Reiki in Everyday life:
As a Reiki practitioner learning to bring in the Precepts of Reiki into everyday life is the reminder that each moment is fresh, each moment an opportunity to be Awake and Alive to the life that has been given to us. As with any spiritual based discipline or healing system, the concepts are deep but if there is no practical application how does it serve in our daily existence of work, family, relationship and awakening? When Dr. Usui came off the Mount Kurama to begin to share the work of Reiki with others, he began to notice that even after healing, people were returning to their life as if nothing had changed. It was the realization to Dr. Usui that without some spiritual basis and application to life itself, healing only was occurring at the physical and worldly level and not shifting consciousness itself. So he brought in the Precepts as a reminder to live with healing, to allow Reiki to shift our consciousness and bring healing to a deeper soul level.
“Just for today, do not anger
Just for today, do not worry
Honor your parents, teachers and elders
Earn your living honestly
Show gratitude to all living beings”
There are many variations from the different schools of Reiki. But the purpose remains the same. When you contemplate even the wording “Just for today” It narrows the focus to the present moment, relinquishing the past and surrendering our projections to the future. Just for today as a reminder that we make conscious choices about our lives, choosing whether to react in anger, to spend our time in worry. “Just for today” we can choose to live in kindness, live in compassion, live in the gift of the moment. Our worries and our anger stem from the past and the places we have been wronged, the places we feel life or people in our life have let us down. But taking these precepts engaging in the present moment is the opportunity to co-create the life you want NOW! No longer ruled by the past or the future, each moment is a choice. A choice in how we live and what we bring to this life.
So just for today, surrender anger, surrender worry.. be open to the unlimited goodness and compassion that lies in your heart, in the moment. Remember the preciousness of this life and the beauty of your own heart. Allow the Reiki, the life force of the universe to flow through everything you do and everyone you encounter today.
Namaste’
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Bodhisattva Vow
The Bodhisattva Vow
“May I be a guard for those who are protectorless,
A guide for those who journey on the road.
For those who wish to go across the water,
May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.
May I be an isle for those who yearn for landfall,
A lamp for those who long for light.
For those who need a resting place, a bed;
For all who need a servant may I be a slave.
May I be the wishing jewel, a vase of plenty,
A word of power, and the Supreme Remedy.
May I be the trees of Miracles
And for every being, the abundant cow.
Like the good earth and the other elements,
Enduring as the boundless multitude of living beings,
May I be the ground and vessel of life.
Thus for every single thing that lives,
In number like the boundless reaches of the sky,
May I be their sustenance and nourishment,
Until they pass beyond the bounds of suffering.”
The Yoga of Offering
We all have struggles, struggles in our physical bodies, in our ever-changing state of mind, in our relationships, struggles in our lives. The key to understanding life and understanding ourselves is how do we relate to and react to these challenges in our lives. How do we not get caught up in these times and allow our view of the world around us to be all encompassed by these things and these situations? Offer it up! The ultimate goal of yoga is connection with the divine and a way to feel this in our lives and our practice is the practice of Ishvarpranidhana- surrendering (pranidhana) to a higher source (Ishvara). Ishvarpranidhana is “seeing the bigger picture”. It initiates a shift in perspective from “I” to the sacred and this shift of perspective helps us remember to align with, and receive the grace of being alive. Ishvara is whatever your higher source may be, God, Buddha, Jesus, Mother Earth, but more importantly than the name attached is the connection to sacredness of the universe that supports and enables a connection to our higher self, free from the ego and our worldly concerns. Indian yoga master BKS Iyengar states it best in “Light on the Yoga Sutras….”Through surrender the aspirant’s ego is effaced and….grace.. Pours down upon him like a torrential rain.” Isvhara pranidhana provides a pathway through challenges and obstacles of ego toward our true divine nature of grace, peace, love, freedom and joy.
One of the most beautiful offerings I have ever witnessed was the creation of a sand mandala. For a week these Buddhist monks chiseled away with small tools and grains of sand to create the most intricate and beautiful mandala eyes could see and the final day this mandala that had been lovingly created was offered up and brushed away. To me this offering not only displayed the impermanence of life but the beauty of creation. Knowing that the intention and the process of the work was far greater than the mandala itself. We can offer our day to day lives and each action and step that we take to the divine. Each breath coming back to source, each step sacred, each moment true. Making our lives an offering to Isvhara. So next time we feel pressed by life, caught up in our struggles and the demands of life, take a moment step back, breath in breath out and offer it up and connect to the support of the universe that is there to support us at All times of our lives… Namaste’
One of the most beautiful offerings I have ever witnessed was the creation of a sand mandala. For a week these Buddhist monks chiseled away with small tools and grains of sand to create the most intricate and beautiful mandala eyes could see and the final day this mandala that had been lovingly created was offered up and brushed away. To me this offering not only displayed the impermanence of life but the beauty of creation. Knowing that the intention and the process of the work was far greater than the mandala itself. We can offer our day to day lives and each action and step that we take to the divine. Each breath coming back to source, each step sacred, each moment true. Making our lives an offering to Isvhara. So next time we feel pressed by life, caught up in our struggles and the demands of life, take a moment step back, breath in breath out and offer it up and connect to the support of the universe that is there to support us at All times of our lives… Namaste’
Riding the waves of change..
Riding the waves of change
“The only thing constant in the world is change.
That’s why today I take life as it comes.” India Arie
This song by India Arie for me, sums up the aspect of change, we cannot escape it no matter how hard we try and the only way to deal with it is day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath. From a young age, as if almost instilled in us is the struggle with things changing. What a paradox it seems for everything at every moment is in a constant state of evolution. As a mother, I witness first hand my 3 year old struggle with change and for him he shows it on an external level with temper tantrums, sleep patterns changing and just plain frustration. After Hurricane Katrina, my whole family was relocated here to Florida from Biloxi, that was a lot of change for all of us. Each day we had to learn to “take life as it comes” for we were unsure of what the future would hold, all we knew was that things were changing and changing rapidly. Now after some time has past I can look back and see how we all evolved and grew during that time.
In Yoga there is a Sanskrit term Parinamavada, the idea that constant change is an inherent part of life. If we can learn to embrace this concept maybe our need to struggle would diminish. We would finally understand what it is meant to be in the present moment on and off our yoga mats. It is the day to day checking in and accessing where we are and not assuming that we are the same as we were the day before. On the mat is the discerning of what kind of practice best serves us. Finding that connection between the body, mind and spirit, not doing what we think we should do, being who we think we should be, just simply the connecting to the truth of the moment and moving from that space. Even throughout a practice we can feel an evolution taking place, our bodies begin to open, that postures take us deeper, the breathe levels and the mind subsides. For me that is the important aspect of beginning and ending the time on the mat with moments of meditation and honoring the changes that you want to create and that have occurred and honoring yourself for showing up. Each day if we take a moment and check in we can see who we are in that moment and also honor ourselves for showing up. So much of yoga is the work outside the mat, but the work on it helps us to become more aware. Living Yoga and doing Yoga are two separate things, but we must start somewhere.
So as the seasons change, day turns to night, infants turn into toddlers, the young become the old, can we learn to ride the ebb and flow of life? The answer I believe is YES… through surrender, through acceptance. In Buddhism it is believed that we all struggle until we realize that we don’t have to and then struggling subsides. There are times when life brings us change with a small wave lapping up the shore and other times that life brings us a hurricane of change. Hold on tight, breathe in breathe out and now that “This to shall pass.” Namaste’
“The only thing constant in the world is change.
That’s why today I take life as it comes.” India Arie
This song by India Arie for me, sums up the aspect of change, we cannot escape it no matter how hard we try and the only way to deal with it is day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath. From a young age, as if almost instilled in us is the struggle with things changing. What a paradox it seems for everything at every moment is in a constant state of evolution. As a mother, I witness first hand my 3 year old struggle with change and for him he shows it on an external level with temper tantrums, sleep patterns changing and just plain frustration. After Hurricane Katrina, my whole family was relocated here to Florida from Biloxi, that was a lot of change for all of us. Each day we had to learn to “take life as it comes” for we were unsure of what the future would hold, all we knew was that things were changing and changing rapidly. Now after some time has past I can look back and see how we all evolved and grew during that time.
In Yoga there is a Sanskrit term Parinamavada, the idea that constant change is an inherent part of life. If we can learn to embrace this concept maybe our need to struggle would diminish. We would finally understand what it is meant to be in the present moment on and off our yoga mats. It is the day to day checking in and accessing where we are and not assuming that we are the same as we were the day before. On the mat is the discerning of what kind of practice best serves us. Finding that connection between the body, mind and spirit, not doing what we think we should do, being who we think we should be, just simply the connecting to the truth of the moment and moving from that space. Even throughout a practice we can feel an evolution taking place, our bodies begin to open, that postures take us deeper, the breathe levels and the mind subsides. For me that is the important aspect of beginning and ending the time on the mat with moments of meditation and honoring the changes that you want to create and that have occurred and honoring yourself for showing up. Each day if we take a moment and check in we can see who we are in that moment and also honor ourselves for showing up. So much of yoga is the work outside the mat, but the work on it helps us to become more aware. Living Yoga and doing Yoga are two separate things, but we must start somewhere.
So as the seasons change, day turns to night, infants turn into toddlers, the young become the old, can we learn to ride the ebb and flow of life? The answer I believe is YES… through surrender, through acceptance. In Buddhism it is believed that we all struggle until we realize that we don’t have to and then struggling subsides. There are times when life brings us change with a small wave lapping up the shore and other times that life brings us a hurricane of change. Hold on tight, breathe in breathe out and now that “This to shall pass.” Namaste’
Where is God?
When asked where God is, people point towards the sky or some far and distant region; no wonder then that He does not manifest Himself! Realize that He is in you, with you, behind you, and all around you; and He can be seen and felt everywhere.
-Sathya Sai Baba
-Sathya Sai Baba
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