Energy Exercise #1
The purpose of this exercise is to physically feel some of this spiritual energy that you personally generate. Many students find this easy with a little practice, but others have difficulty because they do not know what to look for.
I feel this energy like a very weak very subtle magnetic repulsion. If you were to take two positive ends of a magnet and try to put them together, you would have some difficulty. The fields of energy offer resistance. Take that feeling and expect something a bit less dramatic or concrete, and you can feel the resistance between your hands. They are not exactly opposing charges, so they do not offer the same kind of resistance as two magnets. Magnets are the way I would describe the feeling.
Since this is individual and subjective, others perceive it as a temperature shift. You could also feel a slight tingle or “pins and needles” sensation, as if you hands are “asleep.” Others feel a pressure or even texture. Everyone feels it differently. Once you feel it, you will be able to manipulate this energy through your will and intent. This is a fundamental building block for magick and psychic development.
1) Hold your hands about three feet apart, palms facing each other. Close your eyes if you would like. You are aware of any new information you receive from your hands, but you are not judging the experience or trying to create it. Allow it to happen naturally.
2) Bring your hands closer together, slowly. Be aware of the sensation. Notice any feelings that come in waves or layers. These are the levels of your aura, your energy body. Some layers offer more “resistance” than others. Try it several times, with eyes closed and then open. If you have difficulty, start over, but begin by rubbing your hands together vigorously, as if you were trying to warm them up. This will increase your hand’s sensitivity.
3) When you are done, wipe your hands together as if you were wiping excess water off them. This removes any other energies you might have picked up along the way. End all of these energy exercises with such a wiping motion.
For my sources see: Recommended Reading
Rei Ki – What the Words Mean
Rei: Spiritual Wisdom
Mrs. Hawayo Takata, who introduced Reiki to the West, said the word Rei means universal and this is the definition most have accepted. However, Mrs. Takata also indicated that this interpretation is a very general one. The kanji ideograms have many levels of meaning. They vary from the mundane to the highly esoteric. So while it is true that Rei can be interpreted as universal, meaning that it is present everywhere, this level of interpretation really doesn’t add to our understanding of Reiki.
Research into the esoteric meaning of the Japanese kanji character for Rei has given a much deeper understanding of this ideogram. The word Rei as it is used in Reiki is more accurately interpreted to mean supernatural knowledge or spiritual consciousness. This is the wisdom that comes from God or the Higher Self. This is the God-Consciousness which is all knowing. It understands each person completely. It knows the cause of all problems and difficulties and knows what to do to heal them.
Ki: The Life Force
Ki means the same as Chi in Chinese, Prana in Sanskrit and Ti or Ki in Hawaiian. It has also been called, odic force, orgone, and bioplasma. It has been given many other names by the various cultures that have been aware of it.
Ki is the life force. It is also called the vital life force or the universal life force. This is the nonphysical energy that animates all living things. As long as something is alive, it has life force circulating through it and surrounding it; when it dies, the life force departs.
If your life force is low, or if there is a restriction in its flow, you will be more vulnerable to illness. When it is high, and flowing freely, you are less likely to get sick. Life force plays an important role in everything we do. It animates the body and also is the primary energy of our emotions, thoughts and spiritual life.
The Chinese place great importance on the life force or what they call Chi. They have studied it for thousands of years and have discovered there are many different kinds of Chi. The “Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine” which is over 4,000 years old, lists thirty-two different kinds of Chi or Ki.
Ki is used by martial artists in their physical training and mental development. It is used in meditative breathing exercises called Pranayama, and by the shamans of all cultures for divination, psychic awareness, manifestation and healing. Ki is the nonphysical energy used by all healers. Ki is present all around us and can be accumulated and guided by the mind.
Reiki: Spiritually Guided Life Force Energy
It is the God-consciousness called Rei that guides the life force called Ki in the practice we call Reiki. Therefore, Reiki can be defined as spiritually guided life force energy. This is a meaningful interpretation of the word Reiki. It more closely describes the experience most people have of it; Reiki guiding itself with its own wisdom, and being unresponsive to the direction of the practitioner.
A Short Explanation of Reiki
It is the God-consciousness called Rei that guides the life force called Ki in the practice we call Reiki. Therefore, Reiki can be defined as spiritually guided life force energy. This is a meaningful interpretation of the word Reiki. It more closely describes the experience most people have of it; Reiki guiding itself with its own wisdom, and being unresponsive to the direction of the practitioner.
~William Rand
The Reiki Symbol
The Japanese Kanji (symbol) For Reiki
Tenso Style
What is Reiki?
The form of Ki that organizes the correct synergetic application of all the subordinate forms of the life force in the holistic sense is called Reiki. This word can be translated as “soul force” or ”spiritual power.” It is this quality of the life energy that, in the material world, is closest to the divine creative force, the source of al life. It attunes the three archetypal partial personalities of the inner child, middle self, and higher self with each other so that all three remain connected with each other in one system instead of striving apart because of their differing characteristics.
- Reiki connects without binding.
- Reiki stimulates without over exciting.
- Reiki separates without creating isolation.
- Reiki calms without causing rigidity.
- Reiki directs our attention to life and love in the heart.
- Reiki creates clarity without a lack of involvement.
- Reiki wakes us up and supports the development of all types of latent potentials.
When given an adequate opportunity to do so, Reiki will first make sure that cleansing and clarification take place and prepare the body/mind/spirit for any additional healing/transformation to take place. In order to cooperate in this process, we must decide to live in a different manner: healthier, more spiritual, and more individual. Reiki can’t—won’t—take over this act of Will Power. The will is a gift of the Divine Force. Mastering it is a holy duty– as is learning to use it in a way that is meaningful in terms of the whole of creation.
Forms of life energy that are higher and more uniform than Reiki cannot manifest themselves directly in the material world of separation.
For my sources see: Recommended Reading
Your Healing Hands
Our hands always let us know how we feel in our heart. If we love someone, the chances are that we’ll want to touch them. Pet owners reinforce the bond with their furry friends by stroking them. Yet the urge to use our hands to hurt someone or something is a sure indicator that we’ve lost contact with love and affection.
Through healing, the energetic link between the hands and the heart is revealed, and although distant healing begins with thought and intention, your hands will also tell you when you’re working this way.
As you practice, your hands will lead you to where healing energy is needed, because they have a subtle sensing apparatus that is sensitive to energy flow and imbalance.
This sensing mechanism is activated and guided by the power of intuition, a faculty of your higher self. If you practice allowing the sensitivity of your hands to work in tandem with your intuition, your hands will prove to be a guide and helper you can trust.
Your hands have a direct link with the heart energy center in the middle of your chest. Activating the subtle sensing of your palms helps prepare the hands for distant healing or any therapeutic work.
Brief Bio of Dr Usui
Mikao Usui, born in 1865, discovered Reiki during a retreat on Mt Kurama in 1914.
It’s believed he developed this system of healing based on a formula he found in ancient Sanskrit Buddhist sutras. Following the formula he went into the mountains and fasted and meditated for 21 days. On the last day he had a vision, which completed his system. Some say that during his vision he received the Reiki symbols that are part of the system. Others say he got the symbols before hand from the Temple where he studied. In either case, the system he developed became an effective tool for healing.
Usui Sensei spent the rest of his life sharing his Reiki system and trained many others how to teach it. Before his death in 1926 he had set up a group called the Usui Shiki Ryoho in Tokyo to continue on with the practice after his death. Through this group many teachers have been trained in Japan.
For my sources see: Recommended Reading
Dr Usui Explains
Explanation Of Instruction For The Public
~by Founder of Usui Reiki Ryoho, Mikao Usui
It is an old custom to teach a method to only my descendants, for keeping a wealth within a family. Especially, the modern societies we live in wish to share happiness of coexistence and co-prosperity. So I don’t allow my family to keep the method to ourselves.
My Usui Reiki Ryoho is an original, there is nothing like this in the world. So I would like to release this method to the public for everyone’s benefit and hope for everyone’s happiness. My Reiki Ryoho is an original method based on intuitive power in the universe. By this power, the body gets healthy and enhances happiness of life and peaceful mind. Nowadays people need improvement and reconstruction inside and outside of life, so the reason for releasing my method to the public is to help people with illness of body and mind.
~exerpted from the Usui Reiki Hikkei – Usui Sensei’s original handbook
© Universal Copyright 1999, 2000 Richard Rivard – please share freely
The History of Reiki
Dr. Mikao Usui, or Usui Sensei as he is called by his students in Japan, is the founder of the Usui System of Reiki. He was born August 15, 1865 in the village of Yago in the Yamagata district of Gifu prefecture, Japan.
It is thought that he entered a Tendai Buddhist school on or near Mt. Kurama (horse saddle mountain) at age four. He also studied kiko, the Japanese version of qigong, which is a health and healing discipline based on the development and use of life energy.
The young Usui found that these healing methods required the practitioner to build up and then deplete his own life energy when giving treatments. He wondered if it were possible to do healing work without depleting one’s own energy. He went on to study in Japan, China and Europe and ended up spontaneously receiving Reiki during a meditation practice on Mt. Kurama.
Usui Sensei had an avid interest in learning and worked hard at his studies. He traveled to Europe and China to further his education. His curriculum included medicine, psychology, and religion as well as fortune telling, which Asians have long consedered to be a worthy skill.
It is thought that he was from a wealthy family, as in Japan only the wealthy could afford to send their children to school. Eventually he became the secretary to Pei Gotoushin, head of the department of health and welfare who later became the Mayor of Tokyo. The connections Usui Sensei made at this job helped him to become a successful businessman. Usui Sensei was also a member of the Rei Jyutu Ka, a metaphysical group dedicated to developing psychic abilities.
In 1914 Usui’s personal and business life was failing. As a sensitive spiritualist, Usui Sensei had spent much time meditating at power spots on Mt. Kurama where he had received his early Buddhist training. So he decided to travel to this holy mountain, where he enrolled in Isyu Guo, a 21 day training course sponsored by the Tendai Buddhist Temple located there. We do not know for certain what he was required to do during this trasining, but it is likely that fasting, meditation, chanting, and prayers were part of the practice.
In addition, we know there is a small waterfall on Mt. Kurama where even today people go to meditate. This meditation involves standing under the waterfall and allowing the waters to strike and flow over the top of the head, a practice which is said to activate the crown chakra.
Japanese Reiki Masters think that Usui Sensei may have used this meditation as part of his practice. In any case, it was during the Isyu Guo training that the great Reiki energy entered his crown chakra. This greatly enhanced his healing abilities and he realized he had received a wonderful new gift – the ability to give healing to others without depleting his own energy!
For my sources see: Recommended Reading
Horses and Reiki
If you have horses, love horses, or enjoy working with animals, this may be of interest.
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Of Interest
Cindy Plante: Gedoku-Ho
Gregory: Natural Power Spots
Alexander Boyd: The Seven Subtle Bodies
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