How to Dance in the Rain

"Authentic spirituality awakens the soul, reconnects us with the sacred, and fills us with the passion of life. Spiritual development is not about religious rituals and practices; it is about waking up to the wonder of life." -- David N. Elkins


"Allowing the truth of who you are--your spiritual self--to rule your life means you stop the struggle and learn to move with the flow of your life." -- Oprah Winfrey

Let Yourself Be Carried
The Flow of the Universe

The flow of the universe moves through everything. It is in the rocks that form, get pounded into dust, and are blown away. It is in the blossoming of a flower born from a seed planted in the spring. The growth cycle that every human being goes through is part of this natural flow, which is also the current that takes us down life’s paths. When we move with it rather than resisting it, we are riding on the universal wave that allows us to flow with life.

Many people live struggling against this current. They try to use force or resistance to will their lives into happening in the way they think it should. Others move with it like a sailor using the wind, trusting that the universe is taking them exactly where they need to be at all times. This flow is accessible to everyone because it travels through and around us. We are always riding it—it is just a matter of whether we are willing to go with it or we resist it. Choosing to go with the flow is often a matter of relinquishing the notion that we need to be in control at all times.

The flow is always transporting you where you need to go. It is merely a question of deciding whether you plan on accepting the ride or having it take you there with your feet dragging. Learning to step into it can help you feel a connection to a force that is greater than you and is always there to support you. The decision to go with the flow takes courage because you are surrendering the belief that you need to do everything by yourself. Riding the flow of the universe can be effortless, exhilarating, and unlike anything you ever expected. When you are receptive to being in it, you open yourself to possibilities that exist beyond the grasp of your control.

As a child, you were naturally swept by the flow. Tears of sadness falling down your face could just as quickly turn to tears of laughter. The mere tiniest wave carrying you forward off the shores of the ocean could transport you into peals of delight.

Our souls feel good when we go with the flow of the universe. All we have to do is make the choice to ride its currents.

Going Back By Going Within
Healing Childhood Wounds

Events from childhood, our first experiences, have the power to shape our lives. Some do so immediately, offering us challenges to overcome and encouragement to make use of our talents and interests. In the process character is built, and we make the first steps upon our personal paths. Other events seem to lay dormant until adulthood, when our closest relationships help to bring out the deepest aspects of ourselves. This is when unexamined lessons can be put to use and untended childhood wounds make themselves known in a call for healing.

We may discover issues of trust coming up, or perhaps we find ourselves mirroring actions from our past instinctively. No matter the case, we have the power within us to heal ourselves at the deepest level. With the wisdom of an adult, we can be the loving parent or guardian we needed as a child. Knowing that we are each whole spiritual beings having a human experience, we can nurture ourselves from that wholeness, and then reach out to others as well. We can recreate scenarios in our mind’s eye, trying different outcomes and following them to their logical conclusions. In doing so, we may be able to imagine possible reasons a situation occurred as it did, and even accept that it could not have happened any other way. With the wisdom born from age and experience, we might be able to see events from a different perspective, bringing new understanding and freeing ourselves from any hold the past may have on us.

Life offers opportunities to clear these weeds in the gardens of our souls. However, when we want to focus on easier and more pleasant tasks, we are likely to pass up the chances, leaving the wounds to continue to drain our energy and resources for living life fully today. We might find we need support to face the events of the past, so turning to a trained professional who can offer tools for healing can be a valid choice. As long as we remember that the child we were lives on within us, we are always free to go back and right old wrongs, correct mistaken perceptions, heal wounds, forgive, and begin anew.

Asking And Receiving
Prayer And Meditation

Prayer and meditation are similar practices in that they both offer us a connection to the divine, but they also differ from one another in significant ways. Put simply, prayer is when we ask the universe for something, and meditation is when we listen. When we pray, we use language to express our innermost thoughts and feelings to a higher power. Sometimes, we plumb the depths within ourselves and allow whatever comes to the surface to flow out in our prayer. At other times, we pray words that were written by someone else but that express what we want to say. Prayer is reaching out to the universe with questions, pleas for help, gratitude, and praise.

Meditation, on the other hand, has a silent quality that honors the art of receptivity. When we meditate, we cease movement and allow the activity of our minds and hearts to go on without us in a sense. Eventually, we fall into a deep silence, a place that underlies all the noise and fray of daily human existence. In this place, it becomes possible for us to hear the universe as it speaks for itself, responds to our questions, or sits with us in its silent way.

Both prayer and meditation are indispensable tools for navigating our relationship with the universe and with ourselves. They are also natural complements to one another, and one makes way for the other just as the crest of a wave gives way to its hollow. If we tend to do only one or the other, prayer or meditation, we may find that we are out of balance, and we might benefit from exploring the missing form of communication. There are times when we need to reach out and express ourselves, fully exorcising our insides, and times when we are empty, ready to rest in quiet receiving. When we allow ourselves to do both, we begin to have a true conversation with the universe.

Analyzing The Path
Recognizing Happiness

Those of us on the path of personal and spiritual growth have a tendency to analyze our unhappiness in order to find the causes and make improvements. But it is just as important, if not more so, to analyze our happiness. Since we have the ability to rise above and observe our emotions, we can recognize when we are feeling joyful and content. Then we can harness the power of the moment by savoring our feelings and taking time to be grateful for them.

Recognition is the first step in creating change, therefore recognizing what it feels like to be happy is the first step toward sustaining happiness in our lives. We can examine how joy feels in our bodies and what thoughts run through our minds in times of bliss. Without diminishing its power, we can retrace our steps to discover what may have put us in this frame of mind, and then we can take note of the choices we’ve made while there. We might realize that we are generally more giving and forgiving when there’s a smile on our face, or that we are more likely to laugh off small annoyances and the actions of others when they don’t resonate with our light mood.

Once we know what it feels like and can identify some of the triggers and are aware of our actions, we can recreate that happiness when we are feeling low. Knowing that like attracts like, we can pull ourselves out of a blue mood by focusing on joy. We might find that forcing ourselves to be giving and forgiving, even when it doesn’t seem to come naturally, helps us to reconnect with the joy that usually precedes it. If we can identify a song, a picture, or a pet as a happiness trigger, we can use them as tools to recapture joy if we are having trouble finding it. By focusing our energy on analyzing happiness and all that it encompasses, we feed, nurture, and attract more of it into our lives, eventually making a habit of happiness

Here is a great article written by a friend of mine “Anna of Cyprus”. In fact her entire newsletter is wonderful here is a link to it because what she is writing is amazing.

http://bl129w.blu129.mail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&n=2096135276

FORGIVENESS

Well it's time overdue to write about Forgiveness, because when we are unable to forgive, it is we ourselves that we imprison with and by our memories, and we ourselves that become or stay stuck in the past. And as we stay stuck, our people around us reflect this too; because we are all inter-connected.

Stuck energy is something that does not grow, it literally looks like a hairball or glue ball or something similar in the subtle, or energetic planes. When we have this in our system, the life force cannot flow through us and in many ways we shrivel and often die, emotionally and mentally if not also physically.

It's neither easy to forgive nor it is an easy subject to write about. All of Life, as with all of our experiences, is highly subjective and we deem someone to be 'right' - or not - in terms of how our experiences, conditioning and views have shaped our own lives.

So we nod our heads and agree with, or not, with someone whose actions can be defined by ourselves as 'right' or 'wrong', 'good' or 'bad'.

When someone does or says something that does not agree with this, or we allow invading our personal space in any way, we deem them to be 'wrong', or 'bad', and this can be basis of grievance that can last literally for years, if not for lifetimes.

I see this so often and it can be so, so sad all round.

For the person who nurtures any grievance, this means that they are holding onto an energy that is eating them up, literally. How? Because all grievances are held in the mind - and by extension also our physical bodies - and are locked therein by the energy of Anger and its projection, Judgment. Sometimes also the energy of guilt is present, although not in every case. But anger and by effect, judgment, is always, always present.

Anger, originally designed by nature to be a motivating force for change, is something that mankind has for thousands of years used as a weapon to destroy (usually each other, but mostly ourselves).

In the physical body in simplistic terms, anger is often the reason why a single cell might change form to enable a virus to be born or held in our bodies. It can also impact the immune system so that such a virus might grow and spread. It can be a basis of fever and any kind of inflammation, and can also be a cause of cancer. Having said this though of course there is never any one single reason why anything 'could' or 'should' happen to anyone - we are all the sum total of our experiences, genetic, karmic and spiritual histories and everyone is different (even though we are all One). In any case, the body is a hologram and this especially must also be taken into account.

Anger is often masked by Depression, mostly because we don't usually know how to manage ourselves when we are angry, especially when we've been taught that it's wrong to be thus. The energy used in screwing down anger within the physical body is immense and can suppress much other energy - causing 'depression'. When we have a lot of depressed (and secretly angry) individuals (and all medicated against it), we can have whole societies that are depressed (and heaving with rage, within); this can explain why different velocity of different dis-eases present as themes in different societies.

When we are unable to forgive, we find quite often we replay our issues in our minds, again and again, speaking often of them and communicating them subliminally too in between our words and thoughts, as they are embedded in the light cells and subtle energetic grids with which we do our real communication. It's as if there is a video constantly playing in our minds about what so-and-so 'did to us', which is able to trigger the same anger and associated emotions in us whenever we remind ourselves about such-and-such.

Few people, though, recognize that there are often many different sides to a joint experience, as many perspectives as there are people (and observers!) We can usually only see one side of the story, that is, our own, and we are usually unaware of what part of our energies have fed into any given situation.

At personality level we can of course speak of many different reasons why things happen in the way they do and many of us spend a lot of time doing this, usually in a coffee shop or tea-house. At a deeper, soul level though, there is no such thing as a co-incidence and that everything always happens for a purpose.

Going directly to the deeper level then, remember the concept that All is One, and that there is no external reality. Everything therefore is a projection of our inner selves and if there is any sort of disharmony inside us, these are projected for us to see, experience and therefore know ourselves differently, and to harmonize within ourselves, consciously, if we so choose. This is both an understanding and acceptance of the God/dess within us all, part of the natural order of Life, and is also the Journey of the Soul.

If we are willing to see Life from this perspective, then we might also be able to open ourselves up to many other different perspectives too, including the one of the perpetrator of whatever is was 'against us'.

When we are willing to do this, we might come to a different sort of understanding of events as they might have been. From understanding often comes compassion, which in turn leads to acceptance of Life as it really is, for many, not just for us. With this then, we might be able to bring ourselves to forgiveness, so that we can clear the energies and can all move on.

To forgive after all means "to give so that we can move forward", there is no co-incidence in the word as it is written in English. In order to have clearance at all levels, someone has to give something to enable stuck energy to flow. If other people are not as aware as we are - or even if they have done something 'so terrible against us' - if we do not have compassion for either their state of being or their pain, it is we ourselves who remain stuck and forever in that energy, usual in pain. We've seen it so often in people around us, in almost every case it is we ourselves who are in this place too.

How do we apply this spiritual principle on a human level? It's true that I've sat often with many of you as you've shared your stories of joint experiences and my eyeballs have fallen out of my head with disbelief at man's humanity to fellow man. I've been in that place myself too where I have allowed people for whatever reason to choose to use me for target practice. For me in the past, sometimes it's been a call to practice for discernment, which means I deliberately determine for myself what I will allow to happen in my Life (or not); sometimes is about conscious and respectful application of personal boundaries and at other times it has been about trust issues (leading back to discernment).

It has never been just about the other person, it has always at some level been about me too. I have usually been out of integrity with myself in some way for these situations to have occurred. I recognize and own this.

With the above spiritual principles in mind, when there has been anger, I have recognized too that it has been always been an anger against myself for having allowed such-and-such situation to have occurred in the first place.

For forgiveness to start, we have to first of all transmute the anger. To do this we have to feel it by being in it, and then to express it appropriately. The latter word 'appropriately' is a huge response-ability for us all because few people know how to do it this way. What I usually do is to tell someone how I felt when a certain situation occurred. I am very careful not to blame, because blame anchors us in the past and creates victims where there can be none.

What we are doing here is clearing energy - usually old - so that we can be fully present in the present moment rather than rooted in the past.

Sometimes I can do it direct with the other party, sometimes I feel I need a third party to help me hold space whilst I do this. These friends, sometimes healers, sometimes not, only need to hold the space with me whilst I go through the emotion. I do not need them add to the flame with their own judgments - this is not usually helpful to the understanding and ownership of different perspectives. Usually all that is needed is the phrase "I can understand how/why you feel this way." That's all. We just need to be heard. It normally takes me about 7-10 minutes to transmute particularly the energy of anger. Then I can let it go and get on with Life.

If the other person has moved on, or passed on, we can still do the same thing by writing a letter, or asking a friend to step into that person's energy in order to assist. For the latter, though, I would suggest this be done by a healer who is very conscious of which energy is coming up for release and when. It's extremely powerful work.

If an apology is forthcoming, that greatly facilitates the process, but often it is not, so we have to find creative ways around this in order to free ourselves from bondage to anger and judgment (our own, that is).

It's all about resolution at the end of the day. Without this, a coming to terms with Life and an acceptance of All That Is, Life - our lives that is - will forever be full of conflict. It will continuously reflect an inner judgment that we are not good enough, that people might not like us, etc….too much, too little, not enough, too young, too old, too new, too big, too small, too dirty, too clean. The internal chatter goes on, and we take it all so personally. Otherwise, 'it' wouldn't be an issue.

When we are able to come to an acceptance of All That Is, of all that is Life, we can come to an acceptance of ourselves too, and vice versa (remember, Life is a hologram and always interconnected). Forgiveness is really all about acceptance, of our ability (and fundamental desire) to let go, to live in the present moment by resolving our past and allowing our future to take care of it. That Unconditional Love that we all essentially are is then able to express itself freely, and the energies will start to flow again. When we are quiet, peaceful and in acceptance within ourselves, and the energies are starting to flow, which means our lives are flowing nicely, how would our external world be like for us to live in then?

I hope the above has answered some of your questions about forgiveness on an individual level. At community and national level, it is a little bit more complex - but not by much. If you have any more please do just ask and I'll do my best to help you find answers.

Anna of Cyprus (anna@onetouch-centre.com)

Check out this link:
http://www.hasanyonetoldyou.com/

Enjoy watching this and know that we are one and you are LOVED by me!


Last but not least here is something that I am putting up in my office

'Life isn't about how to survive the storm,
but how to dance in the rain.'

Blessings and Love,

Mari

Spring in the Meditation Garden

The picture I have posted is one of our critters in the garden with his own eating and exercise style. He hangs upside down and eats. When he wants another bite of corn he does his form of a sit up to reach the food and then goes back down to eat. We can learn so much from watching life in the garden.

I know it has been a while since I have posted a newsletter. I apologize to all of you. My life has been full of challenges and I have needed the time to go inside and process what life has been bringing to me lately. Or another way to look at is what and why have I attracted these occurrences to my life at the present time? One of my core issues that kept coming up is that when I wanted time for myself or even to do something just for me I thought/accused myself of being selfish. Boy that early programming is hard to put aside. The very thing I have needed to do in order to process and stay quiet inside I considered “bad’ therefore putting myself in a catch 22.

A few mornings ago I woke up and found a message in my E-mail relating to my very issue. Isn’t it great when we get the answers that even have only thought about?

"One of the last things any of us want to be called is 'selfish.' It has a very negative connotation in our society. We often end up doing things we don't want to do to avoid being considered or seen as selfish by others.

In my counseling work with people, I often hear the questions, 'Aren't I being selfish if I take care of myself instead of take care of everyone else? Am I being selfish if I do what I want instead of what someone else wants me to do?'
The problem occurs because of an excessively broad, inaccurate, and/or skewed definition of 'selfish.'

To be more specific, we are being selfish when:

• We 'expect' others to give themselves up for us.
• We make others responsible for our feelings of pain and joy.
• We get angry at others for doing what they want to do rather than doing what we want them to do.
• We consistently make our own feelings, wants, needs, and desires most important without also considering others' feelings, wants, needs, and desires.
• We believe we are entitled to special treatment, as if life and the world owed us something.

However, we are being self-responsible (vs. selfish) when:

• We take care of our own feeling, wants, desires, and needs rather than 'expecting' others to take care of us.
• We support others in doing what brings them joy, even when they are not doing what we want them to do.
• We show caring toward others for the joy it gives us rather than out of fear, obligation, or guilt.
• We have the courage to take loving action on our own behalf, even if someone gets angry with us. For example, we go to bed early because we are tired, even if our partner gets angry at us for not watching a movie or TV show with him or her.
• We have the courage to speak our truth about what we will or will not do, and what we do or do not feel, rather than give ourselves up to avoid criticism, anger, or rejection.

Giving ourselves up to avoid being called selfish is not self-responsible - in fact, it is manipulative and dishonest. When we give ourselves up to avoid criticism or letting someone down, we are trying to control how others feel about us.
Taking loving care of ourselves, with no intent to harm another is self-responsible. Yet we are often called 'selfish' when we take care of ourselves in this way.

Therefore, it is important for each of us to define selfishness and self-responsibility for ourselves so that we are not dependent upon others' definition of it and us. When you become secure in knowing that you not only have the right, but the responsibility, to support your own joy and highest good - with no intent to harm another - then you will not be tempted to give yourself up when someone tells you that you are selfish for not doing what he or she wants you to do.

When you are secure in knowing that your own intent is a loving one toward yourself and others, you do not have to manipulate others into defining you as caring by totally giving yourself up."

Dr. Margaret Paul, Ph.D., in Healing Your Aloneness


Feeling Our Words
Words Have Weight

Words carry energy and this gives language its power and its potential to heal or hurt. Most of us can remember a time that someone sent a word our way, and it stuck with us. It may have been the first time we received a truly accurate compliment, or the time a friend or sibling called us a name, but either way it stuck. This experience reminds us that what we say has weight and power and that being conscious means being aware of how we use words.

The more conscious we become, the more we deepen our relationship to the words we use so that we speak from a place of actually feeling what we are saying. We begin to recognize that words are not abstract, disconnected entities used only to convey meaning; they are powerful transmitters of feeling. For the next few days, you might want to practice noticing how the words you say and hear affect your body and your emotional state. Notice how the different communication styles of the people in your life make you feel. Also, watch closely to see how your own words come out and what affect they have on the people around you.

You may notice that when we speak quickly, without thinking, or rush to get our ideas across, our words don't carry the same power as when we speak slowly and confidently, allowing those receiving our words time and space to take them in. When we carefully listen to others before we speak, our words have more integrity, and when we take time to center ourselves before speaking, we truly begin to harness the power of speech. Then our words can be intelligent messengers of healing and light, transmitting deep and positive feelings to those who receive them.


Relating To The Negative
The Danger Of Repression

For the last several years, there has been a lot of focus on the power of positive thinking. Many people have come to misinterpret this wisdom to mean that it is not okay to have a bad mood or a negative thought or feeling. This can lend a kind of superficiality to their relationship with life and relationships with other people. It can also lead them to feel that if a negative thought or feeling comes up, in themselves or someone else, they must immediately block it out. When they do this, they are engaging in the act of repressing a part of themselves that needs to seen, heard, and processed.

When we repress parts of ourselves, they don’t go away so much as they get buried deep within us, and they often come out when we least expect it. On the other hand, if we allow ourselves to be fully human, honoring all the thoughts, feelings, and moods that pass through us on a given day, we create a more conscious relationship with ourselves. Instead of blocking out thoughts and feelings that we label as negative, we can simply observe them and then let them go. They only get stuck when we react to them negatively, pushing them down and out of sight where they get lodged in our unconscious minds. A healthier solution might be to develop a practice of following any negative thought we may have with a positive thought. This works well because positive thoughts are many times more powerful than negative thoughts.

Rather than setting our minds up in such a way that we become fearful of the contents of our own consciousness, blocking out anything that is less than 100 percent positive, we might resolve to develop a friendlier attitude toward ourselves, trusting in our inherent goodness. When we recognize our true inner worth, a few dark clouds passing through our minds will not intimidate us. We will see them for what they are—small, dark figures passing through an expansive sky of well-being and truth.


An invitation from two of my Reiki Friends:

Laurelle writes “This morning I awoke to inner whispers "Reiki hour...Reiki hour...Reiki hour...ask them...ask them....ask them...Reiki hour."
Reiki hour is the same concept as earth hour with Reiki of course...Reiki enhances everything

Sunday night(s) at 9:00 p.m. in their local time zone Reiki practitioners turn off all non-essential lights, and we become the light.

First we telepathically connect with one another using the distant Reiki symbol, thus becoming one united light. Then we send Reiki with the pure intention "Peace, Love, Health, Prosperity and Well-being for all beings." At the same time we visualize a world at peace and the earth returning to a healthy state of balance; see the air, streams, rivers and seas being cleansed.

For those who wish to participate, this can also be a wonderful way to personally receive a Reiki treatment at the same time. Simply be open to bathe in the energy as you are sending Reiki out. Group sessions of this nature enhance the strength of Reiki's healing power exponentially.

So as those inner whispers encouraged me to do this morning...I am asking... Will you please join us for Reiki hour at 9 p.m. Sunday night? That is 9 p.m. in your own time zone and we will create a wave of Reiki energy across the planet.
We plan to do this every Sunday night for the immediate future, and perhaps beyond. We hope you will join us.

Peace and blessings
Laurelle & Michael

I invite you to watch the lovely short movie “May you be Blessed” Just follow the link

www.MeditativeMovies.com/MayYouBeBlessed.htm


Here is a picture of Texas wildflowers taken this weekend, Yes I went away and had fun!

Remember always that as you bless others, you instantly receive the blessing ...

Blessings and Love,
Mari

The Third Week of the Usui 21 Day Online Retreat

The Third Week of the Usui 21 day Online Retreat

When Usui Sensei was asked about the purpose and the outcome of his work, he answered that it was: “Shoufuku no hihoo, manbyo no reiyaku”. This phrase means “The secret art of inviting happiness, the spiritual medicine for all illness.”

When I am asked what Reiki is, I answer the same way instead of getting lost in an esoteric discussion. What a blessing Usui Sensei has showered upon the Earth with this simplicity!

Exercises for the Third Week

This week, please look at all the ways that Reiki has brought you happiness, and the ways that it has healed and is healing your discomforts. Return in your mind to the time when you began with Reiki, and look at the changes that have happened in your life since then. I guess that your whole life may have changed completely.

Sometimes we tend to forget the blessings that have been showered upon us. We take it for granted and forget our gratitude. Be grateful today and bow down to Reiki- and to Usui Sensei. Find a quiet moment every day of this week and sit on the floor if you can. Sitting in a chair should not stop you…You can sit either cross-legged or on your knees in the Seiza position (on your knees with your legs crossed under your butt).

Make sure you are not disturbed for a few minutes and very slowly and gently bow down to the floor, touching the floor with your forehead. In this moment, let go of everything: let go of your thoughts, your emotions, your body and become pure gratitude- without any attribute. Surrender everything you think as “yours” and be reborn in this
surrender…

With love and gratitude, your friend, Frank Arjava Petter

Frank Arjava Petter is the author of seven internationally best selling books on Reiki. He teaches world wide and can be reached by email at Arjava@Reikidharma.com. You will find his teaching schedule and other info at www.Reikidharma.com

The 2nd week of the Usui Online Retreat

The Second Week of The Usui 21 day Online Retreat

The original description of what Usui Sensei came across when the Universe hit him sitting on Mount Kurama was coined by him as: Shin- Shin Kaizen Usui Reiki Ryoho. This phrase means: For the improvement of Body/Mind/Soul Usui Soul (or spirit) Energy Healing Method.

In the seminar manual that he used to give to his students (published by me under the title” Reiki, the legacy of Dr. Usui; Lotus Light Publishers, Wisconsin) we find an interview with him where he is asked the following question: “Is Reiki a Shinrei Ryoho?” (A psychic or spiritual healing Method).

Answer: “Right, you could call it Shinrei Ryoho. But it would also be correct to call it a physical therapy, because energy and light are emitted from all body parts of the practitioner, mostly the hands, the eyes and the breath.”

The Japanese people believe in reincarnation. Life does not end with the death of the physical body. We are continuously reborn, until we reach a state of maturity that allows us to be reborn into the Pure Land- some kind of Buddhist Paradise. Until we have reached this maturity we keep on coming back.

The soul is believed to reside inside the body, and when the body is touched, the soul is touched. When the soul is touched past and future is touched. When past and future are touched, Body/Mind and Soul are taken care of- for eternity.

The improvement of Body/Mind/Soul

The improvement for Body/Mind/ Soul is twofold. It happens to the practitioner and the client both at the same time. During a treatment as well as during an attunement, the practitioner as well as the client is purified on all levels.

Hayashi Sensei used to say to his students (Mrs. Yamaguchi told me) that the best way to learn Reiki would be to begin with some sort of discomfort or illness, either on the physical, or mental- emotional level. You are then introduced to Reiki to find the antidote to your suffering. After receiving treatments you are healed and once healed you
feel grateful.

Out of your gratitude springs the desire to help others the same way you have been helped. And thus you begin practicing Reiki your self. Because the learning process has transformed you, you may become interested in spreading the work further and you want to become a teacher… And now you pass the healing on to your students.

Usui Sensei says in the aforementioned interview that once healed the mind becomes “Buddha like”. Look at it from the standpoint of the word “Reiki”. By receiving the treatment or the attunement you are once again connected to the Cosmos/ God. You are what you are supposed to be…

Exercises for The Second Week

This week, please be acutely aware of the fact that you are a unity of Body/Mind/Soul. In every breath you take your whole Being breathes. Past, present and future breathe together. Heart, mind and body dance together. You are eternity; you are Millions of years old. You are immortal: life continues after this form has changed shapes. Imagine a
wave in the ocean: is it the same wave returning to the shore again and again- or is it a different wave? You cannot tell them apart, the fabric of life belongs together.

Reiki heals Body, Mind and Soul. Every time you touch your self or someone else this week, be aware of the fact that Reiki heals all wounds of present past and future, no matter where they stem from. Whenever you catch yourself with the old habit of dividing yourself into “this and that” this week, please discontinue the pattern and become aware of your Oneness once more.


Blessings, Arjava

The 23rd online Usui 21 day Retreat

It is Winter Solstice and the beginning of the 23rd Usui Online Retreat

Nurturing the Spirit Year Round

Holidays and joy are two elements of our lives that are naturally intertwined. Traditional celebrations awaken within us an ardent desire to reconnect with the people we care about and to share our abundance. During the holiday season, we feel more driven to actively practice compassion, tolerance, selflessness, and gratitude. When we feel stressed, we find peace in the company of loved ones. And, filled with warm thoughts, we endeavor to ensure that others can share in our celebrations. Yet while happiness and holidays go hand in hand, the serenity and optimism that blossom within as we act on our festive feelings need not be relegated to a few days or weeks each year. We can carry the holiday spirit within us all year long if we make an effort to embrace a celebratory frame of mind no matter what the date.

Holding the holidays in your heart can be wonderfully transformative. Changing your life can be as simple as thinking about the uplifting activities you engage in and the positive attitudes you adopt during the holiday season and then integrating them into your daily life. If you learn to always be as open to wonder as you are around the holidays, the world will seem like a more magical place, whether it is December, March, or August. While holidays represent a great opportunity to reconnect with family and friends, there is little preventing you from reaching out to the people you care about throughout the year. The patience, compassion, goodwill, and tolerance you feel while celebrating can easily become a part of your everyday experience. Likewise, you will soon discover that the generous charitable gifts you give once a year mean just as much during other months and are often needed even more.

To remind yourself of your decision to carry the holiday spirit in your heart, consider displaying some small part of your holiday decor to signify your commitment. Remember that giving, whether your gifts are tangible or of the soul, always feel good, whatever the occasion. However you prefer to celebrate the holidays, practicing the ideals of the season every day means experiencing the beauty of the holiday season all year long.


Here is an excellent article on Reiki and Cancer http://www.advancesjournal-digital.com/advancesjournal/2007fall/


The Usui 21 day Retreat

Arjava Petter will be our guest for the 23rd online Usui 21 day Retreat that starts today the 21st of December 2007. I have had the pleasure of being with Arjava several times when I lived in Europe as well as studying with him in the USA on one of our visits to the States. I think of him as a brother and certainly a terrific dance partner in life. He has also contributed several times to the Retreat in the past.

For more information on the retreat itself please go to http://www.wisechoices.com/usuiretreat.html

Remember it is not how much you do, but your intention to spend even a few minutes will make such a big difference to our world.

Now here is Arjava…..


Dear Friends!

I have been asked by our friend and dance partner Mari Hall to write the meditations for this year’s Usui retreat. I pondered about what to write for a few days, and looking out across the Mediterranean Sea outside of Athens, Greece, something stirred up the quiet waters.

Usui Sensei, our beloved teacher, used some Japanese words and phrases to describe his work, the purpose of his work and the outcome of his work. Some of these words have been translated and explained here and there earlier, but I feel that they have been done some injustice. By understanding these words and phrases clearly, a whole new Reiki Universe opens up and takes you to a deeper understanding of what we all do and love so much.

When Usui Sensei described what he had experienced on Mount Kurama in March 1922, with the word “Reiki”, he had something quite specific in mind. To illuminate that, I would like to explain the word for you in detail.

The First Week- The word Reiki



The word “Reiki” is made up of two characters. In Japanese those characters are called Kanji (Chinese characters). The reason they are called “Chinese characters” is due to the fact that the Japanese did not have an adequate written language of their own; so they imported the Chinese written language and modified it over the centuries to fit their own needs and their own culture.

The character for Rei

Just as some words in our languages do suddenly change their meaning, Kanji too may change their meaning with the times. The word “cool” for example used to mean the temperature of something. Nowadays it usually means something else.

In Usui Sensei’s time the word “Rei” meant “Soul”, or “Spirit”. Nowadays it is often understood to mean” ghost” or “occult”. (This is the reason that Reiki is not as wide- spread in Japan as it is elsewhere).

The first character, “Rei” can be divided into three components. Each part has a distinct meaning of its own. When you understand the word in its totality, you understand Reiki – and you will be able to explain it to your friends and students.

The first part of the character for Rei stands for “Ame”- rain. Japan is a volcanic country and as you know, volcanic ash and rain make for fertile soil. So the word “Ame” stands for the cosmic blessings falling from the heavens; the powers that fertilize the Earth. The meeting of Yin and Yang.

The second part of the Reiki- Kanji is a simplification of the word “Utsuwa”, meaning container, or human body. It looks almost exactly like Michelangelo’s well-known drawing. In our case this means: The human body is the container for the cosmic blessings (the rains that fall from the heavens).

The third part of the Reiki- Kanji stands for “Miko” meaning female Shaman. In ancient Shintoism, the original spiritual practice of the Japanese people, a Miko or Miko- San is a young girl previous to her first menstruation, who is thought to understand the “language of the gods”. In short she is a medium who bridges the gap between the human and the divine. She is someone who is well connected to the cosmic forces, as well as to the powers of the Earth. Someone who is connected with the powers of the Earth and the powers of the Heavens is the container for cosmic energy. This is you, the Reiki channel…

The character for KI

the second character, “Ki” can be divided into two components. The first one means cloud. The cloud is what divides Heaven and Earth, what lies between us humans and the divine beings above- the gods. The second component of the character Ki is “rice”. Rice is the staple food of the Japanese and all Asian people. And rice gives you power… In Germany this would probably potatoes…or German water- beer…

So, all together, the word “Reiki” means “Soul Energy” or “Spirit Energy”. And this is the reason we give someone a treatment or an attunement. We want to help them to be properly connected to the Divine forces once more.

Exercises for The First Week

For this week, please become as intensely associated with the meaning of the word Reiki. Begin writing it, with a thick pen, one stroke at a time. Feel the rain that fertilizes the Earth, every time it pours down on you. Feel the morning shower cleanse and fertilize your day. Imagine standing under a waterfall and letting it purify your body/heart/mind.Use any situation in your daily life that has any relation with water. Every time you wash your hands…are purified.

Also, remember the word Utsuwa, human body /container. For this week be a container for the cosmic blessings. Watch your self, when standing at the bus stop, or at the cash register of the department store. Watch yourself when standing in the garden or in your kitchen.

Stand straight, with both feet on the ground, slightly pointed inwards. Breathe into your lower abdomen. Move your pelvis slightly backwards and let the lower abdomen come out. Let the shoulders relax and allow the air to come into the body and go out of it just by itself. Become a container for cosmic energy. Feel how it fills you, how it comes and goes. Feel like a hollow bamboo, a flute, a perfect conduit for the cosmic blessings.

Become aware of the fact that you are just a medium. Nothing in this world is yours, yet everything is yours. You are a conduit for the divine forces and you are the divine forces. You and the energy are one. Feel this whenever you remember my words. Celebrate your Oneness with the Cosmos for this week and enjoy every moment of it.


Arjava

Our Wedding Journey

We started off our wedding trip on November 8th in the wee hours by driving to Nashville first and staying at the Union Hotel (the grand old train station) and the next day taking a murder mystery train ride for the day out and back to Nashville. The town the train stopped in had a Veterans Day celebration all staged for us complete with GI’s dressed like in the old days. Many of the men on the train were Vets and appreciated the time and effort of the town.

We then drove to Gatlinburg and were in a small condo up a hill at light 8 (everything is on which light number you are at) for 4 days until the kids started coming on Thursday, then we moved to the big cabin up a mountain in Ware Valley between Pigeon Falls and Townsend with stunning views and lots of space.

We had 16 of our kids, grandkids and my adopted daughter who is Stacey's best friend Dawn and her family. Everyone got along great, did things together and by themselves, they took turns cooking breakfast and dinner. I had a hand for breakfast one morning turning left overs into breakfast casseroles that were yummy. The morning ritual was gathering in the kitchen and dining room for coffee together and laughing over what happened the day before or when we all were younger.

Gary and I took many drives on nature trails and I was busy taking photos and both enjoying the sight of fall in the Smokey Mountains. We were completely turned off by the crowed tourist trap shops that line the streets of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Falls and Sevierville. Gatlinburg retains it charm...but the real beauty is in the nature. We were so close to deer and other critters.

We also spent some time in the artisan’s community and fell in love with an artist who draws pictures of the people in the hills...truly amazing. We bought two small pictures one of Miss Emily at 106 and a hermit named Daniel around the same age. Take a look at his work www.paulmurray.com There was also a photographer named Steve Shoemaker who does the most beautiful work...you feel his soul in each one as he is so engaged with the subject he is filming and has Patience to get just the right shot...we came away with cards of his work. You can check out his work at www.mountainvisionsgallery.net. Then there was a small community “Cliff Dwellers” within the bigger one that has excellent artists of all media we stayed and talked with them for hours it seemed. http://www.cliffdwellersgallery.com/index.html We found The Wild Plum tea room and were like a couple of kids, sampling great food and talking with everyone. We have their cookbook and have even traded recipes.

We applied and received our marriage license in Sevierville at the court house where they issue an average of 400 licenses each and every week. Gatlinburg is 2nd to Las Vegas in weddings...a very big business for sure.

The wedding was on Saturday night November 17th and while set for 6:00 the pastor ended up late to the wedding by 2 hours which also made the wedding dinner at the Park Restaurant back in Gatlinburg late, in fact they kept the place open for us to have the dinner at 10:00pm. What was frustrating was because of the mountains we hardly ever had a signal on our cell phones and with that big family there were many phones to try. We would finally get a signal, call the preachers house and he would not have a signal to answer...and so it went.

I had flowers delivered to the cabin for the fireplace, the girls all had cream colored roses, my bouquet was stunning and then of course for Gary. His daughters and grandchildren brought in half the forest so it seemed to add touches of green. The cabin had a Christmas tree up and lit so I added packages for each person that had a sweatshirt I designed, the boys got pocket knives, the girls had Black teddy bears and the grown ups mugs from our favorite potter at the artist community...and of course the book I did for the family and copies of the wedding music. They opened these after dinner (midnight) while having a piece of the wedding cake.

The wedding itself was very sweet. We had written our own vows and had not shared them with each other till the time during the wedding. We had a unity candle that was first lit by Gary and I, then all the family there lit their individual candles from it. We did things to unite us as a family. Tears were in eyes, a sense of wonder filled the room mixed with joy. After the I do’s, Gabby one of Gary’s granddaughters said “Goodie now we are official cousins” to Jinny my granddaughter.

I gave Gary a beautiful hand made Dulcimer for a wedding gift. He had said he always wanted to learn how to play an instrument. The man who made his dulcimer also had a book where you can learn by number http://www.smokymountaindulcimers.com/ Little did I know he would serenade us at 6:00 am one morning with “Love me Tender”…he had all of us up and in the kitchen early and grumpy till we realized he was playing the song clearly. Of course he thought he was playing softly since he did not have his hearing aids in. We requested that he not play till at least 10:00am and not later than 10:00pm while we were together. The kids did not know who to be angry with, him for paying it so early or me for giving it to him.

Angela, Gary’s youngest daughter lead many of the children on long walks to water falls or spots in the mountains each day to keep them interested and tired out at day’s end. They loved it but I do not think she was successful on getting them tired, there was too much to see and do with each other.

My kids left on Monday with their families and his stayed on with us. We moved from the large cabin to a motel in Townsend for the last two nights and had Thanksgiving together before leaving on our return trip. We took two days to drive back.

The bags are unpacked, wash is done, mail all opened and read and now I am spending time answering several e-mails like yours. Filling you in and sending some pictures along. I have not worked with them yet but at least you will have an idea. Gary and I came down with a flu bug once we were home so it has been a little slow going. When we stopped I guess it all caught up with us.

We knew that many of our friends were with us in spirit, both feeling the presence of love in the room with us. Yes indeed we are so blessed…and it is good to be home and in the quiet of our space.

Here is a photo of us with SOME of our grandchildren.






Love to you all,

Mari

News from Mari

In just a week Gary and I will be leaving for our wedding trip. We will drive from Houston to Nashville, TN and then on to Gatlinburg TN the next day. Our family will start arriving on the 15th of November for our wedding on the 17th. Afterwards we will be spending Thanksgiving with part of our family in Townsend, TN before driving back to Houston on the 25th, to arrive on the 26th. We are so thrilled that we will be in the mountains in the fall. Hopefully the fall splendor will still be bright and colorful for our special day. I will post a newsletter with some photos once we are back and settled in.

The Usui Rereat will start on December 21st. I will write more about that later.

Have a beautiful month of November. This is the time to celebrate and enjoy the harvest with family and friends. We have so much to be grateful for. Thank you for being in my life.

I hold you all in my heart.

Love and Blessings,
Mari