Thursday, September 30th, 2010
A wonderful group of Reiki II practitioners is coming together on the above dates.
It will be a powerful and beautiful experience, I hope to see you there…
Contact me: reiki@rebeccahutley.com to talk more or book.
Cost: £350
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
The most obvious and deeply important aspect of how I am now practicing and teaching Reiki, relates to connection to the intuition. One of the most profound and life-changing ways in which Reiki has pervaded my Being has been the slow but steady emergence of my ability to hear and act upon my intuition.
My view of the Reiki attunement today is that as you send out the intent to be a channel for Reiki by asking for and being present at an attunement, you are asking to become aligned to the Universal Flow of Life. The intense over-emphasis that our society has placed on the mind, the intellect and the idea of civilisation through the forms of the modern world, it’s thought structures and its beliefs has knocked us out of the Universal flow to a large extent. We may observe an object or a place of beauty and have a glimmer of that connection to Flow or we may smell wood-smoke and feel unexpectedly serene for a moment, but today this is all that many people can hope to experience of their absolute connection to Nature, to their surroundings, to their planet and to each other.
The Reiki attunement, whether it comes from the potent energetic source of the symbols or from merely the mental desire to know the truth of connection once more, floods the Being with the ‘One-ness’ that is our true human state. In most cases, the full experience of this cannot happen instantly as the shock to our fragile minds and bodies would be too great. So, we have three attunements with a gap of at least 21 days between each one for the experience to settle. In traditional Reiki, the practitioner was attuned regularly on meeting up with their Reiki Master as each time this happened the desire for Universal alignment created a deeper and deeper cleansing of all thought-forms and structures which stood in the way. Each time you are attuned, an aspect of that which does not serve you is washed away.
In my experience, this washing away clears the mind and creates more silence for you to hear once again the Universal knowing that beats at the very heart of the Reiki form. Slowly, you begin to know how to act without having to think about it, moving the centre of personal action away from the mind towards the heart. This increase in intuitive capacity is the core gift of Reiki, it leads us into an ever-deeper ability to heal which is reflected in every aspect of our lives, turning the art of Reiki healing into a Way of Life and the Journey home to your True Self.
I have therefore come to see a very important part of my role as Reiki Master Teacher as one which supports each practitioner in their path towards feeling and hearing their intuition. I teach the Reiki hand positions although I have vastly simplified them and place a major emphasis on the practitioner’s ability to ‘feel’ the Reiki and be intuitively guided when giving a treatment. By practicing the healing form in this way, I believe they are able to cultivate their own intuitive abilities and bring them into their own lives.
Dr Usui had no hand positions and always taught Reiki as an intuitive practice. I am drawn towards this form as I feel that the ‘healing’ form of Reiki is giving way to a much greater need in today’s evolving consciousness for Reiki as a ‘Way’ of living. I think it may be time for Reiki to become a much wider practice and one way we can do this is to support the intuitive capabilities of all who come to Reiki.
Monday, September 20th, 2010
For a long time now, I have been hearing from those who have been doing Reiki over the last ten years that they feel it is not relevant to the current wave of consciousness. I myself have also had times of feeling despondent and unmotivated to teach or practice Reiki.
I then felt drawn to explore traditional Reiki as Dr Usui had first practiced it and found so many of my own conclusions about the form there in the early teachings. I became certain that Reiki as it is taught today may have begun to lose its relevance but that if we could find what is at the Heart of Reiki we could discover its own evolving consciousness. By looking at its early creation and combining this with the experiences we have had throughout its use I felt that there we would find a transformation of the form which would be more relevant today.
So I set myself the task of re-writing my Reiki manuals. The most revealing aspect of doing this was how easy it was. I realised that over the last 12 years I had already begun to teach and practice in a way which reflected my own realisations within Reiki over that time and that it had taken on a very different feel from those first manuals.
In the following ‘Heart of Reiki’ articles, I am going to explore the different aspects of how Reiki has changed in my own journey and spend some time looking deeper into its core, allowing the consciousness of Reiki to evolve through my writing…
Monday, September 20th, 2010
“Come to the edge, he said.
They said; We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said. They came.
He pushed them and they flew.” Guillaume Apollinaire
To all those of you teetering on the edge, ready to fly…
I am in Brighton 23 & 24 November 2010.
Reiki Master Teacher
23 & 24th November. 9am-2pm. £350
Reiki II
23rd November. 3-8pm. £125
See you there…
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Well, I don’t know how it happened but spontaneously I found myself last night in our little mobile home in the heart of the woods with the lights off and one candle burning brightly, attuning my Daughter Jasmin to Reiki I.
She had woken up that morning and not stopped asking for the attunement all day. She had, at the age of 7 decided it was time. This is the age when Rudolf Steiner believed a child had become its own ‘self’ and whilst growing adult teeth is also growing a perception about their place in the world and for Jasmin this meant time for Reiki. This type of healing has been in her life since conception but the need to explore it as a form had never occurred to her before now. Maybe she was just copying mummy but she had never really done this before and I think her being knew it was going into the second 7 year cycle of her life, where she would begin to confront the duality of her human existence. This interests me because she is part of a new consciousness, the children of parents who began to pick apart the truth of their own existence seeing the light of a greater consciousness ahead of them. How will her life differ, will she need to experience the ‘who you are not’ to experience ‘who you are’ in the same way as we did? I think not, this generation have absorbed the clearance their parents have done and will take this and the practices handed down to them through their life.
The growth of the child and of the greater consciousness will be wonderful to watch and will be, as usual enlightening for the parents. As I write this I can feel myself spending more time with children, helping them to shine into their futures and at the same time letting them help me. This symbiotic relationship between children and adults must be the way forward, surely gone are the days of the adults thinking they know all. The need for boundaries and structure for children is all the more important today, don’t get me wrong but within the framework of development there is also the need for recognising that they may have a greater light to shine than ours and we must give them the space to do this.
A way in which this was reflected after Jasmin’s attunement was that once she had rested for a short while, she instantly became very alert and began to place her little hands as hot as irons onto my back just where it was at that time quite aching. Her hands stayed there for a long while until the aching subsided and then she moved them. She was totally and intuitively tuned into the Reiki and my body. She was practicing what I now know after research, was the Reiki practiced and taught by Dr Usui. Without set hand positions, the Reiki practitioner worked intuitively over and on the body. I think watching Jasmin work like this without being told anything intellectually has strengthened my feeling that it is time to begin to practice and teach Reiki in this way. I can feel that times are changing and it may be wise to let go of the ‘western’ style Reiki that has until now served all who have come into contact with it and go deeper into the heart of Reiki.
With this in mind I will begin to explore the ‘Heart of Reiki’ as I believe it will become a new way to practice, focusing very strongly on the intuitive not only in healing but as a ‘way’ of being, a ‘way’ of life.
When I started writing none of this was in my awareness. For me, writing has become a flow of inspiration and such a wonderful creative way to access the truth…maybe this will be part of the programme…
Love you all. Rx
Thursday, September 16th, 2010
Now that I am travelling to Cambridge every month from the Dordogne, I will be holding Reiki I, II and Master Training workshops in central Cambridge. Some of these will be group workshops but if you would like to explore a one-to-one training, please get in touch.
I will also be holding treatments of 1.5 hours which include time to discuss history and intent before the treatment and discussion and relaxation afterwards.
25th September, Reiki Treatments between 10.00am - 2.30pm.
Please contact me to book a treatment or to talk more about Reiki:
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
I will be in Cambridge on 25th September
REIKI HEALING available from 10am - 2.30 pm
1.5 hour session £30
PLEASE CONTACT ME: reiki@rebeccahutley.com
With Love
Rebecca
Monday, September 13th, 2010
The last year has been a pleasant and enlightening interlude during which I have written new Reiki manuals from the heart of my own experiences over the last 12 years. Through this process I have come to realise that Reiki is a life journey home to your True Being, reflecting the original wisdom of Dr. Usui. I look forward to seeing you all again to continue…
I will be holding Reiki workshops in the UK (Worthing, Brighton & Cambridge), Reiki Holidays in the Dordogne where I live (please see the links to the right about the Domaine de Mazieras). I have also launched a Retreat company Morocco Retreats with my sister, check out the site www.moroccoretreats.wordpress.com
FORTHCOMING DATES:
UK
REIKI II - 24 September 2010
Worthing (10-3) £125
REIKI MASTERS – 24 November 2010
Brighton/Worthing (10-4) £350
MARRAKECH
Goddess Retreat
3-6 February 2011
www.moroccoretreats.wordpress.com
DORDOGNE
See the links to the right for details of the Domaine de Mazieras and how to get there
REIKI I - 8 & 9 January 2011
£95
REIKI II – 22 & 23 January 2011
£125
REIKI MASTERS – 26 & 27 February 2011
£350
For information on flights and accommodation for the Dordogne or further details about any of these dates please contact me: reiki@rebeccahutley.com
Anyone who has trained with me and would like to receive an e-copy of the new Reiki I and II manuals please get in touch…
Monday, September 13th, 2010
Over the past ten years, the world of Western Reiki has undergone rapid change. In fact, not since Iris Ishikuro disobeyed Mrs Takata by making the Master Level commonly available has anything of the like happened (Mrs Takata had decreed US $10,000 to be the going rate for the course, thus putting it out of most people’s reach).
While there are several plausible reasons for this change - the advent of the Web, a growing number of teachers etc. - the principal cause is almost certainly the rediscovery of Reiki’s Japanese heritage. This has led many practitioners to question much that was previously taken as ‘gospel’, and delve more deeply into a practice they soon learnt was not just a healing system, but also a way of life.
The Problem with Western Reiki
The Reiki almost everyone practices in the West was passed on - in one way or another - from Mrs Takata (a student of Dr Hayashi who, in turn, was a student of Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki). Her style of Reiki has proven a great success and helped millions of people around the world. This is indisputable.
But is it true to Usui’s original system of Reiki? And, more importantly, is it as effective as what Usui originally taught?
The answer, I believe, is ‘no’, and the reason is that Mrs Takata focused too much on the healing component of Reiki. For her Reiki was - at least primarily - a hands-on healing technique; while for Mikao Usui it was something much grander: a path to Enlightenment.
Before I elaborate on this point, it should be noted that the difference in emphasis is not surprising given the way Mrs Takata and Mikao Usui found Reiki. Mikao Usui arrived at Reiki after a life of meditation, martial arts and (Tendai) Buddhism; Mrs Takata found it after she sought a solution to several life threatening health problems.
As a result, Usui saw Reiki in the context of Buddhism (and hence, Enlightenment); and Mrs Takata saw Reiki in the context of healing. It is therefore only to be expected that the way they taught Reiki differed substantially.
The Five Building Blocks of Reiki
Reiki, as taught by Usui, consisted of five principal parts:
All five parts are seen to work symbiotically together: one part strengthening the other in a bid - ultimately - to find Enlightenment.
In Western Reiki (as taught by Mrs Takata) many of the five components are either lost or greatly weakened. They all exist, sure, but the emphasis - as we have explained - is on the healing. Everything else is useful only insomuch as it helps this.
The Quest for Enlightenment
Since Reiki, for Usui, was not principally about healing (in fact, he only bothered teaching hands on healing in the last few years of his life!), then it is worth examining how it fits in with the goal of Enlightenment . In particular, it is useful to re-examine the five building blocks of Reiki to see how traditional Usui Reiki differs in emphasis from that handed down by Mrs Takata.
The Attunements
The attunements are for the most part used in a similar way in both Western and Japanese Reiki. Their purpose is to connect the aspiring practitioner to Reiki energy. The principal difference is that in Japanese Reiki the attunements (reiju) are not a one off thing. Rather, they are performed over and over again to help maintain one’s connection to the Reiki energy.
In fact, in Usui’s time, it was even common practice to perform reijus each time Reiki practitioners met as a group.
Healing
As we have already said, healing for Usui was not so much an end in itself as a path to Enlightenment. Through healing you entered into a deep meditative state that led to a closer connection with the true Self.
That is not to say that the healing component wasn’t valued. After all, Usui himself spent much time healing people (sometimes even doing so for days on end - for instance after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake). The point is simply that healing was of secondary importance. It was the spiritual state of an individual that truly mattered.
Not surprisingly, Japanese healing sessions tend to be much more intuitive as a result, since the emphasis on the meditative element makes them less ‘heady’ than their Western equivalent.
As a rule, there are no set positions, with a practitioner moving intuitively from one place to the next (unlike the method Mrs Takata taught which involves students using a set of fixed hand positions).
Mantras and Symbols
In Western Reiki, the mantras and symbols are primarily used to strengthen healing. If the practitioner feels that more energy is needed on a certain part of a patient’s body, for instance, the Power Symbol can be drawn to intensify the Reiki energy. The mantras and symbols are generally used together - the mantras being repeated after the symbols are drawn.
In Japanese Reiki the symbols have a role of lesser importance. Indeed, the best way to describe them - according to Frans Stiene - would be something like ‘training wheels’. While a beginner practitioner has a less reliable (or weaker) connection to the Reiki energy they will be used; but as soon as the practitioner has learnt to embody the energy of the symbols they will be let go of.
Furthermore, the symbols are used more for the practitioner’s sake than the client’s. They are not drawn on the client so that he or she can receive ‘more energy’. Rather, they are drawn by the practitioner so that she, herself, can better embody their energy.
Another key difference between the two Reiki systems is that in Japanese Reiki the mantras are often used on their own. They are generally chanted with the aim of strengthening certain energy centres (for instance the CKR mantra - that is pronounced slightly differently to normal - bolsters the hara, or second chakra).
Students will spend months - maybe even years - chanting these mantras, working their way from one to the next only when their teacher deems them ready for the next one.
Traditional Meditation Techniques
As a rule, traditional Western Reiki neglects meditation practice. Sometimes meditation techniques involving the visualization of the Reiki symbols are taught, and students are usually encouraged to be in a meditative state when practising Reiki; but systematic meditation is seldom part of Western Reiki.
For Usui, on the contrary, meditation was a genuine cornerstone upon which Reiki developed. Using particular meditation techniques - in particular breathing into the hara - students learnt to focus their mind, strengthen their energy and merge with the true Self.
Since Reiki - as we have said - was for Usui a path to Enlightenment, then moving more deeply within oneself was the most important thing one could do. As such, it is hardly surprising that Usui taught meditation for many years before teaching the healing component of Reiki.
Healing the body is great, for sure; but healing the mind (through meditation) is more important still.
Reiki Precepts
The Reiki precepts are taught in both Western and Japanese Reiki and, to some extent, are important to both. The main difference between the two systems is how they are used.
While in Western Reiki the precepts are often understood on an intellectual level, Japanese Reiki aims to understand them in a more intuitive, non-rational way. Practitioners meditate on them, trying to understand with the ‘gut’, not the head. In this way, it is hoped, they can more fully embody the principles (in both actions and spirit).
When the principles are understood with the head alone, students will generally find that they do not greatly influence their actions.
Conclusion
Due to the multiple developmental influences on Western Reiki - for instance, Indian, Tibetan and Egyptian to name just a few - it is impossible to make any statements that are valid for all of its forms.
That said, it is nevertheless true that on the whole, Japanese Reiki is principally a path to Enlightenment, while Western Reiki is a path to healing. This, it could be argued, is the main difference between the two systems.
(Note: This discussion should be seen as a general one. In other words, as accurate as it will often prove to be, many Reiki practitioners and systems will not conform to the ‘norm’.)
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Jeremy O’Carroll is a traditional Usui / Shamballa Reiki Master. He has studied Reiki in India, Thailand and Australia and is a registered Master Teacher at the ARC (Australian Reiki Connection). He is the founder of the Om Reiki Centre in Daylesford (Victoria), Australia.
If you wish to contact him, please write to info@om-reiki.com.au or visit the Om Reiki Centre website at http://www.om-reiki.com.au Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_O’Carroll |
Sunday, September 12th, 2010
This summer, I came to some realisations about dependency. How it holds you back and also how rife it is in today’s society. Dependency on people, structures, money, material objects, the list is endless it seems.
I came to realise that dependency is a cruel sword which sits tucked neatly under your arm. It has been there right from the start, given to you in early childhood. Its been there so long that you can’t really feel it even as it cuts into you slowly. You’ve become so used to it that it becomes a part of you. And then, after many years of nagging pain, you may even come to acknowledge it and you rejoice at this great revelation and see it as a real step that you’ve taken. But, you leave it there because its quite another thing to remove it, lay it down and walk away. This is because it feels so familiar to you that laying it down would create a deep sense of loss. This is totally ridiculous of course, it being an obvious cumbersome burden to you, but by then it has played such a large part in who you have become.
All I know is that for true healing to occur, the sword of dependency must be laid down. Be aware however, that those who gave it to you may not be so happy to see it go. You are not alone in your dependency and it will take great strength to remove something from your life that is still so much a part of the people and society around you.
© Reiki :: Rebecca Hutley - Reiki Workshops UK Brighton Worthing Cambridge Holidays Healing Therapy Yoga Meditation Retreats - Dordogne Perigord South West France Marrakech Morocco
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