Meiso = Meditation?

Kiko always begins and ends with Meiso. We translate Meiso as Meditation, but Meiso is so much more.

Meiso is made up of 3 kanji (Chinese Characters from the Han Dynasty [used by the Japanese]).

Me = the eyes
i = (this is a bit harder to translate, but it relates to a long story that deals with the Roku Dai or 6 elements I wrote about elsewhere in the blog)
so = the mind or our thoughts.

Meiso then is the natural position of our eyes and thoughts fitting precisely with the 6 elements of the world.

So, though we practice this as sitting still, sitting immovable, in meditation; meiso is just a skillful means for living naturally in the natural world.

The best teacher is viewed from behind. Leaving something to the imagination. Leaving something unseen, something hidden, hard to grasp, something to search for.

...Nothing is quite graspable, since all is constantly changing...

In In'yodo all opposites create an inseparable whole. Both nature and our humanness show in everything we touch. Perfection and imperfection live side by side in our lives, infused within eachother.

In this Eastern tradition the balance is almost never 50/50. Not really black and white but infiinite shades of grey tend to paint our reality. More often than not, the shadows are enhanced by the light, and the light by the shadow.

The middle may not be in the middle. 60/40 tends to be the natural balance before man interfers, or more accurately not quite 60/40 but almost... just a bit off (or is that less accurate? Certainly it's more vague). This vagueness is one characteristic of In'yodo as well. Mystery in the shadow.

Shadow and Sunshine in Zen

In'yodo or Onmyodo (The way of Shadow and Sunshine) is based on the way light and darkness play in our lives; or how we choose to walk in our lives with all it's opposites (that are not opposites). How we balance this and that. How we mix and merge self and others... up and down... left right... heaven earth...

The arts of Japan have roots that predate influence from the mainland. At the sametime almost everything in Japan has been infused with multiple influences from the mainland, as well.

Kiko is no different. It's roots stretch back to the dawn of humans on the archipeglio. But what we see in in the parks in Japan today mimics Chinese Chi Gong almost exactly. but Kiko in Japanese Mikkyo retained much of what went on before as well; mixing and merging ancient Japanese practices with what was brought from the mainland as well.

Japanese Culture is both what was before and what was brought. This is seen strongly in Zen. Zen is the what was created in Japan with the ancient matured in Japan through the influence of Chinese Confusionism, Buddhism, & Taoism.