With the revision of "The Healing Touch" manual by William Rand to include the Japanese Reiki Techniques, the Licensed Teachers of the International Center for Reiki Training are now incorporating Japanese Reiki Techniques in their classes. Many of my students have been asking me how to include the different Japanese Reiki Techniques and which one's are taught during Reiki One and which are taught during Reiki Two Classes. This issue of the "Reiki News" I am going to write a sample lesson plan for a Reiki One Class. In the next issue I will write about Japanese Reiki Techniques in a Reiki Two Class.
Class is held from 10 AM to 6 PM with about one hour for lunch. I have written below an outline of the class. Each of the Japanese Reiki Techniques that are mentioned can be found clearly described in the appendix of "The Healing Touch" manual.
1. Registration/final payment for class, pass out "Healing Touch" manual
2. Introductions: Name, work, family, understanding of Reiki, expectations you have for the class and something you like most about yourself today.
3. Opening prayer or meditation
4. Reiki Talk: What is Reiki, the different levels of Reiki training, how Reiki works in the body, what Reiki can be used for. The history of Reiki including information about Reiki in Japan, Dr. Usui, the Reiki Ideals, and how Reiki came to the Western world.
5. Lunch
6. Explanation of the attunement process. Discuss the Gassho (ga-show) meditation that will be used to begin the attunement process.
7. Give the Reiki One attunement, have students write about their experience afterward and share with other members of the class.
8. Break
9. Discuss the documentation forms found in the appendix of "The Healing Touch" manual and how to use them to record treatments
10. Teach Kenyoku (ken-yo-ku), the Japanese technique of dry bathing to cleanse one's energy before or after a treatment.
11. Discuss Dr. Usui's Three Pillars of Reiki; Gassho, Reiji (ray-gee), and Chiryo (cheer-yo). Gassho is meditation to empty the mind, Reiji is connecting to the Reiki energy and being a clear channel for the Reiki energy and saying a prayer for the well being and healing of the client, Chiryo is the treatment using any of the various techniques for healing.
12. Teach Byosen (be-o-sen) scanning and Byosen self scan.
13. Teach Reiji-ho (ray-gee-ho) technique where you lift your prayer hands to in front of your third eye and ask for the Reiki energy to guide your hands to wherever the client needs the healing the most. And then you hands will whoosh down to the place and you begin to send healing energy.
14. Go over hand positions for giving Reiki to others. Have the students go to the healing tables and practice the hand positions using the pictures in the book as a guide. I usually have one student on the table, one reading the description from the book to another student who practices the hand placements on the student lying on the table. Each student has a turn receiving, reading and practicing the hand positions.
15. An actual Reiki treatment for healing is received by each student. I guide the students giving the treatment following this format: One student is on the healing table and the other students (usually 2-3) participate in a healing session. The students giving the healing begin with a Gassho meditation for a few minutes, and then they do Reiji. Afterward they are to practice Byosen Scanning, Reiji-ho, and the traditional hand positions as they wish during the 15-20 minutes healing session for the student on the table. At the end of the session one of the student's seals the healing with a blessing and then all the students giving the treatment do Kenyoku. Time is given for each table to discuss what it felt like to give and receive Reiki.
16. Break
17. Discuss Hayashi Healing Guide
18. Demonstrate hand positions for personal healing treatments
19. Pass out Reiki Two symbols to learn for Reiki Two Class(if they are taking Reiki Two the following day)
20. Homework is to learn the symbols and to do a Reiki self treatment
As you can tell this is a very full day of learning and healing. There has been a lot of excitement from the students about the blending of the best of Japanese Reiki and the Reiki system brought to the Western World by Mrs. Takata.
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With the revision of "The Healing Touch" manual by William Rand to include the Japanese Reiki Techniques, the Licensed Teachers of the International Center for Reiki Training are now incorporating Japanese Reiki Techniques in their classes. Many of my students have been asking me how to include the different Japanese Reiki Techniques and which one's are taught during Reiki One and which are taught during Reiki Two Classes. The Fall issue of the "Reiki News" I wrote a sample lesson plan for a Reiki One Class. In this issue I will write about Japanese Reiki Techniques in a Reiki Two Class.
Class is held from 10 AM to 6 PM with about one hour for lunch. I have written below an outline of the class. Each of the Japanese Reiki Techniques that are mentioned can be found clearly described in the appendix of "The Healing Touch" manual.
1. Introductions if there are new students.
2. Give each student time to discuss how they are feeling, any questions they might have from the previous day's Reiki I class, and to tell about their self-treatment.
3. Opening prayer or meditation
4. Discuss general information about the second-degree symbols. This would include them being secret and why, the different variations, and how to prepare a treatment room and yourself using the symbols.
5. Discuss in depth the meanings of each symbol, the Power Symbol, the Mental-Emotional Symbol, and the Distant Symbol. Include the many different ways each symbol can be used. I also discuss the technique for sending Distant Reiki using the Japanese Technique of Enkaku Chiryo (n-kaa-koo cheer-yo).
6. Explain and demonstrate Koki-ho (key-o-key-ho) the method of using your breath and a Reiki symbol to send healing.
7. Explain and demonstrate Jacki-Kiri Joka-Ho (jack-he keer-ree jo-ha-ho) the technique of releasing or transforming negative energy from objects.
8. Time to practice remembering symbols and their names, take the symbol test.
9. Lunch
10. Explain about the attunement and the Gassho Meditation.
11. Reiki II attunement, write about experiences, and share.
12. Break
13. Group Reiki using the Second Degree symbols. I divide the students up into groups. Then I lead the entire class through preparing the room, preparing themselves to give a treatment. Then I have one person lay on the treatment table, the other students in that team is guided to begin with Gassho, then to do Reiji.
· I then ask them to place their hands on the person receiving the treatment and turn on their Reiki I energy.
· After several minutes, I direct them to remove their hands and to place the power symbol into their hands and to find a place on the person's body and begin to send in the second-degree energy. (They may find where the person needs healing by using the Byosen Scan or Reiji-ho they learned in Reiki I class)
· After several minutes I ask the students giving the treatment to disconnect from the energy of the Power Symbol and to then place the Mental Emotional Symbol in the palms of their hands and to find a place to send healing to on the person.
· After several minutes I ask the students to disconnect from the Mental Emotional Energy and then to place the Distant Symbol in their hands and to find a place to send healing to on the person. After several minutes I have them disconnect from the Distant Symbol and then allow time for the team to discuss between themselves how it felt to give and receive the different energies.
14. I then have the students pick a partner and practice Koki-ho, sending in either the Power or Mental-Emotional symbol with their breath.
15. Enkaku Chiryo with the group. Each person sending to someone they know, to create harmony among all people on the plant or to a world situation.
16. Explain Gyoshi-ho (gee-o-shee-ho) sending Reiki with your eyes. Have the students choose a partner and practice. I have the students sit in two rows of chairs facing each other. One side with practice, we will discuss the results and then the other side with practice and we will discuss the results.
17. Reiki Guide Meditation
18. Class Evaluation and ending prayer.
I tell my students when they take Reiki One class that I am giving them a toolbox and with each class they take they will be learning new tools and techniques for healing that they can use. As you can see, with the addition of the Japanese Reiki Techniques to the ways we learned from our lineage dating back to Mrs. Takata, there are a wealth of wonderful ways a practitioner can use the healing energy of Reiki.
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It was just about 17 months ago when I first met Chuck. I had learned that he had recently received a diagnosis of terminal cancer with about 6 months to live. When I approached Chuck to volunteer to give him Reiki treatments I saw a vital man with sparkling eyes and a wonderful smile. He was an inspiration to me from the beginning. We discussed his situation and what to expect from a Reiki treatment. A former client of mine was standing by. David told Chuck the difference he felt that the Reiki treatments had made in lessening the side effects of his chemotherapy. Chuck decided to give Reiki a try. I later learned from his wife that he came to the first several treatments with much skepticism.
Over the course of time, Chuck became a definite believer of Reiki to the point of driving 30 minutes from his house to my office on days when I wondered if he could even put one foot in front of the other as he walked into my office. I wish I could say that this was a story about a miracle healing. It is not. Chuck transitioned into the hands of Spirit two months ago.
This is however a story of miracles. When I teach my Reiki classes I talk to my students about Reiki being a technique of natural healing. I then tell them that healing is often looked at as a cure, a return to wellness when sometimes the ultimate healing is death. The miracles that surround this story concern Chuck and the healing that occurred within his family. Estrangements between many generations for many often long forgotten reasons were put aside. Fathers and sons once again able to visit each other. New relationships formed and treasured.
Chuck has always been a man who did things for himself. When I first got to know him he was in the process of building his retirement home. It was a struggle for him to realize that concessions had to be made to allow his body to have the strength to fight his disease. Reiki energy was sent to this during his sessions and he became a somewhat unwilling participant in the process. This is something else that I really stress to the clients I work with that are going through a major illness. It is best to look at their illness as a process. Each day for them to look at what has to be done to continue on the journey one step at a time.
I looked forward to Wednesdays at 10:45 AM the appointed time for Chucks Reiki session each week. His sessions were not only time for me to do Reiki, but a time for us to talk about his week and his feelings. Often after he left I would sit for a few minutes in awe of his strength, his love for his family, and his determination to fight his illness to his last breath. He tried a variety of therapies. Several times it looked as if the end was near, then yet again another small miracle of healing that gave him more time. Both Chuck and I could feel changes in his body as the Reiki began to flow. Swelling in his abdomen was reduced, pain was relieved, and there were shifts and changes to the growing tumor in his liver. His last treatment in my office was just a month before he transitioned. I remember visiting him in the hospital after that and he told me he thought he was out of miracles, but commented on what a good battle he had fought.
Time came for his move from the hospital to home and hospice took over. Chuck had beaten the odds; his six months diagnosis flowed into eighteen months. I was phoned within 15 minutes of his transition. I took the drive up to his house to see him one last time. On the way up to his house, many images of Chuck flashed through my mind. In most of these mini-shots I saw his sparkling eyes and wonderful smile. Imagine my awe as I walked into say my final good-byes to see even in death his face with a smile. I looked over at the priest who had come to say some last words over him and commented, “whatever he saw, I want to see someday, look at his face”. Healing for the highest good.
Reiki was a very important part of Chuck’s journey. The energy helped him on a physical level to relieve pain, to reduce the swelling in his abdomen, to reduce the size of the tumor in his liver. The Reiki treatments gave him needed energy to fight the disease. On an emotional level I believe the Reiki helped him reach out to mend bridges and set things straight with family members. Reiki helped him accept the restrictions of his illness and to let go of his old ways of doing things and to learn to ask for and accept help from others. His perception of how things should be done eased up. He began to take the naps he needed and to work a little and rest a little. Spiritually, Chuck grew by leaps and bounds. I saw over the course of our time together his growing faith. We had many discussions about life and death. I told him that he was going to make one great angel, and he smiled!
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As you receive this copy of the “Reiki News” it will have been just over six months since the day our world changed – September 11, 2001. How has your life changed since ‘9-11’ ? How have you been affected within and without? As with most of us, I expect the days and weeks just after the attack you were much more aware of your feelings, planning to set priorities in your life to help make this a better world. Have you kept them?
Personally dealing with a traumatic event often follows the same path as grieving the death of a loved one. First you feel disbelief; I can’t believe this is happening. Secondly you might begin to assess your part in the situation. Next you move into a place of anger, then depression. Finally you begin to reinvest yourself in life, perhaps in a different way.
This has led me to a lot of thought about the relationships in our lives.
I began by first recalling from my psychology training the drawing of a person standing in the middle of many circles, the circle closest to him/her contained the names of the people they were the closest to, parents, siblings, relatives, mates, best friends. Then as each circle progressed out other relationships were included, work mates, friends from groups you belong to, barber, mailman, grocery store clerk (yes, I even have a special lady I always wait in line for because she is so unique). Looking at relationships this way, as the circles expand away from your being, the connections are more distant. I then realized that this was not how I saw the relationships in my life. I see them more as streets on a map. Perhaps as I describe my theory, you can look at the relationships you hold most special in your life and see where on the map they might fall.
Your closest relationships would be those where you are on a one way street traveling life side by side. However, it is possible that someone you think you are close to is actually traveling on a parallel street. You live your life; they live theirs even if you are living in the same house. You barely intersect. There are relationships that are like roundabouts (the English idea of an intersection) going around in circles, others are on dead end streets, some relationships are like a rural country road, lots of curves, twists and turns and others are like city streets very busy, jumping in and out without a glance. Then there are relationships where you meet at an intersection and say a few words and go on your way. There are freshly paved roads that are new and easy going and roads with many potholes causing bumps and times of being stuck.
I believe prior to September 11th we were living Duct Taped Lives. As I reflect on what I have described above about relationships, I have the image of us holding together the many directions of our life energies with tape. As we busily go through our lives parts of us are taped together. Some of the tape holds us to people, events, and memories and other pieces are barely holding us together. Now is the time for us to set our priorities. What is REALLY important in our lives? It is time for us to let go of those things that are holding us down and keeping us from moving forward and to embrace all that is positive and growth encouraging for us.
Our world needed a shake up; it got one, far beyond anyone’s belief. Society has been given a wake up call. As holders of the light energy of the Spirit Source here on Mother Earth it is time for us to become as clear as we can be in our walk in this lifetime so we are able to hold the energy for peace and healing on our planet. It is time for us to let go of what we no longer need, eliminate the negative from our lives, and set our priorities. All is in Divine Order, even those things we cannot understand. This is the TIME for Peace, Joy, and Love. I challenge you to use your Reiki Energy to be a force of change.
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In September of 1999 I took Arjava Petter’s class about Reiki techniques that were used in Japan. Since that class I have incorporated the techniques I learned into my teaching and my Reiki practice. Arjava taught us that Dr. Usui focused on three essential components for his Reiki system. These components are Gassho, Reiji, and Chiryo. I would like to discuss each of these three components as I would teach them to a Reiki One class. This can be helpful for students to have clarity about each of the techniques and for teachers who might want an outline for how they might include Dr. Usui’s three pillars in their classes.
Gassho literally means “two hands coming together”. This is the meditation part of the preparation for the practitioner. During this meditation the practitioner makes their self empty for Reiki to flow through them by emptying their mind. In this meditative state you feel a state of oneness with the universe. To begin the Gassho fold your hands in prayer position and place them in front of your heart center. Close your eyes and pray or call on Reiki energy to flow through you. You may feel the energy enter through your crown chakra, your hands or your heart chakra. This mediatation, the Gassho, usually last 1-2 minutes as preparation to begin a treatment. The Gassho can also be used as a longer meditation as you work to achieve a still point within as Reiki flows through you. The focal point of the Gassho is the point where your middle fingers meet. Anytime your mind wanders or becomes distracted return your focus to the point where your middle fingers meet.
The second component is the Reiji which means ‘indication of the spirit or indication of the Reiki energy’. During the Reiji you pray for the healing and well being of your client on all levels. I suggest to my students that they include three things in this prayer of intent. First, they want to call in the spirit source that they work with from which the Reiki energy flows into them. Next they should pray that their EGO step aside (EGO is an acronym for Edging God Out). There is not place for their intent for the healing for Reiki always knows where it needs to go for the perfect healing. The third thing that needs to be in the prayer of intent is to state that this healing be for the highest good of the client. You do the Reiji with your hands folded in prayer position in front of your third eye (actually your thumbs are touching your forehead at the third eye position). At the end of the prayer of intent focus on the Reiki energy guiding your hands to where the energy is needed the most. This is where you learn to trust in the Reiki energy and your intuition.
Chiryo means ‘treatment’ and is the third component of Dr. Usui’s pillars of Reiki. Treatment can be defined as a hands-on healing or using your intuition and trusting that your hands will be guided to the spot on the client where they need the healing the most. There are several Japanese Reiki Techniques that can be used in the Chiryo such as Byosen scanning, Reiji-ho, Koki-ho, and Gyoshi-ho.
The most important part of this is to commit to working with the three pillars. Arjava Petter in his book “The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui” sums up the three pillars as follows:
“So Chiryo (treatment) builds upon Reiji (devotion) and Gassho (meditative posture/attitude). Only when we can devote ourselves without being prejudiced by our thoughts and feelings, will we become an instrument for the universal life energy.”
I thank Dr. Usui for his commitment to build a healing system that has affected so many and Arjava Petter for his commitment and research to open the doors for us to know about the original system of Reiki.
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TRAVELING WITH REIKI ANGELS
When I took my Reiki One and Two Class, I was surprised to learn that with every Reiki Attunement a Reiki Guide came to help me with my healing work. I thought briefly about having a guide during the “Meet Your Reiki Guide Meditation” and then did not give guides much more thought. During my journey with Reiki from that Reiki One class until today, I have realized that I have quite a crowd of Reiki Guides and Reiki Angels traveling with me. Some of them are constantly with me, while others move in and out of my life as I need their special talents and healing abilities. A couple of years ago I was teaching a Reiki class and one of my students asked if it was ok for her to ask a few of my guides to step outside the room because I had so many surrounding me it was hard for her to focus on what I was saying.
I would like to share with you some of the times when I have really been aware that I travel with Reiki Angels. I have found when I fly if there is an empty seat on the plane it is most often next to me. I always thought I was just lucky until one day the flight attendant announced something to the effect that if you were not a ticketed passenger you needed to leave the plane because the door was about to be closed. I thought this was kind of odd, because they did not let people on the plane without a ticket. Then I looked at the empty seat next to me and smiled, thinking that it was my Reiki Angel she was referring to!
Another time, my daughter and I were traveling on an overnight train from Nice to Venice. We ended up with a compartment on the train to ourselves. We lay down and went to sleep. Twice during the night the door to the compartment was opened, as if someone was coming in to sit, and then closed back. The following morning a lady came by asking if we had been robbed. We said no. She then told us that during the night over 80% of the people on the train had been robbed. We knew that our Reiki Protectors had been watching over us.
My Reiki Guides and Angels have a variety of personalities. I have one who really loves to drive the car, and when I begin to get in danger’s way the guide comes to my rescue by directing the car back to safety. One time in particular driving back from the Reiki Retreat in Michigan, I fell asleep on a rural road in Kentucky; I was awakened by the steering wheel being turned to get me back on my side of the road. Another guide has a real sense of humor, often moving my things so I have to play ‘find the item’. I will look thoroughly for what I have lost only to find later in a place I had searched several times. I have a guide that likes to wake me up 10 minutes before my alarm is to go off. And I have a guide that likes to help me write articles for the Reiki News!
I feel as if I walk around in a bubble of Reiki energy which includes both the Reiki healing gifts I have and the group of guides and angels that travel with me. People often seem to be drawn to start a conversation with me. I find that young children and animals enjoy being close to me. I often wonder if the young children are seeing my angels and remembering their life before coming into our world. Just a couple of weeks ago I was in a gas station when a car pulled up with a dog in it. I went over to talk to the dog and was warmly received. The owner came around the car and had a very surprised look on his face saying my dog will not let anyone near her but me, she does not like people. I figure I have a Reiki Angel that connects with animals.
I am blessed with some wonderful healing angels working with me in my private Reiki practice. Several times I have had clients tell me that more than one set of hands were on them during the session. One lady recently commented, “I knew that your hands had moved on down my back, but I felt hands giving Reiki on my shoulders and just had to peek to see where you were”.
When I lead the Reiki Guide meditation in my classes, I love to hear students share after the meditation the guide(s) they have met. Guides come in so many forms, and quite often do not appear like the student expected. Your guides and angels can be family members who are in the spirit world, ascended masters of healing, animals, angels, different colors of light, and sometimes the guides present themselves without form, only verbally. It is exciting and comforting to know as we walk along our Reiki journey that we are not alone. I am so thankful for the many angels and guides that have chosen to work with me especially St. Michael, Mother Mary, Kuan Yin, Master Jesus, Master Buddha, Gabriel, and Grandmother Spider.
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