INNER LIGHT – A REIKI NEWSLETTER FOR REIKI PEOPLE
Volume 5 Issue 4 – June 2023

REIKI SHARE

There will be a Reiki Share from 10.00 – 11.00am on Saturday 24 June.

To book your Zoom link, contact Carole on rwh2019@btinternet.com or via a text on 07972 832774. A recording of the meditation will be available the following week.

Here is the link for the recording of the Reiki Share on 20 May – Reiki Share May 2023

REIJU FOR YOU

It’s not always possible to attend a Reiki Share where Reiju is often part of the Share, so Carole provides Reiju remotely. Any Reiki person can ‘tune in’.

In Traditional Japanese Reiki, students receive Reiju empowerments every time they are with their Reiki Practitioner/Teacher. This tradition is echoed when Reiju is available at Reiki Shares. And in the same way that Reiki can be applied remotely – or ‘by ‘Distance’ – remote Reiju works really well.

Carole ‘broadcasts’ a remote Reiju empowerment every Sunday for the whole week with the intention that it can be experienced by any Reiki person.

The simplest way to experience Reiju is to sit and quietly bring yourself present, breathing down into the Hara with your hands in Gasshô, then think to yourself “I will experience Reiju Empowerment from Carole now”. It is as simple as that.

Living Reiki

I recently read a piece by the Dalai Lama that I have introduced into my daily meditation. It reinforces the words of the Gokai (Precept) and the general instructions from Usui-Sensei of bringing Reiki into all parts of our lives – that we live Reiki.

He suggests that on waking up I think how fortunate I am to be alive and have this precious human life. So don’t waste it – put it to work in developing myself and to expand my heart out to others so as to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. He also adds that I hold kind thoughts towards others and also not to get angry or think badly about others. I can benefit others as much as I can myself.

Frans Stiene also reinforced this in one of his quotes for the day when he shared the work of Garchen Rinpoche who suggests we are not bothered by what others do – not criticising or judging their dualistic thoughts and actions – but just paying attention to our own Mind and nothing else. In this way we become liberated, and when we are liberated, we can help others to be liberated. Garchen Rinpoche likens this to being warm water naturally melting all the ice-blocks we touch. Just let other people be, love them, be kind and just keep our focus on our own liberation first and foremost.

When I think and meditate on these wise words, I also think about everyone else in the world who is also meditating on these words and in this way I am not alone in my endeavours to help this world be a more peaceful place.

Reiju and Our Great Bright Light

I get the impression that Reiki Apprentices, and I include myself in this, are seeking to answer the various questions that arise when Reiju is talked about. Working with Frans Stiene as I have for over 10 years and engaging with his daily quotes and his online training as well as the courses I have done in person with him have been extremely helpful. I have also worked with Taggart King now for over 20 years and again the work I have done with him over the years in person and online has enabled me to really think through and understand Reiju.

I thought I would offer today some of the wisdom I have gained through pondering the greatness and the smallness, the complexity and the simplicity of Reiju.

Let’s start at the very beginning – as I think Mary Poppins would have said. We have the right to ask for Reiju and its ability to help us recognise and embody our True Nature and for Reiki Source to help us deepen and make our Reiki more ‘powerful’ as the Western Reiki Teacher William Rand suggests. I have often queried the use of ‘powerful’ in reference to Reiki, preferring to use ‘deepen’. However, Merriam-Webster’s dictionary tells us powerful means our ability to make important deductions, to be able to influence, whilst a Thesaurus suggests it is to be able to perform well, to have a proven capacity for accomplishing whatever it is we set out to do. This sounds about right to me in terms of Reiki and Reiju.

The Five Elements of Reiki are helpful – and I know you all remember these! But just in case, it is the daily practice of meditating on The Gokai (Precepts), Hands-on healing, the Jumon (Symbols) and their Mantras and of course Reiju.

Over and above this there is the idea of setting your intention, to receive what you need from Reiju – and to be open and willing to receive what you need at this exact moment in your life.

Then there is not having expectations or judgements about what happens next. There is the fact that when engaging in Reiju we are doing this accompanied by our Reiki Practitioner/Teacher – whether virtually or face-to-face. The more mindfully you connect with Reiju through your Teacher the more you have the ability to let go the conditioned thinking that you have to be in the presence of the Teacher to gain anything – even though working with your Teacher face-to-face makes things easier. Remember the Usui-Sensei system of Reiki is simple – but that doesn’t mean he made it ‘easy’ for us.

The next thing we have to overcome is the egotistical mind which is feeding us all the undermining inner voice stuff of I can’t… or worse I’m not good enough to… and anything else that might make us feel small and insignificant.

A brief excursion into the aspects of Yin and Yang (or In and Jo in terms of the Japanese) may be helpful here. In and Jo is about the philosophy of opposites and applying this to our everyday life. In and Yo talks about opposites and we could be led down the path of duality, whereas what it is truly teaching us is that In and Yo are part of the Tao – the path to enlightenment – and for Reiki people it is about our engaging with our Great Bright Light which then leads us to Oneness. This vital role encourages us to work with the dual forces of the world through nature. This was well known by Carl Jung who, through his writings, encourages that we listen well to our ancestors and sages and know our place in the Universe so we are not crushed by the unknown – and our insignificance in the great scheme of things.

In and Yo brings us back to the idea that our ancestors and sages have offered us the idea that we ARE significant – and this is reiterated in the work of Carl Sagan and now Professor Brian Cox – and even though we are but a speck of ‘stuff’ (albeit stardust) we are definitely part of something much, much bigger.

And then comes the 3 P’s – oh aren’t you just loving this! Practice, Practice, Practice, Patience when practising and perseverance when it is difficult.

Now you are ready to really engage in the power of Reiju. One of my favourite working phrases is inspired by Heraclitus – we never step into the same river twice – and it is a lovely pun on the twice that attracted me to this, once because the river is not the same even 2 seconds after I step out and twice because I will not be the same woman stepping into the river 2 seconds later – I have to have been changed by my experience of the previous river.

So each time you step in the river of Reiju you are different, and the Reiju is different because of this. It continues to match you, where you are at this exact moment in time, and it offers you exactly what you need at this exact moment in time.

So let’s take the blessings and make them work for us:

Faith – have trust in Reiju meeting your needs and helping you to let go your conditioned thinking
Effort – become reliable in your commitment and enthusiasm to work with the energy of Reiju (by tuning into the Reiju available with Reiki With Heart all week, or an ancestor’s or another Reiki Practitioner/Teacher that you know or know of)
Mindfulness – sincerely taking yourself into your day, your meditation practices, your Reiki work, your non-Reiki work, whatever
Meditation – feel competent to make your daily meditations – you may feel you are not perfect enough to do this – but Buddhism’s definition of Perfection is ‘working to be the best you can be’ – it is the journey, not the destination, that is the important bit
Wisdom – the  Serenity prayer of accepting what you can change, what you can’t change, living one day at a time, enjoying each separate moment, accepting the hardships along the journey, trusting that the Universe will make it come out right, and living for your joy and happiness – oh and using your intuition to place your hands in the ‘right’ places!!

Usui Sensei did not just ‘sit’ with his apprentices, he sat in a way that meant he utilised His Great Bright Light and was an embodiment of the Cosmos and was open to all the possibilities that the Cosmos had to offer him and all his apprentices. He offered mind-to-mind transmission (mindfulness) in which there is no need to engage in any ritual, just his mind which at that point in time he felt was the Universal Mind and that he and the individual apprentices would receive all they would need at that moment in time.

So with the phrase The Japanese ART of Reiki in mind – come to Reiju with creativeness and openness and apply the blessings until such time as you recognise that at this exact moment in time there is neither a giver nor a receiver of Reiju – YOU are The Great Bright Light.

Happy Reiju discoveries.