How Do You Teach Reiki Precepts?

The last two month have been extremely busy at my job so I didn't have much time to visit RLL but it is getting back to “normal” and I am back doing what I am pretty good at: mainly asking the questions

So, today's question to RLL community is “How Do You Teach (or How Have You Been Thought Reiki Precepts). Probably many of you already shaking your head in disbelief and wondering: “Hey Buddy shouldn't you already know this?” but the goal of this little naive question is to go beyond usual explanation which in my opinion offers a lot of “what” and “why” but lacks on “how”. Let's look into it:

“Just For Today”

Very powerful and yet easy and simple to explain:

1.As a young we tend to look towards the future- to finish school, land a good job, house etc and when we grow old than we look back to “good and old days”. Here and now is totally overlooked and yet all experiences are done now and here so “Just For Today” makes whole a lot of sense.

2.Making commitment to shorter period of time is much easier. So, “just for today” is much more realistic than for the month or for the rest of our life. Of course there is more to it but as of now let's leave it here.


“Just For Today-Do Not Anger”

While a lot has been said about anger, what it is and how it affect us and accordingly why we should avoid it it appears to me that it hasn't been spelled out very well “HOW” one does not anger.

“Mornings and evenings press your palms together, take these words to your heart and recite them with your mouth”???

Is this what it takes for one not to anger? And if it is so how it works? Recently (here at RLL) some of us had the opportunity to learn that reiki precepts might have a lot to do with the kotodama but IMO even if it is so I still think that one of the best benefits that reiki precepts have to offer is obtained if living by them.

When trying to understand how it works many think of affirmations but than point to the issue with “negative statement” Do Not which doesn't work well in the field of affirmations. In addition it is said that affirmations do not work well if we are wide awake. Now, we can eliminate 2nd part because if we are in gassho, there is reiki “flow” and our brain will start producing alpha brain waves and therefore we will be in good receptive state of mind. It than seems if we slightly change the “Do Not” into positive statement this explanation model would make a lot of sense.

However, it takes some time for affirmation to start working. Is there other way?

One approach offered is to identify what triggers the anger and let go. Ok. Let's follow this advice. There is the trigger coming my way-let's call it big fat bully boy- and BAM he slaps me silly without me having any chance to defend myself. IMO the “secret-self-defense-move is missing here.

It does appear that people with strong spiritual background have advantage over those without such background. There is much more to be said and I could go on and on but I believe by now you get the sense of my question.

So, hopefully now the question how do you teach reiki precepts makes much more sense. I am using two-steps method and would greatly appreciate if you share how do you teach (or how you were thought) this “secret-self-defense-move”

Thanks,

Regards,

Resko

very, very good article!

hiya Resko

your 'little naiveness' has posed quite big questions here buddy enjoyful read! thought provoking... enticing me to think, rather re-think

very aptly said, "just for today" bears the keys of the hidden treasures which precepts unlock!

take care

I have to teach myself how to
deal with anger before I can
teach my students.

Let's say a student is 30 minutes
late, and does not call.

I can show I'm angry which sets an
unpleasant tone.

Or practice "just for today do not
anger" as a teacher I should model
the precepts to my students.

How does one not get angry? you don't
feed it, you can feel it. How you
react is the key to controlling anger.

As Reiki practitioners it helps to
understand that we can take care of our
anger and change it into positive energy

chi_solas wrote:How does one not get angry? you don't
feed it, you can feel it. How you
react is the key to controlling anger.

As Reiki practitioners it helps to
understand that we can take care of our
anger and change it into positive energy

Hi Bridget

I find that there is usually a moment just before you get angry at which you can consciously recognise that you are getting angry. At that moment you have the choice of allowing yourself to follow through and become angry or to make the conscious decision not to become angry and let it go, usually by taking and releasing a deep breath and being grateful that you recognised what was happening.

However, quite often we may prefer the drama of becoming angry and think along the lines of "this is my anger and I am darned well going to express it!"

It is good to remember that usually we do have a choice in how we handle the arising of anger.

Colin wrote:

chi_solas wrote:How does one not get angry? you don't
feed it, you can feel it. How you
react is the key to controlling anger.

As Reiki practitioners it helps to
understand that we can take care of our
anger and change it into positive energy

Hi Bridget

I find that there is usually a moment just before you get angry at which you can consciously recognise that you are getting angry. At that moment you have the choice of allowing yourself to follow through and become angry or to make the conscious decision not to become angry and let it go, usually by taking and releasing a deep breath and being grateful that you recognised what was happening.

However, quite often we may prefer the drama of becoming angry and think along the lines of "this is my anger and I am darned well going to express it!"

It is good to remember that usually we do have a choice in how we handle the arising of anger.

Having a plan at that critical moment
when anger is about to erupt can quell
the moment. I have found that self talk
can be valuable.

Over time you may have learned to call
someone an idiot to express your anger
or if something won't work you might
say this is a useless piece of crap.
Changing the vocabulary you use can
difuse your anger.

If you learn a different way to express
your emotions internally through self-talk:
"This guy sure is a slow worker." instead of
he's an idiot...."It's broken, that's all."
instead of useless piece of crap.

I'm sure that there are many ways to difuse
anger. The above is just my opinion. I'm sure
there are other ways that can be shared

As I was thinking about the 2nd Reiki precept,
Don't worry, I thought about how do Reiki
teachers help their students grasp such a
concept? Is it OK to give Reiki students these
concepts to work on assuming they have the skills
to practice them everyday. Are there Reiki manuals
out there that give discussion time for techniques
to work on," Just for today "

Maybe like.....
•Breathing exercises,can help relax our tensions.

•Avoid caffeine, nicotine,foods that trigger stress

•Exercise lowers our stress.

•Talk about our fears/work on a solution.

•journaling our worries,can help us see self patterns.

Hi Folks,


I do believe that anger can become an indulgence, a tool for controlling situations or just a learned response to stressors.

Like Colin said, and I believe I read something by the Dalai Lama that was almost word for word in agreement with Colin... There is a small window where we realize anger, and either we choose to run with it, or exercise control over the emotion.

I think in teacing the precepts, we can express the importance of the them to our students, and then it`s for them to decide. When I first got involved in Reiki, i failed to realize just how important it is to practice the precepts. As time passes, you either learn to understand the system more so, or you do not, it`s a personal growth and ability thing.

The mind recognizes the concepts attached to the words, and their importance. Yet it`s the heart that adopts the philosphy/truths of the precepts and puts them into action. So with this said...one can only teach so much initially. Long term teaching requires one to be an example of the precepts. I suppose one could say...talking the talk while walking the walk...


Jim

Yet, anger is a natural human response. It's how we make us of it that is the problem. When we allow our kids to wake up in the morning, and blow the brains outta some old lady on a games console, it really does worry me...

Worry. another response, maybe not as natural, though this society, can make not being able to worry quite a thing. I'm no expert, but one thing i've learnt in my colourful life is that every single happens for our benefit. everything really is a blessing. And our spiritual task is to see what that blessing is.

warmest wishes
Wayne

Milarepa wrote:Yet, anger is a natural human response. It's how we make us of it that is the problem. When we allow our kids to wake up in the morning, and blow the brains outta some old lady on a games console, it really does worry me...

Yes a form of de-sensitization. Our interaction with machines means we interact less with each other, and thats what really worries me.

Milarepa wrote:
Worry. another response, maybe not as natural, though this society, can make not being able to worry quite a thing. I'm no expert, but one thing i've learnt in my colourful life is that every single happens for our benefit. everything really is a blessing. And our spiritual task is to see what that blessing is.

warmest wishes
Wayne

Most definitly a philosophy that takes much of the sting out of certain life experiences.

Jim

ya know, recent studies have shown if we think bout exercise, we benefit that muscle by up to 40%. so, the brain doesn't differenitate between what's real & imagined. if we use games to stick an axe in someones heads, then jeepers....

we can learn to prevent anger
by not feeding it. Anger uses
a lot of our energy. If we
accept/understand our anger we
can make healthy/compassionate
choices that lead us towards
better self-esteem.

Thank You All For Great Inputs!

While back, when I was living in Germany there was a guy who worked with me and who no matter what we threw at him never got upset while rest of us would explode on every little thing.

I asked him how he was managing to keep his cool all the time and it turned out he didn't have a clue what I was talking about. He only said that it was pretty stupid what we were doing. By getting upset we kind of lose the control and it usually ends up by us saying something that we usually regret and have to apologize for it sooner or later.

On the other hand the rest of us felt that when we are upset we got energy boost and pretty much can carry out about anything we want.

While these two responses go totally opposite directions they still have something in common. They both are based on the belief (the first belief is that anger is negative and the second belief is that it gives us energy boost) that was reinforced over the time. Most of the time we are not aware of these programs and they run “under the radar” so to say.

When I got involved with Reiki it was my experience that reiki full body treatment didn't challenge these “little programs” or at least not beyond the noticeable shifting of the “pain trash hold point” due the fact that we experience deep relaxation and “empty our anger vessel” :-) but as soon as the “anger vessel” is full we were back in the game.

According to some sources Dr. Usui was aware of this and was quoted saying “First heal the mind than heal the body.”

Now, I will be first to admit that reiki attunement is life changing experience and it is no wonder that Reiki Precepts are totally overshadowed by it. And than when we remember about it than we face some new challenges as I mentioned in the opening post. So, how we do not get upset?

I find that there is usually a moment just before you get angry at which you can consciously recognise that you are getting angry. At that moment you have the choice of allowing yourself to follow through and become angry or to make the conscious decision not to become angry and let it go, usually by taking and releasing a deep breath and being grateful that you recognised what was happening.

As Colin pointed out there is a split of second before this powerful program kicks in (let's say before we got upset) but in my experience unless we worked on this we do not stand any chance to stop it.
As it was already said first step is usually to recognize the triggers what makes us to get upset (or for that mater anything else).

When we have identify what makes us upset we have few options. My favorite was

1.Re-framing.

This is based on the idea that the event itself doesn't have any meaning until we attach some meaning to this. For example: We are at home and house door opens. What does it mean? Well, it will depend on many factors-such as if it is day or the night, if we are alone at home or not or if we expect visit or not. So, it could be very frighting or very exciting (if our dear friend is visiting us).

Pretty much everything could be re-framed but most common are so called Re-framing for context and re-framing for content. But how we can take advantage of this? Let's say we have discovered that our anger (or what ever else) is triggered by our boss criticizing us always. Some (especially females sometimes go as far as to experience the pain in the stomach every time their boss enters the office). So, yes-our boss does criticize us but what if he is doing this because he doesn't want us to spend the rest of our life answering phones but instead would like us to take more responsibility and move on maybe take his position when he moves. So, he is interested in our well-being and we took it all wrong.

Now that we know that he has good reason(s) for his behavior can we still be upset? Probably not. But we do not have to stop there. We could do the same technique and talk to our boss and tell him that we were wrong by thinking that he didn't like us wheres he all these time had our best interest in mind. So, how will he/she react? He/she will change. This technique really works? :-)). The second technique that I like a lot is so called
2.ANT(s)

ANT stands for automated negative thoughts as thought by Daniel G. Amen, MD. In his book “Change Your Brain-Change Your Mind”. Brain is seen as a hardware and SPECT studies show some amazing results. Mr. Amen teaches us how to recognize this ANT(s), challenge and exterminate them. Negative thought are seen as a pollutant to our deep limbic system. Probably most telling and most beneficial is the part that teaches us that ANT(s) do not (always) tell the truth and we should challenge them (talk back to them).

I did some experiments (and it would be great if somebody else did the same to share it here at RLL) by treating directly Basal Ganglia System and or Deep Limbic System when/if upset. The results were amazing. For those familiar with balancing 6th & 3rd chakra this works even faster. In addition since this usually takes place in public areas it might be good idea to use what I like to call INTENT based reiki treatment and it is very similar to what Salman has described in his Sleep Reiki thread.

3.Visualization, Situation Reiki, Reiki Showers etc.

This method will require 2nd level and many will be opposed to this but I had very good experience with this. There is pretty good explanation for this, as Wayne said

Milarepa wrote:ya know, recent studies have shown if we think bout exercise, we benefit that muscle by up to 40%. so, the brain doesn't differenitate between what's real & imagined. if we use games to stick an axe in someones heads, then jeepers....

Very true indeed. I would take it little bit further by saying that it is very important for us to create these “ Memories of the future” (there we go I used this term :-))....and here is why:

There is some statistic out there that says that our conscious mind can process about 9 thoughts per minute while our subconscious mind process about 2.3 mill bits of information. So the question is than, how our subconscious minds knows which 9 information to “present” to our conscious mind? It seems that our subconscious mind behaves just as Google does when we type search term. It bring the most relevant results.

We all have experienced this let's say when driving to work, most of the time we do not have clue what is playing on but as soon as there is news that the street is blocked or if there is delay we pick up that information right away..because it is highly relevant to what we doing (driving to work). In other words our subconscious mind goes out and scans for the relevant information.

Oh boy, there is so much to say about this topic but this post is getting really wordy so let's leave it here for now..

Thank You All,

Regards,

Resko

Excellent post, Resko, with much food for thought

Resko said:
There is some statistic out there that says that our conscious mind can process about 9 thoughts per minute while our subconscious mind process about 2.3 mill bits of information. So the question is than, how our subconscious minds knows which 9 information to “present” to our conscious mind? It seems that our subconscious mind behaves just as Google does when we type search term. It bring the most relevant results.

The conscious and subconscious
are like our blue prints that
builds our character and keeps
our ego in check. Our conscious
is the logic part of our mind
and the subconscious is the part
that helps us heal, provided that
we are open minded & receptive to
attract /magnatize a belief that
creates the concepts of peace,
harmony, health & goodwill. The 5
precepts if practiced everyday will
help us in our daily life to acheive
the guidelines that float across the
top of this page.

rzukic wrote:

Very true indeed. I would take it little bit further by saying that it is very important for us to create these “ Memories of the future” (there we go I used this term :-))....

I'll not say a word...

Milarepa wrote:

rzukic wrote:

Very true indeed. I would take it little bit further by saying that it is very important for us to create these “ Memories of the future” (there we go I used this term :-))....

I'll not say a word...

I had a feeling you wouldn't

We used this term as a joke during my martial art training where we had to visualize us practicing certain technique. Many young guys objected to this kind of training saying it was “Martial Art for the Elderly” but I felt at home with this technique (I am over 40

Regards,

Resko

Hi Just throwing in my 0.2 cents worth..

Does the first precept really ask us not to become angry?
You know up until i was about 26 I did not get angry. almost never. People around me just did not matter enough to me to matter i think. Over the last decade or so i learned to get angry at times. It has made me aware of matters that are important to me and worth fighting for..

Also as i see some reference to martial arts and aikido on this forum here and there...
At the time Aikido was invented by Morihei Ueshiba I think you were being very loving if the other guy left a conflict alive. As the discovery of Reiki took place around the same time it may be beneficial to see how anger was expressed in Japan in those days...

To me anyway this precept asks me to become aware of what it is that arouses my anger.
See it for what it is and act from my heart in response to that anger. Either go with it and have that freeing tantrum. Or hold my horses, understand and let it fade..
Use it as a learning tool to self-awareness..

Its ok to become angry as long as you control it instead of anger controlling you..

I guess worry fits the same way of dealing with it. Sometimes i get worried and go out to investigate.. What is worrying me and how can i best deal with that. If i have no control over the thing worrying me..Let Go.. Is there something I can change ok.

Just don't go around worrying yourself sick over stuff you cannot change..

With Love
Eelco

Re-reading my comments an hour or so later. I have to say that what i write is what i would teach at this moment in time. Also you all know the saying those that cannot do. Teach.

catsquotl everybody's 2 cents is valuable
Reiki Learning Lounge.

It is important to me that the 5 precepts
are taught during the first level.I encourage
my students to integrate them into their day
to day routine and take note of how different
work/home life starts to take on a different
hue of balance & harmony.


Just for today are reminders to be mindful.
IMO as a Reiki practitioners I do not want
to claim that I support self healing and not
work on being kind to others. I learned to be
in control of Anger even when I believe in
a cause "it's worth fighting for". That's a
general thought that can start riots and then
gets out of control when mob rage sets in.

Anger can, and frequently does, cause serious
health problems when one does not learn to
control their anger. Angry thoughts and the
way you react towards others affect all of your
body's systems, Anger can take different forms
at different times. A situation that may anger
you one day may be overlooked the next.You can
learn to take control of anger when anger
threatens to control you. You can also control how
quickly you and your body recover from an anger
episode.

I know very little about aikido except that my
grandchildren are involved in Karate where they
learn how to defend themselves/ control their
thoughts. When I was a kid my brother tried to
teach me Jujitsi. At that time I was not
interested in the martial arts. Today when I go
to the Dojo I see their 20 principals posted. #
12 states.....

To seek only to win is to ignore the true nature of karate. Those who
wish only to win will become obsessed with this goal at the expense
of all around them. Such a person will lose their humility and will seek
any advantage at any cost. Instead, you should consider ensuring that
you do not lose. As to be defeated could mean your life.

catsquotl said:
To me anyway this precept asks me to become aware of what it is that arouses my anger.
See it for what it is and act from my heart in response to that anger. Either go with it and have that freeing tantrum. Or hold my horses, understand and let it fade..
Use it as a learning tool to self-awareness..

Its ok to become angry as long as you control it instead of anger controlling you..

catsquotl said:
I guess worry fits the same way of dealing with it. Sometimes i get worried and go out to investigate.. What is worrying me and how can i best deal with that. If i have no control over the thing worrying me..Let Go.. Is there something I can change ok.

Just don't go around worrying yourself sick over stuff you cannot change..

Worrying like anger has options.
I always smile when I read this.

There are only 2 things to worry about
Either your well or your sick
If your well you have nothing to worry about
If your sick you have 2 things to worry about
Either you get well or you die
If you get well you have nothing to worry about
If you die then you have 2 things to worry about
Either you go up or you go down
If you go up you’ll have nothing to worry about
If you go down you will be so busy shaking hands
with old friends you won’t have time to worry