What Is Reiki?

Reiki is a method of stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. The technique
was developed in Japan and is administered by the laying on of hands. It is based on the idea that
all living things have a special energy flowing through them called life energy. When your life
energy is high, you'll feel strong and confident, be more relaxed and centered and less likely to
get sick. When it is low, you'll often feel tired, be more easily affected by stress and less resistant to illness.

Reiki is a Japanese word that comes from two words - Rei and ki. In the Japanese language,
these words can mean different things depending on how they are used and how they are
combined with other words. When they are used together for the practice of healing, the word
Rei means universal spirit, Higher Power or God. The word ki refers to the life energy that flows
through all living things. Therefore, Reiki means life energy that is guided by God. Some also feel this is just another way of saying Holy Spirit.

A Reiki treatment is a way of increasing your life energy. A practitioner will transmit Reiki to
the client through the hands. The hands are lightly placed on or near the body in various
positions around the head, shoulders, stomach and feet. Sometimes a practitioner will also treat above the body.

A treatment can feel like a warm glowing radiance that flows through the body. It is a very
relaxing experience and some clients report the body feeling heavy as it relaxes and yet the spirit
or emotions feeling light at the same time. A treatment will usually release negative feelings or
thoughts leaving the client feeling more positive, lighthearted and with feelings of well-being.

Healing often takes place and people have reported recovery from minor things like headache,
stomachache, bee stings etc., but also major illnesses have been affected with some people
recovering from heart disease, cancer, leukemia etc. While almost everyone experiences
relaxation and improvements of various kinds, healing results cannot be guaranteed. It is
recommended that if one has an illness or other medical or psychological condition that in
addition to getting Reiki treatments, clients also consult a licensed physician or other licensed
health care professional as Reiki works well in conjunction with all medical or psychological care.

The ability to do Reiki is innate within everyone. By taking a Reiki class, an attunement is given
to the student which is like turning on a switch that in affect turns on ones Reiki energy. After
that, all that is necessary is to place one’s hands on oneself or another person and Reiki healing
energy automatically begins flowing. Because of this, Reiki is very simple to learn and is taught
in a weekend class. (Rand, William. “What Is Reiki?” Reiki, www.reiki.org)

Reiki Classes

What Is Meditation?

Mystical Guidelines to the Fine Art of Exploring
the Wonderful Within of Yourself.

From the Teachings of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Founder of Hinduism Today: (Hinduism Today, All about meditation 2022).

The growth of the lotus flower is perhaps the best metaphor for the soul as it unfolds in consciousness. It begins in the mud, like a soul caught up in the instinctive nature; then it emerges into the water as a stem, like the soul immersed in the intellect and emotions; and ultimately it appears above the water as a bud, just as the soul awakens to its spiritual nature. For the soul, this stage of the bud beginning to open as a beautiful flower marks the onset of inner striving, seeking to know oneself and fathom the mysteries of life through the introspective process of meditation. Meditation is an art, a definite art, and well worth working for to become accomplished. It is not easy, and yet it is not difficult. It only takes persistence, working day after day to learn to control and train the outer as well as the subtle, inner forces.

Meditation is a long journey, a pilgrimage into the mind itself. Generally, we become aware that there is such a thing as meditation after the material world has lost its attraction to us and previous desires no longer bind us to patterns of fear, greed, attachment, and ramification. We then seek through philosophy and religion to answer the questions, “Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?” We ask others. We read books. We ponder and wonder. We pray. We even doubt for a while that there is a Truth to be realized, or that we, with all our seeming imperfection, can realize it if it does exist. Oddly enough, this is the beginning of the meditator’s journey on the path, for we must empty ourselves fully before the pure, superconscious energies can flow free through us. Once this state of emptiness and genuine searching is reached, we soon recognize the futile attempt to find Truth on the outside. We vividly begin to know from the depth of ourselves, a knowing we could not explain or justify. We simply know that Reality, or the Self God, resides within, and we must go within ourselves to realize it. Of itself, that knowing is not enough. Even great efforts to meditate and vast storehouses of spiritual knowledge are not enough. Many have tried to find the Truth this way. The Truth is deeper and is discovered by the resolute devotee who dedicates his life to the search; who lives a balanced life according to the yamas and niyamas, the Vedic spiritual laws; who willingly undergoes change; who finds and obeys a spiritual teacher, or satguru; and who precisely learns the disciplined art of meditation. This, then, outlines the destination of the meditator’s journey and his means of travel.

One of the first steps is to convince the subconscious mind that meditation is good for us. We may want to meditate consciously yet maintain fears or doubts about meditation. Somewhere along the way, a long series of events occurred and, upon reaction to them, awareness became externalized. We became geared to the materialistic concepts of the external world. As we begin to feel that urgency to get back within, the old patterns of thought and emotion, cause, and effect, naturally repeat themselves. For a while, the contents of the subconscious may conflict with our concepts of what it is like to fully live spiritually. Our habits will be undisciplined, our willpower ineffective. Quite often the subconscious seems almost like another person because it is always doing something unanticipated.

In these early stages, we must mold the areas that are different into a new lifestyle so that there will be nothing in the subconscious that opposes what is in the conscious or superconscious mind. Only when all three of these areas of consciousness act in harmony can meditation be truly attained and sustained. For us to be afraid of the subconscious is unwise, for it then holds a dominant position in our life. The subconscious is nothing more than the accumulation of vibratory rates of experience encountered by awareness when it was externalized, a storehouse containing the past.

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