A person's [人 - "person or man"] heart [心] is the same [同] as Heaven [天] and Earth [地].

Man or person in relation to the trigrams is not specified yet when the hexagram is created using two of the trigrams it does designate a position in those hexagrams for all three; Man, Heaven and Earth.














In the Chun I or I Ching these trigrams, Heaven and Earth, are the creative and receptive where both are dependent on the other in creating the many myriad things that comprise life and are represented in the 64 hexagrams.

Because all hexagrams involve Earth, Man, and Heaven when seeking the advice of the Oracle, I Ching, in finding the actions appropriate to the particular question of the moment we find that the first tome of the Kenpo Gokui provided by Bushi Tatsuo Sensei to govern every thing about life of man, i.e. humans since man is meant to comprise all of humanity be it male or female, personally and socially.

Bushi Tatsuo by referencing that both Heaven and Earth are the same as the heart of man or man's heart is the same as Heaven and Earth I believe he was pointing us to the absolute beginning of all things.

It begins with the circle [which is representative of heaven] which the I Ching tells us is the "beginning" (wu chi) of all things. This also applies to his creating Isshinryu. When he spent the many years working it all out he then planted the seed of his creation or the date where Isshinryu actually began on the 15th of January which is a date best known for farmers to plant the seeds of crops.

This is why the first two tomes of the ken-po goku-i are a direct reference to the more spiritual aspects of the teachings of life and Isshinryu's connections are shown by these two references to the I Ching, etc. We will see that the other six [notice that the number also equates to the six Yao or Lines of the I Ching hexagrams] tomes of the ken-po goku-i will be referencing the many attributes and images of the trigrams and hexagrams, i.e. such as hard and yielding, eyes and ears, etc.

Man is "the principle of movement," the heart represents devotional stages, Heaven constant movement and changes, and Earth represents fixed and lasting. When all three are combined we shall see that it reflects life and in Bushi Tatsuo's Isshinryu the direct and indirect connections of practice/training to how we perceive and act in life.

If we take a look at other aspects of the style such as the "me-gami" we see the dragon flying off into the night sky. The dragon is symbolized in the I Ching under the trigram/hexagram for "heaven or Ch'ien." The dragon is known as energy which is Heaven since its energy is used to plant seeds in the Earth bringing forth growth, etc.

In the I Ching: Heaven follows dragons; dragons are energy and heaven as the creative supplies that type of energy; The I Ching references the symbolism of the "dragon flying in the heavens" which is directly depicted in the Me-gami of Isshinryu.

We see reference to the eyes in defining the heart in the I Ching which also references "eyes" which we see later in the ken-po goku-i, i.e. tome no. 7.

In addition the beginning or wu chi is followed by the great tai chi represented by the symbol where Yang and Yin entertain with seeds of each in the field of the other promoting a continuous motion and change. The I Ching refers to the "ridgepole" which is a line to represent or symbolize "oneness" and that singular line extends for the dot which is the circle at its smallest extending out parallel so that it devised the lower from the upper. The lower and upper in the I Ching is formed in the hexagrams using the trigrams placing in lower and upper, etc.

As the ridgepole is viewed it is also crossed forming a division between left and right. In our style of Isshinryu we have come to understand that the horizontal ridgepole represents "naihanchi" and the vertical ridgepole "sanction" which in turn gives birth to the third ridgepole and from the front can not be seen but when viewed as three dimensions provides for division of front and back or in our style Isshinryu.

Since heaven also represents hard or Yang this also is represented in the practice of Sanchin while the yielding or what we call soft is represented by the practice of Naihanchi. We can take one step further in the birth of Isshinryu we also have the birth of "Sunsu" which is comprised of both hard and yielding.

The ridgepole in its three dimensional view represents a world of opposites and when we practice sanchin we practice diametrically opposed or opposites as sanchin conflicts in practice. We also know that Heaven, Earth and the other six of the trigrams make up all there is to the additional sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching so we can, hesitantly say, that Naihanchi and Sanchin both connect to the representation/symbolization of Heaven and Earth for Man while these two types of kata contribute to the man in practice and training while the remaining six kata also can connect to the remaining six trigrams; thunder, mountain, wind, marsh, fire, water…Seisan, Seuichin, Wansu, Chinto, Kusanku, and Sunsu.

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