REIKI BLOG

Thoughts about the Reiki precepts

The Reiki precepts are perceived to be an ideal that we all should aspire to.

For today only, do not anger

Do not worry and be filled with gratitude

Devote yourself to your work and be kind to people

On Reiki courses students are taught to follow the Reiki precepts as a guide to life and for their spiritual development. In my view based on my experience and personal development over the last 17 years of teaching and practicing Reiki especially with many hours of self healing every day, I have come to a different realization.

The insights I have received tell me that the way to happiness and spiritual growth is to ensure that we nurture and support our physical needs, our emotional needs and our spiritual needs equally to create balance and harmony within. This leads to oneness, which leads to enlightenment.

Our brains are hard-wired for emotions such as anxiety, worry... etc therefore trying to over ride our brain's programming leads to inner conflict. It is far healthier to accept and embrace our emotions and to self heal with Reiki so our emotions no longer hurt us.

In practice that means doing the things we enjoy in our physical life and doing so without guilt or regret. It means we heal ourselves emotionally to create a level of emotional wellbeing that supports our overall life. Spiritually it means that yes we can explore our spiritual nature and nurture our spiritual needs but it does not mean we neglect our physical and emotional needs and focus on spirituality only. This leads to imbalance and inner conflicts that destroy our health and harmony and dissolve our state of oneness.

The key is to be human, to accept being human and to embrace our human nature in all its aspects.

Why it is better to Reiki level 1 course and Reiki level 2 course together

In the West it is common practice for Reiki teachers to teach students a Reiki level 1 course and then make them wait for between 3 and 12 months before progressing to Reiki level 2 training. The reasons given for this are twofold.

To allow the student to get used to the higher vibrations of the Reiki energy they are attuned to.

To practice Reiki before moving on.

Mikao Usui the founder of Reiki taught Reiki 1 and 2 together as this benefits the student in a number of ways.

Reiki was designed to create balance and harmony that leads to oneness and ultimately enlightenment. Reiki level 1 teaches healing on a spiritual level. Reiki level 2 teaches healing on a physical and emotional level. In order to create balance you need to heal on all three levels in a way that is appropriate for you. From my experience of teaching over a thousand students the primary healing needed is emotional and physical which is only possible after level 2 training.

For some students there is a period of cleansing or a form of healing crisis that occurs after they have been initiated to Reiki. Again from experience what is needed at this time for students is emotional and physical healing which is only possible after level 2 training.

So for those reasons I recommend my students take their level 1 and 2 training as a combined course.