Teaching Seijaku as a Kinesthetic Mindfulness Practice

Practicing and teaching Seijkau as a kinesthetic mindfulness practice creates tremendous opportunity for spiritual evolution, something Justin wished for all his T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) teachers. (Kinesthesia is the movement of the body’s muscles and engagement with the sensory system.) When using the muscles, we learn a new discipline more efficiently. (For example, this is how we learn to play tennis or ski.) Mindfulness practice, developed by the Buddha 2,500 years ago, is a spiritual discipline whereby we become aware of our arising thoughts, emotions and body sensations and our reaction to them. Justin’s book, Heightened Awareness, describes exercises we can follow to develop a mindfulness practice.

Justin often compared Seijaku’s Chi circulation to a 1,000-watt light bulb (with TCC as a 60-watt light bulb). In the Seijaku booklet, created as a fundraiser for the International T’ai Chi Chih Foundation, there are many stories written by Seijaku practitioners, which tell of deep healings. What is it about Seiajku that brings such astonishing stories? It is due to Seijaku’s heightened Chi circulation, caused by the addition of the resistance section. However, it is critical to remember, Justin admonished his teachers to only offer Seijaku classes to advanced students since they must be able to ground the enhanced Chi.

Justin wrote about his fervent wish that his teachers attain heightened awareness, not just for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of their students. Just like in TCC, Seijaku is fundamentally a spiritual practice, which Justin defined as knowledge of the Real, of the Absolute. He stressed that we could attain heightened awareness states through mindfulness practices.

Justin invited his Albuquerque TCC teachers to his house three times a week to practice Turiya meditation. Turiya (the state of Reality underling waking, sleeping, and dreaming) is a very deep meditation, like diving under a big ocean wave. In Turiya, the practitioners have no awareness of their turbulent, suffering, ego-generated thoughts.

I became aware that even though entering deep Turiya states, I still became agitated by everyday life events. I wrote Justin a letter, asking him, “Will Turiya meditation, by itself, maintain Universal awareness, or do I need a regular mindfulness practice where I consciously release self-clinging thoughts?” He called me to his house to answer my questions, saying, “You cannot succeed in realizing Universal Awareness, the Absolute, unless you become aware of that which hinders you. When you experience an emotion or agitated thought, ask, ‘Is this of the Absolute?’ The ego, self-clinging, is a big hindrance. There’s only one thing going on: can you attune to the Absolute while waking, sleeping, dreaming? If you can, Universal Awareness is overtaking the individual viewpoint.”

After Justin imparted these words of encouragement, I attended a TCC Teacher Conference, where I conducted an informal survey, asking Seijaku accredited teachers if they practiced Seijaku, and if they taught it. Most teachers told me they didn’t practice it or teach it because they disliked it, saying it made them angry, or they didn’t understand it. One teacher said, “Why should I push through a wall; I have enough stress in my life?” Seijaku seemed to be in danger of extinction, so I decided to play with integrating Seijaku’s resistance section with Justin’s Heightened Awareness exercises. The exercises are methods to develop bare awareness of rising ego-clinging thoughts, emotions, and body sensations, yet not engage with them.

One method he discussed, which reminded me of Seijaku, is Tien Tai meditation: a meditation whereby the practitioner holds concentration in a focused point (third eye, tip of nose, or tan t’ien) then releases concentration when thoughts become too numerous. He said that this holding fast/letting go, when practiced regularly, can bring the practitioner to a state of Universal Awareness.

Justin, and other spiritual teachers, state that immersion in the Absolute, Universal Awareness, can only happen when we are in a state of Presence: when the mind is quiet, but alert. Knowing that when the body is moving, the mind is quiet, I experimented with putting the feel of one of the aspects of “awareness of hindrances” into the resistance section of Seijaku. For example, in Chapter 7, Justin asks us to become aware of our state of mind at a point in time; not to analyze it, just be aware of it: Peaceful, hostile, sad? I placed a “state of mind” in the resistance section as a felt sense: tactile, color, smell, taste, sound. Beginning the movement in softness, I entered the felt resistance when my leading foot flattened and exited the resistance when my back heel released.

Practicing Seijaku this way brought a tremendous release of “self,” a liberation from an egoic fixation. I decided to share with Justin the experiment and its effects. He watched me demonstrate, and then said, “Of course, dear, that makes sense: Seijaku is a heightened awareness practice.” So, this is how I’ve been teaching Seijaku: I require the students to watch Justin’s Seijaku DVD as well as read his Heightened Awareness book to develop a regular mindfulness practice. The student decides what ego fixation to implant in the resistance section. Practicing Seijaku as a kinesthetic mindfulness practice brings joy and spiritual evolution to both students and my fellow teachers. Some tell me they now practice only Seijaku because of the phenomenal results achieved.

The following are self-inquiry questions I ask the Seijaku students, which help to fine–tune their practice:

• Does it help to delineate the resistance by embedding it with color, taste, texture, smell, sound?

• How do I experience the resistance density: very dense/ not very dense?

• Does the resistance density change with (or within) each practice?

• Am I really seeking Heightened Awareness, Universal Consciousness?

• Am I really willing to let go of my subjective perspective (thoughts, emotions, my suffering back-story) and be guided by Cosmic Consciousness, the Ineffable?

The following are quotes from Justin, which I often share with Seijaku students:

• “You cannot realize Universal Awareness unless you become aware of that which hinders you.”

• “What we see, feel, think is empty of enduring self-nature.”

• “Heightened awareness gradually becomes Universal Consciousness, and we begin to get away from the self-centered concentration we had formerly known.”

• “Heightened Awareness always begins on the inside, not being merely a matter of tactile or sensory occurrence. We begin to be aware of the vast ocean of Consciousness in which we swim.”

• “Wisdom and Energy come from the same Source. We live in a vast continuum of surging vibration, encompassing both Wisdom and Energy. We do not have to look outside ourselves to find both. Enlightenment is merely uncovering our own treasure.”