Reiki meditation is another one of the tools that humans have discovered in their perennial search for the spiritual.
Men have always wanted to know god and connect with god. We have always strived to achieve the peace that passeth understanding. Reiki is a result of that same attempt.
In Reiki tradition, that ultimate aspiration for peace is known as ‘Anshin Ritsumei‘, meaning “a life supported by a peaceful mind”.
And, to attain that peak of peaceful inner balance, Reiki meditation and Reiki principles are essential parts of the process.
In this article, we will focus mainly on Reiki meditation and Reiki principles as they are intrinsically connected.
However, to get to the core concepts of Reiki meditation and principles, we first have to know what Reiki is.
[Related Post: Void Meditation: What Is the Void State & How to Get There?]
What’s Reiki?
As far as the word Reiki is concerned, it means universal life energy that flows through everything.
Originally, Reiki is an energy healing practice. The practice of Reiki energy healing falls under the realm of alternative medicine.
In Reiki tradition, a healer uses his hands to channel universal energy into a person’s body to heal them of any ailments they might be suffering from.
Wear the pulse of the new age!
The healer may lightly place the hand on you or hover their hand just above the body to facilitate energy flow into you.
The same healing practice can also be done on yourself. That means you can place your own hands on your body parts to heal yourself.
This self-healing process is one of the Reiki meditations that you can practice.
So now, let’s get into what’s Reiki meditation.
What’s Reiki Meditation?
Simply put, Reiki meditation is the implementation of Reiki energy healing practices into a meditative practice.
Essentially, Reiki energy healing is a kind of concentration meditation in essence.
The healer uses his concentration to channel energy through his hands to the client’s body.
So, naturally, it’s a meditative process using the mental faculty of concentration.
On the other hand, when you use the same Reiki practices of healing on yourself, that means when you are self-healing using Reiki energy principles, you are also engaging in that very meditative practice.
So, that’s basically Reiki meditation — using Reiki practices of healing on yourself.
However, there are also other forms of Reiki meditation that are purely meditative in nature as opposed to purely healing.
The goals of those purely meditative Reiki practices are often to align the practitioner to the universal energy, Reiki principles, and an overall sense of calmness, health, and well-being.
How to Do Reiki Meditation
Just like any other form of meditation, you have to sit or lie down in a relaxed posture.
However, if you want to incorporate hand movements into the meditation routine, sitting would be the way to go.
Postures are not that much of pivotal importance in Reiki meditation as in some other forms of meditation like Hatha yoga. It’s all about finding a position that you are comfortable in.
Once the position is settled upon, it’s time to get into the universal energy and the energy centers (chakras).
Basically, there are two ways to approach this energy flow and Reiki channeling process:
- Placing your hands over all the energy centers and other parts of your body to facilitate the flow of universal energy throughout the body.
- Using visualization to imagine and facilitate the flow of energy all over the body. Utilizing the Reiki symbols is also another tool that you can use to strengthen the visualization practices.
You can customize the use of hands and imagination as you deem fit for your personalized Reiki meditation routine.
You can use both the hands and your visualization power together as well. Due to this vast array of meditative forms and customization capability, Reiki meditation is one of the most flexible systems of meditation that you will find.
Examples of Reiki Meditation
Here are a few examples of Reiki meditation.
Example 1: Self-healing Reiki meditation
Sit comfortably on a chair or a mat. Relax.
Put together your hands in the prayer (Gassho) position in front of your chest (heart center).
Try to focus on your hands while keeping your breathing slow, calm, and steady.
Now, start placing your hands all over your body, starting from the top of your head (crown). Place both hands on top of your head, the middle fingers touching each other’s tip.
After the top of the head, place your hands on your face, hands touching their sides, covering the whole face.
Then, place one hand on your throat (once front and once back), while placing another hand on your heart.
Now, place your hands on your shoulders, and try to reach the back as much as possible. Be careful not to strain yourself.
Now, place both hands on your chest, the middle fingers touching each other’s tip.
Repeat the same process below the chest line, belly, and lower belly.
Now, hold the area above your waistline with both hands on the kidney area.
Now, place one hand on each of the thighs, once front and once back.
Repeat the process on your knees, calves, and all the way down to your toes and heels.
Keep your hands for a few minutes on each of the positions or as long as you deem comfortable and necessary.
At all times, try to keep the focus on your hands, and at each position, visualize the universal energy flowing through your hands into your body to carry out the healing process. Also, try to relax the respective body parts as you go down one by one from the top of the head all the way down to your toes.
It’s natural to feel heat, pressure, or magnetism in the respective body parts while doing this self-healing Reiki meditation.
Keep your breathing natural, calm, and steady at all moments.
Example 2: Classic Reiki Meditation
It’s the simplest form of Reiki meditation that you can practice on your own.
Sit in a meditative posture that you are comfortable with. The most basic cross-legged position would work just great.
Put together your hands in the prayer (Gassho) position in front of your chest (heart center).
Try to focus on your hands while keeping your breathing slow, calm, and steady.
Place the hands on your thighs or the knees, whichever is comfortable for you.
Try to relax as much as possible. Keep breathing normal, calm, and steady throughout the whole practice.
Now, focus on the lower part of your belly, down from the belly button to the base. Basically, focus on the last two of your chakras — the sacral chakra and the root chakra.
Concentrate on one of the chakras and energize the position. Feel the heat, pressure, or magnetism in that area.
Now, visualize the energy rising up through the upper chakras all the way up to the crown chakra. As a result, the whole line-up of chakras through the spinal cord is energized.
Now, visualize the energy expanding from the chakras throughout your whole body.
Gradually, feel the energy even up to the tip of your fingers and toes.
Now, visualize the energy expanding beyond your body into your surroundings.
Keep sending the good energy outwards throughout your home, neighborhood, city, country, the whole earth, and ultimately the universe.
Visualize that on its way out, the energy is healing everything and everyone that it comes in contact with.
Stay in that heightened state of universal energy for as long as possible.
Why Are There So Many Forms of Reiki Meditation?
If you do a bit of research, you will find out that there are many different forms and types of Reiki meditation practices available.
Some forms involve simple visualization of universal energy flow, some other involves placing the hands on body parts, while some other form of Reiki meditation includes visualizing different Reiki symbols and drawing the respective energy forms from the symbols.
So, you might wonder why are there so many different meditation forms out there?
Most spiritual disciplines, including Reiki, are often master-driven. This means that the teachings are passed down from masters to their disciplines.
As a result, the teachings gradually evolve through the hands of the teachers. Each master modifies, develops, and advances the teachings from before.
That’s why you will see numerous schools and groups of practitioners within any given system of spiritual practice. Even a single practice can often be seen in many different forms and variations.
It’s also the same with Reiki and Reiki meditation practices.
There are many types of Reiki meditations that are practiced worldwide. However, what’s important is the key conceptions and the main principles.
Once you get an understanding of the key principles of Reiki meditation, you can make them your own and can very well design your own Reiki meditations.
So, what are the Reiki principles?
The Reiki Principles
There are five main Reiki principles that serve as the philosophic core of the Reiki tradition.
The principles are:
- Just for today, do not anger
- Just for today, do not worry.
- Just for today, be honest.
- Just for today, be grateful.
- Just for today, be kind.
You can easily see what we are getting at. This is the simplest yet very powerful formula to keep your life on track and growing.
- It’s about being today and being in the now.
- It’s about not being angry or worried.
- And, it’s about living with honesty, gratefulness, and kindness.
And, enveloping all these is the overall mechanism of utilizing the universal energy source as the healer of all bruises, uneasiness, and darkness that bars one from living on the five principles.
If you are angry or worried, sit down and start meditating on the Reiki energy flowing and healing away the anger.
If you are finding it difficult to be kind today, do the same! Start your Reiki meditation and concentrate on the universal energy flowing within you and from you, overflowing your being and the whole of existence with kindness and gratitude.
That’s the unifying chemistry of Reiki meditation and Reiki principles.
Once you get the principles by heart and know the basic purpose and structure behind the Reiki meditation forms, you can make the process your very own and customize the whole thing the way it works best for you.
Wear the pulse of the new age!