What is Reiki
'What is Reiki?' is a simple question with a complicated answer.
The complications are created by the ways the word is used to refer to several very different aspects of an experience, even a confusion about the very nature of the original concept to which it refers. Confusing? Very!
The complications are created by the ways the word is used to refer to several very different aspects of an experience, even a confusion about the very nature of the original concept to which it refers. Confusing? Very!
Reiki is a Word
'Reiki' is the term used by a Japanese man Mikao Usui to refer to an experience.
'Reiki' is thus a Japanese word for a calligraphic character in the Japanese language, a word picture with many possible interpretations. The interpretation you will hear most often is "universal energy' which has been further interpreted in ways that I consider to be in error.
The error that has arisen in the interpretation of 'universal energy' is that 'Reiki' is an energy to be used, channelled, directed, and which has 'agendas' and 'plans' for what happens in our lives. My own experience of this sense of presence is that Reiki is an 'IS-ness'. Outcomes that we experience and which are interpreted as its action is what we open to, the choices we make as a result of awareness and immersive interaction with it.
The interpretation my practice presents to me repeatedly, is the description of an experience of a "mysterious sense of presence", a presence that infuses every thing, and is present in all places. This experience is carried in the space of being in the 'now moment'. This place and experience is present in the traditions and teachings of sages throughout human history. This is the origin of the 'universal energy' description.
'Reiki', in my experience, is a field or a frequency of consciousness, the scope of which is 'immeasurable and beyond the comprehension of man'. These quoted words are those of Hawayo Takata through whom the practice first came to the western world. I do not know a better word picture.
'Reiki' is the term used by a Japanese man Mikao Usui to refer to an experience.
'Reiki' is thus a Japanese word for a calligraphic character in the Japanese language, a word picture with many possible interpretations. The interpretation you will hear most often is "universal energy' which has been further interpreted in ways that I consider to be in error.
The error that has arisen in the interpretation of 'universal energy' is that 'Reiki' is an energy to be used, channelled, directed, and which has 'agendas' and 'plans' for what happens in our lives. My own experience of this sense of presence is that Reiki is an 'IS-ness'. Outcomes that we experience and which are interpreted as its action is what we open to, the choices we make as a result of awareness and immersive interaction with it.
The interpretation my practice presents to me repeatedly, is the description of an experience of a "mysterious sense of presence", a presence that infuses every thing, and is present in all places. This experience is carried in the space of being in the 'now moment'. This place and experience is present in the traditions and teachings of sages throughout human history. This is the origin of the 'universal energy' description.
'Reiki', in my experience, is a field or a frequency of consciousness, the scope of which is 'immeasurable and beyond the comprehension of man'. These quoted words are those of Hawayo Takata through whom the practice first came to the western world. I do not know a better word picture.
Reiki is a System of Practice
I speak for only one form of practice, that called Usui Shiki Ryoho as described by Phyllis Furumoto as Lineage Bearer in the Takata Furumoto lineage. This is the form I teach and have practiced for more than 30 years. There are other forms of practice that use the term 'Reiki' with quite similar outward appearance and teachings stemming from the practice founded by Mikao Usui.
I do not know, and have not practiced these other forms.
Mikao Usui founded his healing system as a practice for the everyday person to use in their everyday life. It is at the same time both a "self-healing" practice - all healing being considered to be self healing, and a "Self" healing practice - a healing practice that balances the separated aspects of the personal Self, a way to make whole again who we are as a 'Self'.
I speak for only one form of practice, that called Usui Shiki Ryoho as described by Phyllis Furumoto as Lineage Bearer in the Takata Furumoto lineage. This is the form I teach and have practiced for more than 30 years. There are other forms of practice that use the term 'Reiki' with quite similar outward appearance and teachings stemming from the practice founded by Mikao Usui.
I do not know, and have not practiced these other forms.
Mikao Usui founded his healing system as a practice for the everyday person to use in their everyday life. It is at the same time both a "self-healing" practice - all healing being considered to be self healing, and a "Self" healing practice - a healing practice that balances the separated aspects of the personal Self, a way to make whole again who we are as a 'Self'.
Reiki is a Personal Treatment Experience
Firstly, what does it feel like, how do people describe the experience? The hands-on treatment experience is most often described as relaxing, or comforting, as leaving a sense of well being. It is not uncommon for people to report sensations of warmth or “tingling” sensations within the body during a treatment. It is not uncommon to fall into a deep sleep if that is the need of the body. It is not uncommon to have awareness of patterns of personal experience that have a new depth of meaning or clarity. The reality is that the experience is mostly quite ordinary, unique for each individual,
The hallmark features of the Reiki hands-on practice are a sequential patterning of hand placements in contact with the body of the receiver of treatment. A treatment is received fully clothed and most often on a therapy table.
Safe physical contact is a very human need. The sequential patterning of hand positions gives confidence about where and how your body will be touched, so the process is made a safe and predictable experience for both the person receiving the treatment and the person giving the treatment.
A single one off treatment session can prove beneficial. Several treatment sessions on consecutive days with follow up treatments, has been found to be of benefit with established or chronic conditions. What you choose to do however, is entirely your own choice.
There are no contra indications, no reason that you are not able to receive a treatment in a form that fits the situation. Hands-on treatment can be used alongside any conventional medical or other health related treatment or procedure you may have chosen to receive. Your pacemaker or unborn child are in safe hands.
There are however, no guarantees of a desired result. The body has its own wisdom and priorities. Healing can and does happen without visible changes, our bodies do not necessarily respond as we might like, some physical processes are seemingly not reversible beyond a critical point. Nonetheless, relief from pain, or an improved condition of life often result, and, from time to time the seemingly miraculous occurs.
The outcome of treatment sessions are what I consider what we as individuals do with “the Reiki experience”, what we are willing to allow and embrace, not something that is done to us. As such, the result is unique for each person although there may be elements in common with the experiences of others.
Firstly, what does it feel like, how do people describe the experience? The hands-on treatment experience is most often described as relaxing, or comforting, as leaving a sense of well being. It is not uncommon for people to report sensations of warmth or “tingling” sensations within the body during a treatment. It is not uncommon to fall into a deep sleep if that is the need of the body. It is not uncommon to have awareness of patterns of personal experience that have a new depth of meaning or clarity. The reality is that the experience is mostly quite ordinary, unique for each individual,
The hallmark features of the Reiki hands-on practice are a sequential patterning of hand placements in contact with the body of the receiver of treatment. A treatment is received fully clothed and most often on a therapy table.
Safe physical contact is a very human need. The sequential patterning of hand positions gives confidence about where and how your body will be touched, so the process is made a safe and predictable experience for both the person receiving the treatment and the person giving the treatment.
A single one off treatment session can prove beneficial. Several treatment sessions on consecutive days with follow up treatments, has been found to be of benefit with established or chronic conditions. What you choose to do however, is entirely your own choice.
There are no contra indications, no reason that you are not able to receive a treatment in a form that fits the situation. Hands-on treatment can be used alongside any conventional medical or other health related treatment or procedure you may have chosen to receive. Your pacemaker or unborn child are in safe hands.
There are however, no guarantees of a desired result. The body has its own wisdom and priorities. Healing can and does happen without visible changes, our bodies do not necessarily respond as we might like, some physical processes are seemingly not reversible beyond a critical point. Nonetheless, relief from pain, or an improved condition of life often result, and, from time to time the seemingly miraculous occurs.
The outcome of treatment sessions are what I consider what we as individuals do with “the Reiki experience”, what we are willing to allow and embrace, not something that is done to us. As such, the result is unique for each person although there may be elements in common with the experiences of others.
Reiki Classes: Learning the Reiki Practice
The Usui System in the form of Usui Shiki Ryoho has three class categories of practice for which I continue to use the term of 'degrees', although clearly they are not degrees in the terms that educational institutions use the term. They can be called levels but this leads to an interpretation of hierarchy, one being lower and less than the one that follows, which introduces an error in thinking. The word 'degree' holds a quality of a deepening which is a more clear interpretation.
The next page expands on class structures.
The Usui System in the form of Usui Shiki Ryoho has three class categories of practice for which I continue to use the term of 'degrees', although clearly they are not degrees in the terms that educational institutions use the term. They can be called levels but this leads to an interpretation of hierarchy, one being lower and less than the one that follows, which introduces an error in thinking. The word 'degree' holds a quality of a deepening which is a more clear interpretation.
The next page expands on class structures.