A Visit to Kurama Yama

A journey to Kurama Yama, near Kyoto, Japan, is for a Reiki practitioner a journey seeking to understand the teachings of Mikao Usui, founder of Usui Reiki Ryoho.

Reiki is based upon principles which legend have it came to the Sensei while fasting on Kurama Yama.

Sensei, help guide us on our visit to the mountain. What should we wish for?

"Ask me not what to wish for, but how to approach the mountain. Wishes reflect desires, and the mountain is a place to leave desires behind."

Sensei, if we should not make a wish, what should we do?

"Listen. Listen to the fox, and the dragon who guard the shrines. Listen to the birds. Hear the frogs. Touch the trees, and feel the moss. See the caterpillar and the butterfly. Listen to the waterfall. Climb the mountain. Be open to the spirit of the mountain."

Sensei, what did the mountain teach you? Show us the way.

"Climb the steps. Earn the gift that lies on the mountain."

Sensei, is this complicated?

"Reiki is simple. Anyone can do Reiki. You do not have to believe anything. You simply do the method and it is helpful. It brings compassion and kindness. You did not need to come to the mountain to learn Reiki."

Sensei, we came to understand why you gave the world this gift.

"The gift is not from the Sensei, he was just a clay vessel. The gift was from the Creator, made from the Love and Light that passes through living beings to the Earth."

Sensei, what does the Creator want of us?

"The Creator wants us to be kind to each other, and to be at peace."

Here is the message from the 1200 year old Kurama Temple, "In this holy place, grant that peace may defeat discord, unselfishness may conquer greed, sincere words may overcome deceit, and that respect may surmount insults. Fill our hearts with joy, uplift our spirits, and fill our bodies with glory."

There is a very useful book which I suggest visitors to Kurama Yama read prior to their visit, "Reiki's birthplace" - by Jessica A. Miller. Temple officials provided Ms Miller this note: "Kurama Mountain is open to all people. The energy of the mountain enables people who feel a destiny to come to the mountain, to do so, and to find direction for their lives, while receiving vitality and energy. Kurama Temple believes Mikao Usui was such a person."

I have some limited disagreements with Ms Miller. On page 36 she states that "the religion of Kurama mountain has nothing to do with Reiki." I am concerned this perpetuates misinformation about Reiki that reflected on Mikao Usui as being Christian. Mikao Usui was Buddhist. However this book, "Reiki's Birthplace," is of good intention, well written, accurate and invaluable. It is well worth reading.

Reiki is not a religion, and does not require faith, but the principles of Reiki stem very much from the desire for compassion and the ending of suffering that would be present in sects of Mahayana Buddhism. The hope for peace and mutual respect exists in all major religions.

Because Reiki is not a religion, but a method of healing, it can work with any religious faith, and it can work for non believers. Reiki is simple.

My visit to the mountain brought me a message to work to relieve suffering, and to pray for peace. The mountain has many many steps, but they are a joy to climb.

My thanks to Joan for joining me on this journey, and to Sabrina and Michael who shared the day and assisted us in the journey.

Two other points - the book mentioned above tells of the wonderful mountain railway - it is a marvelous experience but from center Kyoto, it takes a subway transfer and then rail tansfer to reach Demachiyanagi station - so the total trip can cost nearer $8 a person and take 80-90 minutes. For four people a cab takes about 30 minutes and costs about $40 total. We took a cab there - for an earlier start, and took the train back for the varied experiences.

Regarding the Cable Car - if you take it both ways you will miss many of the high energy places - especially the place where three trees are together near the Yuki shrine. The energy in this area is incredible. We felt (although it may be more difficult) that it was a part of the experience to climb up the steps. Reaching the top after the long climb, brings one to oneness with the forest and the mountain before reaching the mandala-main temple area. I would find taking the Cable Car up wrenching energy wise. Taking the Cable Car down is an experience, so I suggest it either way. (some would prefer taking it up - just be aware the energy shifts as you climb the mountain, and Usui would have walked up).

My advice is too enjoy everything on the mountain, nature and man made, and appreciate the unity of man and nature on the mountain. Leave preconceptions at home, come open to the mountain, and don't underestimate the energy here.

Komyo Reiki Share

Monday evening May 24 we visited the weekly Reiki share held at Daizen-In Buddhist Temple near Bukku-Ji Temple in central Kyoto.

http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~reiki/english/share.htm


The web site has the address in English and in Kanjai characters, and it is useful to show Kanji characters of places where one is going to taxi drivers.

Sensei Hyakuten Inamoto was away in Spain at the time of our visit, but his share is very Reiki alive and we felt his presence through his senior students.

At the beginning no one else was English speaking, but simply saying "Reiki"was the ticket to a warm reception. There is a regular share of about 15 people, usually several visitors drop in each week, and the atmosphere is inclusive and the energy exceptional. Sabrina, an American teaching English in Kyoto, arrived a little later and translated for us much of the evening.

After a meditation, a Reiki circle, and attunements from senior share members, three tables were brought out and four or five people worked together on each person - visitors getting the first sessions - but everyone rotated to receive the Reiki.

Joan's knee has been slowly recovering from a meniscal tear, - and this session was a nice step forward healing wise! (the next day we climbed Kurama Yama not taking the funicular on the way up - so something went well in the Reiki - normally meniscal tears need surgery and one does not climb Kurama Yama with one)

Blending energy with other Reiki practitioners is a great joy, and this evening was no exception.

We were told the Sensei teaches simplicity in Reiki - here - simplicity leads to elegance. A wonderful experience. Energy from this share was directed to friends, family and to those connected to me through Hospice or Reiki.

Visit to Mikao Usui's Memorial site

Sumimasen Sensei. I have traveled far to visit with you.


There is silence. What do I see? A stone with a story. I tough the stone. I see a Tree, I hear a Raven.


The Raven speaks to me, "Look beyond the stone."


I touch the tree. Energy is radiant around us.


"Do you feel the suffering?"


Yes Sensei, how long will you wait.


"Till they all find the path."


What if they cannot learn the path, Sensei?


"Teach it with simplicity. All living beings are connected."


What if they cannot afford the teaching, Sensei?


"Teach it anyway. The enlightenment was given to be shared. Humanity is connected.


There is a path of simplicity. It is meant to be taught. We cannot go it "alone."

Energy is sent to all who are connected with me from Saiho-ji Temple; Tokyo, Japan, May 21, 2010.

In gratefulness for the opportunity to share a journey.
In thanks for the help which I have received and continue to receive.

A Reiki Tribute

I was going to wait and not write my next Blog till early June, but I needed to tell this story today. It is a tribute to people who exemplify the Reiki admonitions - recently someone entered my hospice who I had known in better times. He was a person who has been known as kind and caring and compassionate to others, and as he said "last time was someone else's time, next time is someone else's time, now its my turn."

It never ceases to amaze me when I see people who are near transition, who turn their attention to caring for other people. Anyone can thank the Creator when they are on top of the world, won the game, full of success, a different story facing Transition. "I have a few things I want to get squared away" - and what are these - "letters to people who are very dear to me."

Do you believe you will have another mortal life? "Reincarnation - I don't know, but if God places me in another form, he will be with us."

Someone who is full of Love and Faith, lacks Fear and Worry and is overflowing with gratefulness.

I was deeply moved.

We sometimes examine trees so closely we miss the beauty of the forest. Another friend told me recently we "need to have the view from 40,000 feet." It is not always so easy. I was shown a picture the other day of a young child with a brain tumor, and tried to send Reiki energy.

But do we always understand the results of what we do? Once I listened to a sermon, and a wise person noted, "when God wants to correct something in the world he sends a child." But what does that exactly mean?

I was once told a story of a child who was seriously injured, blinded and disabled. The child was dying, but someone in desparation saved the life. In heaven this created a dilemma, the child was meant to be reborn as a Lama, but Heaven worked within the laws of the Created world, and this required the death to occur at the "right moment." Another child had to take the place of the dying Lama, die, and be reborn at the "right time."

The first child who had been saved lived a life of suffering, and went through a cycle of two more difficult lives. His spirit though, grew, and his sense of compassion deepened. Finally a time came and he was reborn a Lama - it was a time when compassion was so sorely needed, and he changed the world (at least a little bit) for the better.

We often don't really know to whom we are talking. We can work along side someone, and they can have a "less important job," but unbeknownst to us, they can have compassion and wisdom. If only we would take the time to listen - before they transition on.

That was how I felt today. I went to work expecting to try to help others, and found myself sitting transfixed, asking questions and being gifted with a sense of appreciation of life.

I keep in mind what another wise teacher said, that I should not take very much pride in accomplishments. We are, I was reminded, "only clay vessels."

For every child who cannot be healed in this life, for the co worker who transitions from colleague to patient, let us not simply care for them, but be open to receiving the gifts they offer us. Reiki is always a two way street. See them not simply as a broken body, but as a rising spirit.

Reiki and Equanimity

I was excited to hear of the upcoming release of a new book by the young Canadian author Karen Connelly. Her new novel, "Burmese Lessons: A true love story" will be available March 18, 2010. As regards her prior award winning novel, "The Lizard Cage," let me deny any intention of reflecting on the political aspects of the book - politics are neither my forte nor the intention of this Blog.

"The Lizard Cage" is a book that captures the essence of both Reiki and Hospice, which are the principles topics of this Blog. This book has a universality that I reflect on over and over again. Teza, the primary character of the novel, is terminally ill.

Teza is not in a hospital, rather, he is in a prison, and he does not have cancer, or HIV or dementia, rather he has a desire for political change, but, his human condition is universal. For a time he reflects on the situation around him, fellow prisoners, guards, what there is to eat today, memories of better times. He thinks of his youth and of loved ones. He thinks of music he might have played or poems he might have written. And as time goes on, his denial and anger turn to acceptance.

Beaten and starved, Teza continues his "decline trajectory." He knows his "prognosis," that he is heading toward "such a small word" - death.

In a very quiet way he follows the path of the Buddha - and like a Reiki master focuses on "just for today." Teza ceases anger, he ceases worrying, he is grateful for the most limited gifts, he works at kindness to others, and at emanating compassion, even for his guards.

Teza finds a place beyond compassion. Equanimity. "He begins and ends with this word. Equanimity in the face of what must be." As his end comes, he teaches a young boy, "It's the same for everything - people, animals, plants, all the things we make and build, Even if people or things look the same, they're always shifting or growing or dying. Nothing stays the same for any of us. So we try to have upekkha, to live with upekkha. That means to accept the change that comes and to be calm in it."

For me Reiki does not mean to enhance vibrational levels or increase power, since power is an illusion. Vibrational levels are an illusion. Reiki is simple. Each of us have a channel, and that channel can be widened, and grounded, and kept open and free of blocks. We can reach a place of calm and equanimity with our world, and from that place of calm and focus and with good intention, our hands can become vessels through which healing flows.

In Hospice, we meet people like Teza everyday, people who we cannot cure, but who we can assist in healing. We can gift them with presence and with our own calm, and help them to not live their last moments alone.

Teza helps us break out of the "medical model," and understand the universality of our dilemma, and why Reiki is simple and why it can help. If you get an opportunity to read "The Lizard Cage" by Karen Connelly, if you forget the politics as I often do, you can learn a great deal about Reiki and about Hospice.

I hope the book coming out on May 18, "Burmese Lessons: a true love story" will like Ms Connelly's prior book, touch my heart.

For those interested in the politics described in the book seek the website http://www.burmamission.org/

"The Wind of Falling Leaves -

It takes so much rain
To give the perfect color
To the maple leaves
But they are blown away
By a single gust of wind."

"In General"

Understand (life) by
Seeing how the stone has
Been
Hollowed out by the rain
Don't cling to the illusion
That nothing changes."

The above poems were from the Meiji Emperor, and were felt by Mikao Usui to be important. I understand these translations to have been by Frank Arjava Petter and Chetna Kobayashi. I reflect on them in thinking on the dilemmas posed by Karen Connelly, and the lives of people in Hospice, and the lives of people living under oppression in all times.

Reiki on ReachMD

Reach MD is cable Radio reaching out to mainstream physicians. Their website is currently featuring a radio interview I did on Reiki hosted by Dr Eric Tangalos of the Mayo Clinic. The following link should take you to my Reach MD guest site - the show is "A Compassionate Presence: Reiki as alternative pain management." It is necessary to register an email address to hear the program.


www.reachmd.com/xmradioguest.aspx?pid=36198


Today, Seasons Hospice of Maryland had special guests!! Pamela Miles and Ellen Sosinski stopped to visit our Team on their way back to NYC from a meeting at NIH.

The visit was on short notice, but quite a few of our Team members were able to attend, Jean Jordan drove in from Elkton, Maryland almost 70 miles away (Hello to Opal Team in Elkton!!)

Pamela and Ellen arrived around noon for a "brief visit" but before we knew it, we had talked for 3 hrs. It is so important in doing Reiki, and especially in integrating Reiki and Conventional Medicine, to share experiences and to continue to learn and grow.

The take home message that everyone agreed on was "do self Reiki every day."

Our Reiki share will meet Tuesday, May 4, at 5:30 pm and will be hosted by our friends at Karme.

I hope some of you have the opportunity to hear the Reach MD interview. And thank you to all my Team members and our guests who shared this afternoon, dedicated to exchanging toughts on Hospice and on Reiki.

Where Reiki is going from here Part 3

The monthly AARP magazine came out this past week, and on the cover was Dr Oz, and complementary medicine in general and Reiki in particular received yet another boost. Dr Oz' support of complementary methods such as Reiki is important not just because he appeared with Opra, nor simply because he has a successful TV show himself, nor that he is articulate and photogenic, but as well for 15 years he hs been considered, and still is viewed, as one of the top cardio-thoracic surgeons in the New York/New Jersey area and in fact in America.

Pamela Miles, the NYC Reiki Master who has worked with Dr Oz also has done studies with NIH and with Ivy League Medical Schools. Collectively, the scientific work done on Reiki has exceeded the point where one can refer to "evidence based medicine" and "complementary medicine" because many complementary methods such as Reiki now have signficant evidence based support.

The abundance of work that has built up facilitates physicians like myself, who are both "conventional" and "complementary" - to step up and discuss our own personal "integration" of techniques.

There are far more "conventional" physicians currently doing Reiki than anyone has any idea - this became obvious to me when my partner and I presented a session at Long Term Care Medicine 2010, and we received feedback from many people that we were "brave."

The article about Dr Oz was reflective for me though, because it discussed his background growing up in Delaware, and going to the Tower Hill School. My wife and I lived in Delaware for two years, 1972-1974 while I was in a training program at the Wilmington Medical Center, and Delaware at the time was a magical place.

I cannot remember having many deja vue phenomenon prior to living there, and cannot remember not having them since. It is interesting that in the private discussion area of students of Rick Rivard there has been a discussion on energy in places. Rick wrote an innocent email that he was going to "purge" email addresses from the list who were no longer contributing, and people started coming out of the woodwork (or internet) with stories that touched powerful connected chords for other people. And comments and sharing started flying literally around the world. Many of the comments focused on visits to special places that had significant energies, and to stories of people who had incureable illnesses and had recovered using self-Reiki. People were touching each other at a distance - people who in physical terms did not know what each other looked like, and who geographically were far away, but quite simply, people whose experiences touched chords.

There is a river flowing through the portion of Pennsylvania and Delaware called the Brandywine, it is hard to keep straight the geography of where Delaware and Pennsylvania begin and end, flowing water is not constrained by boundaries. My wife and I and friends would canoe this river, small and not famous for rapids or excitement, really tranquil and a spiritual place. I had grown up near the Niagara River and the sense of a river as always changing and always "the same" had left an impact on me, water is important.

At that time - when Dr Oz was growing up in Delaware, Longwood Gardens, one of the most elegant gardens in world had no entry charge and no entry building, it was simply free, unencombered and ordinarily free of a significant number of people. The Brandywine River museum, dedicated to the work of the Wyeth family had just recently been begun alongside the river. And parks were outside the growing urban sprawl that are now within them.

Our best friends were a core family at Tower Hill School, and even after we moved away, we visited for birthdays and family events - for years we believed we would all have more time to spend together, when only work slowed down (but it never did). Our friends were taken in a tragic accident, and for years after we donated to the Tower Hill School in their memory, and continue to receive mailings about the school. (this private school is so "American' with family names from the American Revolution, and names like Spruance, the family name of the Admiral who led the fleet at Midway - the turning point of WWII, and Dr Oz, a child of an immigrant family who had wonderful talent, and worked hard and enriched America)

One of the most important values in Reiki is that it complements conventional medicine. Skilled Reiki masters work with physicians - Reiki does not cannot and should not replace technical and scientific skill. At the same time, balancing subtle energy and giving people a sense of connectedness can help us come through difficult times, retain hope, and heal from surgery.

Dr Oz did not need to come forward, he was talented aand would be successful as one of most skilled thoracic surgeons in the country - but he did - and more "conventional" physicians will take an interest in Reiki as a result.

For someone who went to medical school when CT scans and MRI's did not exist, it is indeed a magical time, and reminiscent of quiet days along the Brandywine River.