INNER LIGHT – A NEWSLETTER FOR REIKI PEOPLE
Volume 2 – issue 5
Jigsaw Puzzle
One of my great loves is jigsaw puzzles. I tend to buy 1,000 pieces and if I can afford it, those puzzles with 1,000 differently shaped pieces.
I remember buying twelve children’s wooden jigsaws on offer in a supermarket, and have used them in many training sessions, and you, dear reader, may have been on training with me in Reiki where we have used them. I am mean! Muddling up all the pieces and hiding the boards which have the pictures on them, and getting trainees to assemble them. Numerous aspects of life, hardship, love, envy (you have the piece I want!) negotiation (please, will you give me that piece), and all the other revelations that come when a jigsaw is assembled wrongly – but looks right – and how demoralising it is to discover you cannot disassemble that one wrong piece, but have to destroy the jigsaws and reassemble with the right pieces in the right places – just like life.
There is much philosophy and psychology to be found in jigsaws.
When we feel we’re disassembled jigsaw pieces, we may have that blissful sense after meditating that, in the blink of an eye, we have been reassembled and we’re whole. Whilst living life, it is full of stops and starts, maddeningly complex, and then ten pieces assemble themselves like a breeze. As we struggle with each jigsaw piece in life we are piecing together “my True Self”. We make discoveries.
One thing I dislike is sharing a jigsaw with someone. For me it is not partnering someone to do the jigsaw. It is a wander into the unknown, to explore my own competencies and abilities to piece this thing together, to bring hand and eye together to make sense of things. Sometimes, I have the learning opportunity of catching myself judging or criticising my skills, or examining what have I done to deserve this (sorted through about 750 pieces and STILL not found the piece I need!) Or I wonder what impact I’m having on my life, when I am not making an impact on this large piece of sky.
When I hit the buffers, I know it is time to give myself a break. And I do this with Reiki too. I cannot meditate because my brain is too distracting, so I stop and pick up one of my books related to Reiki that sit beside my meditation seat, and let it open to a page and let my eye choose where I read …e.g. “Inner calmness is a way of being that can transform our lives. Taking one thing at a time as our focus, letting the imperfections of life be, fosters a sense of the present, a contentment with the moment.” (p74, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom. Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield) – how synchronistic is that!
In harking back to my twelve wooden jigsaws, I have the picture of the jigsaw of my life – it is held in my Soul. If I can be still and quiet, my Soul can relax and it can tell me where to go next, which piece of the jigsaw of life to pick up and slot into place. When I’m still, I can slow down, I know the workaholic driver is no good for me, it throws me off balance, all that rush, push, is wearying and disrupting, when I just want to be a Lightworker and continue on my Sacred Journey.
Sustaining the New
Several weeks into the New Year, gym attendance declines. Those resolutions to eat fresh foods and make meals from scratch will be waning, the daily walks will be every now and then, and our decisions to do meditation every day will be interfered with by life.
It is now we need to engage with Reiki each day to help assist us support and maintain these new beginnings so these projects can grow strong and resilient. It helps us to be vigilant and loving towards these tender new shoots that will improve ourselves and our lives.
Part of the need we have at this time of year is to heal any wounds carried over from last year; to release pain and sorrow and any upsetting memories from the past so our Spirit can heal. [Explore Taggart King’s Reiki Evolution website for an MP3 of a Releasing Meditation].
Reiki helps all tender blooms to take good root and hold tight in solid ground, despite the rain and gales that have been a feature of not only the weather outside, but our internal weather too.
Working with our resolutions, our new projects for 2020 means we are like youths, because our projects are new, and they are more fallible. We need to have Compassion for ourselves and make some allowances. We need to find Space in our lives. During the more relaxed days of the festive season, it seemed easier to make Space for meditation, for breathing techniques and exercise. Now that life and work are back to normal, we need to be curious and experiment to find out what works for us and what doesn’t, so we protect our enthusiasm for the changes we want to make and nourish our Vital Spirit.
We need to give ourselves permission to be fun-loving, to explore these new avenues of growth and development. The extra Energy we invite in with Reiki helps us to fulfil our achievements.
Whenever we begin something new, we need to give ourselves permission to make mistakes, and to use them to make right decisions about how we progress. This keeps our enthusiasm for our new projects and we do not get discouraged today because our brain is like a child on a sugar rush, whereas yesterday it was meek and submitted to sitting quietly.
We can remain flexible and diligent in our practice, so when we cannot find half an hour to meditate, we can listen to a spiritual podcast on the bus/train to work, and even in the car as we drive. As Ram Dass (who died recently) said “If you meditate regularly, even when you don’t feel like it, you will make great gains, for it allows you to see how your thoughts impose on you.”
As an aside to this, did you know your brain cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imaginary? Research in the Neurosciences shows that whether we make a movement (like picking up a weight) or we imagine that movement, the neurological changes are almost identical. We can use this in everyday life. You can just imagine how you want to be and then imagine yourself being like this, without any thought to the contrary, just your full attention to what you imagine, then forget about it. Get on with your life. Repeat, day after day until you no longer need to do this. Since the brain doesn’t know what is real and what isn’t, it will mobilise whatever is needed to deliver what you need. Just pay attention to how you think and feel and how synchronistic life becomes, which tells you all is well and working – even if it is your imagination!
Something to Read:
As an antidote to beating ourselves up for not being good enough to keep our resolutions going, try this book/audible book:
Buddhism for Busy People by David Michie. It is not over intellectual, deep or impenetrable writing. It is very human and a response to what feels right in a life where things seem unrewarding despite a good job, supercar, lots of jaunts to exciting continental places at weekends. Something is missing – but worse, the author finds himself becoming ill because of stress.
It is funny, it is serious, and it hits the spots we can all feel. I have found it a delight. It is about a 3 hour long audio programme and towards the end the Medicine Buddha puts in an appearance. As we know, Reiki comes under the Medicine Buddha, Yakushi Nyorai, and for those at Okuden and Shinpiden/ Shihan, you will be familiar with his healing meditation. The final chapter takes the form of a couple of meditations, including the Medicine Buddha chant.
It might be just the thing to help you find Space and Time to take care of yourself and to nourish those new shoots and new roots that you know will make a difference this year. “Just as a gardener tends to the flowers, care for your daily practice and watch it grow, strengthen and blossom” (Tamara Levitt, Calm).
Silence or Music
There is a debate that when meditating, there should be silence so that contemplation can be full and meaningful.
However, some people find silence frightening, they may have been subjected to silence as a punishment, for instance, or been excluded by being ‘sent to Coventry’. It can mean aloneness.
Silence in the contemplative sense is about being able to go deep within yourself to find a stillness within, for instance, the rush and turmoil of the city.
Inner stillness enables the Heart to listen to the Divine Self; to enter SpaceTime which Krishnamurti described as a ‘possibility of coming upon that which is eternal, sacred.’
Music on the other hand, can be seen as a way of avoiding silence, of avoiding the feeling of aloneness. Rumi suggested when feeling empty and frightened you take down a musical instrument – and his teaching encouraged the students to turn to their instruments when they didn’t understand the teaching.
For Spiritual Practitioners, music is a sacred activity that unites them with the Divine. It can bind people together. It can be uplifting. Music can provide the preparation for a time of silence, helping to remove things that preoccupy the day. It helps the brain to fall quiet and allow reflections to arise.
When preparing to sit quietly and meditate, the choice is yours. Silence or Music? Just be aware of your choice and your reason(s) for that choice and whether you need to work with one or the other. This is part of being diligent in your practice.
The Three Centres Meditation
- Sit comfortably, feeling your bottom on the chair and your feet on the floor; take a few calming breaths and relax into this meditation
- Let your imagination take you deep into the Earth beneath you, sensing its warmth and its support
- Look around and you will see the Light at the centre of Mother Earth, her fiery Core. As you breathe in, allow the golden Light flow into your feet and up your legs into your pelvis and into your Hara. Fully feel yourself fully embodied here and now. Continue to breathe up this golden Light into your Hara and re-affirm your connection with the Inner Fire of Earth Energy
- When you feel your Hara is full, let the golden Light begin to rise up the Celestial Axis, filling your torso until it reaches your Heart Centre, and feel it filling up your Heart Centre. Continue to breathe up this golden Light and re-affirm your connection with the land
- When your Heart Centre is full, allow the flow to continue up the Celestial Axis to fill your Mind Centre, your Wisdom Centre. Continue to breathe up this golden Light until you truly feel the spark of the Divine, letting the Light flow and feel the Eternal Compassion and Delight of the Dance of Infinity
- When you are ready, give thanks from your Heart to the Earth and purposefully send out some of your Inner Light into the world, whether through your eyes or your hands or through every pore in your Body.
- Take a few more breaths and feel grateful for your Body, your Heart and your Mind and for the gift of being alive and human at this moment in time
Try this meditation as often as you wish, and note in your Journal how it ripples affect your life in terms of greater balance and wholeness.
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