Having been privileged to have a "Harry Eto Sensei" experience of a very general nature, I present it here. I apologize for my faulty memory in advance....
Back in ... ohh, mid-90s, I went to a VKS (or Maryland, can't remember which) summer camp. George Simcox Sensei was there (I was quite thankful for George's gracious presence!). But Harry Eto Sensei was there, too, and I was really glad to find another example of a teacher who simply seemed to exude boundless kindness and joy and excitement about life and Ki and learning!
At the time I had recently begun to have certain unpleasant problems of a Ki-related nature. Suffice it to say I was very concerned and resolved to ask Eto Sensei for advice.
I caught him at the end of a class in the dojo. It was a bit hard communicating with him. I was actually trying it in Japanese, and the room was noisy and busy. I'm not at all certain that he understood what I was trying to get across (it was rather a weird problem), but his answer, I think, can and perhaps should be applied to just about any problem.
He said something like, "How do you pray?" (Here he held his hands together to demonstrate.) He went on: "When you pray, extend Ki." And if my memory serves me correctly, he said something like (or I interpreted it as), "When you pray, extend Ki up to Heaven."
I guess one can in part also translate it as: "Pray with confidence," where (in my opinion) another term that can be used instead of "confidence" is "faith," and that's something many other teachers have been teaching over the years.
I think that about sums it up.
Text copyright 2001, Eri Izawa (rei [at] mit.edu)