Reiki Overview
The reiki precepts
- Just for today, do not worry.
- Just for today, do not anger.
- Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.
- Earn your living honestly
- Show gratitude to every living thing.
Dr Mikao Usui received these principles in a mystical experience while meditating. These Reiki principles are also referred to as affirmations, as well as ideals. Dr. Usui's affirmations are intended to be a meditation, which should be done daily in the morning and in the evening, and combined with hand positions and breathing techniques to greatly enhance the ability of the Reiki Practitioner or Master.
Some Reiki Key Concepts
The purpose of the Reiki precepts or principles is to help the Reiki practitioner add spiritual balance to his/her work as a healer. The practitioner must strive to improve self, thus healing the spirit. This is a crucial part of the Reiki healing experience. Just as the client must accept responsibility for his/her healing, the practitioner must also commit to personal improvement on a daily basis. This is necessary in order for the healing to have lasting results. Sometimes as students and as teachers, we may take for granted our understanding of these principles.
Our emotions are not just the result of neuro-chemical brain reactions; a greater, spiritual energy field influences our emotions. Reiki students often report significant and profound shifts in awareness and understanding during and after a course. Interestingly, Reiki is also fast becoming accepted in mainstream healthcare settings such as hospitals, hospice, operating and recovery rooms, nursing homes and many other institutions helping to demystify its effects and adding a much needed boost to the spiritual healing of Mother Earth.
Reiki Benefits
- Increases inner peace, mental clarity, personal growth, & emotional healing
- Promotes calmness, loosens up blocked energy & promotes a state of deep relaxation
- Relaxes the body and significantly reduces stress, tension, anxiety, surgery discomfort & depression
- Provides relief from acute or chronic pain, anxiety, depression, insomnia, lack of confidence, addiction and fear-based illnesses
- Complements medical treatment
- Cleanses the body of toxins
- Promotes creativity
- Increases vitality & energy levels
- Boosts and strengthens the immune system
- Enhances personal awareness
- Releases blocked and suppressed feelings
- Reiki makes ones transition at the end of life more comfortable and less anxious
- Remember that Reiki is derived from two Japanese words: Rei, which means universal, spirit power and Ki or Chi, which means life force energy. So Reiki equals the power to transmit and receive universal life force energy.
The Chakras
Apart from the aura our energy body also consists of chakras and nadis [energy channels].
The chakras are swirling, funnel shaped vortexes that open out from our physical body into the aura. These constantly rotating funnels are the energy processors of our body. They draw in energy from the outside into our body. There are innumerable chakras in our body of which a large majority are small ones. We will concern ourselves with only the seven main chakras. The seven main chakras correspond to the endocrine or glandular system in our body. Each chakra is in charge of supplying energy to a particular gland, which in turn is in charge of a particular set of organs. Besides this physical aspect each chakra is also responsible for specific emotional and mental aspects.
Just as blocks are created in the aura they are also created in the chakras. These blocks cause the chakras to slow down their rotation or become overactive which interferes with the amount of energy being supplied to the body so that the glands and the corresponding organs are adversely affected. This also has a negative effect on our mental-emotional health, creating diseases, which are psychosomatic in nature.
When Reiki energy is given to the chakras at specific positions in the body, blocks are cleared off, so that the chakras rotate at the ideal speed and provide optimum energy to the organs ensuring physical and mental-emotional well being. The aura and chakras are very vast subjects. Given here is very basic information. There is no need for detailed knowledge of chakras though it would help the layman understand how healing takes place. The best way of understanding Reiki is to practice it.
In Zeffi's previous newsletters, we have discussed the chakras in some detail along with a meditation for each chakra. If you would like to review that information, it is on Zeffi's website www.ancienthealing.org under Monthly Newsletters.
These healing sessions encompass clearing and balancing the chakra system. Chakras are energy connections to major glands and organs in the body, allowing the electrical/energetic field to hook in with the physical. Just as trauma is stored in your mind, body and heart, freezing sometimes in unhealthy patterns, traumas are also stored in your energy centers, or chakras.
These days there is much interest in the seven chakras in the way that they relate to modern life and well-being, and this is not surprising since it is clear now that the ancient chakra system corresponds directly with the major human nerve ganglia which stem from the spinal column. The position of the chakras also relate to the endocrine glands, which secrete directly into the bloodstream. The seven chakras are generally thought of as being centers of energy within the human body, aligned with the spine, which correspond to our feelings, and emotional and behavioral characteristics. Each chakra is also commonly associated with an organ and bodily function, and is usually represented by a color, and a 1-7 numbering system. Other sensual aspects are associated with the chakras depending on the interpretation and doctrine, for instance shapes and sounds, and human development from conception to maturity.
A person's body, mind and spiritual well-being are balanced and healthy when all of their chakras are 'clear'. When chakras are 'blocked', the related functions and feelings will be adversely affected; also the balance of the person is upset because other chakras are forced to compensate.
The seven chakras (numbered according to the chakra system) are located at the following points of the body, along the line of the spine:
- Base of the spine
- Lower abdomen/lower back (below navel)
- Solar plexus (between the navel and base of sternum, which is the central vertical bone in the rib-cage)
- Heart (center of chest)
- Throat (base of neck)
- Brow (lower forehead, between eyes)
- Crown (top of the head)
The lower chakras govern our more basic instincts related to survival and physical self. The higher chakras govern our mental characteristics and feelings related to thought and consciousness. Logically the central chakra - the heart - arguably bridges the two, being strongly linked both to physical and emotional feelings. When all chakras are open and balanced, the mind, body and spiritual self, are healthy. Reiki is one of several techniques and methodologies, which can 'open' or 'free' chakras that are blocked (which causes other chakras to become over-active), and thereby to restore a person's natural balance.
Whether you consider yourself to be a spiritual or pragmatic person, whether your goals in life are based on material success or spiritual fulfillment, whether you are a steel-worker or an aromatherapist, learning to heal and work with the chakras is one of the most effective ways to well-being.
There are also many other techniques, such as crystal therapy, color therapy and flower essences, that can help to remove specific stresses in the chakra centers as well as bringing the whole body into a better state of balance. In future newsletter we will also explore these therapies.