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Oasis Reiki Newsletter
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| GREETINGS & NEWS
Well, what news do we have? It's been another whirlwind year. The world continues to be what it is. The Reiki world is such a refuge and exciting as ever. I hope everyone of you appreciates just how real and profoundly transformative Reiki is. This was much more apparent to me, confirming much intuition and prior experience, after being re-trained in Usui Sensei's methods. What a legacy and blessing from him! This beautiful, open system that adapts to all types of people and creates deep change, leading to healing. We're keeping the design of the newsletter in line with the website, which has been increasingly visited by many people worldwide. Actually, it's in need of some new content and updates. Much is planned, little is time. If you have any ideas please put them in an email. As always we encourage contributors to the newsletter. |
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Welcome to the new look (yet again) of our popular newsletter! Yes, we've done the rounds in electronic publishing :). Starting with a free service, trying a paid service last issue and now...drum roll...buying software expressly for the purpose of providing you with the best look and content. I do have to thank the individual who helped me with its purchase and the person who's provided tech support for the first issue to come out just right. I can't recommend this enough for anyone with an online business--great bunch of people at this company! | SEASONAL THOUGHTS We have subscribers from all over the world, so this needn't be about a particular holyday, but in keeping with the universal spirit of Reiki, perhaps a drawing of our attention to some principles. Principles rule our universe. Each tradition gives expression to these "laws" in unique ways. Reiki training and practice is one of the most effective ways in which to learn, experience and apply universally true concepts to our lives. As we bring divine templates into our consciousness and body, we are transformed, and we become an anchor for the transformation of others. Any spiritual celebration or seasonal turning point is a good opportunity to spread the influence of benefits we've received through grace and practice. We are usually around many people at these times, and some of the situations can be trying, especially related to family and old wounds. It's inefficient to let these condensed lessons slide during the rest of the year. If we could make them our own once, they'd be ours forever. The norm is to tolerate being principled for a few weeks and then return to the demands of the marketplace. Next year we again bring the goodness in our hearts to bear on our thoughts and activities. So goes the cycle for many, creating a shallow world offering temporary solutions. It's not easy to live a spiritual life. The reminders from all types of media are constant and they are about entirely different things. The socially celebrated reminders of spiritual principles are scattered through the year and commercialized. There is fun in that too, as long as a gaping divide isn't created in our consciousness. As long as we don't do a stop 'n' start dance with right living. So this season plant some internal seeds and attend to them through the year, marking growth and development. Keep the seeds well nourished and moist with practice and practice again. Turn all situations into opportunities to further the growth of seeds you want to cultivate and cultivate a few that are at first difficult for you. Most importantly, share the yield of your efforts with those around you. |
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| INSPIRATION We feature quotes from Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido which he called the Art of Peace. He was probably the world's greatest martial artist, but also a deeply spiritual and metaphysical man, both very wise and loving.  |
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| TESTIMONIAL "I went back and read my journal, and you're so right, my self-Reiki was leading up to the release that I experienced last weekend. I was totally blocking some feelings I was having over something that happened a while back because I felt that they were foolish and possibly even a bit inappropriate. When I read my journal I saw that I was starting to open little by little over the past few weeks, then of course last weekend the damn just burst out all over.... "I think the biggest thing Reiki has done for me is that its really enabled me to 'feel'. The biggest and most obvious way is through my emotions. I honestly didn't even realize how well I had blocked myself off from my feelings. When I cried the other day it was amazing. Even though I was terribly sad at that moment, I was elated on a deeper level. For the first time in a what seems like forever I felt really alive on the inside instead of closed off and dead. Reiki has helped me to feel on other levels as well. I've had the understanding of feeling different sorts of energy for a while, but my personal experience with it all had been a bit limited. Since Reiki, however, I've become a bit more sensitive to feeling different sorts of energies. I don't know if I'm particularly sensitive to negativity now or if I just had a lot of it in my life, but I've been able to use this new-found understanding to 'clean house' so to speak. Also, I don't know if this is the Reiki per say, but I can somehow 'feel' where I'm going with my life a lot clearer. It's like I'm looking down and I can see my path laid out in front of me. I don't know, that one is a little harder to explain, but it definitely falls into that feeling category and it is something that has come about since Reiki." --S.K.W., Hallandale, FL By the way, YES, it is Reiki or rather the way it connects you to yourself and life, that helps you see a "path laid out" in front of you. <<mucho smiles here>> |
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| THE WELLNESS CORNER--Tips to improve quality of life The Wellness Corner will be a regular feature of our Newsletter, where we will dedicate it to a certain subject for one or more issues. We will begin with stress, as one of common everyday challenges. All subjects will be common elements of everyday living and deal with how to improve the quality of our lives. Since stress is a biggie, we'll keep it in The Corner for a few issues. ANTIDOTES TO STRESS There is an element of our bodies and living in them that is always with us, in the same way that stress is. This element is working in its quiet way, with every second that goes by. Whether we're stressed or not, paying attention or not, there's an action our bodies take, independent of us. It has a job to do and it doesn't wait for orders from us, nor does it wait for us to show up. If it did we wouldn't be around for much longer. It has a rhythm it follows and doesn't waver or hesitate. It comes in and goes out like a finely-tuned clock, and doesn't expect anything. Selflessly it serves us, while we mostly ignore it. It is our BREATH! Nature has so arranged it that the diaphragm will expand and contract all on its own, oxygen will come in carbon dioxide expelled, the lungs will fill and empty, keeping us alive. After all, during sleep we don't notice our breath, why should we when awake? We have so much more to take care of! Have you ever watched a healthy baby breathe? See that little stomach go up and down? Notice how easy and natural it is for them. Their breaths are full not shallow, smooth not jerky, starting at the abdomen they breathe and fill the lungs. They exhale all the way. There isn't any constriction or unusual noise in the breath. This is the breath that we lose and forget. This is the breath that we put on automatic pilot. Don't! Your breath is the one friend that you can't afford to take for granted. It doesn't require a cell phone or e-mail. It's free and loyal. It doesn't argue back. But breathing without awareness means you're not getting half of what you could from this inner resource. The breath obviously brings oxygen into our body and takes carbon dioxide out. The action of the diaphragm massages the internal organs. Much about the breath wasn't revealed in biology class however. For instance, it is through proper breathing that we are able to replenish the subtler resources of our organism, sometimes referred to as lifeforce. Undoubtedly there is more than nutrients, water, oxygen and heartbeat that sustains us. One reason that we feel better when we exercise, apart from the endorphins and all the organismic actions, is that we bring in greater amounts of lifeforce into our body, through increased breathing. It's the same reason that the beach, or clear mountain air feels so good--the air is charged with much more lifeforce in these environments. This effect can also be achieved with regular times during the day set aside for concentrated, aware, deep abdominal breathing. Even five minutes three times a day, would make a difference to your stress levels, or rather how you respond to stress. Let's face it--it ain't goin' away. And we need some stress to keep the system from going limp. It's the excess and the accumulation that gets us. Let's talk about energy a little. There's metabolic energy, the one we're most familiar with that keeps us going all day. There's mechanical energy, created by machines and fuels of various kinds. There's the energy of the atom that quantum physics is studying. Then there's the subtlest and most unknown energy, the energy that sustains us and all living systems. In addition to the regular actions of the breath, when we breathe with the awareness, we're also replacing old stuck energies of all kinds with fresh vital force. In other words, each conscious breath becomes a house-cleansing. Five-minute Breathing Recommended for daily use at the office or at home, 3 times a day for 5 minutes.
To be continued... |
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| SPOTLIGHT ON REIKI
To quote from our First Degree Manual: "Reiki is path to greater fulfillment and success in life and in Spirit. Though it seems to be used mainly as hands-on health maintenance, it is really much more than that. Usui Sensei had a failed business at one stage of his life. This did not deter him in his search. He persevered to attain the purpose of life as defined by Anshin Ritsumei: The state of your mind being totally in peace, knowing what to do with your life, bothered by nothing.” After his enlightenment experience atop Mt. Kurama, he healed his sick wife Sadako Suzuki. In 1923 an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit Tokyo. 100,000 deaths were reported. It was his Reiki help to the victims of the earthquake that established his reputation and made Reiki a viable tool. He outgrew one center and established a second one. He trained more than 2000 students. While Reiki is deeply healing and can be applied to oneself and others, Usui's teachings lead to discovering your spiritual path, staying on it with purpose and understanding, and enhancing your experiences until satori is reached. Satori is the Japanese term for the experience of enlightenment or Self-realization, awakening to one's true nature and the nature of all existence. The techniques he taught and spread give a clear indication that the real benefit of Reiki training and practice is to bring out the best qualities of our humanness and reach higher to a level of spiritual attainment that is both our right and quite attainable. We suffer so in life, yet answers are available. As with any authentic spiritual teaching, Usui Sensei left behind a living teaching that addresses the whole person. He was on a search and had many of the challenges we all face. What I really like about his story and legacy is that he persevered and overcame. Not only that, he went beyond solutions to everyday concerns and helped others reach the transcendental. Even more exciting is that his teachings are practical to the core and readily applicable in modern life. They are for the ordinary person, i.e., even those that feel no natural aptitude for such a lifestyle. Good results are seen with even a little practice and the effects are incremental, leading to greater and higher spiritual experiences and evolution. To find out more about classes in Original Usui Reiki Please call: 954-661-4263 E-mail: info@reikihelp.com Or visit: Reiki Training |
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Perhaps it's strange to you but Usui Sensei is one of my heroes. As we find out more and more about him, it becomes apparent that he was a special soul, dedicated to living in the best way, and making his life count for something very real. So real in fact that 12 of his direct students are still alive, the youngest being 107 years of age! (If nothing else, Reiki works great for life extension.)Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying the mantra (prayer) Om Mani Padme Hum, invites the blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. They also believe you can produce the same effect by spinning the written form of the mantra around in a prayer wheel (called "Mani wheels" by the Tibetans). The effect is said to be multiplied when more copies of the mantra are included, and spinning the Mani wheels faster increases the benefit as well.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, has said that having the mantra on your computer works the same as a traditional Mani wheel. As the digital image spins around on your hard drive, it sends the peaceful prayer of compassion to all directions and purifies the area.
Deb Platt suggests:
"To set your very own prayer wheel in motion, all you have to do is download this mantra to your computer's hard disk. Once downloaded, your hard disk drive will spin the mantra for you. Nowadays hard disk drives spin their disks somewhere between 3600 and 7200 revolutions per minute, with a typical rate of 5400 rpm. Given those rotation speeds, you'll soon be purifying loads of negative karma."
She suggests that you simply save the text "OM MANI PADME HUM," or use the Tibetan characters, which you can save by clicking on the image below, and then selecting the "Save As" option from the "File" menu in your browser:
If you use the default filename for
the image file, om-mani-padma-hum.gif,
you'll be storing the mantra twice.
--from www.dharma-haven.org
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