Threshold Notes -- The Reiki Attunement-Part 1

Often when in the middle of teaching a distant Reiki Master's class I end up sharing a lot of additional comments with my student, most of which are not in my master level manual.  I suppose I do this because in the distant classes the student has up to a month to complete it, so conversations tend to be quite interesting.  I guess it's kind of like the old days of working with a mentor or resource over a longer period of time.  (not that a month is along period by any means.)  As I do this, I often think about sharing some of these at my web pages.  Now that I seem to be in semi-retirement mode these days I feel more of an urge to do so, and today I thought I'd start sharing some of these on my public pages.
 
 
When most students come to me for master level training, especially if they are new to my Reiki classes, they usually are very keen on anything to do with the Reiki attunement.  In the distant class most will jump right away past the class checklist to the section on attunements, especially the sample videos I have (even though they are pretty old productions from 2001.  ).  So here are some thoughts I have shared on this very important part of the class.

If you have followed some of my other web pages you are aware that the original term used for an empowerment by Usui's senior student Eguchi was "denju."  For the actual kanji he used It means something like initiation.  Eventually this was replaced by the term "reiju" - what Usui's other senior student, Hayashi, called it and what the URR Gakkai (the original Reiki society) calls this today.  And of course, Mrs. Takata used the term "attunement" which is where that word originated in Western styles of Reiki.

So in this set of articles my comments about attunements will also include the various forms of reiju taught in Japan in the past.

1. First, I find that any attunement or reiju ceremony can be used as a healing ceremony, as opposed to only as an empowerment ceremony.  But to use it for the latter - i.e. as an attunement - I feel it is best to get the recipient's permission for this.  Why?  Well, as an analogy, why give someone a set of keys to a new car, and not tell her or him what they are for?  Or for that matter why would you not ask him or her if they know how to drive?   Do you understand this point?  In a way, you are taking on some responsibility for this person's awareness of what Reiki is and what and how it can be used.  While the initial experience can be beneficial to the recipient, if they learn to make use of this knowledge then over time the benefits will continue to grow. Haven't you found this to be so? 
   I think most of us who teach Reiki have experienced this.

So your choice of the ceremony's purpose is based mainly on your intention and the recipient's, and also on the fact that you are both in agreement on this.  I make this comment because I have known of Reiki "masters" who felt it was their duty or responsibility to attune everyone they met, whether the receiver asked for it or not. And also, because at some point in his lectures over the years, my noted teacher Hiroshi Doi, a former URR Gakkai member, adjusted his comments around the term reiju to indicate that while some version was always the Gakkai's sole ceremony for initiations, his own version might also be used as a blessing - meaning, I would infer, it could be used as a short form of a Reiki treatment.

 
What if the person feels it's an attunement but you are intending only a Reiki session?  Well, I have known of experiences shared on Reiki lists where a person who received a Reiki session was afterwards able to resonate Reiki towards others.  I even had a student who had this ability, although her Reiki felt a bit weak to me.  Still, it's something to think about and to be aware of.

2. I find that the potential of the attunement energy (Reiki or otherwise) is a combination of
   

1. what you as the giver can easily activate in terms of the energy, and then hold for a period of time, 
    
   
2. what the recipient can comfortably assimilate in that time (although I feel it usually happens within seconds), and 
    
   
3. what the higher selves (or spirit part) of both of you agree is the best result for both of you - meaning that you each have some built in process that monitors this.  

Comment a) may simply means that you, as the teacher, may not yet have fully integrated what your own teacher made available to you. (think of how you have learned to recite a complex song or music piece.)  As a way to measure this, you might have someone who is sensitive to energy, or perhaps a clairvoyant, compare your particular style of Reiki energy to that of your teacher.  This can be a result of:

• how much you originally experienced from your teacher;
   
• your own lack of use of this energy (thus not integrating it more completely);
   
  
• your lack of re-attunements to this particular Reiki over time as your own potential develops (thus allowing you to gradually approach, even surpass your teacher's energy);
  
  
• you may not have experienced and developed an especially strong or original version of Usui's 4th symbol (I find it seems to impart the main natural and automatic boost to Reiki (or other) attunements.); or
  
  
• it could just be that your own aura and internal energy system is not quite suited to this particular style of Reiki energy, thus it will not be one your strong energy systems.   Personally I have found some forms of Reiki energy to feel less appealing than others, even some from Japan.

Comment b) relates to a person's own inner development, and I suppose you could say his or her readinness for integrating all of what you are sharing in the moment.  It could also have something to do with what I expressed in the above paragraph, that this particular Reiki energy may not be as suitable to the individual as some other forms of Reiki.  Or it can also be that Reiki in general is not suitable for this person.  I know that's hard to believe, but I have found some students doing much better with other forms of healing energies, like Magnified Healing or Seichim.

If you are wondering about c), I can feel at times that there may be a large potential for the energy shift within the student, but there is something blocking the complete awakening of the energy.  This may be due to the student not being ready to handle the responsibility of the complete amount of his or her potential, or it may be due to some inner resistance.  Or there is some other lesson at work here that is not obvious or available to my insight or senses (or due to information from my guides or the student's.)