20 Birds

In Benbecula airport, during my recent holiday to the Hebrides, I noticed an artwork on the wall.  There was an image of a large seagull, made up of many smaller birds.  Next to it was the following story which reminded me of my experience of Reiki community, from the small scale at Reiki Sharing Groups, to the large scale of the Reiki Association and international Reiki gatherings. 

It’s the story of Fichaed Eun (Feecret Ee-anne - meaning 20 birds in Gaelic), inspired by an ancient story from Persian mythology called The Simurgh (meaning 30 birds in the Farsi language).

“Once upon a time, in a land far away, there lived a community of birds, birds of many different colours, sizes and songs.  Most of the time they lived alongside each other in harmony.  There were occasionally disagreements and conflicts which were resolved in various ways, through discussion, through mediation, but more often through heated argument or even violence.  Several among the birds felt a yearning for life to be better and wanted someone or something to provide strong leadership and a clear sense of vision and direction.

Legend and local rumour held that somewhere such a leader existed in the form of a golden bird with the name of Fichaed Eun.  So one day when a tiny wren came across a golden feather that bore the words ‘I hold your future’ a palpable excitement spread through the community. We must find the great bird that left us this message!  The time has come for us to meet our saviour!  Let those who wish to take on the challenge come forwards.

And so the young, fit and brave among the birds set off on a journey to find Fichaed Eun.

Their journey was long and hard and it took them through rough skies and across challenging landscapes.  They were tempted by monsters who screamed at them from the tops of mountains and demons who tried to drag them into the deepest valleys.  Many did not have the strength to resist and gave in to the temptations along the way.  But finally a small group of twenty remained exhausted by flying ever onward to reach their goal.

And at last as they were flying over a great lake, a small voice piped up from the flock:

“Look!  There it is...Down there... Fichaed Eun”

And as the birds looked down, they saw the shadow of a huge powerful bird moving below them.  They looked around to find the great bird who was creating the shadow...until slowly it dawned on them that it was a reflection of their own group in the lake below, flying in unison and harmony.  Their

shared vision and determination to succeed had enabled them to achieve anything.  They realised that Fichaed Eun was themselves and the totality of all the strengths and talents they had to offer.”

The artwork was created by 20 children.  Next to it are also the following words, which resonated with me about living with Reiki: “Fichaed Eun represents all of us!  Each bird is unique and brilliant, each with his/her special characteristics, little ways and individual skills.  When we realise our strengths and talents we become strong and powerful and better able to make a difference.   We can support and look after each other and have a lot of fun as a team.  We can put all of our ideas together and all our hopes together.  We can use our group voice to inspire people to listen, think and act!”

100 Years Ago...

On the 100^th anniversary of the start of the First World War I have been thinking about the fact that there has always been a war going on somewhere for the whole of my life, with all the suffering that goes with it.

In a letter written by my great grandmother she says that when my great grandfather heard the news of the outbreak of that war he declared: “The worst has happened”.  In another letter she writes: “if father has been anti war (as he has been all his life) he is more anti war than ever today.  The great difference is simply that he feels the present war was absolutely unpreventable... It is just as if you and Alec were standing quietly talking and some rough fellow were to come along and sat to Alec “You stand aside while I knock this little girl down.”

So could we have a world without war?  There is often a feeling of inevitability about war taking place, such as was expressed by my great grandfather.  Is it just part of what human beings do that cannot be changed?

At about the same time as my great grandmother wrote those words, many thousands of miles away in Japan a man named Mikao Usui was beginning a journey that would lead him to develop a healing method that we now know as Reiki.  He saw it as something that should be available to anyone and that it would help people re-connect body and soul.  This practice also spread around the world and has lasted almost 100 years so far.  So perhaps there is hope in the fact that something that heals us has lasted longer than any of the wars.

Our practice encourages people to overcome conflict, starting with ourselves through daily self healing and continuing with sharing this peace of mind with others.

At an event for homeless US war veterans some of them received Reiki. one of them commented: “If we would’ve had this type of ‘technology’ before we went to war, nobody’d want to fight” (watch the video here: http://midwestreiki.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/hands-to-hearts-bringing-reiki-to-us-military-veterans/)

Today there is conflict in Gaza, that seems unlikely to end soon.  However I came across a blog entry about an Israeli woman learning Reiki in a Palestinian area (http://jerusalemgypsy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/learning-reiki-in-beit-jala.html) The class brought together Jews, Palestinians and others and enabled them to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s lives.  I have often seen how Reiki classes bring together people who would not otherwise meet and I think that this is part of the key to an end to the suffering caused by wars.  Reiki, as a world wide practice, also brings people of different nationalities together and this is also one aspect of the Reiki Home project (reikihome.org).  War is only possible when the other person is not seen as a human being, but as some other concept which is called ‘enemy’. 

Fundamentally I believe human beings want to be kind to each other.   The unkindness often starts with ourselves.  When I cared less about myself I often felt more blame, resentment and anger towards others.  The more I have learned to love and care for myself with the help of my Reiki practice, the more I’ve been able to share that love and care with others.  In simple terms the more I was able to forgive myself, the more I could forgive others.  When there is forgiveness there is no war.

So while I’m not naïve enough to believe that there will soon be no war in the world, I do think that we can each make a difference through Reiki towards creating a world that is more at peace with itself, because we are each a piece of that peace.

Practice Makes Simple

One of the things I encourage my students to do is to treat themselves with Reiki every day.  I have noticed that some of them find it as difficult as I did to have a regular practice.

While I managed to practise tai chi most days for a few years, I struggled for a long time to maintain a daily practice of any kind.  Perhaps this came from my resistance to being told to practice my violin as a child, but more likely it came from a resistance to where the practice would take me.

I cam across a quote recently that resonated with me and may be relevant to this question: “The more important an activity is to your soul’s evolution, the more resistance you will feel” (Steven Pressfield).  This illuminated my awareness of what I had resisted practising: tai chi, meditation, singing, violin and of course Reiki.  All of these have the potential to bring me into deeper connection with my whole self: body and soul.  I haven’t always liked my body, so had no particular desire to get to know it better!

However there came a day when I was tired of trying to practice and failing, and decided to

just practice!  Resistance to doing so came up in many forms, but I simply accepted they were there and just practiced.  After a while the resistance grew less and I settled into a daily routine of treating myself with Reiki, which I continue to this day.

What I discovered amongst other things was that the longer I maintained this practice the easier it became to continue doing so.  I also found that the self treatment practice helped my treatment of others; firstly because I was more calm and balanced myself and therefore a better person to receive treatment from, and secondly because the daily connection with Reiki enhanced my understanding of how it can work.

I am now been fortunate to have a growing practice treating others, which I have also found has made the work easier.  Having treated a couple of hundred people with many different problems I am now more confident and again know more what to expect from Reiki (which is sometimes the unexpected!).

It’s true of any Art that practice is needed to really begin to find a way to connect with and express your essential nature.  I remember seeing an exhibition of Picasso’s early drawings in France: he could draw naturalistically really well and had clearly practiced a lot!  I have a Reiki master friend who plays the shakuhachi (Japanese flute) which is very difficult to master.  He’s been playing it regularly for years and still considers himself a beginner.

I also remember learning to drive and how that took a lot of practice before I felt comfortable.  With many years of driving behind me now (I passed my test the same year I became a Reiki master!) driving is no longer the challenge it once was, thanks to all those miles.

So whether you are a beginner or an experienced practitioner, whether you have learned Reiki or your life art is something different I encourage you to just practice.  The more you do the easier it will become and the deeper your connection to your body and soul will be, bringing you joy and fulfilment.

www.katejones-reiki.co.uk

Reiki Listening

At the wonderful Reiki Association Gathering I attended recently one of my Reiki master friends Viv Candlish commented during one of the sessions that she was enjoying being with Reiki people because of the way we listen to each other.  She went on to suggest that this probably has something to do with the way we learn to listen to our hands when practising Reiki.

This resonated with me immediately.  From the very early days of practising Reiki I have learned to ‘listen’ to my hands: feeling the differing sensations giving a Reiki treatment can produce.  The most frequent is warmth or heat in varying degrees, but there can also be tingling – which sometimes feels almost like having my hands in stinging nettles – throbbing, coldness and even a feeling as if there is movement under my hands.  When these sensations occur I (and other Reiki practitioners) pay attention, because they guide the treatment, showing where the person I am treating needs me to rest my hands longer, so that Reiki has enough time to flow to where it is needed.

These various sensations call my attention; invite me to be present with the person I am treating, so that I can be sensitive to changes and to giving the Reiki that is needed at that time.  As I give Reiki treatments in silence, rather than playing background music, this also gives a particular quality to the listening.

What Viv was commenting on is that this same quality of attentive listening is often transferred to our conversations when Reiki people gather together to discuss life with Reiki or Reiki practice.  There is a quality of listening and attention that is often missing in everyday chatter. 

This quality of attention can be very valuable.  It shows the person I am speaking with that I value what they have to say and offers the opportunity to really hear them.  When I do this there is often something valuable to learn!  I have also felt that the attention given when treating is also a form of acceptance, which can be very valuable.  Acceptance is something I used to crave and I have learned that accepting someone as they are, ;warts and all’, can be transformative. 

Working with the Reiki Association Council over the past five years has been a wonderful exploration of the quality of listening we can bring to working with other people.  Sometimes we slipped into argumentative discussions, our quality of listening was not good because we wanted to get our own view accepted.  However we would often stop and do some Reiki when this occurred, re-connecting us with a different kind of communication.  In the silence of Reiki treatment we would often discover a greater wisdom than we as individuals could not access.  When our discussion resumed there would be less conflict and frequently we arrived at quite inspired decisions that moved us forwards together and often rapidly.

So I’m grateful to Viv for pointing out this quality many people practising Reiki share and, like her, it’s something I value in our Reiki community.  She has subsequently been elected to the Reiki Association Council and I wish her, and the rest of Council, as much growth and enjoyment as I have experienced.

Moving on to Second Degree Reiki

Like many other Reiki students I had a great enthusiasm for sharing Reiki with others in the first months after my first degree class.  It should therefore be no surprise that when I received a phone call asking if I would be interested in attending a second degree Reiki class in May I said yes at once.

Even the cost (which was considerably more that first degree) was not enough to put me off!   I had certainly been doing lots of practice, mostly on others.  However in retrospect I think it might have been better if I had waited a bit longer and had more time to get to know Reiki through simple hands on practice, including self treatment, before moving on. 

After I became a master, I heard Phyllis Furumoto talk about timing in Usui Shiki Ryoho.  She recommended encouraging students to wait at least 3 months and preferably a year before taking second degree.  I’ve always asked my students to wait at least 3 months, but now I encourage them to wait longer.  I have seen how much more people gain from this next step in their Reiki practice when they have had more time to experience Reiki and wait for a real calling to go further.

Back in 1989 I was not so good at living in the flow of life.  I would either resist or push forwards, often resulting in bad timing.  One of Reiki’s gifts has been to show me how to join the flow, which often means slowing down, trusting the process and enjoying the journey instead of always feeling I have to rush ahead.

As a result of doing second degree so quickly, it took me quite a long time to really appreciate its potential.  I taught second degree classes and passed on the necessary knowledge, but I would say that my second degree teaching is much better now, because I have a deeper understanding based on experience.  This understanding continues to deepen as I use second degree in my treatments and in my life.

I now understand that second degree is not just about being able to give Reiki treatment to a person at a distance.  It is a way to achieve a deeper level of healing because it offers the potential to reach the mind, emotions and spirit more easily and effectively.  Accessing these unseen aspects we have the potential to heal the root cause of suffering. 

We are also no longer limited by the size of our hands; second degree enables us to reach further: to relationships, groups of people, situations and more.  Whatever we can imagine we can send Reiki to!  I have used second degree Reiki to help make difficult decisions and seen it untangle what seem to be impossible situations.  We have used it to guide us forwards in The Reiki Association and Reiki Council.  It’s been a great benefit in my life and, even if it was perhaps a bit premature, I’m very grateful for that phone call inviting me to join the class!