How smart is Reiki?
Regular contributor Beth Lowell has another question for the global Reiki community:
How smart is Reiki?
I’ve been taught since the start of my training that Reiki has its own wisdom. We can’t direct it, and shouldn’t try. I’ve been thinking about how much faith we put in Reiki and wondering what the line is between letting Reiki do the work and personal responsibility.
Reiki practitioners gather from around the world in cyberspace to talk about Reiki, share stories, and to respond to requests. One thing that I’ve not embraced is the concept of “sending Reiki to the list.” Practitioners in an online forum explained to newcomers wondering who had time to do distant Reiki treatments for so many requests, that of course, few people would realistically have the time to spend on each. The solution was to send Reiki to the list. Reiki would figure it out.
It didn’t sit well with me. Of course, then I got thinking. If I happened on an accident on the highway and wanted to do a distant treatment for whomever was involved, even if I could not see them, or even know how many people were involved, what exactly made that different from sending Reiki to a list?
Is it the same? Do you send Reiki to a list?
To respond to Beth's question, just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of this post on our web site, or email editor@thereikidigest.com.
3 Comments:
I have come to realize that it is your intention from the heart that will help guide and facilitate Reiki. When you pray, you may pray for a situation, person, animal, etc, and you blindly trust it. Reiki is no different.
I think part of the confusion involves the concept of "sending" Reiki as opposed to "offering" it. The word "sending" implies that we can actively influence where Reiki goes and what it does when it gets there. That, of course, is counter to the basic tenet of Reiki which is to simply allow it to flow and trust that it will serve the highest good.
Many healers, not just Reiki practitioners, are under the misguided impression that they can in fact heal another. If that were true, we could simply go around "zapping" beings with Reiki and causing them to heal. The reality is that we can offer healing and perhaps facilitate healing, but it cannot happen without the consent of the recipient.
We are not responsible for the healing (or lack thereof) of anyone else. Even if we could assume that responsibility, I don't know that any sane person would want to! The only being over which we have any control is our own.
If we offer healing and healing happens, we can be joyful for that, but we can't take credit or responsibility for it. The universe (or Reiki, if you prefer) brought us together with the recipient at a time when the recipient was ready for the healing we could offer.
By the same token, the universe brings us together with those who don't heal because they're not ready for it. We learn from these that it's not our fault or responsibility that they don't heal. I think of it as Reiki's way of keeping us humble. :-)
The point is that the only thing we can do is to offer Reiki and trust it. We're taught from the beginning that Reiki always heals on some level and not to expect physical healing in all cases. I think it takes most of us a long time to fully accept that because we really want to be agents of healing which is why we got involved with Reiki in the first place.
Namaste
Trust and intent are fine, but no one really talks about personal practice. I think Reiki is more than stating an intention trusting that Reiki will do the job. To do a distant treatment, I think, one needs to establish a meaningful connection with the recipient. I think it takes a lot of practice to be able to do a distant treatment, and to encourage newbies to just set their intent and let Reiki figure out the list is kind of negligent.
Of course people want to good. Many of them are so anxious to do good that they can hardly wait to receive that coveted level 2 attunement. Often, they’re told the attunement is not what matters; rather it is the intent that counts. So why not go ahead and send Reiki anyway?
Well I agree that attunements are not what matter because I daresay that many people who receive the level 2 attunement really can’t do an effective distant treatment despite their best intentions. They have simply not had the experience of enough practice. I can safely say that I was one of those people.
I understand the importance of language when talking about Reiki. I know we really don’t “send” anything, however I chose that language specifically because it’s the lingo of the group. People ask other practitioners to send Reiki, and when the practitioners have done so, they acknowledge that Reiki has been sent. But lets change the language. Assuming we know it’s an offering, let’s say we are going to do a distant treatment.
When I offer to do a distant treatment for someone, I need to establish that connection. I know that for myself it’s not possible to make a connection with someone who remains a nameless, faceless entity on some Internet list. In fact, I no longer offer distant treatments for those I do not know. I don’t think we can just set an intention and let Reiki do all the work. I think personal practice is what counts, only part of which is setting an intention.
It’s for these reasons that I don’t think I’ll ever send Reiki to, offer Reiki to or do a distant Reiki treatment for a “list.”
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