by K. Scott Teeters - Reiki Master

Photo by Gordon Richardson - http://www.capetownskies.com/sunrise.htm

In The Beginning
Remember when you first learned Reiki? I sure do. I had been interested in metaphysics for about 17 years in 1994 when I began to deliberately follow the bread crumbs of coincidences in my life. At the time, I was a student of the Celestine Prophecy Insights. I was reviewing and deeply pondering what each Insight meant to me. The First Insight was, for me, the most fun. I’d been somewhat aware of the importance of coincidences, but I was reading and intuiting the deeper meaning of the First Insight because coincidences seemed to be happening more frequently for me. The Celestine Prophecy explained that what seems like "just a coincidence," is really the Universe’s way of getting your attention, "HEY! YO! Over here! This way!"

It was the "paying more attention" to coincidences, that lead me into Reiki. Now along the way, I was also working with the Huna expression, "Where attention goes... Energy flows... And results show." I understood that if I paid attention to these coincidences, I would be directing my energy (Ki), and the added, directed energy would have a positive impact on my circumstances. So I just kept following those bread crumbs until I "discovered" Reiki.

Reiki was the first tool that I had experienced since I first started my metaphysical journey in 1977. Reiki made it all real for me. It took everything I had learned, and packaged it all into a set of simple, easy to use, protocols. The experience of Reiki brought me more into the present moment than anything else I had ever experienced. Letting Ki flow through me and into another person opened me up like never before. All for the highest and best good for everyone concerned.

Also, as I began to practice Reiki, it FELT GOOD! I began to get insights into my own spiritual path and ponderings - as well as insights for the person I was doing the Reiki on. I can attribute that to two main factors. First, when I practice Reiki, it is for me, a form of active meditation. My eyes are open, but I’m in an Alpha State. This is the same in-between-space we all move through as we are dropping off to sleep and as we are awakening from sleep. It is the space where we tap into our Higher Self and the rest of the Cosmos, for ideas and inspiration.

That was just my initial experience of using Reiki. What really made it solid for me was after I had several experiences of giving seated Reiki mini-sessions at holistic health events. Nearly everyone that I gave Seated Reiki to, went into a light Alpha State. A few even said that they began to dream. Amazing! Right there in a noisy, crowed public place, people were able to sit in a chair and go into an altered state as a result of Ki flowing through me and into them.

Direction From Lazaris
Along about the same time I was opening up to Reiki, I spent an evening with Lazaris, the entity that channels through Jack Pursel. It was truly an amazing experience. So much so because what I got from that evening was just what I needed to hear at that time. So it really doesn’t matter to me whether "Lazaris" is really Jack Pursel’s creative Higher Self using a "persona" called "Lazaris" or not. I "GOT IT," and that’s all that was important. This is what I got.

Lazaris explained that there is no end to all that there is to remember. What we think of as teachings or learnings, are really "rememberings." Your true self is your Soul. Your Soul is part of the All That Is, and therefore, has access to all knowing. What we are all seeking is the thrill of the challenge of remembering. Also, there are endless levels of things to remember. We experience them as discoveries so that we can have the experience of the hunt for truth. And when we have a remembering, it’s thrilling! It’s like reaching a new plateau. "I’ve arrived! I’m here! Wow! Now I see this and that... I understand what I didn’t yesterday... I’m clear about Life... Hmmm... Very interesting..." But remember what plateaus are. They’re elevated places that are often very broad and flat. When things are broad and flat, you know who exciting that can be after a while. Lazaris said that when we get to a new and exciting plateau, that is the time for us to take our new understandings and spread them as far and wide as possible. Spread it out, spread it out, spread it out. If it starts to get a little flat and ho-hum... remember, there will always be another plateau for you to ascend to.

Seeing Lazaris was a very profound experience for me, especially as a new and excited Reiki practitioner. It planted a seed in my thinking that asked the question, "So what is Reiki going to lead me towards?" Sometimes I will float out a question to my Higher Self with the instructions to float back the answer when the time is right. I’ll catch it.

What slowly began to bubble into my consciousness was the idea of being "Awake." I mean really being Awake for longer and longer periods throughout your day. Being more in the "present moment" similar to what I had been doing in my Reiki sessions. Often times, if you let a question percolate in the back of your mind, situations will occur that can make the answer literally POP right into your awareness.

Oscar The Grouch Had The Right Question
One morning I was going to work and walking across the parking lot with a very nice co-worker with a odd hobby. He loves to complain! Great guy, but he's kind of like Oscar the Grouch - grouchy but lovable. As we were walking into the building, he said, "Oh, what’s the point of it all?" Since I was in a different space, his question triggered an immediate answer. And what I heard loud and clear inside my head was, "We are here to Awaken!" When you send out deep, probing questions the way I described above, we will often get back a series of hints and whispers in the form of coincidences. But if you don’t really get it, sometimes the answer is SHOUTED to you. "Okay! Okay... I got it, I got it... Jeez..."

Then I had an "Ah-ha" moment. Ah, I get it. Reiki isn’t a means to end to itself. It is a means to the end to get us to Awaken as practitioners, as well as the person on the table or the object of your Long Distance healing. When I’m Awake, my vibration is higher. When my vibration is higher, it affects everyone I come into contact with. My thoughts are focused and I am PRESENT... and in the moment. Moment, to moment, to moment... more of the time than I am not. When I am Awake, I do not live my present, based on my past. I use my past to show me what didn’t work and what worked, but I choose not to let the past hold me back from anything. And I do not let other people’s negative projected versions of the future interfere with my positive projected versions of the future. Every possible scenario for our future is already out there and has already happened. How we experience our present version of "now" is based on our past projections of what we thought the future might be. Often times our "present" is only in the general direction of what we projected forward in previous moments of now. But it’s good to remember that our collective thoughts are more powerful than we realize.

Don't Go For A New Age Bypass
I have observed a real reluctance in the metaphysical community to want to address geopolitical and social issues. What I have heard many times goes something like this. "Your thoughts are so powerful that you must not think about what’s going on in all of those trouble spots out there. If you dwell on those things you are feeding energy into them and helping to bring those things into reality. So absolutely NO NOT put your attention on to the political concerns of today."

This is what some of us call a "New Age Bypass." It assumes "either/or" style thinking. But as with all things, the truth lies in between. We need to do both. Because we are all one, we owe it to ourselves to bring in the light of awareness when something is unjust. We can bring awareness to issues without feeding our own fear projections into what is unjust. If we ignore what is unjust, things will continue on pretty much the same as it was. This is truly, "walking the razor’s edge." This path will take you into the really hot fires.

I clearly see that if you use the benefits of Reiki, as I have described above, it will inevitably lead you towards conscious social action in ways that are completely unique for you and are for the highest and best good for everyone involved..

What Is Awakening?
What is this elusive state of "awakening?" Being "awake" is always a "right now" thing. It’s being in the present moment with as much awareness as possible. Reflecting on the past and planning for the future are important, but your "experience" of life is always right here, right now. This understanding came to me in the early ‘80s and is something that I have shared with many people over the years. But an interesting thing often happens. I have observed that "rational, linear thinking," controls our society. Of course, in a technological society, linear thinking is critical. The Space Program is no place for ambiguity or vagueness. Computer software is right or it’s wrong. There are so many places in our culture where linear thinking has produced spectacular achievements that we tend to look toward those achievements as proof that linear thinking is the best.

However, life has many subtle aspects that are outside of rational, linear thought processes. To a linear thinker, talk of the "Eternal Moment of Now" can sound like nonsense. In discussing this with people, many have said to me, "You mean, live for today and the hell with tomorrow?" This is an excellent example of black and white; you’re with us or against us, polarized thinking. When we think in narrow compartmentalized ways, we are missing the shades of gray that are inherent in all things. This is different from the linear model of thinking. A very powerful way of "being" is to use BOTH ways of thinking. It is believed that people who use both the right and left sides of the brain are very balanced and extremely successful in life. Here is a more creative way of perceiving everyday reality.

You understand that you are in the Eternal Moment of Now, but that you also have previous experiences of what was once a "now" experience. You call this your past. You also have events that you have not yet experienced. You call this your future.

While in your current moment of Now, you reflect on your past...look at it... and examine what happened. Don’t judge, criticize, or condemn... just observe. Try to "see" it as clearly as you can. Notice what was right, what worked, what didn’t work, and what was the quality of the experience. This is "learning" from your past, please do not indulge in judging. Our culture is so habituated to judge, criticize, and condemn (because it "makes sense") that almost all of us do it unconsciously to others and especially ourselves. I would ask that you simply suspend, for the time being, such indulging.

Taking "Awakening" Into the Hot Fires of Life
What’s going on in the world? What’s going on in my life? If you pull back, you can see that there is the "outer world" that we see played out in the news and through observation. Then there is the "inner world" that we experience through our own perception. The outer world can delight, amuse, frustrate, sadden, and anger us. Often the outer world seems out of our control. Our inner world often seems that way as well, but does it have to be that way? Are there ways of creating inner peace and serenity without selling everything we own, and moving to the mountaintop?

People have been asking these same basic questions for ages. Fortunately, the same answers have been coming through inspired writers and teachers for ages as well.(Dr. Usui was one of the many inspired ones.) Wise words have become so common that they sound like platitudes to which we do not pay much attention. Expressions such as; "We become what we think about." – "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." – "We are all One." In the face of worldly and inner challenges, these words can seem like sayings in a Hallmark greeting card.

But these are inner spiritual perspectives that when understood, lead you to an "awakened" experience of life. While integrating these understandings is a challenging task, it is not impossible. Actually, it is completely do-able by everyone. How do we know this? It is a matter of understanding; that if someone else has done it, so can you!

You start to see a pattern. We are asleep, then we wake up, then we go back to sleep, and on and on. Once you have awakened and know that you have awakened, this seemingly nonstop going back to sleep can be maddening. Living an awakened life can be the most challenging, yet rewarding thing you will ever do. It is the effort of a lifetime – meaning that you will be doing this for the rest of your life.

That’s the bad news and the challenge. The good news is that there is plenty of help. As individuals most of us have marginal impact on the world stage. Outside political and natural forces can most definitely change our experience of life, and sometimes make us feel helpless. However, "we" are in complete control of our inner life. There’s a Zen saying that states, "If you think so... so. If you think not so... then not so." (those Zen dudes always have an out-of-the-box way of saying things.)

It's Never been Easier... Really
Never before has it been easier to find resources to awakening. Just stop and consider the fact that as little as 50 years ago, if you wanted to learn the secrets of life, you had to first find a metaphysical bookstore then hunt for the books you wanted. Or even more challenging, you would have to travel far and long to find your teacher on a solitary mountaintop or ashram. Now, all you have to do is visit your local mall and visit one of the national chain booksellers. All of them now have large "new age," "metaphysical," or "inspirational" book sections. And if you don’t like to read, many of the best selling conscious living/metaphysical books are now on tape or CD. It couldn’t be much easier.

There is a common misconception that once you have had a mystical experience, that’s it! "TA-DA! I have arrived! I got my mantra, my beads, my charged crystals, and I wear lots of purple. But my boss is a jerk, my kid won’t listen or clean his room, and my car is a junker!" As Ram Dass used to love to say, "How do you stay conscious when the stuff hits the fan? Because it will and you can." It’s called, "normal life" and for a newly awakening individual, it can slam you right back into snooze-land.

Ah, but there is a bright side to all of this. Once the process of awakening begins, there is no going permanently back to sleep. "Catnaps" will happen from time to time, but completely going back to sleep is out of the question. Fortunately, when it comes to awakening tools, there’s something for everyone. Reiki just happens to be one of the simplest and easy to use tools for staying awake. And remember, it wasn’t that long ago when Reiki knowledge was not widely known, as it is today.

Here are two examples of how simple Reiki techniques can enhance your life and keep you in the “awake zone.” From 1983 to 1992, I worked out of my home as a freelance commercial artist. At the end of ‘92, I was given the opportunity to join the Boy’s Toys R&D team at Tyco Toys in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. Although it was exciting to be with such a creative group of designers, it was NOTHING Like the Tom Hanks movie, “Big.” It was a corporate environment and had all the stressors of corporate life. This was something that took me several years to get used to, it you ever get “used to” it at all. For a time, I would occasionally take a nap for 30 to 45 minutes after I came home. This was always a 50/50 kind of thing. Sometimes I’d get up and feel fine. Other times, I’d get up and feel WORSE than I did before I had laid down.

After I had taken Reiki Level I, I started to do Reiki on myself, rather than taking a nap. The difference was amazing! Since I was already used to sitting in meditation, it wasn’t difficuly to get into a light alpha state. If I began to notice that my mind was drifting into a dream, I would gently adjust my awareness to whatever Reiki position I was on, and continued the self treatment. When I was finished and sat up, I noticed that I felt like a “PING......” sound. I was completely alert, energized, and ready to move into my evening. Whenever I do a Reiki self treatment, it always leaves me feeling sharp and refreshed. Now I realize that this is like getting a quick charge from a battery charger, and it does work. However, I would not recommend doing this if your body is completely exhausted and in need of long term sleep. But it is an excellent pick-me-up when you need it.

The second way that I discovered to use Reiki to stay awake, is to “Sending Ki Into Your Day.” This is a tool I picked up from Aikido Master and motivational instructor, Tim Piering. Tim taught this from an Aikido perspective using Ki. If you have been trained in Reiki Level II, this one is super!

To “extend Ki into your day” here’s what you do. This seems to work best in the morning before you move into your day. You sit down in a quiet place and do everything you need to do to initiate a Reiki Long Distance healing. Only instead of sending Ki to a person, you send Ki into the space where you know you will be later that day where you would like to have a positive outcome. Envision Ki flowing into the space like clear, flowing water that is washing and cleaning out all of the negative energies that have piled up in the room. This only takes me about 10 minutes. When you are are finished, close the session in the same way you would if you were doing a Long Distance Reiki session on a person.

Here’s why I started doing this and what the results were. After about five years at Mattel Mt. Laurel (formerly Tyco Toys - we were bought out by Mattel in 1997), I was no longer drawing all day, I was designing product and managing product lines through the design cycle. That meant that I got to go to the Marketing Design Conference meetings. At first it was like, “I’ve arrived!” Then I realized why everyone would come out of the meetings looking very grumpy. These meetings were AWFUL! The were contentious, argumentative, competitive, and often very heated. It was supposed to be a time when the Design and Marketing departments were supposed to get together to see new designs and talk over issues with existing projects. It got so that we all dreaded these weekly torture sessions. Then I remembered the “Extending Ki Into Your Day” technique.

The first time I used it, I did exactly as I described above. The result was that we would all get together and calmly go over projects, talk about new concepts, and discuss any other problems or issues. But the great part was that everyone was nice! Sure, there were differences, but no one lost their cool or over reacted. As we were packing up our material after the first time I did this, one of my co-workers said, “Wow! That sure went well! What a nice change.” As long I was doing this, we had productive meetings. Sometimes I would forget and later notice that things were a little bumpy.

This is a wonderful technique that has so many applications, I can’t even begin to list them. Sending Ki into a future place and time helps remove puddled up negative energy that can subliminally put people on edge. If you can keep situations balanced and calm, there is more of you there to respond from your higher energy centers. The lower energies can be very powerful in their ability to cause upset and confusion in thinking. The mental state of anger has often been compared to a boiling lake of fire, hence the expression, “he’s boiling mad!” This is definitely not an Awakened state. But with a little bit of thoughtfullness and about 10 minutes, you can quietly, yet powerfully affect outcomes. Also, this can be a tremendous antidote to the "hot fires of Life" we talked about above.

How: please insert an example(s) of how to use Reiki to be awake or how the use of Reiki causes you to be awake. It would be great if you could add an additional paragraph or so here that more strongly links the ideas in this article to Reiki and how to use it to experience being awake.

"Look To See" Into Your Future
The next step is to envision your future. Motivational speaker Brian Tracy likes to remind us that it is very important to think about your future because that is where you will be spending the rest of your life. But our culture has us habituated to thinking of the future in fearful ways. You only need to look at our fear-laced entertainment to clearly see how we tend to envision our future.

But despite what rational thinking people might claim, this fear is not a requirement. Always being prepared and having an open mind is a good mental habit. In the Middle East they have an expression, "Trust in Allah, but tie your camel." Or in western terms, you could say, "Trust in Jesus, but lock your Chevy." Be mindful of Our Oneness, but keep your eyes and senses open.

If you take the middle ground of neither fearing nor anticipating your future, and simply look to see what is possible for your life, you will see more possibilities than you had previously realized. This is an excellent place to ask yourself as you start to stay awake for longer periods of time, "What would be my ideal experience? What would I most like to be?" Envisioning your ideal scene and what you want to "be" are powerful tools for manifesting. This is a relatively new wrinkle in goal setting technologies. Quiet your mind and envision what you would most like to be, and your Higher Self will reveal what you originally intended to do and be. All of the things we "do," we are doing so that we can have a "beingness" experience. You exercise so that you can "be healthy." You go to school, learn, do a good job, so that you can "be successful" and "be happy." You work extra and save your money so that you can "be secure." You groom yourself and develop your personality to attract a partner so that you can "be happy in a relationship." This is a pattern that maps over in all areas of our lives. We are always seeking a "beingness" experience.

When you start living an awakened life, you work with your past to see what worked and what didn’t and then project your most desired future into your mind’s eye. You become your ideal, no longer judging yourself. Learning from your past while using a projected possible future as a goal, gives you this positive goal to live your life into.

Regularly using Reiki, on others or on yourself, is an easy way to create a sacred space that is quiet, yet keeps you alert. When you are in this space, you will experience being profoundly in the moment. If you have been spending time projecting your ideal scene, this can be also be a time where you will best be able to hear the answers your higher self is whispering to you.

So, Now What?
What does an awakened life "look" like? From an external view, it may not look like anything unusual. Another Zen expression offers this wisdom, "Before Enlightenment, there is chopping wood and carrying water. After Enlightenment, there is chopping wood and carrying water." A person living an awakened life may still have all of the challenges, stresses, and troubles as before... but with a difference. She sees challenges as opportunities to show herself what she’s capable of achieving or experiencing. She sees stress as an indicator that she’s taking things too seriously and needs some perspective. She sees problems as opportunities for new learning or to remember solutions forgotten. After a time, it will seem as if there is a new person inside of an existing body. Serenity will have a transforming affect on your inner and outer world.

Have you ever been around someone who is supremely serene, peaceful, and calm? In "As A Man Thinketh" James Allen wrote, "Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet-tempered, balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are always sweet, serene, and calm. They are like shade giving trees in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm."

If you have ever been around someone like that, you know that they are unmistakable. Ken Keyes Jr. was such a person. Many years ago, I had a chance meeting with Ken after one of his talks. At that time, I was not familiar with Ken’s landmark book, "Handbook for Higher Consciousness." Even though he was wheelchair-bound, Ken filled the room with his love and pure presence. Everyone was getting a contact high just from being close to him. Later I learned that Ken was a supremely peaceful and serene man, despite the fact that he was in a wheelchair and could barely move one of his arms.

There are many ways to enter into an expanded state of serenity. Ken Keyes Jr. wrote about his path in his "Handbook for Higher Consciousness" series of books. James Allen wrote about serenity in the last chapter of his all-time classic, "As A Man Thinketh." He said, "Calmness of mind, is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self control... That exquisite poise of character which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture; it is the flowering of life, the fruitage of the soul."

Most methods are cerebral. However, my experience with Reiki is that it is a brilliant combination of acute, focused attention and intention, combined with allowing the Ki energy that is all around us, all of the time, to move through us. It has been my experience that Reiki’s effectiveness lies in its focus and its simplicity.

And Finally, Don't Confuse "Simple" With "Easy"
Living an Awakened Life is simple, but not easy in the beginning. But like the old joke, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!" it does get easier the longer you are actively engaged in the process of awakening. Much of what I have talked about here can be done without using Reiki or even knowing about Reiki. However, if you have reached the point in your life where you are tired of being asleep and long to be awake more of the time, then using Dr. Usui’s wonderful protocols for allowing Ki to move through you, can put you into an expanded state sooner, rather than later. In the biggest sense, everyone will become enlightened... eventually. That’s because, there’s nothing else to do. So take heart, and remember that what others have achieved, you can as well.

Namaste...

Scott