Reiki Language

What is Reiki language? Well speech or language is of course linked to the mind. If our mind is loving, then we have loving speech. If our mind is angry, we have angry speech. If we are worried in our mind, our speech is worried. If we are unbalanced in our mind, then we might talk really fast. So when we look at a person we can often listen to the way they speak to see if they’re calm, kind, relaxed, open, worried, fearful etc. This of course means speech is also reflected in our writing, in a way it’s the mind.

So what is in Reiki language? Well, when you go to Japan and you train with, for example a priest, then once in a while you go into their little teaching room and they talk to you and they want you to talk back. Why? Because then they can hear if you’ve had a direct experience, and that when you practice (or when you speak about the practice and about these experiences), it’s not just in your head but a direct experience.

I’m going to give you a couple of examples and I think this is also really good to investigate for yourself because this all reflects back to our own personal practice, our own personal state of mind. For example: if we’re going to look for a teacher – who the teacher is, how they are and what level they are, is also really important. This is why when these priests or priestesses in Japan listen to you, they know when to give you the next practice, they know if you’re ready to teach something (or not to teach something). “It’s okay, yeah you can teach this”, “no you cannot teach this”, “oh yeah you have to adjust this”, so they use it also as a guiding tool because they hear how you say things.

For example, the other day someone said to me “we have to become one with the universe”. So if you really listen to this “we have to become one with the universe”, actually this person is saying that we’re not one with the universe. Does that make sense? So actually the person who is saying that feels disconnected from the universe – “we have to become one”. Well first of all I asked myself, “how is this possible?” Right… “We have to become one with the universe”. Well, we are already one with the universe! I don’t have to become one with the universe. If I say that then there is somewhere in my mind that I feel super disconnected right? I feel not one with the universe, but this is ultimately impossible. How can I be “half in the universe and half out of the universe” or “I’m completely not in the universe”. Well this is really impossible. This is the same if someone says “oh I have to become one with Reiki”. Impossible!

Hiroshi Doi has some notes from a student of Mikao Usui, and one of these notes this student had stated that Mikao Usui said “everything in the universe possesses Reiki”. That means Reiki is the universe, the universe is Reiki. So again, if we say “I have to become one with Reiki” it means you feel very, very separate from it. Right? “It is only through very specific practices that I slowly, slowly become one”, “now one foot is in this one space, then the next foot is in this, and then I’m half in it”. Of course, this means that the person who makes this kind of statement has not had a direct experience of this oneness of Reiki, or oneness of the universe – that they are actually the universe, that they are already Reiki and that reiki and the universe is one. Therefore we have to listen very carefully when our students talk to us.

For example that student who said to me “oh I have to become one with the universe”, I straight away know “oh this person feels disconnected” right? I have to make that person aware that they are already the universe, that they can have never stepped outside of it in the first place. When they say “oh I have to become one with Reiki” I have to make them aware of it through my speech, my language, and my teachings that they are already one with Reiki – that all we have to do is lay this oneness bare.

This is the same if I do a treatment or I’m in a class and I hear students say “oh I have to connect to my client”. Well in fact what they are saying is that they are feeling disconnected. But this is also impossible – if we look at the ultimate reality then we’re all interconnected already. So if I sit in meditation and I think “I have to connect to Reiki”, that means I’m feeling disconnected from it and there’s “something I have to do” and now I am connected to Reiki. But in fact, you are already connected to Reiki 24 hours a day, we just have to remember it. So if I’ve had this direct experience of this really deep interconnectedness of Reiki then automatically I will not make these kind of statements, I will change my statements to “oh when I’m performing a hands-on healing session I remember that I’m interconnected with the person” or “when I’m meditating there’s no need for me to connect to Reiki, all we need to do is remember that we’re already interconnected”. The language is very fine and very subtle, but we can listen to it very carefully and therefore we can come to certain conclusions.

This is also for ourselves of course. So listen to how you speak, or listen to how your students speak or how other people speak, read or write things down. Then we can really look at ourselves and adjust the practice. This is very important for our own personal development because all we have to do in personal development is fine-tune our practice. So if we’re not fine-tuning, if we constantly say “oh I have to become one with the universe” or “I have to become one with Reiki”, well when are we going to become one with Reiki? Next week? In two years time? When I die? When am I going to become one with the universe? “I will do lots of practice. Do I have to practice 24 hours a day?” These questions then arise. Then they say “I can never make that, I might as well give up. I’m not good enough”. So then we’re already walking a path where we say “ah I’m not sure if I’m made of that. I’m not sure if I can do this. I’m not sure if I can become one with the universe or one with Reiki”. But if we say “I am already one with Reiki, I am already the universe” then that changes the whole practice. 

This is very, very subtle but is very important in our journey. This is why these priests and priestesses in Japan listen to how you say things or how you write things. Then they can either correct the teachings or the practice to help you to rediscover that you are the universe already, that you are Reiki already. The universe and Reiki is not something separate they are one in the same thing. We don’t have to connect to someone – a tree or an animal or a person. We are already interconnected.

I was walking here in the park the other day and I bumped into someone I knew. We walked for a while and we were talking about this. This person is not really doing any spiritual practice but she said “You know I often feel that people say ‘I have to walk in nature’ or ‘I’m going to nature’ but I am nature”. So she said “for me in the city I’m also nature”. And I said “yeah this is exactly true”! But again this is when we see nature as outside of ourselves. So if I see nature outside of myself then I say “I have to walk in nature”. I live on the 11th floor of an apartment building and in front of me is a park. When I first started to live here some people said “Frans, you need to go every day to the park to ground yourself”, so they see grounding as something in the park. Of course, that can help me, but I need to realise that I can ground myself. That I am grounding already – all I have to do is remember that I am the earth already on the 11th floor. That changes your whole practice, it changes your whole view.

Therefore we can talk to teachers and we can also see if we know what to listen to, how their practice is. Do they themselves feel disconnected? Do they think that the universe is somewhere outside of them and that they have to become one with it? Or do they already realise “hang on I am already the universe there is no need to become one with it, I am already one with it”. Do you feel the difference? This I think is also really important in looking for a teacher, or a spiritual guide or friend, looking for a practitioner. And of course most important of all, for your own personal practice. 

So this is Reiki language. Reiki language is not “now I’m going to be all peaceful and quiet”, that is fake stuff, right? Even in Reiki language, in spiritual language, we can say fuck and shit and that doesn’t really matter, you know. That also depends on how we say it, what is the undertone of it, and that is when you come to an even finer level. 

You have to be listening very, very carefully, but some things like I’ve just been talking about are very obvious. Do you feel you need to connect to Reiki? Then you see it as something outside of yourself. If you feel you’re already interconnected in it, well all I have to remember is “I am already Reiki, there’s no need to connect”. If I say “oh I need to link myself to someone, to a tree or an animal” or “I have to become one”. These are all words that we have to listen to very carefully. 

Investigate for yourself because this can really fine-tune your own practice. Listen to how you speak when you teach, when you talk to other people about the system of Reiki and of course everything else! 

Again, if my mind is angry, angry speech comes out. If my mind is kind and loving, loving and kind speech comes out. If my mind is worried, worried speech comes out. If I’m all over the place, all over the place speech comes out. 

What is all over the place speech? It’s when you go “what is this person saying”. I have no idea what they’re really trying to tell me because it’s all over the place. Therefore you have to listen to your own speech and then you can adjust your mind so that your speech becomes the right speech. 

What is right speech? That of course is within the precepts. Right speech means the ultimate reality which is from non-duality. That is really pointed out within the precepts. If my mind is less angry, less angry speech – so right speech. If I’m less worried, then the right speech comes forward because I’m less worried. If I’m being grateful, then different speech. If I’m being true to my way and my being – different speech. If I’m compassionate – different speech. So within the precepts we can really clearly see this ‘right speech’.

So I’ll leave you with this to think about, contemplate it and see how that reflects on you or maybe people you work with, practice with, or in your wider community. 

Frans Stiene

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.

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