Exploring Reiki

108 Questions and Answers

Laxmi Paula Horan

• Publisher: New Page Books
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9781564148230
• eBook ISBN: 9781632658036

Exploring Reiki introduces this increasingly popular form of hands-on healing by answering the 108 most often-asked questions relating to its practice in common-sense, reader-friendly language. It covers all the practical issues a complete beginner would want to know about while still providing an in-depth and all-round presentation. As a result, Exploring Reiki is as helpful to the curious browser who wishes to get first hand information from an experienced practitioner as it is to the experienced initiate with questions about a particular aspect of this subtle art of healing.

Chapter 1

BASIC REIKI

This first group of entries concerns the Reiki basics, with questions and answers that deal with the qualities that define Reiki. They provide the background information we need to be aware of, if we wish to practice the Usui Method of Natural Healing. They also describe the framework of deeply spiritual and compassionate values, which were intended by its founder and the age-old lineage of natural and spiritual healers who served as his source of inspiration. History, structure, method of transmission—this chapter addresses all of these and helps you to understand and grasp the true and liberating spirit of Reiki.

1. What is Reiki?

Most commonly, the word Reiki refers to a simple hands-on healing technique, a form of energy medicine, rediscovered by Dr. Mikao Usui in Japan in the late 19th century. Dr. Usui chose the term Reiki to describe Universal Life Force Energy, which calms the mind and raises a person's life force. Through the use of soothing hands laid on the body in certain positions, the process of healing is accelerated. The essence of this form of healing, in Reiki, is passed on from teacher to student through a series of mystic initiations that, like in the Tantric forms of Buddhism in Japan or Tibet, are called attunements or empowerments.

In actuality, Reiki is the fundamental nature or substratum of the universe, and the Usui Method of Natural Healing is an easy way of giving back to yourself more of what you already fundamentally are: Universal Life Force Energy. You literally recharge yourself with that which, at the deepest level, you have always been.

In quantum physics, as well as hermetic science, energy is recognized as the fundamental nature of existence. In truth, there is no solid matter. Thus, the human body, thoughts, and emotions are all composed of energy oscillating at various frequencies. The denser the vibration, the more apt we are to experience discomfort or “dis-ease.” The freer the vibration, the greater the chance for natural health, abundance, beauty, satisfaction, and well-being.

Through getting the body/mind in touch with Universal Life Force Energy, its very own substratum, Reiki can release the individual in a gentle and gradual manner from age-old restrictions and bondage and allow him or her, over time, to first experience vibrant health and balance and, finally, experience freedom and unity.

2. Where does Reiki come from?

In its outer appearance as energy medicine, Reiki very likely has its real roots in India, having passed through Tibet and China to Japan, where it was rediscovered by Dr. Usui. In its unlimited inner potential, Reiki comes from nowhere in particular, because it is everywhere and exists as everything. In this aspect of Universal Life Force Energy, Reiki is unknowable and ungraspable, and yet can be directly experienced by everyone at every moment due to its all-pervasive nature.

In a deeper sense, as Universal Life Force Energy itself, Reiki is the substratum or underlying nature of everything. It exists everywhere. Because of our identification with the body and its five senses, we have forgotten that, in actuality, we are the very unlimitedness of being itself. We don't recall the powers granted to us; by simply being open and aware, we can draw whatever resources we need directly to us (much like Christ manifesting the fish and the loaves or a present-day realized master accomplishing things that go beyond our normal understanding).

Through the attunements or empowerments of Reiki (which reestablish the direct energetic channel we have for Universal Life Force Energy to flow through), we begin to reconnect (or simply notice) the direct link we've always had with all the energy there is. We begin to draw in directly what we need from what at first seems to come from the outside. Then we slowly regain the knowledge that all we are is within the all-inclusive mystical Heart of hearts (including our bodies), although the mind cannot possibly comprehend the oneness of all of reality.

3. How does Reiki heal?

By calming the mind and raising the life force energy in the body.

The body is actually energy vibrating at a certain frequency, and all its frequencies have their own natural flow. However, when we make a judgment about something (rather than discernment), the judgment gets stored in the cellular structure of the body in the form of a physical and/or emotional block. Emotions are a reaction to our thoughts or judgments about people and life's situations. Because they distort the natural frequencies, negative thoughts or judgments are experienced as dense or uncomfortable vibrations. Such thoughts may turn into headaches, tension, stomach aches, or ulcers. Rage and anger or grief held in the body can easily turn into tumors. In the same way, mental control “trips” or the power trips we bought into from others can turn into rheumatoid arthritis.

Provided we stick to the tried and proven procedures outlined by any good, traditional Reiki teacher, Reiki, over time, may actually heal all of these blockages. Reiki exposes them to the much higher vibratory frequency of Universal Life Force Energy, which can then penetrate and dissolve any block.

By simple laying on of hands over the entire body so that it can draw the energy it needs, Reiki helps us to feel our feelings fully, so they can easily pass through the body/mind and not get stuck. Old stuck thoughts (through treatment) have their frequencies raised and then are enabled to also pass through.

Thus Reiki heals by raising our life force frequency.

4. Who is Dr. Mikao Usui?

Dr. Mikao Usui is the founder of the modern-day Reiki movement. According to recently found information, he was a Tendai Buddhist practitioner, family man, and healer. Born in 1865 into a family of minor aristocracy, as a young man he was originally encouraged to go into business; but this was not his true proclivity, so he instead studied the Japanese and Chinese healing arts, and later Western allopathic medicine with Christian missionary doctors.

Due to a powerful spiritual experience on sacred Mount Kurama, which he later described to several of his students, he gained a tremendous natural ability to heal through the laying on of hands. Through contemplation and further meditative experiences he then discovered how to pass his abilities on to others.

He coined the term Reiki (Universal Life Force Energy), as it conveys how healing with Reiki is accomplished by allowing soothing healing energies to simply flow through the palms of your hands.

Dr. Usui passed away in 1926. As he predicted during the last years of his life, his legacy did indeed survive and is now benefiting people everywhere. If we recognize him as the true healer and dedicated humanitarian that he was and emulate his example, we will infuse our own Reiki practice with the devotion and dedication that it deserves. Dr. Usui literally showed us a way to connect with Universal Life Force Energy, the source of all healing.

5. How is Reiki different from other healing methods?

Reiki is a form of energy medicine similar to Touch for Health or Pranic Healing. The essential difference is Reiki's utter simplicity (besides a few hand positions, there is no methodology to learn) and the recognition that no one ever heals anyone else—that all healing is pure Grace and just happens.

For example, if I lay my hands on you to “do” a treatment, your body will simply draw what it needs through the channel. You can actually be doubtful or skeptical, because Reiki ultimately transcends the mind; however, you do need to be at least open to the possibility of receiving Reiki. Your body will then of its own innate intelligence simply draw in what it needs.

Thus, in Reiki, I don't have to sit there and try to make the energy flow. Simply by my intention to share a treatment, the energy begins to be drawn into the other, and this is the key: Reiki is always drawn, never sent, even at the Second Degree level, when distant treatments are shared.

One only has to learn how to listen to one's hands. Through the recognition of our true state of “non-doing” (that everything which happens in the universe happens due to pure Grace), Reiki could be aptly called the simplest of all healing arts.

6. Is there more than one form of authentic Reiki?

Yes, there are several authentic forms and lineages of Reiki, but not everything that calls itself Reiki actually is Reiki. Among the authentic forms and lineages are the following:

1. Traditional Reiki, as taught through the direct lineage of Usui, Hayashi, Takata, and her 22 direct students (provided that every master further down the line has kept the transmission pure and teaches it in its essential form).
2. All lineages that go back to Dr. Usui through Dr. Hayashi and his student Sensei Takeuchi, a Zen monk who received a different set of teachings from Dr. Hayashi than Mrs. Takata.
3. Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkei, the traditional Reiki that has been practiced in Japan itself in an unbroken lineage and is not connected to Mrs. Takata.

Because Dr. Usui had a number of close students, there may be other authentic forms and lineages of Reiki that still remain quietly hidden by the wayside.

However, due to the popularity of the Usui Method of Natural Healing and the increasing demand for it around the world, a number of questionable teachers have also appeared. A few people have begun adding so-called “channeled” symbols and attunements and have created new forms and haphazard healing techniques to which they attach the word Reiki. I do not wish to mention any of them specifically and prefer to leave that to your own discernment. Usually these mental creations carry as their name a catchy noun or combination of nouns in connection with the word Reiki.

The Reiki channel is always inherently there in all sentient beings, so anyone with a certain amount of charisma can also help you feel some form of energy. If you believe in them, it will work up to a certain point. What you will be missing, though, is the connection with the genuine lineage of Reiki as conveyed by Dr. Usui through the vehicle of the attunements.

Very few Reiki masters or teachers practicing today are self-realized. In other words, most Reiki masters are more like masters of a craft but do not possess the qualities usually associated with a spiritual master, let alone a fully enlightened being. This means that the seed energy for the opening of the Reiki channel is carried only by the attunements the individual teacher has received from his or her own master. The teacher does not fully embody it at every moment; rather it is carried through him or her and only called upon when needed.

If the Reiki master were a spiritual master in the true sense, he or she would live uninterruptedly in full conscious awareness of Universal Life Force Energy. It would be ever-present, and the feeling of separation and alienation from all of reality, including other sentient beings, would never even arise. However, despite a lack of this quality of all-pervasive awareness the Reiki master can still act as a master and convey attunements.

There are two reasons: First, like any other being or appearance in this universe, the Reiki master is by nature nothing other than the very universal life force energy he or she is empowering or attuning others to. Therefore, in his or her aspect of wholeness, the individual teacher is always realized, even though this realization may go unnoticed. Second, the teacher has learned through practice and experience to quiet the mind when conveying attunements so that he or she can then tap into this aspect of wholeness and inseparability and convey its taste. At other times, when this is not possible, when the teacher is unable to quiet the mind and be fully present and aware during the time of empowerment, the “weight” of the empowerment is carried through the vehicle of the teacher by mere intention and the fact that they have been empowered to do so.

Obviously, the closer a Reiki master is to deeper levels of realization, the better he or she can awaken to awareness of the ever-presence of Universal Life Force Energy in the student who is receiving the empowerment. In other words, full self-realization infers continuous presence of awareness, not being lost in or identified with any thought that is moving through the mindstream. This does not mean that a self-realized being does not have any thoughts, or emotions, or sense perceptions. Thought, emotion, and sense perception may be moving through the mindstream of the individual, but an awareness of their total openness is also present.

Such a state of openness allows the Reiki teacher to act as a pure mirror for what is actually the self-empowerment of the student, so that the Reiki energy, which the Reiki student already exists as, finally becomes apparent to the student. Essentially, the teacher acts as a mirror to help the student become aware of what has always been there, waiting to be noticed. The main role of the teacher is to remove doubt and help the student perceive directly what has always been there right in front of his or her eyes—but what they have been conditioned to ignore.

In this context, a story from Captain Cook's discovery of New Zealand in the 1700s comes to mind. When his ship anchored in a bay, the Maori natives could not even see it because, through their experience to date, they had not been conditioned that such big ships could exist. They could only see the small rowing boats that Captain Cook had sent to shore, because they were about the same size as their own vessels. In a way, due to our conditioning to believe in only what we can see or touch, when it comes to Reiki energy, we are like the Maoris who couldn't see the big ship because they had not been taught to do so. The role of the Reiki master is then to point out the all-pervasive ever-presence of this energy, much like a really big ship in our lives that can carry us to the land of greater freedom, better health, and dee...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 1: BASIC REIKI
• Chapter 2: FIRST DEGREE BASICS
• Chapter 3: THE FIVE PRINCIPLES
• Chapter 4: ALL ABOUT HEALING WITH REIKI
• Chapter 5: SECOND DEGREE BASICS
• Chapter 6: THIRD DEGREE BASICS
• Appendix A: THE HAND POSITIONS OF THE FULL-BODY TREATMENT AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
• Appendix B: WHY REIKI?
• Appendix C: THE REIKI DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
• Appendix D: PAULA'S REIKI LINEAGE
• INDEX
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR