Stephen Earle

Be advised that you read this book at your own risk: chances are, it will at least challenge your conceptual understanding of reality and may even alter forever how you see the world. Norio's Kushi's insights, the windfall of long hours on the road, are the stuff of practical wisdom. The ability to question one's reality is the first requisite of evolutionary change. Awakening-you might also call it spiritual transformation or enlightenment-is neither a solution to life's problems nor a goal to be achieved through personal endeavor but, rather, a ground zero, a place to come from if one is to live a productive and fulfilling life. This is the story of Norio Kushi's journey, how he was born in New York City to Japanese parents, Michio and Aveline Kushi, how he grew up and came of age within the eccentric surroundings of the Boston macrobiotic community of the 1960s and 1970s, and how, since then, he has consistently been guided by his intuition.

For the first time in English, Stephen Earle tells the epic story of Nakamura Tempu, one of Japan's most inspirational twentieth-century thinkers and teachers, whose mind-body approach to personal transformation influenced hundreds of thousands, including prominent leaders in government, industry, and the arts. Earle chronicles Tempu's origins in the samurai tradition, his genius for martial arts, and his work in Manchuria as a spy during the Russo-Japan War of 1904-1905. He relates how, after escaping a Russian firing squad, Tempu contracted tuberculosis; how he embarked on a search for a cure that led to the halls of Columbia University, the salons of Paris, and the foothills of the Himalayas, where he practiced yoga under the tutelage of an Indian guru; and how he not only regained his health but also underwent a spiritual transformation. This transformation laid the groundwork for the secular and practical methodology for self-realization and the cultivation of will that Tempu developed and disseminated to the sick and socially disenfranchised, as well as to princes and prime ministers. Over the course of nine decades, Tempu's philosophy of mind-body unification has charted a clear and accessible path to mastery over hardship and the ability to meet life's challenges head-on. Yet, the man, his story, his teachings, and his legacy remain almost unknown outside of Japan--until now. In addition to demonstrating how Tempu's teachings were significant to Japan's reconstruction and economic rise following the devastation of World War II, Heaven's Wind is also an engaging historical narrative, an account of personal transformation, and a clear guide to the practical philosophy of mind-body unity.