DON: We often begin the year or even each quarter with what I have called a kind of misogi ritual, involving a number of bokken cuts. Perhaps it would be useful to talk about what that term refers to.
DWIGHT: My dictionary says that 'misogi' refers specifically to purification ceremonies involving water. (Note: the word uses a different kanji from soji, which is used to signify cleaning a dojo.) This would definitely make it a Shinto (as opposed to Buddhist) term, given Shinto's emphasis on purity of essence, personal cleanliness, etc. The dictionary also directly translates it as 'ablutions.'
SCOTT: In my experience, misogi refers to ritual purification. The first dojo I trained in held New Year's Eve classes, from 11:30pm and to 12:30am. Training paused between 11:55 and 12:05 for sitting meditation. Following the keiko, brave souls would line up for icy cold showers in the basement. Taking that early, cold shower required a particular mental state and attitude. I believe that the ability to transcend the intense cold of the water was enhanced by recognizing that others in the group were having the same experience.
DON: My first misogi experience occurred at the dojo of Shihan Seiseki Abe Sensei in Osaka, where every morning the group descended to a pool in the basement. At a signal, we began to splash ourselves with ice cold water. If you didn't splash yourself enough, training partners on either side would see you were properly doused. After that, we would go upstairs for the first keiko of the day.
KAGAN: My experience of misogi consists of two forms. Senshin no Gyo, or Mind-cleansing Exercise, often done at the New Year, involves going as a group to into icy water and emitting loud ki-ai. Sokushin no Gyo, or "Mind-breathing Exercise", involves breathing, chanting at ki-ai volume, and swinging a bell vigorously in a group. These intense practices train one to keep one's mind calm and centered in the midst of extreme conditions. Such training may bring one into contact with one's true strength, which can be surprisingly vast, and may serve to banish fear and doubt from one's mind. Ultimately, one is encouraged to send forth ki vigorously to the universe, and this serves to push out and clear many obstructions.
DON: Like many traditional concepts, misogi has acquired broader meanings and pointed to diverse practices. 'Purification' can be a metaphor for many things.
KAGAN: Misogi rituals, I've been told, involve not so much absolute purification as throwing out something which something else can come in to replace. Like an exhalation of whatever one has been carrying, both the good and the bad, to make room for a full inhalation of the next thing. The more one exhales, the more room there is for inhalation. We are sometimes cautioned about seeking too much purity, or holding on too much to good things.
SCOTT: I feel that misogi can also be found in regular aikido training, which requires a particular state of mind to transcend all the distractions (pain included) that can hinder one's presence on the mat. And the experience of regular keiko is helped by the presence of others in the group who simultaneously share the experience.
KAGAN: Perhaps there is short-term misogi, which is short but intense like the Senshin and Sokushin no Gyo mentioned above, and long-term misogi, which would involve a gradual 'purification' like the one available through regular training. In that last sense, perhaps misogi is an ingredient of shugyo, which, I am told, extends from training on the mat to the way one lives life.
DON: These reflections help me think about it more clearly. Perhaps there is also a set of distinctions that relate to diverse views of human nature. If human nature is inherently sinful, purification could mean doing things to wash away sins and sinful dispositions. If human nature is inherently good, purification might mean the 'polishing' needed to let that goodness shine forth. If we view humans as having a capacity to transform negative into positive energies, purification might signify the kind of process that we observe in tonglen breathing.
In any case, when we perform misogi ritual, and understand it as a signpost to lifelong shugyo-misogi, we may benefit from recalling the doka (song of the way) attributed to O'Sensei:
The holy techniques of ki calm the soul.
These vehicles of purification-
Guide us to them,
O gods of heaven and earth.