When you go to the fields or the woods, you will not know what it is really like there unless you are very, very still for over an hour.
Many birds, insects and animals stop making noise or hide as you arrive.
Lie down in the field before dawn.
See the changes.
Sit still in your room.
See what it tells you.
Be silent in a group of people.
See what they reveal to you.
Live with a person for a long time.
See what unfolds:
a) in two years
b) in ten years
c) in twenty years
Do this holding peaceful loving thoughts.
Do this holding resentment and hatred.
Observe the difference.
Watch Piece V
Watch two people arguing on the street.
Check how you feel about them.
a) Fly up about ten meters over their heads.
Check how you feel about them now.
b) Fly up as high as the Empire State Building.
See how you feel about them now.
c) Fly to another planet.
See how you feel about them now.
Watch Piece VI
Imagine water coming down a dry riverbed.
Room Piece I
Your room is an extension of your mind.
If a room is lopsided, just trying to keep a cup on a table
becomes a drama.
If your mind is lopsided, everything you do becomes a drama.
See if anything is lopsided in your room. See if you would like
more lopsided things in your room.
Complementary Balance:
a) When the snow covers the outside,
and your room is a mess.
b) When the snow is melting into a mess,
and your room is in order.
Symmetrical Balance:
a) When the snow covers the outside,
and your room is in order.
b) When the snow is melting into a mess,
and your room is a mess.
See which makes you feel more comfortable,
complementary or symmetrical balance.
room piece II
Sleep in separate rooms.
Whisper to each other.
Sleep in separate cities.
Sleep in separate countries.
Sleep on separate planets.
Whisper to each other.
Room Piece III
Think of your room as a prison.
Make the best of it and be proud.
Think of your room as a castle.
Invite people and share the joy.
Room Piece IV
Count all the words in the book
instead of reading them.
Count all the objects in the room
without classifying them.
Unclog your mind.
Unclog your room.
Arrange your room
in a way you wish
your mind would be.
Room Piece V
Get a telephone that only echoes back your voice.
Call every day and complain and moan
about your life and people around you.
Room Piece VI
Imagine what would happen
to your room
when you move away.
Imagine if there is anything
in the room you could take
when you die.
Cleaning Piece I
Write down a sad memory.
Put it in a box.
Burn the box and sprinkle the ashes in the field.
You may give some ashes
to a friend who shared the sadness.
Cleaning Piece II
Make a numbered list of sadness in your life.
Pile up stones corresponding to those numbers.
Add a stone each time there is sadness.
Burn the list, and appreciate the mound of stones for its beauty.
Make a numbered list of happiness in your life.
Pile up stones corresponding to those numbers.
Add a stone each time there is happiness.
Compare the mound of stones to the one of sadness.
Cleaning Piece III
Try to say nothing negative about anybody.
a) for three days
b) for forty-five days
c) for three months
See what happens to your life.
Cleaning Piece IV
Write down everything you fear in life.
Burn it.
Pour herbal oil with a sweet scent on the ashes.
Cleaning Piece V
Let a list of arbitrary names come into your mind as you go to sleep.
Say “bless you” after each name.
Do this with speed, by keeping a constant rhythm,
so, in no way, you would hesitate to bless them.
Let a list of names come into your mind as you go to sleep.
Say “I forgive you” after each name.
Do this with speed, by keeping a constant rhythm,
so you would not hesitate to forgive them.
You will find that sometimes you are blessing and forgiving
people you never thought you would.
Try whenever you remember to do it.
Try whenever you feel stressed out.
See what happens to your life.
Cleaning Piece VI
Send a note of appreciation to silent courageous people
you happen to have noticed: parents, teachers, shopkeepers,
street cleaners, artists, etc.
Keep doing it.
See what happens to the world.
Sound Piece I
Seng, Sung, Sang, Sing and Song were good musicians. The princess asked them to give a concert in the midsummer night of the warmest day in Li-Fung. It was a tradition in Li-Fung for the best musicians to get together and play for the people all night to soothe the heated air.
Seng said he would not play because he did not have enough time to prepare. Sung immediately went into an intensive and elaborate preparation. Sang did nothing. He wandered around the fields until the day came.
On the night, Seng was not there. Sung’s music overwhelmed people. Sang went on the stage, and when he sang, the warm wind went through his lungs and came out, transformed into the most beautiful music. It was the warm wind that made the music, he said. Sing did not even sing. He just stood on the stage and smiled, and the smile sent vibrations into people’s minds, and they heard, they heard their minds tingling, and they smiled back. Do you know anything about Song? People say that he was too pure, and one day, he just suddenly turned into air and was assimilated into the skies.
Who do you think you are, Sing, Seng, Sang, Sung or Song?
Sound Piece II
Listen to your breathing.
Listen to your child breathing.
Listen to your friend breathing.
Keep listening.
Sound Piece III
Listen to your town breathing.
l) at dawn
2) in the morning
3) in the afternoon
4) in the evening
5) before dawn
Sound Piece IV
Listen to what the next person is thinking.
Listen to what the person in the next house is thinking.
Listen to what the person in another city is thinking.
Listen to what the person in another country is thinking.
Tell us what you’ve heard.
Sound Piece V
Spring
Tape the sound of friends laughing together.
Save it for a rainy day.
Sound Piece VI
Summer
Tape the sound of your baby son crying.
Let him listen to the tape when he is
going through pain as a grown man.
Sound Piece VII
Tape the sound of the moon fading at dawn.
Give it to your mother to listen to
when she’s in sorrow.
Sound Piece VIII
Winter
Tape the sound of your friend ranting.
Bury it in the ground on a snowy day.
Sound Piece IX
Tape the sound of the lake gradually freezing.
Drink a cup of hot chocolate afterwards.
Sound Piece X
Fly out into space.
Listen to the music
the Earth is making.
Fly out into space.
a) Listen to the music
the planets are making.
b) Listen to the music
Universes are making.
Dance Piece I
Dream.
Dance Piece II
Dream together.
Dance Piece III
Take your pants off
before you fight.
Dance Piece IV
Watch a butterfly dance.
Watch the fireflies dance.
Watch the lights on the water dance.
Let your heart dance with them.
Dance Piece V
Go from one room to another
Opening and closing each door.
Do it very slowly.
a) Imagine opening and closing
your brain when you do this.
b) Imagine opening and closing
your heart when you do this.
c) Imagine opening and closing
people’s minds when you do this.
Dance Piece VI
Dance in your dream.
Hug your mother.
Hug your father.
Make them hug each other.
Hug your sisters and brothers.
Make a family circle and dance together.
Dance in your dream.
Go out into the street and hug everybody you meet.
Tell them how beautiful they are.
Dance together.
Dance in your dream.
Hug all the trees in the world.
Tell them how beautiful they are.
Dance around them.
Dance Piece VII
Sit at the dock.
Watch the seagulls dance.
Dance with them in your mind.
Keep dancing until you feel
you can hear their heartbeats.
Dance Piece VIII
Imagine one thousand suns rising at the same time.
Dance in the field.
Dance Piece IX
a) Dangle empty cans and bottles all over your body.
Dance without making a sound.
b) Carry a heavy object on your back.
Dance as swiftly as you can.
Dance Piece X
Think of all your movements in life as dance movements.
Breathe
Watch
Listen
Touch
and move between
the Earth
and the Sky
Life Piece I
An old Japanese warrior who belonged to the famous Byakkotai Youth Regiment and who survived the battle of Suribachi Mountain at the turn of the century told this story on a radio program when I was a child.
“I survived because I was too young to be a good swordsman.
I mainly ran. From behind a tree, I witnessed a famous old warrior surrounded by enemy swordsmen fighting for his life. The warrior kept twisting and shifting his body, placing his body under the enemy sword at an angle in which it was difficult for the blade to slice the body. He kept placing his body at that angle as the swords kept coming down on him. From where I stood, it looked as though he was dancing a graceful dance. Suddenly, I noticed that he was in a very different position. I did not see it happening because it was done so gradually and subtly, but somehow he removed himself from the center of the circle of swords. His enemies were now behind him.
After the battle, he showed me his clothes and his body. All his clothes were shredded into pieces, but his body had only small cuts he called scratches. That’s when he taught
me how to place your body under the blades.”
This story helped me, at one point in my life, when I was attacked from all directions and had to make a series of quick decisions and moves.
Tell us if there is any story that helped you to survive.
Life Piece II
Imagine painting all the statues in the world the colour of the sky.
Life Piece III
Imagine all the people singing one day of the year.
That day:
a) lawyers will argue in court by singing
b) politicians will make their speeches by singing
c) teachers will lecture by singing
d) soldiers of both camps will sing to each other
Life Piece IV
Life is about focusing and balancing.
If you focus and lose your balance, you fall.
If you balance and lose your focus, you die.
Check where your emphasis is: balancing or focusing.
Life Piece V
Imagine yourself being
in your mother’s womb
as an embryo.
Stay in the position for awhile.
Ask yourself if you still wish to come out
into the world with all the knowledge
you have of what happened to you
and how you affected others.
Life Piece VI
Each time we don’t say
what we want to say
we’re dying.
Make a list of how many times
you died this week.
Dying is a necessary act
for living.
Just like inhaling is necessary
in order to exhale.
Life Piece VII
Fly in your dream.
Spread your wings.
See how clear the world really is.
See how you never miss a turn.
See how you never fall.
See how you can fly forever.
Try to remember the feeling
when you are awake.
Life Piece VIII
A ghost was standing in a public toilet.
I suggested that he go up in the sky and be part of the light.
“I don’t want to do that,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because I want to maintain my individuality.”
I thought it was interesting that he would rather stand in the public toilet than join the light. Does he really treasure what he perceives as his individuality, or is he just simply afraid of making the move?
Tell us what your story is in staying where you are now in life.
Life Piece IX
Get a piece of rubber the size of your palm.
Imagine yourself stretching the rubber
to cover the world with it.
See how much you can cover.
Hang the piece of rubber
on the wall beside your bed.
Life Piece X
Walk in the footsteps of the person in front of you.
l) on the pavement
2) in the mud
3) on ice
4) in the snow
5) on fire
6) on water
Wish Piece I
Make a wish. Write it down on a piece of paper.
Fold it and tie it around a branch of a Wish Tree.
Ask your friends to do the same.
Keep wishing until the branches are covered with wishes.
Wish Piece II
Mend an object.
When you go through the process of mending, you mend something inside your soul as well.
Think of a “crack” in your own life or the world.
Ask for it to be healed as you mend the object.
Wish Piece III
Whisper your dream to a cloud.<
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Ask the cloud to remember it.
Wish Piece IV
Make a promise to a tree.
Ask it to be passed on to other trees.
Wish Piece V
Whisper your desire to the wind.
Ask the wind to take it to the end of the world.
Wish Piece VI
Write all the things you want to do.
Ask others to do them and move on.
Keep dancing.
Questionnaire I
Check the following statements: True/False
l) All streets are invisible. The visible ones are fake ones, though some visible ones are the end parts of the invisible ones.
2) If you wear something long enough it becomes part of you and you suffer from serious physical maladjustment when you take it off.
A woman died from taking off her ring she wore for ten years. A man was found to be non-existent when his title was taken away.
3) When you leave things, you leave your spirit behind as well. But if you don’t leave them, you age.
4) Your brother is the man you killed in the past world. He was born in your family because he wanted to be near you.