The meditation guidance: sit comfortably with your back straight. It is important to be comfortable enough that you can sit and focus on the present moment without needless distractions from pain or other discomforts. Many people sit on meditation cushions, but it is perfectly fine to sit in a straight-backed chair or on the couch with pillows to help keep your back straight.
Bring your hands together in the prayer position with your hands in front of your heart. This is Gassho (described below in the blog text) which is typically translated as “two hands coming together”. Some also interpret this hand position as an equivalent to Namaste or “I see the divine light within you”.
Close your eyes and focus in a relaxed way on the sensations in your hands and specifically the touching of your middle fingers. You can also allow yourself to be aware of your sense of hearing and the wave of your in-breath and out-breath. Your mind will wander because that is what the mind does, it thinks. When you realize that your mind is wandering simply notice and return to your middle fingers, your breath, or your sense of hearing.
If you become too uncomfortable holding your hands in this position, let them gently move down to your lap but keeping your hands and fingers touching.
Continue this Gassho Meditation for at least 3-5 minutes each day. You will receive more benefits if you are able to practice 15-20 minutes at least once every day.
During the meditation period begin to tune into the feeling of energy in your body. This is Reiji-Ho (described below in the blog text) translated as “indication of the Reiki power methods”. Here, we ask to feel the connection and flow of the Universal energy. I typically say to myself, “May I be an instrument of Divine Peace” followed by “May I feel the flow of healing and well-being.” Offer the statements 3 times.
Feel free to create statements that resonate most for you.
Then, sit for a while allowing yourself to tune into and feel the energy entering your body and flowing through. It may take you several practice sessions to begin to have the quietness enough to tune in. Just be patient and trust that you are fine tuning your radar.
At the completion of your meditation time, move your hands (still in prayer position) in front of your 3rd eye and say to yourself, “May my efforts benefit all beings. May I bring mindfulness and compassion to my every thought, word (move hands in front of mouth), and deed (move hands in front of chest).” Again, you are free to offer any closing statements you prefer.
You can “Become A Reiki Master” this June
Would you like to learn Reiki and how you can use it to support healing for yourself and people you care about? This will be a fun, experiential, weekend intensive. You’ll be supported by myself and two gifted teaching assistants. We’ll offer you the instruction, meditations, and lots of hands-on practice with intuitive feedback. We’ll help you tune into yourself and begin the process of freeing yourself.
Information and Registration here I still have early bird rates and gifts available if you register before May 15th.
The 3 Pillars of Reiki
Mikao Usui is generally recognized as the father of the Reiki healing method. It is said that he received the inspiration of Reiki healing while on a 21-day retreat on Mount Kurama in Japan in 1922.
He began offering healings when he returned home from his retreat, eventually, he began teaching his methods. Texts indicate that he was quite intense as a teacher. Usui is also credited with developing his methods in a highly intuitive way. Intuitive Reiki requires the practitioner to be skilled at tuning into themselves, the energy, and their client.
I believe these skills are quite natural for humans. I think it is a process of returning to ourselves. We become disconnected from the sensitivity we had as children. I think we were trained out of it by feeling that we had to conform at home, school, and in our culture. Rest assured, however, we can come home to ourselves and this is a beautiful practice that helps you do just that.
The three pillars of Reiki are Gassho, Reiji-Ho, and Chiryo.
Gassho is a posture and meditation practice as outlined in the instructions above. The body posture of a straight spine keeps us alert and prevents our energy from getting cut off like when we slouch. The hand position is much like a mudra. Mudras are hand positions that are understood to help move energy in specific ways and to convey spiritual meaning. In the Gassho position, the connection of the middle fingers also acts as a focus for our awareness. The meditation is meant to help us quiet our minds, ground our bodies, and tune into our spiritual essence.
Reiji-Ho is the intentional connection with the Universe and the Universal Love energy. Everything we can conceive of is part of the energetic fabric of the Universe. The energy is in and around us but we often need help reconnecting to our awareness of it and the flow of it. Think of a fish becoming aware of the water in which it lives.
In the Reiji-Ho portion of the meditation, we are setting the intention for connection as well as opening ourselves to receiving the flow of it. The energy of the Universe is flowing all the time – energy moves by definition. However, we frequently do not allow ourselves to feel it. So, in this meditation we are offering conscious intentions for stepping into the flow of love, healing, and well-being. Don’t underestimate the power of your intentions!
The first two pillars of Reiki, Gassho and Reiki-Ho, can become a powerful daily meditation practice to help you both connect more deeply with yourself and to expand yourself spiritually.
Gassho and Reiji-Ho can also prepare you for conducting a healing session.
I’ll say here that I think the term “healer” is a bit of a misnomer. I have come to believe that we do not heal others. I think it is more accurate to say we are facilitators. We can help others relax or remove resistance to allowing their own healing. I absolutely believe that all healing is ultimately self-healing. I think that is true in conventional western medicine, too. A body can be pumped full of medicine but if the immune system does not ultimately overcome the problem, the body will not heal.
Healers can create a holding and healing environment for their client where the client can allow healing or not. It is critical that we hold a loving, but neutral, space for the client to allow whatever they need at that time. We cannot know what is in the highest good for that person at that time.
When these practices are used as preparation for a session, the hand position at the 3rd eye is held with a request that one be guided to where the client needs healing first. This is connection with the intuitive guidance for a Reiki session. Energy cannot be limited or prevented from moving as it will. We can trust that wherever we lay our hands, it is the right place.
This moves us into the third pillar of Reiki, Chiryo.
Chiryo is the treatment phase of Reiki which I am not going to explore in this blog. If you would like to learn Reiki and how to use it, register for the upcoming Become A Reiki Master – a transformational weekend – June 8-10
Be well,
Susan Franklin PsyD
Reiki Master Teacher & Psychologist
Inis LaMothe, PsyD 