There are always several questions on getting Reiki initiation.
In my personal opinion, you are already connected to the ‘Source’ energy. Reiki is just another name for your personal energy connection with the universe. You do not need a formal Reiki initiation to work with the universal energy. The only thing that you should be doing is to reinforce this connection. And the easiest way of doing this is to do your own mantra puja regularly. Just sit on your asan before your adored deity and mentally recite your mantras. Do this twice a day. This will strengthen your own connection with the universe and with time you will be able to use this energy consciously.
I have written on how to sense your energy in this post. Do try it.
In the current times, unfortunately all ‘energy healing’ techniques including Reiki have turned into money making machines for the ‘teachers’. Random people are creating new symbols, claiming that ‘Reiki’ has ‘evolved’. Students are getting initiated into so many ‘forms’ of Reiki! It is not good to have so many ‘symbols’ and initiation energies inserted into your energy body. And any problem with your energy body/ sookshma sharir takes several lifetimes to repair.
The teacher is always in a very responsible position because he/she moulds the student to be like him. Simple eg, even in school/colleges, your teacher will make you follow his ideas. As you learn eg Math Science etc you start thinking like your teacher, you take on your school/college teacher’s ideas. You learn the subject just like the teacher teaches it. You eventually ‘become’ like your teacher, at least as far as the topic. eg if your Math teacher loved Math then you too will learn to love Math. Or if your teacher taught Sanskrit as just a job to be done, you will also not really connect with the language. The teacher is extremely important.
And when you get ‘initiated’ into any energy system, you link up with your teacher on the energy levels also. Your teacher transfers some part of his conscious energy into you and you accept this part of your teacher’s energy into your own energy body. This is the basic concept of ‘initiation’. In Sanatan Dharma we have extremely high standards for the Guru from whom we get our mantra/ beej mantra. We prefer to wait till we meet a genuine Atmajnyani Mahapurush and then we request him to give us Mantra diksha. Till then we do the Ajapa mantras which do not need initiations, ie Soham and Hamsa.
The point being, in the current Reiki scenario there are several unscrupulous ‘teachers’. So always choose your Reiki teacher very carefully. Else you will be energy linked with some problematic person and this will cause you problems for several lifetimes.
The origin of Reiki is a bit confused as we have no authentic data on what the original Reiki teacher Mikao Usui actually did. Some stories say that he only meditated, some say that there were symbols involved, but there is no clarity. The Usui Reiki symbols and methods in use today have been developed by Mrs. Takata who was a student of Dr Hayashi who was a student of Mikao Usui. For eg, the hand positions were added by his student Dr Hayashi and his student Mrs. Takata. She is respected, but she was a student of a student of the original teacher. So she may not have had access to the entire philosophy that Mikao Usui taught. There is very little literature written by Mikao Usui himself or Dr Hayashi or Mrs. Takata. And then the ‘evolved’ Reiki symbols and names were created by later Reiki practitioners, which in my opinion have created a very big mess.
If you choose to get Reiki or any other type of ‘energy’ initiation then there are two possible issues –
1. The concept of energy initiation is to ‘open’ the aura of the student and then directly ‘place’ the Reiki symbols and the concepts into the chakra at the base of the neck, ie the Vishuddhi chakra. During initiation you are allowing someone direct and unrestricted access to your energy core. You are letting someone directly manipulate your energy, and this is a very big risk.
The person who is giving you the initiation will first ‘cut open’ your aura using an ‘energy sword’ of one of the symbols. The aura is the protective sheath of the body. Everything from outside is first filtered through your aura and only then can it enter your inner energy core. Opening up the aura means that for the 15 mins or so you are highly susceptible to your environment. You are trusting the teacher to protect you from everything in the environment while the initiation is on. Also you have no protection against the teacher, at that moment he can put whatever he wants into your core energy. This is a very high level of trust and this means that you are basically assuming that this teacher is a Guru and has no energy issues of his own.
And then after the initiation, if the Reiki teacher does not re-seal the aura properly then it is going to be a very serious problem for you. You will ‘leak’ energy and also be susceptible to things which can attack you on the energy levels.
Most Reiki teachers whom I have interacted with are internally unbalanced themselves. I have never had a ‘pleasant energy’ interaction with such people who practice Reiki ie teach and heal others. So when such people who have energy level problems themselves, give ‘initiation’ to others they will most likely mess up with their student’s energy also. Their core energy imbalance can be transferred to the student, and the student will suffer in the future.
Most modern Reiki teachers also do healing on others, and possibly without taking adequate care to protect themselves. And this means that some problems of the clients are also transferred to the Reiki practitioner himself. Most Reiki teachers pick up some level negative energy from the client. Perhaps they do not understand the danger, or are over-confident.
Doctors who deal with physical illnesses protect themselves from their patients, by using masks, gloves, sanitation procedures etc. And the same applies to the practitioners who do ‘energy healing’. Humans suffer because of their own karma and if you are helping others who are suffering because of their own karmic actions, be prepared to be attacked by that negativity. We Jyotishi do readings for others, but we first protect themselves using intensive mantras which we get from our Jyotish Gurus. Jyotish is a Guru-mukhi vidya, ie we have to learn it from a genuine Guru. Also the genuine Karmakandi Brahmins, Vedic or Puranic, who do pujas etc for others also first do a complete set of mantras to protect themselves. Jyotishi, Brahmin or Doctor, anyone who deals with dangerous energies/situations will always be ‘wearing’ energy/ physical shields. Simple eg – I am sure most of you have given Dakshina to a Brahmin for some puja performed. A genuine Brahmin will take the Dakshina items with one flower. He will smell the flower and throw it aside. This is a part of the ‘protection’ mantras which he has used to protect himself from your energy.
The energy world is dangerous. There are entities and energies stronger than the concept of Reiki, so do not feel that just because you have Reiki initiation you are invincible on the energy front.
2. Reiki is basically based on Buddhist concepts, and there are stronger energies around. And this is the second potential problem. Reiki initiation, as it is done today, is a permanent manipulation of your energy. The teacher ‘fixes’ certain energy patterns deep into your energy body. And these patterns have their origin in Buddhism. Mikao Usui was from a Buddhist background and he received this ‘realisation of Reiki’ after a Buddhist system of ritual fasting etc. Reiki, has its roots in Buddhist tantra, so is not universally compatible, especially if you are not a Buddhist practitioner. Some Reiki symbols are even now used in Buddhist tantra and it is not advisable to put these so deep into your energy body. And some symbols are actual Japanese words, the Japanese script is being put into the energy body as a ‘symbol’. Again, do this only if you are sure that this is what you want.
In this blog and otherwise also I have always advised reconnecting with the universal energy flow naturally. and using it naturally.
Your body exists within your Mind/Manas, and not the other way round. The more your Mind is in your control, the more effectively can you work with pure energy. You can Intend anything and everything, the only condition being that your Conscience/Antaratma has to be ok with it, else you will create unbalanced karma.
So if you are already doing your regular pujas or have a naam-mantra from a Guru or if you have a proper Gayatri mantra from a proper yajnopavit sanskar or any other Vidya received formally from a Guru or if you think that in the future it is possible that you will get some genuine mantra initiation from a real Guru then you should not get the Reiki initiation from any random Reiki teacher. As this Reiki ‘initiation’ will then interfere with your real mantra initiations and cause you problems later.
Ultimately the choice is yours and the implications – to enjoy or to endure – are also yours alone.
Dr. Tejaswini Arvind Patil.
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