Shinto Shrine

... and, a counter contrast example of some of the secret jewels of Tokyo - the amazing shrines that suddenly appear amidst a forest of highrises. This Shinto shrine, is for the "Saru" - which means monkey. You bow once upon passing beneath the entrance, up a long flight of stairs to a big forest above with various shrines, and ritual spaces.

ZENMALL

This is just too funny!!

Hiro is my Hero

The other day, my friend Hiro came over to my house, and offered a free Reiki healing session. Still feeling dizzy and weak from my sort of breakdown from a month ago, and not yet feeling 100%, he decided to do an energy check up, as his family had a history of healers, and he had been studying certain energetic healing techniques from his grandmother.

Little did I know that Hiro would start an internal revolution of change and realization, of mind, body, and spirit. This was exactly what i needed.

He started the session, by analyzing my name - of all things. He said he spent a while thinking about why I had gotten sick, and also, trying to understand my being as a whole. In Japan, names have significant meaning. There are many different characters to write down a single name or word, but Hiro stressed the importance of the vocal sound in Japanese culture. This is the most primordial way of communication, even more so than the written language. In Japan, all teaching and knowledge was passed on through vocal communication. So, looking at my name: "Kenji", there are two ways of writing it. As a written name, it can both mean "healthy child " (how ironic!), and "Wisdom". But, as a vocal sound, Kenji has a deeper meaning. the "Ken" of "Kenji", means sword. However, it is not a sword for fighting, but a sword used as a tool for making things, and also dissecting things. The "ji"' in "Kenji" means "written symbol", or "visual letter/ to show" .

Hiro's interpretation, was that "Kenji" is a name of someone who is able to analyze abstract things that are difficult to explain to most people, and then translate it into a way that people can understand, by making things clear, clean, and direct through making things like music and films. This was just such a shocker to me, and was surprised at how accurate it is. To start off a healing session with an understanding of who you are, makes perfect sense. I felt Hiro was starting out the healing session in a truly integral fashion, leaving not one stone unturned. I asked him if he had heard of "integral healing" - he said he didn't, and simply expressed that this approach was common sense for a true healer.

Facing toward the west, he sat in meditation next to my resting body for a few minutes. Then simply massaging my hand, and hovering his hand over my solar plexus/abdomen, he made the Japanese version of "ah yes," sounds,... - grunts, and hmmm sounds that are almost like a part of breathing in Japanese communication. A sound of acknowledgement on a deep level, an expression of sensitivity to every detail, - *spiritual energetic awareness*. He began to see a vision of a bad nightmare I had when I was a child. He asked me about this, and I tried to recall ... I could not think of a specific nightmare, but I know one of my greatest fears when I was growing up was nuclear war between America and Russia. It was the single most pervasive fear, invading my dreams, my studies and of course, my still developing music and artistic expression. Mass annihilation was on my mind, further re-inforced by my time growing up in Japan, where the atom bomb dropped during WWII was expressed in so much media - artisitically from japanese animations on TV, to even comic books (and interestingly, the yin yang opposite utopian and spiritual light was/is equally prevalent in Japanese culture). The horror was much more real and direct than probably most other people in the world could imagine at the time. I very much feel Japan today is a post-apocalyptic culture - fully embodying much of the positive unified vision that emerged after the war. The dropping of the bomb changed the DNA of the Japanese and perhaps opened the first opportunity for a huge change of consciousness and vision of a new level of human existence ... sorry, I digress...

Hiro continued to feel the energy bloackages around my abdominal and liver areas. He said there were significant blockages preventing energy and clean blood to flow into this region of my body. This is of course is where your blood is cleaned, filtered, and nutrients from food are absorbed into the body. "fear" he said, "is a problem" - "childhood and adult fears are still not dealt with, and is one of the causes of your energy blockage here". I came to realize, that, although I always face my fears and usually challenge them, or fight them, (instead of running from them), I still do not accept them, or understand them properly. Fighting and running away are essentially the same thing, because the fear is not accepted or understood properly. Fear and anxiety of anything, from Nuclear war, to global warming, fear of loneliness, fear of failure, not being able to pay your bills, fear of death. It can be anything, and although, I KNOW these things in my mind, I realized I had failed to put the management of them into action, that my lifestyle of late had failed to include regular exercise, meditation, and relaxation. This, coupled with an extreme amount of overwork (on the "WORLDSPIRIT" project for instance), and accumulated stress over the years, had pushed my body over the tipping point, and like a computer, had crashed the system.

So, the healing session continued, with an ancient form of healing called "Sennenkyu", or in English "Moxabustion". I just have to say, this technique was better than acupuncture, incomparbly better than massage, - it created a tidal wave of energy shimmers up and down my body. And, its so simple, and less intrusive than acupuncture... I LOVE this technique. Best of all, I can do it myself, on myself.

Hiro returned to my house 2 more times - and refused any money I tried to hand him. He taught me how to heal myself, the most valuable gift anyone can give you. He said he felt a really good connection with me, and said he does not heal people for money. His day job is working for Panasonic, - and just does healing work very seldom on the side... This was yet another example of such a generous gift giving energy that I find so common here in Japan. This was the best and most complete healing session I had ever had. My history, my psychology, my physical, my spiritual - normalized, reset, and ready for the natural healing process of the body to move forward. Thank you Hiro, for being such a giver, and powerful teacher through selfless, silent action.

Kenji Williams featured on Apple website

"A Visual Music Composer"
By far the best press I have gotten - and the best written article. Thank you Apple!

Check it out>

WorldSpirit Video Trailer

The WORLDSPIRIT project with Alex Grey is almost ready for release. We will start rolling out the promo now, and offer you a short glimpse into this 2 hour long DVD. Please check out a short trailer here:
Click here to view trailer!

... a little cooler

finally, some much needed rain. And, when it rains in Tokyo - I love to go to Shinjuku - the most Blade-Runner-esque spot in this vast metropolis. Shiny lights, tall buildings, and a myriad of tiny alleys filled with mom and pop shops selling and serving anything and everything - and if you're lucky, you will stumble upon a shrine amidst the chaos of the modern lights. A fascinating place to simply walk around ...