The Wow Moment in Reiki

Frans StieneArticles, English 6 Comments

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When you walk around a corner and you suddenly see an amazing architectural work, like for example the Sacrada Familia church in Barcelona, all you can say is, “Wow!” You are speechless, no need for words just, “Wow!” However after the initial Wow moment you start to explain it in words to the person next to you, but these words cannot even describe your initial response. Your initial “Wow!” was a whole body/mind/energy experience, beyond words. As you explain your Wow experience in words to your friend, you might start to look at individual elements of the church, and this takes you even further away from the whole initial experience of the Wow moment. By looking at each individual element we start to miss the whole.

This is the same when we try to describe a hands-on healing session or a Reiju/attunement/initiation; the initial Wow moment is the most important. That is the Reiki experience that is beyond words, beyond focusing on each specific element of the session; it is all encompassing.

When we perform a hands-on healing session we need to try to stay in this Wow moment the whole session, in each moment. As soon as we think, “Now I feel this,” or, “Now my client needs that,” then we have already moved away from the openness of the Wow moment. When we are in the Wow moment there is no “I” there is no “you,” there is just “Wow!” As soon as we focus on a specific area and we say for example, “I need to draw this symbol,” then the “I” has come into play. We can see this also when we try to explain what we felt during a treatment. We might say, “I felt this or that,” or “I saw this or that,” or “I think you need this or that.” These statements are all about the “I” or the ego. If we only could stay in the initial Wow moment then we would realize that in reality, there is no “I.” We do not say, “I Wow,” we just say, “Wow!”

The Wow moment happens before we start to label things, like when we walk around that corner and see that amazing church Sacrada Familia in Barcelona; all we can do is say, “Wow!” because we haven’t labeled the church as of yet. In this Wow moment we are unified with the church, unified with the universe, because we haven’t separated the church, the universe and the “I” yet. Wow.

When we have the Wow moment during a hands-on healing session or a Reiju/initiation/attunement, we are one with our client or student, nothing to interpret, nothing to explain, nothing to do, just “Wow!” This of course is also the case for the client or student; he or she also has his Wow moment, but as soon as he starts to describe what he or she felt or experienced the initial Wow moment is gone, and we are separated again.

The aim within the system of Reiki is to be in this wonder of the Wow moment not just during Reiki treatments or practice, but every moment of the day. When we awaken to the reality that every moment of our lives contains the whole universe, we will find ourselves saying, “Wow!”

 

Comments 6

  1. Avatar of Elly
  2. Avatar of Frans Stiene
  3. Avatar of Sundar

    Frans, Thanks for sharing this.  This is an excellent analogy of “BEing” as akin to that “Wow!” experience.  Very relatable because we’ve each had such “Wow!” experiences in different times in different situations.  Also, what you say about labeling, and how it immediately creates separation from oneness, is such an important point to understand.  Not easy, but necessary.  In the Tao Te Ching, in chapter 1 (translation by Stephen Mitchell), we see this:

    “The unnamable is the eternally real.
    Naming is the origin
    of all particular things.”

    As I understand this, before we name something, label something, there is an undivided, unbroken oneness, that inherently cannot be named.  And the act of naming / labeling, creates a “particular thing”, separate from the oneness.  i.e. Duality is born from naming / labeling.  And as you’ve taught and reminded us, when we are in that state of duality, we try to label experiences, interpret signals, DO things, resulting in the bewilderingly complex world of DOing Reiki, directing the energy, applying a symbol out there and such.  The simpler way is the profound way to, as you say, BEing in that “Wow!” state, with no need to label, no need to steer the energy, desire and get attached to specific things in a healing session, or in life at large.  BEing Reiki. 

    What I’ve come to understand is that, this is a tough notion or perspective, for most of us to grasp in the early stages of learning the system of Reiki and starting our fledgling practice.  After all, we come from a world that is so orientated towards learning by compartmentalization, by breaking things down, decomposing them into smaller and smaller parts, that we are habituated to the acts of naming / labeling and the inevitable judgments that go with it!  In turn, in teaching students, say Shoden level, it becomes important to orient the practice in the right way for the students.  In turn, it seem obvious, that as teachers / sharers, it becomes important that our own practice is oriented this way, so we can more authentically teach / share from a place of personal practice.  That kind of sets the bar for us as practitioners and teachers!  No shortcuts there, right 🙂

  4. Avatar of Elly

    What a great comment, Sundar! I love the quote from the Tao Te Ching. All about unity with the All, one-mind or no-mind, versus labeling, isn’t it? It is SO important to see the whole, especially in teaching. When I went to college, I wished to get get degrees in poetry and natural history. (Hoping to get a Master’s degree in theology thereafter.) But I learned that you couldn’t get either. As you say, the teacher’s performance. setting the ego aside, makes all the difference here in Reiki too. It isn’t easy, but it is the answer at this point.

  5. Avatar of Frans Stiene

    Hi Sundar,

    Love that quote of the Tao Te Ching. You know all the old teacher and wirings all say the same thing, we just don’t seem to get it as modern practitioners 😉

    I was speaking last Sunday at the Vermont Reiki Association Conference for the whole day and tried to show the audience what it felt like if we just Be Reiki with a client instead of doing Reiki. The wonderful things was that most of the audience, 6o plus people or so, could in fact feel the difference.  When I showed them Being Reiki with someone, it felt like they were receiving a treatment as well.

    So imagine Being Reiki in a hospital or hospice, or when we sit in a cafe.

    Just read this wonderful quote:

    “When silence reaches an ultimate point,
    the light penetrates everywhere.”
    Hsuan Hua

    As soon as we label things our light is covered up like a bare light bulb being covered by many lamp shades. Better to not cover it up and stop labeling.

    But as you say so hard to do for most people, and also hard to do when Reiki teachers keep enforcing labeling!

  6. Avatar of GabS

    Indeed. I cannot put my first attunement into words. It was “Wow. What was this?!” I mean I did not see it comming, although I had had great expectations. It was surreal. I could feel energy PHYSICALLY.

    I am grateful beyond words.

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