I just wanted to post a quick weather report.

I have not been posting much lately because my wife (Donyo) has just given birth to our 3rd son, about 6 weeks ago, and things have been very hectic (to say the least!). He is a beautiful little guy and we have been so happy to welcome him into our little family.

So, I wanted to say sorry for letting the posts slow down alot for the last month and a bit. I am setting myself a goal of a minimum of one post per week for the next few months. There is so much great stuff to write about and share.. so hopefully, I can get some sleep! and write some more in the coming weeks and months..
Advertising
I have for as long as we have been blogging here on Reiki Blogger been in two minds about whether I like having ads on the site? Advertising has never really been the point for having Reiki Blogger but sometimes I think that there are some good sites out there, and it is really hard to find them.. and by letting people put an ad on our site, maybe people might find something that is otherwise really difficult to stumble upon.

So, I have decided to just keep the links across the top, which are ads by google. And I will continue to accept donations that some people have sent through to list their link in the blogroll. (So far I think we have just about paid for the hosting costs.. which is actually really cool..)

But, please do not take this in any way, shape or form as encouraging anyone to send me money. Keep it. Spend it on your reiki room. And if something I wrote makes sense and helped you. Take the credit yourself. If you were not open to receive the gift, it would remain just empty words!
Feedback
And I also wanted to say thanks to those people that have been sending emails and feedback. It is great to get an email from you guys. And I really appreciate all your thoughts and feedback. It helps me know what to write about.. and it is nice to connect with other reiki people.
Comments
We continue to be unable to activate comments on this blog. So I have given up trying. They will work for a day or two and then when someone submits a comment it does not get sent and the person gets a blank white screen.

I have experimented with re-installing our templates and hosting software (wordpress), but it does not seem to fix the problem. So, please send me an email if you have a comment or thought about something, I check them at least once a week, and will try and reply as quickly as I can.
Forum
While we are on housekeeping things.. We have had 15 people vote so far on whether they would like a forum to grow out of Reiki Blogger.. which at this stage I think, although the majority did think it was a good idea.. that is not really enough people to start one up. We have quite a few more people subscribed to Reiki Blogger.. so the community is here.. but, some people feel more comfortable not taking an active role.. which a forum would be.

The original inspiration for the forum was mainly because the comments were not working.. and I did not want the blog to just be all about me. I wanted people to have a chance to share their wisdom and learnings about reiki too.

But, it is early days. Maybe in the second half of the year?
Be well
Keep up your daily practise.. and be well. TC

It is really helpful to develop a healing language for yourself. I think this is one of the main reasons people are attracted to organised religion. It gives their healing and spiritual life a framework and a language. It gives them the code.

I think this is a huge part of growing along your reiki healing path too.

From a reiki point of view we are always talking about energy. And we are usually talking about blocked or stagnating energy when it comes to healing. So, it would make sense that one of the ways you can understand your healing path with Reiki has to do with energy centers. Although it is not automatically part of the Reiki healing system, one of the easiest frameworks with which to de-code the messages you get from your energy is via the chakra system.

Indian Chakra System

Perhaps because I am a Tibetan Buddhist. And perhaps because Tibetan Buddhism comes originally from India and as a result draws heavily on Indian thought.. I personally follow the Indian Chakra system and that is the system I understand best.. So, in this series I am only going to talk about the Indian 7 Chakra system. But, perhaps (if enough people send me emails..) I will research and write up an explanation series on the other chakra system (for now I can confidently refer you to Reiki Blogger friends Frans and Bronwen Stiene for some reading material if you are interested in a broader perspective..)

Using The Chakra System to Understand Your Emotions

I have found along my reiki path that the chakra system can give me a lot of very useful information about what is going on with my energy and my mind. It can also give me an indication about what might be the areas in my clients’ energy that are blocked.

By being quietly and impartially observant on my thoughts, and by knowing a bit about the different stories associated with the different chakras, I can get a relatively clear picture about what is going on with the energy.

Which for me, someone who does not see auras, talk to spirit guides, levitate or anything else out of the ordinary (dont feel bad if you do happen to be someone who can fly..) is pretty helpful.

Do not get me wrong. I do in fact believe it is possible for us all to evolve into great spiritual siddhis (abilities), but probably not today.

Each Chakra Has a Story

Every chakra has a theme that it relates to within the energy system of the person. What those themes are and how they manifest is the topic of the next posts in this series. Each chakra has a unique sphere of influence and once you become familiar with the stories and characters of your chakras’ you will feel in a lot more control of the contents of your heart and mind.

Everything in Energy

I always think it is helpful to remember that everything is energy. No-thing-ness. This goes for the memories that give rise to anger. Or the tasty lunch that gives rise to happiness (and sleepiness!). And it goes for your body and the tree and the car and the text book. Just energy/force. (Sunyata to our Buddhist readers)

So, every thought that comes up is just energy taking the form of a thought (remembering the idea that while the energy shows up as a “thought” to us.. it is in fact just energy.. not a “thought” as such.. just a movement of energy).

If you could narrow down your spiritual path to the most important thing what would it be?

Courage?

Dignity?

Diligence?

For me it is self honesty.

Because I am a Buddhist I would say mindfulness or self awareness. Which is a good way of putting it, I think. Because we all have self awareness. But, sometimes we are not sure if we have self honesty. At least I am not sure. And it is sometimes very hard to be confident that we are not kidding ourselves either.

But for me the trickiest of them all is when I did not even realize I had been kidding myself.

Just for today

So, just for today let me be clear and strong in my self awareness and may I not kid myself about the things that need healing. May I seek comfort in my evolution and nurture my natural growth and life’s changes. May I not try to hold onto what I have, but enjoy the experiences for what they are.

Letting go of the need to control

By letting go our need to control our life situation and the contents we have the chance to move into something infinitely more stable and indestructible. Genuine self honesty and self awareness cannot be disturbed by the ups and downs of our life. The chance of daily living. Because there is nothing to uncover. Nothing we do not already know about. No shadow unseen or skeleton in our closet.

Move into fearlessness

If we can strive to embrace self honesty and living in the authentic presence that comes naturally with it, we can move from fear to fearlessness. From worry to contentment.

May that be YOUR experience today!

Can you believe it! This is Reiki Blogger’s 100th post! Hard to believe there is that much to write about Reiki! (lol). Seriously, it amazes me how beautiful it is to be able to practise reiki. And even more (for this reiki person), to be able to talk about it here with you. Pretty special.

Speaking of special, I have been saving this post up for some time.. and for a birthday treat (turning 100!) I have decided to bring out the big guns and offer this post to you.. I also decided to give Reiki Blogger a present with a new design for her birthday aswell. I hope you like it.

Thankyou for making Reiki Blogger one of the most popular Reiki sites on the web, and please vote below if you would like to see a Reiki forum grow out of this place that so many of you have decided to call your reiki home. I for one think we have a pretty special little community starting here.. very down to earth and clear sighted.. with lots of warmth and laughter too!

Wu Wei

Quick Tangent –> whenever I think of wu wei (pronounced woo wee) I invariably start to drift off to one of my favourite blogs Respectful Insolence who hates Reiki practitioners (it seems..) with a passion and has often threatened to take exception to the general practise of reiki in one of his Friday rants named (here is the tangent) friday dose of “woo”. (By the way the author is a medical doctor and surgeon.. so we can forgive him for mis-trusting us “energy” healers..)

Anyway, now that I have poked Respectful Insolence enough with the proverbial jousting stick.. Wu Wei.

Wu Wei is a Taoist term.

Essentially it translates as “non doing”. But, more accurately it can be described as effortless effort.

Follow your Bliss

Follow your bliss and “go with the flow” could be put forward as modern day incarnations of the sage old Taoist concept of Wu Wei. Both imply following a path through life that is at once in harmony with all the beauty and goodness of the natural world, while at the same time containing actions that spring forth naturally and with seeming effortless ness. Almost without contrivance or the interference of the individual ego.

Bodhisattva Ideal

I need to digress for a moment. The bodhisattva ideal is the highest type of “belief” or “value” in the Buddhist tradition (Tibetan, Mongolian, Zen). Essentially the bodhisattva motivation is to seek enlightenment so that all beings experience temporary (changeable) and ultimate (unchanging) happiness.

The Question

So, the point of this post is to ask you a simple question. How do you strive for spiritual development (like the bodhisattva) while keeping to a path of non-doing (Wu Wei)? How do you “follow your bliss”

The Answer

The answer lies with a deeper understanding of Wu Wei. Effortless effort does not imply vacillation or procrastination. It also does not imply being a punching bag for society or a door mat for people to walk all over.

Wu Wei implies being in harmony with the natural flow and rythmn of life’s energy. This is done through the transcendence/taming of our personal ego, and of embracing all aspects of ourselves (shadow).

The natural flow of life force energy is already at the summit of personal and spiritual development. So, if our goal is others benefit through achieving enlightenment ourselves, then to be truly practicing Wu Wei is to be fulfilling this ideal perfectly.

It is a Journey not a Destination

Wu Wei is a pathless path. A path that is at the same time not going anywhere, already there, and possesses progression and development.

Do not know about you, but that bakes MY noodle!

But, it is true none-the-less.

The path, Progression and Development

It is always great to remember that we are not expected to be at the finish line before we have even got started. Becoming a reiki person does not mean you have to all of a sudden possess the ability, humility and wisdom of a spiritual master.

We start where we are. And if we can make a little progress each year. Then we are doing well.

The progression and development part of Wu Wei is that you CAN in fact train in it, and become progressively more proficient. More and more in harmony with the ideal of effort less effort, that seeks the benefit of others.

Already there, the Great Irony

Ultimate truth has a great sense of irony. The greatest of all is the fact that we are all already there. We just do not see it. Wu Wei is a practise in irony. Pathless path, effortless effort. It is hilarious!

As we progress along our healing paths, as our energy comes into more and more harmony with the life force of the world in which we find ourselves, it is possible that the fetters and blocks within our soul to the perception of the state of things as they truly are may clear too. (not for this little black duck.. but I am sure it will happen for some in my life-time)

And, this will not be possible without the transcendence of the ego. And taking up an ideal like the bodhisattva. Mipham Rinpoche raps it below..

What represents value?

As with any service it is important to establish what represents value to your clients. And then over deliver. Reiki should be thought of as a professional service. It is a healing service. But, hopefully one with alot of heart. (Which to me just means not driven by the idea of profit - see part 4)

This is the most important factor to me when trying to establish what is the right amount of money to charge for Reiki.

There is a great hull-a-ba-loo in the Reiki community, ongoing, about certain associations insisting its members charge $10,000 for reiki masters training. Which they testify was the amount that Mrs Takata, THE original western reiki master, recommended.

On the logic I am presenting here, I personally would not have a problem with someone charging $10,000 for reiki training. As long as that represented value to the client. And, as long as the person conducting the training then found a way to over deliver against that persons expectations.

You represent reiki

See, the thing is, subtly we are all responsible for the way reiki is perceived in the community. Which in turn then affects how much benefit reiki is able to be to our communities.

And, so I think it is important that we all, as reiki people, take that responsibility seriously, and do our very best to represent reiki in the highest light.

The easiest way to leave people with a good impression of any service or presentation, whether in big business or small, is to over deliver. You need to exceed people’s expectations. If you can do that with your service (and I have some ideas which I will share with you later this week about how you can do little things that make a BIG difference to the way people think and feel about the reiki service you offer them) then you will have clients that are impressed and clients that talk highly of both your reiki services and reiki in general.

Should be non-profit

All reiki clinics and houses should be non-profit.

I do not really think there is any room for debate here. Reiki has a spiritual element. Even if you are using it purely as a technique to offer physical symptom relief (say as a compliment to massage or beauty therapies).

Because reiki has a spiritual element (reiki is defined, generally, as “spiritually guided life force energy) it will never “feel” right to exploit it to make a profit. And this is you best guide. But, if you are looking for others, I challenge you to find a religion that encourages its followers to manipulate its gifts to make money. I know for certain in my own family’s tradition (Tibetan Buddhism) it is not okay to charge for teachings or empowerments (donations are fine). And, that is how it works. If we are hosting a Buddhist meditation Master for a teaching series, we will work out how much money is needed to cover costs, and if a sponsor for the event does not manifest, we then divide that amount by the number of registrations and ask for a “suggested donation” to break even.

Money is not the devil

I grew up in a Christian household. So, I know all about this one. And even now, living in a Buddhist family, I find the same old references and reverences being made to hermits and humble beggar type practitioners.

But, thankfully I have also grown up a bit in my own self and realize that if I want to be able to offer reiki to as many people as I do, then I need to get out of the way of the success of our little reiki house.

And, that same principle applies at all levels of service businesses. There is nothing inherently “wrong” with receiving alot of money. It is just that it should not be your reason for doing it. And even non-spiritual business people will tell you that when they take their focus away from “the money” they are more creative and things flow more easily.

You should not be afraid of charging a decent amount for you service either. As long as you are satisfied that what you are offering represents value. In marketing terms there is often a “sweet spot” of what to charge for a service. If it is too low, people think the product must not be very good, and if it is too high no one will purchase it.

Barter System

It is very important that every reiki service incorporates some system that can cater for people who are unable to access the service at regular prices, due to financial hardship.

I have found that the easiest way to over come this situation is by using a barter system (other ways are to give the service for free, or to let people pay via installments).

A barter system is basically where there is some sort of exchange that is not monetary and which represents a comparable value. For example, the most common type of barter trade that we do at our little reiki house is the barter exchange of the client’s labour. I organise for the person to spend an agreed amount of time working around our property. Picking fruit, cleaning up waste, gardening.. whatever needs doing at the time.

There is certainly more thought that needs to go into this kind of exchange, but it can be very rewarding for both people.

Conclusion

For better or worse, the best thing for us as reiki people to do with any decision like “how much should you charge for reiki” is to sit and contemplate it with the aid of reiki flowing in, through and around us.

Trust your feelings, trust your intuition. And remember there is no “wrong” answer (just something we did not learn/heal yet..)

I have wanted to create a vegetable patch for a little while now and give reiki to the vegies. One of the reasons I have thought this would be a good idea is that I have noticed that some foods seem to enhance the clarity of my mind and the strength of my personal energy and some foods seem to do the opposite.

I have wondered if by giving reiki to the good foods whether that would further increase the benefits.

I hope that this will become an ongoing posting series, and that I can report back that things have developed with the vegie patch plan, as part of a larger goal that I have, which is to completely purify my diet. Which is to 100% only eat foods that enhance energy flow, and increase clarity of mind.

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There is an important distinction that you need to know about when it comes to energy healing, intention practise and the law of attraction.

The law of attraction is something high performing individuals have always sensed, but never been able to as clearly articulate as they do now.

Because this is a spiritually orientated readership here at Reiki Blogger, lets assume most people already know a fair bit about the law of attraction, but if you want to read more about it I suggest you check out steve pavlina and evolving times for some good insight.
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Everyone has things they are better at, and things they could improve. This kind of self honesty and self examination is important for a reiki healer to undertake on a regular basis.

This is an important part of providing the highest quality service to your clients and to reiki itself.

Because, that is in fact what a reiki person is doing, serving the reiki energy. I have always felt comforted by the difference between reiki and other energy arts, in that the energy while in one sense comes from me (in the ultimate sense that is) in another way it does not (the conventional or relative way).

In the everyday sense, reiki is like a “higher” energy than my personal energy. But, really that is not quite right. (because reiki is really “beyond” energy. it is beyond what are known as the four extremes, of “is”, “is not”, “both is and is not”, “neither is or is not”)
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