How to balance "letting go" and "compassion" in a reiki treatment?

best regards


Salman

Hi Salman

Great topic!

I often tell my students that the ideal way of giving a Reiki treatment is with a sense of "compassionate detachment"!

By this, I mean that we try to feel compassion for the person who is receiving the Reiki session (and also for the Reiki itself) yet we do not focus on a specific oucome.

Even if we detect a byosen and therefore keep our hands on a certain part of the body (or are working on an area which has active symptoms) we place our hands compassionately, without "telling" the Reiki what to do or expecting a particular result (other than - hopefully - a lessening of the hibiki of the bysoen).

I suppose an analogy could be that I give some money to someone as a kind gesture but I do not tell them how they should spend it. The thought may arise in their own mind as to how they wish to spend it - or save it for that matter. I have given compassionately but I am not attached to the outcome.

I wholeheartedly agree!

Not everyone has hands, and hands are not essential to perform distance Reiki treatments, either.

I feel there is a direct relationship between compassion, Gassho, and the Precepts.

thanks Colin, thanks Buck

'compassionate detachment' is a novel idea, and has quite a meditative appeal... As Buck rightly pointed out, this is linked with percepts again.... We detach ouselves from worries when we recite gokai or do kenyouko ho, and this training helps us to remain detached from worrying what the result of a tratment would come...


It would seem that initial days of experience probably make us more concerned on whats going on inside the body of patient, and in a way obstruct ourselves from creating and then holding a healing space in the session.... As we grow in our clinical experiences, we progressivly keep finding that reiki is a spiritual experience with another soul in a session, and physical bodies are sometimes an obvious eyewash...


Gassho within treatments is a beautiful feeling (thanks Buck)... As wayne puts, to witness somebody's healing in a session is a great event... Gassho is not only hands together, but in a way, gassho is symbolic of souls together in a moment of oneness... And what cements them ?

Compassion!!

But also gassho is a bow like reiki ni rei or like sensei ni rei............ It is a bow and a surrender to universal wisdom, to impersonal great soul, to soul of buddy lying next as patient... Melted in a sentiment of kansha, merged in gratitude that we are part of universe observing the healing going on in our buddy! How romantic, really

Salman

Every day I am getting closer and get more aquacquaint with Reiki and that make me feel so happy and fulfilled...I am reading your posts and feel like I feed myslef with knowledge,love,light,wisdom ...like my soul was hungry for ages and now I found the right food to feed it....Like I was missing a part of myself and I found it....
So much wisdom and so simple explaned Colin ,and great point on the Precepts and Gassho Buck and yes, Salman you made it even romantic...
Thank you for this great topic and for sharing your thoughts and feelings about it..

Letting go, it's easy to do if you
see yourself as a facilitator and
not a healer.

LightChild wrote:Every day I am getting closer and get more aquacquaint with Reiki and that make me feel so happy and fulfilled...I am reading your posts and feel like I feed myslef with knowledge,love,light,wisdom ...like my soul was hungry for ages and now I found the right food to feed it....Like I was missing a part of myself and I found it....

you know you won your first contibution point

yes, reiki is all about unassociated, untainted love! and when put 'into action' we can call it Compassion !


take care

Salman

chi_solas wrote:Letting go, it's easy to do if you
see yourself as a facilitator and
not a healer.

yeah, thats very true Bridget


thats the thing i need to learn, and i have started too....


take care

salman

Wow ,Salman I am so happy for my first contibution point Thank you! That's the way how I feel Reiki is...pure and unconditional Love and Light and Compassion,Divine Blessing from the Universe
I am so lucky to meet you and know all of you here in the beginning in my Reiki journey.
Angel Blessings

Lambs-Wool wrote:

chi_solas wrote:Letting go, it's easy to do if you
see yourself as a facilitator and
not a healer.

yeah, thats very true Bridget


thats the thing i need to learn, and i have started too....


take care

salman

Labels are interesting. They can identify
our gender. Our single/married status. Dad
Mom, Grandma, brother ,sister, teacher,
labourer, Doctor, sailor, healer, facilitator
etc; They are like bumper stickers on a car &
give us surface information about each other.

How would we react to each other without the above
labels. At parties people are generally interested
in, "so what kind of work do you do"

Do our Reiki clients/recipients come with expectation

This is an amazing post Salman!!

Am I “smelling” a reiki book coming our way some time soon?

Now, I do not believe that your post means that it is “a sin” to be result oriented and will “invite” myself to play “devils advocate” here to make that point. At the same time I will point out how I “reconcile” head and the hart during reiki session.

Ok. First thing first. Before we “lay on” our hands we will have opportunity to talk to our client. It seems that the importance of this is overlooked and I didn't see many (if any) classes out there that focus on this. IMO this is very important for we have great opportunity to learn more about our client and at the same time “to teach them gratitude”. Think of the reiki precepts as one of the best “drugs” for the happy life.

As you pointed rightly out this is usually when we got first “head vs. heart” conflict and the question how to reconcile the two might be daunting task. However, it doesn't have to be that way...but let's continue with the “session” now and will get to this later on..

Based on our conversation with the client we are ready for the next step. Most of us will agree that it is our INTENT statement. It is common for many reiki practitioners while in “gassho” to address their own higher self and/or the higher self of the client for the help and support. Some will ask Dr. Usui for the permission and help as well. Certainly, that many RP will do none of the above and I am not saying one is better than the other. It will depend on our style/experience that we have developed over the time.

Based on our intent we usually choose one of the three approaches: passive, active and very active (the classification is mine :-). It is important to point out here that no matter what approach one chooses we are still only the FACILITATOR and not the healer. Let's look now into the

Passive Approach

This doesn't require much of explanation. Examples include full body treatment where we just lay on the hands and let reiki do the rest. Now, we have heard opinions (if I am not mistaken on this very same forum) that no matter what part/area of the body is affected that reiki “would find its way” to that area no matter where we put our hands. In other words if we were to treat toothache it is said that if we put our hand on chest or stomach it would work.

This was countered by saying that it would make more sense if we put our hands on/above the teeth area. While the reiki eventually would find its way to affected body area it makes whole a lot of sense to treat that area directly. We could call this “improved passive approach”.

So, what is difference here?

Well, it is clear that what I called here “improved passive approach” is result oriented. Instead of having reiki go long route we take a “shortcut”. Now following the same principal here ..why stop here. Why not go even further and improve “improved version of passive approach”

Active Approach

To keep the toothache as an example let's see what would be wrong if we bring reiki directly into let's say tooth rut (for the moment let's say that is where the pain is). Now this would require little bit visualization on RP part. Would it make sense? Now this is when question “head vs. heart” will pop up again. Should we do it or should we no?

This will depend on how we define Illness. So, what is Illness?

IMO Illness is a message carrier. It carries a lesson that we need to learn and therefore as pointed out in this thread the patient has a right to learn and grow. So, than we shouldn't interfere in any way. But, what if we can speed the learning process? What if we can help our patient the learn his lesson faster. Wouldn't this be win-win. He keeps the experience and let the symptoms go away.

I believe that if we did good job in preceding parts of the reiki session (as pointed out at the beginning) than this would be no “sin” by all means. Lesson would be learned and we still would be only the facilitator. And now very briefly to the

Very Active Approach

This is where we have clear outcome in mind and will be found by many practitioners as “unorthodox”. However, it doesn't have to be as bad as the label would imply. If the heart is clean this could be great tool to achieve or to lose certain quality/behaviors (working on ourselves). Some other examples of this approach would include creating so called “Reiki Shower”

So, let's hear it! Why am I wrong?

Regards,

Resko

Discover How Learning Reiki Can Change Your Life

rzukic wrote:This is an amazing post Salman!!

and i am equally amazed about the wonderful lovely feedback it brought !

thanks Resko, whenever i listen you writing something, i gather an instant Bornvita energy pack you are always so good in making me feel 'lets do it!'...

Resko wrote:
Now, I do not believe that your post means that it is “a sin” to be result oriented and will “invite” myself to play “devils advocate” here to make that point.

yes, you picked it very right buddy... i had in mind to ask that how people balance the result orientedness (a dictate of compassion, and maybe of ego too sometimes), with their role of a facilitator/passive agent within a reiki session...


a reiki session has various flavours which we keep discovering and keep on experiencing day to day...these happenings suggest that each such experience is unique and inert... and we learn a new thing in every next session... the balance between 'head' and 'heart' is a difficult thing to maintain amid such new and embracing reiki sessions, and we can't help but to 'flow' into the session... our meditative faculties keep on making us lose this balance often... what we do, as the session deepens, generally goes with our intutition of what we been feeling we must be doing....


many people start session with reiji ho and consciously surrender theirselves to the wisdom of reiki... the feel drawn to areas of problem, and they start active reiki treatments of those areas.... then their byosen make them sense hibki's in some other body areas, and they more consciously are drawn to it... here you can see the move from heart to head.... when we feel we know that 'here is' the problem, our ego suggests that yes we can remove that too... this is all 'head' commanding our reiki session... something out of balance ?


yes, and as we pour ourselves hard into alleviating the problem, there are several results...sometimes we drift into meditation within a reiki session, sometimes we start doing projection of our self energies, sometimes the healing starts happening for us and we start travelling to ourselvs... many experiences, many happenings... and here we are again giving in to 'heart' to passive yet strong surrender to reiki, and to love itself...


it might be inaccurate, but i sometimes feel that reiki session is alwasy a mixed result of the prime denominators... sometimes compassion leads the way for us to do something 'active' within a session, and sometimes we let go ourselves into the process giving way to reiki itself playing the show


i feel both aspects are necessary within a reiki session... the need of doing 'active' reiki is necessary, since when we do reiki actively, we are registering renwals of our intent on each passing second, each such intent triggers a new cycle of reiki healing..... isn't intent 'once' is sufficient? of course it is, but it is not we, rather our subconscious that ticks the clock of intent after intent, second after second... and there must be some wisdom in why this happens

passive reiki, or letting go, is again necessary... it acts like a 'blast tank', releasing pressures that would be detrimental to our safety if we keep going too much into the session... when we do active reiki we are invigorating our ki to flow with amazing potentials, our breath rythm, our brain waves, our pluse, all shift momentum to next level... that is necessary to put in 'power' into reiki session, but not to an unlimited extent... we touch a pleatu, and then sail smooth into letting go... just like we do with our emotions in life


i m not saying that this universal but this is what i have felt happening with reiki practitioners generally... and i advocate that we keep experimenting such innocent tricks... if we live the reiki session, what else can be better ?

Resko wrote:

Before we “lay on” our hands we will have opportunity to talk to our client. It seems that the importance of this is overlooked and I didn't see many (if any) classes out there that focus on this. IMO this is very important for we have great opportunity to learn more about our client and at the same time “to teach them gratitude”. Think of the reiki precepts as one of the best “drugs” for the happy life.

that is a great though Resko... when we have new patient/client, of course we try to give answers to his inquisitivity about reiki as per his quest or curosity, and as per our time available... but we seldom, i agree to that fact, teach him that the basic 'fuel' within reiki session is gratitude on part of the patient...

i feel if we present to him that the more he feels gratitude, the more efficient will be the session, this little formula may seem to work without failure, since patient would invariably like to do anything to get a faster healing... this is something 'faking' the gratitude feelings for him, but you know, who can bet that things started as 'fake' will turn into something 'real' as the time passes ! ??

Resko wrote:
Now, we have heard opinions (if I am not mistaken on this very same forum) that no matter what part/area of the body is affected that reiki “would find its way” to that area no matter where we put our hands. In other words if we were to treat toothache it is said that if we put our hand on chest or stomach it would work.

placing our hands is a symbol of putting our attention (and intent) too! the heat we feel during a session is not generated from our hands into the body of patient, rather it is the 'energetic reaction' of our hands to something 'produced' or happening within his body...


if we lay hands on chest or stomach to treat a toothache, i see it in this way, that despite our hands are on chest, our mind is invariably on teeth (or toothache)... so our mind takes precedence over what we laid off our hands initially... it is our intent that triggers reiki into the area of focus, hands are only receptive to whatever the results happen....


imo, if we do a hands-on treatment, or hands-off treatment, the results apparently are the same, but on very subtle levels, many things are different... but as we cannot generally guage the things to such subtle levels, we normally feel that both operate same ways....


in 'modified' forms of hands-off treatment like gyoshi ho, or koki ho, we experience that we are 'beaming' reiki, whilst there might be a possibility that we are using our inetnt to trigger something by visualizing something to be happening which actually is not happening...

our tricky mind smoothly makes the show comprehensible enough on conscious plane... and we normally feel that with comfort !


ah, discussion becomes boring to readers sometimes, but of course my 'head' acts little late than my 'heart' which likes to be in flow all the time



take care

salman

Hi Salman,

Resko wrote:
Now, we have heard opinions (if I am not mistaken on this very same forum) that no matter what part/area of the body is affected that reiki “would find its way” to that area no matter where we put our hands. In other words if we were to treat toothache it is said that if we put our hand on chest or stomach it would work.

placing our hands is a symbol of putting our attention (and intent) too! the heat we feel during a session is not generated from our hands into the body of patient, rather it is the 'energetic reaction' of our hands to something 'produced' or happening within his body...


if we lay hands on chest or stomach to treat a toothache, i see it in this way, that despite our hands are on chest, our mind is invariably on teeth (or toothache)... so our mind takes precedence over what we laid off our hands initially... it is our intent that triggers reiki into the area of focus, hands are only receptive to whatever the results happen....

I totally agree with you. This was in the reference to the claim that RP is only conduit for reiki and doesn't get involved in any way which as you rightly pointed out might be very tricky “business” with the mind that humans posses.

Take Care,

Resko

Discover How Learning Reiki Can Change Your Life

I remember when going for Reiki sessions
during my healing journey. I was always
focused on my uterus lining, yet before
the uterus lining was healed other parts
of my body that were not the focus began
to heal first including emotional stuff
that I had buried. It's my opinion from
personal experience that Reiki energy does
know where to go even if we set our intent
as I did on one location. It will get to
that location "cause" the brain is self
motivated to finding the cause and cleaning
up other stuff in its path.

HI Bridget,

Thank You for the reply. And Yes I agree with you that reiki will find its way. However, the question was if (in addition to full body treatment to provide overall support and many do only scanning and treat locally ) we treat locally would we have more imminent result.

As you rightly pointed out the healing is rather complex task and will happen on many different levels. When it comes to our intent during the session (especially the long ones) we can observe that the focus does shift over the time. This is not to say that we can not stay focused and I assume that most of us here will have no problem to holding one thought for some 5-10 minutes as a part of our 2nd level training.


Salman mentioned something very interesting and I didn't pick it up first time

if we lay hands on chest or stomach to treat a toothache, i see it in this way, that despite our hands are on chest, our mind is invariably on teeth (or toothache)... so our mind takes precedence over what we laid off our hands initially... it is our intent that triggers reiki into the area of focus, hands are only receptive to whatever the results happen....

And here is the lovely question:

Are we talking here about “two separate delivery channels” or is it instance where we can say “energy follows mind”

Regards,

Discover How Learning Reiki Can Change Your Life!

If your thinking "locally" that only
takes care of the body's toothache,
headache. Emotions are different the
client may not be aware of hidden
emotions that create the headache or
toothache. As a Reiki practitioner I
am aware that scanning(xrays) does not
show emotions. I think metaphysically
going beyond the physical to the mental
cause. The mind heals before the body.

Lambs-Wool wrote:

Compassion stands at the heart of a reiki treatment... love for the reiki process, and love for the patient is something that augments the reiki efficiency, and in a way, we may never become a good reiki practitioner unless we have a warm, affectionate, and compassionate heart

i remember James mentioned in some article on his website (www.aetw.org) that 'fiery hands' in reiki is not as important as is a 'fiery heart', if we are talking about the practitioner and the reiki process...

when we are compassionate, we naturally tend to alleviate the pains and suffering of our client/patient buddy in the shortest possible time... and at times, we feel need of use as many 'tools' within our 'holistic toolbox' as we can manage to apply... so a reiki session, often times, goes a little beyond what is called a 'reiki session'... (we tend to include too many things, which, of course, is a result of our compassionate nature)....


compassion also invigorates the circulation of 'ki' inside our bodies, and when we are in a reiki treatment session, we unconsciously tend to 'porject' our ki in making the healing buddy heal faster... this is almost a nutural outcome of we being compassionate, unless, of course, we 'know' that we should refrain...


more so, when we 'interact' with the ailments of the buddy through byosen and we identify hibki's and then apply reiki 'topically' to the affected areas, we are simultaneously developing a tendency to 'apply' reiki instead of general advice that 'let go, and let reiki'... a reiki treatment, ideally speaking, is not about 'doing' rather about 'letting go' and to let reiki flow as it would, or to let reiki 'work' as it would... but, in practice, this is not as simple and easy as it would just seem to... as our reiki session moves to 'climax' we sooner find ourselves adjusting our breath unconsciously to augment a greater projection of 'reiki' (which generally has the immediate effect of ehnancing our ki)....


then, we find ourselves often in a position, as if we were 'pushing' reiki to affected areas... the words 'directing the flow' may also be used... these practical observations suggest that we normally dont 'let go' reiki as we should... we become a part of obstacle in what we been doing and aiming ourselves....


these days, i m training myself, that how to 'let go' reiki and to 'detach from outcome' whilst actually maintaining the compassionate heat within the session... times i find that reiki flow becomes too 'subtle' yet too powerful as compared to the days when i used to 'push' reiki to the affected areas...

is 'subtelity' instead of 'intensity' is the true jewel within a reiki session ?


and, i would ask help and suggestions from my friends here that how do they manage these two important postulates within a reiki session

best regards


Salman

Hi,


There have beeen times in the past where i was led to treat the entire body of the client at once, not looking for a specific ailment or area. I suppose it would be similiar to treating a person`s aura with reiki. In this scenario, it was a kind of a easy choice to enter a meditative state. I remember working on keeping just enough of my conciousness lit up to remain standing without falling. I felt my way through the energies of the established connection, instead of judging the feedback of the experience...Basically shutting part of your mind down... You react to, and judge nothing.. You let go of conscious thought processes. You just let the energies do what they do. What is that saying? Accomplishing everything by doing nothing

Compassion...My Komyo master used to say...."Compassionate detachment"

I understand it as a state where you reconize the natural order of things, your place in it, and the fact that everything is as it should be. The one in front of you, feels what you feel, and reacts to all the suffering of this reality as you...If you have love for yourself in this struggle, then love for the one in front of you should be assured.
I would say that to accept suffering, as a necessary part of life, may create the opportunity to be able to love without pity, posessive tendencies or concern for outcomes when you extend your love to others.I think this is necessary for one to realize compassionate detachment as well.
Honestly, my attunements and the work I did put me in a state where I had little vested emotionally in the outcome for the client, as i knew in my heart that regardless of what was about to happen, I was there for the right reason and that things would be beautiful...and they always were.

If one has an emotional or personal concern for the outcome you are interfering with the outcome. With what i have experienced personally/learned...it can only be this way.

Love has many definitions.Compassion I would say, is the pure essence of love.

RJ