This month theatre director Peter Brook died at the age of 97. I first encountered his work way back in the 1980s and found it a deeply moving experience. He had a way of bringing forth performances from the actors and telling stories that touch my soul. I feel that seeing the production he directed all those years ago was a significant moment in my spiritual growth. I started my own theatre company, influenced by his work and had Reiki not come into my life some while later, I might still be doing it.
In fact, I can see that Peter Brook’s work was a part of my
Reiki path and I learned the importance of lineage from him. He was talking about martial arts, but I realised
it also applied to Reiki once I encountered it – not that I was looking to learn
a Reiki style with lineage, it just happened, but when I did, I appreciated the
way lineage is also held as important in the form of Reiki I learned.
While I was down in London for a CNHC meeting a few years ago I
took the opportunity to go to the National Theatre to see “The Prisoner” a play
he co- wrote and directed. Knowing what wonderful work he created, I was keen to see it and was not
disappointed. It only lasted just over
an hour and I felt different when I came out to how I was when I went in. It struck me that this is what a Reiki
treatment can be like – it too only lasts an hour but it can be an hour that
changes my outlook on life, restores peace of mind and gives me a similar deep
sense that ‘all is well’. Somehow this
hour watching the play also gave me a re-connection with my soul and as a result a feeling of deep
contentment and safety. It also reflected some of my understanding about my Reiki path.
The play spoke about themes that I am familiar with through
my Reiki practice: the need to take responsibility for our actions, the
struggle to be the best person we can be and the need to keep doing the
practice. In the story a man is told he
must sit in front of a prison to atone for his crime – nothing is keeping him
there except his own conscience. It is
difficult because he has little to live on and people keep telling him to go
away. After 10 years his Uncle, who told
him to stay there, comes and says that he can see that he’s established a life
for himself and managed to survive, but that now the work really begins: he
must go deeper.
This reminds me of how I began my Reiki practice, needing to have the self-discipline to treat myself daily and receive treatments from
others. It was sometimes difficult and uncomfortable
as well as pleasant. After a number of years,
however, it became easier because I got into a routine, it’s almost automatic. It’s at that point that the work really started
because that’s when I needed to go deeper with the exploration. Perhaps this is why it is recommended in our
system that masters should wait 10 years before beginning to initiate masters and that similarly that it may take 10 years for
students to prepare for mastery.
At the end of the play the ‘prisoner’ knows that he is free
to leave, just as at the time of the initiation as a master, both the student and their master know that
this is the right time.
The play was just 1 hour and 10 minutes, a Reiki treatment
can be the same time: what a difference such a small amount of time can make!
