The Art Of Zen Shiatsu - The Oriental Art Of Balanced Health

Of the numerous health therapies to originate from the orient

, Zen Shiatsu is maybe one of the lesser understood. In fact, it's a very close relation of two popular therapies - reflexology and acupuncture. Another name for Shiatsu is 'acupressure', which gives us some insight into the relationship between these two disciplines. Acupuncture has been practiced for many years in the West, but Zen Shiatsu much less so. Westerners have a tendency to think that this type of health therapy is somehow mysterious or magical, but it's really based on fundamental medical principles.

Both systems act on the the energy flowing in channels, or 'meridians' in the human organism. It's long been known that this life energy, or 'ki' in Japanese, flows through distinct channels, linking the organs and additionally showing indication of the state of our health. The balanced flow of this life force is important for a healthy body, and if it gets to be slow moving, or stops completely, then we become sick. Centuries past, Japanese practitioners realized that the flow of life force can also be excited or blocked by external stimulation, either using needles (acupressure) or by the finger and various other parts of the body (called shiatsu).

By the way, reflexology (massage of the feet) is closely related to the practice of shiatsu for the body, and distinct parts of the foot correspond to distinct areas and organs of the body. In the three therapies, reflexology, shiatsu and acupuncture, needles or direct physical force is applied to either increase or decrease the flow of energy through certain parts of the body, which has the result of balancing the body's energy. When this life force energy is utterly balanced (and it never is), we are in perfect shape. The next issue is crucial to the process - how to determine if the energy is not balanced, and how to apply pressure in the correct places in order to accomplish this balance?

This is a component of the practice of Zen Shiatsu - diagnosis and treatment. The life force can't be seen of course, so a specific method has been developed to ascertain the degree of the asymmetry and also specify the treatment needed. The recognized way to diagnose is by assessing the state of the 'hara', which in Japanese parlance is the center of our being. Parts of the mid-section of the body are linked to specific organs in the body, and also have energy channels related to them. The diagnosis includes deciding which organs (and therefore which meridians) have more energy and which have too little. The treatment is based on the diagnosis and aims to produce a new balance between the strong and weak energy flows.

by: Peter Bruce

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