Reiki Help Blog :: Oasis Reiki Dojo

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

I spontaneously started channeling fifteen years ago when I first began meditating. It was Kuan Yin who visited, to my great honor. I had a friend living in China at the time who mailed me a white porcelain statue of Kuan Yin after hearing my loving praise of her. This statue is 18 inches tall and fairly substantial. It arrived unannounced one day in my mailbox, together with a giant batik of Kuan Yin. These items still decorate my home.

My friend didn’t tell me she was sending it. The statue was unscathed in its journey from China, and it wasn’t even wrapped that well. That’s what Goddesses do. They show up in your mailbox in all their splendor.

I’m a conscious channel, meaning I hear, know and experience all that is being transmitted at the time, and remember it once it’s finished. I’ve channeled several well known beings, and some that were personally significant to me. For some years now, I haven’t formally channeled.

Before I stopped, it was communicated to me that I’m an integral part of the message, shaping, interpreting, vocalizing and embodying the transmission. And later messages were all from Spirit, not a particular being, as is the one I share here.

I haven’t taken this blog into this arena until now. Since March of this year, I’ve been sharing monthly Reiju / Community Healing / Life Alignment. There are two hundred names on the sign up sheet. Click here to find out more.

The following came through during September’s Reiju which was conducted on 9/9/009. You can search online about the significance of this date. I hope it moves, informs and helps you.

The Error of Ways

There’s greatness in you. A greatness that comes from being here in this time of shifting. The shift is felt in lots of ways, and is often disguised under turbulence. Don’t be fooled by this. This is only the surface effect. What lies underneath is harmony.

A shift in the error of ways is bound to throw up a dust storm, a debris cloud. This error of ways is longstanding, entrenched and deep in the subconscious of humanity.

But deeper still in human memory and DNA lies truth. The truth of egalitarian ways, ways that honor life and others and fellow beings. The tree is your fellow being, the person to your left or right is of the same origin.

The error of ways is a deluded departure from the heart to the brain, from spirit into matter, from unity to strangers. It is the way of ego, of smallness.

This now is a time of Heart. Those with the biggest and strongest Hearts will usher in the shift. Those same don’t fear the turbulence, recognize it as an effect only. This is the greatness you have inside. You don’t buy the temporary. Your greatness comes from an ancient memory of harmony.

You were born for this. It doesn’t matter what your life looks like, your bank account, your health, your relationships. What matters is you’re here and have chosen a peaceful way, a way that recognizes it’s bigger than you. You are not your symptoms, but the light that shines in spite of them.

You are great. This now is the end of greed, of duplicity. This now is the coming forth of supernatural generosity and gifting. The Earth is bestowed with a garland of generosity. You are here to decorate every living thing with it. To give life new fragrance. To dress life with the colors of sublime love, the chromatic splendor of true light.

The shift wouldn’t be a shift if it was business as usual. It’s precisely because there’s chaos and uncertainty that you know there’s change. When a wrecking ball takes down an old building, it’s not pretty. The error of ways has gone so far that only a great crashing, a tumbling of huge magnitude will make an impression, and way for the enlightened.

The enlightened prefers to whisper, gently suggest and let free will and choice pick it up from there. This is the norm and it still operates. When you meditate or heal, the enlightened is in subdued mode, waiting for the guidance to take hold in you.

Many of you have also known that even on an individual basis, the enlightened will pick up a jackhammer to let you know something’s got to give. There’s a major mess in your life, then with your action and cooperation, order returns.

So much so when the error of ways is global and doesn’t only threaten society but the very planet on which societies exist: The inescapable necessity of the shift has to be communicated in stark terms for it to take hold, for society to stop the madness.

Stop the madness of plundering natural resources, abdicating human and animal rights, amassing obscene fortunes, pushing the planet to the brink, allowing hunger and poverty, stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, turning your health over to pharmaceuticals, war mongering, genocide, personal and cultural aggrandizement. Stop.

You are great because to a large degree you have stopped. You. There are much bigger forces at play and at times it seems your stopping the error of ways is having little to no impact. Stop this thought too.

You are forerunners. Wayshowers. The ballast. If it weren’t for you, it may already have been too late for this planet. Your power may be unnoticed in the halls of earthly power, but it’s recorded in eternity. And this is eternity delivering a wallop to the power holders and brokers.

If you weren’t a transition-maker, you wouldn’t be here, be in the exact circumstances you’re in. Don’t undervalue your place, don’t get caught up in the symptoms of your life. You’re doing your own work too, and some of it is messy. But greater than any of it is the work of ages being done by you and through you.

The only school for this work is lifetimes. The only degree is evolutionary motive. This is not your first commencement!

–Spirit through Pamir Kiciman 9/9/2009

Many spiritual teachings are structured like a tree.

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?

When I first applied Reiki Distant Healing about fifteen years ago (RDH–I specify because it’s different from other nonlocal, i.e., distant methods), I realized that it was a very deep state of true meditation. By that I mean a meditative state that is not for lowering blood pressure or stress-relief, but a spiritually charged space of connecting to the Reality which upholds our physical existence.

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.

Part I

When one is illumined, he sees himself as the one Spirit throbbing beneath all minds and bodies. Such a person, after liberating his own personality, tries spiritually to liberate other personalities—knowing that they belong to his own Self. –Paramahansa Yogananda

Fortunately, this desire to help others evolve usually springs up fairly early on one’s path. It’s also fortunate that enlightenment doesn’t have to be fully ripened for the pathwalker to receive tremendous benefits.

Enlightenment teachings work all along the path as long as the practitioner is consistent and internalizes the transformation and wisdom that’s made available. You don’t have to be on the final tier of illumination to reap deep rewards. At each stage and everyday, enlightenment practices keep suffering away, and make life successful and beautiful in every area, not only your spirituality.

Enlightenment is the transformation of personal consciousness to universal consciousness. According to the wisdom traditions of the world, this transformation is not an anomaly or departure from human nature, but rather the actualization of human potential. –Deepak Chopra

Human potential is part of your entire life. You apply your human potential at work, in business, at home, with your family, with your friends, in sports and recreation, in your own mind and your body. Doesn’t everyone want to be better at life?

Mainstream methods of success and happiness focus only on material concerns, and not only in the sense of money or possessions. Material also in the sense of brain or thought improvement, emotional intelligence (which is a good thing), physical prowess, career goals and personal development.

Intelligence is valuable. What’s worth considering is what “smart” is and what kind of “smart” are we talking about? People read smart authors, follow smart people in social media; there’s smart money and investing, smart career moves, smart real estate and smart car buying.

But are we actually any smarter? We haven’t found a peace solution for the Middle East, a true alternative to oil, the economy is in the tank, global warming is still denied, pharmaceuticals are the answer to all our personal and health issues and people go hungry every single day.

As we move more fully into the universal values of the cosmos, we progressively express the qualities of love, compassion, intuition, insight, imagination, and creativity. We find that our thinking and behavior begins to function in harmony with the forces of the universe, and we notice more conscious choice-making, observations of synchronicity around us, the spontaneous fulfillment of our desires, and the manifesting power of our intentions. –Deepak Chopra

News flash! Overarching methodologies are all-encompassing, i.e., enlightenment filters down to all aspects of your life and the world. Enlightenment addresses your innermost self which like a giant Russian nesting doll encompasses all of you. When a transformative practice is used to evolve your innermost self your body, mind and outer life are also bettered. You can address all those parts one by one, or work on the central being in which those parts are unified.

The most important thing about spirituality is that it gives you awareness or puts you in touch with who you are. Who you are is not what you have been doing on this earth-plane, who you are related to, and so on. Who you really are is the Being whose task it is to understand the infinite levels of awareness, of consciousness. –Dattatreya Siva Baba

This is so because spirituality is both the only way out of the conundrum of human existence, and also the way of making your everyday shine! The two are one, there isn’t any separation between your spiritual and financial, familial and personal excellence. How could there be? Your outer life is an extension and only a brief moment in the life of your unified, real Self.

Divesting instead of investing in your spirituality (which uncovers enlightenment) keeps you in darkness or ignorance. There are many more choices to counter what’s unsatisfactory in your life than the list of professionals and services you may find in the phone book. Spirituality is a comprehensive response to the challenges of life, offering practices, philosophy and art. You must realize that solutions are right there in whatever is unsatisfactory. Awakening is always available but you must initiate it.

The practices of awakening make it possible to melt your hardened habitual nature and patterns. You use a method, a technology or system for everything else in your life. The guarantee of spirituality is that everyone can awaken! The practices have been designed by others who have traversed the inner planes. These practices are time-honored and have worked for so many in different cultures and times. In this day and age there are new and effective practices that enrich the field of human awakening.

Will you at least dip your toes?

Related:

Energetic Integrity

How Oneness leads to Energetic Integrity