the mosquito story

<me as uke for Hikitsuchi sensei 1974>In my last blog entry we went into the butterfly story, so it is only fair that we now go into the mosquito story. This took place in Shingu, Japan, in 1973 at the Kumano Juku Dojo. The teacher mentioned is Hikitsuchi sensei. It took place shortly after a group of foreigners(Linda Holiday, Dick Revoir, and myself) moved to Shingu to become students at the Shingu dojo.

The video footage was taken at the same healing conference in San Diego in 1992 as mentioned in an earlier blog entry. Part of the conference was to polish public speaking skills. We were given an assignment to tell a story, and this is the story I chose. The story in question is well-known among the older generation of foreigners who have studied in Shingu, but it hasn't been told in a long time.

There are spiritual traditions where teachings are passed on through story telling. This one hasn't been told in some years. So hopefully new generations will enjoy it. A good story does not have one fixed lesson. As one's path opens, widens, and deepens, the lesson may change as one continues to grow. My sense of the lesson is multi-faceted.

Certainly life in all forms, even a mosquito, is precious. And, at the same time, there is an innocent, very mental level to spirituality that must be recognized and constantly dealt with. Often times a teacher's job is to awaken the student, sometimes with unusual behavior that gets the student out of easy pre-conceived notions about how things are. This is probably one of those.

I believe that life lived in a certain way opens one up to lessons constantly. Life then becomes a form of art. In a period when he was grieving his father's death, Michael Jordan won an NBA championship on Father's day and cried before a national audience. Again, one's life can become like a novel. But who is doing the writing?