Reiki, Spirituality and Sikhism - Are they compatible?

I have been thinking about this for nearly two years and should confess that I am not 100% sure what Guru Nanak would say but I have my own logic that convinced me that they can be compatible. Is it a crime for an Amritdhari Gursikh to receive Reiki treatment or attunement? What one says depends on what one believes in and what they know about Reiki and its philosophy. I tried to tackle it from an objective perspective. I will start the story from the beginning -

In 2002,  I had been suffering from a severe shoulder pain for a year and had tried every treatment including physiotherapy, message, kinesiology and acupuncture; nothing had worked completely. One day when I went to an elderly friends house for a social visit, he said that he can see two holes in my body and that usually happens after a childbirth. I didn't know anything about Aura reading or Reiki then. I was surprised at his remark. He further said that he can fix the holes. At this I mentioned to him that I actually have a very bad right shoulder and the pain keeps coming back. He asked my permission to heal me. he didn't mention Reiki or anything. I simply gave my permission. I thought he was going to message my should but he didn't touch me at all. All I knew was that he was standing behind me. I had closed my eyes. I later asked my husband what did he do? He mentioned that this person simply placed his hands near my shoulders. The pain went away for a month. Coming downstairs from his house, I noticed a poster which prompted a conversation in which he told me that he does meditation everyday for an hour in the morning. A month later I called him in distress due to severe pain, he did the same hand treatment again and this time the shoulder pain never came back. I now know that what he did was Reiki treatment. I also know that since this Christian person changed his religion to Jehovahs Witness, he gave up Reiki as it is against his new religions belief system.

In late 2008, a work colleague told me that he has joined a meditation group and now he does meditation everyday for an hour. I became jealous and felt guilty that I, the Amridhari Gursikh, never do meditation and this person, Mr Nobody - according to AKJ standard Sikhi, was meditating everyday. In 2009, my new year resolution was to do meditation everyday, open my third eye and raise my Kundalini to 7th Chakra and see God and whatever else about Him Guru Nanak saw. I have since found out that 7th chakra is not the goal of Kundalini, it is the 4th chakra, the heart centre. Guru Nanak, the prophet of the 4th chakra, according to Sahej Yoga people, also seem to see God through the 4th chakra, the chakra of Love and Compassion for all. I was serious about my goal as 2012 was only four years away and I had to achieve the highest state before the end of the world. I must say I did very well that year and was very happy with the Kirpa of my Gurus. Read my blogs from that time to know about my precious experiences.

In Dec 2009, I went to India. My eldest sister told me that she had received Reiki attunement and was getting good results with healing but she gave up thinking that it was against Sikhism and she was not willing to change her Guru. Knowing how Reiki healing had changed my life ..

I asked Baba Makhan Singh of his opinion. He said that its Ok to practice Reiki but to be aware that when you heal someone this way, you are using your personal energy, although the Reiki theory says that its only God's energy that is being used. He said that since we use our intent to heal the person and to clear their aura (he knew about auras!), our personal energy does get used.

I am scared to see some Reiki healer being sick with life-threatening diseases. I wonder if they are sick as they used up too much of their personal energy and left themselves vulnerable to sickness. In pranic energy healing, they talk about receiving a little more than you are giving, so you don't deplete your energy but Reiki says that the healer doesn't control the flow of energy. It says that the Reiki knows how much is needed and the patient can't receive too much, unlike pranic energy healing where too much can cause energy congestion. Since reiki says its not personal energy being used at all, they do not talk about the harm to the healer for giving too much.

Besides this, in the Reiki Attunement session, the master asks you to imagine a Golden Yellow light around yourself. Yellow is the light of Solar Plexus, which is the chakra of personal energy.

More importantly, when Guru Nanak gave me darshan and before or after my 9 petal lotus opened, my whole body was healed by a emerald green colour particles coming out of a gemstone in the heart centre, hanging on a string that came down from the 7th chakra. Then the electric green colour light came out of my temples up to the palms of my hands in a semi-circle shape. This was not given to me by any humanbeing, therefore I trust this to be more God's energy and something that I was given without asking, so I must have God's permission to use it. Although, I tried to not accept it, as I was scared that I might not have the ability to use it wisely; I know believe that the creator would be a better judge of what I am capable and worthy of than myself. I still haven't used either of these to heal others. I am sure, when its the right time, I will be asked to serve. There is no hurry.

Eye-heart awareness

Samuel Sagan suggests in his book "Awakening the third eye" to develop eye heart awareness after two years of practice developing the third eye awareness, p.147. Guru Nanak Dev ji only ever talks of the feeling of love in the heart. Since I hadn't read this page of the book, I didn't know, I shouldn't do it yet. When I started seeing the colour purple in the eye first time, I enhanced the awareness in the heart to improve the vision of colour purple. It responds in proportion to the feeling of yearning. For this reason, I recommend to do meditation while the three day reading of scriptures, Akhand Path, is happening in the Gurdwara. Lines of Guru Bani that are being read helps you focus on the heart and feeling of yearning, as most of the shabads have yearning as the central idea. As soon as the mind wanders it is brought back to focus by gurbani.

Some time ago, I use to wonder if reading gurbani was a waste of time as it is asking the reader to meditate 24 hours a day and yet people just read it over and over again and don't do the very act of meditation and defeating the purpose of the writing. Now I read the Guru Granth Sahib Ji's bani when I lack the drive to meditate or have the desire but simply can't do it. I realise that the purpose of the shabads are to encourage the reader to meditate, develop the yearning to do so by praying to Waherguru to give you Nam, developing the feeling of love for God and guiding the reader as to what to do and what to avoid in life. Only a very few shabads describe, or give hints of what happened during or as a result of a meditation session. I am trying to find every such shabad. So I was particularly focusing on Shabads of Guru Nanak dev ji, Guru Arjan Den ji and Kabir ji. I didn't realise before that there are other Guru's that have also given a hint of that in their shabads.

Gurbani is written mostly in a simple language but its only after doing meditation that you seem to realise a different meaning of the words said in it. For example, Gurbani has several shabads that talk about Waheguru as Rang rangla, colourful. We always take this as philosopical concept that this world, his creation is colourful. I never knew this refers to the experience of the meditator who has seen several colours during meditation and felt that feeling of peace and joy never found anywhere else with any other object in the world. The feeling of yearning comes automatically after you fall in love with these beautiful colours that give you joy and you want more and more. Thus comes the need to see it again and again. Hence, the shabads like 'Fir Kad miliye mere pyare', when can I see you again. But colours are only a very first hint that meditation is not just time-out from this world for a few minutes. Its a journey with very real results. As you go deeper and deeper, you will see your Guru's, or other figures unknown to you who will show you the path ahead. Then you will see figures shown in the Sacred Geometry. Google the words "Sacred Geometry" and you will find out all about it. These figures are very real and manifest themselves to you. Since I didn't know anything about it, I simply enjoyed the session. The big mistake I made was to refuse the power of healing others that it was giving to me. A green light came from the temples, the area near the eyes on the edges of the forhead, and made an arch from outside my body and upto my hands that were laying on my knees, palms facing upwards. I enjoyed it and then said that I don't want to become a healer. I just want to see and know God Waheguru. I now realise that God never offers more than what you can handle. It was my fear that stopped me. I have a theory on why Baal Guru Har Krishan Sahib ji died of disease when he was the one who relieved so many from their diseases. If you read a book on Pranic energy by Choa Koh Sui, its mentioned in there that always give out less pranic energy than what you receive and also to do some clensing thing to get rid of the residue of the energy of sickness. Reiki must be a much safer way of healing as the healer doesn't have to worry about these issues as the healer doesn't control the amount of the energy going into the patients body or the area in which the energy is going.

I know realise that I had very big urge to heal my son of his Down Syndrome and more importantly his diabetes. Although, I never realised that my body and feelings were projecting that. Therefore, as a response I was being given the healing power that I thought I needed so much. When I refused it, I didn't remember I had a son who needed healing. I simply felt that I don't have sufficient knowledge or understanding to even contemplate interfering with Gods business.