Check out Takumi’s NEW English youtube channel🎵
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https://www.youtube.com/@takuway
Morning Pickleball
Thank you everyone！
Even beginners can play a real match!
It's fun even for beginners.
Day 3
TK Bali Tour Morning Seminar Summary!
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- Rediscovered childhood sensations through the experience of painting
- Rediscovered the importance of feeling things in the body through sound healing
- Felt genuine human warmth and connection in the extraordinary space of a party
- Gained new awareness about Japan's educational environment → want to tell children "it's okay to express yourself freely"
Painting brought up childhood memories for everyone…
I used to draw endlessly when I was in elementary school too.
The pyramid sound healing is something else.
Every time a staff member tapped me, I'd snap back with "Wait — was I asleep?!"
A cascade of shimmering light pulled me into a psychedelic world.
The party was a wonderful time too! We all offered a prayer at sunset.
Without even realizing it — muscles that had gone rigid.
A mind that had gone rigid.
A face that had gone rigid.
The moment you arrive in Bali, everything just melts away.
On a personal note, I felt real respect for MJ's instinctive response to his son. You could feel the deep respect he has for his child.
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An experiment with Japanese and French children
When told "draw whatever you like" —
- French children → each started drawing something different
- Japanese children → once one child drew a dolphin, everyone drew a dolphin
→ A reflection of the cultural tendency to search for the "right answer"
The habit of looking for the right answer. But before that — what do YOU want?
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The Mechanism of the Subconscious
The Structure of Consciousness
- Conscious mind (the tip of the iceberg) = operates through language and thought
- Subconscious mind (vastly larger) = operates through physical sensation
- The contents of the subconscious = "a swirl of emotions that have never been put into words"
The Copy & Paste Mechanism
Something happens in the present
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The mind instantly travels back in time to early childhood (mainly up to age ~10)
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Copies the emotion from a matching situation
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Pastes it into the present as a felt emotion
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The person has no idea why they felt that way
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A Concrete Example: The Older Brother When a Younger Sibling Is Born
- Baby brother is born → parents' attention shifts to the new baby
- The fear of being "replaced" → tries to win back attention through various behaviors like regression
- Memorizes whichever attention-getting method worked as a pattern
- Years later, as basketball captain, the moment a junior player joins the team → the same emotion gets copy-pasted
- At work, when given a subordinate → copy-pasted again
- The person has absolutely no idea why they're sulking
Why "Understanding It in Your Head Doesn't Change Anything"
- No matter how many new thought templates you load into the conscious mind with "I'll think of it this way"
- The copy-paste mechanism in the subconscious itself hasn't changed
- What needs to change is the mechanism itself
Why Early Childhood (up to age ~10) Matters
- The subconscious's top priorities are "protect life" and "pass on genes"
- Ages 0–9: inward-facing (family is the entire cast of characters)
- Age 10: begins turning toward society
- Second and third sons, influenced by older brothers, turn outward sooner → more likely to excel in sports (nearly all Olympic athletes are not firstborns)
- Firstborns have a longer inward-facing period → well-behaved, but harder to break out of their shell
Embodiment Work (Basics)
Why "Physical Sensation"?
- Working through emotions by fully sitting with them → you start to resist it halfway
- Physical sensation is the root source of emotion!
- Working at the level of sensation allows for a more stable approach than working with emotion directly
Steps for Embodiment Work
STEP 1: When an emotion arises, pause
Stop before you sulk or snap
STEP 2: Locate the sensation
"Where in my body is reacting right now?"
Examples) A heaviness in the chest / a tingly feeling at the throat / a ringing in the ears ※ The bigger the emotion, the smaller and more subtle the sensation
STEP 3: Stay with it
Acknowledge it: "It's okay that you're here"
Don't deny it or push it away
STEP 4: Keep feeling (keep staying with it)
Become familiar with the sensation
It becomes something you no longer need to run from
STEP 5: It fades
Once the sensation dissolves, you can act from reason again
When the same situation comes around, the emotion no longer gets triggered
Tips for Finding the Sensation
- A rough sense of "this is probably it" is enough — it doesn't have to be precise
- If it's hard to find, bring the person or situation to mind again and look
- Sensations are often layered (when one clears, the next one surfaces)
The Problem of the Lid on Anger
- We've been taught "you shouldn't get angry"
- We put a lid on anger so we don't have to feel it
- Everything inside the jar beneath the lid gets sealed away too
- Solution: solo karaoke, or shouting "You idiot!" alone in the car → the lid comes off and the emotions start to flow
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Self-Esteem and Self-Acceptance
The True Meaning of Self-Esteem
- ❌ Being confident = high self-esteem
- ✅ Accepting even your failing self = high self-esteem
The Peaks and Valleys Principle
How the world imagines successful people: all peaks (good at everything)
The reality of successful people: all valleys (exceptional at one thing, weak at almost everything else)
Acknowledge your own valleys (weaknesses)
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You can borrow others' peaks (talents) by saying "lend me your strength!"
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That becomes something far greater
- People who try to do everything themselves → struggle to grow beyond a certain point
- People who acknowledge their weaknesses → leverage others' talents to produce extraordinary results
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Embodiment Work (Advanced)
Surprising!!!
Release the good feelings too
Why?
If "joy" exists…
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There is always a flip side — a belief that "this is bad / this is sad"
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Joy and sadness always exist as a pair
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You want to get the joy but avoid the sadness!
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You stay trapped in a dualistic world forever!
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Find the physical sensation of joy and release it
Then joy and sadness — the entire measuring stick — disappears!
Steps for Joy-Based Embodiment Work
- Bring to mind something that recently made you happy
- Strike a "joy pose" (like a "Yes!!!" gesture)
- Locate where in your body that joy lives as a sensation
- Stay with that sensation and let it go
The Kendo Analogy
- In kendo, pumping your fist after scoring a point is a violation
- To rejoice in taking the opponent's life goes against Bushido
- Not showing joy outwardly = the path to enlightenment
- Release joy, and sorrow disappears with it
Connection to Buddhism and Vipassana Meditation
| Concept | Content |
|---|---|
| The opposite of suffering | Not happiness — "ease" |
| Taking ease to its limit | "Paradise" (極楽) — a world beyond both suffering and ease |
| Vipassana meditation | Simply sitting and continuously feeling bodily sensations (7–9 days) |
| The Buddha's discovery | Asceticism cannot lead to enlightenment → enlightenment comes through continuously feeling sensation |
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The Goal of Integration and a Philosophy of Life
The Philosophy of Surrender (Letting Go / Entrusting)
Something joyful happens → release it through embodiment work
Something painful happens → release it through embodiment work
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The swings grow smaller and smaller
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The doorway to Through Me opens
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A state of "ease" — no longer at the mercy of what happens
The Landing Place of "How Fortunate"
- Sadness and joy alike → converted into "how fortunate"
- Human foolishness → "that's what makes people so charming"
- Getting caught up in misfortune → "that's what turns life into a story"
- Everything that happens is exactly what's best
The Flower Field Analogy (The Buddhist Approach to Happiness)
- You see a field of flowers and feel moved by its beauty → that is happiness (good)
- But picking the flowers and taking them home / clinging to them → creates suffering
- Appreciate and admire — then promptly let go and move on
🔑 Summary
Trying to change through the conscious mind (thought / language) has its limits
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Change the mechanism of the subconscious (sensation / emotion)
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Embodiment work (basic): release the root of unwanted emotions
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Embodiment work (advanced): release the root of joyful emotions too
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No more swings = Surrender = Paradise = Enlightenment
"The more you unhook the emotional pendulum from both sides, the more life starts running beautifully on autopilot."
Link to Takumi Yamazaki’s
ENGLISH Book “SHIFT”
