handicap in Golf
How to Raise a Strong Child--1. How to Instill Confidence; 2. How to Give a Child Composure; 3. How to Make Your Child Positive
How to Gain Sexual Strength
4 Finding Ki through Aikido: A Short Personal History
A Sickly Child in the Chief Magistrate's House
Judo, Pleurisy, and Absence from College
Mistaken for Ashes
Entrance into the Ichikukai
Discovery of Aikido
Second Class Private in the Infantry
Discovering the One Point in the lower Abdomen
Encounter with Unification of Mind and Body
In Debt in the Charcoal Business
Founding the Ki Society
Lighting Candles
5 Teaching the Power of Ki to the World
Hawaii Island
Maui Island
Kauai Island
Honolulu
American States

Koichi Tohei explains his four principles to unify mind and body. This book tries to help you learn these four principles, apply them and then teach them. The book is rather small, though its goal is large. It is very easy to read and understand by us westerners. ( )