Symbols & Mantras

Sunday 5^th April 2020

Topic: After having worked with the mantras and symbols, how do you feel that they have affected your life?

Going within.

For many years, ‘using’ the mantras and symbols was very much an external activity for me. I was taught that they had specific powers, were sacred and that there were certain times when I had to use them. This meant that my original relationship with the mantras and symbols was one of awe and disconnection. Because of this, when I started learning the system of Reiki, I was worried…worried that my Reiki treatments on others wouldn’t be as effective…worried that my self-healing wouldn’t be as effective…worried that I didn’t really know what or how to use the symbols anymore. Then I paused. I started ‘working’ with the mantras and symbols, one at a time, taking my time, trusting, and letting go.

To start with this was difficult, I clung onto the mantras and symbols as external tools so very tightly, not realising at the time, that this clinging on, was preventing me from learning the real truths behind the healing that was waiting for me. I let go. Worked with the mantra OUEI and symbol 1. Then forgot to trust, turned around and clung back on again. I kept repeating this pattern, until I turned around one day, and realised that there was nothing to cling onto anymore. With persistent daily practise, including chanting the precepts, I had begun to let go of the worry that I had previously felt about the mantras and symbols. I had begun to let go of the fear and had come home – to my personal healing. This was only possible due to my daily practise. 

I am still working with the mantra OUEI and symbol 1 because this is what I need. I chant the mantra every morning and evening, as part of my meditation practise, and work with the symbol to help focus my mind. I am taking the time to reconnect with the Earth, with Earth Ki, to ensure that my roots are strong and deep. I have spent/ do spend a lot of time in my head, so know that this is the most important part of self-healing for me – well for all of us. I tried working with the mantra Ei E Ki and symbol 2, and although the energy was light and brought me joy, it also ripped up roots and had me spinning around like a balloon that has been let go. So I practise. Every day. 

Back to the original question; How do I feel the mantras and symbols have affected my life? I am letting go of worry and fear, because of my personal practise with the mantras and symbols, which means I am embodying the precepts through my practise – which means I am beginning to be true to my way and my being. I am beginning to heal. I am doing this. Yes, I reach out for support because the healing that is taking place is a rocky, treacherous but worthwhile journey. (Over the past few weeks, I have fallen down some pot holes that I wasn’t sure I would be able to get out of.) But the hard work is being done by me. I am in charge of my spiritual path, and that is how the mantras and symbols have affected my life. They have begun to empower me, from within and I have started to trust myself. 

This empowerment and inner trust, I believe is glimpses of my true self. The mantras and symbols therefore, are internal tools, to help us realise and recognise our true self, our Reiki, and that is wonderful! Slowly we can begin to see things that are easy to deny, things the ego stops us from acknowledging – our inner light, our inner compassion, our inner strength; so that we can stay in a state of worry and fear. I have also begun to recognise the patterns of behaviour that I cling to – like external tools, that feel like home, that feel like comfort and security because they are what I am used to – depression being one of them. It is so easy to feel the warm, comforting arms of depression wrap around me, and to mistake this for love and compassion; when really this is a trick of the ego, to stop me from seeing the truth. It is easier to give in to old feelings because it is exactly that – easy. But so very harmful. I have to work with all of the tools within the system of Reiki, every day (even on the days when there are lots of excuses not to!), and this is called work, because it is hard work, to move slowly along the path towards my true self – back to my true self.

Working with the system of Reiki is like a continuous spiral. As we learn to trust ourselves, our ability to heal ourselves, learn to trust the way that we are taught through our personal experience, then we open ourselves up more, to the truths of the teachings, which brings us back again to our practise. Teachings – practise – trust – realisation – trust – practise – teachings, and so on. As I work with the mantras and symbols, on a daily basis, this trust and realisation grows and grows. I also open up my awareness that each element within the system of Reiki is there to help us work towards the same goal, to remember our inner light, to remember our connection with all things, which is where true healing can take place. The challenge I now face is to take this understanding, this feeling and experience into my daily life – where it really matters, so I can face new challenges with love and compassion. 

I have a long way to go. I am only at the very beginning of my journey back to my true self, but by working with the mantras and symbols every day, the journey is one of realisation and truth. 

By Erika Beale

www.thereikiroom.uk

Bronwen Logan

Based in Australia, Bronwen Logan (Stiene) teaches the system of Reiki is co-founder of the International House of Reiki and Shibumi International Reiki Association as well as co-author of the critically acclaimed books The Reiki Sourcebook, The Japanese Art of Reiki, A-Z of Reiki Pocketbook, Reiki Techniques Card Deck and Your Reiki Treatment. Bronwen is also the voice of their audiobooks and of the Reiki meditations available in the shop.

reiki.net.au