It's All About Intention...

Sometimes even the most experienced Reiki practitioners forget how beautifully simple Reiki is.

I have been blessed with wonderful Reiki Master teachers on my journey, having had the good fortune to personally train with Linda Thompson of Unity Healing Center, Carolyn Musial of Mystic Wolf Healing Arts, and William Lee Rand, founder of the ICRT. By proxy, and because of my voracious appetite to read anything and everything ever written about Reiki, I count many more Masters among my Sensei as well...Frank Arjava Petter, Walter Lubeck, Tadao Yamaguchi and several others.

As every one of these marvelous teachers has taught me at one time or another...Reiki can do no harm. It only works for the greatest good. You CAN'T DO IT WRONG because it's driven by your intention, not your process, and if your intention is not for the greatest good, it will simply be ignored.

Where am I going with this?

To tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure yet, but come along with my thoughts for a bit and hopefully you will enjoy the ride...at least that is my intention!

A couple of weeks ago, I went with my daughters to our local mall. By chance, a major US bookseller, Barnes and Noble, was having a huge inventory reduction sale...giant tables stacked high with drastically reduced books of every imaginable kind. As I have already established, I have a reading addiction, so I had no problem at all quickly finding a dozen or so deeply discounted books that interested me. Almost all were on some topic related to energy medicine, spirituality, sacred places, and yes...Reiki!

Among the treasures I found on this shopping spree was a book originally published in 1999 under the title: "Reiki for Beginners" and now titled: "Beginner's Guide to Reiki". I'm not sure of the reason for the revised title on a subsequent printing, but I'm sure it was a spiritually guide change!

This book was written by a western Reiki Master named David F. Vennells, who I was completely unfamiliar with, but this fact made me particularly interested in reading it because I find alternate perspectives or viewpoints very intriguing, and they often provoke my thoughts in new directions for growth.

I usually do my Reiki reading with the book in one hand, and a highlighter in the other as I make numerous references that I transfer to my class outline binder for use in teaching. Mr. Vennells work ended up with quite a bit of highlighting since many of his insights gave me great food for thought. If you get a chance to pick up this book, I highly recommend it.

There was a part that I just read today which I'm sure was one of those "Reiki coincidences" that we experience from time to time. It was a particularly interesting section on the five Reiki Principles and how to re-word them as "Reiki Intentions" and meditate on them to help resolve difficult situations in your life...Reiki for self-healing! Something none of us do often enough!

An example of converting a Reiki principle to a Reiki intention would be like this...rather than "Just for today, be grateful", put the thought into an affirmative syntax like: "Today I am grateful", and meditate on that affirmation and all of the blessings for which you are grateful...the process will fill your soul with gratitude. You will be living in that Reiki principle and your life will reap the benefits.

Now what makes this another example of Reiki stepping in at just the right moment for me...

Last night, I had a fairly unpleasant, harsh verbal exchange with both of my daughters, who live with me. They're 21 and 26 years old, and as a 56 year old widower, it can be very challenging sharing the house with them. Since I have a huge amount of compassion and sympathy for them, having lost their mom to cancer just over two years ago, I generally let the little annoyances go, and like most parents, quietly clean up their messes and keep up on the housework while struggling to pay the bills to keep a roof over their head...OK...not quite that bad but you get the drift!

Well, for whatever reason, when I got home from work last night, and walked in to some messes not of my own making, I had had enough, and to quote my FAVORITE philosopher..."I has had enough, and enough is TOO MUCH!" (Yes...that's right...my favorite philosopher is Popeye the Sailor Man.)

I got uncharacteristically stressed and spent most of the evening calmly expressing my dissatisfaction with their behavior, their lack of gratitude, and their lack of consideration for my home, my generosity, and my hard work. (They might use a different adjective than "calmly" in their version of events.)

Well...long story short...while still feeling the stressful aftermath of last night's events, I stumbled upon the part of Mr. Vennells' book where he suggested that the Reiki principles can be used as "trigger lines" when suddenly faced with a difficult or challenging situation. In this particular instance, he would suggest that I embrace the Reiki principle of "Just for today, do not be angry" as "Today I am peaceful".

As I spent the better part of my lunch hour mulling this over, in fact, meditating on it...it worked! All of the angst and anger vanished and I was enveloped by a feeling of peace and harmony. The simplicity of the core principles on which Reiki is based came to the rescue and healed me once again...this time without hand positions or invoking symbols...just by embracing the teachings of my God as relayed through Dr. Usui and the Meiji Emperor as core values in my life. This experience and realization will certainly help me deal more appropriately with future adventures in parenthood.

Just another example of why we should all not just practice Reiki, but do our best to live it. It can only do good, and don't we all want our lives to be good?

Today I am peaceful!

Bob McGrath
Master Practitioner/Teacher
Pathways to Harmony