Here is what I picked up from Oki-sensei’s lectures ‘What is yoga?’ (1978.7.28 & 1978.9.29).

Meaning of the word ‘yoga’ 

The word ‘yoga’ means ‘to unite’ or ‘to yoke’ and refers to uniting the Plus Force and Minus Force. The universe functions as plus and minus forces perpetually change, move towards balance and reach stability. This is the law of nature, which is what enables us to live. In order to be saved from suffering (such as illness, distress, unhappiness, calamities, pollution, wars etc.), we have no choice but to follow the law of nature. This means that we are to understand and practise what the natural body for human beings is, what the natural mind-heart* for human beings is and what the natural life-style for human beings is, which together make up the human natural state.

The human natural state is as follows: 

>  Natural Body for human beings: The hara power is enhanced. The hara power is the ability to enhance and strengthen the natural recovery power which we are inherently given.

>  Natural Mind-Heart for human beings: The busshō, the divine nature of human mind-heart, is enhanced. It is the ability to thank everything, interpret everything as joyful and divine, and make friends with everything. Only human beings are inherently given this ability to develop to such a state.

>  Natural Life-style for human beings: We cannot live alone. Human life is social life, where we live in each other’s cooperation, as well as tied down to each other. We have the ability to enhance our adaptability so that we may still feel free in a limited life. Co-existence and co-happiness are integral to the natural life-style for human beings.

Yoga is a system of ‘philosophy and practical methods’ which concretely teaches how our body, mind-heart and life-style are to be, in order to live in the human natural state as described above.

To start this blog, I listened to a couple of Oki-sensei’s lectures given in old days. The scale of his teaching is vast and profound. Despite how long I have been engaged in Okido yoga, it still makes me feel that I cannot concisely sum up what Oki-sensei taught – i.e. what Okido yoga is. It may be naturally so because yoga is not meant to be learned from listening to or reading words, as he himself said repeatedly. However, just as it is necessary to sometimes check the technical content of exercises in order to improve our physical training, I feel that, if I try to describe at my current level what Okido yoga is, this process will improve my understanding of Okido Yoga. 

So, here I am going to share what I grasp currently, while listening to or reading Oki sensei’s words. Your comments will be welcome so that we can learn together.