Reiki Your Spiritual Sat-Nav

Article by Phillip Hawkins

Ok, we all know about Reiki; it’s well documented and in some cases has been talked to death. On the other hand the subject of ‘stuff’ by comparison is virgin territory that can, on closer inspection turn up a few new insights to the relationship between Reiki and stuff in general.

Reiki in our life is a personal choice whereas stuff is a given; we are born into it, and start to collect it from the moment we enter into this big wide world, and if that wasn’t enough If you believe in reincarnation and karma we come with our baggage all ready packed from one life to the next. Which if you think about it makes some sense as one experience can never be totally separated from its neighbor. What we experience in one moment inevitably affects how we view and respond to the next, so even if we don’t have total recall we may well re-enter the world as a weary if not wise spirit, and far less pristine than we first imagine. How many of us have looked into the eyes of a baby and seen something that made us think or even say ‘this child has been here before.’

So what is this stuff that appears at times almost magnetic in its ability to be drawn to us and cling to us like glue. Put simply stuff is baggage we collect and carry around with us throughout our lives; it can take the form of beliefs, fears phobia’s, misguided responsibility misconceptions, anger, frustration and guilt, in short it’s anything that impacts on the way we live our lives and affects the decisions we make. Children may be old spirits but when they enter this world they are governed by all of the laws of creation, and so from the first moment of life they become aware of, listen to, accept and take responsibility for all manner of stuff without question. With their ‘limited’ knowledge and understanding they automatically assume they are the creators of their universe and take personal responsibility for many things, if mammy and daddy are upset, angry, sad or unhappy, fighting and hurting each other, or worse still hurting the child, in their mind they, and not the adults must be at fault and have done something wrong to create the situation. The child automatically accepts its role in life’s creative process albeit for the wrong reason, and as we grow older we relinquish the idea possibly because of negative experiences that have ‘proven’ to our inexperienced minds that as children we have no control over life.

It’s a lesson later in life that we must re-learn as we come to understand that through the very laws of creation we are the creator of our life experiences. Our thoughts are the architects and our beliefs good or bad (stuff) are the builders that create the reality we come experience in our lives.

Some if not all of the stuff we take on board isn’t even our own, it belongs to those who decided to bring us into the world and became our parents, teachers mentors and in some cases tormentors, but our parents, teachers and those who exert control over our development can only teach us what they themselves have learnt. Potentially some of the stuff we accept as our own can be nothing more than an established family heirloom going back generations, but because we know no better and we trust and love those who gave us this belief or value we accept it as gospel and take it as our own, and it becomes part of the foundation that we build our experiences on.

There is an old and some would say wise saying; ‘when you meet the parents you can forgive the child anything’. However there comes a time in everyone’s like when they begin to exercise their own free will, and if we then suffer because of the consequences of our own actions we must begin to let go of the victim mentality and start to take responsibility for our actions. We can use our upbringing as an excuse for our actions, or motivation to break the chain of events. I am because of this, or I am in spite of this. Taken to the extreme some negative stuff can lead us into some very dark and desolate places of intolerance, abuse and suffering but unfortunately a closed dark mind is unaware of its own ignorance, ignorance in the truest sense of the word lacking in knowledge and understanding and the lightness of mind body and spirit this can bring into our lives.

So having touch on stuff where does Reiki come into the equation and what’s its relationship to our own stuff, and trust me if you are alive and reading this (the first is a pre-requisite for the second) you will have stuff in your life, and I can guarantee that some of it you won’t even be aware of yet, and it’s the unknown stuff that exerts the greatest influence over all of us. Your belief in Reiki may even be part of the stuff you will need to revisit to see if you want to continue carrying this particular piece of luggage. Reiki baggage? It can be depending on what you believe and the expectations you may have about it.

There is a popular mis-conception that Reiki is a miracle cure all that comes into your life, takes over and does all the hard work for you based on what is defined as your ‘higher good’. It can’t, it never has and never will purely and simply because it has neither the power nor the authority to do so, by the very fact that Reiki exists within the realms of creation it can’t operate arbitrarily outside of the laws that were instrumental in its creation.

What it can and does do is work with us; education is the only means to establish sustainable change in anyone’s life and Reiki educates us through the raising of our knowledge and understanding to the true nature of our own stuff and the ways in which we can accept it, acknowledge it, learn from it and then move on lighter in mind body and spirit because of the baggage we have chosen to put down either because we have outgrown it, or it no longer represents the person we have become. Often quoted but not necessarily understood is the precept that the ‘only person we can heal is ourselves’ and spiritual teachings speak of the physician being commanded to ‘heal thy self’, the emphasis is on the pivotal word of ‘we’ and not Reiki. If we are lacking in the knowledge and understanding to do so Reiki will help us to recognise, accept deal with and learn from our stuff in order that healing can take place.

We can’t even hide behind the ‘higher good stuff’ because we mistakenly come to believe that higher good equates to all things nice and wonderful wherein the reality is totally different. The things we don’t want to face about ourselves, the actions that may be at odds with the spiritual ideals we wish others to associate us with, our relationships that may be abusive and self destructive and all manner of issues we would prefer to lock away and pretend they don’t exist are all in our highest good to accept and deal with. Anyone who has experienced these kinds of issues in their lives’ will know how painful, frightening and debilitating it can be to face up to and address them. We can lie to others, we can even lie to ourselves but our body is always listening, it knows where all the stuff is hidden and our body never lies, it is the physical frame that holds the mirror that shows us our true reflection of what’s held within.

Think of Reiki as a very powerful guide, friend and mentor who never judges or imposes their will or their knowledge and understanding upon you. They will walk with you and when its appropriate help you carry your load, but they will never rob you of your power to choose or the ability to stand on your own feet, deal with your own stuff no matter how painful or frightening it may at first appear. Strength comes through the exercising of our physical, mental emotional and spiritual muscles dealing with adversity not hiding in another’s shadow no matter how spiritual it may be, and knowledge and understanding is nothing more than an internal realisation to an external stimulation. Another more contemporary analogy would be to consider Reiki as your spiritual sat-nav; it will advise and guide you, it will show you the shortest route and even give you the head’s up on possible problems ahead on your journey, but you are always in control and can at any time you choose ignore its advice, or switch it off all together.

Reiki has helped me transform my life beyond all recognition; it has educated and empowered me to make the necessary changes that allowed love, healing knowledge and understanding to come in my life. It’s said that God/Universe can only give us bigger and better things if our hands are free to take hold of them and we have created the space and the mind set to receive them.

Part of my baggage is that I carry the historical title of Reiki Master but I can honestly say I haven’t mastered anything nor will I this side of life. I’m simply a work in progress carrying the same baggage as you on my personal journey. On good days I may get to put stuff down that I don’t need anymore, but even after all this time in my rush to get where I’m going wherever that may be, I still occasionally make the mistake of picking up other peoples stuff thinking it’s my own. I guess I’m still just a student by another name but you know what that’s just my stuff and its ok.

A Reiki practitioner since 1999, Phillip started teaching Reiki in 2000 and using those skills and abilities he has spent the majority of the last seventeen years working with a wide range of social and educational needs including Autism and ADHD. Working with addicts dependent on alcohol and drugs, people whose lives were extremely violent and abusive, and others who had to deal with severe mental health issues. This has enabled him to work extensively in the private sector, schools, colleges, education and care in the community, the prison service and psychiatric units.

In 2016, Phillip decided to semi-retire from full-time employment to concentrate on developing his career as a published author and the setting up of his Reiki personal development programme at the Chilton Community College.