Reiki and Nature

For me the system of Reiki is about rediscovering our True Self, which we also could call our True Nature. Our True Nature indicates that we need to realign ourselves with the natural elements.

Nature is always in harmony; nature doesn’t judge, label or distinguish. Nature flows, and is therefore about becoming natural. We have lost our natural ways, hiding them underneath all our pretending, our masks, our attachments, our fears and worries. Thus, to become natural again we need to let go of these layers and let our True Nature, our True Self, our Reiki, shine.

Mikao Usui pointed out how important the natural elements are within his teachings. However, we have to look deeply into the teachings to see this.

Here are just a few examples of what we can find in Mikao Usui’s teachings, and the interconnectedness with nature. 

Deep within the word Reiki we see rain; this represents the idea that we just need to let go and absorb the spiritual rain which is always falling. Rain doesn’t label, judge, or distinguish; it just rains, and the earth takes from it what it needs. When we practice, either for ourselves or with others, what if we just let it rain?  No need to say; “You need this or that energy”, “You need this or that symbol”, “You need this and not that, let me take it out”. Just let it rain.

Within the Reiki III symbol/mantra Dai Kômyô, we can see the sun and the moon. The sun and moon also do not judge, label, or distinguish; they just shine and everything takes from them accordingly. Sun and moon are also about balance and harmony and compassion and wisdom.

Within the kanji of Ki, we see mist or vapor. For most of us, our energy is more like frozen water, stuck everywhere due to all our worries, fears, anger, and attachments. But when we start to practice and become more open, our energy becomes like mist: fluid, soft and yet able to penetrate everywhere. This is why when a practitioner has laid bare this mist-like energy, she/he has only to touch one part of the body for the energy to penetrate the body like mist.

Within Reiju we again can see the rain, this time we see the rain which falls internally: our inner blessings. This rain is what they often call amrita in esoteric traditions. The deeper we go within our practice, the more we start to feel this internal rain falling down and blessing our whole being.

If we look deeply in the Okuden Reiki II mantras, we can see fire and water. 

This fire melts our frozen energy so that it can be flowing like water. And if we heat up / deepen our practice enough, this water becomes mist or vapor which in turn becomes rain. It is the natural cycles which we need to realize internally. The universe is us and we are the universe. And to rediscover this, we need to see that deep within us we have the same cycles as the universe. This is really what Mikao Usui was pointing out in his teachings.

These are just a few examples of the hidden inner teachings of Mkao Usui’s system. But as teachers, we can only really teach this if we have had direct experiences of these natural elements within ourselves. Otherwise, it just becomes an intellectual teaching with no foundation of the direct experience. Meditating on the precepts, meditating with hands-on/off healing, meditating on the symbols and mantras, the meditation practices like Joshin Kokyu Ho and the moving meditation of Reiju – all of these are practices which can bring the direct experience of the natural elements into our own being.