Often we look for healing outside of ourselves, for someone who can “fix” us or “heal” us. But in looking outside of ourselves, we give our own inner healing power away, leaving us unempowered instead of empowered. In essence, we can only heal ourselves; no one can do that for us, not even a Buddha. Someone can show us the way or can be a facilitator, but we still have to do the hard work ourselves.
I always see it like this. Imagine that on the shadow side of a mountain, there is a dark cave. This represents our confused mind: a mind full of worry, anger, frustration, attachments, jealousy, you name it. The cave of our mind is dark because we haven’t yet recognized our own inner luminosity.
Now imagine the sun, which represents the external factor for healing us; this might be a practitioner, a deity, or whatever we connect with when we think of the healing we seek. To find that healing, to dispel our darkness, we have to bring the sun into our cave each time. But after we have brought in the sun, the sun will go back again where it came from, leaving our mind dark once more. We feel good for a short moment when the sun is lighting up our dark mind, but as soon as the sun goes back home the light diminishes.
But what if we start to delve deeper into our own essence and start to rediscover our inner luminosity? Now we do not have to rely on an external factor anymore and our confused, dark cave-mind is lit up 24 hours a day. By rediscovering our own inner luminosity we start to empower ourselves; we are healing our own wounds. This gives us inner strength through which we can maintain our equilibrium during difficult times.
On the deepest level we need to realize that the cave and the sun are the same, that we are Buddha and Buddha is us. This is the state of mind of non-duality and in this state of mind our inner luminosity is always bright, always shining. No need to rely on any outer source anymore, because inside we always can find, and be, our own light.
When we rediscover our own inner luminosity, we can guide others to find theirs. When we empower ourselves, we can help others to empower themselves as well. But if we keep telling ourselves that only an external force can heal us, then we become dependent on that external force. And if we continue on in this way of thinking, in this cave-mind of darkness, it will be hard to become independent and stand on our own two feet, to stand in our own luminosity and not in someone else’s.
Based in Holland, Frans Stiene teaches in North America, Europe, UK, Australia and Asia.
Frans is also the author of Reiki Insights, it is the continuation of his previous book The Inner Heart of Reiki, taking your personal practice and understanding of the system of Reiki yet another step deeper.