Buddhism is a one of the world’s wisdom traditions. To illustrate just exactly how a wisdom tradition works and why it’s so precious and significant, let’s look at one buddha and the inner workings of related teachings. The Japanese names are going to be used since this is a Reiki blog, but Sanskrit versions will also be given.

DAINICHI NYORAI  大 日 如 来
Literally, “Great Sun” (Mahavairocana or Vairochana in Sanskrit)

This is an image of Dainichi Nyorai (Vairocana) in the Kongo-kai (Diamond World) who makes a Chike-in sign (entering the world of Buddha's wisdom) in front of its chest. Dainichi Nyorai is the central deity of the Kongo-kai Mandala that represents the structure of the spiritual world in esoteric Buddhism.

Variously known as the Great Buddha of Universal Illumination, Cosmic Buddha, All-Encompassing Buddha, Life Force of the Universe, Spreader of Light in All Directions, or Great Shining One, Dainichi is a ‘celestial’ buddha. Buddhism teaches that there are three bodies (kayas) or manifestations of enlightenment. Of these dharmakaya is that aspect of the Buddha which is unchanging and eternal, referring to the essence of awakened being, absolute buddha nature. It’s the basis of all existence, including human. It’s also the spiritual body or “truth body” of all buddhas. This is Dainichi Nyorai, and where the ‘cosmic’ or ‘celestial’ reference comes in.

Dainichi is said to be omnipresent and all things, like the air we breathe, with all other buddhas and deities being emanations of Dainichi.

The first virtue of Dainichi Nyorai is the universal radiance that dispels darkness, with the ability to destroy suffering and despair. The second virtue is that this radiance has neither beginning nor end, and that the light of wisdom is like the sun, which always shines regardless of whether it’s day or night. The third virtue is an ability to enlighten living beings, and that great compassion is the parent of life which continues to nourish all living beings at all times.

Dainichi Buddha corresponds to the historical Buddha’s first turning of the Wheel of the Law in Deer Park in Sarnath, India. This is where the historical Buddha gave his first sermon after attaining enlightenment. The Turning of the Wheel is a metaphor for the teaching of the path to enlightenment.

One of the ways that wisdom comes into play is in understanding the mind of enlightenment and its various facets. The “five buddha families,” is an ancient Buddhist system of doing just that. The buddha families are traditionally displayed as a mandala. Each buddha in the mandala embodies one of the five different aspects of enlightenment. These manifest themselves as enlightened qualities as well as neurotic states of mind. The buddha families clearly present a complete picture of both the world of enlightened mind and the world of ego.

Traditionally, at the center of the mandala is Vairochana [Dainichi Nyorai], lord of the buddha family, who is white and represents the wisdom of all-encompassing space and its opposite, the fundamental ignorance that is the source of cyclic existence (samsara). The dullness of ignorance is transmuted to a vast space that accommodates anything and everything.

In the east of the mandala is Akshobya [Ashuku Nyorai], lord of the vajra family, who is blue and represents mirror-like wisdom and its opposite, aggression. The overwhelming directness of aggression is transmuted into the quality of a mirror, clearly reflecting all phenomena. Vajra is associated with the element water, with winter, and with sharpness and textures.

In the south of the mandala is Ratnasambhava [Hōshō Nyorai], buddha of the ratna family, who is yellow and represents the wisdom of equanimity and its opposite, pride. The fulsomeness of pride is transmuted into the quality of including all phenomena as elements in the rich display. Ratna is associated with the element earth, with autumn, with fertility and depth.

In the west of the mandala is Amitabha [Amida Nyorai], buddha of the padma family, who is red and represents discriminating-awareness wisdom and its opposite, passion or grasping. The intense desire of passion is transmuted into an attention to the fine qualities of each and every detail. Padma is associated with the element fire, with spring, with façade and color.

In the north of the mandala is Amogasiddhi [Fukūjōju Nyorai], buddha of the karma family, who is green and represents all-accomplishing wisdom and its opposite, jealousy or paranoia. The arrow-like pointedness of jealousy is transmuted into efficient action. Karma is associated with the element wind, with summer, with growing and completing.

— Irini Rockwell (brackets are mine)

Correspondingly, Dainichi’s characteristic hand gesture in Japan (although not always) is the Mudra of Six Elements (seen in the picture above as Chiken-in — also called the Knowledge Fist mudra.) In this mudra (hand gesture), the index finger of the left hand is clasped by the five fingers of the right. It symbolizes the unity of the five elements (Goshiki) — earth, water, fire, air/wind, and space/void — with spiritual consciousness.

Wisdom Fist mudra or simply Wisdom mudra speaks to the truth that only by adding the sixth element — mind, perception, or spiritual consciousness — do the five elements become animate. This equates to the Diamond World (noted in the picture above, it’s a metaphysical realm inhabited by the five wisdom buddhas, also detailed above). Put another way, there’s “unity” only when the sixth element is added. Without the sixth element, ordinary eyes see only differentiated or separate forms or appearances.

In summary, Dainichi Nyorai is known as the Supreme Buddha of the Cosmos in Esoteric Buddhist thought, being the source from whom all other deities and everything in the universe emanates, as light does from the sun. The hands form the mudra of perfect knowledge, which holds the power to restrain passions that hinder enlightenment. With the left index finger surrounded and protected by the fingers of the right, this gesture expresses the all-encompassing union of the spiritual and material realms of existence, and how the spiritual gives life to and sustains the material.

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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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Through the ages, meditation has always brought great benefits to the human condition. Remember that meditation has been around since well before the time of the Buddha, stretching way back into antiquity. Today, it probably holds the greatest benefits for us than it ever has.

Meditation practice predates Buddhism and all of the world religions. It has lasted through the centuries because it is direct, potent, and effective. — Sakyong Mipham

In meditation, what we’re doing is looking at our experience and at the world intelligently. — Sakyong Mipham

What is intelligence? On one level it’s what an IQ test reveals. Intelligence doesn’t end there. It moves into knowing, wisdom, intuition, and clear-heartedness. Without these forms of intelligence we’re nothing but math geeks or some kind of super efficient robots. Intelligence includes our humanity, which includes our spirituality.

For a short while the immortal ray of light that is our soul wears a perishable mortal garment…but for all eternity the soul is sustained by the Infinite Source of that light. The more we meditate, the more we feel that consciousness. And the less we meditate, the less able we are to transcend identification with the little self—so many pounds of flesh encasing a limited mind bound by sense perceptions to the troublesome environs of the world. We have to get to the Self beyond its physical and mental instrumentalities to realize we are not fragile mortal beings… — Daya Mata

The human mind, normally equated with the brain by neuroscience, is limited. As Sakyong Mipham puts it, “Meditation is based on the premise that the natural state of the mind is calm and clear.” This is the knowledge that our various wisdom traditions have imparted. There’s the daily mind, and a higher mind with greater discernment, accessing wisdom and knowing.

This level of mind is termed buddhi in Sanskrit, from the root bud which means ‘to perceive’ or ‘to become awake.’ This form of intelligence discerns the true and the real from the false and the unreal. As Matthieu Ricard says, “It is through this unconditioned aspect of consciousness that we can transform the content of mind through training.” That training is meditation. Otherwise we remain in manas, or ‘outer,’ ‘sense’ mind, which is on the surface and handles impressions.

Here are a couple of more perspectives to help understand this:

Our minds are field-like, they are not confined to our brain. — Rupert Sheldrake

The conscious mind fails to grasp that which lies beyond the spheres of time, space, and causation. — Swami Rama

Pure consciousness without content is something all those who meditate regularly and seriously have experienced… — Matthieu Ricard

That “content” is the stuff of personality, the not-so-fun stuff! We want to move from content to substance. The substance of eternals like compassion, peace, and wisdom.

We’re also dealing with a paradox. There’s the real nature of the mind, and the mind we’re stuck with every day. There’s our humanness, then there’s our divinity. Leonard Jacobson puts it well: “We are on a journey of becoming that which we already are. That is the impossible paradox of our lives.” It’s not really impossible. It feels impossible until we get informed and empowered, and put into place a set of practices, the primary of these being meditation.

Meditation transcends time, the senses, and the subject-object relationships. By transcending these three, meditation takes us beyond the intellectual or rational level of consciousness. It is like looking through a screen; on one side of consciousness is all existence—thoughts, emotions, negativity, and our life patterns; on the other side is a very fine energy level—a deep meditative state. — Tarthang Tulku

Meditation is a first-person experience. It’s not looking at the world in the third-person. It’s not trying to understand our inner workings in the third-person. The first-person realm of meditation is holistic. It doesn’t cut reality up into pieces. It doesn’t need to understand how the brain works, to improve the workings of one’s mind. In meditation what’s known as the discursive mind can be disengaged. This is the mind that rambles. It’s unable to settle, to find its own depth. It remains on the surface, distracted and can’t get to the essence of things.

Whether it’s understood in terms of mind or being, our minds and our beings have a place that is calm and abiding. Calm abiding lives within us. It’s always there. There’s no app for it. There’s nothing to install. There is, however, an uncovering.

We have to uncover this lost place through meditation, and the application of meditative insight and orientation in daily living. Calm abiding is lost underneath all our pettiness, delusions and neuroses. The rational mind and the five senses informing it in their regular mode, give us only a partial and incorrect view of reality. This view keeps us trapped and attached. We’re operating within a limited informational field in daily living. In meditation, we have access to an informational field that penetrates the heart of reality.

It’s only from this wider and deeper field that we can make choices and decisions about how to best live, and to actually live well. It’s from this same field that we can positively influence the current state of affairs on our planet, and ensure a multi-generational sustainability of living and social systems.

When we talk about the techniques of meditation, these are techniques of life. — Sakyong Mipham

Meditation is a vast subject. Here’s some related material to help you with it. You may also add your input or ask questions in comments below. Often, answers tailored to your questions about meditation are the best way to get help with meditation.

Related:

Meditation reveals…

Put on the brakes with meditation

The Life of Meditation

Why Do Humans Meditate?

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The earliest known reference to meditation in the region is found on one of the seals in the ruins of civilizations which existed prior to 1500 BCE. Chinese forms of meditation have been known to exist long before the seventh century BC. Siberian and African shamanic cultures hold even earlier precursors to the Asian meditative arts. In the West, meditation took on the form of contemplative prayer, with an unbroken tradition of mysticism from the NeoPlatonists through the medieval mystics. In our day and age, meditation is being studied scientifically for its effects on the brain.

In Sanskrit the generic term for meditation is dhyana, which refers to both inner contemplation, and the intermediate state between concentration on an object (dharana) and complete absorption in it (samadhi).

The general consensus is that humans have been meditating for 5000 years or so, and probably even longer than that. Why? Why do humans meditate?

It is to answer the fundamental question of “Who am I,” and related to it, “What is the purpose of life?” Meditation is essentially the quest for understanding and meaning. It’s a way for humans to find their place both in a cultural and cosmical context. And it has the added dimension of self-understanding which leads to an improved life.

Meditation is the process of self-discovery. On one level the meditation experience shows us the patterns of our lives—how we have carried on our emotional characteristics since childhood. But on another level it frees us from these patterns, making it easier for us to see our inner potentials. — Tarthang Tulku

All traditions from which the meditative arts are sourced include in their core a profound psychology. This is a psychology which is part and parcel of the wisdom that these traditions hold, and which the practitioner can also access.

When we look backward at the patterns of our thoughts, we can sometimes observe and identify the deceptions created by our self-images. We can learn to see through the mind’s posturings and pretenses and through all our explanations and excuses. We can realize we are still just playing games and are far from genuine self-knowledge. — Tarthang Tulku

When we improve our own life within first, then outwardly this has a ripple effect in our own household and from there in expanding circles in the rest of society.

Meditation is actually prescribed by more and more doctors. And there’s interest in meditation as a way to curb heart attacks. At the same time, the real value of meditation seems to be in this:

The animal has no power to analyze its condition and its environment; only man has that rational capacity. As such, man is meant to use that power to improve himself and to get the most out of life. Superior intelligence was not given to the human being merely to be used to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner; marry and beget children. It was given that man might understand the meaning of life and find soul freedom…. Beyond all the books that are written, it is God’s Book of Nature that remains the most difficult to understand. But the whole creation, including the chapter of human existence, can be read when God becomes a teacher. — Paramahansa Yogananda

If the word “God” is challenging, replace it with anything else that works for you.

Having first-person knowledge about our own workings, the workings of Nature, and to be free from bondage to pain, suffering and delusion is invaluable, the ultimate prize. Meditation imparts real, useable wisdom. It lets us know we’re not little egos stuffed into physical forms that are designed to perish. With meditation we have a way out of our maddening thoughts and burning emotions. Our sojourn here is not a dicey game.

When we spend conscious time with our breath on a daily basis, with our consciousness, and our heart, we relate to life as a part of life, instead of separate from and afraid of it. This brings about a knowing that compassion is a worthwhile investment, awareness and consideration of ‘other’ whether other is human, species or planet, is beneficial for all and the entire journey can be enjoyable, meaningful and beautiful.

This is the world in which I want my child to have his future. How about you?

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— Shih-Wu (1272-1352)

Shih-Wu or Stone House was a Chinese Chan (Zen) poet and hermit. He also served as abbot of Fuyuan Temple (near Hangzhou) for eight years.

Bill Porter, who’s lived as a Buddhist monk and translated various works, including Stone House’s poetry says this about him:

… he was one of the exceptional Zen students who became a poet. Stone House had a genius for poetry that is unique. I’ve always said that he was the greatest of all the Chinese Buddhist poets. And although he was a hermit, he was a Zen teacher, too, and he taught individuals through his poetry.

This is why I love wisdom, and the world’s wisdom traditions. Ages before we had terms like ‘brain plasticity,’ ‘neruoplasticity,’ ‘cortical remapping,’ or ‘brain malleability’ there was a Zen poet who already knew, had already experienced it, and was teaching it.

While Shih-Wu was an abbot for some time, he preferred his mountain hut, where he lead a frugal existence. The windows of his hut were made of oiled paper which ripped easily. He ate a wonderful variety of food he farmed himself on terraced banks on his mountain. He built his hut by a spring and as Bill Porter who has visited the site relates: “The spring was still flowing right behind the hut, the only spring on the mountain.” He had a few possessions, some tools and kitchenware.

Today, neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life, is seen and measured with sophisticated technology such as PET scans and MRIs. These technologies cost in the tens of thousands.

I don’t want to dwell on that so much. I want to dwell on the teaching.

I’ve always been an advocate of practice-based spirituality. Not sermon-based, not book learning, not intellectual grasp of truths. Not the surface inspiration of a quote, not the spiritual catchphrase. Not talk only. Spirituality has to be a part of us. Not a garment that comes on and off. Not an appendage. But a part of our being.

Spirituality must be embodied to be true and real, and indeed give its gifts. The best and most effective way for spirituality to be embodied is by practice.

This isn’t the practice of ‘practice makes perfect,’ it isn’t the ‘best practices’ of business, nor a drill, or social observance.

As Shih-Wu indicates, it isn’t even a practice to better yourself, improve skills, get over an emotional hump, lose weight or develop a character quality. It’s of an utterly boundless order. There isn’t even a box here.

He’s talking about being a ‘buddha.’ No, not that guy! Well, alright, he’s a good model. He’s talking about you. He’s talking about being awake, which is what ‘buddha’ means.

Buddha means “awake one.” Awake to what? That can be answered in many ways. Let’s stay with the poem. Awake to nonphysicality. If rocks are some of the most solid things we know, and they can be worn down, is there any reality and permanence to matter? Whoa, now Shih-Wu is dancing at the quantum level. Wait, when did he live?! Matter isn’t fixed to a single state.

I love the humor too. He knows we’re thick-headed. He also knows that’s an illusion. Fact is, the mind is bendable. It can be bent to wisdom and compassion. It can be bent to the heart where it becomes heartmind. The mind can be informed by sources other than the brain’s processing. And it’s also not fixed to a single state or pattern.

How? Practice. Shih-Wu also knew that the mind is nonlocal. It’s not not only limited to the brain, it’s not limited to geography, time or  habit. Bill Porter again:

By staying up on his mountain, he was able to affect the course of Zen in Korea. A prominent Korean monk came and studied with him at his hermitage and then took the robe and bowl of Stone House back to his country and established the Chogye Order, Korea’s main Zen tradition.

That’s quite something from a man who wore simple robes made of mulberry paper or lotus leaves in the summer, and a sturdy hemp most other times.

As he says:

Nothing is better than being free
but getting free is not luck.

So. Practice. I’ll see you there.

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© Pamir Kiciman 2011

Little of this has changed today. Modern medicine has emerged and marginalized the healer somewhat, not because it’s more effective but because it has huge financial backing. However, there remain isolated tribes where the tradition of the healer remains consistent with historical models. And there are healers in urban culture who follow in these same footsteps.

What has changed is that the village has become global and the tribe is now nonlocal. Issues at hand are much more complex. What the healer heals and how has shifted.

Today’s urban healer must be a global citizen. The healer’s primary sphere of influence may still be his or her ‘tribe.’ Yet, the evolutionary stage of planet Earth and humanity is demanding that the healer becomes a healing presence in the world, and not only during a healing session.

Today’s healer carries the healing presence moment-to-moment so that there’s patience and deep seeing. This prevents reactions to a headline or personal situation. In the face of personal and global events, the healer responds in the world, rather than reacting to the world.

Being able to see below the surface allows a healer to be even-minded and take the long view. The short view is full of attachment, agenda and outcome. It’s limited, reactive, nonresponsive, and reductionist. When events are considered from the reduction to a headline, a corrective and healing response is out of reach. The healer waits and sees, until all factors emerge to be considered.

The cultivated healing place inside is a compass and firm ground which lets the healer remain calm and nonreactive. The healer responds thoughtfully. Thoughtful response is a quality of the awakened Heart. The awakened Heart is primed by practice. Healers practice not to get somewhere, but because it’s the crucible of change.

Healers practice not only with others, but first with themselves.

Once the Heart awakens, it has ready access to universal wisdom and compassion. Universal wisdom and compassion further helps the healer to be responsive, enduring and consistent. The healing way is living from a healing place inside and being a holder of a healing worldview.

The Heart is a place where events can be considered with patience and nonattachment. Nonattachment is a vehicle for clarity. This Heart isn’t the organ of the heart, or the heart of human emotions. It’s not physical at all. It doesn’t really have a location. This Heart sees whole. It’s awake to the eternal. It has shed any bitterness. It’s alive in the moment and pulses in scared rhythm.

It’s the very Heart of Life and it’s available to everyone, healer and nonhealer alike. In fact, we’re in an evolutionary cycle where healing is being asked of everyone.

Please find much more about this subject here and scroll down.

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This teaching is a central one in Buddhism known as Bodhicitta, an awake heart-mind, or the heart-mind of enlightenment. In Tibetan psychology, the heart is synonymous with the mind. Tibetan worldviews are highly influenced by Buddhism, and consciousness, mental clarity, and the sense of self is known to rest in the heart. To put it simply, heart-mind points to a balance of wisdom and compassion, engaging both and giving both fair say in how we choose to live.

Today there are hopeful signs and utter chaos all at the same time. In the previous post I wrote: “At this very juncture, Earth’s and humanity’s narrative within it is being radically rewritten.” And: “We must participate in the emergent story of the Earth and humanity without the mistakes and limitations of the old one.” This observation is being made widely, and any thinking-feeling person can see the themes without trying too hard.

Robert Atkinson, Professor of Human Development and Religious Studies at the University of Southern Maine, writes:

Our collective story is lagging behind, resisting the flow of evolutionary change. The pre-twentieth-century story we have carried with us into the twenty-first century – built on the assumptions of duality, separation, and boundaries – has lost much of its meaning, power, and, most alarmingly, hope for the future. It faces crisis after crisis without offering any lasting resolution. The once well-understood principle of continual progress toward a collectively desired and beneficial goal is missing.

Soon after last month’s earthquake in Japan, Thich Nhat Hanh sent this message:

Dear friends in Japan,

As we contemplate the great number of people who have died in this tragedy, we may feel very strongly that we ourselves, in some part or manner, also have died.

The pain of one part of humankind is the pain of the whole of humankind. And the human species and the planet Earth are one body. What happens to one part of the body happens to the whole body.

An event such as this reminds us of the impermanent nature of our lives. It helps us remember that what’s most important is to love each other, to be there for each other, and to treasure each moment we have that we are alive. This is the best that we can do for those who have died: we can live in such a way that they continue, beautifully, in us…

This is a perfect example of balanced wisdom and compassion. The Japanese people give all of us hope. They have shown model behavior in the face of an ongoing triple disaster; earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear fallout. They are resilient, sharing resources and services, not being tempted to commit crime, and exercising neighborliness, altruism and hospitality. Make sure you watch this beautiful video (4/12/2011) to participate in healing for Japan.

The last sentence of Thich Nhat Hanh’s statement is deeply inspirational. Referring to those who’ve perished he says, “we can live in such a way that they continue, beautifully, in us…” For there to be any kind of continuation, we and the Earth first has to survive. “Beautifully” stands for so many things, but today let’s focus on the preservation of Nature and the Earth. Dr. Atkinson, again:

We need a new chapter in our evolving story that will restore hope, infuse new meaning into the wondrous process of creation, and unify our consciousness with a vision we intuitively trust. We need a story that keeps renewing itself.

2011 has so far shown that new narratives source in the most unlikely places. Adding to the surprise is the South American nation of Bolivia. According to The Guardian online, “Bolivia is set to pass the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as ‘blessings…’”

Let’s not be naïve enough to believe industry and politics is going to change overnight to bring about the New Earth. This is still a huge step in the right direction, one that leader nations are strongly resisting. Here’s the depth and breath of Bolivia’s The Law of Mother Earth.

In the Andean worldview there’s a central Earth deity known as Pachamama. The environment and Pachamama are considered central to all life, with humans being equal to all beings, not higher, but equal. The Guardian writes:

In the indigenous philosophy, the Pachamama is a living being.

The draft of the new law states: “She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation.”

This law reads like poetry! Bolivia’s Foreign Minister has also said:

Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family. We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values.

You can catch the full story here, including video about the impacts of climate change on Bolivia.

Bolivia gives us hope.

Joseph Campbell who was a master of myth and story isn’t alive today. He would have been a fascinating source for the meaningful interpretation of our times. Yet, with some prescience, the following is his contribution to us today:

We’re in a free fall into future. We don’t know where we’re going. Things are changing so fast. And always when you’re going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. But all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It’s a very interesting shift of perspective… Joyfully participate in the sorrows of the world and everything changes.

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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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Profit patterns with disregard for all other considerations and concerns, and entrenched power loci are having a comeuppance.

The world’s conscience is telling us to implement enlightened systems globally. Polarizing, fear- and greed-based systems are out! — Pamir Kiciman

The noise the world is making is important. It isn’t garbage noise. It’s pointed and urgent. We must listen to it and act, and a lot of action is already self-propelled because we’re at a tipping point. At the same time, when there’s so much upheaval (a sign of mass healing), wisdom and balance need to be kept close and deepened.

We can make this a teachable moment for all of humanity only if we anchor silence within and in the world. In fact, if all along we were being with silence, the kind of riotous and apparently spontaneous ‘eruptions’ may not have been needed. Too late. Now we delve into silence, as often and as deftly as we can, and emerge with some pearls of solution.

Silence lies at the heart of all great spiritual traditions and pilgrimages. It is the vehicle that encourages us to dive beneath words, ideas, chatter and concepts. To discover the unspoken truths and the unfathomable mystery of being. The variety of forms of contemplation, prayer and meditation meet together in their reverence for the act of silence. Through them we learn to still the clamor of our hearts and the competing voices that cascade through our minds and discover a place of profound stillness and receptivity. — Christina Feldman

In the previous post, Unstruck Sound, the power of Aum was explained. Such primordial sounds come out of silence, and take us back into silence. Here’s a simple recording of OM. Listen to it and also follow the journey Yogananda has given below. Chant as long as you want, then go into quietude and bless the world. As you can see, Aum is also a state of Oneness, and it’s Oneness with life, the world and the cosmos that’s going to end unenlightened ways of governing, sourcing energy, consuming and resolving conflict.

AUM Mantra

Tune In with the Cosmic Sound by Paramahansa Yogananda:

Listen to the cosmic sound of Aum, a great hum of countless atoms, in the sensitive right side of your head. This is the voice of God. Feel the sound spreading through the brain. Hear its continuous pounding roar.

Now hear and feel it surging into the spine, bursting open the doors of the heart. Feel it resounding through every tissue, every feeling, every cord of your nerves. Every blood cell, every thought is dancing on the sea of roaring vibration.

Observe the spreading volume of the cosmic sound. It sweeps through the body and mind into the earth and the surrounding atmosphere. You are moving with it, into the airless ether, and into millions of universes of matter.

Meditate on the marching spread of the cosmic sound. It has passed through the physical universes to the subtle shining veins of rays that hold all matter in manifestation.

The cosmic sound is commingling with millions of multicolored rays. The cosmic sound has entered the realm of cosmic rays. Listen to, behold, and feel the embrace of the cosmic sound and the eternal light. The cosmic sound now pierces through the heartfires of cosmic energy and they both melt within the ocean of cosmic consciousness and cosmic joy. The body melts into the universe. The universe melts into the soundless voice. The sound melts into the all-shining light. And the light enters the bosom of infinite joy.

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We’re in an era of global renewal. It’s happening in many locations simultaneously. Renewal creates cleansing which can be painful and messy. The change that’s a afoot can also motivate the old to cling to its position with tenacity. This creates further chaos. The friction of resistance to change is all over the news right now.

The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world—we’ve actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other. —Joanna Macy

Whether it’s social, environmental, humanitarian, political or economic justice, a principle at the heart of Life has been activated and it’s touching all people equally. Our lives interpenetrate. How can we stay open and in balance while witnessing this tide of transformation across the globe?

Suggestions to stay balanced in era of global renewal

• Be in gratitude. David Steindl-Rast says, “We are never more than one grateful thought away from peace of heart.” Peace of heart. Usually the term is “peace of mind.” The mind is often not as stable as the heart. The mind has too many tendrils. It needs the knowing of the heart to stabilize it. The heart is simple and strong. Stay there.
• Know darkness is temporary. Sakyong Mipham says, “One characteristic of this dark age is that we doubt our innate goodness.” Doubt exacerbates the fear we may feel when we watch the news. We doubt that we’ll be safe. We doubt we can take effective action. We doubt we can make a difference. The truth is you are the difference. You’re one good neuron in a neural net. Shine your goodness.
• Healing starts with one person; you. Joanna Macy says, “To heal our society, our psyches must heal as well.” Start with yourself. Take care of your own inner house. Everything you to improve the world begins within you. Attending to your own healing needs also gives you the strength and resourcefulness to change more complex conditions. And when you do, you can come from inner power and peace.
• Deepen your spiritual practices. The I Ching says, “No revolution in outer things is possible without prior revolution in one’s inner way of being. Whatever change you aspire to in your affairs must be preceded by a change in heart, an active deepening and strengthening of your resolve to meet every event with equanimity, detachment, and innocent goodwill. When this spiritual poise is achieved within, magnificent things are possible without.” Enough said.
• You’re not isolated. Joseph Campbell says, “We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us—the labyrinth is thoroughly known.” Earth changes now are unprecedented. At the same time, each change in each era was new to the people living then. Embrace what’s happening in the world. It’s positive, no matter how it looks presently. Know that the conscience of the world is speaking up and you’re honored to be part of it. There’s a purpose for you and a grander purpose too. Step into that.
• Emotions run high; breathe through them. As Miriam Greenspan says, “Emotional mindfulness—the ability to stay fully attentive and befriend unwelcome emotions where they live, in the body—is essential to emotional alchemy, the process by which the lead of our worst feelings can be transmuted to golden spiritual power and wisdom.” The world itself is in an alchemical process, so much so you who are in the world need to be in it too. You’re going to have emotions about global events. Stay open to these emotions and understand them. In understanding your emotions, you understand yourself. You also get to know that while you have emotions, you are not those emotions.

Finally, Ram Dass states: “The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is any place we can stand in ourselves where we can look at all that’s happening around us without freaking out, where we can be quiet enough to hear our predicament, and where we can begin to find ways of acting that are at least not contributing to further destabilization.”

Yes, of course there is!

These previous posts also deal with this subject:

Overwhelm and the Healer

Shifting the world the healing way

The shifting world

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The world’s healing traditions hold the wisdom that change includes cleansing. Cleansing is a process of reconciliation. The path to wholeness passes through all the blocks to wholeness. It can’t be any other way. The unhealed must be processed. This means it’s acknowledged and understood first. This leads to acceptance and insight. Finally, higher functional states open up.

While healing change brings support, relief, resources, possibility, strength and hope with it, it’s not without challenges, upheaval, pain and chaos. Fortunately, the “ugly” side of transformation is on the surface. When it’s seen, we have to bring this knowing to it. Otherwise it’s too confusing, emotions run high and it becomes highly reactive.

And we have to take the long view, realizing that healing and/or transformation is layered, whether it’s personal or societal. It can also be exponential, a true domino effect as seen in Egypt and the region in general. There’s a groundswell and a momentum which is self-powered and directed. It usually can’t be stopped because it has this truth embedded:

What no longer serves cannot remain.

There are many aspects of human civilization in the 21st century that no longer serve. All of them are coming up for review. A main reason these are such intense times is because we didn’t solve challenges when they were still small. Now, we can only respond and ensure the future is different. Sometimes we’re good at that, often not so much.

One thing is certain: Our response is definitely going to suffer and not match up if we’re overwhelmed and off center. Conscious, enlightened solutions can only come from our total being, and not only the rooftop of  intellect. Here’s a practice to address both the overwhelm and to ensure the clearest solutions:

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

You begin to breathe in and out, and you focus your attention on your abdomen. Why your abdomen? When you see a tree in a storm and you focus your attention on the top of the tree, you feel vulnerable. You have the impression that the tree is too fragile to withstand the storm, because the little branches and the leaves on the top of the tree sway violently in the wind. You have the impression that the tree will be blown away. But if you focus your attention on the trunk of the tree, you get a different impression. You can see that the tree is solid and rooted deeply in the soil, so you know the tree will withstand the storm.

You are also a tree, and that strong emotion is the storm that is approaching. If you don’t prepare for it, you may be blown away. To prepare means to begin mindful breathing and to bring your attention down from the level of thinking to the level of the belly, just below the navel. This is called belly breathing. Just focus all your attention on your belly and become aware of the rise and fall of your abdomen, which is the trunk of your tree. Don’t stay on the level of the brain because that is where the storm winds are blowing the hardest. It’s dangerous to stay at the level of your thinking. Go down and embrace the trunk of the tree just below the navel, where you will be safe.

—by Thich Nhat Hanh

To learn more about the importance of the belly, click here.

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From a spiritual wisdom perspective, the case has always been made that change and balance during change source inside an individual. On the other hand, activists of every stripe rely mostly on outer action. A third approach is engaged spirituality which can be defined as tapping spiritual truths while responding to titanic shifts.

The inner and outer worlds aren’t separate. This is the holistic truth. They interpenetrate and influence each other. One can’t get away from the other. We’re living in an age where meditation alone won’t solve our challenges. And outer action alone has never been a complete solution. Blending the two appears to be the skillful means. Humanity has been creating civilizations and building societies for thousands of years. Being active in the world seems to be rather well-known to us, although we’re not always that good at it. What seems to be less well-known and practiced is the inner realm of stillness. So let’s learn about it.

Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for? Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness. If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation. —Lao Tzu

Worldwide challenges demand our unrelenting will and presence. Corrective, preventive and innovative action must be taken collectively. Where such redeeming ideas originate is the larger question. Lao Tzu offers this (italics are mine):

Humanity grows more and more intelligent, yet there is clearly more trouble and less happiness daily. How can this be so? It is because intelligence is not the same thing as wisdom. When a society misuses partial intelligence and ignores holistic wisdom, its people forget the benefits of a plain and natural life. Seduced by their desires, emotions, and egos, they become slaves to bodily demands, to luxuries, to power and unbalanced religion and psychological excuses. Then the reign of calamity and confusion begins. Nonetheless, superior people can awaken during times of turmoil to lead others out of the mire. But how can the one liberate the many? By first liberating his own being. He does this not by elevating himself, but by lowering himself. He lowers himself to that which is simple, modest, true; integrating it into himself, he becomes a master of simplicity, modesty, truth. Completely emancipated from his former false life, he discovers his original pure nature, which is the pure nature of the universe. Freely and spontaneously releasing his divine energy, he constantly transcends complicated situations and draws everything around him back into an integral oneness. Because he is a living divinity, when he acts, the universe acts.

Action is invaluable to change. There is no change without action. At the same time, action by itself is without a living spirit. It falls short and can even reverse progress. The wellspring of ideas behind our actions must also be considered clearly. Action has wise ideas or ignorant ideas behind it. We have to find ways to increase the percentage of the former.

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1. In time
2. Outside of time

As humans, we live in time. As beings, we live outside of time. It’s a challenge to reconcile the two even without the need for any healing. The need for healing is there for everyone, just as surely as the need to breathe or drink water. How can the past be healed, so the present is free?

The transcendental approach to healing, which is outside of time,  would say that time doesn’t exist, that you are pure awareness expressing in the now. This is true. Making this truth a realized part of our expression isn’t so straightforward. The outside of time approach also says that all past suffering dissolves as if it had never been, once the delusion of time and identification with ego is removed. When delusion is removed, we’re in our natural state which is already healed, has no need of healing, or can be said to be healing itself. And what the body and/or personality was traumatized by is unimportant as both body and personality are illusions too.

In truth, you are Spirit. The body has been projected by the mind, which itself originates from Spirit. — Ramana Maharshi

Well and good. The being part of us gets this, can live this. The human part of us is a different creature. There actually isn’t a dichotomy between the two, except in perception. At the same time, most often it serves us well to address our human directly. Our human is beautiful, creative, powerful, a miracle of creation. It also suffers. It has needs and desires. It gets trapped.

It gets trapped by time and memory. It’s influenced by genetics and environment. It’s a product of culture and history. Our human has in its past specific events that are crying for healing. We have to “go there” and acknowledge them. This isn’t necessarily analysis, although that can occur and can be useful. Better though, is being present with the suffering, and awake to any insight that may arise. Ignoring wounds that happen in time is dangerous for most of us. We haven’t developed enough knowing to rely on transcendental truth.

Ignoring such wounds creates a shaky foundation. Our functioning in the world becomes unsteady and unreliable. And perhaps most importantly, we’re miserable without healing.

If you’re consciously on a spiritual path,  then you have a way to integrate wisdom and truth with healing in time. The trick to healing in time is to get in and get out, to not become attached to the past. The span of time between in and out will vary. Often it’s a layered, spiral journey. As long as it’s traveled consciously and with nonattachment, the safety of your spirit is available to you. You engage the past together with your transcendental knowing. You engage it to emerge free from it, not to dwell in it.

All I am is loving awareness. I am loving awareness. It means that wherever I look, anything that touches my awareness will be loved by me. That loving awareness is the most fundamental “I.” Loving awareness witnesses the incarnation from a plane of consciousness different from the plane that we live on as egos, though it completely contains and interpenetrates everyday experience. — Ram Dass

The advantage of having a spiritual basis for healing is that until you’re strong enough to acknowledge the pain, there’s a way for you to create spaciousness and be at peace to a certain extent; to feel some relief before delving deeper. Some form of emotional nourishment is needed before we can have presence of mind and resolve to heal in core ways.

Then you get to the healing itself, with this caveat:

We start to see each experience as a teaching to be brought into awareness and loved until we are free from being captivated by the experience. As we begin to awaken, experiences lead to reflection and contemplation. — Ram Dass

The healing work done at the level of details in time is invaluable. This is the balanced way of the spiritual walk through life. If ignored or only dabbled in the result often is that higher dimensional life never becomes available or it crumbles in on itself because a foundation was never laid. Once core healing takes place, and it may have to over and over again, then spirituality and your practices become solid and unwavering.

Ultimately, healing in time and outside of time support each other for your greatest benefit. There’s some overlap and each helps the other. The more you heal, the more pronounced is your living of wisdom; and the more you evolve spiritually the easier it becomes to heal. Physical, emotional, and mental healing leads to clarity with truth. Spiritual healing leads to erasing our ignorance of unity. Separation is exhausting.

Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source. Returning to the source is serenity. — Lao Tzu

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Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live. —Jackie Windspear

Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings. —J. Robert Moskin

Being thankful is timeless. One can be thankful for the past and for the future. It’s one inner quality that actually negates the truth that the present moment is the only moment available to us. Kind of… Being thankful is such a deep appreciation that it can lift one up and out of the metaphysics of time/space. Yet it must be felt and practiced in the present moment. Thankfulness can’t be allotted to specific experiences and areas of your life. Either you’re all in, or you’re not.

We cannot be grateful unless we are grounded in the present moment, and we cannot be grounded in the present moment unless we are grounded in the body. Much of the time we live like disembodied minds, not even noticing what’s around us, but preoccupied with past and future. But when this mug of tea warms first our hands and then our stomach on a cold day, or the cat purrs contentedly in our lap, we are suddenly present and grateful.

We can learn to cultivate the joy of this awareness, but it may not always be easy. Illness, poverty, old age, or abuse can make it a great challenge for us to accept embodiment. And yet, bringing ourselves back into the body again and again is central to the practice of grateful living. When we do so, we allow healing power to flow through us, and we appreciate our aliveness as the great gift it is. —Gratefulness.org

Sanskrit has this wonderful word and truth: santosha or contentment.

So, what is contentment, and how do we incorporate it as an “observance” in our lives? Contentment is serenity, but not complacency. It is comfort, but not submission; reconciliation, not apathy; acknowledgment, not aloofness. Contentment is a mental decision, a moral choice, a practiced observance, a step into the reality of the cosmos. Contentment/santosha is the natural state of our humanness and our divinity and allows for our creativity and love to emerge. It is knowing our place in the universe at every moment. It is unity with the largest, most abiding, reality. —Swami Shraddhananda

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

We can be grateful in the past, but this can only be felt in the present. We can also be grateful for difficulties in the past. There lies the greatest treasure of gratitude. Not only is there treasure within the difficulties, there’s much to be thankful for that’s occurring simultaneously with those life moments that are troublesome. Similarly, we can be grateful for the future and again this can be only felt in the present.

What is this present? It’s where your body is right now. Your mind may be elsewhere and it may be pulling your body to go there too, but your body has the power to stay where it is, and call your mind home to itself. Your mind may be affecting your body by being somewhere other than here, but your body has the means to settle into itself and be in balance. The body is weighted in the present.

Thankfulness is to be contemplated and understood. It is to be deepened and dwelled upon. It’s a practice, an ongoing positive habit. Once established, it blesses every moment you breathe. Thankfulness isn’t only in hindsight. It’s real power is now, today, the current inhale or exhale that’s happening in your body.

Reframing exercise

Sit. Feel the physical boundaries and weight of the body. Let yourself settle. Let the body settle like an anchor settles on the ocean floor. Follow your body’s breathing, without changing it in any way. As the sense of this deepens, the mind follows suit. Keep calling the mind to settle with the body. Let all of you BE HERE.

Now recall a past difficult experience. Gently turn it over in your awareness until you notice a new angle, one from which you’d never sensed this experience before. Be open to the possibilities of how it actually enhanced and enriched you, despite the trouble it also gave. Note also that you’re on the other side of it today.

Sit in appreciation.

Now direct your awareness to the last month of your life, including the present day in which you’re practicing this. Reframe any difficulty that’s currently in your life.

Journal about your gleanings. You can take all major trouble spots in your life into this process. Once you’re clear and empowered, establish gratitude as the ground that your feet touch when you get out of bed each morning, and the ground on which you lie down each evening.

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© Pamir Kiciman 2010

Healers hold for individuals, and by accumulation for everyone, the shared story of the human journey. With each encounter, what it is to be human emerges more and more, until there’s a fuller view. With each encounter, the common sufferings and dilemmas of existence are revealed. Our joys are shared too. Some of these themes are universal and some contemporary to the current age. In the previous post on listening I wrote, “In true listening there’s an unmistakable recognition.” This is a witness state.

Being a witness in this sense is the quality of being in stillness and silence inwardly. No demands are being made. The demand that the story you’re receiving be short or long, orderly or chaotic, enlightened or mundane. The demand that you have the right answers, have be brilliant, or mold the person to an agenda. Witnessing is clear-seeing. It’s neutral, non-grasping and open-ended.

When you listen as a witness, both parties are held in a greater field of knowing and compassion. As a true listener, the healer already holds what’s shared in the understanding that it’s a holy encounter. As the sense of this deepens with practice, a larger field also appears because it’s already there, and because the healer is awake to it.

Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him. —Simone Weil

Accessing this greater field aids both parties. Some stories are truly horrific. The compassion and knowing which is present is universal, a real strength beyond the abilities of the human heart and mind. If it’s compassion and wisdom listening through you, then bearing witness is much more comfortable and effective.

Deep listening is miraculous for both listener and speaker. When someone receives us with open-hearted, non-judging, intensely interested listening, our spirits expand. —Sue Patton Thoele

Healing begins in a very real way, right at point of listening and being listened to. The acknowledgment that true listening creates opens the door to trust which opens the door to healing. With trust, what’s been kept dark and hidden feels safe enough to come out. This can be secrets held hidden knowingly, or subconscious and unconscious material surfacing.

Listening is preparation for healing. It sets up the right environment for healing to happen. When a person feels heard by the heart, it gives them courage and confidence. It softens all the hardened places inside and allows flowering of the spirit.

By listening from the heart, the healer too is enhanced. Perception and intuition opens up, insight becomes reliable, and the person of the healer can step out of the way. In essence, there isn’t a healer. Only healing.

Let’s end now with an excellent view of true listening:

An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside of one’s own prejudices, frames of reference and desires so as to experience as far as possible the speaker’s world from the inside, step in inside his or her shoes. This unification of speaker and listener is actually and extension and enlargement of ourselves, and new knowledge is always gained from this. Moreover, since true listening involves bracketing, a setting aside of the self, it also temporarily involves a total acceptance of the other. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will fell less and less vulnerable and more and more inclined to open up the inner recesses of his or her mind to the listener. As this happens, speaker and listener begin to appreciate each other more and more, and the duet dance of love is begun again. —M. Scott Peck

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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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We’ve been like this ourselves and know others who are: Uncomfortable in silence, having a constant need to yammer because there’s a void inside. The truth is what feels like a void can be transformed into true emptiness. Emptiness is misunderstood as being “empty” whereas in fact it is full for it is Presence. And Presence is Silent yet creates All.

After I wrote the last piece on silence, two gems came.

No writing on the solitary, meditative dimensions of life can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine trees. These pages seek nothing more than to echo the silence and peace that is “heard” when the rain wanders freely among the hills and forests. But what can the wind say when there is no hearer? There is then a deeper silence: the silence in which the Hearer is No-Hearer. That deeper silence must be heard before one can speak truly of solitude. — Thomas Merton

And:

We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us to see their own images and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even a fiercer life because of our silence. — William Butler Yeats

Last time I suggested that you simply stop. Let your body breathe for you and put your whole awareness on it. Just notice the breath moving. That’s all.

Whatever stillness and silence this very simple practice helps you enter, take the memory of it, the feel of it, the seed of it and let it be the backdrop to the next encounter you have with another person.

And go to nature, frequently. To help you, here’s a photo I took ten minutes from where I live in an urban area. Silence can always be found.

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

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In your silence God’s silence ceases.

Here’s the entire context.

Sensations pouring in through the sensory nerves keep in mind filled with myriad noisy thoughts, so that the whole attention is toward the senses. But God’s voice is silence. Only when thoughts cease to one hear the voice of God communicating through the silence of intuition. In your silence God’s silence ceases. He speaks to you through your intuition. For the devotee whose consciousness is inwardly united with God, an audible response from Him is unnecessary – intuitive thoughts and true visions constitute God’s voice. These are not the result of the stimuli of the senses, but the combination of the devotee’s silence and God’s voice of silence. — Paramahansa Yogananda

Then I found the perspective of Gordon Hempton. Using a different language and viewpoint, he makes an inspirational case for silence. He is an ‘acoustic ecologist,’ and one line from him that had the same arresting effect on me is:

Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.

Here’s the rest of what he says about silence.

When you’re in a place of natural silence, you’re not alone, and you can feel it. Whether it’s birdcalls from miles away or the proximity of a giant tree whose warm tones you can feel, there’s a presence. It’s a quieting experience….

Sound is a wave that passes through air, water, and even solid objects. Natural sounds generate a sinusoidal wave, with rounded peaks, which is easy on the ears. Many mechanized sounds are square or sawtooth shaped or have jagged edges. If you see them on an oscilloscope, you’ll know why they’re unpleasant to listen to….

And related to living on our planet at this time, with it’s myriad of troubles:

Natural quiet allows us to fall in love with a place and appreciate how unique it is. Noise detaches us — not only from our surroundings but also from each other. Research shows that in noisy areas people are much less likely to help each other. That’s one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from being in natural silence: that we can begin to feel love for a place and, through it, for everything. This is crucial for the health of our planet because, when you love something, caring for it becomes effortless. Just as we care for the people we love without asking, “What will I get out of it?” so does love enable us to care for our world without running a cost-benefit analysis to see whether it’s “worth it.”

Even though you’re reading this via some form of technology, which is part of the digital noise we also live with on the planet at this time, take a few moments and simply stop. Let your body breathe for you and put your whole awareness on it. Just notice the breath moving. That’s all.

To help you, here’s a photo I took at the city park my son has his basketball practice. Such spaces and moments are always available if we but notice and claim them.

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

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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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• Since you can see the body, you’re not the body. You’re the seer.
• Since you can feel emotions, you’re not emotion. You’re the feeler.
• Since you can observe thoughts, you’re not thought. You’re the observer.
• Since you can wield energy, you’re not energy. You’re the wielder.
• Since consciousness allows you to witness, you’re That.
• Being That; consciousness, witness, bliss… you’re free.

Let’s take each one and expand on it.

The body is something we relate to very easily because it’s with us everyday. Its pains and pleasures are never farther than our next action or behavior. Our identity is closely tied up with the body. Yet, who is it that feels pain or pleasure? Who is it that looks and sees your hand or leg? If we are the body, then how is the body self-observant?

Most of us are very close to our emotions as well. We live on an emotional plane and relate to life and others emotionally. This can be challenging. At the same time, emotions make life richer. We have the capacity to feel. If you know what you’re feeling, who is it that knows? Who is it that identifies anger or joy? Is it the body? It can’t be because there’s a knower who knows the body already.

The mental realm is highly regarded. As a society and culture we’re heavily invested in the intellect. And like the body and emotions, we live with our thoughts night and day. All the while though there’s an awareness outside of the thought process that knows the thoughts we’re thinking.

We also have the ability to sense the energy of a meeting, event or relationship. We get a feel for someone in a direct way. Similarly we can create or generate a certain energy that infuses whatever we may be doing. But we’re more than a flavor of energy. And there’s the sensing. Who senses energy? It can’t be the thought process because there’s an awareness that already knows that.

There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence within our mind. It is the supreme mystery beyond thought. Let one’s mind and subtle spirit rest upon that and nothing else.

– Maitri Upanishad (VI: 20)

If we can be conscious of the body, emotions, thoughts and energy, then we must be something other than each of these, or even a conglomeration of them. In the same way, we’re free of their limitations. If we’re not the body, we’re not bound by it. If we’re not emotion, it doesn’t have a hold on us. If thoughts aren’t what we are, they can’t dictate to us. If we wield energy, then energy we’re exposed to is powerless over us.

It’s not even a question of being free. We are free. In truth we’re formless. We come from silence, dwell in silence, and play in form.

Don’t let the play trap you.

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