Shin Shin Toitsu Do

The life of Nakamura Tempu (suite)

Encounters with Celebrities and Philosophers — Shortly after Bruce's seminar, an acquaintance gave him a letter of introduction to the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923). Bernhardt wasn't only a great artist but an ardent student of philosophy as well. When he visited her Parisian mansion he expected an old woman, but Bernhardt looked to be only in her late 20s. She was, in fact, over 60.
"You look very young. Are you really Sarah Bernhardt?"
"Yes, there's no age for an actress," she said smiling. Nakamura received his first lesson in the effects of attitude on aging, which he would later reference in his classes. He stayed a few months at her home, where stunning actresses and celebrities visited her salon. He often heard genuinely happy laughter, and he began to realize the impact of laughter on health and mind set, one of his major teachings. (One of the teachers of Shin-shin-toitsu-do, Hirata Yoshihiko Sensei, sometimes started classes by leading us in three successive belly laughs, a procedure inherited from Nakamura.)

Through Bernhardt, he learned of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher who had an incurable disease from childhood. Kant endured immense pain and relentlessly complained to his parents, but his physician finally advised, "Your illness, I'm sorry to say, cannot be cured. Your body's suffering, but your mind is healthy and needn't suffer. If you don't think about your body, your mind will do what you want it to do and your physical suffering may lessen." Kant took his doctor's words to heart, and they produced positive results. Kant then realized how he'd live his life—he would follow the inclination of his mind to do what he most wanted, which was to study philosophy. Nakamura was moved by this tale and its suggestion that people needn't let an illness dominate every part of our lives. It was a message that was subsequently reflected in his Shin-shin-toitsu-do, "The Way of Mind and Body Unification."

While in Paris he visited Lyon University through an introduction from Bernhardt. He studied with a French psychologist, who taught a method of autosuggestion using a mirror. (You'll learn Nakamura's version of this important habit-altering tool in Chapter Six.)

Nakamura left France to meet Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (1867-1941). Driesch was a prominent German biologist-turned-philosopher. He discovered that a segment of an early sea urchin embryo could develop into a living being. This challenged prevailing mechanistic outlooks and led to Driesch's theory of "vitalism," explaining organic systems in terms of an enigmatic self-determining law instead of in purely physical or chemical terms. Essentially, he wrote of an unseen vital force that served as an animating agent behind all life. (Nakamura encountered this same idea previously in Japan and China.)

.../...

in 1963. He was about 87. In the audience were two members of the Japanese Imperial Family, the Governor of Tokyo, and the Chairman of the Japanese Senate.

Nakamura asked Driesch about the relationship between body, mind, and disease as well as how to make his mind stronger. The philosopher replied, "This is an age-old mystery. I'll think about it, and you'll think about it. If either of us finds the answer it will be a vast contribution to humanity." Driesch's comments were honest but not encouraging. Nakamura years after told students, "I thought if I opened this door, there'd be a garden of beautiful flowers. I found an immense ravine of despair."

Nakamura lost all hope. In May of 1911, he decided to return to Japan to see his mother and die a disappointed man. At Marseilles he boarded a cargo ship for China. He wondered if he would die on the way home.

When the vessel neared the Suez Canal they received a report that an Italian gun-boat ran aground at the Canal, and that they'd have to wait in Egypt for several days. They dropped anchor in Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile River. A boiler man onboard from the Philippines befriended Nakamura. "You and I are the only Asians on this boat. Why don't we become friends and go see the pyramids?"

Nakamura wasn't in the mood, but he went with him to Cairo, where they stayed at a hotel. The following morning Nakamura vomited a hefty quantity of blood into the washbasin. Feeling dizzy, he couldn't stand so he lay lifelessly in bed. His companion saw the pyramids alone.

A Mysterious Stranger — Eventually an African hotel worker noticed him and said, "If you continue to go without eating, you'll die." A huge man, he carried an emaciated Nakamura in his arms to the hotel restaurant. Nakamura noticed a small gentleman with a long white beard dressed in a dark purple gown, worn atop brilliant white Indian clothing. Sitting five or six tables away, his skin was brown, and he looked about sixty years old. He was closer to 100. Two young men stood near him, and one cooled him with an immense feather fan.

"Maybe he's a chieftain somewhere," Nakamura thought.

The stranger looked at Nakamura and smiled. Nakamura, strangely moved by the man's gaze, grinned back weakly. The old man commanded, "Come here!"

In an instant Nakamura found himself standing before him. He felt as if he was pulled by a strong magnet. They chatted casually while the gentleman watched him intently for several minutes. Then the stranger spoke in English.

"You have a serious illness, and you've given up on life. But my eyes tell me you're not destined to die yet. Come with me tomorrow."

"Certainly," Nakamura answered without thinking. He was surprised by his own words.

The next morning he went to the riverbank behind the hotel. Onboard the ship was his new benefactor, who simply said, "You're saved."

Nakamura didn't ask who he was, where they were going, or even how he could save him. He recalled, "My silence seemed to interest and delight the gentleman in purple."

At the Foot of the Himalayas — The mysterious man was a guru, a yoga expert named Kaliapa (a.k.a. Kaliappa). He told Nakamura that a branch of the British Royal Family invited him and his tiny entourage annually to England, and Nakamura met him by chance in Cairo on his way back to India.

Their journey to India took three long months. They passed through the Suez and then down to the Red Sea.

From there, their voyage took them around the Arabian horn, where they sailed along the Arabian and Persian coastline. They moored at seaports along their way. When they arrived at Karachi they left their ship and drifted up the Indus River on a barge pulled from the shoreline using camels. Next, Kaliapa and Nakamura headed east, riding camels through the Rajasthan and the Hindustani Plain, eventually stopping in Calcutta. Then they trekked to the north to Darjeeling...

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