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Anyone in the world
Mitori-geiko literally means “learning by watching”. What kind of learning is it? Is it memorizing forms that we would really learn later by actually doing them? Or do we somehow learn as much when we watch as when we do?
In performing any single movement or cognitive activity, our brains use different anatomical areas for these functions. If we consider the aspects of emotional participation, memory of past experience, cultural conditioning etc., we can see that brain function is much more than the localized functioning of a certain area.
In Shintaido practice we have different ways of learning. We may start from a practice based simply on the repetition of a gesture, without thinking. Or we may practice while recognizing the action through our previous experiences and previous knowledge with the participation of emotional functionality. Furthermore, in Shintaido we find a practice called mitori-geiko. This practice generally occurs, for example, when we look at our teacher or our friends demonstrating a kata or a waza (technique), or simply as they move in the dojo and they interact. But more specifically, when we have the chance to watch someone with a lot of experience giving skillful sensei-care, when we watch exams, or when we observe in a master class, it is a great opportunity to study, learn and open our mind and heart in a special environment. This is what is called mitori-geiko.
In the oral tradition, there are stories of poor students serving their master for year, watching every practice without having the right to actually enter the dojo. The story goes that, authorized at last to enter, and being challenged right away to receive the attacks of several experienced students, they skillfully managed them without having ever actually been trained to do it. How could it have been possible? The answer is, in traditional terms, mitori-geiko and in modern terms, mirrors neurons. What are “mirror neurons”?
Mirror neurons were recently discovered. Here are a few quotations from recent works considering their effects on our learning abilities:
"A mirror neuron is a neuron which fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another (especially conspecific) animal. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of another animal, as though the observer were itself acting. These neurons have been directly observed in primates, and are believed to exist in humans and in some birds. In humans, brain activity consistent with mirror neurons has been found in the premotor cortex and the inferior parietal cortex. Some scientists consider mirror neurons one of the most important findings of neuroscience in the last decade." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neurons)
"Imitation is often thought of as a low-level, relatively childish or even mindless phenomenon. Science is on the way to prove this as being a serious mistake. Moreover, it is appearing, in light of recent work in the cognitive sciences, that imitation would be a rare, perhaps even uniquely human ability, which may be fundamental to what is distinctive about human learning, intelligence, rationality, and culture." (Hurley& Chater, 2002 quoted by Garrels, 2004, p. 7)
"This work reinforces the idea that the toddlers are beginning to focus on the adult's goals, not simply their surface actions. It provides developmental roots for the importance of goals in organizing imitation in older children and adults" (Meltzoff, 2002, quoted byGarrels, op cit., p.25).
These mean that as the baby watches the adult moves, her brain, through mirror neurons, doesn't make a difference between watching and doing. Thus her body movements tend to imitate those of the adult and she learns. These also mean that doing so, she is figuring out the meaning (the goals) of the movements and through this also she learns. As we grow older, we learn to use language instead of action. This is good (better talk than fight) but, on the way, the mediation of language tend to lessen our wonderful ability to learn deeply by direct contact with the "world inaction". Too bad isn't it? That is why keiko provides us a unique way to, as the French say, let us "have the butter and the money of the butter". Through it, we rebuild our capacity to feelour environment and to learn by imitation.
Thinking of that, don't you think that the time have come for the new generations of Shintaido practitioners, especially westerners not used to this kind of learning, to take mitori-geiko seriously ? To figure out our goal, intentions, watching the movement, to imitate and get inspired, and then do our best to pass our Masters. In our kata Tenshingoso, the final part of the “I” movement, represents the moment to recall our ideal and regenerate it. Mitori-geiko is another practice that can give us a help in this direction.
Well, how about giving a serious try at mitori-geiko during the 2008Festival?
References:
Thanks to David Franklin and Pierre Quettier for their editing contribution
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