Reiki Encounter

Dr. Mikao Usui experienced the divinity of Reiki in the form of a brilliant light on the last moments of his 21-day meditation. It was the Reiki attunement process that brought about an understanding of the significance of the basic and most important Reiki symbols. Earlier Dr. Usui had received knowledge on the Buddhist worship corresponding to the worship of trinity of power, love and light, which also corresponded to the Hindu tantrik worship of Ichha Shakti (love), Kriya Shakti (power), and Gyan Shakti (light).

Dr. Usui termed his experience at Kuramayama in his native language as “Dai-ko-myo”, which literally translates in Japanese to “big brilliant light”. The literary manner in which Dai-ko-myo is written in Japanese came to represent the symbol depicting descent of divine light to the human energy body.

He then devised a technique to impart the process of attunement to others. The technique is no different from the Hindu and Buddhist tantrik  tradition of transmitting energy, except that some mantras or symbology was used. Apart from Dai-ko-myo, he also devised other important symbols, all in Japanese. These symbols were Sei-hei-ki, and Hon-sha-ze-sho-nen. Another symbol, Choku-rei, not corresponding to the Japanese language too was devised. These four symbols came to depict the power of the brilliant white light.

Dai-ko-myo
For better understanding, the symbol is split horizontally into five parts. The top portion of the symbol represents “the one”. The second part of the symbol looks like an inverted “Y”, which represents the human being with two legs. The third part of the symbol formed by a vertical line flanked on either side by two inward slanting lines and supported by a horizontal line represents the fire element. The fourth part depicts a line slanting to the left with an adjacent curved line bent outwards to the right, more like the English letter ”L”. The part with a strong and wide base represents support. The fifth and final part represents the sun and moon.

Sei-hei-ki
Sei-hei-ki literally means the real peaceful spirit. Sei means real, Kei means peaceful, and Ki is the spirit, the vital life force in all living beings. It represents the absolute. The world is said to be a creation of the divine mind created merely as a sport. Some say, creation has no meaning except an intention to fill the huge void in the universe. The whole process is represented by the Japanese word “na”. So, sei-hei-ki came to represent the creation of the universe. Since sei-hei-ki is a creation of the mind, it is said to heal the maladies of the mind. Once the mind is healed, it turns the human being into a real peaceful spirit.

Choku Rei
Another important Reiki symbol is the symbol of Choku Rei, which stands for ‘direct spirit’. The word Choku represents direct and Rei represents spirit. Choku Rei, as a symbol, depicts a short horizontal bar connected by a long vertical line culminating into a three and a half coils around the vertical line. It looks like a coiled serpent with its hood raised. It is so similar in description to the “kundalini” – the power lying dormant in all human beings depicted by a coiled snake having three-and-a-half-coils. So, choku rei is the innate energy that needs to be awakened to experience divine oneness.

Choku Rei dispels darkness while bringing light to the human spirit. The brilliant white light that Reiki spreads in the human energy body helps get rid of the dark energies.

Hon-sha-ze-sho-nen
Hon means: real, root; Sha means: to be; Sho means: real created; and Nen means: feelings, intentions. So, together hon-sha-ze-sho-nen means a “real person with true intentions”. The use of this symbol expresses and strengthens the true intentions of the healer to heal. In other words he expresses his true intention to accept divine will in healing. The hon-sha-ze-sho-nen symbol is not only to be invoked at the beginning of a distant healing but also all kinds of healings.

Reiki learning does not involve any special skills. It does not require any special practice or years of experience. Any one, who is interested, can learn Reiki.
It simply is transferred from the master to the pupil. The moment the initiation process is over, the student can start passing Reiki to others. In other words, you can start healing others with Reiki the moment you are initiated into it. That is the reason why Reiki is so easy to learn.

Thus, Reiki does not require any special skill sets, and is free of a person’s individual personality. The beauty of Reiki is that the practitioner of this healing form is a mere medium between the healee and God’s love.
Reiki is a very humbling experience. It can be used for self-treatment as well. The process of transmitting Reiki is given in one of the coming chapters.

How Reiki Works
Ki is the vital life force in all of us. So long as Ki flows in the energy body, the physical body is alive. The moment the vital life force leaves the body, the physical body becomes lifeless. Ki enters the body through the Chakras placed on the energy body. The energy body is an energy field that engulfs the physical body and interpenetrates it. Chakras are connected to the organs and tissues of through a network of energy channels known as meridians or “naadis”. Vital energies flow into the body from the chakras and are directed to the organs and tissues through the meridians.

For organs to function properly, it is imperative for these energies to flow freely in the meridians or energy channels. The body and its various parts remain healthy so long as they receive the full quota of energies. Ki is the nourisher that keeps the organs and cells in healthy shape. Any disruption in the flow of Ki makes the organs inefficient; and this is the initial stage of illness.

It is, thus, important to keep the Ki flowing properly. Physical exercise keeps the chakras activated. When chakras are in active state they pump in more energies and pump out all the used up energies. Deactivated chakras fail to pump out all the used up energies, and this leads to blockages in the energy channels.
Blockages, in turn, lead to insufficient supply of fresh energies to the organs. This situation signals the beginning of illness in the body.

The flow of Ki also depends on our thoughts. These energies are very sensitive to the thought process. Positive thoughts enhance the flow of energies, while negative thoughts diminish the flow. The reason why we feel good when happy is that there is more energy available to us. On the contrary, when we think negatively, the flow of energy diminishes, depriving us of Ki.  Lack of energy makes us feel gloomy and sad. When we continuously start thinking negatively, we create blockages all over the energy channels and cause harm to our health. That is the reason, we are told to be positive. Positive thinking leads to generation of positive energy, which is so important for our mental and physical health.

What organs become ill depends on where these blockages are located. Say, if blockages are located in energy channels supplying energy to the liver, the liver will start malfunctioning owing to diminished supply of energy.

Reiki, being an intelligent energy, seeks out the blockages in the body and starts working on them. It removes the blockages. Reiki also works on a person’s negative thoughts. It is imperative to remove the very foundation of negative thoughts. Thus, Reiki works on the subconscious mind as it focuses on removing the root cause of negative energy generation. Reiki vibrates at a very fine frequency. Negative energies that come in contact with Reiki experience a change in their frequency, as they start turning into higher frequency and superior energies. This process changes the property of negative energies to positive. As blockages are removed, the flow of fresh energies is enhanced leading to the recovery of ill organs and tissues.