On Being No One
In New Age and metaphysical journals we often see ads for healers, people (often independent of any particular system or discipline) who have, to judge by their testimonials, have achieved miraculous results. We personally know of cases where some healers have achieved such results, and if either of us needed to we wouldn't hesitate to consult them.
We say the above to make it clear that the subject of this newsletter isn't to diminish or deride the achievements of such healers. They are often modest about their work, saying that the healing energy comes through them.
We have also, however, met healers who were frankly immodest, who were HEALERS, and while they have their share of clients, we have sometimes wondered about their results.
We have often had healers as students, but never HEALERS. Reiki doesn't attract them, for very good reasons.
We teach our Reiki students hand positions to use while giving a treatment. We tell them that they may notice certain sensations when they place their hands on certain areas of a recipient's body (tingling, coldness, heat) which may be indications of energy blockages.
We teach hand positions because they provide a useful format for giving a treatment, and mention sensations because it's helpful to know how to respond to them. We give equal emphasis, however, to the basic (perhaps only) belief of Reiki: that the energy has an intelligence of its own, that if the practitioner happens to miss indications of a blockage or forgets to place hands on one part of the body the energy will still find its way there.
We say this because we believe that it's true; we emphasize it because it helps to relieve the practitioner of performance anxiety and the mental chatter of wondering how they're doing at a given moment. It enables them to relax, to feel the energy running through them, to fully experience that as they give a treatment they are also receiving one.
We said that we attract healers, not HEALERS; we are also realizing that Reiki attracts people who would like to shed the limitations of ego.
We use ego as an introductory term; we aren't referring to egotism or inflated self-importance. We're speaking more accurately of the territory people stake out as "this is who I am," a defined set of borders beyond which they don't stray.
Some boundaries (especially in other people) are obvious: your friend who refuses to eat Indian food or go rollerskating, for example. Some are shrouded in generalities (everyone knows that . . . ) some in moral statements (I just think it would be wrong).
Others are less easily definable (especially when they're ours): worrying about the future, wondering what people think of us, feeling like jerks. When we get caught up in such thought patterns we're as self-absorbed as the most annoying egomaniac.
Self-absorption- any fixated emotion or thought- actually an energy blockage, and the more we practice Reiki the more layers of blocked energy get dissolved.
This is why we emphasize the importance of a daily Reiki treatment. We know that often people have to work themselves up to this frequency, but the results are well worth every iota of discipline you need to muster.
While choosing a regular time of day or night for this treatment is usually one of the keys to success, we also recommend that if you're in the midst of a crisis or bogged down in a cycle of worry give yourself your daily treatment right then. If you don't have time for a full-length treatment Reiki the top of your head (for mental/emotional balance), your heart (for emotional balance), and your solar plexus (for anxiety relief).
Reiki II practitioners may find it helpful to use the symbols: for more power in a situation and for mental/emotional balance. As soon as you have the opportunity to be alone in a quiet setting send distant healing to the crisis or to your worries. Visualize the situation being solved (or resolved).
The more we think Reiki the less we think of ourselves.
On the eve of our first workshop ever we had some concerns about teaching. We wondered whether we'd do it right, whether our students would get it. Our own performance anxiety dissolved in the course of giving the first attunement. By the fourth we had lost all thought of failure- success.
In looking back over these first four years we've come to realize that while we may have decided to become Reiki masters because part of our path is to teach methods of self-treatment and -empowerment we have received some unexpected blessings. The greatest of these is that each time we give a class we lose a little more of ourselves.
If we were to give a concise description of a Reiki practitioner we would say, "A pair of hands and a willing heart." The same is true of a Reiki master.
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