The weekly waka

The eyes do not see

Past the veil of fear within

The truth lies dormant

Slow burns the fire, tears come fast

Clear vision comes with practice.

by Kathy Koval 

To submit your waka, please send it in an email to editor @ thereikidigest.com. Be sure to include the word "waka" in the subject line.

Featured artist of the day

Today's featured Facebook artist is Managing Editor, Beth Lowell, who also served as curator for this year's show, Reiki, Healing and Art.

Today's featured artist

The Reiki, Healing and Art show came to fruition after artist P.C. Turczyn asked how art aids the healing process. Today, P.C. is our Facebook featured artist.

Featured artist of the day

Today's Reiki, Healing and Art featured artist is Mari Hall. You can read her bio on our Facebook page.

The weekly waka

The heart speaks the truth
Withered hand finds its own light
Sun behind a cloud
This moment on its own path
Tomorrow's past waking up

by Kathy Koval

Today's featured artist

Today's featured artist is Rekha Krishnan. To read more about her, visit our Facebook page.

Featured artist of the day: Teresa Russell

Stop by our Facebook page and read all about Teresa, and if you haven't visited the show, you can do that too!

What's the #1 question clients ask me about Reiki?

By Deborah Flanagan

Editor's note: This article was featured in Deborah Flanagan's August 17 newsletter.

 What did you pick up during my session?

This is a very juicy question! I mean, who doesn't want to get deep insight and wisdom after a session? Especially because we live in such a world of uncertainty, it would be wonderful to receive guidance and a feeling of reassurance.

I get asked this question from clients at least once a week. Unfortunately, it's not quite that straightforward.

“Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.”


--Rainer Maria Rilke


Trust Yourself


I don't answer this question for many reasons. In response to clients' questions, "what did you pick up or notice?" I respond with, "Well, it's not about me, what did you feel?"

I explain that sometimes my intuition isn't always correct, and in fact, it can limit and sidetrack you from connecting with the Reiki energy. Connecting to this is far more powerful than anything I could say.

Reiki helps engage our inner resources; the answers we seek already lie within: we don't need to go outside ourselves. It's more enlightening to hear what you discover during a session--you have the answers you're asking me.

This ties in with the system of Reiki's five precepts (or rules to live by): the third one is "Be true to your way and your being." Being true to your way happens when you start trusting yourself.

I know it's not always easy to trust yourself. Believe me, I can relate to wanting to get answers. For 12 years, I've been going to see one of my long-time teachers once a month. I think it's onlybeen in the past few years that I've stopped hanging on her every word, wanting to get some kind of divine guidance. It took me 7 or 8 years to realize that I need to connect to my own inner wisdom for answers. (Ok, so I was a slow learner!)

Try This


For the next week or so, notice times when you aren't trusting yourself. Seize the day and take the plunge! And let me know if you want to focus on this in your next session.

the weekly waka

evening
chores calling
I sat
up in the yard
and watched the sun set.

by Beth Lowell

The Reiki Digest wants you! To write a waka, that is. Submit yours in an email to waka @ thereikidigest.com today...and be sure to include the word "Waka" in the subject line.

Featured artist of the day

Today's Facebook featured artists of the day is Eileen Dey. To see her bio, visit our Facebook page!

Reiki perspectives: you are not alone

Feeling isolated can be the first domino in a cascade of negativity that you feel hopeless to reverse. Reiki treatment offers a lifeline, an experience of connection to oneself and others, and a clearer perspective from which to evaluate options, and take positive action. Perhaps most enticing to someone who is feeling withdrawn--you don't have to talk. Read more...

Medical Reiki classes with Pamela Miles in London and NYC

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PRACTICING REIKI IN HEALTH CARE: What You Need to Succeed

Even seasoned Reiki practitioners and health care professionals face challenges bringing Reiki into conventional medicine. This seminar teaches you the skills, information and proven strategies you need to succeed.

Special Medical Reiki Class in London, England

September 10 & 11, 2011   10 AM – 6 PM


Class fee: £175 before June 1: £195 after June 1
Cancellation accepted minus £35 until August 1
University of London, 23 Kensington Square

Register here

Medical Reiki will be offered at the New York Open Center October 15 & 16. Contact the Open Center for registration (212) 219.2527.

Advertisement

Usui Retreat invitation

You are invited to join with other Reiki practitioners every August 15th to celebrate Usui's birthday in the Usui 21-Day Retreat that starts at that time.

This Retreat is not limited to one location, but takes place wherever you may be. It lasts for 21 days during which time we (mutually) intend that the highest good of all concerned will be served, and that our community experience will generate a deep, very nurturing ocean of shared Reiki.

Please join the Retreat by following an example set by Dr. Mikao Usui, it is our plan to set aside time to reflect, open our minds and hearts to fresh outlooks on life, and look deeply within to discover balance and wellness.

During these 21 days, with your intention always focused on the highest good of all concerned, you may wish to meditate and pray at home (or wherever you may be) and to share distant Reiki with the consent of others in this Retreat. You may wish to plan self-treatment sessions every day during the Retreat, or offer Reiki to others in your community or Reiki Circle.

Some Reiki practitioners work for restoring balance to our planet. This 21-day period supports this work by providing space for sharing that practice with others.

Mari Hall a longtime Reiki practitioner and teacher, currently is the hostess of the Usui 21-Day Retreat and is looking forward to sharing this 21-Day Reiki healing space with you.

Please visit Mari's website for more information.

Reiki perspectives: Sleep much?

We cannot regain and maintain our health without getting enough quality sleep. Yet the occurrence of sleep disorders increases alarmingly. Can Reiki practice help? Read more...

Artist of the Day

Our Facebook Reiki artist of the day is Eileen Smith! You can read more about her on our Facebook page and see more of her work at our online art show, Reiki, Healing and Art.

Artist of the day

Renee Menchen is our Facebook artist of the day. Read her bio here.

The weekly waka

Robins, new gardens -
memories of spring promises
August comes bringing
insinuating crabgrass,
crows playing in the birdbath

by Beth Lowell 

To submit your waka send it in an email to waka @ thereikidigest.com and be sure to include the word "waka" in the subject line.

Please welcome guest editor Robert N. Fueston

Robert N. Fueston

Dear readers,
 
Please join us in welcoming this month's guest editor Robert Fueston.
 
Robert is Nationally Board Certified in Oriental Medicine and is also a certified acupuncturist. He began his Reiki training in 1996 at the age of 21. A Reiki historian, his travels have taken him all over the United States, Canada, and to Europe. Robert's mission is to provide quality, in depth, traditional Reiki training and professional Reiki treatments at his practice. Every month he holds a Reiki share for his students where they can share experiences and practice Reiki on each other.

Being grateful for Reiki elders

By Robert Fueston

Today, I am grateful for the time I live in. Most days, however, I contemplate what it would have been like to have learned Reiki in the 1970’s or early 1980’s; what I once thought of as a utopian time or a “golden age” of sorts for learning Reiki.

Unlike in today’s world, where one can "get" a Reiki attunement on YouTube or e-bay, back then the few Reiki teachers around for the most part still taught Reiki as Takata had taught it. The form of Reiki was simple to learn, easy to apply, and it worked. This sort of simplicity can be very deceiving in a fast paced society that highly values the qualities of innovation and individuality. In this sort of environment, it takes extraordinary patience, practice, and willingness to follow another’s instructions (instead of the predominately “do it yourself” attitude) for traditional teachings to survive. Perhaps Frank Sinatra summarized our culture’s attitude best when he said, “I did it my way”.

Since learning Reiki in 1996, I discovered a plethora of different teachings that have been added since the early 1980’s. I recently came across an individual who has created and teaches over 80 styles or systems of Reiki. At what point is it enough? What is the purpose of the new teachings? Were the old ways found to be inadequate after time and dedicated practice or rather, was there an inadequate amount of time practiced with the old ways? Are these changes made with an enlightened mind as Usui’s system was?

This brings us to the topic Reiki elders. What is a Reiki elder? I would define a Reiki elder as a person who has had a great deal of time to practice and has taken the opportunity to utilize that time for practice and/or teaching. I don’t think one can precisely come up with a clear cut definition of the term Reiki Elder, for instance, someone who has been practicing Reiki for 20+ years. Time, dedicated practice and experience are all integral. I believe the term must also include keeping closely to the original traditional teachings. Reiki Elders are the living library and archivists of the system of Reiki and just like real libraries I believe they are underutilized and underappreciated. They help share in the responsibility of making sure that Reiki, as Usui would recognize it, will be around for the next generation to learn and experience it.




In the past few years several of my Reiki teachers have died. I find myself wanting to converse with these masters to get their experienced opinions. A few of them were trained by Takata and a few were not. Recently, I was fortunate to find Reiki elder Marcia Halligan, who started practicing Reiki in 1981 and was initiated as a master in 1983. After her initiation, she moved to a rural farm in Wisconsin and has had very little to do with the “outside” world. She still practices and teaches Reiki while living a kind of luddite lifestyle. Marcia has been mostly unaware of the changes that the system of Reiki has undergone since she learned it 30 years ago. She was surprised to learn that her own teacher, Barbara Weber (Ray), is no longer teaching Reiki as such, in the 3 levels that Marcia learned it, but now teaches it as The Radiance Technique™ with 7 levels. Meeting Marcia was like digging up a 30 year old time capsule and a real treasure. Hearing first-hand stories from someone who had been around during the early days of Reiki in America, during the early days of The American (International) Reiki Association and the formation of The Reiki Alliance, the 2 major organizations of the time, is something special.

I began this article with the statement, I am grateful for the time I live in. I have come to realize that today there are actually more teachers today teaching the “old ways” of Reiki than there were 3 decades ago. So instead of trying to find a needle in a haystack, now, the analogy is there are 2 needles in the haystack. Additionally, after Takata died in Dec. 1980, her master students at best had less than 4 years of experience teaching Reiki; some had just been initiated as a new master a few months prior. Today it is possible to study with someone who has been practicing and teaching Reiki for 30+ years. To my knowledge, no one alive has the kind of experience of practicing and teaching Reiki as Takata had – around 45 years. However, I am grateful that although this year will be my 15th anniversary of practicing Reiki, I can meet with, share stories, and learn with someone who has been practicing for twice as long. This opportunity was not available to those 22 master students of Takata after she died.




Today is the best day for learning Reiki and I hope it will always be so.

The Reiki Roundup

Denver, CO, USA: LifeSpark, a Colorado non-profit that works with cancer patients, is training Reiki and Healing Touch providers as volunteers.

Boca Raton, FL, USA: Healing circles for caregivers include Reiki.

Janesville, WI, USA: Reiki for pets...but why do they keep calling it massage?

Providence, RI, USA: Bus brought hope and Reiki to Providence in July.

Sutton Coldfield, UK: Gastroenterology consultant to conduct Reiki research at Good Hope Hospital.

Saint John Hospital, MI, USA: Most hospital systems in Southeast Michigan created integrated medicine clinics in the late 1990s to provide alternative health care.

Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, UK: £205,000 of lottery money spent to provide “voodoo” healers through NHS.


Norwalk, CT, USA: Norwalk Hospital offers support for cancer patients.


Carlsbad, CA, USA: Hospice of the North Coast provides therapeutic healing for grieving children and their families.

Celeb-Reiki Broadway actress Judith Light

Actress Judith Light displays the Reiki Precepts in her dressing room on Broadway.

Music I like to practice Reiki by:

I really like the slow and rhythmic patterns of "Reiki: The Light Touch" by Merlin's Magic. This CD was published in 1995 and has stood the test of time. I have been listening to this CD since the beginning of my Reiki practice and it has become sentimental to me in many ways.

The Weekly Waka

Atsushitomo ihare zarikeri niekaeru
Mizutani tateru shizu wo omoheba (Orinifurete)

Thinking of lowly people standing in a boiling hot paddy field
I hesitate to utter “it’s hot”. (Upon occasion)


editor's note: Thank you Hyakuten Inamoto for translating this Waka by the Meiji Emperor.

Facebook featured artist of the day: Maja Larson

Visit our facebook page to read Maja's bio. You can also see her work at the art show!

Reiki perspectives: certified Reiki what?

If you refer to yourself as a certified Reiki practitioner, you might want to rethink that. Here are a few reasons why. Read more ...

Reiki perspectives: What does a (Reiki) Master Teacher really teach?

A masterful teacher leaves a lasting imprint on one's life by shaping the way we look at ourselves, at the world, and at life itself. In order to get the most from such an opportunity, we need to be steady, willing to look to see how we can improve our understanding and skills. Read more.

Artist of the day

Today's featured artist is Ivancica Smith. To read more about her, please visit our Facebook page.

Artist of the day

Our featured Reiki practitioner - artist of the day is Scott K. Smith. You can read more about Scott on our Facebook page.

The weekly waka

August
always comes too soon -
Summer,
the days oblivious
as night creeps closer in

by Beth Lowell

The Reiki focus group concludes, the art show opens, the mandala is unveiled, and a special article by the artist

by Beth Lowell, Managing Editor

Happy August! Here in the United States we've been having an unusually hot summer, but a group of Reiki practitioners from here and all corners of the world have been keeping cool while participating in The Reiki Digest's focus group, in which Reiki practitioners were asked to use a mandala and answer the question: Does art aid the healing process? 

Participants in four categories (Self treatment, meditation, treatment of others and distant treatment) agreed to practice with the mandala at least 5 times over an eight week period that spanned June and July. The focus group has concluded and we'll be tallying the results, which we'll share later this month.

We've unveiled the focus group mandala, which appears along with an article about the fascinating process used in its creation by artist P.C. Turczyn, who because of her healing intentions was selected to appear in Renee Philip's book titled Vision, Passion & Purpose, Artists as World Changers, along with 100 other vocational artists. Don't miss the article and the special Pam is running for readers of The Reiki Digest.

And, if you're looking for something cool to do during these dog days, check out our online art show featuring the work of our own world changers right here in the Reiki community! It's a great collection of healing art you won't want to miss.

The Reiki, Healing and Art show is now open!

by Beth Lowell, Managing Editor

The Reiki Digest's online art show, Reiki, Healing and Art opened yesterday, August 1. Reiki practitioner -artists from around the world working in a variety of styles and media answered our call for entries. The idea for the art show came about when we started receiving replies from Reiki practitioners wanting to participate in our Reiki and art focus group who mentioned that they, too, were artists. 

Our focus group asked the question: Does art aid the healing practice? Our art show asks the artists: Does Reiki aid the art practice?

Stop by and see what the artists have to say and enjoy the show!

Reiki: the infinite field

Reiki: The Infinite Field (c) P.C. Turczyn 2011


by P.C. Turczyn

What originally brought me to Reiki was the buzzing I felt in the palms of my hands each time I went into meditation. Though unsure as to the nature of those pulsations, I was drawn to study some form of vibrational healing and was immediately put in contact with a Reiki Master. After my initial attunements in 1998, I was able to “hear” the inaudible Reiki vibration as a gentle, high tone. After more recent attunements, my perception broadened into a full body experience, often akin to being bathed in the deliciously expanding sounds of a gong.


A world of vibration


Beginning with my immersion in the Reiki vibration, I found I could perceive the vibrational characteristics of other things as well: each of my large collection of homeopathic and flower remedies, supplements, gemstones, actually anything. The concept brought forth by ancient teachings, as well as Quantum Physics, that the world of form is comprised of vibration felt natural to me.


Studio practice


With an intention to create artworks that both contain and convey the energy signature of a given theme (compassion, love, hope, etc.), I developed a unique studio practice. The use of breath, sound, music, movement, dance, writing, prayer and meditation support me in the embodiment of a project’s theme. Somatic cues act as a touchstone during the development of the artwork; when in doubt concerning my direction, I refer back to that bodily felt-sense to ensure that the artwork is in resonance with the theme.


Vibrational information infuses the paintings on multiple levels. A succinct rhythm and movement is ignited by precisely calibrated colors and gradations, repetitive shapes and the use of Sacred Geometry, a form of frozen music. (The proportions used in Sacred Geometry are the same as those in musical scales and harmonies.)


The Creative process


Structuring the water


After collecting fresh water from a mountain stream near my home in Willow, NY, I poured it into a transparent glass jar. I then attached an inward facing label with the word “Reiki” written in both Romanization and Kanji, and placed the jar in a patch of sunlight. According to Masaru Emoto, this method is capable of structuring the water molecules with the vibration of Reiki. To make doubly sure, I held the jar of water in my hands while enjoying the familiar Reiki pulsations.


The clear water was used first to write the Reiki symbols in large, invisible characters onto the still blank sheet of watercolor paper. Later, the water served to dilute the gouache with which I painted the Reiki mandala.


Designing the layout


Creating the layout of countless petals was grueling. I had envisioned the mandala as a chrysanthemum but none of the photographs I found were exactly right. Instead, I turned to a technique of ‘seeing what is not yet there.’ I would stare at a spot on the blank page, waiting until a shape presented itself and then had only to trace its contours. Every petal length, thickness and curve was checked and double-checked with muscle testing. (I would ask yes-or-no questions and then test muscle strength in the fingers of one hand. A strong response indicated a ‘yes’,’ while a weak response indicated a ‘no.’) The difficulty was in maintaining focus and accuracy for more than a few minutes! Periodically, I would pause and give myself a brief Reiki treatment to ensure that I was still “humming the Reiki tune.” I was a bit surprised that the final image resembles a sea anemone as much as it does a chrysanthemum; following guidance often leads to surprising outcomes!


A similar discipline was utilized in mixing and placing the subtle color variations, which create a slight gradation of lighter shadows in the center and darker ones toward the periphery. Several full size color sketches were completed before the rhythms began singing the Reiki vibration.


At the center point of the mandala is the ‘bindu,” which Wikipedia aptly defines as “the point at which begins creation and the point at which the one becomes the many.” It is also “the sacred symbol of the cosmos in its unmanifested state.” From it, twenty-one golden radiating lines emerge, representing the twenty-one days Reiki founder, Mikao Usui, sat in meditation.


Tips on how to use the Reiki mandala


As with many of my mandalas, the viewer’s eye is led both outward in endless expansion and infinitely inward toward the center. By gazing with a soft focus at the centerpoint, this mandala gives the viewer a visceral experience of primordial consciousness aka the Infinite Field. If you have received Reiki attunement, you are familiar with this vibration as sensed by your own body. Or, perhaps, you have experienced the Reiki connection in a healing session.


I encourage Reiki practitioners to use this image to support their practice. Try using the soft focus gaze while giving yourself a session, or while offering Reiki to another. It works extremely well if hung in a treatment room or when used as a focal point while doing distant healing.


For those of you who participated in the Reiki Digest focus group by allowing the mandala to support your practice, let me express my gratitude and sense of wonder. The giving of service, even through the creation of art, really does open doors of unexpected opportunity!


As a special thank-you to Reiki Digest readers, I am offering a 20% discount on any of the archival digital prints in my Infinite Qualities series, including the Reiki mandala, from now until August, 2012. Please visit my website for details and contact information.