BODY RIPPLES AND BREATHING

By Haruchika Noguchi
Perhaps due to the influence of the moon, the fluids of the human body have periods of
high tide and others of low tide, just like the seas; and whether or not these tides affect the
state of the body, there are periods in which the state of the body is such that everything
flows smoothly, forgetting that we have it, and other times when it does not behave as one
would like. And whether or not these tides have an influence on moods, there are seasons
when the mood is extremely good and others when one is continually exasperated for no
apparent reason. I do not know if this is due with total certainty to the tides of the fluids of
the body, but if you look closely at the changes in the moods of human beings and the state
of their bodies, it will be appreciated that there are certain cycles that are specific of each
individual.
By cycles I mean that similar states repeat themselves during certain periods of time. At
some point, the body's tendency to become tense increases, and other moments its
tendency towards relaxation becomes stronger. On closer inspection, it will be seen that
there are two types of ripples: a four or five week cycle and a thirty or forty day cycle. What
manifests itself in the state of the body it does on a weekly basis and in the mood on a ten-
day basis. In the case of each of these undulations, after being repeated five or seven times,
a longer change is experienced; then the tendency toward tension or relaxation will persist
for some time. If the mood goes upwards, the person will be irritable; If you move toward
relaxation, you will feel discouraged. There are times when the mood and the body move in
unison, and times when they are at odds. Since they do not always move in the same
direction, we cannot conclude that the state of the body influences that of the mood, or
that because a person's mood is good, their physical state must also be good. Thus, in the
body there are two types of undulations, [on one side] that of ki and [on the other] that of
the body's fluids, there being taiheki that notice one undulation more than the other. The
ways in which people feel, manifest and move differ according to their taiheki. Maybe even
the root of the taiheki is a ripple.
But I am not going to examine the causes or characteristics of body ripples here: I actually
want to direct the question to how to make use of these ripples; that is, how these
undulations should be used to maintain health.
Instead of worrying uselessly, people have the ability, if they understand body undulations,
to rest in a calm state of mind and to work vigorously; unfortunately, they don't usually do
this. If you understand the body undulations and work while you are going through them,
you can commit excesses without feeling great discomfort; If you relax according to these
undulations, the body will quickly rest. If one harmonizes with the bodily state, even what is
normally impossible becomes possible. You can take care of your body very well, but if the
body state is ignored, this care can become a burden. There are many young people who
suppose that the simple fact of studying will allow them to pass the exams, for that reason
they start to sweat the fat drop studying, constantly falling asleep; the harder someone
who is not good at his studies tries, the more tired he becomes. Thus, when the day of the
exams arrives, her fatigue is at the highest point, and in the exam room not a single idea
will come up. After leaving the classroom, he is relieved and his head is working again. If
you can relax your body first and then study, you will assimilate much more. Then, in the
exam room, your spirits should be strengthened and ideas will pop up one after another in
your head. Despite everything, people study while very tense. Until one can relax, the head
will not work. If one knows and knows how to harmonize with the body undulations, he will
be able to study more easily. There is a particular way of studying each individual.
Harmonizing with the ripples of the body and using them to relax the body is important for
maintaining health, but the issues I just mentioned should not be overlooked if you intend
to live your lives happily.
It is vital to do seitai exercises or to supply soho from time to time, when there are changes
in the undulations, being wrong to think that the results will be the same whether the
exercises are done or soho is given or not. For an exercise of seitai or soho to be effective,
the precise moment must be chosen in which there is a change in the undulations.
Specifically, if a seitai exercise is done at that moment of change, it will not be necessary to
do it again. It is just at the moment of change when one feels something strange in the
body or mood and if, without meditating on it, one limits himself to perceiving how his
body feels, [it is possible to] anyone can say for sure when the change is taking place. The
exercises are most effective at the time of change from low tide to high tide and also, when
applying soho, the opportunity arising from this change should be seized. The main reason I
speak of this is so that you are able to seize such an opportunity.
This matter is not limited to health issues. It can happen that one is in a bad mood and, if in
this state, he reprimands another person, he can verbally exceed himself by causing
resistance in the other person, contrary to what he expected. This type of event is
connected with ripples. Also [here] we can say that the key is the moment when a ripple
changes direction. If you don't notice the right moment, just saying what you want to say
and trying to force the other person, they will not accept it at all. Ignoring the ripples and
pushing with a narrow, one-way mindset toward what you want to do is ineffective. The
same thing happens when we are helping someone to recover physically: a person in good
condition can make splendid applications [techniques] but that does not mean that the
person they are treating is going to have a gut movement. It is important to seize the
moment to help the body without hesitation. There are also those who believe that if they
try too hard they are being generous with the person they are dealing with; they, too, are
wrong.
You have to be able to catch the right moment to do seitai sóhó and concentrate on that
moment; If you don't pay attention to the rhythms of the body, you won't be able to catch
that moment. In order to do this, it is necessary to keep our hearts calm so that we can
accurately perceive the movement of the other's body and the movement of their mood.
You cannot understand the undulation of others if you are impatient. Applying treatment
without understanding this is like shooting with a pistol while blindfolded: you cannot tell
where you have been shot or who has been wounded. In this way you are doing something
that should be beneficial but actually causes harm; and by forcing kindness on the other,
their resistance arises.
When a ripple is headed for tension, we call it high tide; when the ripple is directed towards
relaxation we call it low tide. To make the subject easier, one should be active in periods of
high tide and rest in those of low tide. But in practice this proves complicated. If during a
period of high tide one is not active, one feels extremely irritable, impatient and
unbalanced; mood precipitates on its own and bodily activity does not persist; or it is the
body that acts by itself quickly. Thus one finds oneself acting in an unexpected excessive
way, beyond what one would like. In a period of low tide, one feels very sleepy and what is
done does not seem to progress. Despite this, the food tastes better and you gain some
weight, the body feels heavy and with difficulty in movement. You can also start to act with
a plan in mind, but since the mood is not in line with the intention, you quickly feel tired or
bored. During a period of high tide, sleep becomes more intense and deep, so there are
people who worry that they are suffering from insomnia because they wake up earlier.
During the period of low tide it usually happens that the eyes and the head are asleep so
there are those who think that they have a dull head or believe that they have suffered
some type of nervous breakdown. During a period of low tide there is nothing wrong with
the head being simply unoccupied, but when someone's head is unoccupied, they will insist
that it should be active; in turn, during a period of high tide, when the mind is at its
maximum working capacity, the person will think that he should rest and will therefore
become irritated. This type of event is especially severe when the ripple of the body state
and the ripple of the mood run opposite to each other.
The body undulations are noticeably manifested in what we can call the "intonation" of the
pulse, as well as in the mood, and thus one can quickly recognize whether the rhythm of
the pulse is "da-dan" or "da-dan". , that is, if the pulse is increasing or decreasing. If you
look closely, you will see that this is reflected in the way a person's body moves and the
way their emotions vary, and thus, anyone can perceive the ripples of others. Pick about a
dozen or so individuals as your objects of observation and examine them closely over a
three-year period, and even if your intuition is weak, you will be able to understand this
matter. In my own case, it took ten years before I became aware of these ripples and,
subsequently, another ten years before I found a way to observe them and to be able to
recognize them. In total, it took me twenty years to come to understand you and therefore,
for you, three years should be long enough and not excessively long, although there are
many who think that three years is actually too long a test.

Regardless, if it is simply to determine the point where the ripples change by feeling the
change in the character of the pulse that arises at that moment, then this matter will take
less than three years. I worked very hard to find the relationship between taiheki and
ripples, and because of that it was difficult for me. But once I understood these ripples the
exercise prescription and application of soho was suddenly easy. Facts like seeing people [in
the office] and talking to them or stopping a child's mischief started to flow in comparison
to how it had turned out for me before I understood this matter. And you may also be able
to preview it.

So please don't sit idly by thinking it's difficult and try to see. Anything you do yourself will
become easier. When it comes to relationships between human beings, the distance
between those who understand the nature of ripples and those who don't, lead to results
that are more different than you might suppose. This is applicable when, for example, you
are trying to persuade someone to do an exercise. When someone is understood, our
words are accepted more quickly than when not. When you are teaching or arguing with
someone, getting to know them is the starting point. The basis for a physical orientation,
too, is the knowledge of the characteristics of the other's body. If someone does a seitai
exercise during the course of a wave, it should be continued until the moment the wave
changes direction. And if, at such a point, someone begins to do a seitai exercise, it can be
determined, according to the nature of this moment of change, whether they should do an
exercise that relaxes their body or another that strengthens it. The desired effects emerge
exactly when an exercise is performed at the exact moment when one ripple changes to
another. It is enough to do the exercise eight or nine times a year. The time required for an
exercise is twenty seconds, so doing it as little as three minutes in a year will work. These
three minutes are very important as they will determine whether to act lightly and
energetically or whether one [feels that] you have to carry your body. During the rest of the
year it is enough to live in such a way that we adjust to the state of the body.

If you all come to know the point where you must do an exercise that leads you to live in
harmony with your bodily state, truly adopting this approach, I believe that you will be able
to always live happily and with a sense of order within yourself. In any situation, I hope you
look within yourself and understand the body ripples. There are people who say that it is
convenient to do a seitai exercise regularly or who say that they do it every day, but it is
more important to do the exercise in harmony with the body ripples.
Someone who has understood [the topic] of the three minutes for an exercise over the
course of a year has asked me a question about how to be in harmony with the state of the
body and how to adjust the body. I will not get into complicated explanations and, unless
someone understands it directly, I hope that you will practice what I am going to expose
you next.
It is about living so that you breathe calmly and deeply always, without allowing your
breathing to be disturbed. If you get angry or disappointed, your breathing becomes
shallower and you become disturbed. One thing that is more is to make the breathing
shorter and shallower looking for profit or advantage, making great efforts to get praise or
to put a threatening air when you are blamed for something. The only way to health is to
keep your breathing deep and calm. If you live in such a way that each breath is long and
deep, having a calm breathing as a whole, the countenance will be clean and the body will
be healthy and robust. If, on a day-to-day basis, you pay attention to the way you breathe,
you will become sensitive to the way others breathe, and thus you will come to "read" how
others breathe.

You see someone move after they have moved - that's normal. But when you become able
to read someone else's breath, you can tell when they are going to move, before they have.
This is simply due to the fact that the changes that precede the action are manifested in the
breath. When breath and movement are in harmony, the state of the body is good. And if
the balance between breath and pulse is in harmony, a person can move easily. Human
activity, fundamentally, maintains a rhythm of four beats per breath. This applies to both
the internal and external activities of the body. If the breathing becomes faster one feels
that things [happen] more quickly, and if it slows down, things are noticed more slowly. The
duration of the breath is the root of the changes in the way we see things, so that when the
breath is light, one is somehow accelerated; getting irritated to the minimum. The others
seem to do things slowly, it is normal; They even seem to be walking more slowly, which is
desperate. Regarding one's actions, when

breathing is calm, one walks slowly, but if one is panting to do something, one walks
nervously.

The bodily activity, both internal and external, of human beings always acts according to
the rhythm of respiration. Even the functions of the stomach and liver are in balance with
the movements of the heart and respiratory system, which are in the ratio of four beats for
each breath. If this balance is disturbed, a feeling of physical disorder will arise. But even in
the case of a fever or a stomach ache, it should be clear that normal [body] functioning is
maintained as long as the ratio of respiration to pulse is one to four. Therefore, even when
someone has the symptoms of a disease, there is no need to worry as long as the quotient
of the pulsations divided by the number of breaths is equal to four: the person will pass
more or less quickly through this state and then his body it will be full of life again. On the
other hand, it may be thought that there is nothing wrong with a person's body, but if there
are six or seven beats for each breath, one must be careful and watch the body very closely.
It is a rudimentary system of observation but it can be had as a pattern.
Therefore, when someone's breathing is calm and tranquil, the assumption that both the
state of his body and his mind are calm is justified. If the breathing is altered we can
suppose that both in the mind and in the body there is some type of obstruction or
disorder. If someone is moody or slightly discouraged, their breathing will be agitated. If
one eats or runs excessively, the breathing will accelerate but, although the breathing and
the pulsations become faster, it cannot be said that the body of a person is out of
adjustment as long as the ratio between pulse and respiration is four to one.
Formerly there were people who advised against any undue excess and advocated
suppressing emotions, whether they were joy, sadness, anger or pleasure. They said, “A
man's life ends after a million heartbeats, so the secret to longevity is to refrain from doing
things that make the pulse race and, with a calm heart, hold a breath. "But in reality,
whether you unleash your emotions or suppress them, your pulse quickens. Still, the idea
behind the assumption that your heart has a life of a million beats , that is, one should try
not to raise his heart rate excessively, it is good. Especially, the idea of keeping the heart
calm and taking a deep breath is not crazy. The person who breathes calmly and deeply
lives for a long time, since the The life of someone who is panting continuously is short —
although, on the other hand, it may be that, since someone's life expectancy is innately
short, they are always rushing and governed by their emotions.

Furthermore, when someone's attention is scattered, their breathing becomes lighter. If

you can hold long breaths, you can work continuously for any length of time. When you get
bored in the middle of your work, it is because your breathing has become lighter. In
everyday life it's smart to avoid doing things that cause you to breathe lighter. You want to
live in such a way that you can maintain slow, deep breathing. If you do something that you
think is wrong, your breathing will get upset. If you think that what you are doing is the
right thing to do, your breathing will not alter. "Do good, renounce evil." The words are
simple and even when you are three years old, you cannot act as they say until you are
seventy. Thus, a good way of life is to prepare the body using stability in breathing as a
system. For a long time, the system of working on the breath as a method of maintaining
health and training the spirit has been followed and I consider that it is fine. It can be said
that this system, which implies what is prior to form, is superior to current health
maintenance methods predisposed, as they are, towards sports and gymnastic exercises. In
human life the essential is what precedes the form.