Reiki Help Blog :: Oasis Reiki Dojo

In the rich history of cross-cultural healing traditions, the healer was responsible mostly locally with his or her art. The world was simpler, less crowded, there was more isolation and globalization hadn’t emerged. The healer was the tribe’s health care system. He or she was also an integral part of the entire functioning of the village on all levels. The healer was consulted not only in personal matters, but matters of the tribe, its identity and relationship to nature, the world, and others.

© Pamir Kiciman 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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© Pamir Kiciman 2010

Many aren’t even aware of the option to be healed. The long history of healing is unknown to them, since it doesn’t get much airplay. And if healing is sought, it’s often for mundane reasons, although that’s still valid. Often people come to healing when there’s real trouble and all else has failed.

So, what is it, to heal, to be healed? Is it to feel better? Is it to have no pain? Is it to have a flesh wound close? Is it to end emotional suffering? Does everyone need healing? What if you’re healthy and your life is functional?

The short answer is, yes, everyone wants to be healed, whether that’s known to them consciously or not. The why is what this post is about.

There are some human fundamentals: Everyone wants to be happy, suffer not, be healthy, be provided for, have a place in the world, and have dignity. The way there we’re told is through the usual trajectory of schooling, career, advancement, relationship, a home, family, and the accumulation of stuff.

This isn’t a terrible model. It works in the world. Yet, it’s still a model of survival, with how well depending on the number and quality of creatures comforts you have. It causes a frustrating tug on these things to fulfill you that inherently don’t have that capacity. So you change majors, careers, partners, houses, and the particulars of your retirement account.

This model leaves you hungry, no matter how “full” your life may seem. It’s a cycle of searching. It’s a cycle of needs fulfillment.

Underneath all this searching there’s a seeking. You want to be happy, healthy, safe and loved. The only real way that can happen is if you get to know your true self. You can still have a career, family, and good retirement, but unless your true nature is known to you, fulfillment remains elusive and distant. The really juicy bit here is also that knowledge of your true nature as a foundation, launches the most incredible life in all its worldly permutations.

And that’s why everyone wants to be healed. At a core level everyone wants to become one with themselves, to be in their own fullness, power and beauty. What we’re told is the way there, isn’t the way there. The way there is inward. The way there is healing.

Your overarching purpose is to know your true nature. This unifies and clarifies all time-bound purposes. Knowing your true nature betters your outer world too, because then life is authentic. No matter your biography and resume, you’re here to know your true self. This is the real meaning of healing and it removes pesky pains and dramas too.

There’s alternative and complementary healing, only named such because medicine has become the primary avenue of health, for the resolution of human physical, emotional and mental ailments. There’s also spiritual healing. Both of these have been around for centuries, with storied traditions, which makes the alternative/complementary moniker misleading. In fact there’s only one kind of healing, and that is spiritual healing.

We are soul-infused biology. A healer heals at the soul level which filters to all human parts. Whether the spiritual is acknowledged or not, it’s unavoidable because it’s the very matrix of life, being and living.  All the external ways in which you want to bring yourself happiness, health, safety, success and love are in reality also ways in which you address your spirituality. What you’re searching is your original unity with your body, mind and soul, and the great living universe. This search is often fruitless unless it becomes a seeking.

Your true nature is real. It’s of Light substance, not carbon, unbound by time, Love in form. People work with healers to better their human, only to realize they were Divine all along. The human is Divine. The human is not skin-encased parts. That’s the body. It’s of the earth, it’s a fine vehicle for the sojourn here. The human is Heart and pure Being. It is Soul and Breath. It is Sacred Beauty.

There’s healing to be done in your timeline. Greater spiritual healing is to know your true nature. The physical body slowly breaks down. It needs healing. Your emotions and mental realm are challenged by this proposition of living. They need healing. Healing the dramas and pains of your life is a valid reason to work with a healer. It bears many gifts. There are yet more gifts.

“Who/What am I and what am I doing here?” is answered through healing. Awakening to your abiding self is the healing of illusion. The greatest illusion is that you’re your bank account, the kind of car you drive, your accomplishments and the physical life you lead. These have value. Their value is never quite realized without the missing piece: The conscious quest to know your true nature.

This quest is a healing up. Healing mentally, emotionally and physically is healing down to where you are on the planet at any given moment. Healing up is outside of time. It occurs in the nonphysical. It takes place in essence, not shape. It’s in the causal realm.

The healing of this primary illusion transforms everything. How you live, how you live in relation to the planet, in relation to yourself and other people and species, what you live, how you touch other lives, and what you leave behind from your expression in this specific iteration.

What do you live? Is it your Divinity?

Our true nature is self-authenticating. When we bump into our true nature, it authenticates itself. Something inside us knows. —Adyashanti

(You can work with me if you’re not in the local area. Find out here.)

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The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, and Senor Xolotl by Frida Kahlo

This week marks another Earth Day on Friday, April 22. Today it’s been one year since B.P.’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The way we live with our planetary home is a prominent piece of the Earth changes and humanity’s evolution as we’re currently witnessing on the world stage. This evolution isn’t only in the human psyche or society, but is directly in relation to our co-living with the Earth, this great Mother Being.

The repercussions of the oil spill disaster are nowhere near understood or even acknowledged. It’s complex and only a few items will be mentioned. Congress still hasn’t raised the liability cap for companies that cause oil spills. BP has so far paid only $3.8 billion of its $20 billion restitution fund. The human toll continues financially and emotionally. Samantha Joye, a University of Georgia researcher has found oil coating coral ecosystems in the Gulf after five sea floor expeditions since the spill; species like dolphins, turtles and whales are suffering losses that will not manifest for years. 235 miles of coastline are still actively being cleaned. Safety, preparedness, and regulatory failures were exposed and it’s uncertain how another event will be prevented. Drilling permits in even deeper and more dangerous waters are now being issued again, after a short moratorium. You can read in-depth reporting from these sources: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, DiscoveryNews, Huffington Post, BBC News,  Mother Nature Network.

Today, I really want to write about a substantially different point of view, one that continues the new story of the Earth and humanity as I’ve been posting here lately.

Every human being has a unique and mystical relationship to the wild world, and the conscious discovery and cultivation of that relationship is at the core of true adulthood. In contemporary society, we think of maturity simply in terms of hard work and practical responsibilities. I believe, in contrast, that true adulthood is rooted in transpersonal experience—in a mystic affiliation with nature, experienced as a sacred calling—that is then embodied in soul-infused work and mature responsibilities. —Bill Plotkin, PhD

The ancients have known this. There are many who know it today because it’s passed down, and it’s felt. What’s missing is the tipping point number of people who need to know it for there to be a significant cultural shift in the way we live. The way we live with ourselves, each other and this planet of life we cohabit. We humans live here with more than 11 million species, of which we’ve named only about 1.7 million.

By embracing Nature and soul as our wisest and most trustworthy guides, we can raise children, support teenagers, and ripen ourselves in ways that enable us to grow whole and engender a sustainable human culture. We can progress from our current egocentric societies (materialistic, anthropocentric, competition-based, class-stratified, violence-prone and unsustainable) to soulcentric ones (imaginative, ecocentric, co-operation-based, just, compassionate and sustainable). —Bill Plotkin, PhD

The world’s soul and Nature’s soul are rather vocal as we come into another Spring on this planet of about 4.6 billion years. The world and Nature are inseparable. What makes the Earth habitable is her Nature. Mars doesn’t have it, nor any other in our solar system, and beyond (as far as we know today for all practical purposes). Without Nature as foundation and life sustainer, we can’t have any of the human achievements that may swell up our pride.

There’s a life that flows through everything on Earth. This life has a soul. This soul speaks. Much of humanity is alienated to it, but this soul is simply us, and all of everything in creation. When I first started contemplating what’s been going on in the world this year, a phrase came to me spontaneously:

We are in the time of the Circle.

I didn’t use it at then. Now its time is ripe.

All life is a circle. The atom is a circle, orbits are circles, the earth, moon, and sun are circles. The seasons are circles. The cycle of life is a circle: baby, youth, adult, elder. The sun gives life to the earth who feeds life to the trees whose seeds fall to the earth to grow new trees. We need to practice seeing the cycles that the Great Spirit gave us because this will help us more in our understanding of how things operate. We need to respect these cycles and live in harmony with them. —Rolling Thunder, Cherokee

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It’s not certain if we’re at 2.0 or 3.0. What’s certain is that we need an update and upgrade. Our brain and neurology needs an upgrade, our mind too and our heart. In Buddhism there’s the concept of heart-mind. Ayya Khema tells us, “In Pali, heart and mind are one word (citta), but in English we have to differentiate between the two to make the meaning clear.” Pali is the language of many of the earliest Buddhist scriptures.

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

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

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

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

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

Dear friends in Japan,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bolivia gives us hope.

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

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

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© Pamir Kiciman 2010

Earth has been framed in many stories since its inception. Broadly, these are early creation myths, agrarian times, Flat Earth and being center of the universe, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, Modernism, and finally the scientific/technological age of globalization. At this very juncture, Earth’s and humanity’s narrative within it is being radically rewritten. It’s an emergent story, one that’s on the edge of the future and so in some ways unknowable. However, there are clear signs and indicators. The first quarter of 2011 has been extremely eventful and what these signs and indicators mean, or how we may utilize them in solution-oriented ways can be confusing.

We must participate in the emergent story of the Earth and humanity without the mistakes and limitations of the old one. In essence, humanity’s trajectory on Earth has been one of increasing ‘separation.’ We began with a healthy respect for Nature and working in harmony with her. The Earth was understood to be sacred. This remained true even as ideas of ‘mine’ and ‘ours’ crept in when everyone wanted to protect their land. We started to feel separate from each other, while still feeling one with Nature. As cities developed, humans spent less time outdoors. With the Industrial Age and its aftermath all the way to the present, our relationship with Nature and the Earth shifted from gratitude for resources to profit from resources.

This shift and science’s ability to measure only matter but not ‘life’ has established the worldview that creation is inert. Only humans are alive, but even then we can only love those who are the same as we are. Trees are alive, but they’re a commodity so clearcutting rainforests is permissible. Animals are alive, but they don’t have our intellect, so we can raise them solely to be slaughtered as food. A seed is full of life, but what it grows into can’t be shipped easily so we’ll modify it genetically. Oil is not alive, so it’s perfectly fine to drill and extract it with no end in sight. If the world around us is inert, if we live in a dead solar system, then a neighbor who’s ‘different,’ the extinction of a species, or the final demise of old growth forests is of little consequence.

Current world events, capped by the earthquake in Japan and military action in Libya are a giant call to awakening. We don’t know what may happen next. What we do know is that when a planet and its life forms become commodities only, stripped of all other intrinsic value, that planet is in dire danger. The New Earth can only emerge from the understanding that creation is in fact not inert, but teeming with sacred life.

This is the choice point we’re facing collectively. There’s a way to heal through our dilemmas. The Earth herself has wounds, as does humanity. Oneness is an ancient truth we must now adopt as our new narrative to heal. Oneness has always been Earth’s and humanity’s narrative. What’s needed now is its embodiment. Our task now is to permeate social, political, economic and scientific systems with it. A united Earth can step into a possible future that’s now emerging.

Oneness includes compassion, not only tolerance. It includes wisdom, not only intelligence. It includes nonmechanical power. It includes abiding inspiration and creativity. We need all of these to usher in the sustainable good of the future.

Although there have been massive undercurrents to what we’re seeing in the world today, events are at the same time spontaneous and self-organizing. This and the severity of upheaval all around the world is a sure sign of much needed global healing. We can make this a teachable moment for humanity. The world’s healing traditions hold the wisdom that change includes cleansing. Cleansing is a process of reconciliation. The unhealed must be processed. This means it’s acknowledged and understood first, which leads to acceptance and insight. Finally, higher functional states open up.

When creation is understood as living, honoring it comes naturally, and our acts become hymns to it instead of dirges. Will you emerge and merge with Earth’s and humanity’s new healing narrative?

© Pamir Kiciman, written March 2011

Each post for the Reiki Help Blog can take anywhere from 1-5 days to write/research, proofread/edit, and post with an appropriate image and formatting. If you leave this space with any value, knowledge, joy or understanding, please consider making a donation of your choice.

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