Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#2961 - Friday, October 19, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
One: Essential Writings on Nonduality: http://snipurl.com/1rycd
Check availability at your local Borders Store: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp?tt=gn
In this issue an article on nonduality and reiki. I was about to post this issue when a post to Nonduality Salon from Jan arrived. So I stopped the presses to include Jan's letter below:
"Where does one go when there is
nowhere to go, no step that can be taken in any direction?
:-)"
Sooner or later such a moment arrives in every life so knowing
the situation
in advance is a boon already :-)
Yesterday I was reminded of that and had the opportunity to apply
Reiki to a
wild bird who had survived a crash against a glass door. If that
is due to Reiki,
the warmth of a hand or something else doesn't really matter -
the bird, having
nowhere to go, came back to its senses. --Jan
from http://www.reiki.net.au/news.asp?id=134
You may hear this article read at http://www.reiki.net.au/Podcast/dkm.mp3
The DKM Paradigm
by Bronwen and Frans Stiene
DKM is the pseudonym for the symbol and mantra
utilised at the level of Reiki Teacher.
As Reiki Teachers we are taught this symbol and its mantra, but
do we behave according to the DKM paradigm?
DKM in Japan represents void, emptiness, enlightenment or
non-duality. It depends upon the tradition you belong to, as to
which term you work with.
Using one of these terms, non-duality, we will delve into the
meaning of DKM. Within non-duality there is no distinction
between us and others, in universal terms it means that the
universe is us and we are the universe.
To be a Reiki Teacher equals being DKM.
In an effort to explain attunements[1] (an element of the system
of Reiki), a Reiki teacher may claim that she gives something to
a student or alters something in the student for the practice to
be effective. She may even state that without an attunement the
student will be unable to practice the system of Reiki with the
Reiki teacher also being the only person capable of passing on
Reiki.
If we look closer at these oft repeated statements we can see
that they lack correlation with the DKM paradigm of non-duality.
Within non-duality a Reiki teacher makes no claim of doing things
to a student. As soon as we state that we give something special
to the student or that we attune someone, we are removed from
that non-dual space.
The space of non-duality is the space of Oneness; there is no
teacher, no student and nothing to give. At the deepest level
there is nobody to attune. As soon as we think we give something
or do something to the student we become attached to the gift, or
the doing, and expect an outcome.
This attachment to the attunement’s outcome has been a major
reason for the growing physicality and complexity over time of
the attunement process.
As more physical actions are included into the attunement
process, the student’s sensations become superficially
enhanced. For example, physical actions like the pressure of a
teacher’s hand or thumb can leave the student with a
lingering physical sensation or a teacher’s accented breath
may tickle against the student’s skin offering mystical
possibilities. These types of physical acts generally prompt the
student to respond positively to the attunement, believing that
the teacher has completed something meaningful and, perhaps even,
magical.
In turn, such positive affirmations created by an excess of
physical actions encourage the teacher to believe that her
attunement has “really worked”, supporting the teacher
in this same cycle of manufactured meaning. If the student,
however, does not respond in the expected fashion then the
teacher feels disappointed with her own performance and ability.
Within non-duality a teacher is not interested in the outcome, it
is just the way it is; neither good nor bad. In this space there
is also no need for protection – for ourselves, during
treatments or attunements. There is also no need for the Reiki
symbols or mantras once a certain point in a Reiki practice is
attained – which is possibly why the reiju works without
them. If we reside within DKM then symbols have no use, as we
already ARE the symbol and all that we must DO is BE.
How a teacher sees herself is also reflected by her level of
experience. Self-appointed titles of master and grandmaster are
superfluous in the state of DKM. To quote Yukiyoshi Takamura
(1928-2000): Anyone who refers to himself as a ‘master’,
isn’t.
To find out more about the thoughts behind the system of Reiki in
relation to non-duality and DKM we can dissect some of the
information we have about Usui Mikao[2], his teachings and his
students. During reiju[3] Usui sensei would simply sit opposite
the student, being a vessel for the universal energy to flow
through. The student would then take from that what she needed at
the time. Usui sensei appeared to exist without any attachment to
the process and worked within a space of Oneness.
Out of Usui sensei’s 2000 students only 20 were practicing
in Shinpiden[4] when Usui sensei passed on. This indicates that
there was a length of time required before completing the
teachings and that, therefore, there was most likely a level of
difficulty attached to the practice. It is believed that in Usui
sensei’s time recognition as a teacher was given only once
the teacher became DKM. How many of his students actually
completed Shinpiden is still an unanswered question today.
Delving into the profoundest understanding of working within the
system of Reiki, it could be said that all that is required of
the practitioner is to be an empty vessel to let the universal
energy flow through. The more thoughts and attachments we have,
the more we fill our empty vessel with rubbish and the less
universal energy will flow through us.
Being an empty vessel is not achieved in a weekend or even a year
- it is a life-long practice. Are Reiki practitioners willing to
take this life journey? It is one that entails
self-responsibility and working solidly with the tools that Usui
sensei pieced together for us.
To consciously embark on this life practice a Reiki practitioner,
initially, needs to intellectually understand the concept of DKM.
This process needs to be supported by a qualified teacher who can
guide the practitioner intellectually. After intellectualizing
DKM, the practitioner must then gain an initial experience of
being that empty vessel, via traditional Reiki practices. Once
these two processes have been worked through they can be
integrated into one’s practice and life. Finally, a space is
reached where life and meditation are not separate; where we are
the universe and the universe is us, or, in other words, that we
come to abide by our true nature, DKM.
[1] Attunements have developed from the Japanese practice of
reiju and are taught under this name in modern forms of the
system of Reiki. Attunements use Reiki symbols and mantras while
reiju does not and is seen as a spiritual blessing.
[2] Founder of the system of Reiki.
[3] Reiju is a spiritual blessing and is the precursor to the
attunement.
[4] Reiki teacher level.
http://www.reiki.net.au/news.asp?id=134