Reiki uses energy activation rites (called initiations) and a series of symbols to channel and direct energy.
There are four levels of Reiki Radiance. I follow the protocol as I learned it in the 1990s from Yukie Yabuki in Japan. In keeping with the tradition, initiations are only done on an individual basis, as I learned from Yukie.
I have been offering Reiki initiations for over 20 years and have initiated hundreds of people, each time with the utmost care and devotion. Each level opens up another dimension of life for us, that is, each initiation helps us to open up to another dimension, to be able to perceive it and then integrate it.
The Reiki 1 level, in my opinion, is love for oneself, daring to open oneself to welcome the love that is inherent in existence itself. This implies a change which consists in taking the time each day, to offer attention by laying hands on the body, and thus to evolve towards the consciousness of the cells. Without psychology or analysis, because the present mind does not understand what love is. The being experiences receiving love, which can bring about an obvious good, a huge change in life.
Reiki level 2 integrates our mental capacity, the result of millions of years, our gift to previous beings (evolutionary manifestations). To be human means to take care of using the mental capacities, in harmony with the order of evolution. For this gigantic experience we have been given all freedom, which sometimes pushes us towards horrors and even the extension of our species. Reiki 2 offers us a way to use our mind in a harmonious way. Instead of thinking, we deal with geometric shapes and precise sounds.
And here is something that is beyond me, these shapes and sounds produce a tangible effect in our daily life. It’s something to experience because I can’t find any explanation for it. A great joy … with infinite applications, such as helping ourselves and others, animals and plants, purifying places, harmonising our personal past, our memories, and preparing events in the future. Reiki 2 is about action in everyday life.
In Reiki level 3, we dig into another layer of our being inside. The personality and all that we believe and have learned is exposed to doubt. Who am I? What am I doing here? One touches the mystery of existence itself. It is a period of deep questioning, without psychology, but in life itself. One could say that we open ourselves freely to let go the personality of our past, and to discover who we are really. To become who I am, and not what others, my past, my environment have made me to become. Through the initiation of Reiki 3 one receives all the courage and strength that this evolutionary process requires. We open completely to the Light and Love of Existence itself, and to accept it wholeheartedly.
Reiki level 4 is the training to follow to become a teacher, to be able to initiate other people and to be at their side without imposing your opinion. To be there for them, to help them to be able to perceive and think independently and to live fully in harmony with existence.
With each level comes a proposal for what I call “a gentle discipline”: a list of typical exercises in the Reiki tradition to be done in daily life. One of the many illusions in spiritual development is the belief that there is no need for practice to ensure the continuity of energy flow
I take a lot of time for each initiation, in Reiki level 1 for example we will be together for nine hours of intense work. Also particular in my approach, each level is closed with a session specifically for that.
I welcome you,
Bart.
