Reiki Help Blog :: Oasis Reiki Dojo

The average person, adult or child, isn’t exposed to meditation in our culture. Although the word is commonplace, there are now many scientific studies, and there’s a familiarity with it from media, meditation is still considered marginal, difficult, and too exotic to mean much.

This is unfortunate, because meditation is natural to life and the human experience. It’s natural, but because of conditioning it may at first seem challenging. It’s considered marginal or exotic, but the body-mind states it uncovers for us are all the various states we seek through other activities, both healthy ones and not so healthy ones. The benefits of meditation are lasting too. It doesn’t require special equipment, there’s no need for a student loan, you don’t have to go anywhere to meditate, and it enhances your days unlike anything else.

Our culture values hard work, success, family, fitness, entertainment, and possessions. These too are a part of life. Only a part. Not all of life. We become educated, trained and retrained to have and be all of these things. However, as Andrew Cohen puts it, “Meditation is training for life.” Life includes all the above, plus the human being, this breathing, feeling, pulsing, sensing entity. And Life in all its dimensions is also included in our days: The life of the planet (nature) and the cosmos, and the very source of Life as well. What addresses the totality of Life?

Civilization changes a person on the outside. Meditation softens a person from within, through and through. — Bhante Gunaratana

An essential ingredient of living is to have some meaning to it. We need meaning to feel alive, have purpose and feel it’s all worth something other than what’s on our bank statement. We also seek understanding. We seek to understand ourselves, and life in general. This is often accomplished through art, psychology, science, reading and documentaries. These of course have value. They can come up short when it comes to understanding our own nature.

Meditation is the natural state of mind, and the whole nature of the mind can be our meditation. — Tarthang Tulku

And…

Meditation is actually a process of seeking truth or understanding, of trying to discover the nature of existence and of the human mind. — Tarthang Tulku

It doesn’t have to feel foreign. Meditation doesn’t have to look or be any particular way. You don’t need ochre robes or flexible joints to meditate. You can keep your belief system. You can still go to your job in the morning, and tuck your kids into bed at night. With meditation, it’s still your life… only, it’s brighter and fresher. There’s a sense of well-being, better flow and greater contentment. You feel clearer and your heart is naturally full. Anxiety melts, stress dissipates and you don’t crash on weekends.

Meditation isn’t a panacea, at least initially. Your challenges and bothersome personal traits don’t disappear overnight, especially if you don’t make time for it. It doesn’t have to be a whole lot of time. Twenty minutes once or twice a day, and a willingness to let the fresh awareness it uncovers filter through into your days. Really paying attention to that awareness as it’s freed up of all the entanglements it’s usually caught up in.

Once we have touched meditative awareness, our questions dissolve, for both the questions and the answers to them are within the meditation. — Tarthang Tulku

Open yourself to the possibility that you can enhance your living substantially in a simple way with an all-encompassing practice that is natural and abiding. Find a method that appeals to you and commit. Give it three weeks, daily. You won’t even need to think about making it longterm after that.

Meditation is a way to quiet the mind so you can practice all day long wherever you are; see when there is grasping or aversion, clinging or suffering; and then let it go. — Jack Kornfield

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The previous post was about practice. Spiritual practice. The practice of meditation. Let’s keep appreciating what practice is and how it changes and benefits us.

“We readily accept the idea of spending years learning to walk, read and write, or acquire professional skills. We spend hours doing physical exercises in order to get our bodies into shape…

“Working with the mind follows the same logic. It will not change just from wishing alone. Meditation is a practice that makes it possible to cultivate and develop certain basic, positive human qualities in the same way other forms of training make it possible to acquire any other skill.” — Matthieu Ricard

Everytime you meditate, you repattern your brain. Everytime you allow beta brainwaves to be reduced, you discover richer depths of your mind. The meditative state extends far beyond the brain. It extends to all of your 50 trillion cells. It extends out into the world. Mind permeates the nonphysical dimension as well.

“All of the body is in the mind, but all of the mind is not in the body.” — Swami Rama

Of all the aspects we’re endowed with as humans, emotions seem to be consistently challenging. It’s odd that this aspect which finds such full expression in humans would be such a knotty area. As much as we’re able to have emotions so fully and with such a range, they seem to confuse us and don’t know how to handle them. We aren’t very good with letting our emotions live alongside us.

There is no question of not experiencing emotions; it’s a question of not being enslaved by them. — Matthieu Ricard

I’ve found that emotions enrich life instead of hinder it when we’re able to find a greater spiritual container for them to exist in. If emotions are left to express in their everyday versions, then we’re left to deal with pettiness, blame, vindictiveness, selfishness, fear, being a victim, and lack of self-esteem. I’ve written about this in the past because so many good people need help in this area. You can read those entries by clicking here, here and here. Today, let’s look at this challenge from other angles.

I define responsibility (response-ability) as the ability to choose how we respond to stimulation coming in through our sensory systems at any given moment in time. Although there are certain limbic system (emotional) programs that can be triggered automatically, it takes less than ninety seconds for one of these programs to be triggered, surge through our body, and then be completely flushed out of our bloodstream. My anger response, for example, is a programmed response that can be set off automatically. Once triggered, the chemical released by my brain surges through my body and I have a physiological experience. Within ninety seconds from the initial trigger, the chemical component of my anger has completed dissipated from my blood and my automatic response is over. If, however, I remain angry after those ninety seconds have passed, then it is because I have chosen to let that circuit continue to run. Moment by moment, I make the choice to either hook into my neurocircuitry or move back into the present moment, allowing that reaction to melt away as fleeting physiology. — Jill Bolte Taylor

90 seconds, folks!

The only way we can get good at making that choice not to run the same reaction with its chemical, emotional, mental and physiological loop is by practice. It’s not an intellectual choice only, because if it was we’d all be good at it. How many times have you turned into an emotional heap, despite your best intentions? It’s not a choice that can be made because the science makes sense. It’s not a choice that can be made because the therapist recommends it. To disengage from the debilitating autopilot of emotion is a choice that can only be made from a place of realization inside, in the mind and the heart.

Pure consciousness without content is something all those who meditate regularly and seriously have experienced… And anyone who takes the trouble to stabilize and clarify his or her mind will be able to experience it, too. It is through this unconditioned aspect of consciousness that we can transform the content of mind through training… There is great virtue in resting from time to time in pure awareness of the present moment, and being able to refer to this state when afflictive emotions arise so that we do not identify with them and are not swayed by them. — Matthieu Ricard

Emotions don’t have to be ‘emotional.’ If there’s inward stillness, ego agendas, negative emotions, distracted thoughts and negative self-talk are neutralized.

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© Pamir Kiciman 2010

The paradox of human emotion is that it both enriches life by accessing a wide range of experiences, and can also be a merciless trap. We’re not robots. Our capacity for love, happiness, excitement, really anything that makes the heart swell and sparks the mind is cherished. At the same time, not all emotions are pleasant and even the ones that are can limit us. In the two previous posts regarding this (I & II) the specific distinction was made between an emotion and the human ability to feel. While these are used synonymously by everyone including many experts, the truth of the matter is that feeling is what allows us to experience an emotion which is the ‘color’ or ‘flavor’ of the feeling state. Emotion is what bubbles to the surface from an ocean of feeling.

This ocean of feeling is a truer source and we’re built to tap it. It’s a spiritual resource, not merely mental or emotional. Emotions don’t reach a state like peace, not fully. Peace is a feeling, a higher feeling if you will. Peace, balance, compassion, unity… these are ‘spiritual’ feelings or states that we can experience beyond relating to life emotionally. They are feeling states.

Unless there’s emotional healing, higher feeling states are elusive or inconsistent, or even dangerous as it may add to our imbalance. For instance, Love simply is. It existed before we did. It’s one of those feeling states that emotions can get in the way of. It’s a tragicomedy how so many cling stubbornly and painfully to emotions. Feelings are abiding, they’re built into the matrix of life. Emotions are what advertisers play with.

A feeling is fluid, it’s alive, it’s dynamic, it actually helps us when we tune into it or go deeply into it, it actually helps us connect with ourselves more deeply.

Emotion tends to be going outwards, like in seeking some sort of external expression. That’s why it’s called “e”motion, “e” here is short for Latin ex, which means out of some motion, out of, it’s motion taking us out of ourselves. — John Welwood

What is emotional healing? Primarily, it’s living without resentment and trauma tied to the past, that today triggers behavior and emotions negatively impacting you and those around you. Is it possible to be emotionally healed? Yes! The value of emotional healing is that it harmonizes your relationship with yourself and others. It gives you a sense of confidence and self-esteem so you can function well in the world, and be free of mental and emotional afflictions.

Once this is established, other levels of being open up. There’s the emotional heart and the spiritual Heart. The emotional heart has to right itself before the endless horizon of the spiritual Heart becomes available. A wounded ‘little’ heart can’t even consider the possibilities of Big Heart. Wounds obscure and keep you in the throes of unproductive patterns.

For now, this discussion comes to an end with some excellent writing on the subject by Sally Kempton:

Emotions become problematic only when you identify with them, when you get lost or stuck in them, when you privilege certain emotions and try to deny others. The Tantric attitude toward emotions—acceptance, openness to feeling, combined with the awareness of being a spectator—is really a quality of heart. It takes a certain receptivity and softness.

I’ve used a certain practice for years to cultivate that soft-hearted state of witness. It comes fom the late French spiritual teacher, Jean Klein. Instead of being simply the observer of thoughts and feelings, you consciously welcome them as guests. Anger comes up and you think, “I welcome you.” A beautiful feeling arises: “I welcome you.” […]

Surfing your emotions is possible only after you have cultivated some degree of separation from them, which requires you to have a built-in recognition that you aren’t just your emotions.

Contemporary yogic and Buddhist teachers offer a quiverful of strategies for interrupting the tendency to identify with thoughts and emotions. Basic mindfulness is one. Another is the process of recognizing and challenging the stories and beliefs that you hold about reality. Another, very powerful, practice comes from the devotional traditions and involves offering or turning your emotions to God. Instead of blocking emotion, you use your feeling states to give juice to your practice. There are examples of this in all the devotional traditions—mystical Christianity, Judaism, Sufism, and especially in the bhakti tradition of India.

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I received this email question from a practitioner I’ve trained to Okuden (Level II) Reiki:

I have read about the Vilolet Flame and its power to transmute and dissolve our negative Karma. It is my belief that Reiki is capable of doing the same thing for us. Can you shed some light on this from your perspective?

It’s a great question. I’m going to leave the Violet Flame to your own research, and discernment based on that research. The subject of karma is complex and only a fraction of it can be covered here.

Karma literally means “action.” So the first step in deconstructing (understanding) your karma is to notice the ‘actions’ of your life. Those behaviors, circumstances and relationships that are the most knotty and recurring are nodal points of your karma. I’ve been asked before how we can figure out our karma. Well, based on this simple definition: Look at your current life. Just look at it.

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

When you see the dominant patterns, good and bad, you’ll have insight about your karma.

Similarly, transmuting karma is a set of ‘actions.’ There’s outward action and inward action. Outwardly there’s a whole host of ‘deeds’ that will help you. There’s charity, service and good deeds such as feeding the poor, helping strangers and the destitute, tithing a portion of your income, volunteering and other acts of giving.

There’s also more personal ‘actions.’ These include making a commitment to change certain behaviors by taking responsibility for them, improve character qualities, overcome weaknesses, forgive self and others, make compassion the foundation of all relationships human and otherwise, practice ethics, and have a conscience in all dealings.

Karma gets increasingly complex when its subtle aspects come into the picture. The truth of the matter is that karma is a set of tendencies, some of which are bound to ripen, some which we ripen and perpetuate with our choices, and some which may well never take form. I’m going to take a shortcut and skip the mechanism of how this happens, and simply state that karma is lodged in our subtle body, especially the subtle or nonphysical channel which corresponds to the spine.

Thus, the most effective method to transmute karma is to work or heal in the subtle body and especially the central channel, this vertical axis we have that is a lifeline for us between earth and “heaven.”

How do we do that? Meditation. There are many kinds of meditation and you may not be familiar with the method and benefit of meditation in this particular area. While most authentic meditations methods will help you with difficult karma, and some will translate into subtle healing without directly working in the central axis, there are also simple methods that directly unbind negative karmic knots found there.

Such methods encourage the flow of Light up and down the subtle central axis as well as throughout the entire subtle body. The subtle body is a template for the physical body and physical life of each person. If it’s being informed by the Light of its origins, it remains pure, or is cleansed when needed. There’s also a vibratory effect where the entire organism vibrates less densely and at a higher frequency where negative karma can be resolved, or simply isn’t a reality. Whatever ‘action’ is being taken in the subtle body, shows up in the physical body and physical life in kind.

Incarnation is a messy, difficult proposition! There’s no easy way out of it, nor is easy really desirable. All our experiences have a purpose and we have to accept the wisdom that’s at the heart of each one. This subject will continue in future posts. In the meantime do read this previous post from a well-known teacher who brings a different angle to the topic of karma.

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Emotions are a part of life and the human experience. Emotions accompany us through life. A new color palette is given to us by our emotional nature. As stated in the previous post on this subject, feeling capability is more significant than an emotion itself, but certainly the range of human emotion is a valuable human attribute. The question that remains is: Do you stay within the confines of an afflictive emotion, or strive for the meta state of feeling with all its possibilities? The short answer is, both.

There’s validity to work with an afflictive emotion directly. Most of us are in serious need of emotional healing. It seems emotions, though unique to humans (in the fullest sense), are difficult for us. We’re in hot water when it comes to emotions. One way to get out of hot water, or at least make it lukewarm, is to work with an afflictive emotion directly, to face it, understand it and make friends with it.

There are many methodologies for this. This discussion is about the intricacies of actually doing so, not the how. Disallowing the emotion, ignoring it, coating it with something else, or replacing it is avoidance, a form of denial. One major element of emotion is that it provides feedback. We don’t want to miss out on that! An emotion is a field of information. Negative or difficult emotions, perhaps more so. Afterall, we don’t probe happiness a whole lot. But anger or sadness holds the potential to yield layers of self-awareness.

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

“Afflictive” means that which brings harm or suffering. As long as it’s done with awareness, it can be revealing and healing to stay a while with such an emotion. Stay with it an hour or a day, knowing full well you’re allowing this to happen, that it’s a learning experience. Of course there are times when the emotion is utterly dominant, awareness is subdued, and there are behaviors and associated dynamics that keep you in the grips of an emotion. In such a situation you extract yourself as soon as possible and put the light of awareness on the experience.

Hopefully, your relationship with awareness is strong enough that the spiral down into the goo of an emotion doesn’t occur. And we’re working from a premise that you’ve healed emotionally to a considerable degree. Emotional wellness is a threshold state. It launches the next stages of personal and spiritual growth. If you’re relating to life from the ‘drama’ of emotion, then awareness hasn’t been freed up enough to give you any kind of perspective.

If, however, your emotional heart is in a more wholed state and self-awareness is a routine part of your daily consciousness, then when difficult emotions arise (they still do and will), you can go with it. This allows you to feel what you’re feeling and see what it may teach you. It’s also one way to prevent what’s called ‘spiritual bypassing’ where rather than deal with it, you go around or over it and reach some kind of ‘better’ feeling, while the original emotion festers and will surface again, sometimes in explosive ways.

Emotions add color and variance to life, but they can also land us in hot water. How long and in what manner we dwell in an emotion is a key factor. Since there’s a lot of subtlety involved, this subject will be continued in several more posts…

All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you. — Rainer Maria Rilke

Each post for the Reiki Help Blog can take anywhere from 1-5 days to write/research, proofread/edit, and post with an appropriate image and formatting. If you leave this space with any value, knowledge, joy or understanding, please consider making a donation of your choice.

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