I actually met my friend Gardner Singleton via email.  My judo Sensei, Nick Lowry, knew Gardner from the dojo where Gardner had introduced himself and practiced Tibetan Buddhism with a local sangha that met in the dojo.  Once Nick had sent me Gardner’s email address I began to ask him questions about Chi Gung, acupuncture, and Tai Chi.  It was amusing actually, he is a busy guy, with two offices and a thriving practice he was less than thrilled to be answering questions from some guy he had never met.

So I bit the bullet and went into his OKC office for a session of needles and chatting.  I still remember him asking me what I was seeing him for, what I needed him to cure or lessen, and I smiled and told him I just wanted to experience acupuncture.  It was awesome.  I was hooked.  I am a acupuncture junky, I would seriously, no kidding, spend a lot of money on those needles just because of the stress relief they offer.  If you want to contact Gardner just go to his web site, East Healing Arts.  If you aren’t local to Oklahoma City he can still offer you help by prescribing traditional Chinese herbal remedies.

So, back to the Buddha Hands site.  They have a huge selection of widgets that teach you about healing methods that might seem foreign to you, that may even seems fantastical, but they work.  The proof is in the 5000+ years of history that surround them.

Check out this reiki widget and play with it a while:

I wanted to embed this acupuncture widget, but it is too wide for my blog, so click on the link and check it out.

I have a feeling most of them will be open to the idea of reiki to begin with. It is a fairly progressive meditation center and as such I am guessing most are aware of chi and how it can and does affect them on a daily basis.

I only recently received my attunement to level II in Reiki, so I am still not the seasoned professional I would rather be, but this is a great opportunity to learn for me. I am hopeful that after a full day of reiki on so many people I will have an epiphany. Kinda like being thrown over and over again in judo, after a few thousand you start to catch on.

I do something a little different in my reiki treatments though; I practice tonglen on the person receiving the reki from me. During tonglen I do a form of meditation whereby I center my focus on the person I am sending the reiki to and consciously imagine reducing the suffering in their life. It is a freeing meditation.

I will write more about tonglen soon.

Matt

So, tell me, what do you think about it. Can we heal the planet with our thoughts and intentions? Can we heal each other with good and positive thoughts? Is it possible to sit quietly each morning and pray or meditate the world to peace? I think so.

Over a decade ago an experiment to reduce crime in Washington D. C. was shown to have an effect. A large group of people utilized Transcendental Meditation(TM) to increase coherence and decrease stress within the District. The benefits were shown to be excellent.

For a very detailed report on the meditation experiment please visit this site at the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy: http://www.istpp.org/crime_prevention/

Imagine a world where we were all conscious of our own thoughts. Where we used our thoughts, our intentions, to heal the world, to heal our families, friends and every person alive in the past, present and future.

It would be amazing.

I have decided that I can be a healer too, just as you can as well. I am learning to use Reiki to heal and I have already experienced some wonderful effects. What can you do to heal yourself and the world around you?

The Buddha said this: “Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.”

So go now and show compassion to everyone and everything, begin the healing.

I was skeptical when I first began to talk to people about Reiki. But being in the martial arts has probably predisposed me to accepting the idea of chi. Call is chi, ki, prana, or whatever; different cultures refer to the life energy in different ways, but it’s all the same.

A good friend of mine, Gardner Singleton, is a acupuncturist and Chinese herbal doctor. Learning from him has taught me to open myself up and experience what other cultures can teach me on the healing front. Herbs are used world wide by the indigenous cultures. From China to Australia to the Native American culture they are seen as the natural way to cure what ails us. It just so happens that these same cultures are not only open to the idea of chi, but all of them openly practice the energy work and training in various methods.

OK, back to Reiki then. Last night during the session I was flush with heat. The feeling of pin pricks was so strong on my hands that I had to shake them out more than a few times. It was amazing. Then, at the end, to see the woman we worked on and how she reacted to the healing; that was wonderful.

One of the women there, who is also an energy worker and yogini, asked me if I was using intention while working with the patient. I told her that I have been practicing tonglen while doing my Reiki. Tonglen is a Tibetan Buddhist practice of taking and sending. You are actively taking the pain and suffering from someone and sending them compassion. When you inhale you remove from them the suffering and when you exhale you send them pure compassion.

I can’t think of a better thing to offer someone; the wish that they are relieved of their suffering and that you are giving them compassion.

It is a couple of days now, since my attunement, and I am practicing at night, but after my first 30 days I will know more. Hopefully I will be able to use it and provide some healing.

I was drawn to Reiki due in large part to my participation in the martial arts. I have practiced the martial side of a few arts, so now I want to use the healing side of chi.

I strongly feel that all things are connected at the base, gross level. I feel that we all share the same energy and that that energy pervades all places, people and things. Plants, animals and landscapes are alive with that same energy, we have forgotten this for some reason. It is time to remember.

Buddhist, Christian, Hindu or Native American mystic — they all knew the same thing: we are all connected.

More later,

Matt

Just for today (Kyo dake wa):
Don’t get angry (Okoru na)
Don’t worry (Shinpai su na)
Be grateful (Kansha shite)
Work hard (Gyo wo hage me)
Be kind to others (Hito ni shinsetsu ni)

– Mikao Usui O’Sensei

I really like this page at the Reiki Threshold for a good definition of how you should read the 5 concepts and how you can implement them yourself. O’Sensei was a Buddhist and you can clearly see that reflected in his statement.

He wanted his followers to chant this as a prayer, as a manta, thinking about it mindfully. Sitting in gassho, that is with your hands in prayer.

Live in the Now as anger and worry are useless, be Grateful, have a Right Livelihood and be Compassionate.

Sounds like the Eightfold Path was his model.