I accept with joy. December 1, 2014
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki exercise, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Five Reiki Ideals, Five Reiki Precepts, Five Reiki Principles, Reiki, Reiki wisdom, Tibet, Tibetan mandalas, Tibetan monks, Tibetan sandpaintings
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“Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart—a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water—I accept with joy.”
—Bhagavad Gita
I love the images that spring to mind when I read this passage—a leaf holding a single drop of water, a bowl of water with a leaf, flower, or even petal floating on the surface, a perfect cluster of grapes or a ripe apricot set off by a handful of sparkling cherries. The simple yet colorful offerings are so delightful that it makes it easy to overlook the other two aspects of this passage, the pure offering and the joyful receiver.
The Gita makes it quite plain that the receiver doesn’t need to be overwhelmed with offerings, that a small gift offered with a pure heart brings as much joy to the recipient as a castle overflowing with gold and jewels. More, to my mind. Gold and jewels can never be fresh like a dewdrop on a leaf or a plate of ripe fruit.
In this case, the receiver of the offering is clearly the Lord. But it needn’t be. It could be you, or the Lord in you. In either case, it’s up to you to recognize the offering and accept with joy. Once you start this practice, looking for small, even hidden, jewel-like offerings and accepting them with joy, you’ll start to find more and more of them.
Just the other day, I received a package from an old friend with the most wonderful gift inside. But let me backtrack a minute first. You know how the Dalai Lama’s monks travel the U.S. trying to raise awareness of Tibet’s plight? Well, as part of their presentations, they typically will perform traditional Tibetan arts. A few years ago, the monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery came to a town not far from me, and a friend and I went to see them perform traditional Tibetan dances (which were wonderful).
Later in the week, they were going to create one of the fabulous sandpaintings for which they’re renowned. Made of numerous brilliantly colored sands, these take days to create, and when they’re finished, they look like elaborate tapestry mandalas. After performing the closing rituals, the monks sweep all the sands together, leaving nothing of the sand mandala. A truly ephemeral art!
I wasn’t able to get back for any part of the sandpainting process, which made me very sad. But, unbeknownst to me, another friend did go. Getting back to my story, the package I received contained a lovely mandala to hang anywhere. But what really delighted me was that it also contained a small package of sand from the monks’ mandala! The sand is very fine, but if you move the little packet, you can just discern the many colors.
To me, this was a treasure. And certainly, my friend was offering it with a pure heart. I accepted it with joy! The lesson for me was that sometimes, simply allowing yourself to accept with a joyful heart can be every bit as important as making an offering.
Just for today, be grateful.
None are more dear. July 19, 2014
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Five Reiki Ideals, Five Reiki Precepts, Five Reiki Principles, kindness to animals, Mikao Usui, Reiki, Reiki and enlightenment, Reiki and kindness, Usui Founder
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“I look upon all creatures equally, none are less dear to me and none more dear.”
—Bhagavad Gita
Why should we assume that the lightning bug that flashes in the grass is less dear to the Creator than we are, that the dog abandoned at a shelter is less dear than we are, that the factory-farmed chicken or cow sent to the slaughterhouse or fish stabbed through its face with a hook and then tossed back in the water as “sport,” “catch and release,” is less dear than we are?
They are all innocent, and thus more dear than we are, who could have prevented their pain and celebrated their life, been their protectors and guardians, rather than their mindless abusers and killers. No wonder the followers of the Bhagavad Gita, Hindus, are vegetarian.
Just for today, be kind.
The price of gold. July 1, 2014
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, gold, King Midas, Reiki, Reiki values
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“To the illumined man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same.”
—Bhagavad Gita
I often see headlines about the financial future of gold as I scroll down through the Yahoo news headlines. Is its worth rising or falling? Should you buy, hold, or sell? Is the smart money on gold, or on commodities or whatever?
Reading this quote from the Bhagavad Gita reminds me of the story of King Midas, who was so greedy that he wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. His wish was granted, to his dismay: He found that he couldn’t eat, drink, or wear gold. His beloved daughter was turned to a gold statue when she ran up to embrace him. He discovered that gold had no value in itself, but was simply a means of exchange.
I think gold is lovely, but certainly no lovelier than the dish of beautiful stones I have beside my computer: quartz crystals, rose quartz, smoky quartz, fluorite, rutilated quartz, amethyst, desert rose, opal. And stones are more than beautiful, they’re useful: You can use stones to build a house or a wall or a countertop or a path or a patio. You can walk over them to cross a creek. You can use them to make a Zen garden or carve a Buddha or create a waterfall.
But even stones, much as I love them, pale in my estimation beside that “clod of dirt.” That clod of dirt is what feeds us. It is what supports our lawns and gardens, our container plants and houseplants. Without it, we might as well be living in “The Matrix,” hooked up to our nutrient tubes, dreaming of a world that had once supported life. Years ago, I visited Chimayo, New Mexico, which had a famous chapel that featured miraculous “sacred dirt,” as they called it. The “dirt” was supposed to have healed uncounted sick people, but whether it did or didn’t, a sanctuary devoted to the sacredness of soil was, in my opinion, exactly right.
Just for today, give thanks to the sustaining soil.
Stillness and peace. June 21, 2014
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, enlightenment, Hyakuten Inamoto, Komyo Reiki, Mikao Usui, Mount Kurama, Reiki, Reiki Principles, satori, Usui Founder
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“For those who wish to climb the mountain of spiritual awareness, the path is selfless work. For those who have attained the summit of union with the Lord, the path is stillness and peace.”
—Bhagavad Gita
This passage brings to mind Usui Founder’s climb to the summit of Mount Kurama and 21-day fasting meditation there in a grove of ancient trees. I have a great Reiki book on Mount Kurama, Reiki’s Birthplace: A Guide to Kurama Mountain by Jessica A. Miller, which of course has lots of photos of the mountain. I’d recommend it to anyone who follows the Reiki path. But until I studied Komyo Reiki, the Reiki of Enlightenment, with Hyakuten Inamoto Sensei, I didn’t realize what climbing Mount Kurama actually entailed.
Sensei takes groups of dedicated Reiki students to Mount Kurama regularly, and shows them the Buddhist temples and other sites that are relevant to Usui Founder’s enlightenment and revelation of Reiki, including the amazing trees he was sitting under when the beam of light struck his forehead on the morning of the 21st day and resulted in satori, enlightenment, and the resulting birth of Reiki. And Sensei gives slideshows during his classes and lectures that let the rest of us join him on that epic journey.
These slideshows really were eye-opening for me in terms of what the climb up Mount Kurama really entailed, especially in the heat and humidity or bitter cold that often prevail. We’re talking about thousands of steps here. I’d have passed out and fallen off the mountain long before reaching even a quarter of the climb. (For those who, like me, have no heat and humidity tolerance and aren’t in great mountain-climbing shape, there’s a “cheating” alternative—a sort of ski lift—but since I’m deathly afraid of heights and ski lifts swing you over the drop, that’s not an option for me either.)
So, even though the literal climb is beyond me, the figurative climb via the photos and Sensei’s description was phenomenal. Looking at the tree under which Usui Founder received enlightenment, with its great roots spreading over the earth rather than hiding beneath it, was just incredible. Which brings me back to the Gita.
In many ways, Usui Founder was climbing this mountain, the “mountain of spiritual awareness,” his whole life. Born into a Samurai family who practiced Tendai, “Pure Land,” Buddhism, his first encounters with spiritual awareness were within the Pure Land beliefs and those of Shinto, the national religion of Japan, which honors nature and respects all its aspects as sacred.
This aspect of Japanese spiritual life, practicing different faiths simultaneously without seeing a contradiction but rather an expansion, is quite alien to many Western, and even Eastern, practices. (“I’m a Presbyterian. I’m an Orthodox Jew. I’m a Sunni Muslim. I’m a Tibetan Buddhist. I’m a Catholic.”) But it enabled Usui Founder to investigate many religions, including Christianity, without having to feel that he had to choose between them. His natural curiosity and passion for the divine led him on his spiritual quest, placing his feet on the steps carved in the spiritual mountain long before he encountered the literal Mount Kurama.
But eventually, thanks to his monastic Buddhist mentors and after his world travels, Usui Founder did climb the literal mountain, Mount Kurama. And he did attain satori, enlightenment. And he came down from the mountain and spent the rest of his life doing “selfless work,” healing the victims of the great Tokyo earthquake and innumerable others, attracting thousands of followers and teaching them how to practice Reiki, for physical and spiritual healing of themselves and others.
Did this marvelous, selfless work bring Usui Founder stillness and peace? I don’t know, and I’m not sure anyone living does. But I hope so with all my heart. Because I believe with all my heart that the Reiki path leads to stillness and peace. May each of you who walks or climbs it find this true pot of gold and the incredible contentment that it brings.
Just for today, practice your Reiki Principles and keep your feet on the path. It’s a long climb, but it’s worth it.
Bearing up. June 13, 2014
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavad Gita and Reiki, Dr. Usui, Five Reiki Ideals, Five Reiki Precepts, Five Reiki Principles, Mikao Usui, overcoming physical discomfort, Reiki, The Reiki Way, Usui Founder
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“When the senses contact sense objects, a person experiences cold or heat or pain. These experiences are fleeting; they come and go. Bear them patiently.”
—Bhagavad Gita
This certainly speaks to me, since I’m super-sensitive to poison ivy and have come down with a really bad case. I know better than to pull poison ivy in hot, humid weather, and I know to always wear protective gloves, but the wretched stuff managed to get the better of me anyway. I may not be experiencing cold or heat or pain, but I’m certainly experiencing itching. Grrr, what a stupid distraction!
The Gita tells us to bear these sensory infirmities patiently. And honestly, how else can we bear them? The itch or cough or whatever is hardly likely to go away faster if we obsess about it. Rather, let us focus on Usui Founder’s Five Reiki Principles (aka Precepts, Ideals) and remove our attention from our runny nose or whatever. What a great idea!
Just for today, bear up.
Moderation in all things. May 30, 2014
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Between the Folds, Bhagavad Gita, Kundun, love, meditation, moderation, Peace Is Every Step, Reiki, Reiki and moderation, Reiki meditation, Sri Eknath Easwaran, temperance, The Tudors, Zen
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“Those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation.”
—Bhagavad Gita
The Gita says this not because meditation makes us happy, but because meditation makes us tranquil. Meditation makes us moderate. Meditation helps us see deeply into things, including ourselves. And, though the practice of meditation is inward-turning, its results turn us outward, with understanding and compassion for all life.
Ultimately, we realize that, thanks to our practice, we are happy, but on a much deeper level than the concept of “happiness” with which we started. Do we still enjoy that once-yearly scoop of Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream with hot caramel sauce and whipped cream on top? Absolutely. But what makes us happy is a picture of a smiling rescue dog who’s found love as a therapy dog after surviving tough times and abandonment. Do we still enjoy movies and TV shows? Sure. But now perhaps we tend to avoid shows that glorify violence and abuse and reach for films like “Zen,” “Kundun,” “Between the Folds,” and “Peace Is Every Step,” because we find that their beauty and wisdom make us happy even as we learn from them.
Do we still expect to be happy because of the people we live with? Of course! But now we are happy because we appreciate them and are grateful for their company, not because we expect them to “make” us happy or to do and be things they are not. Sri Eknath Easwaran, a great champion of meditation, expressed this perfectly when he said that when most people say “I love you,” what they are really saying is “I love me, now what can you do for me?” My partner Rob and I have recently been rewatching the Showtime series “The Tudors,” and Henry VIII is a perfect example of this attitude. Yet, as we look deeper into ourselves, can’t we see a little of Henry in us, too? Meditation can help us root it out.
Just for today, meditate on the Reiki Principles.
How can you know joy? April 20, 2014
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki exercise, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Five Reiki Ideals, Five Reiki Precepts, Five Reiki Principles, happiness, joy, Mikao Usui, peace, secret of happiness, Usui Founder
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“When you know no peace, how can you know joy?”
—Bhagavad Gita
Usui Founder’s Five Reiki Principles (aka Precepts, Ideals) are specifically designed to bring us peace. When, just for today, we don’t worry, don’t get angry, are grateful, work hard, and are kind, we build a strong, supportive framework for peace of mind that allows joy to flood us with its unlimited potential for happiness. This is why Usui Founder called the Principles “the secret to inviting happiness.”
Just for today, practice the Principles.
On this path. January 29, 2014
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Reiki, Reiki and worry, Reiki as spiritual practice, Reiki path
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“On this path, effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear.”
—Bhagavad Gita
Just for today, as you walk the Reiki path, don’t worry.
The peace in which all sorrows end. November 8, 2013
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Five Reiki Ideals, Five Reiki Precepts, Five Reiki Principles, Hyakuten Inamoto-sensei, Komyo Reiki, Mikao Usui, Usui Founder
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“When you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion alike, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end, and you live in the wisdom of the Self.”
—Bhagavad Gita
This timeless quote reminds me of the motto of Komyo Reiki, the Reiki of Enlightenment: “Go placidly in the midst of praise and blame.” If you can manage this, as the Gita says, “all sorrows end.”
I actually think it’s easier to become free from attachment than aversion. And I think that this is because attachment is so often a mental construct, whereas aversion is a survival mechanism built into our genetic heritage. We may think we “love” coffee, chocolate, our evening glass of wine, video games, high heels, football, abstract art, or acid rock. But this is conditioning, nurture, not nature, and it can be changed.
Not, mind you, that it should be changed for any arbitrary reason. If you want to eat a slice of crusty French baguette smeared with butter, Brie, and topped with sliced French Breakfast radishes and salt, and wash it down with a glass of good red wine, why shouldn’t you? But if you feel you have to eat that luscious slice of baguette and/or drink that red wine, smoke that cigar, hit the casino, buy this season’s fashions, watch today’s hot shows, etc., that’s a problem, a roadblock, something to work on. Walk away, do something else, free yourself.
Sri Eknath Easwaran recommends taking a brisk walk in situations like this while reciting a mantram (plural, mantra, more often used in the US as mantra, singular, mantras, plural). The combination of exercise and spiritual reinforcement and focus helps clear the mind of compulsive reactions. For those of us on the Reiki Way, reciting Usui Founder’s Five Reiki Principles (aka Precepts, Ideals) while walking can do the trick.
But going against aversions requires the convictions of a saint. Jesus healing the leper, St. Francis kissing a leper, Mother Teresa pulling the maggot-infested dying from the gutters of Calcutta, Pope Francis kissing a hideously deformed man: These are the actions of transcendence, the freedom in which all sorrow ends and wisdom takes her seat in heart and mind. Aversions are, in my opinion, ultimately our fight-or-flight response, our millennia-old imperative to abandon the weak and sickly for the sake of our group’s survival.
Today, we may find ourselves obsessing over every pimple, wrinkle, grey hair, or age spot. We may shun people who are overweight or mentally distressed or bald, and pull on our Spanx or glop on our makeup and try the latest diet and exercise regimen to cover our own perceived deficiencies. But this surface knee-jerk response will never bring us to “the peace in which all sorrows end.”
We must move beyond our society’s obsession with youthful perfection. After all, we all will eventually grow old, and display all the manifestations of old age. We can’t escape it, no matter how desperately we try, putting so much time and energy into a futile vanity when we could have been doing good.
Fortunately, those of us on the Reiki path are healers at our hearts. That means that, like Mother Teresa, like Pope Francis, we see others from their need and not their appearance or mental condition. This gives us such a step up in terms of coming to a place of non-judgment, of non-attachment. Practicing the Reiki Principles to the best of our ability every day also strengthens us to go placidly in the midst of praise and blame, to free ourselves from attachment and aversion.
Just for today, be grateful.
The misery of selfishness. January 26, 2013
Posted by ourfriendben in Reiki, Reiki wisdom.Tags: Bhagavad Gita, Eknath Easwaran, Mikao Usui, Reiki, Reiki Ideals, Reiki Precepts, Reiki Principles, selfishness, Usui Founder
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“Just as fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is covered by dust, just as the embryo rests deep within the womb, wisdom is hidden by selfishness.”
—The Bhagavad Gita
“Life cannot make a selfish person happy.”
—Sri Eknath Easwaran’s grandmother and spiritual teacher
Usui Founder addressed the issue of selfishness and the barriers it puts between us and enlightenment when he gave those of us who follow the Reiki Way his Five Reiki Principles (aka Precepts, Ideals):
Just for today:
Don’t get angry.
Don’t worry.
Be grateful.
Work hard.
Be kind.
Anger is typically caused by perceived slights to our precious self or when things don’t go exactly our way. Worry arises when we’re afraid of some potential negative outcome to our self-esteem and well being. In order to be grateful, we must acknowledge the role that others play in our lives, a role that puts us in their debt (and how our proud selves hate to acknowledge a debt to anyone!). Our self-centered egos are probably aligned in one of two camps as far as working hard is concerned, the camp of entitlement (Why should I have to work at all?) and the camp of greed (I must climb the ladder of corporate success and accumulate as much wealth, status, and material gain for myself as I can, no matter the cost to others.) Be kind? How can we possibly be kind to others when our entire attention is focused on ourselves?!
By seeing Usui Founder’s Principles as he intended, as a roadmap to life, as a way to set selfishness aside and clear the path to enlightenment, those of us who follow the Reiki Way face a unique challenge and have been given a unique gift.
Just for today, embrace wisdom and happiness.
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