Reiki and Vipassana

It has been a very long time since I was on the forum..Sometimes I just don't want to read and discuss about reiki..simply loving and feeling reiki sated through the sessions and classes..
Recently a young guy who has come to several reiki shares I run, though who hasn't been initiated in to Reiki sent me this...
I would be interested to hear from those who have done both Vipassana courses and reiki..do they agree? do they find his understanding of reiki shallow and superficial? And of course interested to hear from those who maybe have not done any Vipassana courses as well..


In the evening Goenkaji went to the Dhamma House in Queens where regular group sittings and one-day courses are held. A number of Chinese Vipassana students live nearby. Goenkaji arrived at the end of the group sitting and took questions from meditators. One meditator wanted to know why there were restrictions on Reiki practitioners taking more than one Vipassana course. Goenkaji explained, “Reiki or similar healing practices do help people and I have nothing against them. But when such practices are mixed with Vipassana there is danger of harming oneself and harming others. All such practices attempt to alter reality by means of calling on some external force or auto-suggestion (e.g., self hypnosis, etc.). This prevents the practitioner from observing the truth as it is. Therefore they are fundamentally at odds with the objective observation of reality that is Vipassana.


“The purpose of Dhamma is to make one strong and independent. When one depends on an external force, he/she gets weakened. It makes one addicted to a pleasant sensation of which he has no awareness, much less equanimity. One makes subtle but strong saªkh±ras (karma) of craving and of moha (ignorance).


“Reiki practitioners can take only one Vipassana course and then have to choose one practice—either Vipassana or Reiki. This restriction is not based on speculative reasoning alone but on actual experience. I had to take this strong step reluctantly because of experience of many cases around the world where mixing Reiki and Vipassana harmed Reiki practitioners to the extent that some of them became mentally imbalanced. Many, many Reiki practitioners started distorting the practice of Vipassana, harming their patients or students, harming themselves and confusing the new students of Vipassana.

“We have a responsibility towards the well-being of Vipassana students who come to courses. Even if only a few are in danger, we have to be careful. Anyway, they have learned Vipassana and we have warned them. Now if they continue to practice both, they are free to do so on their own. But we certainly don’t want to encourage the risk.”

hiya Kevin!

How ya been? Funny i'm just getting back into vipassana again. I know that at the centres, no other spiritual practices are allowed to be practiced. The retreats are pretty intense, and they want nothing else to intefere with the process. The intensity that builds up within a person is crucial for the overall benefit. In many ways, a critical point must be reached. i'm guessing other spiritual practices will intefere with this quite simple process. Perhaps this is what is meant, even once a person leaves the retreat.

Our view on Reiki is it can mix with anything. This of course isn't the view from Vipassana. I'm guessing lots of Reiki folks will maybe think your quoted view is wrong, but only someone trained in both vipassana & Reiki is really qualified. I'm neither, haha.

Great to see you back again ol freind!

warmest wishes
Wayne

Hi Kevin!

Long time no 'see'

Could it be that the difference between Reiki and Vipassana is that Reiki practitioners practice in order to experience the phenomenon of Reiki but practitioners of Vipassana practice observing the true nature of things from which all phenomena (including Reiki) arise?

In other words, most Reiki practitioners mainly experience the world of effects (the arising of Reiki) and Vipassana practitioners try to experience the world of causes (the source from which Reiki and everything else arises)?

Since these two practices appear to have two different points of focus (in terms of cause and effect) they could be seen as incompatible for an individual because the focus of practice of that individual would be divided.

If the true nature of things (or things as they really are) is a Unity (One) from which Duality arises as a necessity for the effect to be differentiated from the cause, then it would be a problem if a person has two practices focusing on two different aspects if the person truly wants to experience things as they really are.

Hello Wayne and Colin!
Selling yourself a bit short there Wayne ..
I also knew about the restriction whilst doing a Vipassana retreat, and that is fair enough..I was surprised to hear the ultimatum-like reiki practitioners can do only 1 course and then must choose one practice or the other...I am sure many reiki ka can totally relate to and empathise with his desire to preserve the purity of his system, the cat is totally out of the bag with that one in the Reiki field..
I take issue with a couple of his reasonings and deductions about reiki...With the Gokai as a guide and compass are we actually attempting to alter or change reality? Or is it the opposite? Is it not a beautiful way to accept with equanimity what simply "is"? Also his statement that "when one depends on an external force, he/she gets weakened". well, I think that not too many of us on here are going to argue with Mrs Takata and others as to whether or not reiki is an internal or external thing...
I guess I am curious to know what these distortions were that he refers to and how they were made..Anyone out there with experience in both areas?

chuglet wrote:Hello Wayne and Colin!
Selling yourself a bit short there Wayne ..

Oh, it's false modesty! Haha!

chuglet wrote:
I take issue with a couple of his reasonings and deductions about reiki...With the Gokai as a guide and compass are we actually attempting to alter or change reality?

No more than is done in Vipassana. Internal practices such as Reiki or Vipassana, change things, well, internally within us. Our change of perception changes first our personal reality, as in our reactions, and, then, because of our way of being it can change things in a greater way. There's a point that folks shouldn't do spiritual practices for any other reason than to just do it. however, folks will experience Reiki for many self-fullfilling reasons, some similar to Vipassana. Reasons such as addictions, and even crime have been used successfully for both. I know, cause i was a drug addict, with all the trimmings. There's nothing wrong with folks experience things for their own reasons also.

chuglet wrote:
Or is it the opposite? Is it not a beautiful way to accept with equanimity what simply "is"? Also his statement that "when one depends on an external force, he/she gets weakened". well, I think that not too many of us on here are going to argue with Mrs Takata and others as to whether or not reiki is an internal or external thing...

Yeah, Takata said it comes from within, whatever was meant by that, haha! Reiki is an auric treatment, but what creates the catlyst for this is within, so it's really both within & outside. It's a lack of understanding of Reiki that makes your above guy say what he did.

Good topic!

warmest wishes
Wayne

I too registered for one of the goenka retreats and was told I would have to choose between reiki and vipassana. I decided not to go to the course and chose reiki. I was told by a friend that the reason they had adopted this policy was due to a vipassana student that found the reiki initiations helped the students in their practise of vipassana. The vipassana student who also must have been a reiki teacher then proceded to give all of the initiations to the master level upon meeting them at the retreat which brought up psychosis in some of them during the ten day sit.

Interesting...

good to see you posting Marty. why not give a little intro bout yourself in the welcome section?

HI All,

I took my first Vipassana Course back in 1981, this was before reiki was well known.
When I went for my interview with Mr.Goenka, there was a man before me who had been studying with another teacher. Mr. Goenka refused to talk with him because of this.
I do not know the full story, but he seems to not like any other systems, just vipassana.
This is a tradition in the Hindu lineage, find a teacher and lineage and stay with it for life.

I found that they both work well together, but there is a huge focus in reiki that encourages people to look out side themselves and sets an anticipation for the next Attunement. This is a conflict with the vipassana approach. Even talking with Goenka he does not encourage his intervention in your process.
Hope this helps

All Love
Patrick

This is an old thread, but here are my thoughts -

PatrickZ wrote:HI All,

This is a tradition in the Hindu lineage, find a teacher and lineage and stay with it for life.

All Love
Patrick

I don't think this is true. I am a Hindu myself but do not bind myself to only one teaching nor did someone told/taught me to do so. I think Mr. Goenka could be biased towards Vipassana and do not like or want to fairly see towards any other technique. Although I agree with him that Vipassana could lead to liberation, it is quite possible that his technique may not be suitable for some. Afterall everyone is different.

My background - I am reiki I and II attuned, and also attended a 10 days Vipassana course.

I do not agree with those who say only either of the techniques could be suitable and practicing both in parallel, may lead to unwanted results. How could that even be possible? Both the techniques are for the good of mankind. Both have a potential to heal and enlighten people. Both represent positive energies in the universe. The statement that they contradict each other is sheer out of ignorance or lack of knowledge or bias towards a specific technique. Neither vipassana nor reiki teaches us to be biased.

Now about my perception of Vipssana vs reiki - Personally, I believe both are quite similar. Vipassana involves careful scrutinization of bodily sensations but without attaching oneself (equanimously) to the process or results. So, the actor here is oneself/the consciousness inside each one of us/ the same universal-cosmic consciousness and the subject is the body. The goal is to dissolve the body in mere vibrations and observe and finally perceive that the material is not really a material but only vibrations and energy. Whereas, in reiki, the actor is the universal energy which represents none but the cosmic consciousness, a flavor of which resides within each one of us. The subject is again body and the action performed in reiki is to obseve how reiki flows and feel the vibrations.

At the deepest level, both the techniques look very similar to me and I also believe, no person with good intetions (equanimous as Mr Goenka refers) can be harmed by either of them or by practicing them together. Although, there is a subtle difference between the two, that one is active and other is passive. In vipassana, the self consciousness is active and consmic consciousness is passive and in reiki, self consciousness activates the cosmic consciousness and becomes an observant/witness to the reality.

I believe, practicing both will not harm anyone but that would affect one's speed in progressing in either of the techniques.

For me, I found, letting go and surrendering to the cosmic consciousness is path to liberation. In other words, reiki suits me better. I also try to practice vipassana (I am still experimenting) but as I age, I find, when the self consciousness comes in picture, all the feelings like greed, lust, envy, anger etc come forth and equanimity is hard to maintain. So, I tend to surrender to the cosmic energy to do its work and that way I can remain equanimous and ultimately lead my path towards liberation.

Love and light,