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Reiki is a way of life. It is a way of living with wisdom and compassion. Wisdom is meta intelligence; that which has broken the limits of the rational mind. Compassion is meta love; that which has broken the limits of the human heart. Reiki is also a teaching with certain practices or methods. Often we give precedence to the method over the way. Methods are there to facilitate the way. Methods improve who we are, bring out our gold, transform us to be what we really are. The way is what is naturally there.

To become a better Reiki practitioner means to become a better person. ‘Better person’ here means fully being the best of who you already are, not some radical refashioning of who you are. Improving as a practitioner improves you as a human being too because that’s the nature of Reiki. Of course you have to apply Reiki sincerely to yourself and your life. As we partake of the wisdom and compassion that’s available through Reiki, we become more and more their likeness.

The methods of Reiki vary. There are meditative practices, healing techniques, purifying and charging methods, empowerment, and addressing the psyche. There are also methods to cultivate and wield primordial universal forces. All work simply, directly, and effectively. The methods are there to engender a greater, abiding set of qualities and states of being.

Wisdom and compassion are the path in Reiki.

What is Wisdom?

Information is just bits of data. Knowledge is putting them together. Wisdom is transcending them.
— Ram Dass

Wisdom has four tiers:

• Data
• Information
• Knowledge
• Wisdom

We start with raw data. Raw data isn’t necessarily useful, it’s isolated and not cohesive. If that data can be intelligently organized, it becomes information. Information we can use. Information that’s absorbed by a person, understood and internalized becomes knowledge. Wisdom is the application of knowledge that has matured and integrated, that’s become part of a person’s inner knowing.

Wisdom has its mundane side; wisdom applied to the affairs of the world, which is still preferable to approaching the world without wisdom. Then wisdom has its truer face; wisdom as a way to understand life, nature, the cosmos, and the age-old questions of existence, what it is, what it means.

It’s the existential aspect of wisdom that Reiki facilitates and enhances. When this level of wisdom is gathered, internalized, lived and applied, it also informs more practical, day-to-day concerns.

Wisdom is a naturally expansive state. It roots in a person and once rooted it expands because that’s its nature.

Wisdom’s tiers of concern:

• Self
• Others
• Society
• Biosphere
• Cosmos

When we begin to consider others, society at large, our physical and natural environment and how it all fits into a cosmic picture, we also expand our mind and heart (compassion). Wisdom informs our thinking, our mind and heart. We begin to get the sense that nothing is separate and isolated. This is accompanied by an equal concern for generations to come and how the living of today, with its actions and creations, will serve the future.

Let’s take a moment to consider Sanskrit terms that indicate wisdom:

Jnana (“knowledge/wisdom”): Both worldly knowledge or world-transcending wisdom, depending on the context.

Jnana-Yoga (“Yoga of wisdom”): The path to liberation based on wisdom, or the direct intuition of the transcendental Self (atman) through the steady application of discernment between the Real and the unreal and renunciation of what has been identified as unreal (or inconsequential to the achievement of liberation).

— by Georg Feuerstein

Wisdom and intuition are linked. We’re all endowed with intuition. It’s educated and socialized out of us, but it’s there and can be revived. Intuition is lumped together with instinct, or gut feeling. Instinct is a more animal sense, a useful one, but not real intuition.

Intuition is a soul faculty. It happens in the Heart. Intuition isn’t the knowing of mundane things, but the full birth and establishment of the spiritual in us. When we awaken to our spirituality, which like intuition is an intrinsic part of our makeup, this is wisdom in action.

Reiki excels at awakening us to intrinsic parts of our being that have been for various reasons lost to us. It does this through the practices Reiki comes with, and universal teachings that support these practices.  Reiki opens a person to truth; both personal and universal truth.

Wisdom and compassion are personal and universal. Personally wisdom and compassion make human life happier, more fulfilling, creating wellness, reducing suffering, and bringing a broad perspective from which to make choices and contributions to the world.

Universally wisdom and compassion are eternal factors, coexisting prior to creation and permeating creation. Embodying them personally deciphers and enhances life.

Here’s one more definition from Georg Feuerstein:

Prajna (“wisdom”): The opposite of spiritual ignorance (ajnana, avidya); one of two means of liberation in Buddhist yoga, the other being skillful means (upaya), i.e., compassion (karuna).

Any time we’re dealing with core factors of life, a rich tapestry becomes available. Afterall, ‘wisdom’ and ‘compassion’ are just two little words. It isn’t immediately obvious that they give rise to many qualities and states of being:

Human qualities often come in clusters. Altruism, inner peace, strength, freedom, and genuine happiness thrive together like the parts of a nourishing fruit. Likewise, selfishness, animosity, and fear grow together. — Matthieu Ricard

Spirituality works at the level of the common denominator. It’s efficient and universal in appeal. Reiki is a teaching which unfolds our innate spirituality. Each time we practice Reiki in its meditative or healing form, we partake of the wisdom that’s embedded in the core of reality. Reiki too comes from this same source. When we partake of wisdom, we partake of compassion. They are inextricably linked, living parts of the engine of the universe even before the engine was built.

What is Compassion?

In simple terms, compassion and love can be defined as positive thoughts and feelings that give rise to such essential things in life as hope, courage, determination, and inner strength… Compassion is the wish for another being to be free from suffering; love is wanting them to have happiness. — Dalai Lama

There’s that clustering again, that efficiency. This is precisely why spirituality, or Reiki which directly accesses our spirituality is so transformative. It dispenses with surface details and goes straight to the heart of it all. One thing must be clear about transformation:

Transformation is not change; transformation is growth. — Swami Rama

It’s a matter of growing into what and who we already are. This is a journey best taken with compassion alongside. When we grow to forgive ourselves and others, heal the past, be true in the present, and bring home the understanding that the future is a realm of possibilities, compassion is the companion we need. Compassion makes it possible to be human and divine, to appreciate the world and aspire to its betterment, to suffer and see suffering and break and be put back together in miraculous ways. Compassion is true strength and true gentleness.

Wisdom engenders compassion and compassion engenders wisdom. When wisdom permeates because we practice, compassion follows because wisdom tells us it makes sense. Similarly, when compassion permeates because we practice (practice Reiki, i.e., living out our spirituality), we become wise to truth. Here are some sensible truths:

Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe. — Zen Master Dogen

Not one single atom opposes us. — Zen Master Hongzhi

As we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others—what and whom we can work with, and how—becomes wider. — Pema Chodron

Reiki is compassion in action, both inwardly for the practitioner, and from that foundation outwardly in the world and in nature for the benefit of all.  Reiki works with humans and animals and trees. It’s effective with and helps all parts of life and society. Why? Because it’s a path, an authentic way to embody spirituality, to make it every moment.  What’s so significant about spirituality? Only that it’s the living tissue of existence.

Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. — David Steindl-Rast

Wisdom and compassion are categories on this blog. So is Oneness, as is healing. Wisdom and compassion are one, and lead to Oneness. Oneness is our original state of being. Reiki is abiding resting in Oneness.

Healing and the truth of Oneness access each other. Healing returns us to Oneness. Oneness draws us to healing. Healing prepares us for enlightenment. Oneness is enlightenment. Healing makes way for truth. Oneness is truth.

Nonordinary eyes see Oneness. Ordinary eyes see separation. Reiki is the healing of the illusion of separation.

Extend the boundaries of the glowing kingdom of your love, gradually including your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, all countries—all living sentient creatures. — Paramahansa Yogananda

Related:

A Reiki Primer / Introduction to Reiki Training and Healing

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Because Kantō is the largest plain in Japan, it is densely populated and includes the large metropolises of Tokyo and Yokohama. Prior to this disaster, the founder of Reiki, Usui Sensei, was teaching his methods by himself, quietly in his dojo. As they say, ‘necessity is the mother of invention.’ According to one source:

It was due to this earthquake…that Reiki and Usui Sensei became well-known in Japan…Until 1923 Usui Sensei was the only teacher of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, his association that he incorporated in 1922. When faced with the incomprehensible devastation, he decided to change his ways: He gave eight of his senior students the Shihan (teacher) status, and taught them how to teach Reiki…Over the next year or so, they initiated thousands of people and…gave several hundred thousand treatments.

I really want to focus on the love and respect Japanese people have for the Earth and Nature. Before I do, here’s an excerpt from Usui’s Memorial Stone which was erected a year after his passing. Let’s also remember how perfectly Reiki blends with helping animals and plants, and enhances our food and water.

In September of the 12th year (1923 A.D.) there was a great earthquake and a conflagration broke out. Everywhere there were groans of pains from the wounded. Sensei, feeling pity for them, went out every morning to go around the town, and he cured and saved an innumerable number of people. This is just a broad outline of his relief activities during such an emergency. (Translated by Inamoto Hyakuten.)

Japan has produced a number of spiritual traditions and art forms. Almost all are either nature-based, or show a great reverence for nature. There’s a profound understanding of the inextricable link humans have to the natural world we live in. A complete accounting of the earthquake to hit Japan a few days ago hasn’t even begun. It was followed by a devastating tsunami, and the threat of nuclear radiation from ongoing repercussions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

I hope my focus on the Earth and Nature in this post serves as a reminder to all of us to come into balance once again with the natural world. My heart-mind goes out to Japan in compassion, and in thanks for the great beauty it has given to human culture.

Shintoism is Japan’s native spirituality. It’s heavily nature-based and “was the communal response of the ancient immigrant dwellers of Japan to the stunning natural environment in which they found themselves.” (Stuart D.B. Picken)

Here’s a modernized excerpt by the same author of The Litany of Earth:

Leader — Think of how human beings first experienced earth bringing forth her fruits

Think of how earth was conceived of as a mother and revered for fertility, her abundant gifts, and her ability to nurture and support life

Think of the season’s as they flow by, the yellow and green of spring in all its newness and freshness

Think of mystery of the seed, how life is contained within it, and its creative growth

All — Our senses have been dulled and dimmed, and we see earth not as the environment of our life, but as a tool to be used

Our senses are blind to its mystery and meaning

Our senses need the purification that will enable us to see nature as our teacher and guide

Motohisa Yamakage who was born in 1925 and raised in a Shintoist family writes:

We [Japanese people] have felt that plants and animals, as well as mountains and rivers, have lived with us and have been deeply connected to us. This love and reverence toward nature is a quality that should be reinstalled in our hearts, if we want mankind and earth to survive the ecological crisis that has resulted from excessive materialism.

Recently some scientists, notably the British geophysicist James Lovelock, have rediscovered the notion of “Gaia.” In this view the natural environment of earth is not seen just as a mechanical system, but more than that, as a highly organic network created by complex relationships and subtle connections between all forms of life. Life has therefore neither passively adapted itself to the earth’s environment, nor been created by chance. Every life form, every creature has influenced the environment and helped to shape it. It has interacted with and depended upon all the creatures as a part of a harmonious cycle of creation. The world of nature is ultimately self-regulating and self-renewing, preserving its own order or homeostasis, restoring the planet’s balance much like the immune system of an individual organism.  We can therefore think of the earth as if it were a single organism, or the sum total of all living organisms: a self-regulating, self-rejuvenating biosphere.

Of late and we have heard extensive use of the word “co-existence.” This means that no creature can operate without regard for fellow-creatures. It can only exist and survive in a state of balance with other living organisms.  Nature is the constant interplay of living organisms. It is the continuous search for and restoration balance.

These perceptions of organic nature are identical to those that the Japanese have entertained and cherished deeply since ancient times. The islanders blessed with a rich natural world recognized intuitively that even plants and trees speak and that human beings could not live without mountains and rivers. In Japan’s past there was no thought of conquering nature or of unilaterally exploiting it.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the play of Nature in Zen spirituality is with some poetry by Zen masters. If interested you can look up individual teachers to learn more.

All sentient beings are essentially Buddhas.
As with water and ice, there is no ice without water;
apart from sentient beings, there are no Buddhas.
Not knowing how close the truth is,
we seek it far away
—what a pity!
Hakuin Ekaku Zenji

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
Dogen

When all thoughts
Are exhausted
I slip into the woods
And gather
A pile of shepherd’s purse.

Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent.
Ryokan

This is a woefully inadequate sampling. Search for “zen poetry’ or “zen haiku’ to get a full flavor.

Motohisa Yamagake writes, “Japanese Buddhist sayings, such as ‘mountains, rivers, plants, and trees will all become Buddha,’ or ‘the shape of the mountain and the sound of the valley stream are also the manifestations of Buddha’ are expressions, in Buddhist fashion, of this Japanese spiritual sense of nature.”

I’ll end with a thought by Thich Nhat Hanh who’s teaching today and while being a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and master, is prolific and receives worldwide recognition:

The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties. Tranquillizing ourselves with over-consumption is not the way.

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Even if you’re not a Reiki practitioner, the following precepts and commentary on them can help you because they are universal.

For today only:
Do not anger
Do not worry
Be humble
Be honest in your work
Be compassionate to yourself and others

When we look at the Reiki precepts Usui Sensei included in the heart of his teachings, we usually focus on the keywords of “anger,” “worry,” “humility,” etc. These are huge of course and deserve contemplation and deep engagement (read Usui’s Precepts: The living tissue of Reiki). For the purpose of greater understanding, let’s go ahead and breakdown some other parts of the precepts.

This set of guidelines is really divided into two sections: The “Do not,” and the “Be.” Although we know them as the Gokai or five principles, “For today only” is powerful enough to stand on its own, and we’ll break that down too.

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

On one level, these are classic ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ found in all teachings. If you strip all the words and ideas attached to “Do not,” and “Be,” however, a new understanding is born. This bare, minimalist consideration brings a simple clarity.

“Do not” that’s not followed by another idea points to the action state of ‘doing’ and tells us to drop it. This is perfectly natural, as Reiki is a practice in nondoing. It’s a teaching that draws the practitioner into an original silence within. In an actionless state we can truly heal and be healed; we can truly propel evolution and rest in the spiritual. Action is changeable, it’s in flux. Spiritual qualities like wisdom and compassion are only available when outer action is stilled. Thus, Usui tells us: “Not do!”

Then he reinforces it with, “Be.” If we are, no guidelines are needed because we directly embody humility, honesty and compassion. These qualities are natural to us. They exist in the same silence we originate from and are born into the world with us. Isn’t that wonderful? From this beginning we enter a living and expressing process of obscuring and complicating this utterly simple setup!

And there’s what could possibly be considered a sixth precept: “For today only.” This is also about being.

“Today” means ‘now.’ It’s not about sunrise to sunset. It’s about the light of awareness in each moment. In each moment we have a task at hand, are involved in an activity, or interacting with someone. In each case, if we can truly be in the moment, anger and worry simply don’t arise. Anger and worry are machinations of the egoic mind. Awareness helps us dip into the silence which keeps us in balance and harmony even in the midst of intense activity.

Words are part of the world which is of form and activity. Ideas and words have to be used to describe truths which are formless. It’s a tricky proposition. The formless can ultimately only be experienced. In getting to truth through a teacher’s words, it’s helpful to consider them with freshness and notice the subtlety. Many teachings are condensed, nuggets really and in bringing out their inner meaning we have to sense outside the parameters of language and syntax.

Please share in comments what the precepts mean to you and how have they enriched your life.

The secret of beginning a life of deep awareness and sensitivity lies in our willingness to pay attention. Our growth as conscious, awake human beings is marked not so much by grand gestures and visible renunciations as by extending loving attention to the minutest particulars of our lives. Every relationship, every thought, every gesture is blessed with meaning through the wholehearted attention we bring to it. In the complexities of our minds and lives we easily forget the power of attention, yet without attention we live only on the surface of existence. It is just simple attention that allows us truly to listen to the song of a bird, to see deeply the glory of an autumn leaf, to touch the heart of another and be touched. We need to be fully present in order to love a single thing wholeheartedly. We need to be fully awake in this moment if we are to receive and respond to the learning inherent in it.

—Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield

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Just to give some context, Oneness has been elucidated cross-culturally by many spiritual traditions, and even by thinkers like Einstein. Here are only some examples:

When we look at the world, at the person in front of us, at the tree outside our window, it’s not immediately apparent that we’re “one” at all. The person in front of you is clearly separate to your eyes, encased in her own skin, with a distinct look and personality. It’s the same with the tree; it’s another life form, doesn’t have human features and is unable to speak to you using language. This sense of separation is accentuated when we’re dealing with people or places far removed from our family, neighborhood and close concerns. We express this distance with the word “foreign.” This word is derived from Latin, Old French and Middle English to have the meanings of “on the outside” and “outside.”

Gives pause, doesn’t it? Is it “outside” that the person in front of you or removed by continents experiences hunger and thirst, pain and pleasure, seeks happiness and prosperity, loves their family and is generally in relationship to life in the same ways and manner you are?!

And what of the tree? It definitely needs food and water. It contributes to life like you do; you admire it for it’s beauty and enjoy its shade or fruit. And it’s a member of a family, a species.

The Buddha said: “All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life.” It’s really that simple. This extends to all of life. Just today, the Dalai Lama’s official Facebook page posted this:

Ultimately, humanity is one, and this small planet is our only home. If we are to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to feel a vivid sense of universal altruism. It is only this feeling that can remove the self-centered motives that cause people to deceive and misuse one another. If you have a sincere and open heart, you naturally feel self-worth and confidence, and there is no need to be fearful of others.

Last night, we gathered our own practical wisdom about Oneness, especially how it helps in daily living. Here are the major points that were shared by everyone:

• When we’re truly one with ourselves and nicely integrated, it’s a state of wellbeing and happiness.
• Oneness makes daily life meaningful and richer.
• Oneness prevents us from taking Nature for granted and helps us notice the miracle of a roadside weed.
• Engaging our spiritual practices with a sense of Oneness adds the dimension that we’re practicing for the whole world and not only ourselves.
• Bring that cultivated sense of Oneness to the workplace means better communication, less expectation and confrontation, an attractive harmony around us, and overall positivity.
• Being in Oneness is a flow state where natural order takes place, where we don’t have to be in control, and “magic” happens.
• This “magic” means that there are resolutions and results beyond what the logical mind could conceive, and arrived at with much less striving.

Oneness isn’t a topic that can fit in a single post, and will continue here in greater depth. In the meantime, please share in comments your insights about how you cultivate Oneness and how that has enhanced your life.

Also sign Humanity’s Team petition for the United Nations to establish a global Oneness day, the first of which is this October 24th.

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The spirit

This only makes sense, as the spiritual is at the root of being human and life itself.  Acknowledging the spiritual is the ultimate healing. While Reiki can heal what ails humans on all levels, accessing and prioritizing one’s spirituality is where Reiki excels. Once the spirit is acknowledged and centralized, a major core shift occurs and sets the tone for the rest of a life.

Consciousness and energy

Another common misconception is that Reiki is a form of ‘energy.’ While life energy accompanies the Reiki experience, it’s more a vibration or pulsation, and what’s vibrating or pulsating is consciousness. Consciousness here means the substratum of reality. Transformation takes place in consciousness. Any healing or change that doesn’t take place in consciousness usually doesn’t last.

The flow model of Reiki is simply this: 1) Consciousness, 2) Energy, 3) Physical manifestation. Energy plays a role, but it can’t really exist without its source: Consciousness.

Reiki is a transformative and enduring practice. ‘Transformative’ means that it radically and permanently shifts body, mind and being. ‘Enduring’ means this shift doesn’t stall after one time, it continues to expand one’s paradigm. The practices don’t get stale, bringing new insight and wisdom, staying fresh, creative and inspiring. Healing that’s accompanied by this kind of true transformation is lasting.

Wisdom and compassion

A core change in one’s orientation and relationship to life, such as the one Reiki facilitates releases the truth within each person. Reiki isn’t about temporary pain relief or a momentary understanding. It’s about freeing wisdom and compassion from inside. All divinity is already within. Reiki is a spiritual teaching sourced in this divine database and gives the practitioner complete access to it.

Liberation of the truth within frees the outer life of all its suffering, pain, disease, fear, turmoil, anguish and misery.

Reiki facilitates this in a very practical and user-friendly way. The founder of these teachings, Usui Sensei, prefaced Reiki’s five precepts with:

Happiness is secreted inside, that’s its only secret. Truest healing is spiritual. Spiritual healing addresses the whole person instead of helping only with the body or mind, which can leave an opening for imbalance to return.

The ‘many blessings’ Usui talks about could be interpreted as that multifaceted divinity  activating and bearing fruit (blessings) in a person’s life again and again. It’s also the consistent and frequent (many) practice of the various methods given in the teachings.

In conclusion, Reiki is a contemplative path which leads to the emergence of the true self in meaningful unity with all life.

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Train in Reiki with Pamir.

Photo: © Pamir Kiciman 2010

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The ‘energy’ we’re talking about isn’t metabolic energy, which is what the physical body uses for its everyday functioning. Instead it’s subtle energy, a core level complex system and driving force. All of life and creation has energy at its core and perhaps this is why it’s become so popular to say, “everything’s energy” and leave it there. But if it’s so central, doesn’t it ask us to know more about it?

Cyndi Dale explains energy very simply as: “information that vibrates.” She also states: “Information with a speed faster than light is received as subtle energy…Information that moves at the speed of light or slower is received…as sensory, and will impact physical reality.”

Scientific research has proven that everything energetic contains information: data that tells an atom whether it should occupy a kidney or outer space…. Besides “being informed,” energy also vibrates…. Vibration is produced in the form of amplitude and frequency: oscillations that generate more energy. These oscillations carry information that can be stored or applied. The information (as well as the vibrating oscillations) can also change depending on the nature of a particular interaction. All of life is made of information and vibration. — Cyndi Dale

Now we’re getting somewhere! It seems ‘energy’ is housed in a greater field of vibration. A subtler source of energy is vibration.

… all healing starts with oscillation, which is the basis of frequency. Frequency is the periodic speed at which something vibrates. It is measured in hertz (Hz), or cycles per second. Vibration occurs when something is moving back and forth…. Everything in the universe vibrates, and everything that vibrates imparts or impacts information (the definition of energy). To broaden our discussion of particles and waves to include health, we can define health as the state of an organism with respect to its functioning at any given time. — Cyndi Dale, The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy

The disadvantage of framing Reiki as energy is that electricity is a form of energy too. There’s also mechanical, magnetic, chemical and thermal energy. Well, Reiki has an impact on the body’s electricity, magnetism and chemical/hormonal firings.

It also greatly influences our mind, and has a huge spiritual influence. Thus, we have a conundrum. A conundrum that’s best answered by moving to yet another layer. Notice how reality is layered and there’s a spectrum; there’s always a spectrum.

Behind changing mental fluctuations is a constant awareness, an unbroken sense of self or being, an ongoing ability to observe, witness and perceive…. Therefore the mind itself is not awareness…. Awareness, unlike the mind, has no form, function or movement. It is not located in time and space but stands apart as their witness…To know this awareness, we must learn to go beyond mind, which means to disengage from its involvements. This is our real work as human beings and the essence of the spiritual path… — Dr. David Frawley

In terms of the map that’s emerging here, we can say that ‘awareness’ houses ‘vibration’ which houses many kinds of ‘energy.’ This is simplistic, yes, but at the same time it helps to grasp the big picture. When you give yourself Reiki, or meditate using one of Usui Sensei’s authentic methods, you don’t dissect reality, you have an experience that leads to an overall effect. That effect penetrates all levels of being, concentrating where you need assistance the most at that time.

Over time you notice that you’re transformed. Not in one area, but in all. Reiki is able to effect such change because it originates at a meta layer.

The following posts detail a lot of what’s been discussed here:

• Reiki as Consciousness
• Reiki as Consciousness II
• Reiki as Consciousness III

If you have any questions, please ask in comments and I’ll respond.

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The following is taken from The Three Pillars of Zen, compiled and edited by Philip Kapleau, a seminal work on Zen Buddhism. While there are certain references specific to Zen, the appeal of the hara and its cultivation is obvious.

Hara literally denotes the stomach and abdomen and the functions of digestion, absorption, and elimination connected with them. But it has parallel psychic¹ and spiritual significance. According to Hindu and Buddhist yogic systems, there are a number of psychic centers in the body through which vital cosmic force or energy flows. Of the two such centers embraced within the hara, one is associated with the solar plexus, whose system of nerves governs the digestive processes and organs of elimination. Hara is thus a wellspring of vital psychic energies. Harada-roshi, one of the most celebrated Zen masters of his day, in urging his disciples to concentrate their mind’s eye (i.e., the attention, the summation point of the total being) in their hara, would declare: “You must realize”—i.e., make real—”that the center of the universe is the pit of your belly!

To facilitate his experience of this fundamental truth, the Zen novice is instructed to focus his mind constantly at the bottom of his hara (specifically, between the navel and the pelvis) and to radiate all mental and bodily activities from that region. With the body-mind’s equilibrium centered in the hara, gradually a seat of consciousness, a focus of vital energy, is established there which influences the entire organism.

That consciousness is by no means confined to the brain is shown by Lama Govinda, who writes as follows: “While, according to Western conceptions, the brain is the exclusive seat of consciousness, yogic experience shows that our brain-consciousness is only one among a number of possible forms of consciousness, and that these, according to their function and nature, can be localized or centered in various organs of the body. These ‘organs,’ which collect, transform, and distribute the forces flowing through them, are called cakras, or centers of force. From them radiate secondary streams of psychic force, comparable to the spokes of a wheel, the ribs of an umbrella, or the petals of a lotus. In other words, these cakras are the points in which psychic forces and bodily functions merge into each other or penetrate each other. They are the focal points in which cosmic and psychic energies crystallize into bodily qualities, and in which bodily qualities are dissolved or transmuted again into psychic forces.

Settling the body’s center of gravity below the navel, that is, establishing a center of consciousness in the hara, automatically relaxes tensions arising from the habitual hunching of the shoulders, straining of the neck, and squeezing in of the stomach. As this rigidity disappears, an enhanced vitality and new sense of freedom are experienced throughout the body and mind, which are felt more and more to be a unity.

Zazen (meditation) has clearly demonstrated that with the mind’s eye centered in the hara the proliferation of random ideas is diminished and the attainment of one-pointedness accelerated, since a plethora of blood from the head is drawn down to the abdomen, “cooling” the brain and soothing the autonomic nervous system. This in turn leads to a greater degree of mental and emotional stability. One who functions from his hara, therefore, is not easily disturbed. He is, moreover, able to act quickly and decisively in an emergency owing to the fact that his mind, anchored in his hara, does not waver.

With the mind in the hara, narrow and egocentric thinking is superseded by a broadness of outlook and a magnanimity of spirit. This is because thinking from the vital hara center, being free of mediation by the limited discursive intellect, is spontaneous and all embracing. Perception from the hara tends toward integration and unity rather than division and fragmentation. In short, it is thinking which sees things steadily and whole.

The figure of the Buddha seated on his lotus throne—serene, stable, all-knowing and all-encompassing, radiating boundless light and compassion—is the foremost example of hara expressed through perfect enlightenment. Rodin’s “Thinker,” on the other hand, a solitary figure “lost” in thought and contorted in body, remote and isolated from his Self, typifies the opposite state.

¹ “Psychic” here does not relate to extrasensory phenomena or powers but to energies and body-mind states which cannot be classified either as physiological or psychological.

Serene Buddha and The Thinker

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What are some of the common symptoms people want Reiki to address?

Physical conditions

Back pain. Migraines. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue. TMJ. Skin disorders. Cancer. Autoimmune disorders. Thyroid imbalances.

Emotional conditions

Low self-esteem. Emotional distance & unavailability. Hot emotions like anger or jealousy. Panic. Fears. Inability to cope. Feeling uncomfortable in your skin. Feeling out of place. Grief.

Mental conditions

Stress. Depression. Anxiety. Lack of concentration. ADD and ADHD. Insomnia. Confusion. Negative thinking. Mental burdens.

Spiritual conditions

Disconnection from self and life. Loss of meaning. Dark night of the soul. Spiritual seeking. Loss of personal power. Soul loss. Not knowing life direction or purpose. Inability to forgive. Fear of death.

Reiki helps the person. What kind of person? A person with chronic pain. A person living with cancer. A depressed person.

• Do you suffer from migraines or anxiety?
• Does arthritis make every day tasks difficult?
• Have you tried different mattresses for your back pain?
• Do you feel ill at ease, unable to cope, or lack energy?
• Are you just existing and don’t feel well, but can’t put your finger on it?
• Is your family or partner driving you crazy?

All of the above is a sample list. The point is that symptoms are endless. The list could be 100 times this.

Because Reiki is concerned with the person and not the symptom, it can be effective for you no matter what your life looks like, how your body is doing, or how you feel and think.

Reiki’s most significant remedy is that it helps you embrace your innate or natural spirituality.

Why would you care? Because over and over, research shows that people with a personal sense of spirituality report:

• Less use of medical services
• Less minor illness
• Emotional resiliency in terminal illness
• Pain reduction
• Better immunity
• Accelerated healing
• Less anxiety
• Ability to buffer stress
• Being undefeated by crisis

Personal spirituality brings with it a greater sense of participation and empowerment, purpose and meaning, and a broader perspective, with a strong sense of well-being and not just an absence of disease.

In other words, spiritual health has a direct positive impact on mental, emotional and physical health. What spiritual health means to you is completely up to you.

Reiki simply promotes mindbody states that support your wholeness and wellbeing, gently balancing and harmonizing you in a holistic and individualistic way.

Have you tried Reiki?

Resources: Watch my video The Role Of Spirituality in Wellness.

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Do notice, however, Reiki’s profound impact. Click here to find out more about Reiki Training, and make sure you listen to the Reiki Primer audio.

Reiki Stories Project^SM (RSP) is open to anyone who wants to share. Please submit your story to me from the link in “contact” above. For the time being stories are being published anonymously. I may lightly edit your submission.

If you wonder why this project is so very important, and why I’ve decided to curate such stories these words from Muriel Rukeyser say it all:

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”

I will always remember the day last summer when a woman at my job, from whom I picked up such a feel-good vibration every time we met without knowing why, told me that she was practicing Reiki. I had seen the word before but never knew of what it really was.

What is that, I asked. She started to explain and at that very moment, as she spoke, in an instant, I realized that I already knew this. It was already inside my soul and her words just reminded me of what I had forgotten and had spent my whole life searching. The knowledge of Reiki fitted exactly in that empty spot that always had been in my soul as a mark of something lost. First time I received distant Reiki healing last summer, there were several things revealed to me. My experience of the world has not been the same since then. It was as if the physical world and the spirit world merged like two overhead stencils were put on top of each other and I saw the dimensions inside each one.

I have carried a sort of faded inner knowledge and along with that faded memories in my soul as long as I can remember. I knew at a very young age that we are living in a very special time. Over the years though, for various reasons, I both lost and gave away contact with my inner truth and my soul until the knowledge of Reiki gently reminded me.

Reiju Blessing

I found your website, the Reiki Help Blog and immediately felt the connection. This is the place were I go to rest my soul and to put the pieces together. In the words and knowledge you share I find the truth I always carried.

And the beautiful way you paint with words is the same beauty I find in my own soul.

So there I was April 7 tuning into the Reiju Blessing you offer. It was a very gentle experience, very soft yet vibrating with energy. The day after when I sat down to practice distant Reiki, I noticed the first reaction.

I usually feel the energy strongly and can also have visions and pictures or feelings shown to me. This time it was so much more. As I started I felt the energy as if I stood in a shower. The energy just poured over my whole being and opened up my mind as never before. And the location of the third eye was like a marked spot of energy during the whole session. It was an amazing experience and clearly something had happened.

The next day I started to notice a change on the inside.

A new kind of joy and happiness filled my heart so strong that I cannot describe it properly. And every morning the feeling increased and stayed throughout the day until this Monday when I found myself connected with the universe and my soul in a way that I’ve never felt before.

My soul was singing, my heart was filled with light and for the first time I felt Love flow through my veins. Pure Love! I became One with every creation, every mind and soul. One with the Universe. One with my Soul. I reached out and touched the Truth. And I let it all go, the pain, the sorrow and the hurting.

I was at peace, at true peace for the first time in my whole life and I felt so loved. I was complete. And that was exactly what I asked for when I signed up for the Reiju Blessing on your list. It was an amazing moment, a magical moment. The moment of the absolute beginning of my new awareness and consciousness. It was breathtaking!

Pamir, I don´t have words enough to express my gratitude towards you and the Universe for this very life-changing moment. Thank you!

Best Wishes,

–A.L.H., from Europe

You’re so very welcome. What’s your Reiki story?

Read the previous stories in the project.

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Here is why having a spiritual ground is an important aspect of wellness:

• Spirituality unifies all the dimensions of health and wellness, these being physical, psychological, social, and of course the spiritual itself.
• It provides a continuum and empowers all aspects of health.
• Because spirituality transcends the individual, it fosters such essential qualities as love, compassion, care and altruism.
• Spirituality brings vital meaning to life.

In its most general sense, spirituality is a way of contemplating and understanding the invisible aspects of life and to transcend the personal, tangible and finite details of this world. This transcendental spirituality is needed because it provides vision, inspiration and profound meaning. And spirituality may include faith, although it doesn’t have to, to be valid and helpful.

(If you’re reading this as an email, you’ll need to click back to the original post on the blog to view video content, or you can go here to view it.)

Cross-culturally and from all time periods, every authentic spiritual teaching that’s part of humanity’s heritage has always included a set of methodologies. Reiki is one such teaching. These teachings are commonly known as wisdom traditions, or teachings of perennial wisdom.

A teaching of perennial wisdom includes ethical and moral dos and don’ts; a central cosmology explaining creation, the universe, life and humanity’s place in it; other subtle truths; and practices to give the practitioner access to this knowledge and wisdom.

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My presentation was based on enumerating the lesser known types of immunities we have, other than the physical: Psychological, and spiritual immunity. Each is distinct and each forms a whole with all the others for healthy and meaningful living.

Below is an introduction to spiritual immunity, which is greatly detailed in the rest of the presentation, and especially with a lens on Reiki.

I welcome your questions and comments.

Reiki facilitates an internal spiritual opening, without dictating what that is for each individual. This spiritual opening is substantial and lasting.

(If you’re reading this as an email, you’ll need to click back to the original post on the blog to view video content, or you can go here and view it.)

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Authentic practices are limitless, however. For instance, since Reiki is of life, it can illuminate any area of life. Here’s one perspective on Reiki, mainly from a ‘relationship’ point of view, both with oneself and others.

1) Reiki helps you see the essence of yourself and others: On an everyday, surface level when we interact with another person, we see a limited picture of that person and often miss the real person who’s under the surface.

In such a narrow view we can easily judge and evaluate a person unfairly. It’s easier to be irritated or annoyed by an interaction and let that irritation escalate. This doesn’t mean that there was absolutely no cause for the annoyance. It simply means that we can look deeper.

We’re all imperfect. As a dedicated Reiki practitioner, we begin to know and feel that beneath imperfection is a lovable, bright being. In the self-practice of Reiki this knowing is what leads to radical healings for all parts of us. This then leads to personal growth, which then leads to spiritual evolution.

And it changes the way we view others. We stop relating to others at the level of their mask and drama, and start appreciating their essential being.

2) Reiki is integrated with life, not locked up in the intellect: As spiritual practitioners we get into mind games sometimes that revolve around hierarchy and what’s worthy of our attention and time.

This leads to a disconnect from life, whereas spiritual practices are meant to make life richer, more vibrant and available.

When our practice is relegated to an intellectual exercise, its gift is almost entirely missed. And when we approach people only from a cold, intellectual place, their gifts are also missed.

Reiki is life. Reiki isn’t relegated only to the sublime. All the messiness of life and our psyche are valid subjects for Reiki to address. In fact we need this so much.

3) Reiki hears you without filters: In Reiki we listen to others and ourselves, truly listen and hear. Reiki properly assimilated removes our filters of impatience, elitism, I’m-better-than; or self-deprecation and denial.

And this listening again reveals essence. The only filter that may be present is compassion in its universal form, so we listen past the soap opera and feel who is in there in that body and mind.

This depth of hearing someone else or ourselves is healing in an abiding way.

4) Reiki allows while you grow to your next tier: Everyone grows at their own pace. In this growth a certain amount of allowing is necessary. This isn’t the excusing, procrastinating or enabling kind of allowing, but one that derives from wisdom.

Wisdom says that two people are unlike in their trajectory, but the same in essence. We have to have the wisdom to let others grow in their own unique timing.

This doesn’t mean we have to tolerate their every behavior or not nudge at times. It simply means we don’t get carried away by the thought that we’ve already crossed this bridge, so hurry up.

5) Reiki helps you suspend judgment and levels personalities: The playing field of life is even. We all have our comeuppance. Not having judgment comes from the recognition that life honors all.

Suspension of judgment is a form of wise and compassionate allowing. It allows the other person their timing and dignity.

We’re all on equal footing. Our task is to enlighten the darkness, personally and collectively.

Personality conflicts come from using the other person as a yardstick of how much you’ve grown, instead of resting in the security of knowing yourself.

All this and more is available with the sincere practice of Reiki with an open heart.

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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Click here to find out more about Reiki Training, and make sure you listen to the Reiki Primer audio.

If you take some time to read the previous entries in this category, you’ll see that I place a significant emphasis on “story.” Pages and pages can be written about the features and benefits of Reiki, but when someone relates their own practice and use, Reiki becomes real and alive. Nothing says it better.

Reiki Stories Project^SM (RSP) is open to anyone who wants to share. Please submit your story to me from the link in “contact” above. For the time being stories are being published with only first and last initials and your location. I may lightly edit your submission.

I cannot describe how good I feel about myself for taking this important step to become a channel for the healing light to come into my daughter’s life. I practice Reiki on her almost every night. Her health and well being have improved greatly.

There was one night I left my daughter with my mother, while my husband and I were running some errands. She had a mild cold that was under control with Reiki. Suddenly, my mom calls me saying the fever has spiked to 104 degrees and that it didn’t go down even after a double dose of Tylenol. I rushed to my mother’s house and saw my daughter delirious. I took her to the hospital immediately. At the hospital her temperature was even worse, 105 degrees. They gave her another dose of Motrin and the nurse kept coming back to check her but nothing…nothing was working.

So I calmed myself down, focused and centered myself. It was hard because I was nervous but ended up calming down and practicing Reiki on her. A few minutes after I started her fever dropped down to 103 and half an hour later the fever was gone.

The doctor ordered x-rays that night and she was diagnosed with pneumonia in early stages. She was released the same day without fever. The next day she was miraculously healed. Yes, she had a little congestion but no fever, and she was in good spirits all happy and jumping! I continued giving her Reiki at night along with the medicine the doctor prescribed and now she is better than ever.

I have used Reiki in my house. I did a deep cleansing that took me about an hour and a half. I felt the corners charged with stubborn energy and the closets were full of still energy. After the cleansing, a harmonious atmosphere settled in my house. Now it’s easier for me and my husband to relax and we don’t get angry, depressed or drained when we get home after work. The same everyday issues might still be there but our attitude has changed. Things are better between us and we are in a better mood to take care of our 2 year old daughter.

A few days after I cleansed my office, I received very nice compliments from bosses and other professional consultants. They were saying how professional, competent and thorough I am at work and that it is a real pleasure to work with me. I am receiving more responsibility now and getting ready for a possible promotion in the near future. I am excited about this new opportunity.

Also, Reiki might have found its way and touched my best friend, who used to work in the office right next to mine. He had been talking about opening his own business for about a year and I noticed that right after the cleansing he decided to quit his job and start his own small business. Yes, one day he just woke up and decided to never come back to the office again. We are still friends and I am very happy that he finally made up his mind.

–P.V., Coral Springs, Florida

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You can call in or listen online. You can even listen via iTunes. Visit this page to learn more:

Here’s the description of this particular show:

Weekly show on Natural Medicine, Hypnotherapy, NLP, Nutrition, Fitness with Dr. Michael Holt the founder of the Magi Institute of Natural Medicine and his special guests Pamir Kiciman to discuss Reiki.

Pamir Kiciman is a Soul Whisperer and Life Enrichment educator, and founder of Oasis Reiki. He specializes in Original/Classical Japanese Usui Reiki Training. He has worked in a variety of environments in 15 years of teaching, including time spent at Imperial Point Medical Center in South Florida. Pamir has also conducted Reiki Training at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Nursing. Recently, he was selected as a Featured Voice on Intent.com. Pamir has spent the last 15 years training himself and others in subtle energy, intentional healing, holistic health, meditation, spiritual psychology, nonduality, and world wisdom traditions.

Above all else, Pamir is dedicated to being a catalyst for a transformation by bringing soul and the teachings of Oneness to the forefront in individuals and in society at large. Pamir educates people through various channels, including his own Reiki Help Blog.

Reiki is most popularly known as a hands-on healing art, which it is in one of its applications. Hands-on Reiki is in fact rooted in spiritual discipline, the basis of which is meditation. Usui Sensei taught specific meditations. Similarly, Reiki is known as energy healing, which it does facilitate. What’s often missed, however, is that before energy can exist there first has to be consciousness. It is by participating in this primordial consciousness that Reiki fulfills its true purpose for practitioner and recipient alike.

And, October 15, 2009 is Blog Action Day once again: An annual nonprofit event, it aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

This year’s topic is focused on Climate Change, by unanimous voting.

The Reiki Help Blog has participated for the last two years. In 2008 the topic was poverty and I posted about the availability of clean, potable water to all populations of the world.

In 2007 the topic was the environment and as one of the earlier posts on this blog, I’m quite proud of this entry.

Climate change is not new to this blog. As stewards of our environment and spiritual practitioners, we are the only ones who can really do something about it!

With this in mind, I started the Reiki Stories Project^SM (RSP). I’m curating these stories. This project started back in June with two remarkable stories of Reiki working in human lives.

Then came yet another eye-opening testimonial, this time showing oxygen saturation increasing during Reiki on a hospital monitor. The Reiki Stories Project is open to everyone who has a story to add. You may email it to me or leave it in comments below.

Please make sure you read the previous entries in this series.

Last Friday, a woman I work with was hit by a forklift. The driver spun around very fast & didn’t see my co-worker standing there. The fork lift blades hit her foot and knocked her over. Her shoe strap broke, thank God, so her foot flew out of the shoe. The shoe was stuck under one of the blades and could not be pulled out without lifting up the blades. Needless to say, she limped away from what could’ve been a fatal accident.

All I wanted to do was get my hands on her foot, but there were too many people around her. I gave her Reiki with my eyes. Fortunately, when she returned from the hospital, I heard her in the supervisor’s office. I went in and saw her trying to hold her foot up while filling out paperwork.

I went in, put my hands under her foot to keep it elevated and began giving her Reiki. Then, I moved one hand to the back of her knee for support. I didn’t tell her what I was doing. Her body started to relax and her eyes closed slightly. Then, she said, “Your hands feel so soothing. You know, I should probably do one of those Reiki sessions with you.”

“Hahaha! We are doing one right now (I thought to myself).” Anyway, I haven’t seen her until this morning. I asked how she was doing and she said, with a big smile, “Great!” she said, “Listen, I have to tell you something. I always bruise. Anytime I hit something, I bruise. I’ve been watching and waiting for my foot to turn colors. Remember how swollen it was? My family can’t believe it. No bruise! It’s fine. I can’t believe it.”

–C.C., Miami, Florida

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This summer the Reiki One-Liner passed the 250 mark. It goes out only on weekdays, so that’s 50 weeks of a unique form of discipline and practice.

Initially I started writing these to educate my social network about Reiki. Very soon it became a rich way for me to consider the depth and breadth of Reiki.

Each writing reveals a new facet, usually not thought of before. Or, as I interact with Reiki, share it and teach it, watch it working in others and receive Reiki stories, it reveals new facets. Here’s one coming to me right now:

Reiki is a shining gem with endless facets.

There are four previous posts of 50 Reiki One-Liners each. Reading these as a list can become meaningless.

A Practice:

What I suggest is to go through each post one at a time, including this one, and write down your favorite few. These may be your favorite because you feel a certain way when you read them, or it points to a truth you love, or a truth you need.

Then, select one of and take it into meditation. Post it on your mirror or computer screen. You can also journal about it, using the one-liner as your prompt.

When you’re done with your initial favorites, visit the posts again and select another handful to grow into even more facets of Reiki.

Reiki One-Liner^SM

Here, presented in alphabetical order rather than the order they went out are 50 new Reiki One-Liners:

1. A diagnosis is local. You are nonlocal. Reiki brings this home.
2. A powerful showering of Light is a major facet of Reiki.
3. All-healing Love is a primary color in Reiki.
4. Has your life gone awry? Reiki will reset it in away that serves you for years to come.
5. Healing stored negative emotions and energies is a main benefit of Reiki.
6. In face of unchanging symptoms, Reiki brings an abiding knowing.
7. It’s not only symptomatic healing Reiki provides; it can heal an entire life.
8. Reiki *hears* you without filters.
9. Reiki accelerates your evolution.
10. Reiki activates all your immune systems: physical, psychological, and spiritual.
11. Reiki allows while you grow to your next tier.
12. Reiki brings your worrying into perspective and keeps you calm.
13. Reiki develops a self-healing psychology hiding under all of your symptoms.
14. Reiki doesn’t address only the here-and-now, but the then and later, and the timeless.
15. Reiki eases the experience of being infinite in a finite world and fulfills it to the highest degree.
16. Reiki emerges who you are in the most natural, no-excuses way.
17. Reiki engenders the pure awareness that’s not based on thoughts and emotions.
18. Reiki heals the person and thus the extended life of that person.
19. Reiki helps you incarnate fully so you can really do “this” and live the sacred too.
20. Reiki helps you listen to life with your whole being, not only your head.
21. Reiki helps you see the essence of yourself and others.
22. Reiki helps you sit in your belly (hara) and handle life from there.
23. Reiki helps you suspend judgment and levels personalities.
24. Reiki increases your Light quotient.
25. Reiki is a provider, teacher and wayshower of compassion.
26. Reiki is a two-way elevator between Heaven and Earth.
27. Reiki is constant and fail-safe.
28. Reiki is integrated with life, not locked up in the intellect.
29. Reiki is the energetic equivalent of oxygen.
30. Reiki is the radical realization that your umbilical cord is intact and has only changed form and scope.
31. Reiki is the spontaneous cascade of Love.
32. Reiki lets you solidly know there’s healing available despite symptoms.
33. Reiki merges the you living in linearity with the You that envelopes time/space.
34. Reiki opens the sacred space within that can also be a liveable place without.
35. Reiki provides a lifeline in times of personal or global crisis.
36. Reiki provides a steadiness of heart and mind.
37. Reiki reminds you to settle in the belly (hara) when the mind overthinks.
38. Reiki removes the heat and burn of anger from your mindbody.
39. Reiki reveals the value of honesty in all you are and do.
40. Reiki shows you how to be humble without compromising yourself.
41. Reiki shows you the umbilical cord you have to the sun, the cherry tree and the rain.
42. Reiki soothingly buffers you when life’s upsets visit.
43. Removing excess baggage, outmoded ideas and clutter happens naturally in Reiki.
44. Strong immunity means integrity. Reiki takes you there.
45. Symptoms are information, not who you are. Reiki solidifies this knowing.
46. When life is pressuring you, Reiki acts as a relief valve.
47. When nothing works, Reiki still does.
48. When walking the path and doing the work, Reiki is an unmatched wayshower and aid.
49. With Reiki you gain access to healing a pinpoint or the whole tapestry.
50. You are the link between the healed and unhealed. Reiki gives you the courage to embrace the healing long buried.

I’ve always been a city-dweller and nature-lover. Not a nature-lover as someone in sandals to be made fun of, but really receiving solace and power from natural spaces. Before my ‘official’ awakening, Nature was my main source of a greater reality. Today, I continue to have deep reverence for her and speak on her behalf on this blog, and in various avenues of activism.

This isn’t about granola. It’s about humanity’s symbiotic relationship with Nature. Nature was here first. Planet Earth is Nature. There was only earth to walk on before cobblestones and later concrete and asphalt. We accept that roads and tall buildings are our normal environment; that’s all we’ve known. But what’s under our feet?

When we’re in a parking lot, our thoughts aren’t about what was there before (a meadow, a stream). Our thoughts are about, “Is she leaving so I can park closer?” When we enter a structure of glass and steel we don’t think, “I wonder if there was a stand of trees here?” We think, “I hope the line isn’t long at the bank.”

We are disconnected from our home. Not the one with a mortgage, but the one that enlivens us and is one of the greatest gifts we’ve ever had the privilege to receive.

Reverence, love and gratitude for Nature has also been part of all the enduring teachings we have had access to throughout history.

In an attempt to get closer to Japanese culture and thinking so that my understanding and passing on of Reiki is enhanced and grounded, I started reading a delightful book:

Shinto Meditations for Revering the Earth by Stuart D. B. Picken.

Shinto is Japan’s native spirituality, born of the earth. It was there before Buddhism and permeates Japanese society even today. It’s a nature-based teaching and practice that is accessible to everyone. I want to share the very clear lens on Nature that’s available through this natural tradition.

In Shinto, observation (kannagara) is the first step. Picken writes:

Look at nature, looking beyond either its beauty or the scars caused by human activity. Ponder anew the mystery of creation, growth, and sustenance, as well as nature’s capacity to to heal and renew. Wonder at the infinity of the cosmos. the myriad of stars and planets, and the unique position of the earth that permits the delicate balance for life to exist. Consciousness of the great flow of the cosmos is awareness of kannagara, the movement of the divine within us and around us. Observation with an open mind helps purify our vision.

There are specific meditations in Shinto which Picken presents as “litanies” that he has written specifically for his book. There’s such truth and inspiration in these passages, and unfortunately I can only quote a few, and excerpts at that.

“In Shinto rituals, earth is the most basic of the elements. Earth is celebrated in all its fairness and beauty and in its power to feed and support life through growth and development.”

Think of how earth was conceived of as a mother and revered for her fertility, her abundant gifts, and her ability to nurture and support life

Shinto took its clues from everything around, which before industrialization was all natural. If it was there in such beauty, power and self-existent, it had to be sacred. Therefore, Shinto is non-conceptual. It’s the spirituality of place. And one of the major elements of Japanese ‘places’ is all the great waterfalls of these islands. Waterfalls are used as misogi, purification.

“Let us think of the waterfall as a concentration of beauty, power, and energy united in endlessly renewing flow”

The Litany of the River includes many truths:

“Identity amid impermanence is what gives a rivers its name

“In the depth and width, the river reminds us of the difficult expanses of life that must be traversed”

Trees are greatly honored. A shimenawa (thick twisted rope) is tied around trunk to show its sacredness.

Trees teach us about growth

They also stand for shelter

They are, like water, living organisms

Ponder the meaning of growth and development

Think of how we know nature through our senses, our eyes, our taste, our sense of smell and touch, our awareness and deep intuitions

Stones, wind and lightening, and fire also have litanies in Shinto Meditations for Revering the Earth, the reading of which alone brings one closer to the natural environment that is still our home, despite pervasive and intrusive technology.

The final litany in the book is dedicated to mountains. From a Reiki perspective it’s revealing to learn that Tendai monks had a discipline called Sen-nichi-kai-ho-gyo: Running 1000 days around the peaks of Mt. Hiei “to extend and enrich the human capacities.”

Think of the idea of ascent for purification and enlightenment to a sacred place for communion with the divine

. . . Think of how it remains unchanged yet changes its mantle with the seasons

Think of it as the home of life, the source of the river, and the shelter from the winds

The way these litanies move you to a new appreciation of our lost connection with Nature is remarkable. The book’s core message is found in these two sections which are repeated in all the litanies:

Our senses have been dulled and dimmed, and we see earth not as the environment of our life, but as a tool to be used

Our senses are blind to its mystery and meaning

Our senses need purification that will enable us to see nature as our teacher and guide

And:

In opening ourselves to nature, in seeking its purification, and in hearing what it has to teach us, may we find enlightenment as we share in the fusion of ourselves with the universe that brings us back to the divine that is within the human

The final question for all of us, as Picken puts it so clearly is: “The worlds of the sociosphere and the biosphere seem very far apart. Can they meet?”

They must meet.

Today, I received a proof positive type of story from a brand new Level I practitioner I trained only 2 weeks ago:

“I want to share with you what has happened recently. My Mother is in the hospital and she was on a machine that measures oxygen intake and when the number falls below 90 it beeps and flashes a red alert. The nurse said that if it stays below 90 and especially if it gets into the 70-75 range and stays there it is not good, and they would have to intervene with other maybe drastic measures.

I was in the room when the alert sounded and it stayed like that for almost 7 minutes, and the nurse was concerned. I then placed my hands on her chest and tried to stay very neutral and remembered what you said about not doing anything and just let it flow.

At first nothing happened and I just kept doing it without expecting anything. After maybe 2 minutes the machine stopped beeping and the count went over 90 and stayed like that.

When I took my hands off it went back down, and when I put my hands on her again the count went to 98 and stayed there even after I took my hands away.

I know it was Reiki and I felt the energy flowing and I just kept trying not to have any conscious thought that I was doing anything, even though it was an amazing thing to see and I was very thrilled.

My Mother felt better and I have been doing that everyday. When I placed my hands on her she let go of all tension and I felt it leave her whole body like she was exhaling all stress and tension. This was the most amazing feeling to be a part of and I had never experienced this before and I was just stunned! Wow!…

I am so grateful to have found Reiki and I want to thank you for your guidance and introducing me to this beautiful Reiki.”

Blessed be!

What has Reiki shown you of itself?

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This presentation had specific challenges. First I wasn’t sure how well-known Reiki is to the ITP community, although I knew there was some Reiki awareness (the founder of PDSA is a Reiki practitioner and Reiki played a major role in her complete remission.) Secondly, ITP is of unknown origin and without any medical cure, and potentially fatal.

ITP is an autoimmune disease. I chose to address the human being living with ITP, which is exactly Reiki’s own approach; no matter the symptoms, Reiki heals the person.

The title of my presentation was “The Healing Power of Reiki.” Fairly standard, but I really wanted to expand our definition of being human, and wellness, and this venue created a great opportunity to do so. The first clip is the opening of my 45 minute talk.

The first idea we can explore is that the physical immune system is not the only immune system we humans have. The psychological and the spiritual are also components of the human immune system…And, physical immunity is greatly influenced by psychological and spiritual immunity.

(If you’re reading this as an email, you’ll probably need to click back to the original post on the blog to view video content.)

My presentation goes into quite some detail about our three basic immunities. The physical immune system is fairly well-known and understood, so I focused on psychological and spiritual immunity, and how these can actually determine our level of physical wellness, and at the very least mitigate ill health so a full life is still possible.

A basic understanding of Reiki is that it balances or rebalances a person on all levels: physically, psychologically and spiritually. In other words, Reiki finds within you, or returns you to homeostasis.

(If you’re reading this as an email, you’ll probably need to click back to the original post on the blog to view video content.)

There’s much more depth and detail to this presentation, and other portions will be rolled out here in the near future, so keep watching this space.

Most importantly, please let me know what you think by commenting here. Include what kind of information you need or are most interested in, where you need the most help and how the Reiki Help Blog can serve you better. I’d appreciate this and ultimately it will serve you by allowing me to post relevant material.

If Reiki were a tree, its trunk would be the meditative teachings of Reiki; hands-on Reiki would be one limb; and the precepts Usui left behind would be Reiki’s living tissue. This was explained in great detail in a previous post: Modern Reiki.

Today we’ll look at Usui’s Reiki precepts again. Since they are the living tissue of the teachings, it’s important to dwell on these simple words again and again. Not only dwell but bring them into full focus in our lives. The translation used here is:

For today only: Do not anger—Do not worry

Be humble

Be honest in your work

Be compassionate to yourself and others

Let me first quote from the previous post:

Without anger, conflicts would be resolved and new ones circumvented. Without worry, fear would end and we wouldn’t exacerbate suffering. Humility is respect and the willingness to include all viewpoints. Honesty; would there be a worldwide financial crisis if there was honesty?

And compassion. Compassion is both a prerequisite and condition of enlightenment. In compassion there’s no separation, no other, no stranger. Compassion is the true democracy! Enlightenment is a state of Oneness. If there’s compassion, there’s understanding and appreciation. Compassion unifies and in that unity we find enlightenment.

Enlightenment isn’t only a spiritual pursuit. There can be enlightenment in government, technology, business, science and social systems.

In delving deeper into these simple words, we have to consider that translation from Japanese, a language based on ideograms,  leads to rich interpretations; aphorisms are pithy and packed with meaning; and such concepts are layered in meaning.

Copyright Usui-Do Eidan

For today only: We mostly understand a day to be 24 hours in the Gregorian calendar which defines our lives. This is fine for what it is.

However, here we’re considering ‘today’ as also ‘this moment,’ ‘this duration,’ ‘this task,’ ‘this activity,’ or even ‘this interaction.’

If you’re serious about your Reiki practice as a spiritual one, a path, not only a healing practice or worse a modality, then you understand that it’s lifelong.

A life and a path is made up of moments. Before you’re intimidated by what is asked of you, stop, breathe and take a moment to consider both how fleeting and how endless it is.

You don’t have to master For today only, today.

Do not anger: Anger is an afflictive emotion and we all have it. It’s hurtful to those it’s directed and to person who is angry. It creates suffering for everyone. Sometimes righteous anger is justified, but in the end anger is never skillful or successful.

Anger heats up the mind and it makes mistakes, and anger shuts tight the heart. With and overheated mind and closed heart you’re a danger to yourself and others. Anger can also escalate to rage.

Whereas if a higher feeling state like love is cultivated, when it escalates it leads to bliss!

I feel Usui isn’t only saying don’t let anger prevail, but also heal your anger. This is a major undertaking. Anger is pernicious and insidious. It hides under layers.

Start today with some smaller angers and move onto bigger ones.

Do not worry: Let’s start with the worst case scenario…when worry escalates it becomes fear and/or anxiety. Worry as it is hangs around, niggling away and ruining your outlook as well as inner environment. Worry is powerful in its constancy. It’s a mindset that traps and holds hostage.

It holds hostage your physical, mental and spiritual energy without any purpose. For instance when faced with a dangerous wild animal, fear has a purpose. Escalated fear and ordinary constant worry which are baseless cause more harm than do good.

Worry is a creation of the mind and indicates that your mind is leading you, instead of you leading your mind. The mind is powerful but worry is an unskillful use of its power.

Be humble: Often recommended, seldom understood. Every other avenue that influences daily life tells us to be loud, boastful, self-aggrandizing and to stand out. We cringe at humility. It seems weak and wimpy.

It’s actually a fearless act to be humble because all self-promotion is really a way to hold fear at bay. And it goes further to change your orientation to non-ego. In fact humility is another way to stay in the present, for today only…If you’re not ego driven then the trappings of ego aren’t there either which removes fear and limitations.

Be honest in your work: On one level this is integrity, which starts inside with yourself and extends to all your expressions in your life and the many ways you touch people.

‘Honesty’ in this sense also means consistency, commitment and sincerity, and these apply to your spiritual ‘work.’ Transformation is real. It’s available and occurs, but not without the practitioner partaking daily in the teachings and practices.

And if the ground of your being is transformed from ‘honest’ practice, then the work you have outwardly in the world will be honest as well.

Be compassionate to yourself and others: This is the big one isn’t it?! It also brings the others full circle.

Compassion is a win-win, skillful means always. It’s inherent whenever Reiki is practiced. In fact, Reiki practice teaches about compassion in a visceral way; it’s felt and its qualities are understood.

Compassion leads to understanding which leads to unity. In unity we find a greater degree of enlightenment because we feel “at one.” Feeling one with yourself, others, the environment, the cosmos and the Divine is one quality of enlightenment.

Fortunately with compassion you don’t have to be enlightened to feel and benefit from it, and help others through it.

Compassion blesses everyone equally. It can remain as such or for the dedicated practitioner, compassion can lead to unity states of consciousness, which in turn deepen compassion.

How do you contemplate, engage and learn from the Reiki precepts Usui Sensei placed at the core of his teachings?

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.

Donate to this blog. Thank you!