As the students in a recent First degree class introduced themselves, I learned that seven of the 13 students were already practicing First or Second degree Reiki. While it’s not unusual to have even a Reiki master in my First degree classes, I’d never had more than half the class taking First degree for a second time. And most of them traveled from out of state to join us.

Even more interesting, all seven were practicing daily self-treatment and loving their practice. Why had they come, I wondered. The response was unanimous: they lacked the clarity they wanted; they were confused.

After the class, one of the students told me the difference our class had made to her. She said simply, “I came here confused and I am no longer confused. Thank you.” I asked Joan to elaborate, and she let me share her thoughts with you. –

The welcome email I received when I registered for your First degree class suggested I not do additional reading before class, as reading presented an opportunity for confusion.

I had already taken a First degree class elsewhere. That class included talk of sweeping auras, pendulums, balancing chakras and personal messages from spirit guides. With all the extras, I left the class confused about Reiki and with many unanswered questions.

My confusion soon spread to others. When people asked me about Reiki, my attempts to explain were met with confused looks or jokes.

I love my restorative yoga teacher and she agreed to teach me Second degree (distant) Reiki practice. Now I understand that what I needed at that point was to practice more rather than learn more techniques. I clearly wasn’t ready, and became even more confused.

Meanwhile my brother had done a lot of research and has been practicing Reiki for a year. He became my mentor,  sending me your book REIKI: A Comprehensive Guide, and inviting me to follow your Reiki, Medicine and Self-care Facebook page. I got on your mailing list and found your class.

I am confused no more.

Your class allowed me to be comfortable as a beginner. It had none of the add-ons I had found so confusing, just simple practice and lots of it.

Focusing on balance and practice feels like the heart of Reiki. As you suggest, experiencing a period of self-practice seems to be the best way to get the personal clarification and understand the role of Reiki in my life.

Later, I may want to learn more adjunctive practices, but now I understand it is important to build a foundation through daily self-practice.

We have become used to taking an aspirin and getting immediate results. I am learning self growth takes time and patience, and that understanding alone is a lot of growth.

Are you confused about your Reiki practice? Do you have a specific question? Please ask it below, or on the free webinar to celebrate this blog’s third birthday on Tuesday, May 1 at 7PM Eastern US time: Feeling Good about Your Reiki Practice. Click here to register and leave your question for discussion in the comments box.

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Guestblogger Paul Selk and I have corresponded over the past year and I’ve appreciated his informed perspective on Japanese language, culture and history. Paul supported Colin Powell’s recent guestblogs on the translation of the Reiki kanji, and here he offers more perspective on how much is lost when we translate Asian culture and language into American English. –

Is Reiki healing spooky?

Having read several times about the issue of using the original kanji in Japan — that they don’t even use the simplified kanji to write Reiki, due to rei being spooky — I wanted to find out how the Chinese felt about the old hanzi (Chinese equivalent of kanji), to see if the same spooky feeling was there.

I sought the help of some Chinese friends, immigrants who know English pretty well, but still have some trouble with it. Tony is in his 30s and Wei is in her 50s.

I thought it would be an interesting experiment, since Chinese people have the same psycholinguistic processing as Japanese people and for the most part use the same pictograms. Neither of my friends know anything about Reiki practice, so that wouldn’t influence their responses.

When I showed them the old and new hanzi for ling (rei), they nodded and said, “Oh, ling.” I asked, “These two hanzi mean the same thing, but do you feel anything different with them?”

Kanji that are translated the same, actually have different meanings

Tony looked at the paper and said, “They translate same, but not mean same.”

I questioned him to make sure I understood this point correctly, and he was quite clear that although the old and new hanzi are translated into English the same, the old and new hanzi have different meanings to Chinese people.

He pointed to the new hanzi and said, “This is for smart people.” Wei said the other hanzi is “for old people.”

In order to explain (for lack of words in English), Wei described the types of people who still use the old hanzi by acting them out. She rolled her eyes up, eyelids fluttering, held her hands out like a zombie and started talking about spirits coming and telling her what to do, walking around the restaurant like Frankenstein. It was very humorous.

Wei got serious when she mentioned the palm reader, and said, “She look at your finger, and she tell you, ‘you have lucky day,’ or she look at your finger and say to you, ‘you going to be sick.’ Then she say, ‘that will be 50 dollar,’ but you no get nothing from her. You save your money!” Wei said that the old people who use that hanzi talk about spirits.

By this time I was laughing, but I stopped when Tony said the old hanzi for ling was “bad.” Tony explained that the old hanzi has this negative connotation because it is connected to people who believe in ghosts.

What it came down to is that with the old hanzi there is a feeling of superstition. By “smart people,” they meant people who are rational, who don’t believe in superstitions.

I did mention practicing Reiki to my Japanese neighbor once, she looked at me cautiously and seemed to move back a little, so I haven’t mentioned it to her again.

Do you speak Japanese? If so, please click here to add your comments, especially if you are a native speaker.

Cassia Beck’s Chinese Lanterns print is available on Etsy.

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Bringing the healing art of Reiki into conventional health care relieves the suffering of so many patients, families and staff. There are spaces in the 4-day Medical Reiki intensives in both NYC (March 29-April 1) and Atlanta (April 11-15). Please click here for details.

Are you part of our Reiki, Medicine and Self-Care community on Facebook? Join our daily conversations about Reiki practice and communication to broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, and strengthen your communication skills.

This weekend starts Asia Week here in the Big Apple, with galleries around town sharing Asian Art collections in special weekend open houses. Five galleries have Japanese exhibits.

Reiki master Susan Mitchell and I had a sneak preview of the luscious Sacred Sutras and Profane Pledges exhibit at Scholten Gallery.

We left feeling refreshed and uplifted, much as we feel after a Reiki treatment.

Art stops the mind

Japanese art is of special interest to non-Asian Reiki practitioners. It can save us from our minds, reminding us that Reiki practice arose from a cultural perspective quite different from our own.

The goal of spiritual practice is to live in the open space of the present moment (Today only). But the mind — and perhaps particularly the Western mind — abhors open space.

The mind plasters our practice with assumptions and clutter that can keep us from dropping into the spaciousness revealed by simple, dedicated practice. The busyness and ambition of Western culture has generated many benefits, but simplicity — that magnificent spiritual gem — is not among them.

Making time for healing pleasure

Please take the time to enjoy these images, perhaps with your hand on your heart.

Savor the beauty. Let its pure pleasure stop your mind and uplift your state.

The poem in the Zen scroll above left reads:

If you want this moon
I will give it to you
try to capture it

The poem at right reads:

I have forgotten
it is time to leave
intoxicated by the flowers

The reality of healing is supported by science, but healing remains, after all, an art.

And art is also healing.

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Bringing the healing art of Reiki into conventional health care relieves the suffering of so many patients, families and staff. There are spaces in the 4-day Medical Reiki intensives in both NYC (March 29-April 1) and Atlanta (April 11-15). Please click here for details.

Please click here to receive the blog in your inbox each weekend. You can unsubscribe instantly if you change your mind, and of course I would never share your information with anyone, any time, any way.

In the first article of this series, guest blogger and Reiki master Colin Powell shared historical background on writing the Japanese language. In Part 2, he unlocks the deeper meaning of the term Reiki.

WRITING REIKI, PART 2

If we look at Usui’s Memorial Stone (at right) or early Reiki certificates from the 1930s, we see the phrase Reiki Ryoho written in the original kanji characters. This is how Mikao Usui and Chujiro Hayashi would have written it. Some of the more traditional Japanese styles of Reiki are now using the original kanji, or at least teaching about it.

There is, however, some reluctance to use the original Reiki kanji in publicity material in Japan because, although the memory of Usui Reiki Ryoho all but disappeared after World War 2, an awareness of Reiki has resurfaced in an unusual way. Many Japanese people, especially the younger generations, have become aware of Reiki through popular entertainment.

Lions and tigers and ghosts, oh my!

Japanese anime films and manga comics portray Reiki as a magical force or a sword of great power, even though the actual kanji used is different. Between that popular misrepresentation of Reiki and a meaning of the original Reiki kanji that carries connotations of spirits, ghosts and psychic phenomena, Reiki teachers in Japan have to be careful not to give potential students the wrong impression about Usui Reiki Ryoho.

That brings us to the question, what does the original kanji for Reiki actually mean in regard to the practice of Usui Reiki Ryoho?

Reiki kanji meaning

In the kanji for rei (see below), we see the canopy of heaven from which four drops of rain (ame) are falling into three containers or mouths (kuchi). The symbolism of water is very significant spiritually in that it is endlessly adaptable. Water is responsive, changes form, and flows easily around obstacles, but when necessary, water also has the capacity to slowly dissolve obstacles and carry them along.

Below the rain and containers, a shaman, usually a female (miko), stands on the earth, arms outstretched and tassels hanging down.

Chinese roots of the Reiki kanji

As mentioned in Part 1 of this article, the Japanese kanji are actually derived from Chinese characters. If we look at the earlier, Chinese interpretation of this character, pronounced ling in Chinese, (see below) this is sometimes broken down into just two parts: drops of rain (also pronounced ling), in which the mouths are interpreted as large raindrops,¹ and a shaman, witch or sorcerer, pronounced wu in Chinese.

We can even break down the character wu further (see below), into the work (gong) of two people (ren written twice). If we look at a still earlier version, for example in a seal script,* we can see that the work the two people are doing is praying or dancing. Further, the two people shown are mirror images and may represent that it is necessary for the shaman to balance her dual human nature (spiritual and material) in order to perform the work of praying for rain.

The kanji for ki (see below) consists of the radical, kome or rice, surrounded by a vapour or steam (also pronounced ki), representing the steam given off when rice is cooking in a pot.² The character for ki was originally written as three wavy lines, which symbolised air or breath³ – ki being something that could not be seen but could cause change and be felt.⁴ We see that there was originally a sense of ki being more like an invisible vapour or atmosphere that could be felt, or the breath of life, rather than being life force energy.

Reiki trinity

Putting this symbolism together, we have a representation of the trinity found in many diverse spiritual traditions: Heaven, Earth and Man, known as Ten-Chi-Jin in Japan.

In the kanji for rei, which on its own means spirit, soul, ghost, divine, sacred, the rain symbolises life-giving energy from heaven in the form of water, collected in the three containers or mouths where it can directly revitalise mind, body and spirit.

The shaman acts as an intermediary between heaven above and the earth below, where the energy-giving rice grows and provides mankind with sustenance and energy from the earth. Thus, the heaven energy combines with the earth energy in the heart of the shaman, allowing her to become fully balanced as a unity and realise her true nature.

This is the spiritual essence of Reiki practice: the Reiki practitioner or teacher, through Reiki practice, balances her own mind and body (or spiritual and material aspects), just as the shaman does.

Reiki kanji today

If we look at the modern kanji for Reiki (see below), much of this rich symbolism is lost. There are no containers or mouths to hold the rain from heaven, and no shaman. The rice grains, which in the original kanji give an impression of radiance, have been replaced with what looks like a dagger or an X, which implies cutting off or cancelling the energy from the earth, symbolised by steam.

If more Reiki teachers taught the deeper symbolism and meaning of the Reiki kanji, students would start with a greater understanding of Reiki practice, leading to a more profound experience for teacher, practitioner and client. The system of Usui Reiki Ryoho is much more than a hands-on complementary therapy.

How do you think we might best write the term Reiki in our publicity material, according to the original or the modern kanji? Click here to share your thoughts in a comment.

*Seal script, or more correctly in this case, small seal script, is even older than the usual kanji (Chinese: hanzi) used today. It developed from characters carved on bronze objects  (which in turn developed from etchings on oracle bones), and dates from around the 3rd Century BC. Since the characters were etched onto metal, they tended to be quite simple and fairly angular. Nonetheless, seal script often manages to capture an element of flow, and sometimes includes curves. Eventually the script became used on seals (chops, stamps or signets) as a way of signing or sealing official documents or works of art, which is where derivatives of seal script can be seen today, as a rectangular or circular stamp, usually in red ink.

References:

1. http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E9%9C%9D

2. http://www.mts.net/~bodnaryk/KanjiListOnline.html

3. http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?submitButton1=Etymology&characterInput=%E6%B0%94

4. http://damo-qigong.net/qi-theory.htm

Thank you to Paul Selk for his support with resources and fact-checking.

AS A SPECIAL GIFT to celebrate this blog’s third birthday, here is a pdf version of the entire article, “WRITING REIKI: The Evolution of the Term Reiki in the Japanese Language,” which you are welcome to print out for your personal use or to share with your Reiki students. You are also welcome to link to the pdf on this blog, but you do not have permission to post the pdf online.

RELATED READING:
Writing Reiki (Part 1)
Reiki Is Not a Word

Are you part of our Reiki, Medicine and Self-Care community on Facebook? Join our daily conversations about Reiki practice and communication to broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, and strengthen your communication skills.

Please click here to to receive the blog in your inbox each weekend. You can unsubscribe instantly if you change your mind, and of course I would never share your information with anyone, any time, any way.

It was the title of guestblogger Colin Powell’s Reiki facebook page that first caught my eye — Reiki Pure and Simple — as I had originally chosen a similar title for my book (changed by the publisher to REIKI: A Comprehensive Guide). We connected online and in webinars, and met for dinner when I taught the Medical Reiki seminar in London. Colin has been researching the Japanese origins of our practice, and I invited him to share his perspective with us. –

EVOLUTION of the TERM REIKI in JAPANESE

Each of the above images can be read as the term Reiki by most Japanese people. The image most Reiki practitioners in the West are familiar with is the middle one, which is used on many book covers, websites, publicity material, and even the logos of many of the largest Reiki Professional Organisations, including the Reiki Association and UK Reiki Federation here in the UK, where I live.

Which image do you think would be the one most familiar to the general public in Japan?

Interestingly, it would be the one on the right, the modern Katakana way of writing the term Reiki. Before I explain why that is, let’s look at how the Japanese language is written.

There are three main alphabets — or more correctly, syllabaries, or character sets — used in the Japanese language,¹ as follows:

Kanji

Kanji is the oldest character set. Kanji actually consists of Chinese characters (hanzi) that were imported into Japan, where they became known as kanji, around the 5^th century CE. Today only around 2,000 of the 5,000 to 10,000 original kanji are in regular use, as the result of revisions of the Japanese language in 1946 and 2010. Many kanji are based on stylised pictograms, and their component parts (or radicals) can have their own meaning. Many kanji can be read with both a Japanese pronunciation (kun yomi) and a Chinese pronunciation (on yomi), depending upon the context.

Hiragana

Hiragana is a syllabic script in which each character represents the sound of a syllable. This was not always the case. Hiragana was once a script used only by women, derived from the kanji, and having several different characters representing a single syllable. The simplified one-to-one syllable correspondence was finalised as late as 1946.

Katakana

Katakana is also a syllabic script, originally considered “men’s writing.” It is based on characters that were used by Buddhist monks as an aid to correct pronunciation of Chinese texts.

Today katakana is used mainly to write non-Chinese loan words, onomatopoeic words, foreign names, telegrams and for emphasis (the equivalent of bold, italic or upper case text in English). Prior to the 20^thcentury many foreign words (especially Portuguese) were actually written in kanji.²

Why would most modern Japanese people be more familiar with the katakana way of writing Reiki? The answer is that, although the practice of Usui Reiki Ryoho became quite popular in parts of Japan before World War 2, such practices declined after the war, only surviving in isolated locations, and the term Reiki slipped out of use.

In the 1980s, when people such as Mieko Mitsui, a student of one of Hawayo Takata’s Master students, Barbara Ray, traveled to Japan to research the roots of Reiki practice, they found few people who had even heard of Reiki healing.³

As people from the West began to teach Reiki practice in Japan, some students did not even recognise the term Reiki as being Japanese, so it became written as an imported term, using the phonetic characters re, i, and ki in katakana. An article about Reiki practice in a Japanese magazine from 1986 has an ad for Barbara Ray’s book, with Reiki written in large katakana and romaji (Western letters) rather than kanji (below left).

Meanwhile, even some Japanese Reiki practitioners in that bastion of Usui Reiki Ryoho, the Gakkai,* were now using modern kanji to write the term Reiki, as can be seen in Japanese copies of their handbook, which was published in the mid-1970s (below right).

PART TWO of Colin’s article discusses how the term Reiki was written in the time of Mikao Usui, and specific points about the meaning of the kanji. There you will also find a pdf version you can print out and use for yourself and your students.

*The Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (Usui Reiki Healing Method Society) was originally set up by some of Usui’s students shortly after his death in 1926 (some sources say that it was set up by Mikao Usui himself in 1922), with the aim of preserving the practice Usui Reiki Ryoho. The first few Chairpersons of this society were naval officers. The Gakkai went underground during the post World War 2 clamp down on traditional oriental healing methods and militaristic/nationalistic organisations. The Gakkai has remained hidden and, although there are still some branches in existence, it is not known exactly how many members there are. It functions as a closed society, only accepting family members. Other Japanese Reiki practitioners are no longer allowed to join. Most members are very old, and unless younger practitioners join, the Gakkai could die out in the not too distant future.

References

1. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese.htm

2. https://www.csun.edu/~bashforth/301_PDF/301_P_P/EnglishLoanWordsJapanese.pdf

3. http://www.aetw.org/reiki_1986_article.htm Translation of the 1986 Japanese Twilight Magazine Reiki article, a page from which is shown above.

Thank you to Paul Selk for his fact-checking assistance.

RELATED READING:
Reiki Is Not a Word
What Does the Reiki Kanji Really Mean?

Are you part of our Reiki, Medicine and Self-Care community on Facebook? Join our daily conversations about Reiki practice and communication to broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, and strengthen your communication skills.

Please click here to to receive the blog in your inbox each weekend. You can unsubscribe instantly if you change your mind, and of course I would never share your information with anyone, any time, any way.

GUEST BLOGGER Nancie Teresa Biver, aka Gypsy Woman, is a Second degree Reiki student practicing since 2003. When she emailed her thanks for my interview with Takata-trained Reiki master Paul David Mitchell, I invited her to share her thoughtful comments with you. –

I have spent the past nine months in Europe on a journey that started in New Orleans. When many areas of my life fell away all at once, I said to Elizabeth Ohmer Pellegrin, my friend and Reiki teacher, “Maybe I should just go to Europe.”

Details began to unfold even as my words hung in the air, and I arranged to visit Reiki masters Elizabeth knows in Germany.

I came to Germany for a month to expand myself and my life, to grow and have new experiences. And to heal.

The month came and left, but I am still here, based near Hamburg, exploring Germany and the Netherlands, connecting with Reiki masters along the way.

I value Paul Mitchell as a leader of our practice, and was excited to see Pamela’s interview with him listed on her Reiki, Medicine and Self-care Facebook page.  I was particularly interested to hear his perspective on Catholicism and Reiki.

Hearing Paul speak was so inviting. His tone and careful manner of expression felt very nurturing. I appreciate how he talks about his life and Reiki without binding his experiences to anyone else’s.

As Paul shared his experiences with Takata and with Reiki and the Catholic church, I never felt that he was imposing his ideas on me. His discernment and manner in simply sharing his Reiki stories taught me more than any lecture could.

I loved hearing his personal story, how practicing Reiki led him back to his Catholic religion, and his reminder that continued daily practice is a key to letting our ourselves unfold. No drama, just what’s there today, and what is unfolding.

Paul’s generous sharing set me remembering my own Catholic roots, left behind years ago, and a sadness there, a sense of something lost. I am paying attention to that.

I had never heard the Reiki Precepts described as tools for happiness before. I remember Paul made a comment to the effect that people tend to be happy when they act in accordance with the Precepts.

That comment put my recent insights about wanting to be more grateful in a new context. I laughed to think of my tendency to be grouchy instead of grateful — definitely not happy then! I saw how practical it is to be grateful instead, and a happier experience for me!

I love Paul’s commitment to the traditions and to oral history. Listening to the interview brought me back to how good it had felt to be in a room of students learning First degree Reiki and talking about Reiki. I noticed that Reiki community, even the virtual kind, still felt that good!

I’ve been considering Pamela’s comments about the need to make information that supports Takata’s teachings accessible to the public, and how that doesn’t violate the oral tradition of teaching. I sense there is a balance, supporting and nurturing our oral roots while creating an information base to engage a culture that readily reaches for information.

The interview made me feel good about my commitment to Reiki practice, and to giving myself daily treatments. Paul’s story of Reiki “leading him back to Catholicism” was a reminder that we each have a path, unfolding and growing like a seed. Practicing Reiki is one way to nourish that seed.

Paul reminded us that the future of Reiki is in our hands. The personal experience of giving daily treatments and sharing Reiki with others connects us. We’re not alone out there. And in that I feel a real love and sweetness.

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Didn’t hear my conversation with Paul? No worries, I have a SPECIAL GIFT for you! The inspiration people expressed in the many thank-yous I received after the interview moved me to offer the recording to the community as a gift when you sign up for my free monthly ReikiUpdate e-newsletter (if you are already signed up, you will not receive duplicates). Click here now to receive the link where you can download the recording.

Mrs. Takata frequently expressed her vision that Reiki practice become “as common as aspirin.” What better way to make that happen than communicating effectively with doctors and health care administrators? There are many ways I can help you do that, through blog articles, the Communicating Reiki and Introduction to Medical Reiki recorded webinars, and the in-person Medical Reiki weekend seminar in Barbados and 4-day intensives in New York City and Atlanta. Click here for more information.

Want to receive the weekly blog posts in your inbox? You can. Click here.

In January’s ReikiUpdate I asked, “How I can help?” What I had in mind was what classes and content would help you with your Reiki practice.

What I received was much more profound. I have never been so grateful that I didn’t communicate clearly!

Many of you opened your hearts to share your dreams, your frustrations, your doubts, and the wishlists for your lives. I was deeply touched by the outpouring, and moved by your confidence that, as a spiritual healing practice, Reiki can help us accomplish our life goals.

Reiki healing practice requires practice

The key word, of course, is practice.

Reiki healing is not magical, although it can seem that way. If we really want our Reiki practice to change our lives, and we want to stabilize that transformation, we need to do our part — we need to actually practice.

As with anything else, the best results come with consistent practice.

When asked about daily self -treatment, one practitioner responded, “off and on.” Other than hands go off and on as we proceed with our hand to body placements, that’s really a NO.

Another practitioner said she practiced regular self-treatment “most of the time.” What’s regular about “most of the time?”

There’s no con in consistent

We don’t sleep “most nights,” nor do we eat “most days.” The only way to keep from conning ourselves is to be consistent in our efforts.

Architects don’t just dream of buildings; they draw the plans that contractors then build.

We build our dreams through daily practice. Daily, as in every day. Unfailingly.

(We don’t have to be rigid. It’s okay if our Reiki practice is shorter some days than others, as long as it happens and tomorrow we’re back to a full practice.)

More off or more on?

When we settle for off-and-on, “on” tends to be only when we’ve hit a rough patch. Then just as our balanced state is stabilizing, and our daily practice is about to install a level of steadiness in our lives that we never imagined, our Reiki practice is off again.

When our practice is as important to us as sleep, when we crave the nourishment we receive from practice as much as we crave food, we have connected with the power to transform our lives.

The power to transform our understanding and our lives is ever-present; our daily practice is the vehicle it needs to manifest.

How can I help?

Do you have a question about practice that is keeping you from practicing? I want to help you. Here are links that discuss the questions I’m asked most often:

Do you have doubts?

Do you have how-to questions about daily practice?

Would you like to communicate Reiki with more confidence?

Are there other questions I can help you with here? Please leave them as a comment below. If you are reading this in your inbox, click here and then scroll down to the comment section.

If you don’t receive my free monthly ReikiUpdate and would like to, sign up here.

Will we meet soon in Barbados, San Juan, or Atlanta?

Pretty bows pictured above are available on Etsy.

Trying to capture Reiki

Is like grabbing water

In your hand.

Yet Reiki captures the fortunate ones

Who practice diligently;

Captures them completely,

And sets them free.

Related reading:
With Gratitude, Work Diligently