Reiki Principles

I was given these Reiki principles by my Reiki Master when I first learnt Reiki. I was taught to use them as guidelines in daily life. At the beginning of my Reiki journey I felt that I was ok with the Reiki principles. Soon I realised that they just appear to be simple but they are quite difficult to follow in our daily lives. Further along on my Reiki journey I realised that different principles come up to challenge us from time to time.

When I started to teach Reiki, I would say to my students to hold the Reiki principles in their awareness because awareness is the first step in the right direction. My own experience as a Reiki student has made me realise that it is not easy to live our life by the principles so I wanted to reassure my students not to worry about how to follow the principles, or about when they felt that they could not follow them.

Last week I was delighted to read Eckhart Tolle’s words: “With awareness comes transformation and freedom” in his book ‘Stillness Speaks’. It was wonderful to read this thought articulated so beautifully.  I am very grateful to my Reiki Master, Tripuri Dunne, for introducing me to this book.

I find the thought that awareness is the starting point for transformation very comforting when I am trying to follow the Reiki principles, trying to live my life by them. This thought also liberates me from the worry of ‘how’ to follow them or ‘what’ to do when I find myself in a situation where I know that I am not being able to follow the principles.

I find it very helpful to remind myself of the Reiki principles while self treating. Sometimes, using my Reiki level 2 practice, I send Reiki to be able to live my life by the principles.

The importance of these principles was recently highlighted for me tremendously while I was listening to an interview with Reiki Master, Fokke Brink on Phyllis Lei Furumoto’s Reiki Talk show (http://www.reikitalkshow.com/shows/view/172/archive_page:3). Fokke Brink shared a story from a student in Russia who experienced some amazing healing with her eyes after starting to self treat. She and her friends were really happy and excited. So much so that people started asking her for Reiki healing. Her reply was ‘I don’t give you Reiki now. First learn the principles and then it makes sense to put my hands on you, otherwise it will go away again.’

I had never thought about the principles in this light. I hope that you are inspired by this story like I have been. If you are inspired to deepen your practice with the Reiki principles, you might be interested in the workshop on Reiki Principles being offered by Paul Mitchell, Head of Spiritual Discipline, Reiki, Usui Shiki Ryoho, in May 2011 in Snowdonia. You can find more information about the workshop at http://www.snowdonia-retreat.co.uk/diary.asp