Reiki Help Blog :: Oasis Reiki Dojo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Litany of the River includes many truths:

“Identity amid impermanence is what gives a rivers its name

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

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

Trees teach us about growth

They also stand for shelter

They are, like water, living organisms

Ponder the meaning of growth and development

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our senses are blind to its mystery and meaning

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

And:

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

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

They must meet.

I’m curating Reiki stories. This project started back in June with two remarkable stories of Reiki working in human lives. The Reiki Stories Project is open to everyone who has a story to add. You may email it to me or leave in comments below. Please make sure you read the previous two stories and why it’s important that we document such experiences.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessed be!

What has Reiki shown you of itself?

Last night in the monthly dojo (teaching hall) meeting I hold with Reiki practitioners I’ve trained, the subject of karma came up. Karma, like some other key words and teachings from the world’s wisdom traditions is misunderstood and bastardized.

Today we have ‘gurus’ and ‘pandits’ in every field, especially technology. Karma is mentioned on a popular bumper sticker, and used loosely in everyday conversation. It’s a complicated and complex subject.

I’ve found the following from one of the most respected Buddhist teachers dispensing dharma (look it up!) today, Pema Chödrön, to be very helpful. It avoids some of the more esoteric aspects of this involved teaching and presents a practical approach.

Please let me know how it has put things into perspective for you in comments below. (The bold sections are my highlighting.)

When something happens to us that we find really painful—an insult, a physical ailment, the loss of someone we love dearly—the Buddhist teachings train us to understand that we have just been given an opportunity to repay a karmic debt…The karmic understanding need not be religious nor an occasion for guilt. In fact, it can allow us to act without being guilt-ridden. Anything I cause someone else to feel, either pleasant or unpleasant, resulting from my words, actions, and activities, I myself will feel sooner or later. What goes around comes around. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it comes back in the same form, but somehow anything I’ve caused someone else to feel, I will feel at some point in the future. This system applies to good feelings as well, but my focus here is on the karmic repercussions that cause us to settle the score.

Therefore, when something unpleasant happens to me, I know it is a debt coming back. I have no idea what I did, so it’s not something I have to feel guilty about…I have no need to go into the history of how I got here. I just say, “I am feeling this.” At this point, I have a chance for the buck to stop here. This stimulus does not need to be the cause of evening the score in the usual pain-causing way.

Instead, at this point you can apply a meditation method that would circumvent the habitual score settling. Whatever practice you use, the point is to stay with the underlying uneasiness and lean into it. Connect with the natural openness of your mind. You can feel at this point that “this debt has just been paid.” At that point, there isn’t going to be any further debt to somebody else or to yourself, no further repercussions from this exchange except further awakening, further connecting with the natural openness and intelligence of mind, further connecting with warmth and loving-kindness toward yourself, further connecting with compassion and love for other beings. Those are the kind of results that our uncomfortable situations could give birth to…

Many people have stories like this. They put someone through something and then they experience it themselves, and somehow they know that they are paying back a debt. It has nothing whatsoever to do with punishment. It’s more like a law of physics. There’s no one punishing you. There is no master planner making sure you get it. There is no vengeance. It is just a principle that you sooner or later start to feel in your bones.

This approach to settling the score is that whenever something bad comes your way, it is always an opportunity for further healing. When things happen to you that you don’t like, you can either open the wound further or you can heal the wound. Instead of getting strongly hooked into thoughts like “I don’t like,” “I don’t want,” “It isn’t fair,” “How could they do this to me?,” “I don’t deserve this, or “They should know better,” it’s possible that you could train yourself so that the natural intelligence becomes stronger than your reactivity.

For most of us most of the time, our emotional reactivity obscures our natural intelligence. But if we become motivated to start contemplating the approach of seeing pain and discomfort as opportunities for healing—for becoming “one-with” and bringing people closer rather than splitting—our intelligence actually will get stronger than our emotional reactivity. If we take those opportunities for healing, the momentum of the intelligence will gradually start to outweigh the momentum of the reactivity…We’re not talking getting rid of the experience of getting hooked. We’re talking about when you get hooked, what do you do next? There’s a choice. The Buddha teaches us that we are always at a crossroads, moment by moment. We have the intelligence to make a choice, so let’s educate ourselves about what the implications of our choices are…We could choose to open the wound further, creating more suffering for ourselves and others, or we can choose to heal the wound.

The question we usually ask ourselves at this crossroads is, What will soothe me in this moment? The habitual response is that what will soothe me is to get what I want, to have my needs met, to get even, to straighten this all out so I come out with what I need. But we have seen what this choice leads to. We need to cultivate that other choice.

The choice I have been talking about doesn’t preclude resolving conflicts where parties have been in the wrong…Unfortunately when we see all this suffering we want fast results. Once again we might act on impulse and out of emotional reactivity, but if we look at the many examples of people trying to heal and settle the score in the intelligent way, we see that it takes time. The results are slow in coming, but from the larger perspective of natural intelligence and openness and warmth, the process is as important as the result. You are creating the future of the planet by how you work with injustice. You may not see it before your eyes immediately, but you are repaying a karmic debt…All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do…

At the end of June I had the good fortune of being the only nonmedical presenter at PDSA’s annual ITP conference. For a background on the Platelet Disorder Support Association, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and my participation at the conference, please read this previous post (you really want to!).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I started the Reiki Help Blog two years ago on August 2, 2007 by posting this:

“Needing & getting help

I really love what and how I contribute. Basically I spend my days making it easier for someone to do something easier, or improve a situation or challenge. And Reiki allows me to do so without strain or depletion, and in a way that liberates the person being helped to be self-reliant, independent and self-governing after the help takes hold. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Learn more.”

Blogs are like dog years in how quickly they can grow and mature. This blog has about 120 posts. According to FeedBurner which started tracking a month later on September 7, there have been 6,401 views on 51 items and 1,995 clicks back to the site on 48 items. Not as prolific as some blogs, but FeedBurner numbers aren’t all that reliable and I didn’t start using Google Analytics till much later, well into the second year. For instance Analytics is already showing 10,529 views.

When you’re online, numbers are simply part of the experience. Otherwise, my intentions in starting this blog are made clear in this post five days later on August 7, 2007:

To serve…

The original prayer is creation itself. As created beings we are a prayer onto our own. Prayer here means the lived experience of sacredness, not its usual religious context. Sacredness isn’t confined to one aspect of life. Sacredness has always been the single thread that runs through life. Sometimes this thread is visible, consciously enhanced and cultivated. Sometimes it’s invisible and purposely ignored.

The call is that no matter what we’re primarily engaged in, there’s opportunity to serve the people around us. This could be a service of education, financial help, empowerment, consciousness-raising, healing, community, family matters, the elderly, the disabled, the homeless, the addicted and so on. Within our respective fields also, even in seemingly unrelated environments such as business, service is readily available for seeing eyes.

To serve is a simple process of feeling and understanding suffering in ourselves and others.

Our feet are in the dust, i.e., the earth element. Our hands are at the level of the heart, the seat of compassion. Together with the feet, the hands carry out action or service once we’re willing.

There’s nothing we can’t overcome, personally or collectively, but we must become master blenders of the dust and the sacred, spinning at the precise pivot point of Divinity in expression and action.

Service became a way of life for me after my own healing from the small, self-involved self of pleasure and pain.

The Reiki Help Blog is an extension of all that I am. It mirrors the teaching that I do with people I help. It’s a community for all of my Oasis Reiki practitioners. And it serves the wider community of spiritual practitioners seeking consciousness and healing.

What the Reiki Help Blog Covers

Often the subject matter is Reiki, but not all the time by any means. Green living and the environment are covered. Consciousness in the meditative and contemplative sense is a popular subject. I review related books, CDs and DVDs as healing resources. I even posted brief reviews of some of the favorite children’s books my son and I have enjoyed together.

A good way to browse the archives is to click whatever interests you in the categories listed on the homepage of the blog. This brings up a range of posts.

One of my ideas for the next phase of this endeavor is to post perhaps more frequently and note shorter thoughts.

I thank all my readers and commentators and all who have stopped by. I hope you’ve been helped and inspired.

Since this is a Reiki blog, below is a list of the flagship Reiki posts that flesh out the ins and outs of this amazing teaching.

• Modern Reiki – A full understanding
• Reiki As It Is – The finer details
• The action of Ki in Reiki
• Usui’s Precepts: The living tissue of Reiki
• Generating Compassion with Reiki Distant Healing
• Reiki ’symbols’: To or not to?
• Reiki semantics: Are you on autopilot?
• Reiki lessons from a Samurai
• Reiki for business people

You may also select the Reiki and Reiki 411 categories to find other nuggets.

Another great way to catch up on all the content here is to simply read the posts included in the Must Read category.

Please do let me know how you’ve enjoyed the Reiki Help Blog by leaving comments on the posts that move you.

Peace to you in all your experiences…