Matthias Roth writes: “Infinite Aesthetic Powers of the Creator” in The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter, issue Number 73, Summer 2011:

On skills and “meta-skills” in Jin Shin Jyutsu

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I don’t recall when I first heard or read the words that preface both textbooks, in the unnumbered pages in Text 1 and on page 1 in Text 2, where Mary says of Jin Shin Jyutsu: “It is not application of technique; it is demonstration of art, simply Being the channel through which flow infinite aesthetic powers of the Creator.” I do know it was after our initial encounter; I was already “drunk”, and so the words made sense to the very fiber of my being.

Being in class with Mary, I knew at core that what I was experiencing was “demonstration of art”. No “application of technique” would have retained my attention for even half a day, but the five I got so spend in her presence left me longing to return to that feeling again and again.

Of course, no genuine experience can ever be repeated. It is unique, complete unto itself. And yet, the “something” that makes it so alive is unchanging in essence, never different. That is because the part of me that recognizes it is also unchanging in essence and never different.

To me, Mary’s presence flowed with an aliveness that introduced an ease between the words that far transcended the content they conveyed. It was through this ease that the matter at hand came alive. Such flow and presence are the hallmark of a person speaking quite directly from inner experience. Mary hints at the same sort of recognition when she describes the effect of attending her first lecture with Jiro Murai (Self-Help Book 1, p. 2): “My ‘search’ ended and an art of LIVING opened up for me.”

Most often, a person who just flows with awareness considers her flowing just natural. To her, it is nothing special, just a part of the human makeup. If such a person has students, she will generally tell them very little about what makes her who she is – she herself usually does not know! So the students are left to find out for themselves – or to forego reaching that depth. The message seems to be, “Do as I do and you will obtain the results I get.” Yet when we try that and rely just on the doing, we are in for a surprise.

On the part of the teacher, the message seems logical. After all, isn’t aliveness that flows between the words the source of everyone’s aliveness? Period! In a sense this is quite true. The awareness that speaks with such flow and the awareness that recognizes it are the same. They are not separate, and neither is located in the mind. But how do we get such awareness to be present in our doing?

Awareness is not lodged in the confines of the words that are spoken, but rather the words flow playfully from the awareness. Our awareness, part of our “spiritual inheritance”, recognizes it spontaneously, and such recognition is at once magical and a gift of great depth. Something about it is profoundly familiar and natural, it is simply a part of us, and yet it is not something we can want or do. What is it, then, that does the recognizing?

The mind which packs the experience in words after the fact isn’t capable of that. It reflects the experience and tries to explain it, but the words themselves do not contain what has happened. When all that is left are words, some concept, an illustration of the experience, something has disappeared, and the aliveness of that which is between the words is gone. The mind is still there, but Spirit has “skipped town”.

To be continued…