02/26/2010

Reiki outside the box

Often there’s a tendency to know a particular practice one way. A habit is formed, albeit a good one, you get comfortable, it works for you and you stick to that routine, to the idea of what the practice is and can bring.

Authentic practices are limitless, however. For instance, since Reiki is of life, it can illuminate any area of life. Here’s one perspective on Reiki, mainly from a ‘relationship’ point of view, both with oneself and others.

1) Reiki helps you see the essence of yourself and others: On an everyday, surface level when we interact with another person, we see a limited picture of that person and often miss the real person who’s under the surface.

In such a narrow view we can easily judge and evaluate a person unfairly. It’s easier to be irritated or annoyed by an interaction and let that irritation escalate. This doesn’t mean that there was absolutely no cause for the annoyance. It simply means that we can look deeper.

We’re all imperfect. As a dedicated Reiki practitioner, we begin to know and feel that beneath imperfection is a lovable, bright being. In the self-practice of Reiki this knowing is what leads to radical healings for all parts of us. This then leads to personal growth, which then leads to spiritual evolution.

And it changes the way we view others. We stop relating to others at the level of their mask and drama, and start appreciating their essential being.

2) Reiki is integrated with life, not locked up in the intellect: As spiritual practitioners we get into mind games sometimes that revolve around hierarchy and what’s worthy of our attention and time.

This leads to a disconnect from life, whereas spiritual practices are meant to make life richer, more vibrant and available.

When our practice is relegated to an intellectual exercise, its gift is almost entirely missed. And when we approach people only from a cold, intellectual place, their gifts are also missed.

Reiki is life. Reiki isn’t relegated only to the sublime. All the messiness of life and our psyche are valid subjects for Reiki to address. In fact we need this so much.

3) Reiki hears you without filters: In Reiki we listen to others and ourselves, truly listen and hear. Reiki properly assimilated removes our filters of impatience, elitism, I’m-better-than; or self-deprecation and denial.

And this listening again reveals essence. The only filter that may be present is compassion in its universal form, so we listen past the soap opera and feel who is in there in that body and mind.

This depth of hearing someone else or ourselves is healing in an abiding way.

4) Reiki allows while you grow to your next tier: Everyone grows at their own pace. In this growth a certain amount of allowing is necessary. This isn’t the excusing, procrastinating or enabling kind of allowing, but one that derives from wisdom.

Wisdom says that two people are unlike in their trajectory, but the same in essence. We have to have the wisdom to let others grow in their own unique timing.

This doesn’t mean we have to tolerate their every behavior or not nudge at times. It simply means we don’t get carried away by the thought that we’ve already crossed this bridge, so hurry up.

5) Reiki helps you suspend judgment and levels personalities: The playing field of life is even. We all have our comeuppance. Not having judgment comes from the recognition that life honors all.

Suspension of judgment is a form of wise and compassionate allowing. It allows the other person their timing and dignity.

We’re all on equal footing. Our task is to enlighten the darkness, personally and collectively.

Personality conflicts come from using the other person as a yardstick of how much you’ve grown, instead of resting in the security of knowing yourself.

All this and more is available with the sincere practice of Reiki with an open heart.

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01/22/2010

Reiki Stories Project

Reiki Stories ProjectOnce again, it’s time for a Reiki story. This one is from another practitioner I trained and describes the experiences that occurred in the 21 days immediately following completion of Shoden (Level I) Reiki. There’s much to savor here even though it’s only an excerpt of everything reported.

Click here to find out more about Reiki Training, and make sure you listen to the Reiki Primer audio.

If you take some time to read the previous entries in this category, you’ll see that I place a significant emphasis on “story.” Pages and pages can be written about the features and benefits of Reiki, but when someone relates their own practice and use, Reiki becomes real and alive. Nothing says it better.

Reiki Stories ProjectSM (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 with only first and last initials and your location. I may lightly edit your submission.

I cannot describe how good I feel about myself for taking this important step to become a channel for the healing light to come into my daughter’s life. I practice Reiki on her almost every night. Her health and well being have improved greatly.

There was one night I left my daughter with my mother, while my husband and I were running some errands. She had a mild cold that was under control with Reiki. Suddenly, my mom calls me saying the fever has spiked to 104 degrees and that it didn’t go down even after a double dose of Tylenol. I rushed to my mother’s house and saw my daughter delirious. I took her to the hospital immediately. At the hospital her temperature was even worse, 105 degrees. They gave her another dose of Motrin and the nurse kept coming back to check her but nothing…nothing was working.

So I calmed myself down, focused and centered myself. It was hard because I was nervous but ended up calming down and practicing Reiki on her. A few minutes after I started her fever dropped down to 103 and half an hour later the fever was gone.

The doctor ordered x-rays that night and she was diagnosed with pneumonia in early stages. She was released the same day without fever. The next day she was miraculously healed. Yes, she had a little congestion but no fever, and she was in good spirits all happy and jumping! I continued giving her Reiki at night along with the medicine the doctor prescribed and now she is better than ever.

I have used Reiki in my house. I did a deep cleansing that took me about an hour and a half. I felt the corners charged with stubborn energy and the closets were full of still energy. After the cleansing, a harmonious atmosphere settled in my house. Now it’s easier for me and my husband to relax and we don’t get angry, depressed or drained when we get home after work. The same everyday issues might still be there but our attitude has changed. Things are better between us and we are in a better mood to take care of our 2 year old daughter.

A few days after I cleansed my office, I received very nice compliments from bosses and other professional consultants. They were saying how professional, competent and thorough I am at work and that it is a real pleasure to work with me. I am receiving more responsibility now and getting ready for a possible promotion in the near future. I am excited about this new opportunity.

Also, Reiki might have found its way and touched my best friend, who used to work in the office right next to mine. He had been talking about opening his own business for about a year and I noticed that right after the cleansing he decided to quit his job and start his own small business. Yes, one day he just woke up and decided to never come back to the office again. We are still friends and I am very happy that he finally made up his mind.

–P.V., Coral Springs, Florida

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Having provided free content for over two years, the Reiki Help Blog is now asking for your support. 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.


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09/24/2009

Two upcoming events

I will be on Mind of the Magi show by Dr. Michael Holt on Wednesday, September 30, at 2 pm EST.

You can call in or listen online. You can even listen via iTunes. Visit this page to learn more:

Call-in Number: (646) 595-3547.

Here’s the description of this particular show:

Weekly show on Natural Medicine, Hypnotherapy, NLP, Nutrition, Fitness with Dr. Michael Holt the founder of the Magi Institute of Natural Medicine and his special guests Pamir Kiciman to discuss Reiki.

Pamir Kiciman is a Soul Whisperer and Life Enrichment educator, and founder of Oasis Reiki. He specializes in Original/Classical Japanese Usui Reiki Training. He has worked in a variety of environments in 15 years of teaching, including time spent at Imperial Point Medical Center in South Florida. Pamir has also conducted Reiki Training at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Nursing. Recently, he was selected as a Featured Voice on Intent.com. Pamir has spent the last 15 years training himself and others in subtle energy, intentional healing, holistic health, meditation, spiritual psychology, nonduality, and world wisdom traditions.

Above all else, Pamir is dedicated to being a catalyst for a transformation by bringing soul and the teachings of Oneness to the forefront in individuals and in society at large. Pamir educates people through various channels, including his own Reiki Help Blog.

Reiki is most popularly known as a hands-on healing art, which it is in one of its applications. Hands-on Reiki is in fact rooted in spiritual discipline, the basis of which is meditation. Usui Sensei taught specific meditations. Similarly, Reiki is known as energy healing, which it does facilitate. What’s often missed, however, is that before energy can exist there first has to be consciousness. It is by participating in this primordial consciousness that Reiki fulfills its true purpose for practitioner and recipient alike.

And, October 15, 2009 is Blog Action Day once again: An annual nonprofit event, it aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

This year’s topic is focused on Climate Change, by unanimous voting.

The Reiki Help Blog has participated for the last two years. In 2008 the topic was poverty and I posted about the availability of clean, potable water to all populations of the world.

In 2007 the topic was the environment and as one of the earlier posts on this blog, I’m quite proud of this entry.

Climate change is not new to this blog. As stewards of our environment and spiritual practitioners, we are the only ones who can really do something about it!

Reiki Stories Project

In 15 years of teaching Reiki, time after time it’s practitioners and receivers of Reiki who show and tell the most illuminating aspects of Reiki. Sharing Reiki stories is an amazing learning and validating experience. It deepens this path.

With this in mind, I started the Reiki Stories ProjectSM (RSP). I’m curating these stories. This project started back in June with two remarkable stories of Reiki working in human lives.

Then came yet another eye-opening testimonial, this time showing oxygen saturation increasing during Reiki on a hospital monitor. The Reiki Stories Project is open to everyone who has a story to add. You may email it to me or leave it in comments below.

Please make sure you read the previous entries in this series.

Reiki Stories ProjectLast Friday, a woman I work with was hit by a forklift. The driver spun around very fast & didn’t see my co-worker standing there. The fork lift blades hit her foot and knocked her over. Her shoe strap broke, thank God, so her foot flew out of the shoe. The shoe was stuck under one of the blades and could not be pulled out without lifting up the blades. Needless to say, she limped away from what could’ve been a fatal accident.

All I wanted to do was get my hands on her foot, but there were too many people around her. I gave her Reiki with my eyes. Fortunately, when she returned from the hospital, I heard her in the supervisor’s office. I went in and saw her trying to hold her foot up while filling out paperwork.

I went in, put my hands under her foot to keep it elevated and began giving her Reiki. Then, I moved one hand to the back of her knee for support. I didn’t tell her what I was doing. Her body started to relax and her eyes closed slightly. Then, she said, “Your hands feel so soothing. You know, I should probably do one of those Reiki sessions with you.”

“Hahaha! We are doing one right now (I thought to myself).” Anyway, I haven’t seen her until this morning. I asked how she was doing and she said, with a big smile, “Great!” she said, “Listen, I have to tell you something. I always bruise. Anytime I hit something, I bruise. I’ve been watching and waiting for my foot to turn colors. Remember how swollen it was? My family can’t believe it. No bruise! It’s fine. I can’t believe it.”

–C.C., Miami, Florida

09/02/2009

Reiki One-Liner is growing up

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This summer the Reiki One-Liner passed the 250 mark. It goes out only on weekdays, so that’s 50 weeks of a unique form of discipline and practice.

Initially I started writing these to educate my social network about Reiki. Very soon it became a rich way for me to consider the depth and breadth of Reiki.

Each writing reveals a new facet, usually not thought of before. Or, as I interact with Reiki, share it and teach it, watch it working in others and receive Reiki stories, it reveals new facets. Here’s one coming to me right now:

Reiki is a shining gem with endless facets.

There are four previous posts of 50 Reiki One-Liners each. Reading these as a list can become meaningless.

A Practice:

What I suggest is to go through each post one at a time, including this one, and write down your favorite few. These may be your favorite because you feel a certain way when you read them, or it points to a truth you love, or a truth you need.

Then, select one of and take it into meditation. Post it on your mirror or computer screen. You can also journal about it, using the one-liner as your prompt.

When you’re done with your initial favorites, visit the posts again and select another handful to grow into even more facets of Reiki.

Reiki One-LinerSM

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

  1. Reiki kanjiA diagnosis is local. You are nonlocal. Reiki brings this home.
  2. A powerful showering of Light is a major facet of Reiki.
  3. All-healing Love is a primary color in Reiki.
  4. Has your life gone awry? Reiki will reset it in away that serves you for years to come.
  5. Healing stored negative emotions and energies is a main benefit of Reiki.
  6. In face of unchanging symptoms, Reiki brings an abiding knowing.
  7. It’s not only symptomatic healing Reiki provides; it can heal an entire life.
  8. Reiki *hears* you without filters.
  9. Reiki accelerates your evolution.
  10. Reiki activates all your immune systems: physical, psychological, and spiritual.
  11. Reiki allows while you grow to your next tier.
  12. Reiki brings your worrying into perspective and keeps you calm.
  13. Reiki develops a self-healing psychology hiding under all of your symptoms.
  14. Reiki doesn’t address only the here-and-now, but the then and later, and the timeless.
  15. Reiki eases the experience of being infinite in a finite world and fulfills it to the highest degree.
  16. Reiki emerges who you are in the most natural, no-excuses way.
  17. Reiki engenders the pure awareness that’s not based on thoughts and emotions.
  18. Reiki heals the person and thus the extended life of that person.
  19. Reiki helps you incarnate fully so you can really do “this” and live the sacred too.
  20. Reiki helps you listen to life with your whole being, not only your head.
  21. Reiki helps you see the essence of yourself and others.
  22. Reiki helps you sit in your belly (hara) and handle life from there.
  23. Reiki helps you suspend judgment and levels personalities.
  24. Reiki increases your Light quotient.
  25. Reiki is a provider, teacher and wayshower of compassion.
  26. Reiki is a two-way elevator between Heaven and Earth.
  27. Reiki is constant and fail-safe.
  28. Reiki is integrated with life, not locked up in the intellect.
  29. Reiki is the energetic equivalent of oxygen.
  30. Reiki is the radical realization that your umbilical cord is intact and has only changed form and scope.
  31. Reiki is the spontaneous cascade of Love.
  32. Reiki lets you solidly know there’s healing available despite symptoms.
  33. Reiki merges the you living in linearity with the You that envelopes time/space.
  34. Reiki opens the sacred space within that can also be a liveable place without.
  35. Reiki provides a lifeline in times of personal or global crisis.
  36. Reiki provides a steadiness of heart and mind.
  37. Reiki reminds you to settle in the belly (hara) when the mind overthinks.
  38. Reiki removes the heat and burn of anger from your mindbody.
  39. Reiki reveals the value of honesty in all you are and do.
  40. Reiki shows you how to be humble without compromising yourself.
  41. Reiki shows you the umbilical cord you have to the sun, the cherry tree and the rain.
  42. Reiki soothingly buffers you when life’s upsets visit.
  43. Removing excess baggage, outmoded ideas and clutter happens naturally in Reiki.
  44. Strong immunity means integrity. Reiki takes you there.
  45. Symptoms are information, not who you are. Reiki solidifies this knowing.
  46. When life is pressuring you, Reiki acts as a relief valve.
  47. When nothing works, Reiki still does.
  48. When walking the path and doing the work, Reiki is an unmatched wayshower and aid.
  49. With Reiki you gain access to healing a pinpoint or the whole tapestry.
  50. You are the link between the healed and unhealed. Reiki gives you the courage to embrace the healing long buried.

08/21/2009

The spirituality of Nature

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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.

Shinto shrineReverence, 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

WaterfallShinto 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.

08/12/2009

Reiki Stories Project

Reiki Stories ProjectI’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?