Seppuku – Intentions for Prayer and Reflection
Compiled by Joanna Jezierska
Article “800 Intentions for Cleansing” Link
“Building Extensive Intentions and Prayers. Skype Conversation About the Technique” Link
“One-Sentence Structure for Intentions.” Link
The word (–not) added while working with intentions to a given word means that it is worth mentioning it as an opposite, or even independently finding and speaking aloud any synonyms that come to mind together with their opposites.
For example — being poor, sick — it is good to say it also with its opposite:
–being poor, sick, –not being poor, sick
This allows one to move a given pattern as broadly as possible at once, in different aspects, also in its opposite. It is also worth knowing that Souls often think and claim that they do not have such opposite patterns, for example that they are not idolaters in a given case.
Another example:
A woman’s Soul denies having once been a bad mother. Therefore adding the negating phrase – not being a bad mother – may allow her to understand the state in which she finds herself.
Being a bad mother, –not being a bad mother–
“Of course not, never in my life! These are not my patterns. What I do is my private matter.” [–Very often the soul says or thinks this about itself.]
Intentions
- Our own, and through us others’, committing/non-committing seppuku, also known in Japan as harakiri, toffuku, kappuku, tsuifuku, tachibara, jisatsu, or jigai; a ritual suicide involving abdominal cutting, regarded as a privilege of the samurai class and arising, among other things, from the Bushido Code.
- Our own, and through us others’, performing/non-performing seppuku as an honorable suicide in response to damage done to one’s honor after committing a disgraceful act as a samurai.
- Our own, and through us others’, committing/non-committing seppuku as a form of imposed capital punishment, serving as permission for a samurai to restore/non-restore honorably the wrongs committed, without undergoing additional criminal sanctions.
- Our own, and through us others’, committing/non-committing tsuifuku in order to avoid captivity after the death of one’s lord, after avenging the murder of one’s superior, because a samurai swore service until death and many believed it improper to outlive their master.
- Our own, and through us others’, possessing/non-possessing the privilege, as samurai alone, of committing seppuku, taking pride in freedom over one’s own life, contempt for death, and strength of spirit. Seppuku meant not merely physically „opening the abdomen” but also revealing one’s sincere and true feelings.
- Our own, and through us others’, believing/non-believing that the abdomen (hara) is the seat of the soul, feelings, emotions, and life energy, and that seppuku ethically represents ultimate justification before people, earth, and heaven.
- Our own, and through us others’, performing/non-performing seppuku in many ways (through various cutting techniques), always ensuring that surrounding witnesses could see the samurai’s entrails and thereby supposedly witness the purity of intentions, plans, and thoughts.
- Our own, and through us others’, conducting/non-conducting seppuku primarily in a seated position, with clothing arranged beneath the knees so that the body would not fall backward after death, which was considered disgraceful.
- Our own, and through us others’, performing/non-performing the seppuku ceremony in a standing position, in which case it was known as tachibara.
- Our own, and through us others’, committing/non-committing honorable seppuku after writing/non-writing a farewell poem beforehand, though such poems were not always written in cases of judicial punishment.
- Our own, and through us others’, participating/non-participating in a highly complex ceremony governed by many rules intended to prevent the honor of participants (the condemned and the assistants) from being stained.
- Our own, and through us others’, carrying out/non-carrying out seppuku at a specific/non-specific time, place, and in specifically/non-specifically designated company during the condemned person’s final moments.
- Our own, and through us others’, committing/non-committing seppuku in locations determined by the condemned person’s rank. The ceremony might take place in a castle, garden, prison, or private home. Conditions varied depending on whether it occurred indoors or outdoors, and even the time of day affected the setting.
- Our own, and through us others’, performing/non-performing harakiri at night, for example in the presence of four candle stands placed in the corners.
- Our own, and through us others’, being/non-being surrounded during seppuku primarily by the color white, regarded in Japan as a color of mourning.
- Our own, and through us others’, being/non-being accompanied by varying numbers of attendants participating in the event. Sometimes there was only one or two kaishaku (assistants), while in other cases there were more, depending on established rules.
- Our own, and through us others’, having/non-having three kaishaku fulfilling specific roles: the principal assistant responsible for decapitating the condemned at the appropriate moment, the assistant bringing the tray containing the knife, and the junior assistant carrying the head for identification.
- Our own, and through us others’, using/non-using for seppuku a special dagger (kusungobu) approximately 25 cm in length, or a short sword (wakizashi).
- Our own, and through us others’, learning/non-learning and becoming accustomed to the technique of seppuku from childhood as samurai, where it formed an inseparable part of samurai ethics under the Bushido Code.
- Our own, and through us others’, demonstrating/non-demonstrating noble fortitude during seppuku by signing a will with one’s own blood afterward. If a samurai committed seppuku under judicial sentence, he was buried with honors appropriate to his status; otherwise, his property was confiscated after death.
- Our own, and through us others’, according to Bushido, carrying out/non-carrying out ritual suicide by women of the samurai class through cutting the carotid artery or stabbing the heart.
- Our own, and through us others’, as women from samurai families, using/non-using the kaiken dagger for jisatsu, the dagger often having been received as a wedding gift from a husband.
- Our own, and through us others’, as women of samurai families, receiving/non-receiving a short sword (wakizashi) during coming-of-age ceremonies.
- Our own, and through us others’, as women of samurai families, regarding/not regarding it as shameful to be unable to commit suicide when circumstances supposedly required it.
- Our own, and through us others’, learning/non-learning as women of samurai families the techniques and skills of binding the knees so that the body would remain in a dignified position after death.
- Our own, and through us others’, leaving/non-leaving the place of seppuku uncleansed after the ceremony so that it would remain in memory forever.
God, Giver of Life, I surrender to You all swords that ever served me in committing seppuku: the kusungobu dagger, the short sword wakizashi, and the kaiken dagger.
Release me, God, from all oaths sworn according to the Bushido Code; decode them, cancel them, and release all witnesses and assistants (kaishaku) who participated in this ritual.
Opublikowano: 09/06/2026
Autor: Sławomir Majda
Kateogrie: The Prostitute and the Soldier [PTSD, Combat Shock]
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