Throughout the 1980s I had been dabbling with various forms of Yoga, Tai Chi, QiGong and other modalities of bodymind health maintenance classes when I encountered an organization called the Yogic Science Research Foundation. This organization had been started in East Lansing, Michigan, by a man who was of Indian birth but who was now living in the USA as a chemistry professor at Michigan State University, Amar Gupta. Amar claimed to have been "a student of Mohandis Ghandi" as a child (whatever that means). Based on his Ghandian training he practiced Yoga daily in public, leading or, if you must, "teaching" all who chose to join him for free. According to Amar's understanding, Yoga came from the Universe for free and therefore should be given back for free. Amar believed that it was the individual's karmic gift--even obligation--to give back to the Universe. The classes--multiple classes, offered at multiple locations, every day of the week--were free! No money was ever exchanged. And yet they were the best Yoga classes I've ever experienced--as much for the relaxed and elastic spirit within the classroom as for the unbound patience and willingness that the teachers had for taking the time to field and thoroughly answer every question asked. And were they unable to answer a particular question they were quite willing to refer the class member to appropriate resources or they might even seek further clarification for themselves and then bring their findings back to the next class. Another interesting aspect of the Yogic Science Research Foundation Yoga classes was the kind of unspoken gift or obligation that an avid or frequent attendee of classes would someday begin a ministry of his or her own in that s/he would eventually become one of the volunteer teachers. This was never exacted as payment or forced from someone and yet the individuals who came to YSRF classes as shy, awkward, ignorant neophytes quite often and surprisingly stepped forward of their own burgeoning confidence to try out leading classes. I think it was the relaxed format and confidence-building results the students discovered with their commitment to yoga that spurred them on.
In 1989 I took advantage of an offer to attend a Level I workshop for Reiki. Though modern Reiki practitioners would consider Reiki to be the act of passive--or, for some, an active--transmission of an increased flow of The Universal Life Force or "chi" to a recipient as directed by a practitioner, the word "Reiki" derives its meaning from two Japanese words, "rei" and "ki." The former means, "spirit, miraculous, divine" and the latter, "gas, vital energy, breath of life, consciousness." Together they are taken to mean, "mysterious atmosphere." The word seems to derive from the Chinese loanword língqì 靈氣, meaning "supernatural influence." Still, most modern practitioners will tell you that Reiki means "Universal Life Force" or "directed flow of The Universal Life Force."
Reiki is a healing art based on the information given to the world by Japanese monk Mikao Usui (1865-1926). Dr. Usui claimed that he had received this information during meditation. He also claimed that this information was based upon writings and practices that had been known and used in the Tibetan world for centuries before he ever encountered them. He also chose to accept this information with an understanding that it was "given" to him so that he could then pass it on to others--that he was intended as a messenger not just a receptacle or repository; he viewed the "gift" as part of a sacred obligation and responsibility he had to share it with the world, sharing that he thought that he was but a conduit for this information to be passed on to the world.
As the story goes, Dr. Usui first "received" this ancient form of spiritual healing during meditation--through his Crown Chakra. At first he practiced Reiki on others for free. He would have been happy to continue doing so because he truly believed that that which already belongs to the Universe should be given back to the Universe. But, he found that people did not value the treatments and information as much as he hoped while he was giving it away for free, and they did not seek out more treatments or practice or share the information and practices with others as he had hoped. So, he reluctantly experimented with charging payment for his services. Under this paradigm Dr. Usui found much better follow-through or compliance from his clients and students. People took the treatments and information much more seriously and were much more prone to hold the effects and lessons of the treatments as well as share their stories with others when they had to pay for it.
My personal Reiki teacher was three generations removed from Dr. Usui. Her teacher, Virginia Samdahl, was the first Occidental Reiki Master trained by Hawayo Takata, who was the person singularly responsible for bringing Reiki to the West from the Usui School. It must be noted, however, that the form of Reiki that Dr. Takata brought to North America was a simplified, more physically-directed form than that of Dr. Usui's original much more spiritually-focused form. The more watered-down form that Dr. Takata brought to America had been developed within Dr. Usui's school, with the expressed permission of Dr. Usui, by Chujiro Hayashi (1880 - 1940), who was Dr. Takata's teacher. When I took Reiki attunements in 1989-90, it was a requirement that the Level I training workshop cost $200, Level II attunement cost $500, and Level III or Master Level training cost $10,000.
You saw that right: $10,000. Again, these rates were established in accordance with Dr. Usui's findings that the more one had to pay for the training the better valued and more seriously used would be that information. Also, at that time the attunements and information could only be received in workshops separated by significant gaps of time with the idea that the recipient would have time to practice and get familiar with the techniques and information. Sadly, this value system has been weakened greatly as has the sacrosanctity of the forms and information passed on. Reiki Levels I through III can now be "received" in a single weekend workshop for a small fraction of the original costs. It can even be purchased online in video form for the whopping price of $97 or learned from a book for free! (neither of which I understand because of the fact that the student would then be missing the essential attunement rituals in which the teacher/master passes on the symbols of increased "access" and "flow" by imbedding them within the Unconscious).
Why modern, westernized man requires an energy exchange on the physical, material plane may be a little bit clearer to the reader or listener of this podcast series--and, after all, material things like food or money are but denser forms of energy than services or ideas. Still, the way mankind has deepened and intensified its entrapment within the illusion of the physical/material world is something I hope to raise awareness of. The elevated levels of pain and suffering that will be offered us while on planet Earth during the next few years can be minimized or at least diminished through an increased understanding of and detachment from the illusions that come with Earth School experience. As global climate change creates an escalating number and severity of disasters in the coming years which then cause the partial and complete collapse of food systems and societal patterns, the ability to be able to step back and observe, even to laugh, will be quite healing, I assure you. The attainment of a certain spiritual perspective can enable one to grow more aware, more detached and less self-identifying with the confining rules and limitations of the illusion of physical Earth plane reality.
The Universal Life Force, chi ki, qi, prana, the Æther, bioenergy, cosmoplasma, Love, Will, Divine Consciousness, the Higgs-Boson particle, or God--what ever you choose to call it, it is in everything, it provides form and life energy for every single thing, every single concept in the Cosmos. Even the underlying substrata supporting or in which all things float and travel, even Dark Matter and anti-matter, even feelings and abstracts are imbued with, given form by, this "substance" that is The Universal Life Force. The reason I know this, the reason I cannot believe or accept any other version of this scenario is that I know that the Divine Consciousness, the Creator Energy, God, must be everything or else S/He is limited and therefore less than everything and therefore not possibly God. God cannot be anything less than everything. Otherwise S/He could not be the Creator or creative Force, the Will and Life Force.
To imagine or envision a Creation that is not the 'work' of a Creative Force or a Creative Will and Creative Imagination is simply inconceivable to me. And to imagine that S/He is one of a multitude of Gods only begs the question of Who or What created the Gods. Who or What is The Cause of The Cause? Or, better yet, Who is the Causeless One that existed before the Causes were created?
What can we imagine? What are the limits of the imagination? We humans are only limited by our imaginations. The Higher Mind of our Unconscious offers a still broader realm of possibilities for the creative imagination but it, too, is still limited in that it is at least a step away from its True Source, the God Consciousness from which it came; it is limited by the veil of The Illusion of Separation that it has agreed to participate in. But I am here to remind you: the belief that you are separate from your Divine Source, that you do not have constant and immediate access to your own Divinty, is an illusion. And living within this illusion--choosing to remain loyal to this illusion--is extremely limiting to your true potential.
If you can think it--Spark of The Divine that you are--if you can imagine it, then it can be real--then it is real--even if only on the relatively small scale of limited human comprehension or Lower Mind. Energy follows thought. You are, after all, a co-creator with God because of the God-ness in and moving through you. The same is true for everyone, and every thing, because every single thing in Creation--imagined or "real" (and from a certain perspective, I will remind you, there is no difference)--every single thing in Creation is imbued or animated by the God-Force--is only possible because of the imaginative, Loving, Force of Divine Creative Consciousness. As I said, even so-called "space"--that vacuum of supposed 'nothingness' in which all things 'float' or 'swim'--is a 'thing.' Even the barely imaginable 'substances' that are called Dark Matter, anti-matter, or quanta--which are supposedly just 'pieces' of energy or light but which neither have space, weight or location, have only 'probability'--all of these 'things' are things! Therefore, they all exist as part of Creation--of God's creation, of our Creation--just as much as we or that tree or that star or that car. We create things that fit our theories--our imagined versions of 'reality'--in order to help validate and 'prove' our latest versions. But think of how those theories or versions of 'reality' have shifted, changed, expanded over the history of human existence. And yet have any of our theories or versions of 'reality' changed one iota the spiritual backdrop to this supposed 'reality'? No. Creation is in constant change, is, in fact, unable to stay fixed or constant because of our daily inputs, because of the infinite versions, the infinite variations, and infinite possibilities coming out of the flow of Active Intelligence, Loving Guidance, and Sacred Will Power. The Universal Life Force.
No comments:
Post a Comment