Reiki Reflections on a Theme #1

By Phillip Hawkins

As a teacher with many years experience and I have come to learn and accept that I can’t teach anyone anything. This isn’t a reflection on my own ability; it’s simply a realisation born out of the desire and need to educate myself. Education like responsibility can’t be forced upon anyone; it must be accepted by those who are ready and willing to receive it.
The role of a teacher is to help the student educate themselves. To present knowledge to them in the hope that they have the desire to take responsibility for their own development and seek out the understanding that lies buried and undiscovered within them. Learning is a journey of self discovery, a process of letting go of the old and accepting the new. It’s the key to releasing a troubled past, allowing the present to take its rightful place in our lives, creating the kind of future we wish to experience.
The desire and willingness to share knowledge and understanding is the catalyst in the healing process. In healing ourselves we are able to share our experiences with others and in doing so empower them to begin their own healing process. In this way the teacher engages with the student and accompanies them for a short while on their journey of self discovery.
This eBook is part of my own personal development and writing it has helped me to heal and release myself from what was a very dark and destructive past. This is a small part of that journey laid out before you; please walk with me for a while

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadgerDesign
• Release date: Oct 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311261021

Phillip Hawkins

A little of my background: A skilled tutor and trainer with significant experience gained developing, delivering and managing training programmes for a wide range of organizations, and groups with complex training/educational/social needs. An effective manager of personnel and resources, with strong negotiating and interpersonal skills, organised and flexible in approach to work ensuring action taken to respond to changing circumstances. Excellent analytical and presentation skills with the ability to define and support the aims and needs of the individual and the organization, experienced at working under own initiative or as part of a team. Support Worker: Secure Psychiatric Unit Support worker in a private 26 bed female only rehabilitation psychiatric hospital. Working alongside medical personnel providing patients with around the clock care that includes supported interventions, one to one and two to one line of sight/arms length observations. Assisting the NIC with the administration of medication and controlled drugs. General duties: maintaining security within the unit and supporting patients whilst out in the community. Specialist Tutor: Learning Curve To advise in the setting up the role of in-house specialist tutor. The role would involve working with on-line learners who have learning disabilities and complex needs. To provide information and guidance to trainers and assessors, in addition to the teaching resources to help the learners complete their on-line qualification in an agreed timescale. Support Worker/Compliance Auditor Dimensions Initially working in a residential setting with adults who have Autism/Learning difficulties who live independently but because of their educational, social and emotional needs can exhibit challenging behavior that requires a high level of support, guidance and mentoring. Seconded to auditors role as part of a national compliance audit team with responsibility for 28 services in the Tyne/Tees region, ensuring the level of service provided within those services meets CQC and Dimensions standards of care and support. Trainer/ Tutor: TEAM Wearside As an employability tutor delivering NCFE/City and Guilds employability programmes to students/clients with complex needs. Programme content included H&S, equality and diversity, personal development and Safeguarding for Entry level/Level 1 & 2. Seconded to Castlegreen Special Educational and Social Needs Community School as part of their existing centre of excellence, liaising with SFL and Apprenticeship teams within TEAM Wearside and external agencies working towards achievement for the learners including further qualifications, whilst assisting them to gain self confidence, work experience, access to FE or employment and independent living status. Tutor: Bishop Auckland College Developing training programmes for accreditation by the Open College Network (T.R.O.C.N.) delivering courses / programmes on Personal Safety, Aggression Management, and Assertiveness as part of the college curriculum and also to the private sector. Working with Foundation Learning E2E, and groups with learning and social difficulties, basic skills, numeracy and literacy based portfolio building and Skills for Life and NCFE employability programmes. Tutor: New College Durham Part of the Summer School team; delivering Reiki/personal development training to the high risk and vulnerable inmates with educational and social needs at Frankland Maximum Security Prison. Tutor: Education in the Community Developing Reiki training programmes to accreditation standards (T.R.O.C.N.). Developing and delivering Personal Development and Skills for Life courses as part of the A.C.L. Education in the Community Programme. Care Worker: Agency work Working in a wide range of care environments, care homes, nursing homes, EMI units, hospitals/hospice, and in the clients own homes. Duties included personal care, cooking and cleaning, supervising social days out, client health and safety, administering medication and liaising with nursing/medial personnel. Lecturer University of Sunderland Training Connexions personal advisers; responsible for delivering and presenting Connexion’s Programme, preparing training courses, assessing students.

Book preview

Chapter 1 - Are You Sure That’s What Dr. Usui Said?

There are many gifted Reiki practitioners who through no fault of their own get drawn into discussions about which Reiki tradition or lineage is the true one. Believing that ‘their Reiki’ is the right one, they then conclude that all the other forms are misguided and misleading. There is passion behind the respective opinions, each believes that they have a duty to defend what they perceive as Dr Usui’s Reiki and their tradition becomes a bench mark against which they judge others and usually find them lacking. Unfortunately, once judgement enters into a discussion, people quickly become polarised and entrenched in their beliefs with the need to defend their position usually at the cost of the other person’s point of view.  Committed to this course of action it becomes very easy to lose sight of the spiritual concepts that were the reason for our attraction to Reiki in the first place.

I think all styles of Reiki serve a purpose and I have found from personal experience that many are identical with the only difference being the name or prefix title that’s placed before Reiki. The moment I put my own view forward it becomes just one more opinion on what Reiki is, should or shouldn’t be. More importantly the moment we move away from an open community of enquiry and move into the realms of rigid opinions, and heated arguments over which style of Reiki or Reiki organisation truly reflects Dr Usui’s teachings we have missed the point and are in direct opposition to the fundamental principles of Reiki that are carved in stone on Usui’s memorial.

Generally speaking we have two versions of the Reiki story that are diametrically opposed to one another. But if we accept that Reiki works we must ask ourselves if it matters if the story doesn’t quite fit the experiential evidence that Reiki practitioners are creating worldwide on a daily basis. History of any description is a story and as any historian will tell you, history is written by those with the power to do so and owes as much to the storytellers and authors as it does to the events themselves.  Events throughout history have been edited and manipulated to meet the political needs of those who had the power to determine how events would be portrayed for posterity. Nothing is ever what it seems; whether it’s a perceived historical fact or the present moment.  Since we weren’t there, all we have is written accounts or stories passed down like a giant Japanese whisper. Even if you the reader could have witnessed personally the whole of Dr. Usui’s life, your account of events would still only be your interpretation of what you witnessed based on your values, beliefs, and prejudices.  Objective reality is an illusion; the observer affects everything s/he observes, what you believe helps create your reality; your reality colours what you see, and what you see, reinforces your beliefs.

Does it matter who called it Reiki, or how it was taught, or even if it was called Reiki in the first place.  The name Reiki is nothing more than a label and this infinite energy has had various names over many thousands of years. It has been experienced in many forms and expressed in many ways by different civilisations and cultures worldwide.  There is only one source, but it expresses itself in many different ways. There is more than one way to teach and learn Reiki, and each has value and merit in its own right.  There has to be as many ways as there are people who come to it, we are all different, and the ways in which we learn need to be as varied and individual as we are. Reiki is alive and free flowing and all living things must change develop and grow. Reiki is no different.  Once this process has begun its origins are nowhere near as important as its destiny.  Reiki is the journey of a lifetime; if we want to move forward we must look forward and create the future we desire, that way we won’t have to spend time regretting or re-writing the past.

Structure, in whatever form it takes, be it the written word, hand positions, symbols or meditations are no more than a means to an end. They provide a support structure until you find your confidence and are able to walk and stand unaided.  Each one is a teaching aid designed to take us step by step to the point on our journey when we discover and trust our own intuition and the power of intention. A rigid structure was never meant to become a dependency or impede our progress.  Through the use of our directed intent, we are able to do less and less, thus reducing the number of dependencies, to the point where we appear to do nothing and yet everything is done.  Intent should never be confused with effort; effort is the energy of the ego that looks to force to make something happen, while intent comes from the stillness of creation and simply works with and directs the energy that already exists. 

The world is in dire need of