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

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

For today only: Do not anger—Do not worry

Be humble

Be honest in your work

Be compassionate to yourself and others

Let me first quote from the previous post:

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

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

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

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

Copyright Usui-Do Eidan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An overlooked aspect of health is a sense of wellness despite symptoms. Even with an ongoing condition, it’s possible to be functional and happy in daily living. Every person has a set of principles, a foundation to live by, which brings meaning and purpose to life. Sometimes this foundation becomes a little shaky. Reiki is a way of living that brings back a sense of peace with oneself and harmony with one’s surroundings. It provides wisdom in here-and-now difficulties and is a resource of empowerment in one’s responses to challenges. Life is full of questions and many of the answers are available without having to go outside an individual’s own scope. Reiki is a teaching that accesses innate wisdom and intelligence, as well as compassion, which propel a vision of one’s potential. We will explore how this bedrock is part of the human experience and how it’s always accessible, as well as how to keep the access open during challenging times.

The above is the synopsis of the presentation I gave at the Platelet Disorder Support Association’s (PDSA) annual conference this year.

PDSA was founded by Joan Young to tell others about ITP.

“ITP, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, also known as immune thrombocytopenic purpura, is classified as an autoimmune disease. In an autoimmune disease the body mounts an attack toward one or more otherwise normal organ systems. In ITP, platelets are the target. They are marked as foreign by the immune system and eliminated in the spleen, or sometimes the liver. Because this process removes platelets from circulation, people with ITP have a low platelet count or thrombocytopenia.” (PDSA website.)

“Idiopathic” means having no known cause.

Joan was one of the beautiful people I met at the conference, and she is a Reiki practitioner. Reiki was one of her choices in returning to wellness literally from the brink and staying there.

A healthy platelet count ranges between 150,000–400,000. During the course of the weekend I met wonderful people who have a platelet count of 30,000–50,000.

“About 30,000 platelets per microliter of blood is considered a ‘safe count,’ one that is high enough to protect against bleeding in the brain in most cases.” (PDSA website.)

However, I also heard story after story where counts crash and people literally have to be “rescued.”

I met one lady in her sixties who, as far she knows, has been living with ITP since the age of thirteen and her count is 6000–8000 in all those years. She has refused any of the available conventional, medical treatments.

Another person who has also refused treatment and has used homeopathy in six years of living with ITP, ranges between 19,000–22,000 platelets.

Many do accept the available medical treatments and experience varying degrees of success.

One of the points I made in my presentation was to not become a diagnosis, a platelet count, so I don’t want to keep listing numbers except to illustrate that the cause of ITP is unknown, as is its cure.

This is a daily reality for a girl, age 13, who was still so very happy to have recently acquired a three-wheeled bicycle. Falling, bumping into things, or hard sports are a no-no.

“Most people with ITP experience spontaneous bruising. Some find they have petechiae (pe-TEEK-ee-ay), tiny red dots on the skin caused by broken blood vessels or leaks in a capillary wall. If your platelet count is very low you may have other bleeding symptoms including blood blisters on the inside of your cheeks or blood in your urine or stool. In general, the more bleeding symptoms you have, the lower your platelet count.” (PDSA website.)

All the visible bruising I saw was subdermal and quite large and obvious. Saturday night there was a party and a steel band. One lady I’ve known for some time told me it was about the only place she could wear a sundress and nobody would think her bruises were odd, or draw other wrong conclusions.

Despite knowing her story quite well previously, this revelation really touched me and brought home what it’s like to be living with ITP.

One person who opened up to me after my presentation, had lost a child to ITP and started another support organization that works together with PDSA.

A rare disease is considered to be one that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans.

“The incidence of ITP in children is estimated at 4.3 to 5.3 per 100,000 children per year. Since children with ITP usually recover, the prevalence of childhood ITP is about equal to the incidence. The incidence of adult ITP is from 1.6 4 to 6.6 5 per 100,000 and the prevalence is approximately 9.5 cases per 100,000.” (PDSA website.)

In May of this year, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a program to produce new treatments for rare and neglected diseases. This is a drug development program only, but still perhaps a step in the right direction.

More will be posted here about my participation at the conference. I’m waiting for video of my presentation. Keep watching this space…

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

In fact telling your story is the genesis of healing and growth. These personal stories collect to form a bigger landscape of the shared human experience. As C.S. Lewis has said:

Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

We start there, unraveling the pain. This is the backstory. What’s ultimately healing and transformative is when we weave a new story, whether it’s personal or global. The transcendent story is the one that serves us best.

The transcendent story unites us and reveals the deepest mysteries of life.

It’s with this in mind that I’m starting the Reiki Stories Project^SM (RSP). In 15 years of teaching Reiki, time after time it’s practitioners and receivers of Reiki who show and tell the most illuminating aspects of Reiki. Sharing Reiki stories is an amazing learning and validating experience. It deepens this path.

The Reiki Stories Project^SM (RSP) is open to everyone. Please add your stories in comments on this post, or go to contact (top right) and email me. You can share anonymously, or with your initials and location, or full name and location. Share as many as you like over time. Stories will be curated by me and may be lightly edited.

Your Reiki story will be held in sacredness.

We begin with two stories from my own student practitioners. This first one is from someone who has been practicing Reiki for quite some time. I was recently interviewed and it prompted this sharing. Again, when we share and talk new associations are formed and we’re all elevated.

Pamir, your answers in that interview are beautiful and timeless. I even feel they are coming from your higher self. The most important part for me is that of shifts. I experienced a shift. I always loved everything around me and would even secretly talk to plants and animals. But I experienced a shift that came from great suffering to see my path more clearly (my desire to help people). So, my love and compassion was always there, but the decision to do something about it came later.

“It’s the emergence of all that you are, instead of only facets of a personality.” (From the interview.) This shift also brought an awakening to discover who I am and my ‘purpose.’ Of course, these realizations are still in progress since like you said, “I’m still awakening.”

My mom has been sick lately and I have been worried for her since she won’t go to the doctor or even admit she doesn’t feel good. Last night I took all my quartz and let myself be guided by them. I had never done anything with them but just have them in my room beside the picture of Paramahansa Yogananda.

I first filled a pot with water and put salt and Reiki’d it, then placed a quartz inside, then cleansed it with Jakikiri Joka-ho (a method for purifying inanimate objects). This I did with each of the stones. Then I placed them in a circle and put a card with my mom’s name and location and sent distant Reiki (crystals aren’t classically involved with Reiki). Finally, I placed the card under the biggest quartz which I feel was the one guiding me through it.

My mom called me this morning and said “I didn’t want to scare you but I have been very sick lately and today I simply woke up feeling healthy and strong.” All the pain she had disappeared and the vomiting stopped. Also, in a very odd way, $2,500 was sent to her today (and we really needed the money).

Like always, I want to thank you for being the tree for so many us who need you,

Namaste

This next one is a very recent excerpt from the 21-day report after Reiki Training I have in place to serve as a vehicle of accountability (both ways), and to further mentor my practitioners. What’s noteworthy about it is that even after a lifetime of habits and mental patterns, a mere 21 days of Reiki practice can have such solid benefits:

21 days looks like too little time, when you already have lived more than 16,000 previous days during your entire life. You can ask yourself how much more can 0.13 % of your existence do for you? Maybe nothing, but perhaps there was already a light switch waiting on the wall, and then the 21 days came as a space to do nothing else but turn it on.

To tell you the truth Reiki was not something that I was looking forward to practice before a couple of month ago. For the last couple of years I was too busy keeping myself entertained in a way not to see the falling bricks from the walls of my home. But finally the walls gave way to gravity, leaving me in the middle of what used to be my securities…now in ruins. That’s when I started feeling the need to clean up and rebuild and I started looking at one of the only things that was still standing there: Myself. Then, Reiki came to me.

When I first started the twenty minute meditations, my whole being jumped into it with great joy, it was something longtime missed and well needed, mostly for my never silent mind. I haven’t stop doing it, sometimes once, sometimes twice a day, and not precisely because I am doing it so well, but because of the opposite…With the hope of maybe one day being able to find the bottom that shuts down all the thoughts from my head, allowing the light to fill up the empty spaces.

I practice both Hikari no Kokyu-ho at night and Gassho Kokyu-ho in the morning (two Reiki-specific meditations taught in Level I). The first one opens me to the universe, the second one centers me into myself. In spite of the constant escape attempts from my mind, both have been slowly making things change around me. I can see the difference, I feel a lot lighter, I don’t worry that much, I don’t find myself immersed in the foggy cloud of day dreaming as much as I did before.

I started to visit some situations in my past, seeing them with other eyes and better understanding. Now I am more able to forgive myself and I am not letting others fill me up with guilt. I am finding great joy in things that I am rediscovering such as dancing.

The Buddha’s first noble truth is: There is suffering. My modern version of it is: You’re born, you get wounded.

A healer’s first responsibility is to heal self. “Healer” is a noun but to truly fulfill that role, it has to become a verb. (Okay, maybe it is a grammar lesson.)

Since wounding is inevitable, a healer also starts there. The verb comes in when s/he chooses not to stop there, but plunges into the opportunity to transform self from wounded to healed.

For instance, Reiki is by its nature first an internal discipline for the practitioner and moves out from that cultivated center.

Healing is a relationship. If the healing relationship is stripped to its essential substance, what emerges is trust.

Trusting the possibility of healing.

Trusting the inner Healer.

Trusting the outer healing facilitator.

Once the inner self feels trust, cooperation is freely given and healing begins and progresses. This is true for self-healing, or going to a healer (which is ultimately also self-healing).

A healer has a unique orientation.

Healers are receptacles of stories. Healers hold for individuals, and by accumulation for everyone, the shared story of the human journey. It’s a great privilege to receive first-hand the details of a person’s life, their triumphs and defeats.

In the silent, compassionate and deeply connected space of the healing relationship, the mystery of being human is revealed bit by bit, and the healer also gains insight about her/his own process. This is richly satisfying and fulfills the edicts of rightful living. Everyone is helped and the global human experience is also transformed as all things are connected.

Healers become an ally only in proportion to the embracing qualities of attentiveness, true listening and understanding. People go to healers because they don’t feel heard or understood by spouses, family, friends, doctors, therapists, coaches or clergy.

True listening happens from a still inner environment of non-agenda and non-judgment, where ego isn’t involved. This model can be employed by anyone in daily living too. For instance, imagine what relationships would be like if both parties embraced this orientation.

Being truly seen is vital. People show you their best if you truly see and hear them. Whether you’re a healer or not, honor the person in front of you.

Seeing and hearing others starts with seeing and hearing yourself. If you don’t know yourself, how can you know anyone else?

Seeing and hearing go hand in hand. When you look at someone, do you see a personality or the self under it? Do you see the pain, or the healing possibility? The healing potential always exists, it’s a constant, but it’s up to each person to choose it.

Here’s a keyword: Acknowledge. It means ‘to know,’ ‘to recognize.’ Recognize the people around you. This has an enormous place in the corporate world for example and is often missed.

Recognize the power of healing inherent within you.

“Acknowledge” also means mutual honor and thanks. Does that exist in your marriage, your company’s mission statement, is it your personal orientation?

A healer is a story-holder. Being a story-holder is sacred. It’s an entrusted role.

Not everyone is called to be a healer. The world needs people is a great variety of roles. However, everyone can cultivate a healing worldview.

Ruminate, then journal, draw, and dance this prompt:

What are the ways in which I can activate the healing that’s buried but available in the layers of my suffering?

Related:

Healing aphorisms: A template for awakening

An interview about Self-Transformation

The Healer

The Healer II

On July 30, 2008 I started a new service in the microblogging world by sending out this one-liner about Reiki:

Reiki is living with wisdom & compassion.

Since then Reiki One-Liner^SM has gone out to Twitter and Plurk everyday between Monday and Friday, with breaks of a few days since its inception.

Read the first 50.

Read the next 50.

Read third 50.

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

1. At the core of anxiety, Reiki is abiding calm.
2. At the core of fear, Reiki is solid knowing of self.
3. At the core of illness, Reiki is a bottomless resource.
4. At the core of pain, Reiki is the presence of love.
5. At the core of sadness, Reiki is unending joy and comfort.
6. Reiki activates the dormant divinity in your cells.
7. Reiki beckons the soul.
8. Reiki busts hardened habits and beliefs, opening many new possibilities.
9. Reiki declutters mind space, personal/work space and heart space.
10. Reiki deepens meaning.
11. Reiki deepens your consciousness.
12. Reiki deepens your heart.
13. Reiki deepens your humanity.
14. Reiki deepens your relationships.
15. Reiki expands the accuracy of your intuition and your trust in it.
16. Reiki expands the heart past personal dramas.
17. Reiki expands the mind to perceive more than the five senses tell it.
18. Reiki expands your horizon.
19. Reiki expands your orientation from personality to soul.
20. Reiki gives Heart when life seems heartless.
21. Reiki helps you know who you are before personality and possessions.
22. Reiki increases the soul’s magnetic power.
23. Reiki is a celestial waterfall.
24. Reiki is a cool spring in the heat of trials.
25. Reiki is a nonphysical umbilical cord between you and the great Mother universe.
26. Reiki is a series of stepping-stones across the pond of life.
27. Reiki is Heart solace.
28. Reiki is spring rain on your weary soul mind body.
29. Reiki is springtime renewal all year round.
30. Reiki is tête–à–tête with your soul.
31. Reiki is the light of the Heart on the pathway of life.
32. Reiki is the Universe saying “pssst!”
33. Reiki is the Universe’s 411.
34. Reiki is the Universe’s 911.
35. Reiki is the way of the Heart through the pathway of life.
36. Reiki opens a Heart-based relation with all.
37. Reiki opens you to your soul.
38. Reiki replaces neurosis with bliss.
39. Reiki restores your original codes.
40. Reiki restores your original power.
41. Reiki returns you to the divine self-worth of your origin.
42. Reiki reveals what your name is before you take birth.
43. Reiki takes you from particle to wave and back to particle at a different location.
44. Reiki warms the soul.
45. There’s a truth before and after your lifespan. Reiki will reveal it to you.
46. With Reiki the Earth finds succor.
47. With Reiki there are no losers.
48. With Reiki there is refuge.
49. With Reiki you can be like a multi-armed deity.
50. With Reiki you can converse with Life.

Please read my personal musical journey before the reviews of these magical CDs, for it puts it all into context.

I’ve always been a music head. I was living in London with my parents when Help! by The Beatles was released. I was five and it was probably the first album I had. The single, “Get off of My Cloud” by the Rolling Stones topped the charts the same year.

The predominant music in my house was Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Astrud Gilberto, some Italian crooners, Jazz and Latin music, with some pop of the era like Petula Clark.

There was also the classics, mostly Russians like Rachmaninov, completely over the top and engaging. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos were a favorite.

Later I did the whole Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, The Police, Talking Heads and many others in no-particular-order-thing.

Then it was Blues and Jazz for the longest time. Forever. Very serious and utterly devoted. I dreamt of studying the Blues curriculum offered in some Southern university, and having front row seats to Miles.

Monk and Mingus were gods, Coltrane an elder. The list is looong. Very long.

I’ve omitted a lot of names from the other genres too. You get the point.

I’m not a musician. I played guitar and the sax for a while, could read rudimentary music. Then I forgot it all. Later, Paramahansa Yogananda channeled himself down my arms and taught me how to play his songs to the Divine on the harmonium.

I was instantly able to read basic music again and found my singing voice. This was unique because as an actor for twenty years, I’d never sung. In fact, I’d been told I was tone deaf. What a lark!

I became enraptured with devotional chanting and lead three hour sessions every Friday, as well as at many other gatherings. The chanting and untrained voice talent have continued. I’ve forgotten how to play the harmonium or read music, unless I pick it up again.

Finally I became a fan of healing, world and devotional music. More than a fan, this kind of music has become a practice, because it teaches.

The reviews below have emerged from the astounding people I’m meeting on Twitter. I’m not a musician but have an affinity to it, and as a Soul Whisperer^SM can recognize substance. This is music that grabbed me instantly and transported me to imaginal realms of deep connection and beauty.

Beloved by Ashana

When Ashana friended me on Twitter and I listened to “Opening to Love” on her MySpace page, I couldn’t stop listening and had an instant recognition. Within the first few chords my chest changed and love was present immediately. It’s from Ashana’s latest album, Beloved.

These songs are musical experiences of the Divine, harmonies to the Divine, and an undeniable example of artist as vessel.

Ashana breathes and gives life to alchemy and classic frosted crystal singing bowls. She also sings and composes. On Beloved, Thomas Barquee is co-writer on all but one track; producer, arranger, and on keyboards, bass and vocals. The other instrumentation includes cello, guitars, tablas and percussion.

Let’s be clear though, this is ethereal music and the arrangements make use of these instruments in unique ways.

Barquee’s arrangements and production values are richly sensitive and provide a container for this music that wouldn’t be readily available in other hands.

Before going into any other details, and fully acknowledging her special touch with crystal bowls, let me mention that Ashana’s voice is…purity personified. It has a singular clarity and a layered presence.

The Tracks

One of my favorite aspects of Beloved is that it honors world traditions. For instance the first track You are My Breath includes the Sufi invocation, La’illaha il’Allah, meaning “There is nothing other than You, O God. You alone are God!” This is really the title track of the album as it’s a serenade to the Beloved.

I’ve been a fan of The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer for some time now, in various translations that are so radically powerful, compared to the version in the regular translations of the Bible. Here, Ashana actually sings a version by Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz in Aramaic. Listen once and you’ll understand why I’m so moved by this music. Clocking at 10:10 minutes, it can easily be put on prepetual repeat.

O Birther! Father- Mother of the Cosmos
Focus your light within us - make it useful.
Create your reign of unity now-
through our fiery hearts and willing hands
Help us love beyond our ideals
and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.
Animate the earth within us: we then
feel the Wisdom underneath supporting all.
Untangle the knots within
so that we can mend our hearts’ simple ties to each other.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
Out of you, the astonishing fire,
Returning light and sound to the cosmos.
Amen.

Dona Nobis Pacem means “Give us peace” from the Roman Catholic mass. This track highlights Ashana’s voice. It’s also impressive in how the guitar is played to sound like an instrument from the Renaissance. In fact, throughout the whole album the juxtaposition of all the instruments is surprising. It really makes me smile for instance to hear tablas accentuating this very Latin chant.

Opening to Love comes from a depth of heart the world needs so much. Ashana actually wrote it for a deceased friend, but as is the universal theme of this album, and as she says on her website: “I dedicate this piece to his spirit, which is of course, the spirit of everlasting, unconditional love that is the essence of who we are.”

Only You in My Heart has no notes about it. It doesn’t need explanation. You refers to…you know by now.

Deep Peace is a traditional Gaelic blessing that I happen to email to my students as my wish for them after completing Level I Reiki. This version has 10 and 12 inch Aqua Gold crystal singing bowls as drones in an arrangement which gently rocks you side to side in peace, literally.

Deep peace to you.
Deep peace to you.
Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the gentle night to you.
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.
Deep peace to you.

Here’s what Ashana says about Alleluia – Wahe Guru: “Alleluia” is a word used in both Jewish and Christian traditions to express praise, joy and thanks to the Divine. Wahe Guru! is the primary mantra of the Sikh religion, and means “Wonderful Lord!” Yogi Bhajan, who brought Kundalini Yoga and Sikhism to the West, translated it even more deliciously as “Indescribable Ecstasy!”

Beloved is a complete work and substantial achievement. I’m very enamored of way the cello is a constant presence and highlighted beautifully in several parts. There are rich, sustained basses and other drones, eloquent guitar, embellishing keyboards, and bemusing tablas.

Then it’s all tied together by the presence of the Divine that fills you from the speakers or headphones.

Now go buy it! >> Beloved

Cello Circles by Kalyan and Sambodhi Prem

I was having a conversation on Twitter with someone about my love for the cello when Sambodhi Prem friended me and introduced me to this collaborative album. Entirely composed and performed by Sambodhi and Kalyan, and produced by Sambodhi, Cello Circles also instantly stopped me to listen and opened my heart. Then my mind opened too!

Kalyan is a classically trained cellist, and can also be heard here as a multi instrumentalist on dilubra, recorders, kena flute, Japanese kyotaku flute and fretless bass.

Sambodhi is on acoustic and electric guitars, bass and sound modules.

Seven years in organically coming together, this is richly evocative music. Textured, layered and endless; when a track or the CD finishes there’s a palpable resonance in the room and in the listener.

It’s remarkable that this music is driven by improvisation. When it’s of this quality, mastery is the only word that comes to mind. Living on separate continents, Sambodhi and Kalyan meet in the circle of creativity, and add sheer beauty to the world.

In the literature Sambodhi supplied me, he says, “I love the cello because it’s able to express great depths of sadness and is equally able to reach the heights of joy…” I agree, and cello is just so warm to me and brings a fullness of heart.

I’m partial to the fretless bass too, and the slide trombone. I think I just like instruments that don’t show you where your fingers go. It adds a dimension of actually feeling where the notes are.

The Hindu dilubra is plucked on Leaving Space, and bowed on Spring Water. The Japanese kyotaku is heard on This Moment. Kalyan’s cello is faultless and elevates this instrument. He plays it with a passionate authority, and the sound it yields is full and liquid.

To break down Cello Circles to its individual tracks would be a disservice. This album is a continuous journey, aesthetic and exquisite. There are moments of quiet reflection and surges of celebration.

This music is without genre. There are subtle hints of contemporary jazz, orchestral music, studio sounds, meditative music, tributes to nature sounds, and other soundscapes.

While the compositions are built around the cello, what’s built around it has its own value and voice. Sambodhi shines on his guitars. There’s a delicacy to his fret work that’s unmatched, and the ease of spaciousness that comes from stillness. It’s obvious that he put in countless hours in his studio too, flowering the acoustics this music lives in; a labor of love.

The cover art by Sandipa is also gorgeous, appropriately titled “Harmony in Lily Flat Major.” In fact, Sambodhi has quite a few creatives around him and his website is well worth a visit.

What else can I say about Cello Circles? I can’t stop listening to it! Every time I think I’m ready for another mood, this album provides it. To go out to the edge of the known like this is courageous and true artistry.

Now go buy it! >> Cello Circles

This isn’t the type of book that you read cover to cover. It’s a reference work. You have it in your library to look up specific information and to study further those areas that are relevant to you. Colorfully illustrated, it’s a hefty one-of-a-kind work on a subject that really needs to be much more in the spotlight.

The premise of the book is the intuitive truth known through the ages that, “Everything is made of energy: molecules, pathogens, prescription medicines, and even emotions.” Dale defines energy very simply as, “information that vibrates” and goes on to show how that is and what effect it has on us in six well-organized and meticulous sections.

Part I is an overview of energy and its basic terminology. Part II is about physical anatomy but with a twist: that it’s in fact “an extension of the subtle energy system.” The next three sections detail the three subtle energy structures: Fields, Channels, and Bodies.

Part VI is a compendium of energy-based healing methods.

For me, perhaps the greatest contribution this book makes is the copious referencing of seminal figures who have historically studied subtle energy in a scientific way. When we look at medicine or other disciplines today, it isn’t obvious that subtle energy has indeed been scientifically studied and in many cases validated. And it’s a sad comment that despite a strong body of research, most disciplines and the predominant paradigm in society is still mechanistic.

Those of us who are in the arena of spiritual and healing disciplines know and understand that knowledge of subtle levels of reality has been with humanity for eons. So it was with great pleasure that I read about some determined people who formulated and stuck with their scientific explanations of intuitive knowledge.

The bulk of the book is dedicated to Energy Fields, Energy Channels, and Energy Bodies. While the information is scholarly and scientific, Dale is able to put it across in an easily understandable way, with key concepts reiterated throughout. She explains that there are two basic types of energy:

1. Veritable, i.e., physical and measurable
2. Putative, i.e., subtle and immeasurable.

In looking at energy fields, we understand that our energy isn’t contained by our skin, and we each have auric, morphogenetic, etheric and astral fields which play out in a bigger system of L-Fields (subtle physical) and T-Fields (thought).

Energy channels are mostly explained through the lens of meridians as understood in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). While this section furthers how intricately energetic we really are, there are many excellent texts on TCM. For the energy healer, the close connection between emotions and the organs is practical knowledge that can be immediately used.

Energy bodies are discussed in terms of the most well-known teaching: the chakras and the lesser-known nadis. This section is thorough and revealing, with a few surprises. Much of it is explained in terms of the highly respected and celebrated yogic (Hindu) understanding. Even if you think you know your chakras, the bringing together of nadis, koshas (yogic energy bodies) and chakra personalities is impressive.

One of my favorite parts is Dale’s treatment of energy bodies from other cultures, including Tibetan, Mayan, Incan, Cherokee, Egyptian, African, Christian and Kaballah-based.

The book is also peppered with insets which explain in greater detail or provide new information. The bibliography too is excellent and I found myself highlighting some it for further consideration.

Dale adds another welcome element and that is an attempt at unifying the various traditions and scientific data into a workable whole, and succeeds considering the long history of traditions and data. The reader and practitioner can also draw their own conclusions and integrate accordingly.

The final part of the book is a compendium of energy practices. Keyword here is ‘compendium.’ There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the book that it does not in any way replace proper, professional training and rightly so.

I do have a couple of small bones to pick with the author, say about the size of phalanges (bones in the hands and feet.) One is the omission of any information on the Hara as an extensive understanding of the human energetic makeup. This is especially puzzling since Shiatsu is included, and the fact that Hara is a complete alternative understanding to the chakra model.

The other bone is regarding the section on Reiki. Admittedly this is part of the compendium at the end, so space is limited. Exactly for that reason, I wish Reiki was included with its full truth in light of the research that has surfaced in the last decade or so as to its origins and its founder’s biography. It was saddening to see the Reiki ’symbols’ also published and not so accurately. You can read why this is unwise and unhelpful here.

In its sheer scale and depth this is a volume that every spiritual and healing practitioner can without reservation add to their library and keep close at hand. I heartily endorse and heartily recommend it.

My own copy (thank you Cyndi!) will be going right next to:

A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine: Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation
Richard Gerber, MD

and

Radical Healing: Integrating the World’s Great Therapeutic Traditions to Create a New Transformative Medicine
Rudolph M. Ballentine, MD

Chakras (click to see artist's site)

Energetic Wellness

In Reiki as it is much was said about the true nature of Reiki, how it is a spiritual teaching and practice first, with healing being a natural extension of its enlightening practices. Yet Usui-san was widely known as a great healer. Teate means hands-on healing in Japanese and was very popular in Usui’s time. In 1923 an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit Tokyo. 100,000 deaths were reported. His Memorial stone states:

“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 innumerable people. This is just a broad outline of his relief activities during such an emergency.”

Fast forward to the 21^st century. We have many options available to us when it comes to healthcare and wellness. Yet few of these options, including other CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) therapies, address energetic wellness. Why is energetic wellness important? Because without it we are not able to be well!

Acupuncture meridians

Most people are experientially familiar with energy as it relates to the ability of their body to function in its daily tasks. This is called “metabolic energy,” provided by the foods and supplements we ingest, sunshine and oxygen. Some of this turns into the raw building blocks of our body and some of it into chemical energy that keeps us active and productive.

Our nervous system, on the other hand communicates through electrical messages. These biochemical and neuroelectrical energy systems are well-accepted by science. There is also growing research that our cells emit weak bursts of ultraviolet light, indicating a light-based energy system. (Gerber 13-15. See below for book references.)

Then there are the contributions of thousands of years of spiritual and healing knowledge from the various cultures and civilizations of our collective history.

Two such contributions are what may be called “life-energy” (or “lifeforce”), and “spiritual energy” systems. One example of a life-energy system is acupuncture with its meridians, responsible for distributing life energy to cells, tissues and organs.

The best known example of spiritual energy distribution is the chakras, the seven major energy centers that play a critical role in our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. (Gerber 16-17)

Nadis

The chakras are also related to a maze of channels that distribute this unique subtle energy. These are known as nadis.

The system of chakras and nadis corresponds to your experiential center, that inner core from which you feel yourself move when you are truly spontaneous. From there you move out to contact the world. The meridian system, on the other hand, reflects how that energy interfaces with the world around you. (Ballentine 408)

Ki

You can read about the system that Reiki utilizes in Reiki as it is. Ki is naturally present in the body and in a special Ki field around the body. The fundamental functions of Ki are to:

• Transform materials, such as food into fuel in the body
• Transport substances, like blood throughout the body’s vessels
• Hold substances in place, such as blood in vessels and viscera in the abdomen
• Protect against pathogens and trauma
• Warm living tissues

When there is overall harmony, Ki flows smoothly and any minor imbalances are rectified naturally. When the body becomes stressed for long periods or there is physical damage, emotional trauma (e.g. anger, worry, fear, grief), or mental inharmony the smooth flow of Ki is disrupted, creating pools of excess and deficiency.

Healthy flow of Ki is known as Genki and disrupted Ki is called Byoki (literally, sick Ki). There are four basic types of Ki disharmony:

Deficient Ki - this can lead to spontaneous sweating, fatigue, lethargy and weakness.

Sinking Ki - which is characterized by organ prolapse (e.g. sagging organs and bagginess), vertigo, weariness, and a very weak pulse.

Stagnant Ki - the flow of Ki is slow or blocked, which can produce swelling, bloating, belching, achiness all over and fidgetiness.

Rebellious Ki - the direction of normal Ki flow is reversed, leading to hiccups, vomiting, coughing, asthma, liver problems and fainting.

The human energy system (HES) continues on. Beyond the scope of this discussion, we are also surrounded and interpenetrated by a set of subtle bodies.

The first of these is the “etheric body,” an almost exact replica of the physical and its template. Another subtle body is the “astral” which relates to feelings and their expression and the influence of our emotions. Each of these spiritual bodies vibrates at a higher rate than the previous one. However they are not to be understood in linear fashion, but more in the sense of expanding and connected fields. The “mental body” of course deals with the energy of thought, creation, invention and inspiration. Lastly, there is the “causal” or “spiritual body.” This obviously relates to our soul and higher Self, and is a divine template. (Gerber 23-31)

As you can see, so much more is going on to create the physical body and enable it to function. So much more is also going on to make our mind and feelings function. Consciousness is not only a mechanical firing of electrochemical signals, but an energy of its own. And a whole lot is going on to make our soul a part of physical existence.

In light of this information, energetic wellness takes on new meaning. It becomes a priority, vital to health, prevention, wholeness and a life of fulfillment.

Reiki as a Healing Art

Reiki is organized, orderly Ki. It is intelligent, compassionate and wise. There is a harmony to it.

Reiki is not dependent on the practitioner’s ability to sense disruptions in the energy or Ki field of the recipient to diagnose their energy flow and patterns. There is no need to direct or manipulate the energy, and no need to “correct” in any way.

Reiki treatments are gently balancing and support the wellbeing of the recipient in a holistic and individualistic way. Relaxation, pain relief, physical healing, reduced emotional distress, mental acuity, and a deepened awareness of spiritual connection are commonly reported benefits.

Reiki:

• dissolves stagnant ki
• eliminates deficient ki
• balances rebellious ki
• tones sinking ki
• neutralizes incompatible energies
• re-balances the human energy system
• flows healingly through both the meridians and the nadis
• addresses the recipient at a causal level, not masking symptoms

Reiki offers a direct link to starting and growing an energetic relationship with yourself in the deepest, most meaningful sense. What is interesting about Reiki is that it runs the entire energetic spectrum, from life energy to spiritual energy. It is both the chi (ki) of the meridians, webbed out more on the surface of our body, and the prana­ of the chakras and nadis, webbed in the more nonphysical aspect of our being.

Reiki treatments are richly nutritive to body, mind and soul, and help one to make the changes needed for optimal living. With so much at stake, an experienced and sensitive practitioner is essential.

The word “practitioner” does not only mean one who practices Reiki on others, but more significantly, one who practices Reiki as part of their personal spirituality.

Find a Reiki healer who is not merely using techniques, but comes from the sincerity of inner understanding, who embodies the sacred space needed for true change and wellness to take place. The healing relationship you will have with this practitioner is based on trust and mutual resonance. There needs to be trust in the process also.

A remarkable feature of Reiki is that it creates access to your own answers, insights and revelations. It is second to none in receiving your own spiritual and healing information. Your commitment level to your own growth and healing is vitally important. Personal growth and healing occur in an environment of partnership, cooperation, discipline and real willingness on your part to better some aspect of yourself. It takes courage to embark on a journey of self-development and many twists and turns are common. Hurdles and obstacles do come up. Open communication is the best way to move your inner work ahead and succeed.

Reference books:

A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine: Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation

Richard Gerber, MD

Radical Healing: Integrating the World’s Great Therapeutic Traditions to Create a New Transformative Medicine

Rudolph M. Ballentine, MD

This is my tribute to Earth Day. It was written in 2001 and has been polished up a little. At the time, I read an article about Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and had known very little about these trees until then.

The majesty and uniqueness of Giant Sequoias immediately grabbed my imagination and heart. I was transported to a hypersensitive state of feeling for and communicating with this species, especially the specific tree mentioned. At the time I had no previous interaction with any variety of redwood at all.

It wasn’t until some time later that I was graced with the physical presence of these trees at Muir Woods in Marin County, California (there are some Giant Sequoias there although most are coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens.)

When I finished reading the article, I immediately sat at my computer and wrote the following. It wasn’t the first or last time that I experienced interspecies communication.

Make sure you read the end part as it has a message for all humanity.

Photo by Kevin Grahame

In 1852, during the California gold rush, a lone hunter was chasing a wounded grizzly bear into the forest, when he stumbled upon the Giant Sequoia redwood trees. That he was chasing a wounded grizzly was not a good start. The sacredness with which Native Americans regard Giant Sequoias, to the point of not even touching them was about to be shattered.

These awesome trees have a lifespan of up to 2000 years, the most ancient being 3300 years old. They have continuously existed since 100 million years ago, outlasting the dinosaurs. The largest stand over 300 feet tall, and their trunk at the base can measure as much as 32 feet in diameter. Their physical presence is undeniable, pointing to a presence of another variety altogether.

The hunter will remain nameless, although his and those of other misguided souls are known. Let’s call him Mr. Hunter. The boss of the gold mine camp can be Mr. Greed.

Mr. Greed seized opportunity at a time when the land was obviously exposing its riches. The land is abundant and provides for humanity’s needs. It was created for us to stand on and to live. Gold. Trees. What a miracle! The land gives freely, but humans aren’t free. Mr. Greed is a profiteer, but we’ll get back to him in a moment.

It’s saddening that Mr. Hunter couldn’t even use the input of his senses to be deeply moved by these trees, let alone have a spiritual perception about their true value. He could’ve gone down in history as one who discovered a natural marvel, an expression of Nature’s creativity. Instead he’s merely prey for my writer’s indignation and horror.

Take a breath! Take a moment and bask in the wonder of such a sight. Take your hat off, sit and experience such majesty. Mr. Hunter, could you have been given a greater opportunity to understand Life?

Can you imagine the moment he stumbled on these ancient ones? Can you feel the silence of these trees and the environment they dominate?

Feel the pristine quality of this place.

The height of this arbor cathedral.

That he was able to find his legs to get back to camp is a small miracle of its own. Not one such tree, but acres and acres, with all other life forms contained and thriving.

Divinity in bark.

Was Mr. Hunter scared? Was he excited? What did he feel? How long did he stay before returning to camp?

Did it ever change him in some fundamental way?

All that’s certain is that camp boss Mr. Greed and everyone else were duly informed and rushed they did to gaze with their own eyes. Of course that would be the only choice.

What words did Mr. Hunter use to describe his discovery?

At the time, no one knew that Giant Sequoias are almost indestructible. Their bark is fire-resistant, strange as that is for wood, and because their root systems spread over nearly an acre of soil, they’re able to survive the most terrible of droughts.

Mr. Greed, unlike Mr. Hunter, was a man of deeper thought, and clearly saw a way to riches by making the site of the discovery a tourist attraction.

Discovery Tree, so aptly named but mistreated, was to be the mascot of these ancient ones at the hands, mercy and intelligence of this band of men. Not having TV or any other technology, Mr. Greed brilliantly decided to take a massive slab of Discovery Tree with him on a traveling freak show as a way to advertise the site.

We have progressed since then, because these majestic trees can now be toppled down in whole acres and the land forced to comply to a profit agenda by something called clear-cutting, but that’s another story.

In Mr. Greed’s time, who lives on in many disguises, there wasn’t any tool strong or long enough to make a dent in Discovery Tree’s fireproof bark.

Think about this: Nature made a tree, a form of wood that has a fire-resistant outermost layer!

Brains were doing overtime and the solution was to hire miners to drill holes with long metal augers as wide as a man’s fist, a workingman’s fist.

After twenty days of drilling, there was a circumference of holes around the tree. Such is humanity’s indomitable spirit, that it just won’t give up!

Remember: 20 days of drilling. Fist size holes. Fireproof bark.

When Mr. Greed’s affluent invited guests came for the crowing victory, Discovery Tree still refused to fall.

It remained standing for another two days.

It chose to make its exit with a dignity befitting Its species and broke the grove’s profound silence one lunchtime when the idly curious were away.

The thunderous shudder of Its fall reverberated across the Earth and millennia, both as a warning and as an announcement of the first Sequoia Saint to ever grace our memory.

Trees, creatures, plants and knowledgeable peoples all over heard it and shared in the silence following such a mighty crash. It was and is a sad moment whose lesson is still haunting modern society.

This story is very much alive today and sadder than ever. Mr. Hunter and Mr. Greed have been replaced by the gaping mouth and endless stomach of consumerism. The Machine has replaced augers.

However, that’s not why I wrote this. I’d like to dwell on Discovery Tree. Who was It? What did It feel? How is It doing now?

Thank you for asking! I’m quite well. We all appreciate the voice you and many like you have given us.

The most important realization is that no created thing is a random mutation, following a string of events after the Big Bang.

We are all creations of the Great Original and science will soon understand that.

The thought that led you to write this is a true thought: There has to be purpose and design behind the creation of our exceptional form. We are honored to express the diversity of Divinity in such magnificence. Our story is strong.

This is evident in that you haven’t even visited us physically. You’ve seen some photographs, but not even a documentary. Yet, our story reached across time to touch you. This again is with purpose.

We are all souls. The creations of Nature also have souls. The form we embody is specifically designed to make this fact visible. It forces Reason to falter so truth can take hold. Our lifespan points to eternity. We were placed here to witness time. Our cousins on land, the Elephants and our cousins in the ocean, the Whales have a similar purpose.

Like many, I felt sad. It was extremely painful too. I endured it because I was created to endure, as we all are. I stood and could have stood longer.

My species bled and cried with me, not for me but for the future. I chose when to call it a day. Without my choice, I’d still be up.

I bled and cried also because not one of those men had an opening of heart and mind. Their bark was thicker than mine. The boundary of their perception never once shifted or expanded.

At night I’d get relief and many creatures comforted me. The Great Original gave me many ways to lick my wounds. I forgave in the honored tree tradition, for most tree species have suffered at the hands of humanity.

The answers of Life are out in the open. There are really no secrets. All life forms contain these answers. Digging and searching are only to make the truth last and not be forgotten. After struggle and heartache, truth becomes permanent. Otherwise it loses to a multitude of distractions.

Not all species are supposed to last through all time. What’s devastating is premature extinction from unnatural causes. This is not in the interest of humanity or this Earth.

At the time I ceased to be, at least in that particular form, humanity was thinking a certain way, a way that has continued and has borne the results you live with today.

We have witnessed much in our time and we tell all of you now: Live in a way that honors Life for you partake in it. It gives you everything and you must also give it your everything.

It takes 20 adults with arms at full length to encircle one Giant Sequoia.

Praise be!

Credit goes to Mark Hertsgaard for the background on Discovery Tree, and for fascinating Giant Sequoia facts click here.

This is a partial list, more will be posted under the Healing resources category.

Feel free to forward this list to anyone who may benefit from it. Each book is described briefly, but it’s value can’t possibly be conveyed. These are all “gold.”

1- A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine: Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation

Richard Gerber, MD

An encyclopedic classic on energetic healing according to the ancients and how it complements today’s allopathic medicine.

2- Radical Healing: Integrating the World’s Great Therapeutic Traditions to Create a New Transformative Medicine

Rudolph M. Ballentine, MD

An encyclopedic resource dealing with some of humanity’s oldest healing traditions and how we can benefit from them today.

3- Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System As a Path to the Self

Anodea Judith

A unique, in-depth look at the chakra system and how we can use it to help us in practical, everyday terms.

4- Ayurveda and the Mind

David Frawley

Explores how to heal our minds from the subconscious to the superconscious, along with the role of diet, impressions, mantra, meditation, yoga and many other methods to create wholeness.

5- The Healing Power of Mind

Tulku Thondup

The uncomplicated exercises and insights presented provide an important link between body and mind that strengthens the immune system and reinforces health.

6- The High-Performance Mind: Mastering Brainwaves for Insight, Healing, and Creativity

Anna Wise

The best book on brainwaves and how to use them to your advantage.

7- The Complete Book of Chinese Health & Healing: Guarding the Three Treasures

Daniel Reid

A remarkable book on Chinese medicine, meditation, and related subjects.

8- The Healing Power of Illness: Understanding What Your Symptoms Are Telling You

Thorwald Dethlefsen, Rudiger Dahlke

Indispensable resource for making sense of your symptoms.

9- The Creative Visualization Workbook: Second Edition

Shakti Gawain

The classic work on the power of visualization.

10- The Four Levels of Healing: A Guide to Balancing the Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical Aspects of Life

Shakti Gawain

Addresses all levels of being for healing and fulfillment to be real and complete.

11- Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas

Alberto Villoldo, PhD

Reveals the concept of working with the “luminous energy field” that surrounds our physical bodies in a practical, easy-to-understand format.

12- Kitchen Table Wisdom & My Grandfather’s Blessing (2 Volume Set)

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

Wisdom from a doctor who trains other doctors how to be healers again.

13- The Healer’s Manual: A Beginner’s Guide to Vibrational Therapies

Ted Andrews

An excellent primer on the subject.

14- Teach Only Love: The Twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing

Gerald Jampolsky

Profound teachings on the healing power of love and forgiveness.

15- The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living

Dalai Lama, Howard C. Cutler

In this guide toward personal happiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama offers great information in regaining lost happiness.

Flowering trees near the Zigzag Bridge (Yatsuhashi) in the Japanese Garden, Seiwa-en. Photo credit: Jack Jennings, Courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden.

Reiki is a highly-effective but simple and practical teaching originally developed by Mikao Usui¹ designed for:

• Spiritual growth
• Personal development
• Life enrichment
• Energy healing for self and others

In this age of instant gratification, ready information and marketplace spirituality, Reiki is a pure light that’s most beautiful and beneficial when savored with care.

Reiki is more popular than ever, and available almost anywhere in different formats. You can be trained online; receive all three Levels in a weekend; or go from teacher to teacher.

Apart from traditional and contemporary Usui Reiki, whether it’s Japanese or Western, there are an endless array of new schools and styles. There are also many Reiki websites, blogs, forums and e-mail lists. All kinds of Reiki information is circulated on Facebook, and microblogging sites such as Twitter.

Choosing a Teacher

Choose a Reiki teacher who is equipped in every way to serve you all the way down the winding path. Understand that Reiki is a living teaching, that is it continues to evolve the practitioner with each use. Therefore there are layers of learning and growth even for the teacher. Start with someone who has been guided by Reiki for a number of years and has reached a certain level of maturity. This is someone who has:

1. Inner and outer resources:
   1. Inner: Reiki is lived. Don’t learn Reiki from a parrot.
   2. Outer: Provides well-written, extensive, reference quality Manuals s/he has written and updates when needed. (I see too much dubious photocopied material hastily put together.) Has other resources such as website, blog, and audiovisual.
2. Availability to support and mentor you at all times. A local teacher is best. My phone is on around the clock. My email availability is also near constant. Post-training, it’s very beneficial to have practitioner meetings to deepen students’ Reiki assimilation.
3. Has a school and developed understanding. Look at a Reiki teacher’s body of work. Does s/he have standing in the local community, does outreach, gives presentations and is published (and I don’t mean only on their own site/blog)?
4. Holds terrestrial trainings and these are actual trainings, not only attunements². Reiki is a transmission and this doesn’t happen only during attunements. The entire training experience is a vibrational field that imparts this teaching, transmission and empowerment.
5. What kind of Reiki does s/he teach? Usui’s original, traditional Japanese Reiki is a natural preference and here’s why (the rest of this post also points out why):

• Modern Reiki
• Reiki as Consciousness I
• Reiki as Consciousness II
• Reiki as Consciousness III

Reiki’s Core Teachings

Reiki is a graduated teaching with each Level of training requiring solid integration. Within the full consciousness and energy of Reiki are sub-frequencies (Some of the links above explain this further.)

In simple terms these energies are Earth Ki, Celestial Ki and the principle of Connection. Ki³ is the life vitality of the body, mind and soul, as well as the energy permeating Nature and the material world. Ki is also Cosmic Energy and is all-pervasive in its various forms.

Earth Ki is our physical link to the earth. It’s the energy of the body and its creator, builder and healer. By associating with Earth Ki you also bring order and success to our material existence and concerns.

Celestial Ki is the link to nonphysical aspects of your being; your energy, emotions, thoughts and spirit. It’s the healer of your relationship with yourself, others and the Divine.

For ultimate wellbeing, material success and personal enlightenment, both poles are given equal importance and integrated to engender wholeness, and express the highest and most sacred in us, in a way that is visible and tangible in the physical world.

Connection is a key concept of Mikao Usui’s teachings. It relates to your essential Oneness with:

• Yourself
• Others
• Nature and all its life forms
• The Cosmos
• The Divine which is more personal

Students are sensitized to these energies with the use of primordial vowel sounds, and to a lesser degree with visual representations (in Level II).

Reiki is the full-spectrum consciousness and energy of all there is. As such it can be described as spiritual consciousness and energy. The entire spectrum is spiritual, even though it has an Earth pole and a Celestial pole. This spectrum which fuels all of creation and the Cosmos is also continuous and connected between its poles.

Reiki’s Special Subtle System

The system that Reiki follows is a simple and elegant concentration in three locations known as Hara. The first and main hara (lower) is in the lower belly, approximately midway between the bellybutton and the top of the pubic bone, also known as one-point.

The upper hara is located in the head at a point that corresponds to the middle of the eyebrows and is also known as the spiritual eye.

The middle hara is in the chest, at the sternum (breastbone) and is also known as the heart center.

The main hara is the body’s actual center. It’s equidistant from this location to the feet and to the head. Thus it’s the body’s center of gravity.

The lower hara is considered to be an intuitive and spiritual center. It’s an area into which your energy can settle and into which great vitality is drawn from the environment and the Cosmos.

The lower hara is an endless source of Ki, from which it comes and to which it flows. It’s the origin of balance and stability and not only physically. The mind and thus the emotions can also find calmness and strength here. When you are established in this natural center, Ki flows throughout your body and mind, and creates a healthy Ki field around you. The lower hara is your base support, your foundation.

Many of us are out of balance simply because we put our power and weight in the head (intellect/logic), the shoulders and the chest. Especially in the West, these locations are what are emphasized as being significant in success, self-confidence and health. Most of our education emphasizes the left brain; broad shoulders and barrel-chests are admired, the belly isn’t allowed to protrude making us tense. We are top-heavy! Do you realize how easy it is to literally tip over with such an imbalance?

Look at small kids who have just learned to walk. They push their bellies forward and walk with heavy steps, concentrating on their center. Unfortunately, many people lose contact with their center when they grow up. The immediate effect is bad balance and weakness in movements and an increasing confusion of mind also follows.

If you practice sensing your center in the lower belly and use it to support whatever you do, then certainty about your own being will grow. You will regain contact with yourself, secure in both knowing that you exist and increasingly learning who you are.

The upper hara is the center of mental faculties and higher mind. The energies felt here are lighter and more expansive, and relate to emotions, thoughts and subtle, meditative realizations.

This center is also about learning to use both hemispheres of the brain appropriately, i.e., not to approach matters of the inner self with too much logic and not to approach matters of the outer life with too much of a meditative quality. Ultimately you learn whole-brain thinking, using both hemispheres equally and in balance with each other and what is in front of you.

If undeveloped, this center can be unavailable to the wide range of consciousness and all its possibilities, thus limiting an individual’s choices. The potential for this center is discriminative intelligence, wisdom and realization.

The middle hara expresses Connection. It’s the center where all the elements of being human come to fruition. From the higher faculties of mind and spiritual evolution, including all the creations of right thought, right speech and right action, to the basics of the body and survival, the heart center expresses what is uniquely human.

It’s also where anger or similar emotions may be held. The potential for this center is that it fully expresses our Connection to all there is and embodies the quality of compassion in a real and profound sense.

Conclusion

While Reiki is deeply healing and can be applied to oneself and others, Usui’s teachings really lead to discovering your spiritual path, staying on it with purpose and understanding, and enhancing your experiences until satori emerges. Satori is the Japanese term for the experience of enlightenment, illumination or realization i.e., awakening to one’s true nature and the nature of all existence.

The practices he taught and spread give a clear indication that the real benefit of Reiki Training and practice is to bring out the best qualities of our humanness and reach higher, to a level of spiritual attainment.

This happens naturally when Reiki is utilized as a core practice of spiritual life. This means that apart from the formal use of Reiki’s many helpful functions, there’s less and less separation and difference between ‘Reiki-on’ and ‘Reiki-off.’

In other words, Universal truth, light, wisdom, love and power that Reiki helps us access gradually become an unbroken part of who and what we are.

As with any authentic spiritual teaching, Usui Sensei left behind a living teaching that addresses the whole person. There are several components of spiritual growth that are common to all such teachings. These components are addressed in Usui’s way with various easy-to-do practices. Included are:

• Regular cleansing of body, mind and soul
• Establishing a higher consciousness
• Maintaining energetic integrity
• Bringing wholeness to the subconscious mind
• Hara development
• Conscious Oneness and balance between heaven and earth
• Empowerment to reach the transcendental

His teachings are practical to the core and readily applicable in modern life. Good results are seen with even a little practice and the effects are incremental, leading to greater and higher spiritual experiences and evolution, as well as everyday happiness and success.

________________________

¹ Mikao Usui is the founder of the system of Reiki. Mikao Usui was born on the 15th of August 1865, in the village of Taniai-mura in the Yamagata-gun district of the Gifu-ken Prefecture, in Japan. He is mostly commonly referred to as “Usui Sensei,” with sensei meaning teacher or master. Some may use O-Sensei, with “O” being “great”. “San” is another honorific that is more neutral. He left behind a huge legacy. Reiki, as a spiritual teaching, and healing art is a global movement today.

² An attunement, initiation or connection ritual is the energetic opening or awakening that is gifted to the student by the Universe, through a Reiki Teacher. This enables the student to jumpstart their Reiki practice, giving them a clean, healthy beginning for their spiritual journey. It works energetically through the body, mind and soul to increase the student’s spiritual light quotient, which will is maintained by daily practice.

³ Ki is vital energy that enlivens creation, human body and mind, and runs the Cosmos. While it shows up as subtle energy, it isn’t only energy. Ki is also a set of Divine attributes: Wisdom, Compassion, Power, Light and Intelligence.

On July 30, 2008 I started a new service in the microblogging world by sending out this one-liner about Reiki:

Reiki is living with wisdom & compassion.

Since then Reiki One-Liner^SM has gone out to Twitter and Plurk everyday between Monday and Friday, with breaks of a few days since its inception.

Read the first 50.

Read the next 50.

Tonight I tweeted:

Reiki is the Universe saying “pssst!”

One of my Twitter friends responded:

Luv ur 1liners. Had wonderful grocery visit. I was rollin’ along when cart wheels spazzed. Right there, great sale on pasta! Hee hee

Here, presented in alphabetical order rather than the order they went out are the third 50 Reiki one-liners:

1. Feeling fragmented? Reiki defrags you quickly and completely.
2. Integrity and clear boundaries in communication are enhanced by Reiki.
3. Mind dissects and separates. Reiki brings a holistic view.
4. Mind over thinks. Reiki settles it into natural, spacious awareness.
5. Reiki beautifies the inner and outer you.
6. Reiki brings balance to your responsibilities and unburdens your shoulders.
7. Reiki brings out your inner gem.
8. Reiki centers you even at a red light.
9. Reiki does good and moves on to the next person or situation.
10. Reiki helps you know mind is not localized in the brain but is everywhere.
11. Reiki helps you notice the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
12. Reiki is a daily dose of good.
13. Reiki is a life and soul app designed by higher Intelligence.
14. Reiki is an ocean of compassion multiplied by awareness.
15. Reiki is an ocean of love multiplied by acceptance.
16. Reiki is context and meaning renewed by an enduring presence.
17. Reiki is daily empowerment.
18. Reiki is daily renewal.
19. Reiki is daily sanity.
20. Reiki is daily vibrational alignment.
21. Reiki is embodied peace.
22. Reiki is Grace.
23. Reiki is insurance for body, mind and soul.
24. Reiki is letting go of control so you can have true control.
25. Reiki is self-knowledge and biofeedback via hands-on and meditation.
26. Reiki is soul poetry.
27. Reiki is soul satisfaction.
28. Reiki is the art of self-communication.
29. Reiki is the in and out breath of the Universe.
30. Reiki is the interface between personal ki and universal Ki.
31. Reiki is the knowing that you are as infinite as the universe.
32. Reiki is the Universe’s way of saying, “Got your back!”
33. Reiki keeps you in grace if you get punk’d.
34. Reiki lets you help others without compromising yourself.
35. Reiki lets you KNOW that which can’t be quantified.
36. Reiki makes soul available in every situation.
37. Reiki places intellect in balance to assist your soul.
38. Reiki places you smack-dab in the lap of the Universe.
39. Reiki rebalances you in the midst of your day.
40. Reiki self-treatments=Self-acceptance and love.
41. Reiki sources your life from the lotus of your being instead of your lower self.
42. Reiki will shift procrastination right out of your system.
43. The body doesn’t lie. Reiki helps you know when the mind does.
44. The body is a vehicle for your spirit. Reiki remembers that and keeps it healthy.
45. The mind powered by Reiki functions higher.
46. The mind succumbs to fear. Reiki restores natural spaciousness.
47. Thoughts become biology. Reiki interrupts that.
48. With Reiki you recover better from setbacks.
49. Your body changes. Reiki stays with you throughout.
50. Your body is a library of you. Reiki is the index.

Many systems of spiritual meditative practice give a model of the various stages of meditation and self-realization. It’s useful to look at other systems sometimes to bring meaning to Reiki.

I’d like to use a model given in Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers as a way to draw some parallels. All aspects of Reiki are relevant here, but RDH illustrates the parallels best.

We’ll look at RDH from the viewpoint of a Reiki practitioner. For the practitioner, regular practice of RDH:

• opens the spiritual heart by first healing the emotional heart
• infuses with a great dose of spiritual energy
• boosts intuition and subtle perceptions
• helps you experience universal compassion seen in enlightened ones
• draws you closer together to people and communities
• brings the joy of spiritual fulfillment

Compassion is a stable emotion. The emotional energy of compassion is selfless and focused. It has equanimity, and motivates the intent of the practitioner to utilize one’s resources to help others. Ordinary emotional energy can be self-indulgent, scattered, attached, perturbed and unstable. It’s difficult to help oneself with such an emotional makeup, let alone others.

Compassion can be seen as the sincere heart-desire to soothe the suffering of others. Present in this wish is to alleviate not only their present unease, but the root causes of their discomfort. First is the recognition that all beings have the capacity for compassion. Intention and motivation are also crucial. The best outcome is possible by keeping your intentions alive and making them pure, noble and vast. It may seem impossible to help countless others, but once you start, and with the unique ability of RDH, your intention becomes true.

RDH is designed for the benefit of others, but simultaneously you, the conduit, receive untold gifts from the regularity of its practice.

Compassion cultivated by the transformation of ordinary emotional energy is known as ’skillful means,’ for it enables the practitioner to skillfully use their mind, wisdom, love and energy for the benefit of others as well as their own spiritual development.

Bodhisattva of Compassion

The primary model of altruistic intention is the Bodhisattva.

Speaking of the Bodhisattva, Powers says,

The Sanskrit term literally means ‘enlightenment (bodhi) being (sattva),’ and it indicates…someone…progressing toward the state of enlightenment of a buddha….Bodhisattvas…are motivated by universal compassion, and they seek the ultimate goal of buddhahood in order to be of service to others….At the beginning of the bodhisattva path, they realize that their present capacities are limited and that they are unable to even prevent their own sufferings.

How true of Reiki. We come to Shoden (Reiki I), take responsibility for our own welfare, begin healing with the power of love (loving-kindness as a quality of compassion), develop spiritually, and move to Okuden (Reiki II) as a way to heal deeper, establish an abiding spirituality and increase our capacities. This includes RDH.

Powers continues that “a bodhisattva begins a training program intended to culminate in the enlightenment of a buddha.”

Among the good qualities generated by this training he lists six

perfections:

1) generosity
2) ethics
3) patience
4) effort
5) concentration, and
6) wisdom

These constitute the core of the enlightened personality of the buddha.

It’s uncanny how easy it is to put a Reiki spin on these:

1) Generosity is inherent in Reiki since the vital energy you access through its practice is so abundantly available, enriching you and those with whom you share it.

Along with this energy comes wisdom, insight, knowledge, peace, healing, compassion and light. These attributes are unlimitedly available. This prime generosity is expanded at the local, global and universal levels many times with RDH, and it creates a domino effect of generosity.

2) Ethics, i.e., the Reiki Precepts. Every spiritual system has these, for as you become empowered a strong foundation is crucial. Usui Sensei set forth these five points:

For today only:

Do not anger
Do not worry
Be humble
Be honest in your work
Be compassionate to yourself and others

“For today only” indicates that you do the best you can, for the precepts are a tall order, despite their simplicity. However, it also indicates that you practice everyday to fulfill this tall order.

Beyond ethics, Usui’s precepts are actual teachings, the underpinning of the system of Reiki. It’s because the ethical challenge is demanding that other techniques are included (such as RDH) to help the practitioner actually live the precepts.

The ethics of RDH itself come into play too. RDH is a process of Oneness with the receiver or target. It’s an extension of a personal spiritual practice and the integrity gained there forms the foundation of providing healing energy in this way. The intention is the highest good of the person. Results are surrendered, together with any worries about effectiveness.

3) Patience is the quality which helps you process each level of training before moving on; having equanimity in the face of unchanging symptoms; and doubting not the power of Reiki. We live in a very results-oriented society, yet spiritual growth and healing are much more open-ended and organic.

This means that patience really becomes the wisdom to follow the energy and drop the need to achieve certain results. While intentions support spiritual and healing work, having a black and white agenda of results is detrimental.

You never know where growth or healing is going to show up. Being patient and wise enough to allow the energy to bring the best-fitting gift is a peaceful approach, rather than forcing a result or limiting what is available with a narrow and restless agenda.

4) Effort means to use Reiki as a practice and not just another tool. Spiritual teachings are really only effective when practiced and applied. It’s the depth of daily practice which ensures that you have the ability to respond in the spur of the moment with the greatest effectiveness.

Effort means to continually refine one’s understanding and application of Reiki. Building on what you have been taught by your teacher is the heart of your practice.

5) Concentration in Reiki is the quality of meditating on the energy as you apply it. This ensures non-interference of ego or distractions. It also enhances the experience of Reiki both for receiver and giver. (Yes, Reiki flows all by itself, but we hold an intention and meditation is concentrated mind.) In RDH concentration is even more important since you’re dealing with the formless (etheric).

6) Wisdom is the quality which completes love and without which we are lopsided. Universal Mind is close during RDH and gives your mind the opportunity to be informed by wisdom that you can then carry into our lives and the world.

These apply to the whole of Reiki, but the focus here has been Reiki Distant Healing.

Then from the list on the left, choose your commitment and get involved! I’ve written about the importance of potable water and sanitation before. This is another way to realize this dream:

The ONE DROP Foundation believes that water access is an fundamental right.

The interdependence of nature and humans means water issues are everyone’s issue. Without water, there is no life on Earth. Water sustains our daily lives, however its distribution and accessibility is not equal around the world. It is therefore our responsibility as human beings to ensure that water is made accessible to everyone, in sufficient quantity and quality, today and tomorrow.

Find out more about the Foundation, but first watch the video and follow the action steps. It’s really well done and quite inspiring.

I posted about Earth Hour in 2008. This year it’s even better and more impactful:

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.

Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.

In December 2009 world leaders meet in Copenhagen to agree on a post-Kyoto policy for tackling climate change. One billion people voting with their light switch during Earth Hour will create a powerful mandate for our leaders to take strong and decisive action on climate change in Copenhagen.

Earth Hour is also on Twitter. When you participate update your status with #earthhour or #voteearth hashtags.

1,760 cities, towns and municipalities in 80 countries have already committed to VOTE EARTH for Earth Hour 2009, as part of the worlds first global election between Earth and global warming.

Will you?!

Vote Earth Video (30 sec) [Link for email subscribers]

In his book “The Formation of the Noosphere” (1947), Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote:

No one can deny that a network (a world network) of economic and psychic affiliations is being woven at ever increasing speed which envelops and constantly penetrates more deeply within each of us. With every day that passes it becomes a little more impossible for us to act or think otherwise than collectively.

The term noosphere was coined from the Greek word for mind “noos,” adding to the biosphere (animate) and geosphere (inanimate). This essentially mental place could only have arrived at a time when technology can shrink the world and its distances. While there is still misinformation and prejudice about cultures and lifestyles, overall we seem to better understand each other, and at least in spiritual circles, reach out in compassion.

Meditational and healing link-ups made possible by online connections have enabled us to generate positive energy and intention for many situations we normally would not be involved in, let alone know about. The unique nature of Reiki has played a big part in this.

At the same time there is an incredible acceleration in all walks of life, stress is rampant and meaningful belonging is elusive for many. We also have escalating world crises and a general lack of planetary peace.

Despite our rising spirituality our times often reflect meaningless violence, cynical values, nonacceptance of diversity, and a lack of sense of place. The predominance and pervasive influence of scientific materialism has largely negated anything transphysical (metaphysical). It’s precisely in the search for place, belonging and meaning that Reiki can play a crucial role.

I would like to suggest a new sphere — Onesphere — to indicate our transpersonal (spiritual) dimension. While we have concepts for physical and mental spheres detailed, mapped and accepted, our transpersonal habitat is still under scrutiny, doubt, attack and bad press.

What the Onesphere can do for us as individuals and communities is misjudged, misreported and often too easily dismissed. Yet it is the home that we can carry around, the home that gives meaning, real security and purpose. Without the Onesphere, all other spheres would be bereft and perhaps nonexistent.

Spheres are circular, like our planet, and thus create connection as well as unity. The entire sphere of life is deeply unified. Where we belong is where everything else belongs — we share a common home. That humans are the supreme expression of life is sheer, illusory arrogance.

In the unfolding process of Reiki we have a great opportunity to heal a basic separation from the Onesphere of life, with all of its richness. Meaninglessness and existential homelessness are the result of severing ourselves from the deep ground of our essential nature.

When we consciously swim in the “Onenergy” of life in the form of Reiki, our spiritual roots are reinforced, nourished, and reminded that possessions or accolades don’t bring happiness.

The entire scope of Reiki is truly connective. Whether it’s self-Reiki or working with another, this gift brings us treasures hidden in the unseen.

Reiki is like a key that unlocks the unseen and makes it available as a part of daily experience. It gives us a knowable sense of support and significance. Events are no longer arbitrary or random and this eases our neuroses.

We feel that we can contribute to the world in a blessed way and be full in return. This is true of nonlocal (distant) Reiki as much as any of its applications. In fact the very experience of flowing Reiki beyond time and space is possible thanks to the Onesphere.

In this sense nonlocal Reiki is its own place, sense of belonging and meaning. Reiki removes limitations. It provides the ability to feel and care for anyone or any situation we choose to give our attention.

The more we choose compassion and giving, the richer our existence, the larger our home becomes. It’s as if we could be friends with all six billion plus of the world’s population. Then there are all the other spheres of creatures, minerals and stars!

Reiki honors life and when we experience that honor we derive life-sustaining meaning and belonging. We realize it all makes sense.

If you are new here or haven’t subscribed yet, please subscribe via email. You can also friend me on Twitter.

Welcome to the 177th Carnival of Healing. This is the first time I’m hosting it and have enjoyed collecting the multimedia content presented.

To make the Carnival really fun and valuable, go ahead and visit each of the links, comment on those blogs to join the conversation, and also comment here.

One aspect of blogs that’s missed often is that real value is found in the comments that are sparked by the post itself.

Some of the content is actually in this post, while most of it links out to other blogs.

Make sure you spend time a little further down in this post with David’s The Blessed Discontent and Melanie’s healing energy charged art.

Your comments here would be appreciated in general, but you can also let me know what kind of content you most need, enjoy and would like to see more.

And in true carnival spirit, put on music you like best, make your favorite drink, settle and dive in.

Another way you can deepen this experience is to go back to the content you resonated with most and put it into practice, meditate on it and journal about it.

My collecting, reviewing and presenting of the material here was a considerable amount of work, so I hope it’s rewarding to you and I’d greatly appreciate your feedback.

Thanks also to all who submitted content.

Health tips

Maria Mora gives us detailed information about the many properties of the Helichrysum Species, which range from being antifungal, wound healing, good for muscle spasms and irritable bowel syndrome, to being used for colds, inflammation and allergies.

Edward Sanderson brings us ways to Wave goodbye to frozen shoulder which in Chinese Medicine is called 50 year shoulder because people tend to get it at middle age. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had shoulder pain since my twenties which healed greatly when I started meditating. Ed lists good solutions and links to some others as well.

Brad presents Cold Showers - Whew! including some studies that have been done regarding its benefits.

Julian Pollock presents Why Practise Qigong - for Health, Wellness, and Inner Balance in a simple, accessible piece.

Ross presents Health Benefits of Liquid Chlorophyll, a thorough look with a lot of support.

Healing / Transformation

And now on to some musical musings…musical and transformational. ggw_bach, yes that’s the name, is Bach in sunglasses! He composes classical music for today. You can listen to each piece at the end of posts, like the one he submitted for the Carnival: Step 19 - Regenerating the Core. After you appreciate it, go ahead and browse all the steps.

Here’s a quiet piece that packs a powerful message by Tim Rowe: On Healing. Tim’s post is full of golden nuggets about healing, the path and our place therein. Healers emerge from wounds; their own. He offers much including the basics of A Course in Miracles, synchronicity and projection.

Gina Loree’ Marks has “a strong belief in ‘messengers’.” There’s a quality of self-reflection in her posts that we could all adopt. In Discomfort Creates Awareness, she uses her interaction with a client to create clearer self-awareness and ask probing questions about how we hide from insights discomfort can provide.

Donald presents 10 Essential Tips to Change Your Life, a straightforward look at some cornerstones of change.

Lisis Blackston presents Finding Fulfillment. It’s a unique look at turning Maslow’s pyramid on its head.

Communication / Listening

Those of you who’ve studied Reiki with me, will be familiar with the next entry. Davina’s excellent post uses the simple quality of curiosity to lead to a richer experience and how it can become intuition. How Curious Moments Add Value breaks down ‘active,’ deep listening into three steps and what happens beyond…

Seth Simonds brings us More Than Listening: Being Present. In it he talks about the quality of being present that’s so lacking in many of our interactions: Truly caring about answers to questions you ask, feeling the subtext, and empathy.

Nonviolence

The Laughing Yogini, yes that’s how she is known, brings us Yoga Ethics #1: Ahimsa. This word literally means: a ‘non’ + himsa ‘injury.’ This precept isn’t only for the student of yoga, but for all of us. It’s quite the thorny one to practice and live, and Laughing Yogini provides much food for thought.

Miruh Sanderson comes to nonviolence from a different angle in Peaceful Thoughts. As I said, nonviolence is a thorny subject. I had blogged my thoughts about it back in Nov 08 in this post.

Healing Energy charged art

Moving Through Blocks

Melanie A. Stinson has a gift! “In Moving Through Blocks, the intention was to help individuals move through feeling “stuck” or blocked creatively and in any way in which the word applies.”

“The way to use the images is simply to gaze at them and breathe deep and slow as though you are breathing in liquid color and desire to “taste” the image with every fiber of your being. The colors and shapes invite the viewer to participate with the image, and, as in color therapy, the colors also serve to heal, transform, empower, bless, inspire and bring joy.”

Vortex of Creativity

“Vortex of Creativity, inspired by the Harry Potter books, holds an intention for creativity that I hoped would be as powerful as JK Rowlings’ books have been for readers all over the world.”

And last but not least by any means, please take time to read David Wodtke’s piece below. David is a soul brother of mine, who I’ve met only on webcam, over the phone and via email. That’s the beauty of souls and technology!

He’s also known as Pine Tree and publishes an excellent ezine of archetypal messages from animal spirits, to which you can subscribe at Earth Service.

The Blessed Discontent

by David Wodtke

“Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.”
–Tennessee Williams

Part of me feels very sorry. Sorry for myself and sorry for all of the sad people for being born into this miserable life of pain and disappointment. Failure and regret can eat away at your core until you collapse in a heap from exhaustion. But lately I’ve begun to feel oddly thankful for my discontent and to view it as one of life’s greatest blessings. It has been my teacher when I rejected all other guidance. Lately I’ve become grateful for my suffering which leads me in the direction I need to go. I’ve begun to feel a new source of strength and peace.

Of course, I want to be happy as much as you do. I’ve tried many ways to become happier and more peaceful. But all of the temporary pleasures of the world lead sooner or later to disappointment. This is most obvious with drugs and alcohol which seem to dull the pain for a time, but meanwhile weaken the body and will. That counterfeit peace soon causes even greater anxiety mixed with guilt. Other more benign pleasures can leave us feeling empty as well. Seeking happiness in romance, work, or even family can be disheartening. The lover leaves or dies. Work and family life go flat without a sense of inner peace and purpose. Everything in the world betrays us in the end. So what is behind this illusion? Where is the satisfaction that we all seek?

Do you remember a time beyond time when you lost all thoughts to the wonder and beauty around you? As a child I remember many times of great joy with no thought for the past or future. Music and writing take me close to that feeling of nowness. In fact, any time the mind is fully concentrated on one thing all worries vanish and a secret joy bubbles out from the core of being. Each moment is vibrating with sacred promise which can be felt in calmness. It’s only when the mind is scattered with thoughts of something more that worry and restlessness creep in. Where are the bursting joys and dire disappointments of yesterday? And where is tomorrow’s hope and fear of the unknown? All is happening now, the rest is imagined. I take comfort in the fact that the source of eternal love is always with me. I just need to relax and look inside myself to feel the blessing.

Meditation is a source of great peace and joy when the mind is calm. Creation and communion with the inner creator add satisfaction to everyday life by unlocking the heart’s natural love. When you least expect it, the gift comes, slipping in the back door on stocking feet. So when I feel sad or anxious lately I think to myself that it is a blessed discontent calling my mind back to the source of all happiness. Let that fear, worry, sorrow, or even mild apprehension be the trumpet call announcing the presence of the creator, locked in a dream tower of doubt and distraction. The worst mistakes and failures of the past are your greatest blessings. Give thanks for them and the prince charming of inner peace will come with the ladder of forgiveness to release you. Trials are not meant to destroy us, but to awaken us to the inner source of strength and beauty.

Carnival of Healing home
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1) Meditative Reiki which leads to inner mastery and evolution.

2) Hands-on Reiki which leads to healing.

The two form a complete and comprehensive spiritual teaching. There’s some crossover between them and one complements the other. Because Reiki is a spiritual teaching and not a healing art alone, or worse a modality (as some practice it), Meditative Reiki is the trunk of the teachings. This doesn’t negate the power and value of hands-on Reiki.

Hands-on Reiki is founded on, sourced from, and supported by Meditative Reiki, without which Reiki is a truncated teaching. This post details the pitfall such truncation causes.

Hands-on Reiki without its Meditative anchor

Until about ten years ago, Reiki was popularly known only as a hands-on energy healing practice, with Usui Sensei’s enlightenment teachings left out of the system. This error, unfortunately, persists to this day in many pockets of the global Reiki community.

Usui was really only interested in helping people alleviate suffering through their own self-realization or satori using meditation and other related inner practices. Because he was a dedicated spiritual practitioner, he had healing power and was involved in an ongoing conversation about “palm healing” with his contemporaries, but this wasn’t the main thrust of his work.

Healing power is part and parcel of any evolutionary path, as it is in Reiki. It’s there naturally as the practitioner evolves. Hands-on healing is simply an extension of this process.

Just like an apple has a core, spiritual teachings have a core which is meditation. Remove the core and the apple collapses in on itself.

I’ve been teaching and practicing Reiki for fifteen years continuously. I was first trained in Reiki without its core; then Usui-san’s original wisdom seeds were made available to me. This writing comes from my personal and professional experience of the Grand Canyon of difference between the two, as well as staying up-to-date on historical research, global observation of Reiki, and of course my own practice of the teachings I love.

Here are some of the results of Reiki without its core:

• It feels incomplete; some of the information is disjointed; leaves you with a lot of questions.
• This in turn leads to an attempt to complete the teaching with material from other traditions. A prime example of this is the inclusion of the yogic chakra system, whereas in fact Far Eastern spirituality revolves around the understanding of hara.
• The filling-in doesn’t stop there. A baffling array of Reiki flavors have emerged: Amanohuna Reiki, Angelic RayKey, Ascension Reiki, Blue Star Reiki, Karuna Reiki, Kundalini Reiki, Lightarian Reiki, Raku Kei Reiki, Shamanic Reiki, Shamballa Reiki, Tera Mai Reiki, Tibetan Reiki…ad infinitum! Many of these claim to be “more powerful” or “higher vibration.”
• The hunger still doesn’t stop, for without feeling complete and without an enduring practice Reiki folk can become collectors of all these flavors.
• And with all of this comes the addition of material and practices that are extraneous to Usui’s Reiki: Guided meditation, crystals, hui yin breath, unrelated symbols, violet breath, chakra balancing, manifestation techniques, Reiki or spirit guides, and channeling, to name a few.

Let’s look at two extraneous practices to highlight the main distinction being made:

A) Guided meditation

B) Chakra balancing

Guided Meditation: There’s nothing wrong with this practice. Often it’s a novice’s first introduction to meditation, and any meditation is better than no meditation. In the context of Reiki as an evolutionary practice, however, guided meditation skims the surface.

The entire teaching of Reiki and its native meditations is based on a perennial understanding of universal Ki. This Ki isn’t only subtle energy. It’s also a set of divine qualities which include nondual consciousness, compassion, wisdom, spiritual light and power, spiritual intelligence, harmony and balance, all wrapped up in an embodied experience of Oneness.

In Usui’s meditations, universal Ki travels along the subtle spine pooling in significant points along it, in time-honored practices which are designed to be transformative and enduring.

When meditations already included in Usui’s Reiki are not passed on, the void is filled with guided meditations or other breathing techniques. This inauthenticates and bloats a teaching that already has all the elements of a true spiritual practice.

Let’s examine in a little more detail. “Transformative” means that a teaching and its practices radically and permanently shift your being. “Enduring” means this shift doesn’t stall after one time, it continues to expand your paradigm, and the practices never get stale, bringing new insight and wisdom, staying fresh, creative and inspiring.

Firstly, if you’ve only been taught hands-on Reiki, it gives you only a certain view. Then, because it isn’t complete, it starts a false hunger and striving in search of more power and higher vibration, you start to collect Reiki styles and a mishmash of techniques. This search doesn’t fill the void.

When a spiritual teaching is properly designed as Reiki was by Usui Sensei, it has a graduated set of practices, knowledge, transformation and realization that’s built-in and that fulfills and advances the practitioner with each use.

As originally designed, Reiki gives the practitioner direct access to the power of the universe in a way that builds a solid, lifelong relationship, answering all needs and questions and making way for a meritorious life.

Chakra balancing: As mentioned above, chakras aren’t an understanding elucidated in Far Eastern spirituality which works with the hara model. This isn’t the aspect being discussed here, for that requires its own post.

Chakras are a part of the human subtle body and for Reiki practitioners what may work best is to solidify and embody Reiki’s native teachings on the hara, and then grow into a blended appreciation of both. This is still not what’s being discussed here.

What’s being highlighted is the idea that Reiki practitioners balance anything at all. The fact of the matter is that when giving Reiki to yourself or someone else the practitioner is in a state of nondoing. (More about this here and here.)

Reiki is not a practice of being actively involved in the delivery of healing. Practitioners don’t need to visualize, direct, focus, colorize, enhance in any way, or force Reiki. There also isn’t an evaluation in the sense of making choices of what is to be balanced. Nothing is removed and nothing is added.

There’s only receptivity, observation, witnessing, and allowing. Any other approach constricts the conduit.

Any healing action and balancing occurs between the intelligence of the recipient and Reiki. Another way to say this is that Reiki has a healing effect in the resonance between personal ki and universal Ki.

And this healing isn’t what it seems to be at first glance. Reiki does create better energy flow within the mindbody; it reduces pain; provides emotional support; calms and clarifies the mind and brings a host of other benefits. There’s an energetic aspect to it and it does work energetically with the person.

Yet what is often missed in the teaching and practice of Reiki as only hands-on is that real healing is happening deep in consciousness and not only in the subtle body. Reiki is spiritual healing even when administered via the hands which means that there’s a transformation of consciousness.

Let’s remember that Meditative Reiki is the source and ground of its hands-on application, that Reiki is first a spiritual practice of inner mastery and evolution. When a student receives the practices of the trunk of Reiki, the transformation made available through these methods is then available when applied as hands-on. The student must first be given the techniques, i.e., Reiki teachers worldwide stop passing on truncated teachings, and then the student must practice Meditative Reiki sincerely and regularly.

There aren’t any shortcuts. A practitioner can effect a meditative change and healing in consciousness through hands-on Reiki on self and others, if the inner practice is first known and then adopted in a devoted and disciplined manner. Otherwise, Reiki is reduced to only a form of energy healing with an inconsistent ratio of effectiveness.

(These posts explain how this is so in greater detail: Reiki as Consciousness — Parts I - II - and III.)

What Usui’s Reiki can truly offer the individual and the world

Usui Sensei graced the world with five simple but abiding precepts:

For today only: Do not anger—Do not worry

Be humble

Be honest in your work

Be compassionate to yourself and others

These precepts are simple, but they are not easy at all. There’s tremendous profundity to them and contemplation leads to many, many lifelong realizations. Right in the very center of the trunk of Reiki are these precepts. They are the living tissue of the tree of Reiki.

Another feature of spiritual teachings which are considered to be wisdom traditions is that in addition to guiding words, practitioners are given practices to fine tune the human instrument to actually be able to live the precepts.

True teachings can’t be embodied only intellectually. The intellect is an asset, but it must also be surpassed. To become and live Usui’s precepts, a transformation must take hold in the person. And this can only happen if the complete teachings are first deeply embraced by Reiki Masters and then fully passed on to students.

Let’s finish by imagining what the world would be like if Usui’s five precepts were well-established in all aspects of society.

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

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

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

This post has many areas that are begging for a more detailed look, and future posts will be expanding on these points. If you’re new here, please subscribe via email so you will be notified.

This post is also not complete. For instance, I’m eternally grateful for the hands-on function of Reiki. And the arguments above can be made in many other ways, all enlarging and enriching the global Reiki conversation. This conversation will be continued here and I invite you to join me by commenting and reading future installments.

Semantics

Let’s speak about the language we’ve adopted around Reiki. What first comes to mind is, “I’m doing Reiki” or, “Let me do Reiki on you.” Language frames our reality in a certain way. By changing language we can change our reality. It’s one of the ways in which what we attract and dispel can be set into motion. Hopefully it’s been impressed upon you in your training, with further validation in your own practice, that Reiki is less about “doing” and seriously about BEING!

We’re constantly doing in almost every area of life. We live in an industrial, technological society, mostly motivated by MORE is BETTER and I CONTROL how to get more. Since we’re a breed of “doers,” balance must be found somehow. If we frame Reiki as doing too, it’s hot water where cool is needed; cool, calm, restful.

Reiki is a state of non-action. The more you flow with incoming energy, the more it will flow and you’ll experience greater harmony and balance. Personal evolution and healing can’t be forced. We’re connected to the electromagnetic field of Earth; there are seasons, cycles and rhythms. Similarly, healing and transformation happen in a layered, spiral fashion. Life is interdependent and imbued with an ageless wisdom. Reiki gives us a huge chance to listen to this wisdom.

“Give” and “receive” Reiki, reserving doing to other areas of your life that respond well to that. Practice Reiki on and with yourself, others, Nature and its lifeforms. Remember, non-action isn’t inaction. Right action has its place as we conceive, mount, produce and materialize our life and work, with all of its details.

Neither is Reiki “sent” at-a-distance. Rather, we’re constantly helping the evolution and healing of others when we sincerely work on our own opacity versus our stuckness. And when we do formally sit to practice nonlocal healing, it’s a becoming of Oneness with the receiver, whoever or whatever that may be. We merge and participate in an eternal moment that lingers the entire course of the energy flow; a subtly pulsing dance of intention and sharing of this Divine gift, sans space and time limits.

Meditative Reiki

One of the gems that has appeared in the surfacing of the original Usui teachings, is the integral place of meditation in Reiki for the practitioner. This isn’t someone’s creative idea of how to meditate with Reiki, or guided meditation, or simple quiet sitting.

Reiki meditations are based on a perennial understanding of Ki, breath, the spiritual spine, significant points along it, and the cornerstones of personal evolution.

Posture is important, without becoming too rigid about it. You can sit cross-legged on the floor or furniture; sit on furniture with your legs uncrossed, feet flat on the ground; or sit on the floor Japanese style (seiza) on your knees.

Head and torso are aligned; spine is upright but flexible. Cast your eyes down about 2 feet in front of you, looking at the floor and close or half close your eyes. Your focal point is always the hara region, in particular your tanden.

The breath is smooth, continuous and lengthened, i.e., slowed down. You want to breathe abdominally, letting the diaphragm do its intended job, filling the lungs from the bottom-up, without the use of other muscles around the ribcage and chest. Essentially, your belly expands on inhalation and contracts on exhalation, with little movement elsewhere. If you’re practicing bringing Light in through the crown (one of the specific Reiki meditations), it can feel like the opening and closing of a flap or valve, about two inches above the hairline.

Most importantly relax in body and mind. Drop your striving; it’s not the place for it. Practice sincerely and observe without judgment or expectation. As Universal Ki interacts with you and your consciousness is elevated, you may find that the breath becomes finer and finer. You can cease whatever technique you’re practicing and actually meditate at this point. Just don’t make it too soon, without this natural development taking place, because breathing in certain ways has many other benefits than leading you into meditation alone.

Self-Treatment

Some of these pointers will also help with giving Reiki to others. What I see most that may detract from the experience is an uncertainty in the hands, how they contact your body and at which locations. The main correction here is to make as much contact with the surface area of your body, with as much of the underside of your hands as possible. Mold your hands to make good, solid contact with your body, centering the palms over the main body part being addressed. The hands are relaxed, fingers and thumbs together. As your sensitivity increases, you’ll find the palms lock-in to place, whether it’s a physical location, organ, or an aspect of your subtle body. (Off-body Reiki is not addressed here.)

Practicing with others

Always position yourself so that you can observe the recipient’s face. If you’re working from their RIGHT, your RIGHT hand reaches to the LEFT of their body. This automatically turns your torso and head so you can see their face. If you’re working from their LEFT, your LEFT hand reaches across.

You don’t have to look at their face constantly; often your eyes are closed. The face registers experiences and it’s good to be observant. By the time you reach the legs, this is less of a factor, but do look up once in a while.

It’s also absolutely vital that you take a stance with feet shoulder-width apart, weight distributed equally on both feet, legs bent a little. Even if you sit on a stool, this posture can be adapted. Centered and moving from the hara.

Hands-on Reiki is vibratory healing. Delicacy of touch, graceful movements around the table, quietude, lightness in every way greatly contribute to the overall experience, and significantly to the recipient’s ability to receive, go within and have insight, and further to really deepen their spiritual connection.

Precision and sensitive awareness is the name of the game. We live most other times in a speedy race to succeed or at least survive.

Reiki is a chance for all parts of us to be in the same room at the same time and catch up.

Our divinity and humanity thus align and life is meaningful again, purposeful, a joy.

To address this gap in information and knowledge, a new category is being added with this post: “Reiki 411.” Look for in-depth articles in the future by selecting this category.

I received this question:

I am Reiki III and started learning Reiki four years ago. I used to self-heal by placing my hands on my chakras at least once a day for a few years but in the last year or so, I have noticed I don’t regularly at all. The last time I did was about a month ago. I do however meditate daily with a combination of angel meditation…general mindfulness and some guided ones including chakra meditations but not hands on.

I don’t feel this is an issue as I naturally moved away from self-healing but I am curious as to whether I should be doing hands-on self-healing regularly still. I don’t really give anyone Reiki traditionally but use energy in my coaching, teleclasses and all I do really. It seems that Reiki was a way into other stuff but I’ve never had a desire so far to be a hands-on healer but more of a general energy worker in less of a traditional way, kind of like incorporating energy into everyday life for me and others.

So what do you reckon, should I be self-healing?

Hands-on-self Reiki

There isn’t a single answer. Everyone comes to Reiki for different reasons and stays with Reiki for their own reasons. The hands-on aspect of Reiki and that it can be shared with yourself is both unique and powerful. Just the wonder of it may be enough to keep practicing.

I’ve always felt and described this application of Reiki as the pinnacle of care and gentleness. It’s loving, nurturing, and healing. It’s such a complete way to embrace yourself. It honors you and your needs without pressure or criticism. There’s an inescapable charm to it: You take your hands and place them intentionally on your head and body, and experience both your hands and yourself in a completely new way each time. It changes your relationship with yourself and the world because you then want to touch people’s lives in the same compassionate way.

Hands-on-self Reiki is also about self-awareness and biofeedback. It’s like having a closed-circuit camera letting you into all parts of your body and being. Regularly communicating with yourself in this manner, keeps you updated and doesn’t allow for the accumulation of undesirable content.

A whole lot more can be said about Reiki’ng yourself. One last benefit that must be mentioned is wellness. Whether you have health insurance or not, go to an allopathic physician or not, when you give yourself Reiki your health is augmented immeasurably. The key here is that it goes past simple health to wellness which is a dynamic state of balance and harmony.

Going deeper

Meditation is an integral to any comprehensive spiritual practice. In fact the founder of Reiki, Usui Sensei, emphasized meditation and included specific meditations in his teachings. Reiki is essentially a two-limbed teaching, with its hands-on application being based on a solid meditation practice.

When students aren’t taught Usui’s meditations, either this valuable practice is ignored, or one has to find meditations from other traditions. The most natural and effective way is to have the native practices of the teaching you’re studying.

Any authentic meditation method is better than no meditation. The advantage of Usui’s meditations is that they are designed to bring the fullness of Reiki to the practitioner. These Reiki-specific methods tone the energy body with all of its intricate pathways, as well as the mind and heart, and establish a true resonance between the individual and the universal.

Reiki certainly opens other avenues of learning. Reiki is certainly valid and effective as a hands-on healing art. However, only the comprehensive training and practice of Reiki lets you experience its full impact. Here’s why:

Reiki is a stand-alone and complete enlightenment teaching.

Conclusion

There’s an energetic version, application and experience of Reiki. For that to be available, there first has to be Consciousness. This isn’t consciousness as brain activity, but Consciousness as a universal template. Better, stronger and more balanced flow of energy is healing and leads to wellness. Hands-on Reiki goes far in helping you create that. Even within this model, however, real healing and transformation takes place at the level of Consciousness. Transformation solidifies beyond the level of energy. Energy is simply an expression of Consciousness, so it’s more efficacious to work directly with it.

Reiki is a two-limbed teaching with inner mastery through meditation being the foundation and source of its hands-on application. The two limbs complete each other and form a whole. It’s tremendously fortunate that we can use our hands to heal and comfort, the hands are such a special part of the body and give the world so much. Yet, with the well of Reiki meditation to draw from, even hands-on Reiki amplifies into a radical shift of self.

Whether for self or others, Reiki’s true power emerges when both sets of practices are passed on and sincerely utilized.