Post by dancingwind on Aug 28, 2005 5:34:58 GMT
The Reiki Symbols
By Frank Arjava Petter
Many of us deeply associate Reiki with the Reiki symbols. Their mysteriousness, the exotic excitement of the oriental, and the secretiveness with which the Reiki symbols are treated all add to the etheric flavor of Reiki- and to its popularity.
My own Reiki journey started out seven years ago. And looking at it today I can see that my journey took me from complexity to simplicity, full circle. After having learned the second Reiki degree, I spent many month working on childhood issues with the help of the second degree Reiki symbols. I would draw the distant healing symbol, say its mantra three times, repeat the situation of my childhood that I had in mind three times, would send the mental healing symbol to harmonize the situation and then seal it with the power symbol(each time drawing each symbol once and then repeating the symbol's mantras in my mind three times). Months and months went by, while I shed many tears and in the process came to love myself the way I am. And that being-ness can only be experienced in the here and now.
After I felt that my past was integrated and completed, after I felt that there was nothing left unsaid, I dove headfirst into the present moment. For the next four years or so I used the second degree symbols as well as the master symbol almost exclusively for meditation. I would sit in meditation daily for hours sometimes, using the distant healing symbol to connect myself to the masters of the past and of the present, to auspicious places, and to the divine within myself. The Reiki master symbol would help me in an instant to connect myself to the source without having to spend much time trying to combat the constant chattering of the mind. The more I used the master symbol, the easier and deeper meditation seemed to get.
Years went by until one day I realized that the symbols had disappeared out of my life. At first I was surprised and unsure about whether this was a happy occasion or not. I found that I had unconsciously began to do distant healing without the help of the symbols and that it worked just as well. Was I fooling myself, was I getting lazy or was this a fit of megalomania? As time went by I became more sure of myself and began to trust this new development as evolution. In the past it had been very clear to me that Reiki is not a stagnant pool, but an ever flowing current.
Just around that time we came across a Japanese Reiki teacher who claimed that Dr. Usui did not encourage his students to use the symbols, and that they were useless. I felt both relieved and repelled by the prospect of this information. In any case there was no way of validating his claims, because the Reiki group he worked with was one of many in Japan, and not particularly close to the original group, the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai. In my own Reiki practice, the Reiki symbols had been of immense help, but now it seemed that their time was up.
A couple of years later, I met a Mr. H. Doi, a member of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (the association Dr. Usui himself had brought to life and had presided over), who said that Dr. Usui had used the Reiki symbols like the training wheels on a bicycle. And as we all know, as soon as the basic bicycling skills are acquired, the training wheels are to be taken off. This explanation made sense to me, because it matched my own experience. The Reiki symbols can be very helpful, but once you have learned how to focus your mind, you may not feel the need to use a symbol to transfer, send or radiate energy into the present, past or future. Of course you do need to learn to focus the energy first, and for that the Reiki symbols are powerful tools.
During our second degree workshops the participants practice drawing the symbols in the correct stroke order until they are mastered. Then they are encouraged to experience the symbols as deeply as possible in their daily lives and, to experiment on a daily basis. Out of ten Reiki two practitioners, nine or ten will come up with their "own" original Reiki two techniques. And how can it be otherwise. Even though we are essentially the same, we are all so very different from one another.
I suggest to my advanced students not to make a rule out of using or not using the Reiki symbols for physical, mental or distant healing. Use them when you feel like using them and discard them when you don't. There is no need to make decisions for eternity. Stay open to what comes naturally and follow the advice of the Chinese saint Chuang Tzu:
Easy is right.
Begin right and you are easy.
Continue easy and you are right.
The right way to go easy
Is to forget the right way.
And forget that the going is easy.
I, for instance, use Reiki symbols for grounding, balancing and protection. Fascinating topic, the symbols... that I have given very little attention before.