To Ross, and all of you out there,
Thanks for sharing the exercises. I was wondering where you found the
transcript of Doso Roshi's talk "The Way of Watazumi", was it a book or
periodical? I had somewhere also heard of Watazumi playing long
shakuhachi and covering the holes with his feet and I was interested in
finding out more than just the one anecdote.
I am curious if others do some form of exercise to augment their
breathing?
Sincerely,
Bridget
allen@mst.csiro.au wrote:
>
> I have at last put some notes down on the benefits I gained by attending a
> breathing workshop of Riley Lee's. Hope they will help.
> There was at least 10 exercises, but 3 that helped me were,
> Held breath, Whole breath and Gentle breath.
> Held breath.. Take a full breath, relax and hold for up to 30 secs. Blow
> out forcefully, emptying the lungs FULLY. Resume normal breathing then
> repeat 3 times.
> Whole breath..Inhale for 4 secs, relax and hold for 8 secs. Gently exhale
> for 16 secs so lungs are empty at 16 secs. Relax 4 secs. Then repeat
> process. Continue for 5-30mins.
> Gentle breath.. Emphasis is on relaxing and gentle breaths. Gently inhale,
> pause then slowly exhale, picturing the gentle stream of air. Empty the
> lungs fully. Continue for 5-30mins.
> Riley mentioned that when you exhale, imagine all your stress and tension
> is flowing out. These are only a few of the exercises and to get most
> benefit I think it is important to do them with an experienced teacher. I
> am greatful to Riley for allowing me to pass on these notes.
> A paper I found interesting was of a transcipt by Stuart Leigh of a talk by
> Doso Roshi on "The Way of Watazumi" held in New York in 1981. Doso Roshi
> was an interesting character. He was a senior zen monk before leaving to
> concentrate his shakuhachi study based around daily vigorous physical
> exercises using a Jo stick. His emphasis is on Zen and lengthening of the
> out breath and conscious breath. I will quote some parts from the paper. "
> The way of Watazumi is to take your life force, your life strength and
> train it to be stronger, healthier. As you are all into playing music,
> there is something deeper and if you go deeper to the source of where that
> music is made, you will find something even more interesting. At that
> source, everyones individual music is made. That place is your own life
> force. He emphasizes that you have to use conscious mindful breath. Most
> people use unconscious breath, simple movement of the lungs. He also said
> that this type of breathing is like a pool of water that has been stopped
> up and is stagnating. If you breath mindfully and train your breath for
> different kinds of strength, then you will develope your own kind of
> music". I believe he was quite a unique character who played shakuhachi's
> of enormous lengths and diameter. He would use his feet to close the bottom
> holes. Now that I would like to have seen. These notes I hope may be of
> some help, but it is important to regulary review your breathing as I have
> recently lapsed into breathing very shallow and with tension in the body.
> This was pointed out to me by my teacher, when we were looking at why I am
> having trouble with certain notes.
> Bridget(see BIO 26 July), in an e-mail to me made an excellent point, " The
> Shakuhachi is a good barometer to what is happening both mentally and
> physically". Happy playing. Ross
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