In your silence God’s silence ceases.

Here’s the entire context.

Sensations pouring in through the sensory nerves keep in mind filled with myriad noisy thoughts, so that the whole attention is toward the senses. But God’s voice is silence. Only when thoughts cease to one hear the voice of God communicating through the silence of intuition. In your silence God’s silence ceases. He speaks to you through your intuition. For the devotee whose consciousness is inwardly united with God, an audible response from Him is unnecessary – intuitive thoughts and true visions constitute God’s voice. These are not the result of the stimuli of the senses, but the combination of the devotee’s silence and God’s voice of silence. — Paramahansa Yogananda

Then I found the perspective of Gordon Hempton. Using a different language and viewpoint, he makes an inspirational case for silence. He is an ‘acoustic ecologist,’ and one line from him that had the same arresting effect on me is:

Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.

Here’s the rest of what he says about silence.

When you’re in a place of natural silence, you’re not alone, and you can feel it. Whether it’s birdcalls from miles away or the proximity of a giant tree whose warm tones you can feel, there’s a presence. It’s a quieting experience….

Sound is a wave that passes through air, water, and even solid objects. Natural sounds generate a sinusoidal wave, with rounded peaks, which is easy on the ears. Many mechanized sounds are square or sawtooth shaped or have jagged edges. If you see them on an oscilloscope, you’ll know why they’re unpleasant to listen to….

And related to living on our planet at this time, with it’s myriad of troubles:

Natural quiet allows us to fall in love with a place and appreciate how unique it is. Noise detaches us — not only from our surroundings but also from each other. Research shows that in noisy areas people are much less likely to help each other. That’s one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from being in natural silence: that we can begin to feel love for a place and, through it, for everything. This is crucial for the health of our planet because, when you love something, caring for it becomes effortless. Just as we care for the people we love without asking, “What will I get out of it?” so does love enable us to care for our world without running a cost-benefit analysis to see whether it’s “worth it.”

Even though you’re reading this via some form of technology, which is part of the digital noise we also live with on the planet at this time, take a few moments and simply stop. Let your body breathe for you and put your whole awareness on it. Just notice the breath moving. That’s all.

To help you, here’s a photo I took at the city park my son has his basketball practice. Such spaces and moments are always available if we but notice and claim them.

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

“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!

Heart Light
© Pamir Kiciman 2010
Click to view full-size

We are a community of men, women and children.
We live, breathe and exist together in our community.
Our community is our home, even though we also have a roof over our own family.
Gathered under such roofs, we form neighborhoods.
We leave our neighborhood in the morning and return to it in the evening.
What is good for us is good for the community.
To protect our own is to protect the community.
What is best for the family is equally good for the community.

We are fond of boundaries.
Me, myself, my family, home, country.
My goods and future.
My health. My food. My money.
My beliefs and views.
Me. Mine. My own.

It’s natural to love one’s own.
It’s natural to shelter one’s own.
It’s natural to care more about your own.

Then again, we fight with our families and ourselves more often than with others.

Community is inside as well as outside.
Community is a state of mind.

Our state of mind is our first community.
It’s from our mind and heart that we decide how much to blame others.
Blame others for our own troubles.
If in our heart and mind we would find peace, we would find peace in our relationship with all people.

Relationship is a fact of life.
There are those we want to be with and those we have to be with.
We are in relation with others in many ways.
Our thoughts, feelings, needs, money, beliefs, views put us in touch with others.
These others are individuals, and groups of individuals that function as companies, institutions and governments.
There is a web of life. The stranger we see at the bank has similar relations.

We also share the web of life with Nature and its lifeforms.

The tree’s shade and a pet’s warmth are cherished. Wheat and oranges nourish us.
We relax and play at the beach. The web exists so that life works.

Are you ever angry at an apple you enjoy?

What makes us angry with people whether they are those we want to be with or those we have to be with?

Anger disappears when we share instead of hoard.
Anger disappears when we see that our family is similar to another’s family.
Anger disappears when we notice that the fruit tree that feeds us, feeds a child whose name we may not even know.
The same cotton that we wear is on someone else’s back, the same material on our feet protects another’s feet,
and the same steel that makes our car makes the neighbor’s car.

The sun shines on us all equally.

Peace appears when we emphasize similarities.
Peace appears when we honor natural variety.
Peace appears when we realize that everyone seeks the love we seek.
Peace appears when we accept that health; happiness and financial security are available to us as a human right and not at the expense of another.
Peace is seen in the web of life when we tell our fear to grow up!

There’s not a single person who doesn’t want the basics of life that we want.
These basics include tangible things as well as success, happiness, health, acknowledgment and fulfillment.
Since we have to participate in life in similar ways to attain similar results, is it not more productive to join efforts?
Is it not more powerful to manifest dreams with collaboration rather than competition?
Who wins when one person or group wins? Only that person or group and everyone else are losers.

Who’s the loser when everyone wins? The obstacles!

Obstacles are created by us and can be uncreated by changing our heart and mind.
For that we simply need willingness and reason.
Reason shows us that cooperation brings results.
Willingness takes us into our heart and mind where we develop flexibility and compassion.
When reason is coupled with forgiveness, we have a winning formula for social and personal success.

Let us remember that the formula of reason plus forgiveness has to be applied by citizen and leader alike.
Afterall, a leader is a citizen and a citizen is a leader.
Those who are elected or rise to prominence in some way are sanctioned as leaders, yet their power is in the hands of the people.

Forgiving leaders paves the path to start afresh.
Leaders returning that trust with sincerity and unwavering commitment, solidify the path.
People taking a real interest and becoming active with the power they have completes the shared responsibility of community.
Then everyone is on the same path, heading to unity and a better life for all.

Pain, grudges, disappointment, injustice, prejudice, lack of opportunity, education or housing, poverty, ill-health as well as all the other challenges of life, and the real solutions for these are the responsibility of every single member of society.

We are the only ones who can bring order to chaos.

We are the only ones who can bring peace to conflict.

We are the only ones who can bring sanity to anger and hatred.

We are the only ones who can correct errors.

We are the only ones who can heal wounds.

We are the only ones who can monitor each other for the good of all.

We are the only ones who can use reason to see that the web of life is inclusive and not exclusive.

We are the only ones who can forgive and move on.

The past keeps us in the past. The future is ours to live. The present is where we act, assert and voice our common vision.

Mother, father, child, business owner, politician, teacher, student, professional and unemployed, WE populate our communities.

We are the only ones who can make it a place worth living.

We are the only ones who can create a new history.

We are the only ones who can…

◊ ◊ ◊

To see more of Pamir’s meaning-making photography, visit his photoblog.

———

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’ve tried the unbleached cotton tea bags; the tea balls or infusers with a handle; small pots that still need the tea strained… None make perfect tea as conveniently as the Tea Steeper. I no longer need to wash and dry little bags, mess up my counter, or drink cold tea!

I mainly use mine for steeping green, white or specialty black teas that are whole leaf, in other words loose. It can also be used for bulk herbal teas. The video below highlights why I love this Tea Steeper so much and below that you’ll find some beautiful haiku to go along with your enjoyable sipping.

Lime Green:
Maraschino Red:
Royal Blue:
Midnight Black:

Link to video for email/rss subscribers if you don’t see it: Tea Steeper and Haiku

Remember, the Tea Steeper comes with a bone stoneware mug, lid, and sturdy mesh infuser. It’s dishwasher safe and contains no lead or cadmium.

Haiku today is by Mitsu Suzuki, who has been featured here before and she is also a revered tea ceremony teacher.

◊ ◊ ◊

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

Along the creek
we look for tea-room flowers
dew-moistened trail

—

Kiln fire
the tea bowl blazes
great frost night

—

Season’s first tea fire
hanging scroll
“nothing to possess”

—

Spring cold
monk carves a tea scoop
bamboo chips

—

Nun boils tea water
kettle’s damp sheen
spring rain

Being Held

A hardness we can’t see, cold and rigid, begins to form between us and the world, the longer we stay silent about what we need. It is not even about getting what we need but about admitting, mostly to ourselves, that we do have needs.

Asking for help, whether we get it or not, breaks the hardness that builds in the world. Paradoxically, asking even for the things that no one can give, we are relieved and blessed for the asking. For admitting our humanness lets the soul break surface, the way a dolphin leaps for the sun.

One of the most painful barriers we can experience is the sense of isolation the modern world fosters, which can only be broken by our willingness to be held, by the quiet courage to allow our vulnerabilities to be seen.  For as water fills a hole and light fills the dark, kindness wraps around what is soft, if what is soft can be seen.

So admitting what we need, asking for help, letting our softness show — these are prayers without words that friends, strangers, wind, and time all wrap themselves around.  Allowing ourselves to be held is like returning to the womb.

— Mark Nepo

———

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 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.

↓

Train in Reiki with Pamir.

Photo: © Pamir Kiciman 2010

———
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!

Why do I have pictures of yellow bowls on the blog today? If you recall, a few posts ago I announced that I’m becoming an online shopkeeper with OpenSky. My shop opens today!!! The first item I’m making available is… Drumroll… CaliBowl – The Cali Stack – Multi Pack!

The “Mighty” CaliBowl

My son and I have dubbed these bowls “Mighty.” They’re made from from food-grade Polypropylene, are durable and shatterproof, with partially recycled materials.

Like me, you probably spend a lot of time in the kitchen, especially if you have kids and are concerned about the quality of food you put in their bodies and your own. There’s also the concern of the materials used in making food. The CaliBowl is BPA-free! This is a big relief to me. It also has a nonslip bottom that really works! Believe me, my son is strong and he couldn’t budge it.

If you prefer to have the Cali Stack in a different color than sunflower-yellow, it is available in a firetruck-red. This is a great way to add bright colors to your kitchen or table presentation.

And if you’re feeling retro, it comes in an Aqua Blue as well.

Speaking of your table, aren’t salsa stains such a drag?! You’re going to love the unique lip design of these bowls! The no-spill lip has an optimized angle that keeps food in the bowl and easily transfers it to your spoon or favorite tortilla chip. We also discovered that it’s a much easier edge to crack eggs on than your regular bowl.

Wait, there’s more! If you have an infant or toddler, the angled lip works perfectly for self-feeding. My boy is past that, so for him the CaliBowl comes in very handy when I’m teaching him basic cooking skills (an essential skill in my humble opinion!).

One thing you REALLY need to know about OpenSky is the return policy. OpenSky accepts returns for 1 full year. That’s 365 days after purchase date, at no cost to you. That’s very impressive!

AND, from today until August 16 use the coupon code EXCITE25 to receive 25% off. Don’t wait! Go! Rock your kitchen and your party!

Buy now!

CaliBowl – The Cali Stack – Multi Pack Sunflower Yellow:
CaliBowl – The Cali Stack – Multi Pack Fire Truck Red:
CaliBowl – The Cali Stack – Multi Pack Retro Aqua Blue:

If you have lots of time on your hands, you can use your CaliBowl to play the memory game too!

Happy shopping! More cool products will be announced soon.

You’ll also be able to shop directly from this blog, without ever having to leave it.

While I write, I’m listening to NPR’s stream of the Newport Jazz Festival. This too is a form of receiving through the ears and the soul. As a longtime jazz aficionado, I’ve never been to this historic festival but since I’m open to technology and noticed updates on Twitter about the streaming, my weekend is being enriched.

Receiving is traditionally pooh-poohed. Probably because it’s a developing nation, Hindu spiritual teachers invariably advocate feeding the poor. In Christianity there’s the ethic of charity. Even in social media, the blogosphere and new business models, the mantra is give, give, give! And giving is vital. Giving is a great way to live. It’s necessary, powerful and inspirational. We’d be nowhere without givers.  The question is, can there be true giving without also receiving?

Culturally, morally and spiritually we’re programmed against receiving. There’s a lot of judgment against receiving. It’s deemed unsavory. Receiving has been made “wrong.”

• Help and serve others.
• Share and give.
• Don’t be selfish.
• If I accept something, I’ll be expected to return in kind.
• Accepting something is a sign of weakness.
• Be self-sufficient.
• Don’t be indebted to anyone.

This is all one-sided. The ‘flow’ is absent. Without flow there’s stoppage, blockage, constipation and rigidity. We become dry and humorless. Our edges get sharper and sharper and pretty soon everyone is pointedly staying out of our way!

And it goes against natural law. Flow can’t be one way. Penetrating and yielding, action and stillness, the lingam and the yoni, giving and accepting, speaking and listening, pushing and pulling…the list is endless.

Another layer of this is that we all have broken parts, parts that say, “I don’t deserve,” “This will never happen for me,” “Everyone else has better luck!”

The universe will fill your cup — if you carry a big cup, a little cup, or a thimble! — Sonia Choquette

There’s this too: Imagine you’re a person who has a one-way flow, outward…You like to meditate, enjoy spiritual practices, are into healing, want to be a better human being. Yet after sincere attempts your practices seem to hit a wall, time after time. There’s an opening, a great sigh and then the same humdrum returns. It’s discouraging and confusing.

The divine qualities you so want to engage can’t enter if you’re ability to receive needs work. If that’s the case, take that into your practice, bring the light of awareness to that until there’s a balance. Then see how your inner experiences broaden. Notice the wisdom and power that comes through, the sweetness of unattached love, the mesmerizing light and arcing joy.

Rumi says it really well:

Open the window of your heart

Do not worry if our harp breaks
thousands more will appear.
We have fallen in the arms of love where all is music.
If all the harps in the world were burned down,
still inside the heart
there will be hidden music playing.
Do not worry if all the candles in the world flicker and die
we have the spark that starts the fire.
The songs we sing
are like foam on the surface of the sea of being
while the precious gems lie deep beneath.
But the tenderness in our songs
is a reflection of what is hidden in the depths.
Stop the flow of your words,
open the window of your heart and
let the spirit speak.

———

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!

When it comes to healing, life seems to do all the ‘beating’ necessary to bring the unhealed out to the surface. This is a good thing. Then life sits back and watches to see if you avoid direct contact. When you don’t engage the healing in front of you life seems to fan the flames, so to speak, until you do.

Then the tendency is to go into a thinking mode of, “What’s going on here? I’m falling apart. It gets worse everyday!” and you continue avoiding the healing that’s in front of you. Avoidance leads to intensification of symptoms, relationships, situations, conditions, patterns. The more intense it gets, the more dramatic it becomes, and you add a good dose of drama too, because that’s another sure way to not engage the healing that’s calling you.

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

What exactly stops you from stepping up to healing? You feel it’s safer, easier, less work, less painful to avoid direct contact. You’re mistaken. Beating around the healing bush is a self-preservation strategy of the ego to not succumb, to retain control. Unfortunately, in so doing it perpetuates pain. It keeps you stuck in the brambles.

Brambles of shame, suffering, guilt, hurt, wounds, abuse, unforgiveness and untruth. Brambles that become your story to the exclusion of everything else you are!

This story is a limiting one. One that snags you on your way, keeps you captive and bound. It’s a story of spinning your wheels and getting nowhere; throwing mud in every direction. Throwing the mud of projection, the mud of blame, the mud of self-pity. All that kinetic energy in a closed loop of increasing drama!

If you but answer the call of healing, a pathway opens up in the underbrush. There’s a direction and a magnetic pull at the other end. The closed loop burning itself out becomes an open system with options. Possibilities arise that couldn’t be known in the thick of crisis living.

Please realize that when you beat around the bush of healing, you deplete and cannot replenish life force. Thus you must source it elsewhere and that elsewhere is power, albeit negative power, derived from people around you dancing in lockstep to your series of crises. In other words, you draw power by being a victim, which is a dead end.

Do you see the vicious cycle and how many rings it has? The fear of healing is nothing compared to the fear avoiding healing installs in your being. Give it up! Relent! Succumb! Embrace healing and let it embrace you.

Healing is a holy encounter full of perfumed grace. — PAMIR

Work with me:

———

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!

OpenSky is a new way for people like me to bring people like you products I know and believe in, that I can personally recommend.

You know who you are! Anytime you ask me where I got something, my answer is usually, “Online…” It became a running joke, remember?

Well it’s real now. Teasing time is over. The “Something Exciting is Coming” badge has become a countdown clock, and you can begin shopping in my store right from this blog on August 10.

OpenSky allows me to bring you products in a personal way. Instead of reading a stranger’s review of an item you need, or seeing a random rating of stars next to it, my shop will be full of items I’ve handpicked, and come from suppliers you may not know about. And since we’re leading similar lifestyles, this is a win-win.

I’ve been shopping ethically and consciously for 15 years. It’s not always easy to spend your money in alignment with your values. My priority has been to buy products that were the least toxic to my person and my home, and to support suppliers that have a small footprint. After my son was born, these concerns became even more acute.

Take the CaliBowl for instance. It’s BPA-free! Made from food-grade Polypropylene, it’s durable and shatterproof, with partially recycled materials.

The "Mighty" CaliBowl

It also has a nonslip bottom that really works! Believe me, my son is strong and he couldn’t budge it.

You don’t get this kind of personality and relationship when you go to any other online retailer, or big-box store. It’s an impersonal, dry experience, and who wants that?! Products in my store will be preselected for you for their utility, quality, dollar value, and the values of the people who make them.

Soon my store will go on its own page here. I’ll be highlighting the best of the best in individual posts too, like the CaliBowl which is even “mightier” than what’s been mentioned!

Please remember that my blog is about “help” and “care.” As you know, the blog has always included material related to “green” living, environmental issues, conservation and climate change. These are in alignment with living and practicing spirituality and Reiki. So is shopping in a way you can feel good about! As always, regular topics will continue to be explored.

If you happen to be a supplier of awesome products or are interested in selling from your own store, I heartily encourage you to follow the links.

In the meantime, pancakes anyone?

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.

———
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 Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

See what I mean? The poem draws you in, delights in natural details which alone create greater awareness, then from that microcosm a soul-shaking question is asked, instantly taking you to the macrocosm!

To me it says: “Don’t tarry in the nonessential. Don’t make excuses. Live your passion. Be your purpose. Don’t delay, don’t procrastinate. Because you’re unique and life is fleeting yet necessary, teeming with expression and it wants yours!”

What does this poem say to you?

The next one is part VI of Wendell Berry’s poem “Sabbaths 2001.” You can read the entire poem here and it’s well worth it.

Sit and be still
until in the time
of no rain you hear
beneath the dry wind’s
commotion in the trees
the sound of flowing
water among the rocks,
a stream unheard before,
and you are where
breathing is prayer.

How many moments in life have we allowed breathing to be prayer? Despite all the teachings, all the alerts that the breath is sacred, ours is mostly hurried, shallow, stop and start, jittery or too athletic. Make it smooth, make it even, make it gentle for in your breathing you find the true measure of your heart, your innermost status quo, the pulse of your body and mind.

Please share how you breathe.
———
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• Since you can see the body, you’re not the body. You’re the seer.
• Since you can feel emotions, you’re not emotion. You’re the feeler.
• Since you can observe thoughts, you’re not thought. You’re the observer.
• Since you can wield energy, you’re not energy. You’re the wielder.
• Since consciousness allows you to witness, you’re That.
• Being That; consciousness, witness, bliss… you’re free.

Let’s take each one and expand on it.

The body is something we relate to very easily because it’s with us everyday. Its pains and pleasures are never farther than our next action or behavior. Our identity is closely tied up with the body. Yet, who is it that feels pain or pleasure? Who is it that looks and sees your hand or leg? If we are the body, then how is the body self-observant?

Most of us are very close to our emotions as well. We live on an emotional plane and relate to life and others emotionally. This can be challenging. At the same time, emotions make life richer. We have the capacity to feel. If you know what you’re feeling, who is it that knows? Who is it that identifies anger or joy? Is it the body? It can’t be because there’s a knower who knows the body already.

The mental realm is highly regarded. As a society and culture we’re heavily invested in the intellect. And like the body and emotions, we live with our thoughts night and day. All the while though there’s an awareness outside of the thought process that knows the thoughts we’re thinking.

We also have the ability to sense the energy of a meeting, event or relationship. We get a feel for someone in a direct way. Similarly we can create or generate a certain energy that infuses whatever we may be doing. But we’re more than a flavor of energy. And there’s the sensing. Who senses energy? It can’t be the thought process because there’s an awareness that already knows that.

There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence within our mind. It is the supreme mystery beyond thought. Let one’s mind and subtle spirit rest upon that and nothing else.

– Maitri Upanishad (VI: 20)

If we can be conscious of the body, emotions, thoughts and energy, then we must be something other than each of these, or even a conglomeration of them. In the same way, we’re free of their limitations. If we’re not the body, we’re not bound by it. If we’re not emotion, it doesn’t have a hold on us. If thoughts aren’t what we are, they can’t dictate to us. If we wield energy, then energy we’re exposed to is powerless over us.

It’s not even a question of being free. We are free. In truth we’re formless. We come from silence, dwell in silence, and play in form.

Don’t let the play trap you.

———
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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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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.

———
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!

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

The Sun

I am the Sun. I give warmth and light to many planets. I nourish and feed and I have a lot of power left in me to last a very, very long time. I’d like to continue to serve the Earth, its Nature, creatures, humans, waters, trees and plants. It is up to humans to save and preserve so that there’s a purpose for me, so that I can continue to warm and provide light. This is the order of things. I rise in the morning and I set at night. I warm an entire section of the universe and I give light to it. I continue this cycle every day. For me to continue this cycle, there must be a good reason.

Preserve all species on Earth. Preserve your way of life as it has been lived on Earth for centuries. Help me do my job and fulfill my purpose, for I am the Sun and I am here to serve.

For similar messages click here.

“Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
‘You owe Me.’

Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky”

— Hafiz

———
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At the same time, I strongly feel that this epic opportunity for humanity to learn needs to be commemorated with positive images. This is a spill that must be remembered always. Not only in a worldly sense, but in a sacred way. The repercussions are far from over and we must honor every single living thing that’s been damaged, and will continue to suffer.

In January of this year I started a photoblog, where these photos were first posted (scroll down to see other photos). It’s a nature-based endeavor to understand embodiment, a sister path to spirituality, and the spirituality of nature herself, as well as creative pursuits. My relationship with the lens is an old one, now reborn.

I offer the following as ways to ease your mind and heart, motivate your commitment to intelligent future-mapping, and balance the glut of images from the Gulf and BP logo redesigns out there in the collective. Make sure you also absorb the full significance of the quote below as well. (Clicking the images will show them in full size.)

Oil-free -- The Memory © Pamir Kiciman 2010

Oil-free -- The Memory © Pamir Kiciman 2010

When the first chakra is disconnected from the feminine Earth, we can feel orphaned and motherless. The masculine principle predominates, and we look for security from material things. Individuality prevails over relationship, and selfish drives triumph over family, social and global responsibility. The more separated we become from the Earth, the more hostile we become to the feminine. We disown our passion, our creativity, and our sexuality. Eventually the Earth itself becomes a baneful place. I remember being told by a medicine woman in the Amazon, “Do you know why they are really cutting down the rain forest? Because it is wet and dark and tangled and feminine.”

– Alberto Villoldo

And I give you the following as a mental focus and Heart intention. Use it daily, share it widely, print it and paste it everywhere. This disaster isn’t limited to location or time. It’s global, ongoing and breaks time.

Mental focus and heart intention for the Gulf of Mexico

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I’ve featured the haiku of Mitsu Suzuki here before. She wasn’t only a haiku poet, but wife to Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and with him played an important role in bringing Zen Buddhism to North America. First a couple of her haiku written in the summer months, then a spiritual teaching from Suzuki Roshi based on his visit to Yosemite National Park.

by RobW

Too small
to call it a Zen garden
moss blossoms
—
Gardenia’s
whiteness remains
the night is complete

——

I went to Yosemite National Park, and I saw some huge waterfalls. The highest one there is 1,340 feet high, and from it the water comes down like a curtain thrown from the top of the mountain. It does not seem to come down swiftly, as you might expect; it seems to come down very slowly because of the distance. And the water does not come down as one stream, but is separated into many tiny streams. From a distance it looks like a curtain. And I thought it must be a very difficult experience for each drop of water to come down from the top of such a high mountain. It takes time, you know, a long time, for the water finally to reach the bottom of the waterfall. And it seems to me that our human life may be like this. We have many difficult experiences in our life. But at the same time, I thought, the water was not originally separated, but was one whole river. Only when it is separated does it have some difficulty in falling. It is as if the water does not have any feeling of being separate when it is one whole river. Only when divided into many drops can it begin to have or express some separate feeling.

Before we were born we had no such feeling; we were one with the universe. This is called ‘mind-only,’ or ‘essence of mind,’ or ‘big mind.’ After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have such feelings. And you have difficulty because of such feelings. You attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore and we have no actual difficulty in our life.

— Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

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To help you know him there’s one video embedded here, an excerpt from the PBS film on his life and work (email/rss readers need to click back to the original post to view video), and a link to another one of an interview with the film’s producer/director Haydn Reiss.

The essence of Rumi is pure divine love. He exemplifies poetry as spiritual vehicle and expression. Get to know his work. You’ll never be disappointed and will always leave enriched.

You are Joy!

Oh my God, our intoxicated eyes
Have blurred our vision
Our burdens have been made heavy,
Forgive us.

You are hidden and yet
From east to west you have filled the world with Your radiance
Your Light is more magnificent
Than sunrise or sunset
And you are the inmost ground of consciousness
Revealing the secrets we hold.

You are an explosive force
causing our dammed up rivers to burst forth.

You whose essence is hidden
While Your gifts are manifest
You are like water
and we are like millstones
You are like wind and we are like dust;
The wind is hidden while the dust is plainly seen.
You are the invisible spring
and we are your lush garden
You are the spirit of life,
And we are like hand and foot;
Spirit causes the hand to close and open.

You are intelligence,
And we are your voice
Your intelligence causes this tongue to speak.
You are joy and we are laughter,
For we are the result
of the blessing of Your joy
All our movement is really
A continual profession of faith
Bearing witness to Your eternal power
Just as the powerful turning of the millstone
professes faith in the rivers existence.

Dust settles upon my head and upon my metaphors
For You are beyond anything we could ever think or say
And yet this servant cannot stop trying
to express Your beauty in every moment,
let my soul be Your carpet.

Mathnawi V: 3307-3319

Translated by Kabir and Camille Helminski

Phil Cousineau speaks with filmmaker Haydn Reiss about his award-winning film “Rumi, Poet of the Heart.”
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Unfortunately, diagnosis in the way it’s approached in health care today, including the bureaucracy of health care is a reduction experience for the person being diagnosed.

(If you’re reading this in email/rss, you may need to click back to the original post on the blog to view video content, or you can visit my YouTube Channel.)

Health is a dynamic state. It’s a state that involves all parts of us physically, psychologically, socially and spiritually. Your identity as a human being which includes your psychological and spiritual immunity, your values and inner resources, your wisdom and frankly your spirit, don’t evaporate but in fact become your go-to healing treasure chest.

———
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The original prayer is creation itself. As created beings we are a prayer onto our own. Prayer here means the lived experience of sacredness, not its usual religious context. Sacredness isn’t confined to one aspect of life. Sacredness has always been the single thread that runs through life.

Pray for Peace

Pray to whomever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the bo tree in scorching heat,
Adonai, Allah. Raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekhina, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.

Then pray to the bus driver who takes you to work.
On the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus,
for everyone riding buses all over the world.
Drop some silver and pray.

Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latte and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.

To Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, pray.
Bow down to terriers and shepherds and Siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.

Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.

Making love, of course, is already prayer.
Skin, and open mouths worshipping that skin,
the fragile cases we are poured into.

If you’re hungry, pray. If you’re tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.

When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else’s legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheelchair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer as the earth revolves:
less harm, less harm, less harm.

And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard
with yellow chalk, twirling pizzas–

With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.

Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace,
feed the birds, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.

Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your VISA card. Scoop your holy water
from the gutter. Gnaw your crust.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.

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