Reiki Help Blog :: Oasis Reiki Dojo

Reiki is most popularly known as hands-on energy healing. It is in fact a spiritual teaching which can also be used to self-heal and help others heal. The essence of Reiki is about the development of the person in both character and spirit. As a person grows and evolves, healing comes along too. The focus in Reiki is the emergence of one’s natural spirituality. From this foundation, all other applications of Reiki become available.

The spirit

This only makes sense, as the spiritual is at the root of being human and life itself.  Acknowledging the spiritual is the ultimate healing. While Reiki can heal what ails humans on all levels, accessing and prioritizing one’s spirituality is where Reiki excels. Once the spirit is acknowledged and centralized, a major core shift occurs and sets the tone for the rest of a life.

Consciousness and energy

Another common misconception is that Reiki is a form of ‘energy.’ While life energy accompanies the Reiki experience, it’s more a vibration or pulsation, and what’s vibrating or pulsating is consciousness. Consciousness here means the substratum of reality. Transformation takes place in consciousness. Any healing or change that doesn’t take place in consciousness usually doesn’t last.

The flow model of Reiki is simply this: 1) Consciousness, 2) Energy, 3) Physical manifestation. Energy plays a role, but it can’t really exist without its source: Consciousness.

Reiki is a transformative and enduring practice. ‘Transformative’ means that it radically and permanently shifts body, mind and being. ‘Enduring’ means this shift doesn’t stall after one time, it continues to expand one’s paradigm. The practices don’t get stale, bringing new insight and wisdom, staying fresh, creative and inspiring. Healing that’s accompanied by this kind of true transformation is lasting.

Wisdom and compassion

A core change in one’s orientation and relationship to life, such as the one Reiki facilitates releases the truth within each person. Reiki isn’t about temporary pain relief or a momentary understanding. It’s about freeing wisdom and compassion from inside. All divinity is already within. Reiki is a spiritual teaching sourced in this divine database and gives the practitioner complete access to it.

Liberation of the truth within frees the outer life of all its suffering, pain, disease, fear, turmoil, anguish and misery.

Reiki facilitates this in a very practical and user-friendly way. The founder of these teachings, Usui Sensei, prefaced Reiki’s five precepts with:

Happiness is secreted inside, that’s its only secret. Truest healing is spiritual. Spiritual healing addresses the whole person instead of helping only with the body or mind, which can leave an opening for imbalance to return.

The ‘many blessings’ Usui talks about could be interpreted as that multifaceted divinity  activating and bearing fruit (blessings) in a person’s life again and again. It’s also the consistent and frequent (many) practice of the various methods given in the teachings.

In conclusion, Reiki is a contemplative path which leads to the emergence of the true self in meaningful unity with all life.

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Train in Reiki with Pamir.

Photo: © Pamir Kiciman 2010

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Having provided free content for over two years, the Reiki Help Blog is now asking for your support. Actually, the content remains free, but your support is needed. The button or link below will take you to a secure PayPal page where you can give any amount of your choosing.

“Pamir, I really enjoy reading your blog. I would like to make a wee contribution to support your work. Thanks for doing what you do! Many, many Reiki blessings!” — J.A.P

Please donate what feels right. Each post is a considerable investment of thought, heart, energy and time.

Donate to this blog. Thank you!

I tire easily of the word “energy.” It’s overused, a giant umbrella under which gather a hodgepodge of concepts! It’s in use with the populace in general, and especially in spiritual circles as well being a darling of Reiki folk. Obviously energy exists, it’s pervasive and important. The more we understand it, wield it in balance, and relate to life at this subtle layer, the better off we’ll be and so too the planet.

The ‘energy’ we’re talking about isn’t metabolic energy, which is what the physical body uses for its everyday functioning. Instead it’s subtle energy, a core level complex system and driving force. All of life and creation has energy at its core and perhaps this is why it’s become so popular to say, “everything’s energy” and leave it there. But if it’s so central, doesn’t it ask us to know more about it?

Cyndi Dale explains energy very simply as: “information that vibrates.” She also states: “Information with a speed faster than light is received as subtle energy…Information that moves at the speed of light or slower is received…as sensory, and will impact physical reality.”

Scientific research has proven that everything energetic contains information: data that tells an atom whether it should occupy a kidney or outer space…. Besides “being informed,” energy also vibrates…. Vibration is produced in the form of amplitude and frequency: oscillations that generate more energy. These oscillations carry information that can be stored or applied. The information (as well as the vibrating oscillations) can also change depending on the nature of a particular interaction. All of life is made of information and vibration. — Cyndi Dale

Now we’re getting somewhere! It seems ‘energy’ is housed in a greater field of vibration. A subtler source of energy is vibration.

… all healing starts with oscillation, which is the basis of frequency. Frequency is the periodic speed at which something vibrates. It is measured in hertz (Hz), or cycles per second. Vibration occurs when something is moving back and forth…. Everything in the universe vibrates, and everything that vibrates imparts or impacts information (the definition of energy). To broaden our discussion of particles and waves to include health, we can define health as the state of an organism with respect to its functioning at any given time. — Cyndi Dale, The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy

The disadvantage of framing Reiki as energy is that electricity is a form of energy too. There’s also mechanical, magnetic, chemical and thermal energy. Well, Reiki has an impact on the body’s electricity, magnetism and chemical/hormonal firings.

It also greatly influences our mind, and has a huge spiritual influence. Thus, we have a conundrum. A conundrum that’s best answered by moving to yet another layer. Notice how reality is layered and there’s a spectrum; there’s always a spectrum.

Behind changing mental fluctuations is a constant awareness, an unbroken sense of self or being, an ongoing ability to observe, witness and perceive…. Therefore the mind itself is not awareness…. Awareness, unlike the mind, has no form, function or movement. It is not located in time and space but stands apart as their witness…To know this awareness, we must learn to go beyond mind, which means to disengage from its involvements. This is our real work as human beings and the essence of the spiritual path… — Dr. David Frawley

In terms of the map that’s emerging here, we can say that ‘awareness’ houses ‘vibration’ which houses many kinds of ‘energy.’ This is simplistic, yes, but at the same time it helps to grasp the big picture. When you give yourself Reiki, or meditate using one of Usui Sensei’s authentic methods, you don’t dissect reality, you have an experience that leads to an overall effect. That effect penetrates all levels of being, concentrating where you need assistance the most at that time.

Over time you notice that you’re transformed. Not in one area, but in all. Reiki is able to effect such change because it originates at a meta layer.

The following posts detail a lot of what’s been discussed here:

• Reiki as Consciousness
• Reiki as Consciousness II
• Reiki as Consciousness III

If you have any questions, please ask in comments and I’ll respond.

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Having provided free content for over two years, the Reiki Help Blog is now asking for your support. Actually, the content remains free, but your support is needed. The button or link below will take you to a secure PayPal page where you can give any amount of your choosing.

“Pamir, I really enjoy reading your blog. I would like to make a wee contribution to support your work. Thanks for doing what you do! Many, many Reiki blessings!” — J.A.P

Please donate what feels right. Each post is a considerable investment of thought, heart, energy and time.

Donate to this blog. Thank you!

The hara is central to Reiki practice. Unlike the chakras, it’s more difficult to find information about it, although authentic Reiki Training will provide the necessary knowledge. The hara is best understood in the experience of one’s regular practice.  And while the chakras are mentioned below, Far Eastern understanding of subtle anatomy is based on the hara, not the Hindu chakras.

The following is taken from The Three Pillars of Zen, compiled and edited by Philip Kapleau, a seminal work on Zen Buddhism. While there are certain references specific to Zen, the appeal of the hara and its cultivation is obvious.

Hara literally denotes the stomach and abdomen and the functions of digestion, absorption, and elimination connected with them. But it has parallel psychic¹ and spiritual significance. According to Hindu and Buddhist yogic systems, there are a number of psychic centers in the body through which vital cosmic force or energy flows. Of the two such centers embraced within the hara, one is associated with the solar plexus, whose system of nerves governs the digestive processes and organs of elimination. Hara is thus a wellspring of vital psychic energies. Harada-roshi, one of the most celebrated Zen masters of his day, in urging his disciples to concentrate their mind’s eye (i.e., the attention, the summation point of the total being) in their hara, would declare: “You must realize”—i.e., make real—”that the center of the universe is the pit of your belly!

To facilitate his experience of this fundamental truth, the Zen novice is instructed to focus his mind constantly at the bottom of his hara (specifically, between the navel and the pelvis) and to radiate all mental and bodily activities from that region. With the body-mind’s equilibrium centered in the hara, gradually a seat of consciousness, a focus of vital energy, is established there which influences the entire organism.

That consciousness is by no means confined to the brain is shown by Lama Govinda, who writes as follows: “While, according to Western conceptions, the brain is the exclusive seat of consciousness, yogic experience shows that our brain-consciousness is only one among a number of possible forms of consciousness, and that these, according to their function and nature, can be localized or centered in various organs of the body. These ‘organs,’ which collect, transform, and distribute the forces flowing through them, are called cakras, or centers of force. From them radiate secondary streams of psychic force, comparable to the spokes of a wheel, the ribs of an umbrella, or the petals of a lotus. In other words, these cakras are the points in which psychic forces and bodily functions merge into each other or penetrate each other. They are the focal points in which cosmic and psychic energies crystallize into bodily qualities, and in which bodily qualities are dissolved or transmuted again into psychic forces.

Settling the body’s center of gravity below the navel, that is, establishing a center of consciousness in the hara, automatically relaxes tensions arising from the habitual hunching of the shoulders, straining of the neck, and squeezing in of the stomach. As this rigidity disappears, an enhanced vitality and new sense of freedom are experienced throughout the body and mind, which are felt more and more to be a unity.

Zazen (meditation) has clearly demonstrated that with the mind’s eye centered in the hara the proliferation of random ideas is diminished and the attainment of one-pointedness accelerated, since a plethora of blood from the head is drawn down to the abdomen, “cooling” the brain and soothing the autonomic nervous system. This in turn leads to a greater degree of mental and emotional stability. One who functions from his hara, therefore, is not easily disturbed. He is, moreover, able to act quickly and decisively in an emergency owing to the fact that his mind, anchored in his hara, does not waver.

With the mind in the hara, narrow and egocentric thinking is superseded by a broadness of outlook and a magnanimity of spirit. This is because thinking from the vital hara center, being free of mediation by the limited discursive intellect, is spontaneous and all embracing. Perception from the hara tends toward integration and unity rather than division and fragmentation. In short, it is thinking which sees things steadily and whole.

The figure of the Buddha seated on his lotus throne—serene, stable, all-knowing and all-encompassing, radiating boundless light and compassion—is the foremost example of hara expressed through perfect enlightenment. Rodin’s “Thinker,” on the other hand, a solitary figure “lost” in thought and contorted in body, remote and isolated from his Self, typifies the opposite state.

¹ “Psychic” here does not relate to extrasensory phenomena or powers but to energies and body-mind states which cannot be classified either as physiological or psychological.

Serene Buddha and The Thinker

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Having provided free content for over two years, the Reiki Help Blog is now asking for your support. Actually, the content remains free, but your support is needed. The button or link below will take you to a secure PayPal page where you can give any amount of your choosing.

“Pamir, I really enjoy reading your blog. I would like to make a wee contribution to support your work. Thanks for doing what you do! Many, many Reiki blessings!” — J.A.P

Please donate what feels right. Each post is a considerable investment of thought, heart, energy and time.

Donate to this blog. Thank you!

Reiki helps the human being. Throughout life, you may have different symptoms. Symptoms are simply signs that natural order needs to be found again. Curing symptoms can be merely temporary. Making the human whole again is often a dynamic and ongoing state of balance.

What are some of the common symptoms people want Reiki to address?

Physical conditions

Back pain. Migraines. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue. TMJ. Skin disorders. Cancer. Autoimmune disorders. Thyroid imbalances.

Emotional conditions

Low self-esteem. Emotional distance & unavailability. Hot emotions like anger or jealousy. Panic. Fears. Inability to cope. Feeling uncomfortable in your skin. Feeling out of place. Grief.

Mental conditions

Stress. Depression. Anxiety. Lack of concentration. ADD and ADHD. Insomnia. Confusion. Negative thinking. Mental burdens.

Spiritual conditions

Disconnection from self and life. Loss of meaning. Dark night of the soul. Spiritual seeking. Loss of personal power. Soul loss. Not knowing life direction or purpose. Inability to forgive. Fear of death.

Reiki helps the person. What kind of person? A person with chronic pain. A person living with cancer. A depressed person.

• Do you suffer from migraines or anxiety?
• Does arthritis make every day tasks difficult?
• Have you tried different mattresses for your back pain?
• Do you feel ill at ease, unable to cope, or lack energy?
• Are you just existing and don’t feel well, but can’t put your finger on it?
• Is your family or partner driving you crazy?

All of the above is a sample list. The point is that symptoms are endless. The list could be 100 times this.

Because Reiki is concerned with the person and not the symptom, it can be effective for you no matter what your life looks like, how your body is doing, or how you feel and think.

Reiki’s most significant remedy is that it helps you embrace your innate or natural spirituality.

Why would you care? Because over and over, research shows that people with a personal sense of spirituality report:

• Less use of medical services
• Less minor illness
• Emotional resiliency in terminal illness
• Pain reduction
• Better immunity
• Accelerated healing
• Less anxiety
• Ability to buffer stress
• Being undefeated by crisis

Personal spirituality brings with it a greater sense of participation and empowerment, purpose and meaning, and a broader perspective, with a strong sense of well-being and not just an absence of disease.

In other words, spiritual health has a direct positive impact on mental, emotional and physical health. What spiritual health means to you is completely up to you.

Reiki simply promotes mindbody states that support your wholeness and wellbeing, gently balancing and harmonizing you in a holistic and individualistic way.

Have you tried Reiki?

Resources: Watch my video The Role Of Spirituality in Wellness.

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Having provided free content for over two years, the Reiki Help Blog is now asking for your support. Actually, the content remains free, but your support is needed. The button or link below will take you to a secure PayPal page where you can give any amount of your choosing.

“Pamir, I really enjoy reading your blog. I would like to make a wee contribution to support your work. Thanks for doing what you do! Many, many Reiki blessings!” — J.A.P

Please donate what feels right. Each post is a considerable investment of thought, heart, energy and time.

Donate to this blog. Thank you!

Today’s story comes from someone I’ve met only online. While the recounting touches upon this person’s introduction to and experiences with Reiki, the highlight is the sharing about April’s Reiju: Community Healing and Alignment, which I offer monthly. This was a first for the person in question.

Do notice, however, Reiki’s profound impact. Click here to find out more about Reiki Training, and make sure you listen to the Reiki Primer audio.

Reiki Stories Project^SM (RSP) is open to anyone who wants to share. Please submit your story to me from the link in “contact” above. For the time being stories are being published anonymously. I may lightly edit your submission.

If you wonder why this project is so very important, and why I’ve decided to curate such stories these words from Muriel Rukeyser say it all:

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”

I will always remember the day last summer when a woman at my job, from whom I picked up such a feel-good vibration every time we met without knowing why, told me that she was practicing Reiki. I had seen the word before but never knew of what it really was.

What is that, I asked. She started to explain and at that very moment, as she spoke, in an instant, I realized that I already knew this. It was already inside my soul and her words just reminded me of what I had forgotten and had spent my whole life searching. The knowledge of Reiki fitted exactly in that empty spot that always had been in my soul as a mark of something lost. First time I received distant Reiki healing last summer, there were several things revealed to me. My experience of the world has not been the same since then. It was as if the physical world and the spirit world merged like two overhead stencils were put on top of each other and I saw the dimensions inside each one.

I have carried a sort of faded inner knowledge and along with that faded memories in my soul as long as I can remember. I knew at a very young age that we are living in a very special time. Over the years though, for various reasons, I both lost and gave away contact with my inner truth and my soul until the knowledge of Reiki gently reminded me.

Reiju Blessing

I found your website, the Reiki Help Blog and immediately felt the connection. This is the place were I go to rest my soul and to put the pieces together. In the words and knowledge you share I find the truth I always carried.

And the beautiful way you paint with words is the same beauty I find in my own soul.

So there I was April 7 tuning into the Reiju Blessing you offer. It was a very gentle experience, very soft yet vibrating with energy. The day after when I sat down to practice distant Reiki, I noticed the first reaction.

I usually feel the energy strongly and can also have visions and pictures or feelings shown to me. This time it was so much more. As I started I felt the energy as if I stood in a shower. The energy just poured over my whole being and opened up my mind as never before. And the location of the third eye was like a marked spot of energy during the whole session. It was an amazing experience and clearly something had happened.

The next day I started to notice a change on the inside.

A new kind of joy and happiness filled my heart so strong that I cannot describe it properly. And every morning the feeling increased and stayed throughout the day until this Monday when I found myself connected with the universe and my soul in a way that I’ve never felt before.

My soul was singing, my heart was filled with light and for the first time I felt Love flow through my veins. Pure Love! I became One with every creation, every mind and soul. One with the Universe. One with my Soul. I reached out and touched the Truth. And I let it all go, the pain, the sorrow and the hurting.

I was at peace, at true peace for the first time in my whole life and I felt so loved. I was complete. And that was exactly what I asked for when I signed up for the Reiju Blessing on your list. It was an amazing moment, a magical moment. The moment of the absolute beginning of my new awareness and consciousness. It was breathtaking!

Pamir, I don´t have words enough to express my gratitude towards you and the Universe for this very life-changing moment. Thank you!

Best Wishes,

–A.L.H., from Europe

You’re so very welcome. What’s your Reiki story?

Read the previous stories in the project.

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Having provided free content for over two years, the Reiki Help Blog is now asking for your support. Actually, the content remains free, but your support is needed. The button or link below will take you to a secure PayPal page where you can give any amount of your choosing.

Please donate what feels right. Each post is a considerable investment of thought, heart, energy and time.

Donate to this blog. Thank you!