“IN TOUCH” – The title and theme of this website; so basic, so obvious, but I haven’t touched on this theme directly, until now. Please let me offer then, this prose poem in consideration:
THE QUESTION OF TOUCH
BEING IS BEING IN TOUCH; BEING TOUCHED.
Universal measure and metaphor for our deepest need. Sentient, sensitive, sensual, consensual? HUMAN BEING?
BEING OUT OF TOUCH; CRAVING TOUCH – Loving touch; caring touch; just the right touch. Any touch, even painful touch, inappropriate unwanted abusive touch.
AVOIDING TOUCH; BEING UNTOUCHABLE; BEING AN UNTOUCHABLE.
Delicate, sensitive subtle touch; first touch, finishing touch.
The beginning and the end of everything.
Touch confirms our existence, whether we matter or not. Basic touch.
Suffering is physical, primarily.
Having this body makes suffering inevitable; sharing this existence makes suffering bearable. Ah, then, the “Human Touch”, the welcome, precious balm of a mother’s touch, enclosing, covering, caressing….. parental, protective, playful, APPROPRIATE TOUCH.
NOT OPPRESSIVE OR SUFFOCATING.
RELEASING, OPENING, venturing out into untouched and even untouchable realms…..
Touchstone, touchline, touchpaper, touchy-feely, touchy subject, touchy point. Don’t touch. DANGER. DO NOT TOUCH. TABOO. DOUBT. CONFUSION. BETRAYAL!!! Don’t touch me like that, Don’t laugh; don’t cry. No play today. Can’t we share a hug? NO. Some things are serious.
TOUCHING BASE. ALONE BUT NOT ALONE. ALL – ONE.
“AIR” – A SONG.* (Intimacy is in the nature of things).
BREATHING, ALL CREATURES ARE,
BRIGHTER THAN THE BRIGHTEST STAR.
YOU COME RIGHT INSIDE OF ME, CLOSE AS YOU CAN BE.
YOU KISS MY BLOOD AND THE BLOOD KISS ME”. *Incredible String Band
THE INVITATION
Following the Tao; We are touched by life – it’s mystery, grandure, beauty and diversity.
Touched also by art, poetry, music; touched by kindness; recognising meanness, we are touched by somebody’s generosity.
Here now, Invited, inviting, an offering, an opportunity…..
Participating without judgement in a simple healing ceremony, a celebration. Sitting, lying down, standing still, or walking, recognising the simple dignities of life… observing, listening, touching or not touching, just being fully present…
We commit to a vow:
Touching Earth; touching the Sky, In touch with myself, I wrap myself in the Sky’s embrace, in the light of the Sun, under the gaze of the moon; creation, destruction, life and death, sadness and joy. Offering to myself and to others equally, healing touch, safe touch, attentive, sensitive, respectful touch; Heart to Heart, COMPASSIONATE TOUCH.
In the practices of Seiki, which is emptiness-movement-harmony, one yields to an ephemeral yet perenial discipline.
⊕◊⊕◊⊕
TOUCHING THE SITUATION – Human Beings in need
THE LAST FEW YEARS have been hard and dispiriting for many people around the world, for some life is hard, desparate and cruel. In 2025 we see that many worrying trends continue to manifest. It often seems that suffering and pain are multiplying as our societies face a series of existential problems – we have deep concerns over accelarating technology, climate change tipping points, more frequent natural disasters, wars and famine; opinions are polarised with hatred raising its horrifying face and openly flying its banner. But let’s remember that all this is not by any means the whole picture or the only truth.
There are millions of us in every part of the world who count ourselves among the fortunate, who, regardless of being relatively poor or well-off materially, irrespective of differences in beliefs and customs, politics and social systems, are simply held by their communities and touched by kindness, care and compassion in its most ordinary as well as extraordinary forms. Even in the most adverse circumstances, we find numberless examples of generosity, selfless devotion, and bravery in the service of others. We don’t all consider our wealth to be measurable only in tearms of money, status, posessions and guarantees of security, but in many other diverse ways. We might sometimes feel that we are just about “getting by”, but many of us retain customs of gratitude and celebration in one form or another. Let’s amplify that.
Let’s remember too, that Nature – the whole of Nature – gave us birth and maintains us though life in these marvelously self-regulating bodies, that all the immeasurable riches and benefits of our environment, the air we breath and all the resources that sustain us on this earth, were there and still are here, even as we human beings continue to evolve and experiment with different social forms over thousands of years. We have developed through trial and error, just as Nature herself has done during untold millions of years. This is inevitably associated with pain and suffering among sentient beings, but we human beings are increasingly capable of understanding and reducing suffering on every level, recognising its causes and treating it with skill and care. Some pain is unavoidable in this life, and it is often magnified by ignorance and carelessness, which in turn lead to selfish greed and agression. However, it is emphatically possible to develop a more compassionate, enlightened society. Our hard won systems for protection, order and generally agreed values now (potentially) extend towards a higher sustainable global good – surely a shared vision and goal for most of humanity. I think we must emphasise the benefits of community, collaboration and compassion and sharing, or be swept into a competitive striving for advantage that currently pervades high-tech market capitalism and alienates us from one another by peddling false narratives of scarcity and abundance, disaster and security.
Starting here and now (we are always starting from the present moment), with our local community, our neighbours, friends and family, we can continue to practice collaboration and sharing (of both human and natural resources) as the basis of abundance. Actually, sufficiency – just having enough for our needs – is already a basis for generosity towards the less fortunate among our kind. And worrying less about imagined future security or insecurity allows us to extend support to others if trouble should actually come. Let’s not pre-judge whoever or whatever presents itself as threatening or alien, but seek first to understand the circumstances that gave rise to them, and meet each situation in an open hearted way, an opportunity to learn and grow.
For those of us who are inspired and guided by the traditional wisdom and practical philosophy of the East, represented by the famous yin-yang symbol and based on respect for Nature’s ever-changing harmony, there is no doubt that all apparent polarities – up to and including life and death are interdependent temporary states, and when we look deeper we see that existence as an isolated individual or as an isolated band, is a burdensome fiction. Greed and selfishness spring from a feeling of separation, isolation and, potentially, obliteration … so as individuals we feel compelled to fight all forms of otherness, even against others of our own kind, though really we are joined in so many ways, and always one in Spirit. Whatever guides us in realising the good life should serve us for dying as well – just a form of returning, or recycling universal matter and energy. Meanwhile, in conscious daily practice, we can laughingly unmask our ego, recognising it as a mere trickster, and invite ourselves to join a more loving version of the game of Life on Earth.
The core of this message? Let’s work towards a deeper understanding, trust and enjoyment of life by being a bit more generous to each other as fellow human beings, one family in Nature. Our greatest inner potential is liberated by the security of belonging. This is carried in our genes and social make up, and experienced primarily through touch. Touch is contact, connection to and with the source of being, assimilated into every fibre from the beginning as we grew in the living environment of our mother’s womb and were pressed out into the world to be received and welcomed by willing hands. Of all our five senses, bodily feeling is primary. The sense of who we are and to whom we belong, continues to develop in infancy as we are held in arms, touched and guided in the bosom of our family. While sound and vision are attuned from primary vibrations, our feeling of security and autonomy is deeply set by touch, the first and most fundamental of our five innate senses yet possibly the most under-valued and least practised of our human sensory skills.
Touch informs us of what we are – embodied beings. Intricately linked with all aspects of our nervous system, It develops with us via feedback loops with all the other senses which orient us outwardly to connect with and understand the world space in which we live and move. Our other senses extend our field of awareness, simultaneously reaching out and, as it were, bringing the world back inside. In here, in our bodies, the whole sensory range of feelings and emotions is really who we are, who we become. We have a whole universe inside us that corresponds not with the universe as it is currently understood through scientific or objective measurement, but how we have experienced it through our engagement with others. Touch is so fundamental to our state of being in the world that it is the subject of constant controls, customs, modifications and taboos. Our most sensitive self is raw, exposed and vulnerable. As we grow in our community, it’s the degree of care and protection offered to us that enables us to recognise and appreciate ourselves, and that can be sometimes be qualified or constrained in particular ways – the preemminently, local, personal, intimate and immediate nature of our closest contacts seeps into the very fibres of our being.
So let’s be real: If touch is how we received and integrated all the things that we found comforting and soothing in relation to our sense of exposure, hunger, and pain, and later called pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or threatening. Touch itself would become a pleasant or an unpleasant experience. Touch could be insensitive and abusive, a channel for frustration and anger, as well as for safe containment, comfort, and soothing. Of course we are generally aware of this, but we seem to have lost touch with each other to the extent that there are very few clearly marked pathways or dedicated spaces where ordinary people can experience and learn simple, safe touch in a group setting; that is explicitly to create a familiar and secure environment where complexities can be gently explored, self-esteem fostered and trust recovered…. pathways that lead to fulfilling enjoyment of the body-life as autonomous persons within diversly accepting and respectful communities.
The idea of community healing extends beyond medicine and therapy – Modern Medicine deals with common health problems and severe illnesses on the physical level, and includes many forms of professionally administered and controlled psychological and physical therapies, but in our contemporary, “developed” society, within all its educational institutions, among all the sports programs, leisure centres, gyms and fitness studios, wellness and beauty salons, there is a clear need for locally organised, grass-roots learning programs on touch in society, helping participants of all ages to recognise the principles, boundaries and limits of safe touch, to calm and reassure one another, restore trust, and ease suffering and pain. Educational efforts towards safe-touch could be based on a variety of simple exercises and practices such as those explored here in this website.
SEI-KI PRACTICE CAN BE TAKEN AS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF SUCH A PROGRAM, based in traditional Eastern culture, it brings meditation, or mindfulness, into the field of human touch, borrowing the simplest elements from SHIATSU, AIKIDO, QIGONG, TAIJI and related disciplines, that integrate mind and body, feelings and emotions, for the benefit of all.
PL. April 2025