Article by Ashwita Goel, Reiki Master
One common question I get asked a lot is whether Reiki is similar to prayer, or even in some cases, the law of attraction. Here’s my perspective on this.
Before we understand the difference, let us first agree upon what prayer means. Prayer could mean two things. Either it is an expression of gratitude, or it is the act of asking for grace or favor.
Now, these are surely elements which are a part of Reiki, but Reiki goes much beyond this as well. When you pray, you acknowledge the presence of a higher power, and this is more or less the act of communicating with what higher power. However, most of us forget about the act of receiving itself. If you ask for a cup of tea, but keep it upside down for filling up, no matter how much the tea is poured, your cup will still be empty. Even if your cup is positioned the right way, there isn’t much use if you already have old tea or coffee in it, it renders the fresh tea useless. Reiki is the process of making sure your cup is straight, empty and ready to receive. This process is rarely worked upon in other systems.
When you go to a master, the master opens up the energy channels in your body so that energy flows easily and smoothly through the important pathways in your body. When we do our daily practice, we circulate the energy in our systems, flushing out the excesses and the wastes. This cleaning opens us up for better receiving on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level, thereby making our prayers more effective.
Image by efes
With a little bit of intention, this can allow us to access a miraculous, wonderful state – that of being in alignment. When you are in alignment, you are the prayer, and many people at this stage find that desires dissolve and they are content wherever they are, while at the same time finding renewed energy and enthusiasm to approach life and responsibilities with. In this state, life manifests for us, instead of us trying to manifest things with our limited imagination.
In my experience, the most powerful aspect of Reiki is the surrender it involves – the more I have learned to set my ideas and desires aside and trust the energy to do what is right, the more powerful and effective healing has become. When we surrender, this also allows us to embrace the unpleasant aspects of life which aren’t meant to change, thereby also ensuing that whatever can be maximized in life, will be.
So yes, Reiki involves prayer. Reiki involves the law of attraction. But it is so, so much more than that.
What is your experience in this regard? Do leave a comment!
Free eBook download: We’ve created an eBook with our best articles on this topic, and offer it for free to all our newsletter subscribers.
Having learned Meditation as a child, Ashwita incorporated Reiki into her life during her early teens. After a decade of witnessing the magic Reiki, she felt compelled to take up Reiki professionally, and ended her corporate career in 2007, taking up Reiki full-time. She eventually incorporated EFT, hypnotherapy and past life therapy into her work. Apart from her healing work, she teaches Reiki and meditation, and her book ‘Healing Through Reiki’ is available on Amazon. She holds regular full moon and new moon meditations at @AshwitaGoel. Her website is www.reiki-bangalore.com and her blog www.ashwita.com
A great article indeed, dear Ashwita.
Imagine a child, a very loving , joyous , thoughtful , friendship-loving, intelligent child who never threw tantrum during his childhood days, let alone at present age of 10+ yrs, never put his parents in awkward position and by dint of all these virtues gained unconditional love from his parents.
But those very parents of this very child HAS TO torture this very child for their love.
Because, they cannot allow this child to eat and drink most of the things like icecream, dahi, pizza ( of course very rarely), maggi etc. that he loves so much; they cannot allow him to go on school excursion with his class friends, to go out in the park to play with his friends.Winter is deadly for rhinitis , summer hit is deadly for his skin, spring is deadly for allergic cough and what not. All these because of his eczema, rhinitis and asthma. Not a single year he has attended more than 50% of his classes. Proper treatment is being taken from both allopathy and homeopathy under best doctors of both the fields.As a result of steroid he is gaining weight without gaining enough height. Due to this another list of restricted food items some of which are his favorite.
Imagine the mental state of the child. Will he be outrageous when grown up? But for sure ,now there is a very very deep mutual love between the child and his parents.
The earth, air, soil the whole nature( the whole creation of God) is enemy of the parents of this child ,especially the father. He has developed a fear psychosis about what will happen to the child. Heart has become weak out of the constant fear and anxiety. He seldom laughs .The family has been devastated. Still they are keeping peace in the family( no quarrel no outrage or anger) though every one is suffering silently internally.
The parents have taken up reiki as a way out from this scourge .Both of them are 2nd degree reiki channel for last 2 years ( of course, regular practice on the child not more than four months) . But they are not sure if reiki is working on the child or not.
How to find out where the source of this suffering of the three persons lie?Will it end without death?
That was a very well thought out response to the question. I like the fact that u expanded upon the answer really giving them not only the answer but so much more to think about rather than just one more limited perspective. Well done