Healing the World

With all the stuff in the media these days on the looming environmental catastrophe that we are all facing, I thought it might be worthwhile reflecting on this. As a former member of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth and at one time being quite politically active in the arena of Green issues and politics it is a subject that has aroused my passions over the years. No longer being the ‘angry young man’ that I used to be my position on the environment has changed since I came to Reiki and Reiki Jin Kei do and so I thought I might share some views:

This is a quote from Guatama Siddhartha - the Historical Buddha which is rather appropriate for all practitioners of Reiki and those concerned with the wider environmental consequences of humanities actions:

"Those who concentrate entirely upon helping the world cannot escape from among the horned ones."

The question that arises for me is: does the world really need healing? Is this not an error of perception? The "horned ones" that the Buddha is referring to here are your own inner demons; all of those negative qualities as manifestations of karma that lead us through our lives like an ox pulling a cart. If your efforts are always focused outwards on the task of helping others and the world at large and trying to make the world a better place, you will never achieve nirvana and you will never accomplish your task. Even though you may be making good karma for yourself, which will result in a happier and easier existence for yourself in the here and now, you cannot achieve enlightenment as long as you create any sort of karma - whether it be good or bad (good and bad being only relative, subjective terms in any case).

This is why there is such a strong emphasis in Reiki on self-treatment. You are the reason that you should practice Reiki. If you heal yourself (get rid of your karma), you will then be much better placed to really help others in the way that is best for them. It has been said by other Reiki Masters that the only reason for working with Reiki on someone else is so that you have the opportunity of benefiting from the practice yourself. This is true in a sense, and this is why we should engage in our Six Point Meditation (a Reiki Jin Kei Do practice) or other mindfulness method whenever we give a treatment to someone else. We meditate for our own benefit, yet in engaging in this meditation we are removing ourselves so much more from active participation in the healing process, that the recipient then gets a much better treatment as the energy is allowed to flow uninhibited by the ego and thoughts of the Reiki practitioner. There is a symbiotic relationship between actively pursuing your own spiritual path and the benefit that is accrued by others due to this, and this process of meditating whilst giving a treatment to others is a perfect example of this.

In terms of the environment and the practice of some of sending Reiki to the Earth to effect healing, of course this is an entirely compassionate and worthwhile act. However, I think that there is a need to reflect on where the real problem is. It is not with the Earth. The Earth is more than capable of regulating itself and healing itself and is far from the point of no return. The problem is actually with humanity. We are the cause of whatever environmental problems the Earth now faces (in fact the Earth is not facing any environmental problems – we are) and surely it therefore makes a lot more sense to send Reiki to the cause – to the problem: us! Therefore there is a more urgent need to work on ourselves. If we believe that the Earth needs healing, then we need to fix the problem and that is within each one of us. Fix us first and the Earth stops suffering. If we don’t fix us first of course, there is a good chance that the Earth will deal with us in its own way eventually and our global karma will come back to haunt us.

In the end, if everyone spent time working on themselves instead of worrying about what is external to them, then there would be no-one and nothing "out there" that needed healing.

Given all of this, it is staggering to find that so many people who come to Reiki hardly ever work on themselves and yet are quite happy to put the time in to working on others and sending Reiki to various good causes and situations. To do so is worthwhile but this is to trivialize Reiki. It is not possible to even begin to get close to the potential benefits of Reiki in your life and that of others by using Reiki merely as a complementary therapy. Of course it is good to work on others and help them in times of need and there is not enough of this going on in the world. If a plant needs watering; water it, but try to raise as little thought for the wellbeing of your clients as you would for a plant that needs watering. You will only get in the way of the healing process. This is often difficult, and that is why you should meditate when giving a treatment. If your mind is engaged in a mindfulness activity, it’s not engaged in worrying about the wellbeing of your client - your concern for them in this context will inhibit their chances of gaining fully what they need from the application of your Reiki hands.

Even if you have no interest in achieving enlightenment – the gaining of which is possible simply by working with the Reiki Jin Kei Do system if you have been taught it - you should still be selfish in your use of Reiki as regards who is the priority in your practice. You are! Once you realize this, then you will find that you really can make a difference to others and the world at large simply because your ego will wither in the light of compassion that is a manifestation of continued use of Reiki in your own life.

Gossamer of the Mind

I am often asked about my opinion, both personally and from a Reiki perspective on the practice of "channeling". I should emphasize however at the outset, as this is often a controversial issue that this blog is ‘A Personal Journey’ and in no way represents an official view of the lineage on the matter. Reiki Jin Kei Do does not include any channeled material of course and for me this is one of its strengths (or at least, the absence of a weakness). Individual Masters however have their own views on the issue and there are many Reiki Masters and practitioners who see the practice of channeling as an entirely helpful method.

Reiki is a complete system in and of itself and does not need any extraneous material - channeled or otherwise to improve it or enhance it. When all the tools for the practice of Reiki are present, as they are within Reiki Jin Kei Do, then what is achieved or what is benefited in any way by a reliance on or use of channeling? The answer is that nothing is benefitted at all.

As to channeling in a wider context; one has to ask the question "Why channel?" The answer seems to be to help oneself and others on their spiritual journey through life. A laudable aim for sure. But this then begs the question; "What is a spiritual journey?" Very difficult to define simply, but one could say from a Christian perspective that it would be to realise one's connection to God; one's own innate Christ Consciousness if you will, or from a Buddhist perspective, to achieve Enlightenment, or realize your Buddha Nature. Realization of Cosmic Consciousness would be another, non-religious way of describing it. How does channeling spirit guides, ascended masters, Reiki guides, devas and the like help in this? I can't see that it does. If a Reiki practitioner engages fully with the Reiki method and is patient with themselves, over time the goal of practice can be achieved. There are no short cuts and no lessons can be avoided.

Assuming that channelers are indeed talking or listening to entities, and following their guidance, is this not a total abdication of responsibility for one's own spiritual journey? It becomes very easy to lay blame elsewhere, when things don't go according to plan or expectation. This happens quite a lot it seems. Once people can take responsibility for their own journey without having to rely on advice from spiritual guides they will then I feel start to make some real progress.

I would also question the wisdom of following advice obtained in this way purely from the point of accuracy regardless of where this advice might lead you. If these entities are, as is frequently claimed, speaking from the perspective of their connection to the Infinite, why is it that they so often say things in direct contradiction of the words of entities "channeled" by others? This happens so often. To give one example in the context of Reiki:

This is a quote from Diane Stein taken from ‘Essential Reiki’:

"Suzanne Wagners channeling tape claims that all the versions of the …………. (Distant symbol) we have in the West are incorrect. When asked how to find the correct symbol, the Reiki guides...said it didn't matter. When asked what to do, the answer was to 'pick one - we fix".
(Stein 1996, pp108)

This is a quote from Kathleen Milner taken from ‘Reiki and Other Rays of Touch Healing:

"When I was shown the Seichem symbols, I saw that they were identical to the Reiki symbols, only slanted... What really caught my eye was a symbol that Sai Baba had told me that Takata had made up. Sai Baba told me that ……. (Distant symbol) was a combination of Hawaiian shamanism and Buddhism."
(Milner, 1995, pp17)

Here is the problem with this particular example: Firstly, how can Mrs. Takata have made up a symbol that is also available in other Reiki lineages other than her own and was used by her own Reiki Master and his before him? Secondly, Diane Stein's Reiki guides acknowledge the existence of the Distant symbol as a genuine Reiki symbol, but say that it is being drawn the wrong way...whilst Milner’s guides claim that it is made up from, or out of a combination of two very different spiritual traditions – so who's advice from the inner planes is correct? The answer is of course, neither. The symbol was not made up by Mrs Takata and it is not being drawn the wrong way.

...and why don't all those houses fall down, volcanoes erupt, earthquakes happen, dark haired men walk into the person's life? The usual all purpose get-out used by channelers is generally of the "The energies of the Earth/Cosmos/surrounding this event changed and so the (insert) didn't need to happen." It's all very convenient I'm afraid. But the upshot is that channelers get things wrong so often.

I don't dispute the presence of spiritual guides or spiritual energies in all of our lives, what I dispute are whether channelers are actually channeling anything other than their own imaginations. There is a tendency in the West to assume that something like channeling is fairly easy and that anyone can do it. From some non-Western spiritual traditions it is acknowledged that the art of hearing guides or tapping into spiritual energies to guide us is possible, but there are few that can do it. It takes a highly realized being to do this in any pure or certain way. Channeling is not like listening to one's own 'inner knowing' or intuition either. Intuition comes from within whilst the claimed source for channelers is from without (though I suspect that it is actually largely from within also, but the confusion over source suggests a possible confusion over content also).

To illustrate this further; I recently came across a book called "Working with Your Chakras". The author had "channeled" information about several "new" chakras. If in reality these "new" chakras do indeed exist, why is it that all of the New Age press is not filled with excited discussion about these "new" chakras by those sensitive to the energies of the chakras, of which there are many? The answer is simple: no-one is picking up on their energies because they don't exist. I don’t doubt the integrity of the author in presenting this information, what I doubt is the veracity of the material.

Sorry to those readers of this blog who might be into channeling! But that is my penny’s worth on this particular subject…

Genesis

Getting away from the Reiki Jin Kei Do book for a moment, I wanted to post something that covers one of my other great loves: art. I am a prolific artist when I can find the time to engage in it fully, though at this point in time too many other things are dominating my life, not the least of which is promoting the RJKD book and doing research for the next lineage book. As a brief diversion from my thoughts on Reiki and the book and also to give me an excuse to put up another picture (!), I thought it might be a good idea to reprint a short article that I wrote for the UK Reiki Federation magazine a while ago. The article was written to accompany the cover drawing that I had contributed for the same issue (Winter 2005) which is reprinted here.

As a practicing artist and Reiki Master I have always been interested in the interface between my own expressive work and the way that this seems to me to be a powerful manifestation of the inherent creativity of the Universal Energy Field, and the expression of this same energy through the Reiki system. Both use the hands of course, but they also use the mind, and it is only really in the balancing of one’s own energetic nature and bringing synchronicity to both the intuitive and intellectual aspects of being that effective art can take place in a meaningful way. This in essence is what Reiki does and artistic endeavour is thus, for me at least, another way of engaging with the UEF. Not all artists ‘do’ Reiki of course, but Reiki does add another dimension to the practice of art, and in many traditions this is seen very much as a meditative process that enables the artist to further their own spiritual journey through engaging in a deeply penetrative exploration of the physical and metaphysical worlds through the creative act.

One of my artist heroes is the American Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko, who during the 1950’s painted a series of stunningly beautiful pictures that tapped deeply into the subconscious/spiritual aspects of what it is to be human. Some of these were painted for a chapel, but later ended up in the original Tate Gallery in London, where I recall spending many hours in front of them as an18 or 19 year old art student. Sitting and contemplating these paintings was possibly my first consciously spiritual experience, and as such they had, and still do exert, a massive influence over me and my work as an artist. To express spiritual transcendence simply through the medium of a field of pure colour is an accomplishment that defies understanding in a rational sense. So ‘Genesis’ – the image reproduced here, is very much indebted to the work of Rothko and the way that he was able to open the door to the infinite through his formal and visual skills as an artist.

In ‘Genesis’ I wanted to explore more fully the Reiki symbols through the medium of painting and drawing, and the image reproduced here is one of the results of this process. It is based on the Power Symbol, and as we know this symbol has many hidden depths along with its more apparent uses and attributes. In this sense it reveals and conceals at the same time. It normally has a clear visual form that is unmistakable but it can take a great deal of effort to uncover and understand all of its qualities and meanings. In the image I have tried to suggest this aspect by in part showing and in part hiding the elements of the symbol – its look.

More than this however I am mindful of the story of Usui’s satori experience on Mt Kurama, and the beautiful description that has been given (and seems to be rarely mentioned these days) of his seeing ‘millions of little bubbles in all the colours of the rainbow’. This seems to me to suggest the manifestation of ‘tigle’ (Bindu in Hindi), which occurs during deep meditation on energy centres from the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition. The image then is an effort to literally transcribe this experience into a concrete visual form.

‘Genesis’ first appeared in the Lucis Trust exhibition ‘In the Tracks of Hercules’ and is one of a series of pictures that I have been working on over the last year or so. The collection will hopefully form an exhibition on the theme of Reiki for some time at the start of 2007.

World Domination!

Well, not exactly world domination, nor even an attempt at such, but a real attempt to spread the teachings of Reiki Jin Kei Do as far and wide as possible.

Now, I love this lineage and the teachings that it contains. I have learnt much about myself and other people and about life as a consequence of engaging with these teachings. I have also seen many others that have attended my Reiki classes gain great benefit from these same teachings and more than this, there are those whom my students have been able to help through working as highly competent and professional practitioners of Reiki Therapeutics.

Given this, I think that it is a good idea to relay the opportunity to learn the method of RJKD to as many people around the world as possible. There is no-one that could not improve not only their own lives but the lives of those with whom they come into contact through taking on board the methods and philosophy of this beautiful and very special lineage.

One of the ambitions for the Reiki Jin Kei Do book therefore was to make the teachings not only clear through the text that I put together, but also provide an avenue for readers to learn the methods themselves. This is why at the back of the book there is a Directory of Masters. The idea for the Directory was in place before I had any idea what the book itself was going to cover. The Directory was a prime motivation for putting the book out in fact.

The Directory is far from comprehensive - there are many RJKD Masters in the world that I couldn't track down, and many who have websites that I could have contacted but didn't bother as I couldn't read the language that the site was written in! What the Directory does contain is about 70 or so RJKD Masters around the world who offer training in this particular tradition. I can't, naturally, vouch for the quality of this training, but I do know that there is a high degree of integrity across the world in the delivery of these teachings. All I could do in compiling the list was to trust in Reiki to guide the process. This is what I think has happened, and it is right that this should be so.

There are many Masters in the Directory who are offering training in more than one country - for some, including myself, there are several. It did feel a bit like carving up the globe to build an empire in allocating territory and nations to various people, but nonetheless, the motivation was simply to spread the teachings as far as possible. In this, correct motivation, as with all things in Reiki, is of paramount importance.

Some have asked why not just provide a link to the lineage website rather than include all that information on different lineage Masters? I had considered this, but I think that there is a particular Western mindset that assumes that the whole world has access to the internet in the way that we have it in the West. This is very far from being the truth. In many countries, although internet access is available it can be very unreliable, prohibitively expensive, difficult to access and frankly a right pain in the neck. I know. Having lived in Egypt for three years, just checking email on a regular basis became a daily task of mammoth proportions at times, let alone surfing the net for interesting information on Reiki.

So the Directory is there. It is not complete and inclusion in it does not guarantee a quality experience for the student who might attend a class run by one of the listed Masters. But it is a start in compiling a world-wide comprehensive Directory of RJKD Masters. At least, wherever a reader might be in the world, for most they will simply be able to pick up the phone and talk to someone reasonably local about attending a class and joining the rest of us in this global Reiki Jin Kei Do community.

Judge & Jury

One of the most important elements within the Reiki Jin Kei Do tradition, as it is with other Reiki traditions is the focus on the Reiki Principles or Ideals. A whole chapter is devoted to the Principles in the book, but it is worth I think just pulling out some themes related to one of them, which for me is quite pertinent today and for most of us most of the time to varying degrees.

Why for me today? I have had lots of anger coming up! So this is a cathartic exercise for me!

The Principle as it is expressed in Reiki Jin Kei Do, goes like this: Be mindful each moment of the day to observe the arising of greed, anger and delusion, looking deeper for their true cause.

Anger is essentially based in a deluded state of mind which springs from desire and thus attachment. We have all felt this at times and it is intrinsically linked to the title of this post: Judge and Jury. We all judge a lot of the time. The consequence of judgement is often anger.

Here today it rained a lot - now I don't mind this, I like rain. My boss on the other hand moans about it, like most do in the UK - we are a right miserable bunch when it comes to rain. Instead of appreciating it for what it is and for what it gives us the English, sheep-like and en mass whinge when it rains. Bit silly really for people living in a country where it will inevitable rain most of the time, but really; what is the point of this perpetual whinging about the weather? Will the weather change as a consequence and apologize for being so inconvenient? No. Will it get upset and promise not to do it again? No. Will we feel better for having a good whinge? No. I guess we could come up with all sorts of fantastic outcomes that we would like if whinging actually did anything constructive, but it doesn't - it just makes us feel worse; resigned to our fate as being wet...and miserable.

This whinging about the weather, or moaning about how much we are taxed, or how useless the postal service is these days, or how the the youth 'wouldn't have done that in my day' is all an expression of judgement and anger. We judge because the world just isn't the way that we think it should be. So, in judging we are doing two things: revealing our insecurity in being attached to a specific way that the world should in fact be because we are uncomfortable or vulnerable with the way things actually are, and we are also revealing an attachment to ego because we think we have the answers. How arrogant! But we all do it. Of course the consequence of having this attachment to the way things should be is often anger or irritation or frustration - all expressions of anger in one form or another.

We get angry at politicians for being so smug, at each other for being too late or too early, for burning the dinner or spilling a drink. For not listening when we are talking or not saying what is really meant when we are trying to listen. For the criminal justice system for being too lenient or for the way that the police are so arrogant. We might even get angry at the oven for burning the cake that we just made! Life just isn't the way it should be is it? So we get angry. We get angry as I said as we have these very strong attachments to how we think things should be. We want it all our way - just like a two year old child having a tantrum when we take away their bricks before bed. How childish are we in fact? Very, a lot of the time. It is not however that easy to stop the anger. Most of the time, we don't even try because we feel that we are justified in being angry. The world or specific individuals simply should conform to our assumptions of how things should be.

The consequence of having these attachments is that we live in a delusional and a psychologically disturbed state of being. This might appear to be a somewhat odd way of looking at things, but in fact the more belligerently someone insists on their way as being the best way, the more of a psychological problem they have. They live in a perpetual state of delusion and are unable to see the world for what it really is as they impose onto what is there in front of their noses what they think should be there instead. They literally can't see the wood for the trees. So this attachment that results in anger (expressed through judgement) leads to delusion - a sever mental aberration that we all suffer from at times. We lose the sense of joy at life, and instead wither under the weight of our baggage and our quick fixes that we have for the world and its problems.

As the Buddha said 'when we have anger at someone it is like picking up hot coals to throw at our enemy - who gets burned first?' Anger never hurts the object of the anger as much as the person being angry.

Heaven forbid that the world should actually be exactly as any one individual thinks it should be - what a catastrophe for the whole human race. It doesn't work when we have a collective democracy and everyone in the country gets a say - still things go wrong and it is far from a perfect place.

But what has this to do with Reiki and with Reiki Jin Kei Do? Reiki is about perfecting ourselves and bit by bit, in little increments, re-learning that we are all intrinsically connected and that no-one is an island unto themselves. The world is in fact perfect just the way that it is. This might be hard to swallow sometimes, but it is the truth. We all make mistakes. We all lie and cheat and deceive and do things that perhaps we shouldn't do at various times throughout our lives.

In realizing that none of us are perfect, it then perhaps becomes easier when next someone does something or says something that is not in keeping with our worldview to simply let go and accept that this is the way things are. More than this however, perhaps we can also learn to send love, compassion and forgiveness to the transgressor. Perhaps we can realize that just as the other person is not perfect, nor are we.

As a practitioner of Reiki Jin Kei Do there is a method for finding the root of anger. It is quite a simple method called 'MindCheck' that was developed by the lineage head Dr Ranga Premaratna. Of course, I have just told you what the root of anger is, but this is not enough. To know on an intellectual level that anger is based in an attachment to an unreal world of judgement and delusion is only the beginning. If we are to replace anger with love and compassion, and surely this is a worthwhile goal for anyone, then we must develop a real and profound understanding of how anger arises within us. What exactly is it that promotes this feeling within? Once we think that we have the answer, further exploration using the MindCheck method will uncover depths that you perhaps had not even guessed at previously. You will find in fact that the cause is possibly not what you had first thought it to be.

Ultimately in using MindCheck or any other method of self-exploration, you come to the inevitable conclusion that anger arises only from within and is never a consequence of that which is without. No one else can make you angry, only you can make you angry. It is your personal choice because life is not the way that you think it should be.

So in reflecting on these ideas we can see that actually the Reiki Ideals are a fundamental part of the Reiki canon. They are not some 'add-on' that can be largely ignored as we get on with our work of hands-on healing. They are fundamental to the practice, in fact are indeed the reason for having a practice - to realize deeply the immutable truth of these beautiful Ideals.

Sheer Unashamed Promotion

Not having a huge amount of time to spend posting on this blog, I had intended to leave this alone until the weekend, but I couldn't resist the urge to indulge in some blatant advertising for my book. So below is the complete text as it now appears on Amazon. Of course they have got some things wrong - like the subtitle...It should read 'The Way of COMpassion and Wisdom', not 'Passion'. Still, this is OK. Those people that may be looking for a book on Tantric Reiki might think that this is it and buy a copy...

Also a good reason for putting this on here now is to give you an idea of what is actually in the book. Those of you who know me or have studied with me know me well enough to realize that there is not a chance that I am going to let you see any part of this book until it appears in print - so this is your only chance to get a taste of what it is all about before the end of September. The Synopsis below by the way was written by the publisher, so excuse the one or two obvious mistakes...nothing to do with me!

Reiki Jin Kei Do: The Way of Passion and Wisdom Steve Gooch Our Price: £12.99
Not yet published

Paperback - (September 29, 2006) 260 pages

Reviews

Book Description: The worlds first book on the spiritual tradition of Reiki Jin Kei Do.
The book explores the fundamental teachings of the Reiki system - the world's fastest growing therapeutic modality - as expressed within the deeply profound teachings and philosophy of this eastern tradition of Reiki. It strips away the modern clutter of techniques and explores the spiritual core of the system as a powerful tool for enlightnement and personal spiritual growth.

Elements of the history of Reiki, contained only within this tradition are also revealed for the first time.

The essence of Reiki Jin Kei Do is in the exploration and development of wisdom and compassion within one's own life. In developing these qualities, we become much more capable of bringing healing to others.

In Reiki Jin Kei Do healing is seen in a much broader sense than in the simple laying on of hands. Whilst acknowledging the importance of this approach, RJKD sees this as a minor manifestation of the Reiki ability (yet also an aspect of the ultimate goal of practice).

The ultimate goal, in common with many other spiritual traditions, yet barely explored in many Reiki traditions is to return the practitioner to that state of one-ness with the Absolute. This is often referred to as the achieving of enlightenment and the teachings explored within the book and contained within the tradition are designed specifically for this purpose.

Healing then is seen as the total release from suffering on all levels, and the way to achieve this is through the development of wisdom and compassion for oneself and all beings.

In its orientation to the practice of Reiki and the information given on aspects of the history of the system, 'Reiki Jin Kei Do' is set to become a classic of Reiki literature.

Synopsis: "Reiki Jin Kei Do" broadens the way we can view Reiki, seeing it, more than simply a healing system, as a way of living and a means to enlightenment. It is a path to self-perfection and liberation. It did not suddenly appear in the 19th century, but has an older lineage that runs back through Tibetan Buddhist monks. "Reiki Jin Kei Do" is set to reshape the way we think about Reiki.

From the Author: Having read many if not most books on Reiki over the years, I was struck by the fact that there seemed to be very little in all of this literature about the method as anything other than a system of hands on healing. In recent times there does seem to be a growing acknowldgement that Reiki is indeed more than just another complementary therapy. Many researchers in the field are beginning to discover a deeper and more all-embracing concept of 'healing' as a method of self-perfection within the practice. Indeed it is looking more and more as if this was the central and defining approach of the method that marked it out from all the other systems of healing being used and developed in the early part of the 20th century in Japan.

In spite of this growing awareness of the central philosphy of the system, there still seems to be virtually nothing in print about how to use the system for one's own liberation from the rounds of suffering. So this is why I wrote this book.

Fundamental to the practices within the lineage of Reiki Jin Kei Do is the need to apply Reiki in one's own life in an attempt to gain the ultimate peak - enlightenment or the state of nibbana. Of course, hands on healing is an important element within this tradition, as with many others, but as a sole expression of Reiki it is far too blunt an instrument on its own. Having a plethora of hands-on-healing techniques is fine on one level, but embracing the concept of 'more is better' does not help the practitioner one jot on their journey of self discovery. An intensely spiritual and philosophic orientation to the practice combined with a focus on meditation is much more helpful.

My book therefore focuses in on the philosophy and practical expression of the Reiki Jin Kei Do teachings as a method of self perfection. Underpinning all of this, and providing the core or backbone of the lineage teachings is the system known as Buddho-EnerSense. Mikao Usui, the developer of the Reiki system had access to some of this information, and this is discussed in the book. The complete system of Buddho EnerSense is taught within Reiki Jin Kei Do. This is not however dealt with in any great length in this work, but will be explored in a follow-up book currently being put together by senior masters within the tradition.

My hope for this current book is that it will not only attract those who had not viewed Reiki as a possible method of personal spiritual practice but also those who have already studied Reiki in one form or another. With this latter group I hope that the book will provide a window onto a whole new way of approaching the subject and help to broaden the generally held definition of what Reiki is. Of course, those who have already trained within this extraordinarily beautiful tradition will, I hope find something to support their practice and to help them understand some of the more obtruse elements and linkages within the system.

From the Inside Flap: Set to fundamentally reshape the way that we think about Reiki as a healing method, this book is a ‘must read’ for anyone seriously interested in this unique path to self perfection and liberation. In the tradition of Reiki Jin Kei Do the emphasis of practice is on leading the student to a realization of their oneness and ultimate reunification with all-that-is.

For the first time, all of the extant knowledge on the history of Reiki’s key figures in pulled together. From Mikao Usui’s enlightenment experience whilst practicing the Buddho meditation on Mt Kurama to the journey of the enigmatic Zen monk, Seiji Takamori high into the Himalayas of Nepal in search of Reiki’s origins. Reiki Jin Kei Do (the way of compassion and wisdom through Reiki) contains the secret Indian/Tibetan teachings that Takamori received from the recluse monks with whom he studied. These teachings were passed on as the system now known as Buddho-EnerSense.

Buddho-EnerSense contains not only the Buddho meditation that was the key to Usui’s initiation by the energy of the Universe, the power of the Godhead but also the true origins and meaning of the Reiki symbols. It is the backbone of the secular Reiki system and is the source of the teachings within Reiki Jin Kei Do that are explored in this book. No one outside of this tradition has access to this information and it has never before appeared in print.

Let the light of Reiki shine in you as this powerful energy of compassion and wisdom directs you to an experience of one-ness with the All.

Foreword by Dr Ranga Premaratna PhD – Lineage Head of Reiki Jin Kei Do.

Steve Gooch offers a clear and concise understanding of the practice of Reiki, whilst illustrating the essential teachings of Reiki Jin Kei Do. This book is not only an engaging read, it also explains the Reiki symbols, Jin Kei Do meditations and methods for treating oneself and others. Whether you are new to Reiki or a seasoned practitioner, Reiki Jin Kei Do will be of tremendous benefit to anyone interested in this unique and wholesome style of Reiki.- Lawrence Ellyard, author of Reiki Healer, The Reiki Guide and Founder of the International Institute for Reiki Training.

A detailed, clear and fascinating insight into the world of Reiki. Excellent for beginners and particularly relevant to experienced practitioners looking to expand their understanding and experience of Reiki.- David Vennells, author of Reiki Mastery and Reiki for Beginners.

Steve Gooch has done an excellent job in presenting to the public the world’s first book on the deeply profound and beautiful teachings that were given to me by Seiji Takamori. In doing so he has become the spokesperson for the whole lineage. I am sure that many current and future students of Reiki Jin Kei Do as well as the wider public and practitioners of other Reiki traditions will gain immense benefits from this book. It will fundamentally change your views on Reiki as a healing system. I recommend it highly to all.- Dr Ranga Premaratna PhD – Lineage Head of Reiki Jin Kei Do

Steve Gooch is a Reiki Master in the lineage of Reiki Jin Kei Do and a noted artist and researcher into spirituality, religion and symbolism in art.

About the Author: Formally a successful teacher of art and design in schools in the UK and Egypt, I now spend my time pursuing my principle and defining passions of writing and art. Both of these, along with my role as a teacher of Reiki are for me expressions and key elements on my own path of self discovery.

I write regularly for journals and newspapers here in the UK and in the Middle East on a variety of subjects. I have also contributed paintings, drawings and sculptures to a number of high profile exhibitions both in the UK and Egypt.

Travel is also very important to me; in of itself and also as a means to gather material and information for future book and art projects.

Over and above my career however, my primary focus and the love of my life are my two wonderful children Marianne and Sam that I try to spend as much time with as I can.

Excerpted from Reiki Jin Kei Do: The Way of Passion and Wisdom by Steve Gooch. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Fundamental to the mechanics of the Reiki symbols is something called form energy or shape energy. This is the concept that every shape emits a particular type of energy – energy of a specific vibration. It is a concept that every artist intuitively knows to be a critical and fundamental fact of the practice of their discipline. It is not just the shape created by the lines of the symbols that are important, but also the shape of the space around them and in between the component parts. All of these shapes carry a specific energetic quality that needs the particular and specific shape of the symbol to express it. There is no other form that will do exactly the same job. I have heard it said that the form of a symbol is relatively unimportant and that it is only the function with which we should concern ourselves. Without the form however, we cannot access the function. There are many famous examples of the use of specific shapes within the context of energy work. We!can think of the Great Pyramids of Egypt as an example. Volumes have been written on the energetic qualities of pyramids when used with precisely defined and accurate measurements. The circle is another powerful shape – think of all of the standing stone circles across Europe. The Christian cross is yet another. These are all universal archetypal forms and there are many others. So when we meditate on the Reiki symbols we are not working with some arbitrary shape that was simply ‘thought up’ to represent certain energetic qualities. There simply was no other form that could express those qualities in such a precise and definite way. The pure form however does not preclude stylistic nuances. Take for example an apple. The essence/energy of ‘apple’ is out there in the Universal Energy Field. When this essence manifests, it manifests as an apple – in all sorts of varieties, but always as an apple. It doesn’t manifest as a rock or a cow or an orange. This energy must always express itself through a particular form with particular attributes. We get to know it when we eat it. The arrival of spiritual symbols in the world is due to a selfless act of revelation the type of which is the preserve of only the most highly realized spiritual masters.

Accessing symbols is not so much about gaining something new, but about waking up to something that we already know on a deep level. During my own 2nd Degree training after receiving the Reiki symbols I went to bed only to wake the next morning with the immediate realization that I had spent the whole night scrutinizing and laboring over the symbols in a very intense way. I was accessing a very deep part of myself that I had previously been unaware of. So spiritual symbols, not just Reiki symbols, exist already beyond our conscious awareness. They are alive and not merely dead forms waiting for a mind to give them life.The Reiki symbols have been the most talked about, argued over and meddled with aspect of the entire Reiki system. Symbols are of course mystical, and people love anything mystical and so they have become a major preoccupation for many. The Reiki symbols however, like all other aspects of the system, are simply a set of tools, and are not something to be too strongly attached to. They are an extremely important aspect of the system and it would be difficult to perform the Reiki attunements without them, but on the spiritual path we need to learn to let go of our attachments, and this ultimately includes the Reiki symbols. Whilst we need these tools however, we should use them with care and with a sense of their sacredness and with an awareness of their true purpose and meaning. Having said this there are many within the Reiki community that suggest that once sufficient practice with the symbols has been done, there is no longer a need to continue working with them as we develop the ability to tune into their primary functions on almost a subconscious level. This is only partly true. Experience will certainly show that it is possible for instance to make a direct connection for the purposes of distant healing without the need to laboriously draw and invoke the Distant or Absent symbol every time as this particular function of the symbol becomes deeply embedded within us. However, in relinquishing our use of the symbols at this stage of development is to miss the opportunity to explore the full depths of their meaning and function. In staying with the Distant symbol as an example, it has many, many more attributes beyond its apparent singular function in connecting us energetically to another person. Mastery of the symbol is required. Being able to do distant healing without consciously invoking Symbol 3 or increasing energy flow without consciously invoking Symbol 1 is not Mastery in any meaning of the word, but a first step along the path. It would be foolish to stop working with the Reiki symbols at such an early stage of development within this energy-based discipline.

(Extract from Chapter 10: 'Symbols and Mantras')

In the Beginning

I guess that in writing this weblog, I wanted to get down some of my thoughts and experiences on life as it transpires around me and within me from the perspective of being a teacher of Reiki. Importantly, at least from the way I view it, is the fact that I teach Reiki from the tradition of Reiki Jin Kei Do - which is very different from teaching Reiki from pretty much any other tradition as far as I can tell. There are many reasons for this, and I guess as time goes by, these differences will become more apparent. To detail them all here would not be very meaningful. Best to let them appear and contextualize themselves as we go.

This is my first attempt at a 'blog' and so those of you more knowledgeable than me will, I hope allow me to make all the mistakes that I need to on my learning curve, before bombarding me with suggestions for improvements! Thanks in advance! I will get there in the end!

I first got into Reiki back in 1996, at a time in my life when things couldn't have gotten much worse. Life was bad and spiralling out of control in a big way. I am not going to trawl over the details here. There is no point. Suffice to say that at the time when I needed someone, anyone, just a friend of any description in my life, Reiki came along. A part of the traumatic situation that I was in at the time was the need to find a direction for my life. I needed a new career, a new purpose. I had always had a vague interest in complementary therapies (though I only knew snippets of information about a handful of them) and so decided that this would be a good direction to go in - get trained up in one or two and then make bucket loads of cash as a private practitioner. But where to start?

I recall reading an article about this thing called 'Reiki' that up to that point in my life I had never heard of in some magazine - maybe Kindred Spirit. The article was brief, but grabbed me. I don't know why, maybe it was the fact that the training was relatively short or maybe it was that it was relatively cheap - perhaps both. It was a good place to start though, and so I sent off for details from everyone that was advertising a Reiki course in that particular issue of the magazine. One of the advertisers was Healing Touch, based in Newcastle in the North East of England. I don't know why the material that I recieved from my soon-to-be Reiki Masters grabbed me so much, but something inside of me just told me that this was where I had to go. In April of that year I took my 1st Degree training with Gordon and Dorothy Bell in Newcastle, and my life was never to be the same again.

I guess that there were two things that got me really hooked on Reiki. The first, though not necessarily the most important, was the unmistakable sensation of heat and tingling that was manifesting in my hands pretty much all of the time. The second, and the one that actually sticks in my memory the most clearly, was the incredible warmth, love, friendship and support that Gordon and Dorothy both gave me. It felt like a homecoming. I knew that I had arrived at exactly the place that I needed to be and more than this, I felt honoured to have been given the chance to learn this profound system of healing and spiritual development from whom I still consider to be two of the best Reiki teachers teaching anywhere.

Three months later I went back to take my 2nd Degree and was then invited by Dorothy to begin my Master training, which began in January 1997. While my Master training was going on I began to work enthusiastically as a practitioner of Reiki Therapeutics. I felt that I had found my niche in life, but actually as time went on, it began to dawn on me that this was not so.

In my previous life I had been a school teacher and a good one at that. As much as I no longer wanted to work in this profession - for many reasons to do with stress, discipline, Government interference with preposterous new 'initiatives', and the battle against so many ego's making life difficult in their attempts to climb the career ladder, I could not get away from the fact that the one thing that I was missing, was teaching, and more and more I was becoming disenchanted with the prospect of being a therapist. I liked helping people for sure, but the role of therapist was not something I wanted anymore.

I stuck at it however, and by the summer of 1998 I had completed the first part of my Master training and Gordon and Dorothy unleashed me on an unsuspecting world as a teacher of Reiki in my own right. This was more like it! Teaching a subject that I loved, but no-one to answer to!

To cut a long story short, after teaching Reiki in the UK for a couple of years in the summer of 2000 I moved to Egypt and began to teach Reiki there also - with the occasional trip back to the UK to teach a class. I am now back in the UK pretty much full time (after 3 wonderful years in a truly astonishing country) and still teaching Reiki. Reiki is and probably always will be a critical part of my life. It is now fundamental to every aspect of my day to day existence and manifests for me in so many extraordinary ways. It is a real delight to see this method change the lives of so many people as they come to take classes and then go on their own journeys of discovery with it.

Something Still Missing?

Last year (2005) I decided that I needed a new direction again. Not because I wanted to get out of the Reiki teaching business, but because there were still parts of me that I had not fully explored or developed. There was still something missing. It was not hard to find what it was.

Ever since the age of 14 I have wanted to be a writer. I had never done it for a whole variety of reasons - perhaps mainly due to fear of failure, but the consequence has always been a deep sense of not being truly fulfilled. This had to change and so I made up my mind to just do it. Write something, on anything, and get it published. Sounds easy doesn't it? It was.

Reiki Jin Kei Do: The Way of Compassion and Wisdom

I had to find a subject. Reiki was the obvious one. The trouble was that there were hundreds of books on the subject already. Most of them frankly; rubbish as they just regurgitated the same old material over and over again. Yet another basic guide to Reiki's most basic attributes. If I was going to write a Reiki book it had to be different. A book unlike anything else out there on the subject.

Now, as I have said, Reiki Jin Kei Do is very different to other systems of Reiki, and more than this there had never been a book on this particluar method of Reiki practice - so here was my focus: the world's first book on the tradition, teachings and philosophy of Reiki Jin Kei Do. I was going to be in big trouble with this if I got it wrong!! I was going to do it anyway...and not tell a soul until it was too late to stop it...

By the time that I got around to telling anyone about the book - my Reiki Masters and the lineage Head, Dr Ranga Premaratna - there were already I think 4 finished chapters and I was all set to go to a publisher with it. O Books, relatively new to the Reiki-book publishing scene seemed to be a good bet, so I went to them first - with the 1st draft of those 4 chapters. Within a week they had bought the book. Gritting my teeth, I plowed on and had the book finished 3 months ahead of schedule in October 2005.

At the time of writing this the book is not yet out, but it is already garnering a great deal of interest. Not only from those within the tradition of Reiki Jin Kei Do and particularly with my own Reiki students, but also within the wider world of Reiki.