Renewal through Reiki Principles
The Reiki Principles should not just apply to Reiki, but to all parts of your life.
Reiki Principles: Healing Tools
Reiki is a healing tool developed by Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese spiritual scholar. Challenged by his students to discover why people weren’t gifted with the healing power of Jesus, he set out to answer that question through study. Years of Western study and finally cloistered meditation on a mountaintop brought him the realization that we all, in fact, do have healing ability, but we need to activate it through sacred Tibetan symbols and a conscious connection to the Universe.
Thus, the system of healing was born. He taught this one, who taught that one, who taught the other one, and so and so on, with the system spreading across the word so the word and practice is no longer mysterious to the public. Reiki (Ray-kee) means Universal Life Energy. The certified practitioner channels this force to clients, animals, plants, and minerals (you can clear crystals with Reiki) to create a harmonious energetic flow that promotes healing.
However, many do not know that Reiki incorporates imperatives that offer us guidelines for living a life free of self-imposed stress and discord. These guidelines transcend religious boundaries yet are easily recognizable by people of all faiths. As we close out 2015 and enter the next year, consider adapting Dr. Usui’s Reiki principles to help you remove obstacles and maintain harmony within and around you:
Reiki Principles: Just for today, do not worry
Worry is the thinker’s poison and our greatest source of stress. It takes two paths – anxiety over the future and regrets over the past (all the coulda-woulda-shoulda with which we bombard our reflections). The dangerous result of worry is that it keeps us in a state of arrest; that is, when we look back or look forward, we miss the peace and joy of the present moment where there are no temporal obstacles to prevent us from being whole and content.
How do we not worry? How do we position ourselves in that childlike state where the world is full of wonder and not fear? Think of the childhood classic, Peter Pan. When the children see him aloft and scream, “You can fly! You can fly!” his instruction to them is simple. So can you. “Just think wonderful thoughts.” As they began chanting this mantra, they found themselves airborne. And, so can you.
Reiki Principles: Just for today, do not anger
Anger is a destructive force with a boomerang effect. Although people can point to external adversaries to prevent harmony, these are merely mirrors reflecting our inner imbalance. What in this person or situation has triggered a long-held belief or expectation that has just been challenged? What in your ego has become inflamed by recognizing this situation?
Buddhism warns of the dangers we face when we impose expectations upon the world and upon ourselves because such expectations are never met in the way we have designed them, leading to frustration, disappointment, and anger. Buddhism advocates detachment and anger is often a display of our greatest attachment. Let go. Repeat the mantra to yourself throughout the day. When the fire in the belly begins to rise, step back. “Just for today, do not anger.”
Reiki Principles: Earn your living honestly
Practice harmlessness in your work. Do work that benefits others. Be transparent. Live clean. Volunteer. Be the best you possible. Follow the ethics you were taught by whatever religious or philosophical theory you accept.
Reiki Principles: Honor your parents, elders, and teachers
We come to a particular point in life not solely by our own doing, but through the guidance, advice, and example of those who preceded us. Often in hindsight, we realize the impact of even the smallest piece of advice.
Personally speaking, I am now one week away from ending a 36-year teaching career and have discarded unnecessary worry about sustaining myself in retirement. I didn’t plan to become a professor; it just happened as the river of life carried me downstream, but the simple words of my grandmother certainly contributed to my getting into the river in the first place: “Be a teacher. They do so well in retirement.” My grandmother was uneducated and unskilled, but she was a premier homemaker and caretaker. Though she left this plane in 1997, I still thank her every day for having been a blessing in my life through sheer presence.
Sometimes, we don’t receive overt direction from our teachers and parents; we receive subtle guidance through example or simple generosity, even the smallest kind. Be grateful for this. Even in cases when our parents or other authorities in our lives inflicted pain on us, culminating in long-term emotional and psychological effects, we can try, for a moment, to put down those bags and breathe. Ask yourself this question: would you be the person you are today if not for those experiences?
Reiki Principles: Be grateful to every living thing
Embrace the sanctity of all life. We are all made of the same spirit. Bless the trees. Give gratitude to your dogs and cats. Inhale and thank the air. Be thankful for every part of yourself, even the parts that hurt and the forces that hurt them. Be open to the gifts of the universe, which often go unnoticed. Bend down and pick up the feather that has landed at your feet or the pebble gleaming in the sun; you will find more gifts coming your way as you thank all life around you. Bless the rain or snow preventing you from getting to work on time. It is Spirit giving us a sacred mandate: an imposed slow down: time to breathe, time to relax, time to temporarily sequester, time to be.
Transformation doesn’t occur in an hour, in a day, in a week. It requires commitment. Be committed to your own peace and happiness and map it using these simple Reiki principles and techniques. You can also easily convert them into affirmations and mentally chant them throughout the day. You’ll find your healing accelerates on multiple planes.
You will also enjoy 4 Tips To Break Unhealthy Habits
About the Author
Rev. Lisa Shaw is an animal communicator, Reiki Master, intuitive counselor, writer, and professor who lives in South Florida with a family of furry and feathered companions. Her e-book, Illumination: Life Lessons from our Animal Companions, is available on Amazon.com. Find out more at: http://Reikidogs.com
