In Reiki practice, the use of language like the following, is quite common:
“I will send you Reiki energy”
“I sent Reiki into the past to heal an event”
“I feel a connection with you and the others here in this room”
“I connected with my great bright light”
“I am holding you in light and love”
Before I dig deeper into this sort of language, I must acknowledge that people who talk in this manner are indeed compassionate, caring, determined to be of help to themselves and others, desiring to transform their lives for the better. That already puts people like this (committed Reiki practitioners and teachers) in the rare less than 1% of people in the world! Kudos to you if you feel you belong in this rare and caring group.
Now let’s look at the language of some of these statements.
“I will send you Reiki energy”. Key operative ideas here: “I will send you Reiki energy”. i.e. There is a separate-I that tells a separate-you that it will send Reiki energy. Does this not betray a deep belief in dualism? There is a separate I and a separate you. Stemming from it, is the idea of “sending” “Reiki energy”. Well, Reiki is spiritual energy, the essence of existence, the True Self. How does one “send” it from one place to another, when “both places” and the “people” at those locations are inherently Reiki?
Seen from the standpoint of the One reality without an other, what is “I”, “You”, “Sending”?
A profound idea like “I connected with my great bright light” seems to be something that a serious, dedicated practitioner might say about their experience. At one level, this is great progress in the practitioner’s journey. But it is progress of a separate “I” that imagines that it has a “great bright light” within it, that it can “connect” with! Is it not?
Seen from the standpoint of the One reality without an other, what is the “I” and what is the “great bright light” that the “I” “connected with”?
These examples are not just use of the language of duality, but a deep belief in duality from which the language of duality springs forth.
Truly awakened practitioners would still find a struggle in communicating the experiences of the “non dual” in essentially dualistic language.
Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world. ~ Ramana Maharshi
Universally seen as one of the true awakened masters of the 20th century, Ramana Maharshi seems to be addressing a separate-You in this statement above. We might argue from it that it betrays the fact that he wasn’t entirely as awakened as people claim.
But this is not true in the least. A truly self-realized being won’t bear even a wee bit of doubt about the Reality, even as their language may continue to contain the inherent limits of dualistic expression. The evidence for this comes the direct experiences that people had in the presence of true masters like this, and the direct experiences that the works of these masters bring to people even years after the mortal form has gone.
The question then, for practitioners of Reiki is this: When you use dualistic language like the statements above, what is your experience of, or experiential understanding of Reality? If you truly believe that you are sending energy to the person over there, if you truly believe that you are connecting to your great bright light, etc. your reality is inherently in the realm of duality is it not?
The system of Reiki is a path to recognizing True Self, i.e. recognizing that one’s true nature is Reiki.
Dualistic language like we commonly use, can be a great clue about our mindset, our orientation, our inherent foundation in duality. This clue can be a powerful force to know where we are stuck, and can help us let go of the “I”, and simply learn to embrace that undescribable stillness in our practice. We can be motivated to learn and get adept at BEing, rather than remaining stuck in DOing as a separate-I.
Can you know beyond a shard of doubt that you are Reiki, and BE Reiki? Yes, you can! It is your birth right. Will you claim it?
Comments 6
If what I understand as “I” am really just Reiki in essence, and so there really is no such thing as “I”, then would a truly enlightened person who has realized their Reiki nature have no need of the symbols, or of calling upon their foremothers and fathers and Reiki masters to help them channel it? There wouldn’t really even be “channeling” then, would there! It would be just being with a directed purpose! This is heavy! It would also be nice to see what language a person would use when they have moved past the concept of duality. That might help “me” (though there is no “me”?) to understand it better.
Hi Shannon,
Yes indeed, then we just Be.
Wow that will be so freeing, not rituals, no symbols, just to be.
Great article Sundar.
Love
Frans
Hi Frans, Thank you!
Hi Shannon, as I am beginning to understand, “Silence” is the language of non-duality. “Presence” is the language of non-duality. “Love” is the language of non-duality. Traditional words of conventional language fail in expressing the truth of non-duality.
Hi Sundar,
Thank you for this beautifully written and expressive article. I will never forget when I first read in one of Frans’ emails: “With right consciousness, no distance exists.”
No distance exists, not even in distant Reiki. Could we just be “Presently (which means ‘at this moment, now’) Reiki”?
‘I am presently Reiki with you for your/our highest good at this moment in time.’
Love,
Cecelia
Hi Sundar,
Thank you for this beautifully written and expressive article. I will never forget reading in one of Frans’ emails: “With right consciousness, no distance exists.”
No distance exists, not even in distant Reiki. Could we just be “Presently (which means ‘at this moment, now’) Reiki”?
‘I am presently Reiki with you for your/our highest good at this moment in time.’
Cecilia: Thanks for the kinds words. When we go deeper, letting go of the “I” we so firmly associate with, what you say: ‘I am presently Reiki with you for your/our highest good at this moment in time.’ in actuality simplifies to “I am Reiki”. Not in the sense that the “I” that I think I am, is Reiki, but that there is only Reiki. Going further deeper, there is only Presence. Stillness. Silence. The state of non-doing associated with True Self. The non-doing in which what needs to get done, gets done with effortless ease.
This is the profound state that Frans calls “BEing Reiki”. People often use “BEing Reiki” too easily these days, but in reality, the implication of “BEing Reiki” is the absolute dissolution of the “I”. How many among us, as Reiki practitioners, can honestly put their hands up and say that there is no “I” when they say that they are “BEing Reiki”? This calls forth the reason why humility is among the things that is called for in the practice. “BEing Reiki” is the same as “Self-realization”. “BEing Reiki” is the same as “En-light-en-ment”. “BEing Reiki” is “Buddhahood”.