Unfortunately this is a question for the person asking, not the teacher. It is a question that you can ask as many times as you would like to – and usually the answer doesn’t appear in Big Red Ink infront of you – never say never though!

Inside of us everyone knows the right time, however, we put things off, we make excuses, we’ll promise to make time to sort things out or put more effort in, and then the time will be right for us to make a change or better ourselves.

We all need to remember that: we can’t make time, we can only choose to use the time we have wisely.

So my answer is this: if you are thinking of doing something new, making a change for the better and you’re asking or thinking, when is the right time?…

Then it is time to Go For It! The simple fact that you are thinking about it, shows that your subconscious is hinting at you!

The aspect of making a change may seem scary, but hey, fear is an illusion – fear is the monster that lives in the cupboard and becomes scarier and scarier, until one day, you open the cupboard door and realise there’s nothing there!

The right time is now!

The Team meet deliver Reiki to the mentally and physically handicapped men, women and children of the hospital for a couple of hours a week.  Such encounters are not for the faint-hearted and many volunteers come and go, either through choice or destiny, but there are a core group of about 7 who are able to attend most weeks.

The Red Cross Reiki Team, Singapore 2012

Right to Leftt: Frances, Ying, Wendy, Sham, Anna, Bronagh and Debbie (Elaine sadly absent)

The hospital is multi-cultural and observes a ‘non-religious’ approach in order to maintain polite neutrality (known affectionately by many expats as the Singapore PC!).  As such, there are clear boundaries we must not cross, some are obvious but others, at times, has resulted in a faux pas or 2 on our part (!) as we unwittingly upset the Singapore PC applecart.

Of course, all Reiki Practitioners understand that Reiki is not about religion but, as yet, the general public don’t, on the whole, and we must recognise and honour this (Humour and humility!)

Luckily Bronagh is wonderful and is able to undo any wrongs with the ease and Grace of a true Diplomat

Enough of the background and on to the main blog

By the time I arrived in Singapore, in October 2011 I thought that, over the last few years, I’d learned all there was to learn about humility and being humbled

Oh how wrong I was!

For those who haven’t yet experienced true humility, or don’t need to as you are already simply ego-less, this is when the ego is well and truly reeled in and silenced! Mine can be a feisty little so and so, but I’ve learned to laugh at it now 

My first time at the hospital was memorable indeed.

Now, you would have thought with nearly 30 years of Nursing experience, and more latterly Midwifery, that I would have seen pretty much everything  humanity and the human condition has to offer……….. I certainly thought I had!

But, oh how wrong I was!

The sheer number of beautiful Souls trapped inside mis-formed bodies and ill-communicating minds, simply blew me away. Had I not been working with Anne that day, I think I would have snuck away and shed a million tears in the ladies toilet then made a hasty exit!

The disabilities do, of course, vary from person to person but many of them have severe physical disability and most have communication problems of one sort or another.  On reflection perhaps one might recognise it as actually us, and not them, who have the communication issues as many of those less ‘dis-abled’ seem very able to communicate with each other with great ease and, I suspect, at times that the joke may even be upon us (Humour)

Humanity: so good at jumping to conclusions, so good at judging still!

Maybe it is us who are trapped within our own perceptions and mis-perceptions of who and what we are and just what ‘life, the Universe and everything’ is really all about! (Humility)

I had no idea how to start working with these beautiful Souls, but as Reiki does the doing, really that’s all you need to do, simply channel, with no pre-conceived outcome, and allow the non-religious ‘Source’ (whoever or whatever that is) to do the rest

For, without getting religious or too philosophical, we do not know what Soul contract they may have has that brought them to this life the way they are.

I began to learn that many of these lovely Souls can indicate whether they want healing and where they want it, which is clearly a bonus! Not many of them can walk but there are a few who can drive their own wheelchairs better than most Singapore taxi drivers can drive their cars (!) and some even come and ‘join in’ when you are giving Reiki to another person. They are naturally intuitive in the same way that children and animals are when it comes to energies because they don’t have the left brain butting in and demanding ‘proof’ or explanation like the rest of us do!

At other times it’s useful to scan first in order to pick up areas that are ‘shouting’ for Reiki so working with the Byosen is a more useful way of working, particularly with limited time for treatments.

(If anyone would like a recent article on working with the Byosen, please contact me by email which is below the blog)

It’s a delight to see Reiki being well received as some respond by becoming calmer and begin to drift off into that blissful space that most of us know well, the ‘Reiki zone’. It affords you the time to ‘just be’ with them, on a different plane. For those who are more sensitive, this is a space where you can meet aspects of them that exist outside of the 3D we know and are familiar with. A space where their true Soul exists without dis-ease, without dis-ability.

YES, another very humbling and beautiful experience, one that teaches you that, actually, all really is well and we are all merely playing out the game of choice (Ascension) in our way and at our own pace.

What strikes me even more, whilst in this space, is the ever increasing feeling of Unity Consciousness. That ‘oneness’ and how it opens your heart and allows you to give, to be generous of Self, to share. For this is our true nature, not one of fear and recoil, withdrawal from Self and others as we try to hang on for dear life to what we have and what we are. When all we really need to do is to ‘let go and let God’

These beautiful Souls continue to teach me that, no matter what the circumstances of our lives, Love and Joy can shine through in a simple smile and Light up the world! (Humour)

Despite their disabilities (should we even call them that?) Perhaps I will say ‘differences’ and possibly true to say ‘limitations’,  it’s such a joy to get a smile out of them. When they smile, it’s genuine, no hiding behind a painted smile for them, oh no, unlike the rest of us sometimes! (Humility and a generous lashing of humour)

We are, of course, unsure of the overall long-term effects, but those who have been visiting the hospital for a while say that they have noticed marked differences in some of the people there.

What we do know is that their joy is infectious and yes, another humbling moment as you consider their lot compared to yours and the sheer number of times we whinge about the most minor inconveniences in our lives!

I realise now that they are teaching me, so the least I can do is offer what I can in return:

Reiki and a smile

Namaste

Singapore, February 2012

I honour deeply the work that the team are doing and the wonderful individuals who make up that team. It is my great pleasure to share with you some of their own words and experiences to end this blog

The Red Cross Home for the Disabled relies on volunteers to support the work they do. Passing on small gifts with Reiki is truly a special experience. My time with the residents giving and sharing from the heart is something very meaningful. I am very fortunate to be able to volunteer at the Red Cross Home, it has definitely enriched my life.

Bronagh

Whether it’s providing a full-body treatment or simply holding a hand and singing some songs, each visit to the Red Cross Home for the Disabled is different.

 What I love about Reiki is that it transcends any physical or mental disabilities that the residents may have, and any preconceptions or beliefs I may hold. To be able to connect with the residents – energy to energy, spirit to spirit – is both a rewarding and humbling experience.

 Anna

 The most touching experience I’ve had was seeing the resident I was assigned to give Reiki to playing a sort of peek-a-boo game to cheer up and calm down another resident who was highly distraught . I’m in awe of the huge compassion these residents show to others and am truly humbled when I reflect on myself. I look forward to my weekly visits to the Red Cross because every visit is an opportunity to learn from these beautiful residents lessons on gratitude, humility and compassion. 

Sham

Volunteering for Red Cross Disabled Home has been the most humbling experience in my life, and while I give the residents reiki, they have given me so much more! They have so little, yet so little makes them happy. They teach me how to truly experience happiness, and appreciate and be thankful what I have in my life.

I feel the residents are especially sensitive to reiki, almost like children in their innocence. As such, they definitely reap the lovely benefits very quickly

Elaine

Website: www.reiki-glow.com

Mobile: 9488 2454

As a South African living in Singapore, I was truly honoured to have been led to give Reiki to the mentally and physically disabled at the Red Cross Home and also honoured to work with my wonderful Reiki colleagues, who hail from many different countries around the world, uniting in administering universal life force energy to the men, women and children of the home. However, the most rewarding part of this work is when a resident’s condition improves and they recognise your voice, straining to see you from their beds or you receive a hearty wave in recognition. These people are very special beings.

Frances Lingris

Usui Reiki Master /Teacher and a Karuna Reiki Practitioner

 Reiki Evolution in Singapore

Debbie McDougall is one of the Reiki Evolution team of teachers offering training in the East Coast region of the exotic city of Singapore

I began my Reiki journey in 2004, eventually leaving the NHS in 2008 after nearly 30 years as a Nurse, and more latterly, a Midwife.

I also trained in other forms of Holistic healing and started my own business in Salisbury, UK, teaching Reiki Evolution Reiki and running regular workshops & groups designed to empower others to heal themselves and take control of their lives and their destiny.

I left the UK in September 2011 following my husband to Singapore where I continue to teach as a Reiki Evolution Teacher (currently the only one in Singapore!)

I also run Munay Ki workshops to pass on the beautiful and profound Ascension Rites of the Incan Shamanic lineages and I write my monthly ‘Earth Change Updates’ and Newsletters available on my website.

Contact

Email: DebbieMcDougall@heaven-wisehealth.co.uk

Mobile: (+65) 81686460

Visit Debbie’s website & sign up for her Newsletters here:

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Well firstly, Usui taught symbols to a very small number of people, just in the last few years of his life. The vast majority of his students were taught in a very different way. Most of his students were given meditations to use so that they could, over a long period of time, become more and more familiar with the three energies taught at second-degree level, for example. Once they were thoroughly familiar with the energies, once they had *become* the energies again and again, then they were given a shortcut – a trigger – to connect them to those energies. The triggers that they used were ancient Shinto mantras called kotodama or jumon, not symbols.

In the West we do it backwards by comparison: we are given a trigger (a symbol) to connect us to an energy that we are not familiar with, and with which we may never become familiar, depending on how we have been taught to use the symbols. Usui had his students become the three energies again and again and again, and when they were ingrained, when they were innate, only then would you be given a way of connecting to the energies that were already within you and thoroughly familiar to you.

The energies were also viewed somewhat differently. The first energy was not seen as some sort of ‘Power’ energy, in the way that the first symbol is seen as the ‘Power’ symbol in the West. The first energy was simply earth energy, energy of the physical body, a physical healing energy. The second energy was seen as heavenly energy and the third energy was said to produce ‘oneness’. Usui’s students learned to get to grips with these energies through meditation, so how can we learn to experience earth energy and celestial energy? Well we can do this by using the symbols.

Try this solitary exercise: sit comfortably in a chair with your eyes closed and your hands resting in your lap palms uppermost. In your mind’s eye, visualise the first symbol up in the air above you, and say its name silently to yourself three times. Now imagine that cascades of energy are flooding down onto you from that symbol, cascading into your head, your torso, your hands; endless cascades of energy or light keep on flooding into your body, flowing over you and flooding through you. Do this for several minutes. How does that feel? What impressions do you get of the energy? Where was your attention focused? What were your thoughts?

Now repeat this exercise using the second symbol, again visualising it up in the air above you, saying its name three times, and drawing down endless cascades of energy into your body. How does this feel by comparison? What impressions do you get of the second energy? Where is your attention focused? What is going on in your head?

If you have a Reiki friend to hand, you can do this exercise together: one person sits comfortably in a chair and the other stands behind. The person standing up is going to send energy from the first or second symbol in quite an intense way. What they do is this: ‘charge’ your hands with the energy of the first symbol, say, by drawing the symbol over your palm, saying the name three times, and press your hands together to ‘transfer the effect across’ to he other hand. Now in your mind’s eye draw out the first symbol up in the air above you and say the name three times. Move your hands so that they are hovering alongside the recipient’s temples, and imagine that you are drawing down cascades of energy from the symbol above you, which flood into your crown, through your arms and out of your hands into the recipient. Keep on visualising. How does the energy feel as it comes through your hands? What impressions do you get in your body? How does it feel for the recipient? What adjectives can they use to describe the essence of the energy that they have received?

Now repeat this exercise using the second symbol. How does this differ from the first energy?

Having carried out this exercise countless times and with many, many students, I can generalise about the sort of impression that most people tend to get from the two symbols, the two energies. Maybe you will notice some, though not all, of these experiences.

The first energy seems thick, dark, heavy, dense, solid, maybe oppressive or claustrophobic sometimes, hot, fierce, coarse, penetrating, with pressure and slow pulsation, your focus is on your physical body. The second energy seems soft, light, gentle, ethereal, like soft fluffy clouds or marshmallows, cool, blue, expansive, exhilarating, and uplifting.

What you have experienced is the essence of earth energy and the essence of heavenly energy, and these are two energies that you have available to you when treating others. These energies are the essence of Usui’s system at second-degree level. The first energy focuses on the physical body, and the second focuses on thoughts and emotions and our spiritual nature. They are so different, so distinctive. Try using them on their own, just one energy, just one focus, without mixing symbols together. Keep things simple and uncluttered by focusing like a laser beam on one thing at a time, and see what happens. And with time, and with familiarity with the two energies, try producing those energies directly, using intent, and see what happens.

Account Analyst
Accountant
Actress
Airline Pilot
Applied Scientist
Archaeologist
Aromatherapist
Artist
Bank Clerk
Bathroom designer/installer
Bowen Technique Therapist
Builder
Business Manager
Butcher
Call Centre Training Coach
Career Adviser
Chemistry Teacher
Childminder
Chiropodist
Circus Performer
Civil Engineer
Civil Servant
Clairvoyant
Composer
Conductor
Counsellor
Credit Administrator
Croupier (Casino)
Database Administrator
Delivery Driver
Dentist
Disability Advisor
Doctor
Dog Trainer/Behaviour Consultant
Drama Teacher
Driving Instructor
Engineer
Farmer
Financial Controller
Florist
Hairdresser
Headmaster
Health Visitor
Healthcare Assistant
Herbarium technician
Holistic Therapist
Homoeopath
Housewife
Hypnotherapist
I.T. Manager
Inventory Controller
Insurance Consultant
Interior Designer
Iridoligist
Jewellery Quality Controller
Job Analyst
Journalist
Kinesiologist
Lawyer (USA)
Legal Secretary
Librarian
Life Coach
London Cab Driver
Lorry Driver
Magician
Manager/Teacher at Secondary School
Managing Director
Masseuse
Make-up Artist
Management Consultant
Market Research Executive
Martial Arts Instructor
Medical Rep
Meditation Instructor
Midwife
Molecular Geneticist
Musician
Network Engineer
Nurse
Nursing Manager
Nutritionist
NVQ Assessor
Occupational Therapist
Personal Assistant
Phlebotomist
Physiotherapist
Police Officer
Porter
Potter
Priest
Primary School Teacher
Principal Business Analyst
Production Manager
Program Manager
Professor
Psychologist
Publican
Receptionist
Reflexologist
Retired Teacher
Retired Lecturer
Revenue Controller
Salesman
Secondary School Teacher
Shop Owner
Social Worker
Software Tester
Speech and Language Therapist
Spiritual Healer
Student
Systems Analyst
Telephone Market Researcher
Translator
Travel Consultant
Tree Surgeon
University Lecturer
Veterinary Surgeon
Ward Manager
Web Site Producer
Writer

So what has this to do with Reiki? Well the word kaizen actually appears towards the end of the Reiki precepts. The line in Japanese is “Shin shin kaizen, Usui Reiki Ryoho”, which could be loosely translated as “Mind body change it for better Usui Reiki method”. So when Usui was talking about using his system to improve the body and mind, I get the impression that we are looking at a lifelong commitment to work with the system, to focus the energy on ourselves again and again, long-term, in order to produce small incremental improvements within ourselves, to dedicate ourselves to developing our effectiveness as a channel. But small changes build on previous small changes, an enhancement upon an enhancement leads to amazing development over time. And Usui’s original system gives us the solid, concrete techniques that we can use to develop ourselves: as channels, in terms of spirituality and in terms of intuition, to produce our own individual Reiki Evolution!

So how do we pursue our own kaizen of Reiki? How do we apply the concept of continuous and never-ending improvement to our practice of Reiki? Here are a few suggestions…

Root your practice of Reiki in daily energy work.

If you are serious about wanting to obtain the many benefits that are available to you through the Reiki system then you are going to have to work on yourself most days, ideally every day, and by doing so you will build up the beneficial effects of Reiki within you. It is not sufficient to use Reiki on yourself once a week, or to assume that if you treat other people occasionally then this is enough to give you the Reiki you need.

Your first priority should be yourself, and this means daily energy work. This does not need to be an onerous task, nor does it need to take a long time to carry out. Sometimes we decline to use Reiki on ourselves because we do not have the perfect opportunity, perhaps because we do not have, say, 30 minutes to work on ourselves. Yet even 10 minutes of energy work, when carried out consistently each day, would be far better and produce much better results than doing nothing for days, and then a great big blitz for a big chunk of time on a weekend to try and ‘catch up’. Spending even a small chunk of time working on ourselves each day builds up a momentum and stirs changes which build and build. Sporadic practice leads to some beneficial changes, but you are not maximising your Reiki potential.

So, how can we work on ourselves? Well, a good place to start would be to practise Hatsurei ho, a series of energy exercises taught in the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (the ‘Gakkai), an association set up after Usui’s death by the Imperial Officers who had trained with him for a while. ‘Hatsurei ho’ means something like ‘start up Reiki technique’ and consists of a series of energy meditations/ visualisations that focus on your Tanden (Dantien in Chinese) and which are designed to be carried out every day. The effects of Hatsurei ho are to:

Clear and cleanse your energy system
Help to move your energy system more into a state of balance
Help to ground you
Help to build up your personal energy reserves
Allows you to grow spiritually
Develop your ability as a channel for Reiki
Help to develop your sensitivity to the flow of energy
Help to develop your intuitive side

The exercises take perhaps 12-15 minutes to carry out each day, and can be fitted into the busiest of schedules if the will is there. We can all make this time for our Reiki practice.

But we should also focus the energy more specifically on ourselves, on our own self-healing, by carrying out a self-treatment each day. Whether you carry out the Western ‘hands-on’ method of treating yourself, or use the self-treatment meditation that Usui Sensei taught, you should focus the energy on yourself on a regular basis to help bring things into balance for you on all levels, and to help you to release things that no longer serve you: mental states, emotions, physical things. The energy will deal with many aspects of your body/mind, many deeply-embedded imbalances, if we give the energy the opportunity to do its work on us, digging deep and chipping away at the ‘baggage’ that we carry, over time.

We prefer to use Usui Sensei’s self-treatment meditation because it seems more intense and versatile, but all self-treatment approaches are valid. Usui’s Sensei’s system was all about spiritual development and self-healing, so Hatsurei Ho and self-treatment can lie at the very heart of your Reiki practice. You need to put yourself first, and the principle of kaizen means that by working on yourself consistently, great transformations are possible. You owe it to yourself to allow yourself to obtain the benefits that are available to you through Reiki.

Receive spiritual empowerments throughout your training and beyond.

Training with Usui was rather like martial arts training, where you were in ongoing contact with your teacher over an extended period of time. Part of your training involved receiving simple spiritual empowerments from Usui Sensei, repeatedly, at all levels. Each empowerment reinforced your connection to the source, cleared your channel for the energy, allowed you to develop spiritually and enhanced your intuitive potential. To echo this practice, Taggart sends out a distant Reiju empowerment every week, on a Monday, which can be ‘tuned in to’ by any Reiki person. You can find out about this, and what to do, by visiting this page of the Reiki Evolution web site:

Reiju Broadcast

On each occasion that you receive Reiju you are given what you need, and as your needs change from one occasion to another, this simple spiritual ‘blessing’ helps you to develop. A one-off attunement or empowerment does of course give you something permanent, and when you learn Reiki for the first time the attunements or empowerments that you receive provide you with the ability to use Reiki permanently, but it does not stop there: by receiving empowerments on a regular basis you are building momentum and allowing the energy to penetrate more deeply within you.

If we are committed to ongoing improvements within ourselves then we should make the time to receive an empowerment weekly. And again it is the regular commitment which is the key, the key to deepening your experience of the energy and its beneficial effects on you.

Work on developing your intuitive potential.

Mikao Usui’s original system did not focus very much on the treatment of others, and any instruction on treatments would not have involved slavishly following a set of ‘standard’ hand positions that you had to apply to everyone you treated. Usui’s method was simpler and more elegant. You allowed the energy to guide your hands to the right place to treat, different from one person to another, and different within the same person from one treatment to another. The way we have been taught to do this is through a ‘technique’ called ‘Reiji Ho’ (indication of the spirit technique’), a way of emptying your mind and merging with the energy, getting your head out of the way to allow intuition to bubble to the surface. The exciting thing about Reiji Ho is that it works for everyone, and with time – we come back to kaizen’s small incremental improvements – your hands will move more quickly, more consistently, more effortlessly, and you will start to attract more intuitive information. So every time we treat someone we should spend time cultivating our ‘Reiji’ state of mind, and gradually, gradually, we develop.

Learn to become the energies.

…that you are introduced to at Second Degree and Master levels. Usui’s system didn’t involve symbols as far as most of his students were concerned. Students were expected to carry out meditations over an extended period of time in order to learn to experience different energies and, at Second Degree, students were introduced to the energies of “earth ki” and “heavenly ki”, which represent two fundamental aspects of our being. By practising ‘becoming’ earth ki and heavenly ki again and again – a powerful self-healing practice – these energies became so familiar to the students that they could ‘connect’ to the energy direct without having to use a prop like a symbol. Usui provided some Shinto mantras for some of his students to use to invoke the energies, but it was possible to move beyond these mantras with time, too. In my article ‘A Simple Way with Symbols’ I describe a meditation that you can use to ‘become’ these energies.

But again we see that to obtain the greatest benefit, to enhance self-healing, to free up our practice and move beyond symbols, takes time and commitment. A quick meditation carried out a few times is not enough: Usui Sensei’s students spent 6-9 months meditating on just one energy, and this was done because the principle of kaizen – plugging away and developing by small amounts again and again – led to deep changes over time.

Live your life according to Usui’s guiding principles.

Usui’s simple principles to live by offer perhaps the best example of the principle of kaizen in our Reiki practice: Usui Sensei’s precepts are a work in progress. They are not something that you read through and think “OK, got that”: the precepts are simple to read and understand but they are something that you drip-feed into your daily life over time, more and more over time.

We may begin by thinking about the precepts when we first come across them on a First Degree course: we reflect on how they might impinge on our lives, our thoughts and emotions, our behaviour; we might imagine situations from that past that might have proceeded better had we exemplified the precepts, and we might imagine situations in the future and see ourselves behaving in a way that demonstrates that we are living the precepts.

But this initial surge of interest in the precepts is not sufficient to produce the beneficial changes that the precepts can produce in our lives.

To fully embrace Usui Sensei’s spiritual principles takes regular reflection and ongoing thought. On an ongoing basis we consider our thoughts and our behaviour, we reflect on the principles and what they mean to us. If we do this then over time we will find that living the precepts becomes easier, that our behaviour is modifying itself, that there are more permanent changes in the way that we react and behave and relate to other people. But this will only happen if we ‘chip away’ at our current behaviour patterns, using the precepts as our guiding light. There are no quick fixes: the precepts are not just for First Degree. The precepts are the essence of our Reiki practice.

Now, we do not need to be perfect, we do not need to beat ourselves up for not applying each and every principle on all occasions, but by dedicating ourselves, and by forgiving ourselves, and by trying to do a little better each day than we did the day before, we transform ourselves.

That is the key to our kaizen of Reiki: dedication and commitment, patience and forgiveness, and openness to the source. Long term.

CKR with a spiral going the wrong way

There was only ever one CKR and it had an anticlockwise spiral. If you’ve been taught one CKR and it has a clockwise spiral then you’ve been taught something that is quite different from what Usui intended. Different shapes can be used to represent different aspects of the energy, and they will all frame the energy in a particular way, and if you want to frame the energy in the way that Usui intended then you do need to use the symbol that he taught.

Use two mirror-image CKRs, not one

There was only ever one CKR and it had an anticlockwise spiral, so if you want to use an additional symbol that is a mirror image of the original then that’s your choice, but please realise that this is not what Usui was teaching and most Reiki people don’t do this. Certainly don’t feel that you ‘have’ to use these two symbols for Reiki to work properly because that simply isn’t the case.

Use CKR to put energy in and reverse CKR to take energy out

CKR is an image that you can use to represent or elicit earth ki, one of the two basic energies or aspects of our existence: earth ki and heavenly ki. The person who you are working on will draw that energy to where they need it to go, and in the right amounts for them on that occasion. If you’re stepping in to decide for yourself that they need more energy or less energy, you aren’t really allowing the energy to do what it needs to do, unless you are doing this intuitively, in which case you’re working in partnership with the energy.

Usui Sensei didn’t teach two CKRs, one of them to take out energy; there was a reason for that: Reiki will do what people need to have done, and if energy needs to be released then plain Reiki will help a person with that without you having to use a specific symbol to achieve it. If you are currently using a reverse-CKR to ‘take out energy’, you might try dispensing with that for a while and see what happens.

So if you want to use the variations on CKR then that’s your choice, but please know that while this is a way that you can work with Reiki, it is not the only way, other Reiki people work in a different way from you, and these variations were not part of the system that Usui taught.

At the start of the treatment, Brenda connects to Pancho with one hand on the wither and the other on the chest connecting through the heart.

If you would like to read more about Equine or Animal Reiki, why not take a look at Sarah’s books ‘The Complete Guide to Animal Reiki’ and ‘The Handbook of Equine Reiki’. Both are available through this link http://reiki-evolution.co.uk/reiki-manuals.htm and through Amazon  http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-uk&field-author=Sarah%20Berrisford

The basic principle of Feng Shui, the first thing you have to do before you do anything else, is to get rid of your clutter, because a cluttered environment leads to a cluttered life. Only once you have rid yourself of your unnecessary bits and pieces should you move in to apply the other more specific principles of placement. So could we de-clutter our practice of Reiki, what would that be like, and how could we achieve that? Is our Reiki cluttered now? How could we pare it down to the essentials and leave the unnecessary stuff behind?

We do seem to have a tendency in the West to make things endlessly complicated, almost on the basis that if it’s more complicated then it’s better. We like to introduce rules and regulations and restrictions and dogma, maybe because rules make us feel supported and safe, or maybe because we just can’t leave a simple thing alone! Yet the system that Usui Sensei taught to his surviving students wasn’t complicated. It wasn’t cluttered. It was simple and elegant and profound, and I think that we’ve drifted away from that in many ways. We’ve introduced rules and restrictions and dogma into many aspects of Reiki practice: connecting to the energy, treating someone, hand positions, distant healing methods, situations where you ‘should not treat’. This is all clutter and we can do without it. Freeing ourselves from this burden of technique and method and limitation would be a great and beneficial clear-out. We don’t need it. It holds us back. Let’s look at a few examples of unnecessary clutter.

A while ago I was contacted by a poor girl who had been taught that she needed to go through a fifteen-stage ritual in order to ‘connect’ to Reiki. She and the other students on the course were quite worried, obviously concerned that if they didn’t get all the stages right then the energy wouldn’t come through properly and their treatments would be ineffective. Naturally they wanted to do the very best they could for the people they were working on, and they were focusing hard on getting all the necessary stages right.

Yet ‘connection’ with Reiki is simply a state of mind; you connect when you intend to connect. Some people will hold their hands in a particular position (hands above them with palms uppermost to the sky, hands to the sides with palms face up, hands in the prayer position, hands in their lap with palms up, hands folded over the Dantien). Maybe they will say a set form of words, but all these are optional. Bring the energy through your crown to your Dantien and bathe in the light, flood the energy through your body, be still; you are connected when you intend to be. It is a matter of focus, a matter of where your attention lies.

Some people are taught that they must always keep one of their hands in contact with the recipient when they treat, based on the idea that if you take both hands off then you have lost your connection to the recipient and the energy will not flow properly. But your connection to the recipient is a state of mind too: you focus your attention on them, you merge with them and become one with them, and that is sufficient no matter what you are doing with your hands. In fact your treatment starts as soon as you are standing by the table with your attention directed towards the person. Your treatment has already started when you are scanning, or feeling the energy field. Reiki works just as well when you have your hands off the body, though Reiki is basically practised as a hands-on method.

Some Reiki people are taught rigid ‘standard’ hand positions that have to be used every time you treat, and there is the view that if you are not using ‘the’ hand positions then you haven’t been taught properly. Some even have a rigid time limit that has to be followed, so you can only keep your hands in each position for so many minutes… you can buy Reiki CDs which make a little ‘ping’ sound every three minutes (or whatever), and everyone changes hand positions like a robot. Yet what if your hands are going like crazy, what if there energy needs to flood into a particular area for a long time and you need to keep your hands there for 5 minutes or 10 minutes or 15 minutes? The answer would seem to be that you follow the system rigidly and ignore your hands. How sad.

Now standard hand positions are useful when you first learn Reiki: it’s reassuring to have some sort of system to follow. But we can move beyond those standard hand positions in a couple of ways. When we ‘scan’ the body we night discover areas that are drawing lots of Reiki, but they aren’t covered by the ‘standard’ hand positions… we can alter our hand positions accordingly, or add extra positions, to make sure we’re directing the energy into the areas that are drawing the most Reiki. We can use intuition, too, to control our hand positioning, and this has great benefits for the recipient because we are directing the energy into just the right combination of positions for each person we are working on. We might feel inexplicably ‘drawn’ to a particular area, we might just ‘know’ that we ought to be treating a particular area, or we might be practicing “Reiji Ho” from Japan, where our hands are drawn by ‘invisible magnets’ to the right areas to treat. Again we are leaving the rigid standard positions to one side and going with the flow. That was Usui’s way: there were no real standard positions. You simply put your hands where they wanted to go.

Distant healing is another area where lots of rules and regulations have crept in over time. Some people are taught quite complicated rituals that they have to carry out when they perform distant healing, with a set form of words that ‘have’ to be used in a particular way, and with various required visualisations. Yet the bare bones of distant healing are to know where the energy is to go – to set a firm intent – to use the distant healing symbol maybe, and to merge with the recipient, allowing the energy to flow. Anything beyond that is optional. People have different styles: some like to actively visualise and develop a detailed ritual, and that’s fine, but it’s not actually necessary. Others like to keep it simple, and that works just as well. Even the use of the distant healing symbol is optional, though it does help us to focus on merging with the recipient, a way of experiencing ‘oneness’ with the person you’re sending the energy to. Distant healing is perfectly possible at First Degree level, too: it’s simple a matter of intent, of focusing your attention in a particular way. The energy follows your thoughts, it follows your focus.

The final area where we could give our Reiki a big ‘clear out’ is in the rules and restrictions that can control who we should and should not treat. Some people are given a long list of ‘contraindications’: situations where you should not give Reiki because it might be dangerous. Some contraindications that I have come across include: pregnant women, babies, people with pacemakers, diabetics*, people undergoing an anaesthetic, people wearing contact lenses, people with cancer, people suffering from stress, people with broken bones, people taking homoeopathic remedies, people undergoing chemotherapy, people with a torn muscle. There will be many more examples taught in different lineages. These restrictions are nonsense, they have no basis: there is no proper evidence – even anecdotes – to back up the restrictions that are taught in some lineages. Reiki is safe, the person’s body draws it to the right areas to treat, and Reiki is seen as divinely inspired, intelligent, it is seen as pure unconditional love. That view hardly sits too well with the suggestion that you can hurt someone using Reiki. We think too much, we worry too much, and we create problems where there are none.

So a practice of Reiki that follows the first principle of Feng Shui will be a simple practice, free from rules, restrictions and self-imposed limitations. Feng Shui’d Reiki will be free from dogma, and free from rituals that you ‘must’ follow for Reiki to work effectively. It will be a practice that is based on simple intent and intuition, where you merge with the recipient, where you become one with them, and where you let the energy guide you. Let’s get rid of all that clutter and free up our practice, and just let the energy flow.

[ * There appears to be some anecdotal evidence that some diabetics may experience a short term alteration in blood sugar levels following a Reiki treatment. They should be made aware of this possibility and monitor their sugar levels accordingly. In theory a course of Reiki treatments could alter a diabetic's blood sugar levels long-term, and thus their insulin requirements, and again they should be aware of this and monitor their blood sugar levels accordingly. However, this does not mean that you should not treat diabetics using Reiki, as is suggested in some quarters. It just means that diabetics should keep an eye on their blood sugar levels following a Reiki treatment or a course of Reiki treatments, which is what they should be doing routinely, anyway.]

Draw the symbols over your palm every day or you’ll “lose” them

Some poor Reiki people are frantically drawing the three symbols over their palms every morning because if they don’t they’ll “lose” the symbols and won’t be able to use them any more. I have to say that this is nonsense, and is something that most Reiki people will not be doing. The symbols are graphical representations of different aspects of the energy, they are triggers that you can use to access and energy, to direct an energy, and you don’t even need to be ‘attuned’ to a symbol for it to work for you (but that’s another story). Please don’t draw the symbols over your palms every day for fear of losing them.

When you’ve done Second Degree you always have to use the symbols when you treat

Why? Why would you always have to use the symbols? You are attuned to Reiki, you have been working happily with the energy since your First Degree course, channelling it for your benefit and for the benefit of others, and suddenly someone does some mystical hand-waving over you and you can’t use Reiki unless you keep drawing out symbols? That makes no sense at all, particularly when you realise that there are a lot of Reiki practitioners and Masters who have moved away from, or beyond, the use of the symbols and just allow the energy to do what it needs to. The symbols are useful tools, a way of focusing your attention on and experiencing different aspects of the energy, but they’re not compulsory!

Try only using a symbol during a treatment when the symbol seems to ‘want’ to be used, when you feel it’s right to use in a particular hand position, when it ‘calls’ to you. Go with the flow and let the energy guide you, so you’re gearing the treatment more towards the needs of the person you’re working on. See what happens.

Always draw every symbol over each hand position when you treat someone

Oh dear, this would be so ham-fisted, to have to frantically draw out three symbols in every hand position you use when treating someone. If you were taught to do this, I would like to suggest that you experiment, try out different ways of working that don’t involve this very busy, cluttered approach, and come to your own conclusions about what’s necessary. It’s not a very Japanese approach, is it? If you think about traditional Japanese arts they do pare things to the bone, leaving only the bare, elegant essentials. Clutter-free Reiki is a much calmer, and potent.

Mel Diamond

Hi,

I am very pleased to be able to share with you a talk given by Mel Diamond at the Reiki Evolution 2011 National Gathering.

Mel hosted a very popular workshop on sound healing at the Gathering, and Regent’s College must have resonated to its very foundations with what we ended up doing!

Podcast

Click here to download this podcast

The 2012 National Gathering will be held on October 6th in central London, where there will be more interesting talks to listen to. You can book your place now by visiting this page: 2012 National Gathering. To qualify to attend, you need to have Taggart King in your Reiki lineage.