The Stepping Stones of the System of Reiki

Within the system of Reiki there are many stepping stones, however the first few are all about ourselves.  Shoden Reiki I is foremost about meditating on the precepts, practicing the meditation practices like joshin-kokyu ho and seishin toitsu and hands-on healing on yourself. It is out of this that comes hands-on healing on others. Hands-on healing on others is in fact one of the last stepping stones as it needs to come from the space of our own clear mind: a mind of no anger or worry, of being humble, honest and compassionate. This way hands-on healing becomes like a moving meditation; we are mindful during the session, which means we can slip into our non-dual state of mind much more easily.

The next stepping stone is Okuden Reiki II in which we start to deepen this mindfulness through meditating on the symbols, chanting the mantras and with the meditation practice of Hatsurei ho. Again this is all for ourselves. Okuden means inner or hidden teachings so the tools taught within this level is all about rediscovering what is hidden inside of us: our True Self/Reiki. When we start to rediscover our True Self, our innate great bright light starts to become brighter and brighter. We can use this light for performing hands-on healing on others. The more we start to rediscover our True Self, the more we start to go into this non-dual, mindfulness state and the deeper hands-on healing for others will be. We can now start to see the reasons why Mikao Usui added these stepping stones within his system, slowly moving forward to rediscovering our True Self.

Within Shinpiden Reiki III, we start to go even deeper into rediscovering our True Self. Shinpiden means mystery teachings, which is pointing us to the mystery of our True Self, the mystery of Reiki. In these teachings we start to realize that the hands are only a very small part of the system of Reiki, that in fact our whole body emanates light. At this stage we start to rediscover that we can Be Reiki – Be Our True Self – Be the great bright light, in all we do. This in turn means that we can bring healing into our daily life more and more. We cannot walk in the street and say to each person we come across, “Excuse me, can I do hands-on healing on you.” They would probably think we are mad! But we can walk in this state of mind of great bright light, emanating a field of compassion and wisdom from which each person, animal, tree, etc.. who comes in contact with this field can take whatever he or she needs for their healing to take place. This field is a field of embodiment of the precepts, a field of no anger, no worry, being humble, honest, and compassionate. This emanation of the great bright light of our True Self is a way of touching others so much more deeply than just the hands. It is a way of Being, a way of Life. This state of Being Reiki, our True Self is the last stepping stone, however this last stepping stone is bringing us back to the first stepping stone and we travel the path again, and again, like a Enso, the Zen circle, no beginning, no end. 

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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