Will Reiki Cleanse my Karma?

The past several months, this very question has come up with my students and clients.

I feel it is best to address this question starting with the very perception of Karma, and your actions and intention with Reiki.

Karma is one of those words we don’t translate. Its basic meaning is simple enough — action — but because of the weight the Buddha’s teachings give to the role of action, the Sanskrit word karma packs in so many implications that the English word action can’t carry its entire luggage.

When we try unpacking the connotations the word carries now that it has arrived in everyday usage, we find that most of its luggage has gotten mixed up in transit. In the eyes of most Americans, karma functions like fate — bad fate, at that: an inexplicable, unchangeable force coming out of our past, for which we are somehow vaguely responsible and powerless to fight. “I guess it’s just my karma,” I’ve heard people sigh when bad fortune strikes with such force that they see no alternative to resigned acceptance. The fatalism implicit in this statement is one reason why so many of us are repelled by the concept of karma, for it sounds like the kind of callous myth-making that can justify almost any kind of suffering or injustice in the status quo: “If he’s poor, it’s because of his karma.” “If she’s been raped, it’s because of her karma.” From this it seems a short step to saying that he or she deserves to suffer, and so doesn’t deserve our help.

This misperception comes from the fact that the Buddhist concept of karma came to the West at the same time as non-Buddhist concepts, and so ended up with some of their luggage. Although many Asian concepts of karma are fatalistic, the early Buddhist concept was not fatalistic at all. In fact, if we look closely at early Buddhist ideas of karma, we’ll find that they give even less importance to myths about the past than most modern Americans do.

For the early Buddhists, karma was non-linear and complex. Other Indian schools believed that karma operated in a simple straight line, with actions from the past influencing the present, and present actions influencing the future. As a result, they saw little room for free will. Buddhists, however, saw that karma acts in multiple feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped both by past and by present actions; present actions shape not only the future but also the present. Furthermore, present actions need not be determined by past actions. In other words, there is free will, although its range is somewhat dictated by the past. The nature of this freedom is symbolized in an image used by the early Buddhists: flowing water. Sometimes the flow from the past is so strong that little can be done except to stand fast, but there are also times when the flow is gentle enough to be diverted in almost any direction.

So, instead of promoting resigned powerlessness, the early Buddhist notion of karma focused on the liberating potential of what the mind is doing with every moment. Who you are — what you come from — is not anywhere near as important as the mind’s motives for what it is doing right now. Even though the past may account for many of the inequalities we see in life, our measure as human beings is not the hand we’ve been dealt, for that hand can change at any moment. We take our own measure by how well we play the hand we’ve got. If you’re suffering, you try not to continue the unskillful mental habits that would keep that particular karmic feedback going. If you see that other people are suffering, and you’re in a position to help, you focus not on their karmic past but your karmic opportunity in the present: Someday you may find yourself in the same predicament that they’re in now, so here’s your opportunity to act in the way you’d like them to act toward you when that day comes.

So the Buddhist teachings on karma, far from being a quaint relic from the past, are a direct challenge to a basic thrust — and basic flaw — in our culture. Only when we abandon our obsession with finding vicarious pride in our tribal past, and can take actual pride in the motives that underlie our present actions, can we say that the word karma, in its Buddhist sense, has recovered its luggage. And when we open the luggage, we’ll find that it’s brought us a gift: the gift we give ourselves and one another when we drop our myths about who we are, and can instead be honest about what we’re doing with each moment — at the same time making the effort to do it right.    By Thanissaro Bhikkhu

“Take pride in the motive that underlies your present actions”. Every Reiki Master will tell you, no promises can be made about the “outcome” of the use of Reiki (or any other healing system). It all depends on you, your intent, your actions, your background and the nature of your situation. Healing is a different experience, different level of spiritual growth and has different effects on every individual. A big step towards healing yourself is to actually realize your need for healing and the “actions” you take.

Here are some important questions to think about, reflect and answer them truthfully:

1.    · Do you want to become whole or simply want “a problem” to go away?
2.    · Are you willing to make changes in your life?
3.    · Do you recognize negative patterns in your life?
4.    · What are your eating habits? Do you drink enough water?
5.    · Do you exercise, even if it is no more than a walk around the block?
6.    · Do you blame others for dis-comfort or dis-ease?
7.    · Are you holding old grudges?

Reiki is not just energy that you can give to someone…. it is an energy system that will trigger deep-seated issues and patterns in your life. It is life-altering…. allowing you to look deep within. Reiki brings great change in, around and through your life and surroundings…. it heals all levels of imbalances from this life and from other lifetimes as well, Reiki requires “action”!

Sharing with
Love n Lite,
Kimberlee Cusumano