I myself looked for some larger branches and put them on top of the kindling. So it was in life. In order for the more substantial  pieces of wood to catch fire, the kindling must burn first. In order for us to liberate the energy of our strength, our weakness must first have a chance to reveal itself.

~The Witch of Portobello, Paulo Coelho

“I cannot live with myself any longer!”

Have you ever said this to yourself in the privacy of your own lunacy? If you have, perhaps you’ve made yourself miserable enough to want to wake up now and acknowledge that you’ve just made a fundamental discovery! You’ve identified two of you – there is the “I”, and then there is the self with which “I” cannot live. If you assume that this is true, then is it possible that only one of these “I’s” is real and the other is artificial? An interesting thought…

So, why bring this up? Well, what I’d like to do during this three part this ‘Living in the Now’ series is to discuss the difference between our ‘real self’ (you as a part of the Oneness) and our ‘false self’ (our physical body as identification with the ego).

How can we challenge ourselves to step beyond this limited view of ourselves and step into the greater expanse of who we really are? How can we free ourselves from the intense grip of our egos, which is currently controlling our thoughts, our emotions and our mental image of what we project into the world we perceive? How can we step out of our ‘minds’ – these minds to which we surrender so much control? How can we learn to live in the present moment and let go of past baggage and fears of the future?

These sound like impossible tasks to some, but hopefully with greater understanding of how to apply the principle of living in the Now to our lives, we can attain a deeper grasp of how we can transform ourselves into ‘Beings of Now’.

Enlightenment, transformation and living in the present moment can only truly begin when we honestly look at ourselves and ask questions like, “Who am I?”, “Am I listening to my soul?”, “Is there a ‘real’ self and a ‘false’ self? And if I believe that there is, can I make a distinction between the two and believe in myself enough to take the necessary steps for transformation?”

During this period of major realignment on our planet, there are many coined phrases and terms that are flowing as freely as our out-of-control minds. Words like evolution, vibrations, false self, ego, consciousness, superconsciousness, unconscious, inner body, unmanifested, authentic self, soul, spirit – the list goes on and on. It’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to determine the meaning of each word and how it fits into our own interpretation of how things work. But remember, these are just words – words that can both confuse and words that can excite, words that make us feel empowered and words that make us feel unworthy. But remember that the most basic job of words is to help us TRY to communicate.

As an example, there are words whose meaning we don’t question, such as the word ‘dog’. When we hear that word, we can assume that most people immediately envision a furry, friendly, cuddly pet who wants to lick us and be our friend forever. Pretty simple: mental image = definition of the word. But…what about other words a bit more tricky to envision? How about a word like ‘enlightenment’? What immediately comes to mind? Is this a harder picture to conjure up? I would guess if we asked each person reading this what he or she saw in the mind’s eye, each person would have a different mental picture and thus a different explanation of what ‘enlightenment’ means.

Our minds are very important to this process, but we must know how and when to use them and when to step out of our minds! Our intellect is also very important in our human expansion, yet our intellect can also get in the way of transformation. We have to learn how to understand the difference between our mind and our intellect in order to really make significant changes in our lives. The journey is challenging, yet it is tremendously important in our own personal path back to Source.

Can we release our falsely-created self, the ego, behind? Can we truly breathe the lighter air of the spiritual on a regular basis? Through the wisdom of various spiritual teachers, a variety of different lessons and also, with the study of the powerful book of Eckhart Tolle called ‘The Power of Now’, let us bring to light the importance of living in the present so that we can face this existence in a state of true inner peace. Eckhart Tolle shares so beautifully his deep understanding of the power of our own minds. In this book he speaks of ways in which to understand how the mind works, of obstacles that we are confronted with daily that have the power to challenge our ability to stay on the path, of the importance of undersatnding relationships that we share in our lives, and of how to discover, through communion within ourselves as well as with others, how to truly live in the present moment.

As we work through this process, it’s important to define a few terms that we will be discussing as they relate to the material given here. Each person, each religion, each teaching that we have all been exposed to over the years can have a different definition or understanding of a specific term – that is both the beauty and the confusion of trying to use words for spiritual understanding. I by no means am giving the ‘right’ definition of the following terms but I am attempting, within our limited vocabulary, to share one possibility, one variation of an xplanation of some of these important terms so that clarity may have a chance to assist us in the understanding of what it means to live in the Now.

The first word I would like to discuss is the word ‘being’. I am sure there are various definitions of this word but in this context here, the following definition is offered:

BEING: ‘Being’ is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the many forms of life that are subject to birth and death. ‘Being’ is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence.

This means that it is accessible to us now as our own deepest self, our true nature. ‘Being’ is used by many people because it is an open concept – it does not reduce the infinitely invisible to a finite entity since it is difficult to form a mental image of ‘Being’.

Many people identify the word ‘being’ with a physical expression and label it ‘God’, where they can envision a very large man-like character who knows all things, sees all things and judges how we live our lives. Other people think of ‘Being’ as life-force energy or Sprit of pure love and light that vibrates at a very high rate of frequency. No interpretation of ‘Being’ is right or wrong. For every living creature, it is their very presence, and it is immediately accessible to us as the feeling of this presence. It is only a small step from the word ‘Being’ to the experience of Being! How incredible is that!?

Next, what is enlightenment? Simply:

ENLIGHTENMENT: means to regain our awareness of ‘Being’ and to abide by that state of ‘feeling-realization’. It is simply our natural state of ‘felt oneness with Being’ that keeps us in the state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible – something that IS essentially us and yet is much greater than us. It is the discovering of our true nature, beyond name and form and identification with our physical body. The word ‘enlightenment’ conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way!

The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion of seperation, from ourself and from the world around us. We then can perceive ourselves, whether consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment, separate from everything else. When this happens, fear arises and conflicts deep within ourselves can become fueled.

The greatest obstacle to experiencing the reality of our connectedness to All There IS is the identification with our mind, which then can cause thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadul afflication, but we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents us from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being. This can help to explain why so many people have difficulty meditating. Their inability to establish stillness within and of having a mind empty of thoughts seems an insurmountable task. After several failed attempts, our minds declare victory and meditation becomes an imposibility. However, if we can learn to understand the power of our minds and begin to have power over them, the results are peace, happiness and stillness within.

Some of you may know that many of the teachings that I offer you through this site come from a soul very dear to me. He was a man of great spiritual proportions (and as I write this, I hear him laughing that he was grand on the physical scale too!). He offered classes to those who were willing to make the effort to work on themselves. I attended one of these classes, and spent some time with him outside of the church meeting room, but mostly, my communion with him has been on an intuitive level. In any case, I have an email here, printed out in front of me, written by him to his students on what I can imagine was a beautiful evening on the 22nd of July 2002. One of his students had asked him to explain good and evil – why it exists and what the concepts are meant to teach us. I will copy below what he wrote, but before I do, I remind you to…

Treat these words as various dishes laid out on a buffet table. Pick and choose what looks and tastes good to you. It is for you to decide what food agrees with your digestive system. None of this is for your acceptance or rejection. None of us get brownie points for what we believe to be true; only for what we apply.

Dear family,

There is no good or evil except man’s mind makes it so. Meditation will help one overcome the dual expression of good, or evil. All is God!! If one believes this, then how can we believe in such a thing as evil? If we accept the concept of evil, then it must be of God also. My! What a paradox! For me, all there is, is God. The light that dwells in the center of every cell of our being is God. If one believes this to be true, then how can evil exist in anything? Light is all there is. Darkness can’t overcome Light. Light will always dispel darkness.

Why do we have such a need to live in the dual concept? Yes, we have many things that express in a dual nature, but they are an expression of God. Man is an expression of God walking on the face of the earth. Now, if one believes this to be true, then how can there be another expression of energy?

We must devotedly and passionately repeat this mantra to ourselves:

I am love and an expression of God walking on the face of the earth!
I am God, living with all that is my expression for the purpose of removing the need to express anything other than spirit in my life!

We should be repeating this several times a day, EVERY day. I know! Many of you are thinking, “How can I find time to memorize all that, and remember to say it every day?” Well, do it the same way you remember to take a breath. You plant the thought into your subconscious mind until it becomes another habit. Remember 21 days. We need to do what is necessary. You have been given all the tools needed, and you provide the God Power. Look for it, as it is burried deep within, and every day you put it off, it only goes deeper into your being. I know every one of you are capable of finding that power. You only need to want it bad enough. Do you?????

And so with that, let us meditate:

Chapter 2: Soul Consciousness

Link to chapter: click here
Length of chapter reading: 36:50 minutes

I am so deeply touched, inspired, impassioned, released by the effortlessly meticulous way in which Tagore weaves words into golden strands of the most brilliant poetry. Poetry of truth, timeless understanding, gentle compassion. These words were written in the beginning of the 1900s yet still resonate the deepest of truths for us today. Tagore’s words perform a dance, frolicking to the tunes of the aged and wise, lacking any sign of tiredness or uncertainty. To reach such a point of clarity…would be divine…

“…a truth opens up a whole horizon. It leads us to the infinite. That is the reason why, when a man like Darwin discovers some simple general truth about biology, it does not stop there, but like a lamp shedding its light far beyond the object for which it was lighted, it illumines the whole region of human life and thought, transcending its original purpose. Thus we find that truth, while investing all facts, is not a mere aggregate of facts. It surpasses them on all sides and points to the infinite reality. As in the region of knowledge, so in that of consciousness, man must clearly realise some central truth which will give him an outlook over the widest possible field.”

Is it possible that we generally tend to overestimate the impact of the discovery of a fact in the short-term, and underestimate its impact over longer periods? Does this mean that the attainment of a wider field of view can only be attained after a process of discovery of truths, rather than in the instant of one discovery? If the All is within all of us, if it exists right now, why is there a need for time to discover it? Is the experience what we really seek?

“…our soul, when detached and imprisoned within the narrow limits of a ‘self’, looses its significance, for it’s very essence is unity. It can only find out its truth by unifying it’s ‘Self’ with others, and only then, it has its joy.”

Perhaps I am learning how to build words, and sentences, and ideas out of letters. Perhaps it is my time to make sense of the alphabet. Perhaps it is time for joy.

“The chick knows that when it breaks through the self-centered isolation of its egg, that the hard shell which covered it so long was not really a part of its life. That shell is a dead thing. It has no growth. It affords no glimpse whatever of the vast beyond that lies outside it. However pleasantly perfect and rounded it may be, it must be given a blow to, it must be burst through, and thereby the freedom of light and air can be one and the complete purpose of bird’s life be achieved.”

Much of my life has become virtual. Perhaps it is due to my travels and coupled with my personality for I have left many friends behind and seem to prefer maintaining relationships from a physical distance. For whatever reason, I find myself communicating through written word more than through any other form. I have found, through this practice of faceless/bodiless connection, that deeper truths and more fulfilling relationships can be cultivated – at least this has been my truth. The lack of physical interaction has opened the door to deeper spiritual contact.

Does this make sense to you? It is as if the virtual space has allowed me to forget about the shell, and connect with a greater vastness. Yet, I remind myself that I am still in physical form for a reason. What that reason is, I haven’t much of a clue. But because it is still a fact that on this plane of existence I have a body, there must be some purpose for the vehicle. So, as I write this, I am experiencing an intense period of caring for the vehicle. I am more intent then ever to nurture it, pay attention to what fuel I give it and what activity I perform with it – all this, in the name of devotion for the chick inside the shell. Perhaps this is my way of attempting to create balance between the virtual and the physical – trying to respect both equally through the discovery of the qualities that make both states divine. Can Spirit reveal more of itself through the virtual world?

“In his sermon to Sathu Simha, Buddha says, “It is true, Simha, that I denounce activities, but only the activities that lead to the evil in words, thoughts or deeds. It is true, Simha, that I preach extinction, but only the extinction of pride, lust, evil thought, and ignorance, not that of forgiveness, love, charity, and truth.”

How often does it occur that we consciously decide from which of these we will make our next choice? How often do we watch the moment from the perspective of an observer?

I once attended a talk in which the speaker reflected on some of the beliefs held within Raja Yoga. After her resonating talk, she walked around the room and shared a sweet biscuit with each person. She also held out a small container, in which there were pieces of paper, one for each of us to take. Each piece of paper had a message written on it. I still carry the message that came to me on that day. I am grateful each time it falls into my hand. I share it with you now:

I am an observer. Being able to observe enables me to be creative, productive and effective because I have made space for true and better understanding.

“Our pursuit of truth in the domain of nature, therefore is through analysis, and the gradual methods of science, but our apprehension of truth in our soul is immediate and through direct intuition. We cannot attain the Supreme Soul by successive additions of knowledge acquired bit by bit, even through all eternity, because He is One. He is not made up of parts. We can only know Him as Heart of our hearts and Soul of our soul. We can only know Him in the love and joy we feel when we give up ourself and stand before him, Face to face.”

Many have asked what the difference is between intuition and the ego – the little voice inside of us vs the loud scream that so often disguises itself as a whisper. Perhaps through the observation of the ways in which we pursue truth – that of nature and of the soul – we can distinguish the voice of the essence.

In celebration of spring, you are warmly invited to come join in the reflection of the Spirit. This time of rebirth and new awakenings is a perfect opportunity to widen our eyes and open ourselves to seeing more of our Selves. For the next 8 weeks, we will embark on the Literary Exploration of Sadhana, the Realisation of Life by Rabindranath Tagore. Every week, you are most welcome to share your reflection of each of the 8 chapters of this illuminating tome.

The Literary Exploration Series is an opportunity to delve into the world of an author who had the courage to explore the esoteric and share his or her experiences with the world. The first book in this series is entitled Sadhana, the Realisation of Life, first published in English in 1913. Rabindranath Tagore, Asia’s first Nobel laureate, wrote this collection of stories that, as I understand them, aim to demystify the relation of the individual to the universe. They speak of soul consciousness, the ego, love, beauty, and that which has no beginning nor end.

If you would like to read more about the author prior to beginning this audiobook exercise, you are most welcome to begin your introduction to Rabindranath Tagore here. You can also find links to each of the 8 chapters of Sadhana, the Realisation of Life here. Every week for the next 8 weeks, we will reflect upon a single chapter until we reach the end of this literary exploration. You are welcome to join in at any time, and are warmly invited to write about your reflections here by commenting on the weekly posts.

During this first week, we will be reflecting upon Chapter 1: The Relation of the Individual to the Universe.  You may wish to listen to the chapter in full before reading the following reflection, or you might prefer reading the comments below prior to listening to it for yourself. The choice is yours.

Chapter 1: The Relation of the Individual to the Universe

Link to chapter: click here
Length of chapter reading: 38:06 minutes

A beautiful experience – and by that, I suppose I mean the experience of listening to Rabindranath Tagore’s The Relation of the Individual to the Universe, as well as the actual experience of realising life. Although I am not certain the extent to which I have realised my own life, I have to believe that this book comes to those who are ready to reflect upon the process. And, to reflect upon this grand theme of existence, I suppose that one would have had to have already recognised it at some point.

“…for we can never make anything truly our own except that which it truly related to us.”

If it is already related to us, then making something our own is simply the process of recognising a part of ourselves that was there all along.

“We can look upon a road from two different points of view. One regards it as dividing us from the object of our desire. In that case we count every step of our journey over it as something obtained by force in the face of obstruction. The other sees it as the road which leads us to our destination, and as such, it is part of our goal. It is already the beginning of our attainment, and by journeying over it, we can only gain that which within itself it offers to us.”

The way I see it, the first point of view is the definition of effort – fighting against obstruction. The second is the process of going with the flow.

“The man of science knows in one aspect that the world is not merely what it appears to be to our senses. He knows that earth and water are really the play of forces that manifest themselves to us as earth and water. … Likewise, the man who has his spiritual eyes open knows that the ultimate truth about earth and water lies in our apprehension of the eternal will which works in time and takes shape in the forces we realise under those aspects.”

An example of how perception has the power to divide, in this case, the worlds of science and spirituality.

“In art, we strive for originality and lose sight of truth which is old and yet ever new. In literature, we miss the complete view of man which is simple and yet great but he appears as a psychological problem or the embodiment of a passion that is intense because abnormal and because exhibits in the glare of a fiercely emphatic light, which is artificial.”

It is simple to underestimate simplicity.

“Where man tries to push himself to eminence by pushing and jostling others, to achieve a distinction by which he prides himself to be more than everybody else, there he is alienated from that spirit. … in the pursuit of wealth, you really give up everything to gain a few things…”

It is not ‘lonely on the top’ because no one else is good enough to be there with you. It is lonely because on your perceived climb up the ladder, you have forgotten who you are and how to connect to the essence of your Being. We are only alone when we forget that we have our Selves, and within our Selves is the Oneness of All.

“We are immersed in His consciousness – body and soul. It is through His consciousness that the Sun attracts the Earth. It is through His consciousness that the light waves are being transmitted from planet to planet. Not only in space, but this light and life, this All-feeling Being, is in our souls. He is all-conscious in space (or the world of extension), and He is all-conscious in soul (or the world of intention).

“Thus, to attain our World Consciousness, we have to unite our feeling with this all-pervasive infinite feeling. In fact, the only true human progress is coincident with this widening of the range of feeling. All our poetry, philosophy, science, art and religion are serving to extend the scope of our consciousness towards higher and larger spheres. Man does not acquire rights through the occupation of larger space nor through external contact, but his rights extend only so far as he is real, and his reality is measured by the scope of his consciousness. We have, however, to pay a price for this attainment of the freedom of consciousness. What is the price? It is to give one’s ‘self’ away. Our soul can realise its ‘Self’ truly only by denying its ‘self’.”

Poetry, philosophy, science, art and religion are all mechanisms through which we are invited to expand our awareness – to open our Eyes and see more of that which is hidden from the physical eyes. It is like the proverbial buffet table:

“Treat these words as various dishes laid out on a buffet table. Pick and choose what looks and tastes good to you. It is for you to decide what food agrees with your digestive system. None of this is for your acceptance or rejection. None of us get brownie points for what we believe to be true; only for what we apply.”

Devotion to one religion, admiration for one poet, appreciation of one artist or one school of scientific thought is constructive if we realise these beliefs for the duration that they benefit us and are willing to eventually let them go for new realisations. It is attachment to any one philosophy, to any one belief or perspective that is futile to the development of our World Consciousness.

“Compared to his ego, the rest of the world is unreal, thus in order to be fully conscious of the reality of All, one has to be free himself from the bonds of personal desires. This discipline, we have to go through to prepare ourselves for our social duties, for sharing the burdens of our fellow beings. Every endeavor to attain a larger life requires of man to gain by giving away and not to be greedy and thus, to expand gradually the consciousness of one’s unity with All, is the striving of humanity.”

Knowledge only becomes power when it is shared. I must be humbly honest with you that I do not know why I am writing this blog, where it will lead me, or what I am supposed to do with it next. But, what I do know, unequivocally, is that we are all meant to share with one another. It is not to teach, to preach nor to dictate that I write these words. It is to serve. It is to enable the sharing of experiences, of perceptions and of stories in order to broaden the collective perspective.

The origin of Reiki can be traced back thousands of years to ancient Tibet. The technique was reintroduced in the mid 1800′s through the experiences of Dr. Mikao Usui of Japan. Historically, the tradition of Reiki was passed on through word of mouth. Regardless of our current methods of communication, there is a great desire to keep the mysteries of Reiki secret.

Dr. Usui’s story…

Dr. Usui was the head of a Christian Boys School in Kyoto, Japan. In 1822, after giving a sermon, Dr. Mikao Usui was approached by two seminary students who asked him to explain how Jesus did the miracles of healing and whether or not he could perform the same miracles. Dr. Usui was not able to give the students an answer.

The confrontation with the students became a turning point for Dr. Usui as he began his lifelong quest to uncover the source of ancient healing techniques. He left Japan, came to America and studied at the University of Chicago where he earned a Doctorate degree in Theology. He searched the scriptures to uncover the secret of how Jesus and his disciples healed the sick and performed miracles, but he did not find the answers he sought during his time in America.

Upon his return to Japan, it occurred to Dr. Usui that the Buddha performed the same miracles as Jesus. He, too, had a great control of energy and channeled the power of God and the Universe. Dr. Usui began asking the different Buddhistic sects if they could perform the miracles of healing the body that Buddha performed. The Buddhists felt that healing the Spirit and healing the body was not always directly connected. They concentrated on the Spirit, and not on the body. They left the healing of the body up to those in the healing arts.

Dr. Usui eventually found himself at a Zen monastery. He asked the head monk: “Do the Zen know how to heal the body?”

The monk explained that they concentrated on healing the spirit and there just wasn’t enough time to teach the physical healing of the body.

Dr. Usui requested that he be admitted to the Zen monastery so that he could study the Buddhist scriptures in search of the key to physical healing. He was admitted and so began his study.

Dr. Usui first studied the Japanese translations of the Buddhist scriptures but did not find the explanation he sought. Then he learned Chinese so that a wider range of Buddhist writings would be available to him, but still to no avail. He was later guided through his meditations to learn Sanskrit so that he could read the original Buddhist writings. After reading the teachings of the Tibetan Buddhistic Sect, he discovered what he felt to be the keys to healing. Dr. Usui found the symbols, formulas, and description of how Buddha healed.

Nearing the end of his search, Dr. Usui had uncovered the knowledge he was seeking but he still did not have the power to heal. He discussed this with his old friend, the monk; they meditated upon the path to take. They were told that Dr. Usui should go to a designated place upon the holy Mount Kuri Yama. There he was to fast for twenty one days and meditate to seek the power to heal; during this time he would receive enlightenment and Spiritual clarity.

Dr. Usui climbed Kuri Yama to a certain level and found a place that faced east. Since he had no calendar, he gathered twenty-one small stones and placed them before him. Every morning he awakened before the sun rose and would throw away one of the twenty-one stones to keep count of the days.

Each day he meditated and fasted. On the twenty-first day, Dr. Usui awakened to a darkened morning. It was like a new moon day, when no light shone in the heavens before the breaking of dawn. When he awakened he could not even see his hand in front of his face. He found his way to his meditation spot and picked up the last stone. Dr. Usui prayed before throwing the last stone off the side of the mountain. He asked God for confirmation of his findings and asked to be given the enlightenment of how to use it.

As he threw the final stone off the side of the mountain, a light appeared far off in the east. It became brighter on its approach , frightening him. Dr. Usui fought the urge to run as a voice in his head reminded him, “You have searched for years and years, and you have meditated and fasted for twenty one days. You have asked for enlightenment and confirmation, and now you want to run away from it?”

Dr. Usui quieted his intellect and said, “No, if that light is for me, I accept the enlightenment.”

The light became very bright and streamed across the heavens and hit him directly in his third eye. For a moment he thought he had died and ascended into heaven because he had never before been in such a euphoric state. He saw many bubbles in all the colors of the rainbow, and then a powerful white light, followed by golden Sanskrit letters, the secret formula of the Universal Life Force and how to contact it. They came to him one by one, commanding him to memorize and preserve them.

Finally the bubbles, the light and the Sanskrit letters disappeared. Dr. Usui felt rested and full of life and energy. He jumped to his feet. He wanted to hurry back and tell the monk his exciting news. In his rush, he stubbed his toe on a rock. He reached down to comfort the pain and to stop the bleeding. He found that the pain and the bleeding quit very rapidly and realized that something was different about the energy in his hands; they had become very hot.

After healing his toe, Dr. Usui continued his pilgrimage down the mountain. Soon he began to feel hungry, so he stopped at a home that served travelers and ordered cold rice and cold tea. In a few minutes, a Japanese girl with a bandage wrapped around her jaw brought Dr. Usui his meal. She told Dr. Usui that her tooth had been aching for days. Encouraged by his own phenomenal pain relief Dr. Usui asked, “May I give you a healing?” She accepted his offer gladly. He put his hands around her jaw and within moments the pain and swelling started going down. She was very happy and went to tell her father.

Dr. Usui ate his meal and went to pay the papa san. He reached into his pocket to get some coins out, but the papa san said, “Thank you, sir monk, but I cannot accept the money. You have rendered unto my daughter a service for which I do not have the money to pay. Please accept the food in exchange for the healing services that you have rendered.” Dr. Usui accepted the food in exchange for his services and continued his journey home.

Upon returning to Kyoto, he went to tell his friend, the monk, what happened. He asked for advice on what to do now that he had received the keys and the energy of healing. He wanted to learn more about its use and how to develop it and as such he was directed by the monk to meditate on it.

From his meditation, Dr. Usui was guided to go to the beggar kingdom in Tokyo. This kingdom was controlled by a beggar king. Dr. Usui went to see the beggar king and asked if he might live there to heal the sick and the afflicted. The beggar king admitted him, but did not believe Dr. Usui would succeed in healing the beggars.

For the next seven years, Dr. Usui worked on healing the sick in the beggar kingdom. He worked from daylight to dark, healing the young and old alike and saw many beautiful results take place. He began to understand how Reiki flowed through him into others, and how the body became well.

One afternoon, Dr. Usui took a walk to the edge of the beggar kingdom. He saw a young beggar who looked familiar. He asked if the beggar knew him, and the beggar said, “Of course, Dr. Usui. Do you not remember me? I am one of the first beggars you healed.”

Dr. Usui said, “I healed you and you are still a beggar?”

The beggar looked back at him and said, “Oh, Dr. Usui, yes, and I did just what you told me. I went out to the temple to receive a new name, went to society and began dealing with my karma, doing just what you told me to do. I even got a job and soon married, but it was too much responsibility. So, I decided that I would rather be a beggar. That way I wouldn’t even have to be responsible for myself.”

Dr. Usui was greatly upset, and thought, “What a terrible thing I have done. Perhaps the churches were right, the physical is not enough – the spiritual has to also be healed. Never again will Reiki be given away, always will there have to be an exchange of energy.” He decided to immediately leave the beggar kingdom.

As he walked back to the monastery, Dr. Usui was greeted, in Spirit, by the teachers who had greeted him on Kuri Yama. At this time he was given the Five Spiritual Principals of Reiki:

These five principals created significant changes in Dr. Usui’s subsequent healings. He realized that he had been giving healing away without requiring the healee to take any responsibility for the healing or for maintaining the healed state. There had not been an exchange of energy for the services rendered. The new teaching provided spiritual concepts to be integrated with the physical aspect of the Reiki energy.

Dr. Usui got a torch and lit it, and went walking in Kyoto. He was stopped and asked why he was carrying a lit torch in the middle of the day with the sun brightly shining above. He replied that he was searching for people with hearts full of love but who were sad and sorrowful and did not know the true light. He invited people to come and hear about Reiki. In this way he started teaching Reiki throughout Japan and gathered a following of sixteen teachers. During these travels he met Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, a Naval Commander in the Naval Reserve. He came from a well educated and well to do family. He met Dr. Usui in the marketplace holding a lit torch announcing his lecture at a nearby temple. Dr. Hayashi was very impressed with the sincerity and conviction of Dr. Usui. When asked by Usui to accompany him in his travels, Dr. Hayashi agreed. And they traveled together teaching and healing. Dr. Usui made his transition in 1893, after asking Dr. Chujiro Hayashi to see that the Reiki teachings were preserved.

Dr. Hayashi continued in Dr. Usui’s tradition, traveling, teaching and dedicating his life to Reiki. He opened a clinic in Tokyo near the Imperial Palace. It consisted of eight beds in a large room, two practitioners per patient. One would treat the head and the other would be on the right treating the stomach area, then both would treat the patient’s back. The practitioners all worked here doing healings. They would also go to the homes of sick people for house calls.

This was just prior to World War II when it became clear that Japan would enter the war. Being a Reserve Officer, Dr. Hayashi knew he would be recalled to duty and would therefore become responsible for killing many people. He felt this would be impossible based on his spiritual convictions and decided to end his life. Before passing on, he trained two Japanese women. One of these teachers stayed in Japan. The other, Mrs. Hawayo Takata, of Hawaii, was made a Reiki Master in 1938, prior to Dr. Hayashi’s death.

<h4>A brief story of Mrs. Takata…</h4>
Mrs. Hawayo Takata was born in Hawaii, on Kauai, on Christmas Eve 1900. Originally of Japanese descent, she went to Japan in the 1930′s to inform her family of the death of her sister. While there she became very sick and was hospitalized. The doctors were going to operate, and as she was being prepared she kept hearing a voice saying “Operation not necessary.”

Eventually she jumped off the table asking “Is there another way?” The doctor had a sister who had been cured of dysentery at Dr. Hayashi’s clinic and suggested Mrs. Takata talk with her. The sister brought Mrs. Takata to the clinic and her treatments there began. After Mrs. Takata became well she wanted to learn this healing method for herself. However Dr. Hayashi was not willing to teach her because she was a foreigner. Through the good graces of her doctor, Mrs. Takata was able to persuade Dr. Hayashi to train her in Reiki. This training took a year and brought her to what we would now call Reiki Level II. Thereafter, she returned to Hawaii.

In Hawaii she learned the lesson of having the recipient perceive value in receiving treatments. She treated a neighbor but did not charge, and this neighbor did not value the treatments and did not become well. She treated another relative and this time charged, and this relative did stay well. Thus the tradition of charging for Reiki treatment was reinforced.

In November 1936, Dr. Hayashi came to Hawaii for a speaking tour to promote Reiki. During this time he trained Mrs. Takata to teach Reiki, thus making her what we now call a Reiki Master. Before leaving Hawaii he asked her to come to see him when he summoned her.

As dangers of World War II neared Japan, Dr. Hayashi appeared to Mrs. Takata in a dream asking her to come to Japan. Upon arrival in Kyoto, she found her teacher taking his naval uniform out of storage. With the coming war he knew it was a matter of time before the Navy would call him out of retirement and he would be asked to perform actions he was not capable of doing due to his spiritual development. At this time he passed the leadership of Reiki to Mrs. Takata. He gathered all the Reiki Masters, announced that Mrs. Takata would become the leader of Reiki, and then revealed he would kill his physical body by bursting three of his blood vessels. And as he continued speaking to this group on Tuesday, May 10, 1940, the blood vessels burst and he died.

Mrs. Takata returned to Hawaii and continued using and teaching Reiki. Eventually she moved to California, using and teaching Reiki. She did not teach other masters until 1975, and before her own death in 1980 she trained 22 Reiki Masters. Mrs. Takata initiated the following 22 people as Masters: George Araki, Dorothy Baba, Ursula Baylow, Rick Bockner, Patricia Bowling, Barbara Brown, Fran Brown, Phyllis Furumoto, Beth Gray, John Gray, Iris Ishikuro, Harry Kuboi, Ethel Lombardi, Barbara McCullough, Mary McFadyen, Paul Mitchell, Bethel Phaigh, Shinobu Saito, Virginia Samdahl, Wanja Twan, Barbara Weber Ray, and Kay Yamashita.

There are many Reiki Masters in the world today. These individuals dedicate and commit their lives to living, being and perpetuating the universal life force of Reiki. The honor of assisting in the harmony and balance of the Universe and providing others with a means of balancing their body, mind and spirit is what Reiki Masters are ordained to do.

I somehow find myself attracted to Shiva and Shakti lately. It first came up when I was reflecting about the way my life has shed a layer of itself as I knew it and is now sprouting new buds and seeing fresh branches extend from the maturing trees I planted who knows how long ago. Shiva and Shakti came up again when I was writing a post about meditation in which I shared with you a mantra that I find very powerful. Today I have come across it again through my exploration of the various aspects of the Third Eye.

The January 19 2009 entry on the A Light in the Darkness blog talks about “The Eye of Shiva” (a.k.a. Third Eye Chakra) in which it explains that in order to have a fully functioning Third Eye Chakra, three elements (on the physical and etheric planes) must activate and be able to function harmoniously. The required balance in the relationship of these three elements is almost breathtaking in its perfection. Read on to see what I mean…

In order for the Third Eye to be fully functioning, the Ego must fully immerse into the physical body. When a Soul is just beginning its evolutionary path, the Ego first makes contact with the physical body through the top of the head (where you would find the Crown Chakra). Once the Soul has evolved into a sufficiently conscious state, the process of immersion continues until the Ego absorbs into the area of the pituitary gland. (Keep in mind that this process of immersion takes place with each new life when Spirit enters into a new body each time it returns to a physical existence.)

The state of a Soul’s consciousness dictates not only how deeply the Ego can immerse into the physical being, but this also impacts the physical senses of the body. The more evolved the Soul, the higher the sensitivity and receptivity of the being. In other words, the higher the consciousness, the higher the receptivity to higher and more subtle vibrations. (This is explained further in the blog entry I mention above.) But the point to understand here is that once the Ego is able to immerse deep enough that it makes contact with the pituitary gland, the evolution of consciousness can progress into fundamental levels.

“As these three types of energy, or the vibration of these three centers, begin to contact each other, a definite interplay is set up. This triple interplay forms in time a vortex or center of force, which finds its place in the center of the forehead, and takes eventually the semblance of an eye looking out between the other two. It is the eye of the inner vision, and he who has opened it can direct and control the energy of matter, see all things in the Eternal Now, and therefore be in touch with causes more than with effects, read the Akashic records, and see clairvoyantly.”

Source

God bless!

The first ever mention of energy and its power as a life giving force can be dated back to 500 B.C. when the Pythagoreans wrote of a light that had the potency to produce various changes in the human body, including the cure of disease. Over 5000 years of ancient Indian spiritual tradition speaks of a universal energy called Prana that can be transferred from individual to individual. The Chinese refer to Ch’i as the vital energy of all matter that encompasses two polar forces, the yin and the yang. They believe that balance of the polarities results in health and that imbalance leads to illness. Even the ancient theosophy of the Kabbalah talks about an astral light that emits a life-giving force. These are just a few of the many names for energy.

There is no negative or positive energy. There is simply the relative lack of energy and the relative existence of energy. Energy can be a color, a sound, or a thought. Energy connects all things. All things are made of energy. Energy is all around us, and it supplies us with the strength to keep living our lives and loving our families. Essentially, we are all energy.

Difficulties arise when we create an imbalance of energy within ourselves. There may be times when you feel drained because of your stressful schedule, or you may feel sluggish because you don’t eat properly. You may sometimes even find yourself spending time with people who somehow manage to ‘suck the life right out of you’. All of these are signs that you are creating an imbalance of energy. When your energy is imbalanced, something will feel off. If you allow the imbalance to persist, it may even lead to illness.

When you integrate your mind, body and spirit into one harmonious flow of energy, you leave behind the fears and ego-centred motives of a world of pain, and enter into a higher state of consciousness that brings health and prosperity to all facets of your life. By replenishing your energy levels, the cycle of understanding through knowledge and experience shortens.