Saturday, August 28, 2010

Reiki Training Outline: Notes for Teachers

This writing is mainly for those who are choosing to teach Tanran Reiki. I wanted to write this so that all the essential training points are covered during the training. Some of the information differs somewhat from the book and from earlier trainings. Tanran Reiki is a growing and evolving tradition. It branched off from the Usui and Hayashi lineage by the first person receiving new symbols in dreamtime. These symbols were not sought out nor was there any wish to create a new lineage. It seems that Reiki just wanted to grow this way. From the vantage point in present time, I found that there are at least two other lineages that have received symbols in dreamtime and have been evolving from this kind of connection. One is Seichim Reiki and the other I have not been able to track down. A large number of Reiki Masters from many lineages have received symbols in dreamtime or even during Reiki sessions. They are sometimes called personal symbols. I still get drawings from many students of symbols they have received. I hope to compile these at some time and have them shared through this blog. In one sense, all the spiritual symbols of all the planetary and extraplanetary spiritual traditions are available to a Reiki practitioner. When I had my level two attunement, I had a visionary experience which was very vivid where I was flying across the planet and seeing all the symbols come to life. Reiki is about using the symbols to feel the living experience and understanding behind them. They are seen as promises by the Reiki guides to link one to the Universal Loving Energy that permeates all of space and time. Just like light going through a prism becomes a rainbow, this love, as a healing energy, becomes many kinds of healing energies. Sei He Ki is love as the fulfillment of unmet emotional needs, mainly from childhood. Tez Reh Oh is love as healing of family and genetic karma. El Leh Yah is about love as recovering fragments of our soul energy that have been lost, usually due to trauma. In any every case, Love as Divine Grace wants to completely heal us for all disease conditions and give us a happy life. It wants to heal us into itself, to help us become part of the energy of love itself. We feel oneness and unity with love, with each other, and life as part of our healing process. While Divine Grace does all the work and we mainly stand back and allow this love to flow through us to others, allowing the energy to have its way, there is a training that is useful for Reiki practitioners to undergo. We are trained how to support the process and to do our part. We become part of the mahasangha, the great spiritual community, of all those who have become a conscious, individualized, and living aspect of the Great Light (Dai Ko Myo), who are one with this light, and who have purified, transmuted, or released any energy that is not in harmony with this light. While most of us on Earth are "in process", learning how to be fully integrated aspects of this loving energy, the mahasangha has already attained perfect enlightenment and have totally integrated their lives within the oneness of this energy. They do not have any aspect of their being that is not in harmony with this light. They always "walk in the light" and do not suffer the pains of separation any longer. The mahasangha are the Reiki Guides. This includes the Guides of every religion that is based on love. However, the ones who are specifically called Reiki Guides are those who choose to support the specific sacrament of healing that is a part of this lineage. The mahasangha will eventually include all the Reiki masters of this lineage who walk the Earth, because Divine Grace only needs our intention and commitment to allow this to happen. When a person takes the level three attunement, they sign up for this healing journey. They commit to going all the way to the very end. They can be a part of any religion that has a compatible understanding of enlightenment. They can also be a member of no religion. They can even be atheists if they want, though the vision of Universal Loving Energy permeating all of existence is an essential element of Reiki. This is a Divine and Sacred energy, the creative source of all that is. While this vision may not be the same thing as an anthropomorphic god who sits in judgment on all sentient beings after they die, it is also not the mere absence of anything Greater than human beings either. The energy can be felt, through training, to flow through the hands and to heal others to the degree that they allow this to happen. It can eventually be felt to be a cosmic energy that creates stars and planets. This energy, to me, is what converted the physical body of Jesus into a light body when he had his transfiguration, what resurrected his physical body from the dead after his crucifixion, and what eventually creates a fully integrated light body after his ascension. I believe that this energy has the power to heal us even of aging and death, and also convert our physical body to a light body.

The outline of training for the class that has levels one, two, and three is:

(1) The difference between chi, jing, and shen levels of energy work. Chi work is basic generation of energy, usually through conscious breathing. Jing work is where we intentionally move energy according to where we think it needs to go. Shen work is where we trust the wisdom of the energy itself and support the process that the energy wants to do. Reiki is shen level work. While jing work is usually safe, it may not always find the path of least resistance and it may overwhelm the person with more than he or she can handle. Jing work is limited by the knowledge and skill of the practitioner who can still make mistakes. When working with humans, whose healing process can be very complex, subtle mistakes or simply not finding the optimal path are very possible. Most of these mistakes merely do not succeed in doing what is optimal and are usually okay in the larger scheme of things. But shen work, guided by the wisdom of the energy itself, does not have this limitation, provided that we learn how to stay out of the way and still do our part.

(2) The Three Gestures of Dai Ko Myo, circular conscious breathing, and being present at the place of contact with the other are the three things that are our part. Visualization of Dai Ko Myo, asking the Reiki Guides to bless this activation, and visualizing the energy of Dai Ko Myo flow down from the sphere above the head, into the soft spot, down the spine to the juncture where the collar bone is, down the arms, out the palms of the hands, to the other person is the first gesture. The second gesture is to consciously breathe in circular fashion, not pausing between inhale and exhale, and relaxing into the energy flow, allowing the energy flow, and surrendering to the energy flow is the second gesture. The third gesture is to be present at the place of contact with the other. This is true even in remote Reiki, though the contact is more subtle. There are Chi Kung like exercises to get a feeling of how to be present even in our own bodies. We usually think of ourselves as a phantom "I" that is sitting inside the brain and head, looking out the eyes, rather than an energy that permeates our whole body. We learn to be present in our whole body and focus this presence where we are meeting the person, where we are laying our hands, and relax into being a conduit for the energy to flow through us to him or her. If we are doing this, and only this, then we will do very good Reiki. If we are uncertain of what we are doing, we can remember that we are not alone, check our connection through Dai Ko Myo, surrender in the circular breathing, and hold connection with the other person. The rest is not up to us. It is between the Universal Loving Energy and the person who is opening up to the energy through us. It is important that we do not "try to heal them". A Reiki practitioner is a channel for healing. We are not the source of healing and not the doer of healing. We might be tempted to take on this other role and separate from being a conduit. This is "taking over the process", rather than allowing the process. We are meant to activate this process, support this process and trust this process, but not do this process. When we take over the process, then we shift from shen work down to jing work. It might even be effective, but it becomes limited by our residual karma and we might get more tired from all our effort. If we are efforting, tensing, and straining, it is a sign that we have shifted our role and need to return to relaxed surrender. Our breathing is the check in point for this.

(3) The energy exercises are designed to deepen the feeling of how to work with the energy, to develop a deep sense of what the three gestures mean and what it feels like to activate, align, and contact. The exercises are named here in list form:

> mime wall

> Tai Chi hand extension with and without presence in hand

> drawing Cho Ku Rei

> drawing with presencing

> drawing with presencing and breathing

> drawing with presencing, breathing, and chanting

> pairing off and staring into the left eye of the other person, right palm down, left palm up, with the other person having their palm two inches away from our palm, then toning "ah", "oh", "oo", and "ee" with vibrato, noticing how each feels, and then just breathing and feeling the "magnetic pulse" between the hands.

> group letting go exercise

> paired off flow exercises

> push hands and sphere exercise

> slap hands and holding sensation exercise

> chi generation chi kung exercises (modified jam jong set)

> the ascension circuit

> implanting symbols in the aura

> energy brushing

> use of symbols during session

> attunement protocol done in pairs

> the guided visualizations associated with the symbols

> invoking and anchoring sacred space through circle of white light

> invoking and anchoring sacred space with Cho Ku Rei in corners, Dai Ko Myo in the center, and two Zee Gah Nahs on the walls

> contact with another imagining a bad day and a great day in the mind, noticing how random thoughts affect the energy flow

> verbal support exercises using the "Its okay mantra" ("It is okay to [blank]").

> Taoist "having a ball" exercise (and then pushing in down the top of the head of another after filling it with gold energy).

> Visualizing a large silvery blue ball in the center of the group and everyone feeding it energy with visualization, projecting hands, and breathing.

(4) The Guided Visualizations. These are more important in Tanran Reiki, since the attunements have shifted to being mainly visualizations. It has been found that the interlocking visualizations used in the attunement process for each symbol (and the Cosmic Temple visualization) produce a deep and stable link with the Universal Loving Energy. It is easier to attune a whole group this way. The Reiki Guides said that this modality of attunement transmission will be more used over time, even to attuning 1,000 people at the same time. It is also the only modality that works when doing a remote attunement. If possible, it is good to support this with chanting and with the tones of an "A" note crystal bowl (the "A" note is keyed into the 3rd eye and is where a remote link is made). The visualizations are in the attunement scripts in the Reiki manual.

(5) The attunement gestures. These are still taught and are in the manual. They are good when a one to one attunement is given or when there is a group initiating one person into the Reiki energy. It makes a nice ritual and is useful. But as mentioned above, the attunements are going to be mainly transimitted through visualization, intention, breathing, mudras, and chanting, rather than through the touch gestures of the previous versions. Seichim Reiki is running a parallel evolution on this point.

(6) Discussions are useful. Going over the 25 points is very good, though this is covered in the homework also. People can usually feel the Universal Loving Energy just through talking about the 25 points. This is how available and gracious the energy is. Going over legal issues, sexual boundaries, client confidentiality, and how to handle money is also important, especially when the group is professionally focused. It is less essential when a person is only learning Reiki to lay hands on friends and family. The five relationship symbols, specifically, are meant to be discussed. The Reiki Guides shared that they would heal through invocation, the guided meditations, and then through discussion and sharing of what they evoked in people. Relationship itself is mainly about discussion and sharing, with sexual union really being a deep intimate communicative sharing of love. Whatever issues show up in a sexual relationship also show up in discussion. In the certification process, the manual and the homework will make sure that these items are covered. There is redundancy built into the process to make sure the key elements are reviewed enough so that everyone gets it.

The key thing during the intensive is attunements, exercises, discussion, and some hands on practice. The purpose of the exercises is to give a living feeling of the energy. It is important that the energy is not just a mere belief, but an actual felt reality that one learns how to work with. If people do not feel this, then the exercises did not work for them. This has been very rare. Only two people did not feel the energy at all after teaching over 300 people. These two had issues with feeling that, when released did allow them to feel the energy. One of them was punished in childhood for being psychic and shut down her feeling for energy because of that. When this issue was released, her ability to feel the energy spontaneously and easily came back. The other had a trauma abuse shutdown. This took time to fully release, but even when the trauma was not fully cleared, the ability to feel the energy came back when the issue started to get addressed.

If a group does not feel the energy after some of the exercises, then stay with the exercises for a longer period of time until they do. In particular, go into detail about how to breathe, chant the vowel sounds, and take time with the basics. As a teacher, too, it is important for us to realize that even in a class that the Reiki Guides are doing the big work and we are just doing our part. Trusting them will make the process easier.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Five Relationship Healing Symbols


THE FIVE TANRAN REIKI RELATIONSHIP HEALING SYMBOLS

I would like for all of you to lie down in a comfortable position. Please check your posture to see if you are as relaxed and comfortable as possible. Slowly and gently make any adjustments in your position until your body tells you that it feels comfortable. Sometimes a tension does not dissolve by making such adjustments. In this case, thank the tension for being there, as we will use the tension as a stimulus to go deeper into our healing process. It is natural to be somewhat tense about working with the five relationship healing symbols, because we are touching upon an area where humans have literally experienced both their deepest wounds and deepest joys. The planet Earth, also, has experienced cycles of male and female gender dominance. In both cases, the repressive processes were painful and limiting to the submissive gender. Male and females flourish when true equality is present and the deepest levels of Tantra can only open up when there is not even the wish that one gender controls the other gender. Only in the atmosphere of trust and mutual respect can a relationship reach its highest level of evolution.

In the Reiki symbol, Toh Noh Men, male and female are resting in each other. The word "Toh Noh Men" is Itanamic language and means we choose from our essence to experience liking another person. In Itanamic language, "oh" words relate to the manifest world and "ah" words relate to essential qualities. Words with "eh" relate to choices and "n" words relate to experiences. In the beginning, the heart chooses to open up to simply liking someone. There is no guarantee that anything eternal is going to come out of the mutual attraction between male and female. It is just an experience which is drawing us into itself. Yet there is a hint of the eternal in the Itanamic root "men" (not at all to be confused with the English word "men" which is pronounced differently, the Itanamic pronouncing is somewhat like "mehn"). Whenever a choice is made, as opposed to an automatic reaction, something of the essential is present. This means that male and female principles are coequal and eternal. Everything in the "ahka", the essential realm, is equal and eternal. This means that a real choice brings the essential into our life. This is why we feel so very alive when we are in love with someone, even if it is merely a puppy love. It is the essential waking up inside of us and manifesting itself in form.

The symbol is a circle with a dot inside resting in a cup. The circle dot part is the male solar energy. The dot symbolizes the need of male energy to be centered in its own radiant nature. The dot also symbolizes that male energy is very concentration oriented. The very word "concentration" means "process of being with center". Male energy needs to be centered within itself and within its solar purpose in order to feel good about itself.

The female energy part of the symbol is composed of three parts, the curve, the stick and the platform. The curve represents her embracing, nurturing, and holding energy. It also represents her lunar side and how she will flow from one mood to another during her lunar or menstrual cycle. The stick represents her sense of self worth or dignity. It also symbolizes her spine, which is meant to be gentle, loose, and erect. Woman feels good about herself when she supports her moods and honors what she feels. She also feels good about herself when she is rooted in the Earth and draws power from her connection with nature. The platform symbolizes standing and drawing power from the Earth. Just as a male needs to feel good about himself by centering in himself and centering in his purpose, female energy needs to feel good by honoring her feelings and by being rooted in nature.

The two parts, male and female, are resting in each other and relaxing into each other. This is a natural thing to do. A natural male easily respects female energy and a natural female easily respects male energy. When this ease is not present, then something needs to be healed inside the male or female. This mutual resting place is the core of the symbol, since it means, "Male and female resting in each other". This is the honeymoon period of the relationship. Some psychologists consider this phase to be a kind hormonal delusion and overidealisation. But inside the energy feeling is a sense of rightness, idealness, and ease which is indeed very natural. It is prior to all the conditioning and wounds that have been accumulated in time. It is both the ancient past and the utopian future of the genders in love.

This means that the female naturally supports the centeredness and purpose of the male and the male naturally supports the feeling flow and rootedness of the female. When a woman cycles through her emotions, when they are rooted in her earthiness, then they always lead her back into her dignity and strength. When a male stays within his purpose, then he can move through all the spaces that come up as resistance and can flow by them. When a male understands the emotional flow of the woman, then he sees that there is nothing that has to be fixed. The feelings naturally resolve themselves. The feeling nature needs to be grounded in the Earth, though, and a male sometimes goes into fix it mode when a woman has lost her root in the Earth. The support is to have her breathe into her body and go deeper into what she is feeling until she feels supported by life again. It is following that line down to where it touches the platform. A male in some sense does not need to go deeper, but just to stay on course and not bail out. As he stays on course, he will naturally get deeper.

This symbol is placed within a small heart mandala, a kind of circle plus. It would be south, towards the power chakra. It is meant to end all tension between male and female by each returning to their natures and by each relaxing into their natural supportiveness of each other. Inside the power chakra, male and female sometimes war with each other because they do not trust each other. They need to remember the beginning of their connection and to refeel the honeymoon period. The remembering and refeeling does not heal everything, but it activates the basis for healing. All healing is trying to return back to this space.

Because the honeymoon period is the natural energy of male and female supporting each other, it means that something artificial is jamming their energies if a problem exists between them. Dropping the artificial is the key to healing. Letting a memory be exposed where a wound was and letting the root get healed. It is always some decision about what life is that is coming from the past to be placed upon the present.

Love naturally brings up all our unhealed sides. Sexual love generates an energy which can fulfill one or all of the purposes of life. The four purposes of life are survival, healing, growth, and celebration. Reiki focuses on healing and on growth. Sexual energy, though, perhaps more than many other energies, is about male and female celebrating life and each other. A perfect movement does all four purposes simultaneously. Our survival is enhanced, we feel more healed, we are challenged to grow in many ways, into more and more love, and we find life more enjoyable. Healing is about restoring life to its original vision, which is simple celebration. We are meant to enjoy each day of life in its creative newness, feel the love manifesting as beauty and wonder, and feel the immense wisdom behind this vast mystery. When we are healed we returned to this. When we are fully healed, then we are enlightened about this.

The resting energy of Toh Noh Men is important because this where all the unhealed energy needs to be grounded in. If male and female cannot rest in each other and entrust themselves to each other, then there is no clear basis for healing. Then problems arise and resolution becomes difficult. When there is a rest state, then male and female can relax into the healing that wishes to happen. Female energy supports ungrounded male energy by rooting more deeply into the Earth and holding them until they calm down. Male energy supports ungrounded female energy by giving space for the female to have all her emotions and moods and by staying nonreactively centered when she shares them within her emotional intensities.

2. Teh Gah

The second symbol in the transmission is Teh Gah. It is Itanamic for "heart choosing wholeness". The word for enlightenment in Itanamic language is saganah. The root "gah" has the flavor of wholeness, integration, feeling internal unity, feeling an all inclusive oneness with life, feeling complete, and feeling fully understood. The root "nah" has the flavor of experiencing something, being aware of something, and of bringing something potentially existing or already existing into the place where it is noticed. The root "sah" has the flavor of wisdom, natural perception when no opinions get in the way, illumination, and choosing to see without obstruction. So Itanamic enlightenment has to do with feeling the oneness of life within wise illumination and direct perception.

I mention the above thoughts because Itanami is a very different kind of language to Earth languages. It is extremely nondualistic and has a poetic sense about it. The roots interact with each other to give multiple meanings which combine to create one overall feeling tone. The Tanran Reiki system has many words from this language because the words are like the symbols. They are rich in meanings which create an overall feeling tone about the symbol which is then used to connect with the actual energies within the omnipresent loving field (ahka).

The next phase of relationship is actually hidden within the first phase. In Toh Noh Men, the male and female energies are distinctive and rest in each other. In Teh Gah, male and female energies are mixing with each other and enhancing each other. In truth, this already started when the very first glances happened. This is symbolized by the infinity symbol, the horizontal eight that keeps looping in on itself. This means that male and female cocreate the relationship every step of the way. It is so deep that no one really starts it. Subtle energies are always emanating from male to female and female to male. When a possible relationship is emerging, the two energies start feeding each other. This is why Toh Noh Men affirms that male and female are naturally supportive of each other. In computer terms, the energies start handshaking with each other. There is a bidirectional quality to the interaction. One glance invites the other come more forward and the other glances back and invites the other forward. These transactions take place usually faster than the conscious minds of both participants. Sometimes some promise reaches a place where it can go no further and then it collapses. When males and females go to parties, they sometimes go through many microrelationships with many people through the eye glances and subtle energy exchanges. They can be so intense that people are tired when they come home, even though outwardly nothing much happened. Glances sometimes make people nervous because of this. Stares are considered impolite, because they deepen into a kind of relationship and may go too far. When glances are not met in a certain way, we are not meant to go further unilaterally, but instead to let go and move on. Sometimes a stare will be blank after some glancings stopped somewhere. A person can be stuck in a trauma that got activated by a microrelationship and need some time to recenter. Becoming energy aware on this level helps to understand what is and is not possible with people we meet. Vast amounts of subtle energy information can be processed. This is why a lot of psychics go to the woods in order to meditate. It is to tone down and reduce the amount of information coming from others and to make it more manageable. After a while, a psychic learns, more or less, to shield themselves, process faster, trust their intuition more clearly, and filter their experience to focus on the essentials and therefore become less overwhelmed. Most learn this relatively well but still not perfectly and occasionally do get overwhelmed in new kinds of situations.

The infinity symbol also means a kind of conscious circular breathing with the energy switching gracefully between inhale and exhale at the center. In Reiki understanding, the breathing is the mutual place in the relationship. The infinity symbol shows the exchange point between the right and left sides of itself. The right and left sides symbolize male and female. Unlike Toh Noh Men, the two sides of the symbol are the same. In Toh Noh Men, there is a feeling of male and female being different in a synergistic mutually respectful and mutually supportive way. Here the subtle energy exchange is seen to be the same. Each feeds on what the other gives them and returns the favor. It does not matter who starts it and either can end it in any moment by breaking the flow. It builds up slowly on a subtle level and sometimes fast on a temporal level when the conditions are right. A glance held for a few seconds can feel like an eternity because of this.

Breathing has a quality of being something we can do consciously or unconsciously. The act of spiritual breathing is to raise what is unconscious to consciousness so that the energy relationship can be felt, seen, and participated in. Teh Gah is about choosing wholeness when conflicts or rifts in the energy flow are experienced. In the wisdom of the Reiki Guides, they prefer that people focus on the energy level first, own whatever feelings and processes are happening there, and even process things on this level before trying to resolve what is happening with words. And even when words are used to keep words grounded in this level of interaction. We try to talk about our issues with our partner when we feel a rift on the energy level. This is why some people, both male and female, want to have sex when problems are felt. They hope the energetic feeling of communion can smooth over the tensions that are felt. Sometimes this actually works, because in the act of joining, a person must let go of their choice to be separate and therefore let themselves be healed by the sexual love which is shared. Sometimes, though, this only makes both people more aware of the energetic tension or how much both people or one person does not want to join.

In Teh Gah, the partners sit together and hold hands forming the infinity symbol between them (right hand holding right hand and left hand holding left hand) and then breathes. A circle or oval of light is visualized around the couple to invoke sacred space, form clear intention to harmonize and clear any disodent energies, and to let go of focusing on any distractions. The two smaller circles is each person consecrating the place where the energies are exchanged. It means that each person guides and then yields, gives then receives, and is sensitized to when this is natural. This is the opposite of holding control and shutting the other person out or hogging the conversation. Since the exchange place is a breathing place, a person should only speak in rhythm with the breath. Too long talking is like exhaling too long and too long listening is like inhaling too long. A rhythm needs to form. The Reiki Guides suggest letting go of talking entirely for both to feel the energies. You visualize a dot of light flowing between the hands. One loop is inhale for one person and the same loop is exhaling for the other, then when the dot crosses over the middle, then the first person exhales while the other person inhales. The dot is gently exchanged until the couple relaxes into giving and receiving and then receiving and giving. The quality of the exchange is strengthened and given rhythm. Only after it has been established can words then become useful. Talking before establishing this only leads to control battles where neither is listening and neither is conceding anything. In the beginning, when male and female rest in each other, the talk has this natural flow. When tensions appear, conditioning and thought comes up, and can derail the relationship. The groove which holds the relationship into a healing space is this infinity loop. Thoughts can then arise and dissolve into this energy loop.

In some psychological texts, the second phase of relationship is called "the power struggle". From the Reiki view, it is when the loving energy gets strong enough to bring up stuff, in both people, that needs to be healed. This is why the theme of consecration is repeated three times. One circle is around the couple and reminds the couple that loving partnerships require commitment and energy containment to hold. There is no such thing as casual sex in one sense. When something is casual, then the energy is lost and the interaction, although pleasurable, is not worthwhile. Container needs to be built and developed energetically in the second level. Once built, then the two focus on the energy interaction and keep the breathing flowing. The thought energy can then be noticed and dissolved by naming the thought and letting go of the thought until everything is cleared. The double circle means that both male and female need to be mindful of the interaction at the point of exchange and contain the energy there. This is the opposite of getting lost in a reaction and blowing the container wide open. When the container is gone, then the relationship does not feel safe and male and female cannot rest in each other. Both male and female need this safety, because the more the synergy unfolds, the more male and female feel each other inside each other, and the more even one hostile thought can throw the energy off balance. This means that each must commit to moving into, through, and beyond all anger, fear, and sadness. Holding on to even one emotion charged thought and protecting it stops the flow. If this happens for too long, then the romance disappears from the relationship and either the relationship ends or it becomes a kind of dull routine comfort which one person will eventually leave (sometimes at the time of death or generating an artificial crisis through having an affair).

The middle dot of the infinity symbol can also be seen as a seed which must be nourished by the loving breath and loving thoughts of each person. It is the seed hidden within the resting phase or honeymoon phase of the relationship. For all the beauty of the honeymoon phase, it is just a seed sprouting which may or may not fully mature and bloom. When the seed sprouts, the promise of the bloom is felt. The feeling of the eternality of pure love is met by the fragileness of the relationship as it explores its potential. Like a seed, it does require care and attention to feed it and help it to grow. Even when there are no biological children in a relationship, the relationship itself is a kind of child which needs care. The symbol means, "The energy becomes strong enough, within the sacred container and the sacred breathing, to heal everything within both partners, yet each must be mindful of the container and hold all energies in the process".

3. Neh Tah Ru

As the relationship feels its power to move through and heal the wounds and tensions which naturally arise, as they feel they are generating an energy that both can use to heal each other and the relationship, and as they keep resting in the energy that arises and allow it to grow, they move to the phase that may be called tantric sex. Neh Tah Ru is the symbol for what tanric sex means in Reiki. There is some meaning in this symbol being the third in the sequence, rather than the first. Before tantra can be enduring and meaningful, it needs the foundation provided by the other two symbols. In one sense, the tantric process started with love at first glance and steadily grew until both people wanted to sexually commune with each other. In some ways, tantra seems to symbolize a special kind of sex between two people. But part of Reiki is to illuminate and strengthen natural spiritual energies so that they are stabilized and developed within a predestined genetic unfoldment. It is predestined in that the energies naturally, like a seed, bloom into the flower that is within them. The flower is already within the seed. It is also, at every step, a matter of choice and can die easily if not cared for within a sustained mutual commitment.

Because of the orientation of Reiki, there are no special techniques given for sexual practice. Yet when attuned to the symbols, then the symbols focus and guide the process from within, to keep it naturally on track, so that the highest potential can be reached. Some methods are shared in workshops, but they have the goal of sensitizing the partners to the energies and to the energy ethic implied in them. To enter the Reiki path is to choose to be energy sensitive and to let oneself by guided by the loving Source. The three levels of Reiki are three basic relationships to the energy. You can merely be open to energy experiences, you can choose to be conscious when you invoke sacred space, and you can dedicate your moment to moment life to always living in the energy.

In the first and third symbol, there is no circle around the symbol built into the symbol. This is because there are natural laws at work in these and will work with everyone. The tantric principle is inherent in all relationships, just as all relationships start with some kind of honeymoon phase where they can rest in each other. Sometimes, because of strong karmas, the principle can be very hidden and the rest period very short, but everyone feels at least one night of each relaxing into the other.

In Neh Tah Ru, both the similarity between male and female and their differences are referenced. Like Teh Gah, the right and left circular energy are the symetrical. Like Toh Noh Men, the top and bottom symbols are different. The male solar energy flows downward and mxes with the uncoiling earth energy. The seed is stimulated and pulled upwards. This is symbolized by the line that connects the crown chakra energies with the root chakra energies. It is the transcendental wisdom energy mixing with the elemental earth energy. Biologically speaking, male energy feels the cool electric energy flow downward into their penis and the female feels the hot magnetic energy flow up from their vagina. The two circles, representing male and female, are partly merged and partly separate. The implication is that the energy rises to the degree that both merge with each other in loving union. Intimacy (into-me-see) is needed. More layers of each other need to be seen, exposed, not judged, and gently healed. When each merges lovingly with the other, more places are lovingly and nonjudgmentally touched. When releases happen, the energy gets stronger, more relaxed, and more blissful. It flows upwards to the crown. The middle of the symbol is where the heart chakras commune and allow the energy to raise upwards. Many energies are flowing everywhere. Some flow up and some flow down. The ones that the Reiki symbol focuses on is where the male falls into the Earth through the female, surrenders into her womb, and rests there and where the female lets herself feel the heat and uses it to rise above her limitations and into the solar crown chakra. Connecting heaven and earth as two coequal principles is behind the dance of male and female. It is the choosing to rejoin both principles into a unity that is behind Teh Gah. The naturalness of the male and female energies resting in each other in Teh Gah becomes the principle of relaxing into healing in Toh Noh Men. Becoming more vulnerable to each other, opening up more, offering wounds into the relationship energy, and containing the wound energy so that it does not act out or lash out on the other person, all this continues to mature the energy process in Neh Tah Ru. The meaning of the symbol is "The energy rises up to the crown to the degree male and female merge in loving synergy with each other".

4. Teh Mah Lah

This symbol, like Teh Gah, emphasizes what is the same, only more deeply. The spirals are actually opposites, each spirals in the opposite direction. One is clockwise and the other is counterclockwise. There is consecrated space as a circle around the male and female. This means that a sacred container is invoked. Commitment is required. The energy processing of phase two is revisited on a higher level. The couple has had deep sexual communion in phase three. They have moved from a commitment to explore together what is possible, to deeply merging with each other, and now they are functioning more and more as one organism. The place of unity is, again, the breathing. It is symbolized by the small oval circle between the two spirals. But unlike the infinity breathing symbol, there is no longer any alternation or give and take. It is a shared space that has grown out of the merging. The couple is breathing together as one body, heart, and mind. It comes from understanding that they are both the same and different. The image in any mirror is the same and different. In this recognition is a sense of complimentariness and mutual support where strengths are acknowledged and shared. There is also something dynamic in the spirals. They are pulsating. They uncoil out and recoil gently in. They have their own rhythm. Energy flows in when the lovers are alone and then merges when they are together. The breathing is also a rhythm that becomes the pulsating life of the consecrated organism called the relationship.

With the fourth phase, a couple cannot really evolve accidently. You can randomly find many people to have honeymoon experiences with, move through processes together and clear things with many kinds of lovers, and even have energetically powerful transformative sex with many people, but in order to reach the energy level of Temala, you have to intentionally commit and seal the relationship, sacrifice a sense of separation, and breathe together in a synergistic body. The divine seed hidden in Toh Noh Men, appearing as a dot in Teh Gah, fed and raised to the crown in Neh Tah Ru, becomes something large enough to include both the male and female in a larger organism. An energy conscience towards this organism is needed.

The meaning of Temala is "Allowing the opposites to meet in a sacred container so that you can let go of all attachment and float in the middle". It means recognizing the larger pattern that needs organic opposites to balance each other. For instance, male energy tends to feel individuality and justice very strongly, while female tends to feel connectedness and caring very strongly. Both individuality and connectedness are important. Connectedness without individuality becomes unhealthy enmeshment. Individuality without connectedness is unhealthy isolation. Caring without justice becomes enabling. Justice without caring becomes harsh. When tensions in a relationship are used as mirrors, then one is in the Temala level of process. When a balance between two equally valid principles is seen to be paradoxically necessary, rather than mutually exclusive, then tension itself can be used to discover deeper levels of balance and harmony.

5. Sakarah

Sakarah is an Itanamic word for a level of enlightenment higher than Saganah. When we are in Saganah, we feel the wholeness of truth and are illuminated inside. It is a level of enlightenment which happens in Zen very often and has the effect of learning to accept yourself and everyone else as you are and they are. Everything is seen to be unfolding perfectly including all our efforts to improve the situation into higher levels of order. The Sakarah level of enlightenment is where all opposites have met each other, balance each other, and have been transcended into a place where you directly see and feel their innate organic harmony and necessity for each other. From the viewpoint of Sakarah, whenever there is a tension, then one is accepting one part of an organic polarity while rejecting the other part. It is like trying to inhale and feeling that you never need to exhale or visa versa. Because everything is seen as part of a larger mutually balancing system, you feel like life is always supporting you and you feel a floating peaceful quality to your life.

The symbol starts with the point of heart awakening. The point is the very first time we understand the power of nonjudgment, drop a judgment, discover something which is obvious when we drop a judgment, and feel part of our life working again. When we do this, then our heart opens up, embraces everything without condemnation, and the energy spirals out and activates the power center issues that we hold, the areas we try to control to make our life work, and illuminates the power chakra so that we can let go of our attempt to control self and others. We learn to live and let live. In the seven chakra model, the heart is in the middle and therefore is the balance point where the higher and lower chakras come to peace with each other. Thus the power chakra and the creativity chakra, the third eye chakra and the security chakra, and the crown chakra and the root chakra have tensions between them until the heart sees their organic polarity and balances them.

In terms of European and Christian history, the polarities were set theologically against each other. The mother earth root chakra was considered inferior to the solar transcendental father crown chakra, rather than seeing how both "emptiness and form" were both needed to have a full feeling of life. Much of the tension between matriarchal and patriarchal cultures has to do with flip flopping between necessary polarities, rather than integrating the tension at a higher level. It is as if one polarity represses the other in an eternal war until we transcend the whole battlefield by seeing their equal necessity. Thus nature root chakra religions became pagan and lost the transcendental element and then the father transcendentalists persecuted the nature religions by accusing them of making earthly idols of the transcendental god. The transcendental religions generally make sex wrong and binding to the wheel of karma, became antibody, and then antifemale. The female body is linked with the moon and natural Earth cycles like the tides and the seasons. It comes to a point where some religions say that females cannot become enlightened, because they are too bound by nature to transcend it, and therefore must learn to reincarnate in a male body next lifetime. Although less known, reverse prejudices existed against males, because of their weaker ability to ground in mother nature, because they could not give birth to children, and because they could not as easily follow the cycles of nature since they felt them less directly in their bodies.

At the ending of the both the last matriarchal era and the last patriarchal era, male and female can perhaps at last appreciate their coequality and mutual necessity. This is signaled by the scientific mythology that the zygote is equally male sperm and female ovum. This view is more accurate and replaces the matriarchal view that sperm was merely a stimulus for the ovum, like fertilizer (hence the metaphor of the woman being made fertile), and also replaces the patriarchal view that the male had the seed and the women were merely to oven to bake the seed to maturity. The more accurate science is also more gender balanced and can allow a deeper appreciation of the true equality of these two eternal principles. There are actually many deeper meanings in how sperm and egg interact in the birth process that would be interesting to explore. It will happen as the science gets better understood first mentally and literally, verifying each individual truth, and then forming a complete view, and then finally feeling the meanings of all the verified energy dances that happen. For instance, it takes eight sperm simultaneously pressing the ovum to allow one to penetrate. Metaphorically it means that a female will be attractive enough to inspire eight males at the same time before she opens up to one of them and lets him in. Eight is symbolic of all types of male energy and means that a female has experienced all the different male energy patterns so that she can experientially decide which one is the most right for her. Metaphorically, too, it means that a male will be attracted to eight females sequentially and be let in by the one most attuned to him. These are not meant to be literal rules, but something that nonetheless communicates a meaning that puts the whole mating dance into perspective. In a sense, the eight males are helping each other and this can end any jealousy between them. It also means that a woman can be patient and wait for the eight males to rearrange around her. Each female who finds their ideal partner releases the other seven. This can end jealousy the other way around. My sense is that if this pattern is seen that there will be a mathematical fractal courtship dance at the heart of each society.

When the heart balances the six surrounding chakra energies, then an 8th chakra opens up above the crown chakra. It could be called the exalted heart chakra. It is a heart that has gone beyond every opposite and therefore does not caught in any struggle with anything, but instead finds the balancing point with everyone. The feeling that someone who has done this has is like being a sphere floating in a sea of energy.

Like the first and third phase, there is no containment circle. When all opposities are balanced, then no protective container is needed. You could say that the male and female partner love explodes into a love of everything and a relaxation into everything. The circle is like an egg shell, needed as an alchemical container, but no longer needed when nonduality hatches within it. The fastest way to reach Sakarah is to see that both something and its opposite are both true and then to float in the larger energy that includes both. The first phase, Toh Noh Men, foreshadows this higher resolution. Male and female resting in each other becomes each person resting and floating in all of life.

The Four Supportive Heart Symbols

The Relationship Healing Symbols, with the exception of Sakarah, are in the heart circle band of the Tanran Mandala. This means that when we are exploring a loving partnership that we need the support of the four regular heart symbols. They define our practice during our celibate periods of life. They are Tanran, Kokoroh, Dah Tah Bah, and Tee Yah Nah.

Tanran is transmuting love. It breathes in negativity and breathes out gratitude, appreciation, and compassion. It is between Neh Tah Ru and Temala. In Neh Tah Ru, Tanran breathing reverses our polarity with negativity so that we take it in and transmute it, rather than close down and defend against it. In a sense, it is a Chod rite activity, where we open up our heart to face every fear which comes up, take it in, and discover our heart is larger than the negativity we faced. In Temala, compassion invoked by embracing the pains of others forms a sacred space that allows us to embrace our partner in a committed way.

Kokoroh is about interdependance and seeing how we live in both dependance and oneness with everything that surrounds us. When we understand this, we learn to serve and be served within this interdependance. It breaks the illusion of isolated individuality and the belief in separation that sometimes offers false security for people. When we are separate from others, then we try to angrily dominate and annex those we feel we need, try to control them so that they always fulfill us, or we try to fearfully run away and live without risking relationship with others and growing from those challenges, or we try to manipulatively give to others, conform to what they want, in order to strategically get our own needs met in return. When we rest in interdependance, then we trust life and relax into giving and recieving.

Kokoroh is about organizing our relationships in terms of who is truly supportive of us and we them. It is about natural energy exhanges that are synergistic and naturally grow around us if we let them and honor them. It is between Toh Noh Men and Temala, because both of them emphasize interdependance and synergy. Toh Noh Men in a general way and Temala in a committed way.

Dah Tah Bah is the symbol of the Pure Eternal Life set and is about always radiating love from the heart no matter what is happening. The symbols of the Pure Eternal Life set are all about attitudes that work in any circumstance and therefore are eternally reliable foundations for our whole life and everything that could happen to us. The Itanamic root "dah" is about letting go and relaxing into the heart's natural attitude ("Tah"=heart). The Itanamic root "bah" has to do with centering and fully being oneself. The implied meaning is that we are not fully ourselves unless we are always radiating love unconditionally to others. It suggests that love is not an effort, but a relaxation into what we always want to do when we are not reacting from our wounds or defending our wounds.

Dah Tah Bah is between Toh Noh Men and Teh Gah. This is because we first learn to relax into the free flow of love during the honeymoon phase and then must learn to keep letting it radiate through all the tensions that arise in the relationship. Its position between these two suggests that the support of conscious breathing when tensions come helps us to stay loving with our partner.

Tee Yah Nah is from the Energy Maturity set. It is a holographic symbol with many internal parts. The third eye is open. This means that the radiant love of Dah Tah Bah becomes wise and skillful in the fourth set. While we need to keep our heart open and radiant always, it does not mean that we can afford to be stupid and undiscerning with negative people. We need to see clearly the negative trips that people play out and not get caught in them. The third eye opens out of necessity when we see that we must love all people always. The heart symbol inside the heart symbol shows that the third eye supports the heart. The circle plus in the belly region of the oval means that we need to be balanced and centered in our lower chakras. When we are balanced and centered in our lower chakras, then no one can hook us in. Manipulations and power plays must play on a weakness. Centering in our bellies allows us to protect ourselves. The two rings on either side of the heart center are protective. The heart can stay open without being hurt when we are centered and balanced in our lower chakras when we are "not led into temptation" and when our third eye sees things as they are and accepts them without rationalization.

With third eye open and lower chakras balanced, our free flowing heart feels its service to others and fulfills its purpose on Earth. In order for the third eye to fully open we need to see our part in choosing every painful experience we entered into and on this basis forgive everyone. What we learn from forgiving, becomes the basis of our service to others. The word "Tee Yah Nah" is the strong heart purpose to fully experience life (yah). It means to follow our joyful passion. When the runner in the movie "Chariots of Fire" says that when he runs in feels "god's pleasure" he is feeling Tee Yah Nah.

Tee Yah Nah is between Teh Gah and Neh Tah Ru because both require energy maturity to transmute what comes up. A male is not afraid of falling into the Earth when he sees the validity of the lower chakras and the need to center in each of them. When this is seen then every hurt can be used for growth. Becoming energy sensitive to the what others activate in us, with the idea of releasing our part in being triggered, opens the third eye and helps Teh Gah. As a triad it shows how we can embrace life through right forgiveness and find our purpose and passion. It may be tricky to conventional wisdom that forgiveness and purpose are related, but one who has not done their forgiveness homework and has not seen how they caused every event that happened to them, has trouble seeing their purpose or claiming the power to live it. When filled with unprocessed resentment, too many internal areas are blocked to see the larger pattern and know how we fit in it. When we experience the honeymoon of Toh Noh Men, then we sometimes feel more energy and passion to do our purpose. We suddenly feel inspired to do it. Many creative people find sexual love opens them to new insights that they carry into their creative service work. Every time we open up to life, even in the form of our beloved, it means at least temporarily forgiving part of life. Every blame is a reason to close down. When the third eye opens in Tee Yah Nah, the power to forgive at the very root opens up for us and with this enough penetrating insight to see our purpose and live it.

Tee Yah Nah is between Teh Gah and Neh Tah Ru for another reason. The third eye needs to open to forgive or transmute all the wounded energy which comes up. It needs to see through every illusion and projection to cut through to the root. When we do this, then we are surrendering to the awakening of kundalini in Neh Tah Ru. When we are celibate, we can do our forgiveness homework and totally learn from our previous relationship experience and thus prepare for the next one. When we are in a hurry to get to the next one without learning what we need to learn, then we show that we do not think that finding a mate is a matter of synchronicity, but a matter of luck. The third eye does not believe in luck, but in synchronicity. Even the hurts are converted to lessons we were synchronously meant to learn. There are no accidents. Our service and our passion come from kundalini rising. Kundalini is not some energy arising in some isolated individual, but a transpersonal energy that links us into the unity of life.

So when we are waiting for a relationship to come to us, we are meant to express the four heart symbols. We rest in the interdependancies that have already formed around us (kokoroh), then we learn to radiate love to all people all the time (databa), then we learn to look our part in all our hurt (teeyana), and then we breath and transmute all the negativity which surrounds without getting caught in it (tanran). If we are doing this and getting more skillful in remembering to stay centered in all those processes, then when we attract a relationship to ourselves we will be ready to handle what arises. In a sense, we are tested to see how well we can stay in love when we are opening up to more vulnerability and letting our subconscious mind purge itself of unfinished karmas. When we realize that life is compassionate and nothing happens by accident (kokoroh), then we eventually experience tonomen and rest in loving energy with someone. When things come up, we can center in continuing to love them (databa) and then transmute anything they activate in us (teeyana), and then we can help them transmute what they are going through (tanran). These parallel and support the relationship processes. We can practice them in daily life immediately. If we intend to use our daily life to prepare for our beloved, then lessons will immediately appear and we can work through them as they arise. When the heart is ready, the lover comes. When the heart is growing through each challenge, the lover grows too or eventually leaves. When the heart is mature and constant, it eventually attracts a mature and constant one who stays.

Namaste.