Reiki and a Hospice Team

Every Hospice Team every week has a brief ceremony that memorializes the patients who passed away that week. Each name is read, and discussions often ensue on bereavement needs. We try to remember and learn from each and every person who entrusted us with their care.

Each week, we try to add something that makes the moment meaningful, sometimes a music therapist plays a song, sometimes a candle is lit, sometimes the chaplain says a prayer.

This week, one of our chaplains who is also a Reiki practitioner asked if she could do a different sort of reading. We each closed our eyes, and with her voice asking for energy to be open us, there was a feeling of a Reiki shower, and she read a form of a "Boddhisatva Vow"

"May I be a guard for those who are protectorless,
A guide for those who journey on the road,
For those who wish to go across the water
May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.

May I be an isle for those who yearn for landfall
And a lamp for those who long for light
For those who need a resting place.

May I be the wishing jewel, the vase of plenty,
A word of power, and the supreme remedy
May I be the trees of miracles
And for every being, the abundant cow.

Like the great earth and the other elements
Enduring as the sky itself endures,
For the boundless multitude of living beings.
May I be the ground and vessel of their life.

Thus for every single thing that lives.
In number like the boundless reaches of the sky
May I be their sustenance and nourishment,
Until they pass beyond the bounds of suffering."

There is in hospice a very special bond, that has to do with the honor of being committed to relieving suffering in sentient beings. So often in healthcare, there exists a sense of loss and futility. In hospice there exists a sense of Purpose.

We can nurture people who we can no longer nourish, heal people who can no longer be cured, and care for people until they transition "beyond the bounds of suffering."

This brief ceremony is always very meaningful, and thank you to our chaplains and music therapists who add a special sense of spirit every week.