INNER LIGHT – A REIKI NEWSLETTER FOR REIKI PEOPLE

Volume 4 Issue 9

REIKI SHARES

The next Reiki Share will be via Zoom on Saturday 25 June 10-11 am. The theme for this will be continuing working up to 21 days healing practices –   and how they deepen our understanding of the practice.

Because of the uncertainty in the world, Shares will continue throughout the summer.

If you are unable to attend on the date, if you register a place you will be sent the notes for the session. Carole is investigating whether or not she can record the sessions and have them available for a short time afterwards so they can be downloaded at a time appropriate to you.

The next Reiki Shares will be held on Saturday 23 July  and 20 August, 2022

The Aspirations of the Medicine Buddha

Shakyamuni Buddha taught that Yakushi Nyorai (Mayahana Buddhism) or Bhaisajyaguru in Sanskrit, is the Tathagata of Lapis Lazuli Light or Medicine Buddha in the Japanese Shingon Esoteric Buddhism Sect.

This Buddha has twelve great aspirations. The first five are in regard to the principle of innate or intrinsic health, with the third, fourth and fifth aspirations matching up with the Buddhist training of meditative contemplation (samadhi), wisdom (prajna) and discipline (sila):

1 All sentient beings become enlightened and for all beings to be established in the state of innate health

2 The Wisdom Aspiration. All beings experience the blazing light of Wisdom, as bright as the light of the sun and the Moon – for Reiki this is encompassed in the Shinpiden Shirushi (Symbol) DKM

3 Sentient beings experience boundless Wisdom (prajna) and skilful means (upaya) and that they become free of all mental impoverishment – no worry, no haste and in the Usui Gokai (Precept) to be free of worry or restlessness and to come to terms with our poverty mentality, which means if we do not overcome this particular mentality it doesn’t matter how much wealth we have or how we are as a sentient being we will never be free of worry or restlessness

4 In accord with prajna, that every sentient being enter the authentic path of enlightenment which means we connect with our intrinsic health

5 Perfect discipline – Sanskrit sila – which means if we do not have discipline we cannot achieve innate health. It makes it difficult to reach any goals or dreams we have and how much discipline it takes to reach our aim of, for instance, being a doctor, a counsellor, a scientist, a nurse, a social worker, or even as Martin Luther King Jr said “if a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say ‘here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well’”

The sixth, seventh and eighth aspirations are in connection with the physical health of the body:

1 All beings come to possess full and complete faculties, with no serious difficulties because when the physical elements of the body are disturbed, mental difficulties are experienced. So we take care to have all the interdependent causes and conditions that allow genuine health to flourish

2 Even when we take care of ourselves, we can still be affected by various illnesses – the pandemic, for instance – and it is the aspiration here that not only do we have the harmonious conditions to heal our illnesses, but that we address the aspect that all beings have access to medicines and other things that help them to heal – in the case of the pandemic, that everyone has equal right to receive a vaccine for the Covid-19 pandemic

3 This aspiration relates to those who are discontented with their gender. Frans Stiene recently sent details of a documentary about Kodo Nishimura who, as a monk and a makeup artist, struggled with his sexual identity until he realised that Buddhism not only allows for this but Yakushi Nyorai aspires that their wish be accomplished. It is also available in book form as the Monk who Wore Heels
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/3004836/?autoplay

https://www.kodonishimura.com/

The ninth and tenth aspirations are about mental health.

1 Sentient being to be liberated from the ‘lasso of Mara’ where Mara represents the eight worldly dharmas and the lasso is about being attached or bound to those dharmas

a Attraction to comfort

b Aversion to discomfort

c Attraction to gain

d Aversion to loss

e Attraction to praise

f Aversion to criticism

g Attraction to fame

h Aversion to anonymity

If we are bound to these things as if by a rope then it becomes more difficult to restore our mental health

1 Sentient beings are free from clinging to certain views and social ideologies on the basis that disputes arise due to different opinions and values and in particular different religious traditions, so we are looking to pacify all types of disharmony within ourselves and others and then Yakushi Nyorai’s teachings will enable us to reach the ‘conduct of bodhisattvas’ – the way our actions benefit others and free them from harm and in particular from injustice.

The eleventh aspiration is a concern for those who do not have the necessary provisions for sustaining their body and their health, for instance food.

1 The aspiration here is that everyone has everything they need for sustenance and for genuine happiness. Happiness is about not just enjoying good health but that people understand and embrace what causes good health and wellbeing and this includes abundant Wisdom, Compassion and Loving-kindness to sustain the brain and Mind. This aspiration is also about the actions individuals need to take which are virtuous actions – because if a person acts in a way to harm others it will also harm them

2 This great aspiration is that all beings have clothing and wealth in precise accordance with their needs. The Medicine Buddha also aspires that the wishes of sentient beings be fulfilled – whatever those wishes are

The teaching of the Medicine Buddha is that if we need something and we get it that we need also to allow ourselves to be satisfied by it. Otherwise we will strive without enjoyment and this leads to the state of Samsara – the cycle of death and rebirth to which life in the material world is bound.

The Aspirations of the Medicine Buddha are prayers which are desires for accomplishment for the benefit of all beings. When we make aspirations for ourselves, we need to believe they are possible and to trust in our capacity to be able to materialise these blessings.

BODY, ENERGY AND MIND

In Shoden we learn self-healing in terms of Earth Energy and the Body. At the beginning we are not sure what we’re looking for. Unlike the physical touch of the Body, Earth Energy is less tangible, we wonder if what we’re feeling is what we should be feeling. We also learn Jôshin Kokyû Hô to calm and focus our Mind, and begin our journey towards the elusive “emptiness” or “Spaciousness” in which we can let Reiki get on and do what it needs to do.

POSTURE:

Thich Nhat Hanh said: “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor”.

Much is said by meditation trainers about how we need the physical Body to be in the upright position, not too loose, not too tense. This is because we want to interconnect Energy with Mind so as to affect the Body.

The Gokai (Precepts) and hands on/off healing aspect of the brain that analyses and intellectualises – none of which we need to do if we let go anger, worry, fear etc. We gain clarity, Wisdom and access to our Great Bright Light.

Usui-Sensei gave us the Gokai (Precepts) as this is to do with much of what Shoden is helping us to understand about the need for ‘presence’. We need to remain in the here and now and not stray into the past or future. Although we learn about the sensations of Qualia and Fingerspitzengefuhl, it is about not getting lost in these sensations, just being aware they are there. Then we learn more about the hands, and can train ourselves to be with the Earth Energy in the hands.

Sanmitsu Hô trains us in its meditative elements to work with the mysteries of interconnecting Mind/Body/Energy. Anger is felt in the Body, but is connected to the brain (Mind). We attempt to stay with the breath and the Energy and the hands and come back to these elements over and over again.

This helps us to manage our daily lives. We need to be focused during the hustle and bustle of life, and this is part of not building up imbalance in the Body Energies. If we cannot stay focused when we are calm and still, we are less able to stay focused when we are busy. And it is often when we are busy we are unable to stay present moment-by-moment and so negative Energy builds up in the Body.

We have the Universal hand position to help us understand whether we are too tight or too loose and we can adjust. Too tight and we are more likely to be distracted by “am I doing this right?”, “What am I feeling?” and so on.

The Hara enables us to ground and centre ourselves so we can focus on the hands.

Working with Compassion for myself leads to allowing us to come into contact with our True Self – our Great Bright Light. And the more self-Compassion we have the more Great Bright Light, and now this inspires others to find their Great Bright Light. This form of Compassion is empty of self, so now we can work in a way where there is no giver, no receiver and nothing to give. There is no attachment to our ability to self-heal and therefore, we do what we do to ourselves and others with no expectations and the Earth Energy flows easily and without any impediment.

The more we practise, the less we are affected by past, present and future, anger or worry, and our hands/hand positions are less important also. We can fix ourselves on the breath as in Jôshin Kokyû Hô or in other practices such as the Gokai (Precepts) or on the Jumon (Mantras) or Shirushi (Symbols). Eventually we can work without any of these aspects and work with spaciousness, and when/if we are distracted, we return to the objects we learned to fix on, the breath, Jumon, etc. Usui-Sensei was quite clear in working with the Gokai – the practice is to focus on being present with whatever we are doing, or anger or worry will creep in. Now we can work with Compassion for ourselves and move back into Spaciousness/emptiness and a place of non-duality. From here we no longer label, judge, compare, analyse etc.

TEATE (putting your hands on an injury in Japanese). If we hurt ourselves, we naturally put our hands on the painful place, though we can go much deeper than just hands-on healing. Shinshin-Kaizen is how Usui-Sensei described the process. Much in the same was as Morihei Ueshiba (Founder of Aikido) taught his students, individually, according to their own Mind, Body and Spiritual needs, and that is how Usui-Sensei taught – allowing his students to work at their own pace, and with Right Mind, openness and Spaciousness.

It is sometimes possible to find when we are new to this work and offer teate to others, that the Reiki is not able to penetrate much beyond our hands. As you become better able to understand Reiki is so individual, as you deepen your own practice, you will find that Reiki Healing Energy spreads out and travels further, and you become more adept at being open and Spacious and are guided to reach the whole body of a stranger who has learned to shut down.

We need to constantly practise teate on ourselves so as to remember this is about accessing the True Self and not dropping into the distraction of ‘my hands are very warm’, ‘I am seeing loads of colours’….now we are not only getting in our own way, but interfering with the flow of Reiki!

Beginner’s Mind allows us to return our focus to the hands over and over again. We need to be aware of where we get angry or worried in our everyday lives and are we expressing our gratitude for not just those moments of Spaciousness but also those moments where we close down and then we can offer ourselves Compassion, and return to the basics of Shoden. Come right back to Right Posture, Right Breathing, Right Mindedness and our own Great Bright Light and strengthen our resonance with the Cosmos.

SEISHIN TOITSU. As you practise Hatsurei Hô you will also become more familiar with breathing though the palms, into the Hara and out again. Yuki is not just used for healing purposes, but to help the Body naturally cure any sickness. To explore more about Yuki go to:  Yuki – Touch Healing – Touch Play | dreamhawk.com