One of the things I like most about the Usui Reiki system is that you don’t need to believe in anything to practise it.
Reiki’s success resides entirely on the experience it gives practitioners, and it has survived for almost one hundred years not because it convinces people to believe in anything, but because it affords them a rich experience. Because it heals. Because it enhances joy. Because it helps make people whole.
Like all great spiritual systems, it helps you find the ‘truth’ within, the truth beyond belief systems.
This is a critical point, because while belief systems can point us in certain directions, that is all they can ever truly do. They are maps that encourage us to explore certain places, but the maps – as they say in Zen – are not the territory. To know what the territory is like, we can’t rely on descriptions handed to us by others. We need to experience it for ourselves. Only then can we determine whether it is a place we would like to spend more time in or not.
The same, naturally, can be said for books, teachers and theories. Indeed, no matter how beautiful they may sound, no matter how eloquent or logically compelling they may seem, we should always use our inner compass to validate them. We should check in with our soul, with our intuition, to see whether what they teach truly resonates.
The thing to bear in mind is that humans are not particularly rational. More often than not, our beliefs are simply used to bolster and support our emotional states of being. That is why when we are sad, depressed or afraid, it is so easy to believe things that if we were balanced, healthy and confident within ourselves, we would laugh at.
Just like when we are physically or emotionally run-down and catch a cold or flu, when we are physically or emotionally run-down, we are more susceptible tobelief-viruses – viruses that can take over our mental 'operating system'.
When this happens, even smart and loving people can begin to think and act irrationally. As emotional creatures first and foremost, if a belief brings us comfort, we will have a strong desire to champion it, even when it is ridiculous, divisive, dangerous, or worse.
But such beliefs never provide true comfort. Instead, they are like a Band-Aid, like alcohol or other drugs.
For a short time, they can give us comfort. But ultimately they will not sustain us, because true comfort must come from within, and it must come from something deeper that simply a mental construct or belief.
The Fear Virus
So why am I talking about this now?
Well faced with a pandemic, faced with what we might call a fear-crisis, faced with fragile emotions, we can all too easily become intellectually vulnerable.
This is a time when fundamentalism can easily grow teeth. This is a time when simplistic black and white truths can seem so seductive. This is a time when we so often want to find the one and only truth.
Unfortunately, it is this kind of fundamentalism that gives rise to suicide bombers, to the Inquisition, to the Crusades, to world wars and genocides.
Of course, fundamentalism comes in many flavours, many of which I know little about, but I have some experience with Christian fundamentalism, and of late I have met more than a few healers who have turned their backs on Reiki because they have ‘found Christ’, because they have been ‘born again’.
Now I have nothing against being ‘born again’. In fact, I think we should continually strive to reinvent ourselves. But for me, being born again needs to be the result of a personal experience of something (in this context, the Divine).
Think of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus for an example of this. His experience of God in this moment was so profound, it overrode everything he believed. It was so profound that he went from persecuting the Christians to championing them. (He even changed his name from Saul to Paul!).
Unfortunately, many people who claim to be ‘born again’ have not undergone this deeply personal experience. Rather, they have let themselves be seduced by a belief system that they can’t truly justify – a belief system that in the depths of their hearts they cannot honestly believe in.
And in many cases, they can’t believe in their new beliefs because they don’t make sense. In fact, their new beliefs run contrary to what they know deep in their heart to be true.
God is joy.
God is love.
God is peace.
God is acceptance.
This is what they know, and yet their new beliefs are judgemental. Their new beliefs cause their hearts to close to people or practices that don’t align with theirs. Their new beliefs typically even condemn these people to eternal damnation.
And yet where Christianity is concerned, Christ was an exemplar of acceptance. He spent much of his time with the very people (tax collectors, prostitutes, etc.), that society shunned. He believed in the Christ nature of everyone. He also believed that a person’s virtue resided in the feelings in their heart, not in the rules/belief system they followed.
That is why he healed on the Sabbath. That is why he overturned the tables in the temple. That is why he was constantly at odds with the religious authorities of his day. They were too often all rules and no heart, but it was heart that he looked for.
So to say someone will only get to ‘heaven’ through Christ the person – and not the Christ Spirit – goes against everything he taught.
What about all the people who came before him? Were they all condemned?
Of course, having chatted to enough fundamentalists over the years, they do have complex justifications for all of this. The rules were different before Christ, etc., but look in your heart and it will be clear that a good person is a good person regardless of their religious affiliation.
The saint in the Amazon Forest doesn’t go to hell just because he doesn’t believe in Christ (and yes, many people do argue for this!).
Of course, if it sounds ludicrous to condemns saints to hell, then why are good, smart people ready to do it?
Well, as I said at the start of this article, we are first and foremost emotional creatures. So if a belief system or community can feed our emotional longings, then we will often be ready to throw good sense out the window.
And where fundamentalists groups are concerned, they typically do offer a lot of emotional support. They give you a community. They give you a sense of belonging. They give you both emotional and intellectual security (you have found the truth and can now relax!).
That is why in moments of upheaval, in times like these when fear is so prevalent around the globe, we are particularly vulnerable to these groups and their beliefs.
Finding the Truth Within
Christ (Matthew 7:15-20 New King James Version) said:
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”
If we accept that the logic of ‘false prophets’ also holds for belief systems, then we will know the value of such belief systems by the fruit they bear. We will feel their truth within us. If they bring us more joy, if they bring us more love, if they bring us more light within our lives, then these belief systems are beautiful ‘trees’.
But if they cause us to fear. If they cause us to judge and close our hearts to others, then that too is an indication of the type of ‘tree’ they are.
So in these unique times of upheaval, there is no need to look to external sources for a definition of right and wrong. We simply need to look within. Because when we find our centre, we don’t need to ‘believe’ in anything. We will simply know the truth – the truth of that moment.
And if our logical mind questions whether what we have found is the truth, then remember that our inner emotional state will not lie.
The truth will not just set us free, it will bring us happiness and joy.
But if what we believe doesn’t lead to such things, then we must keep looking, for the truth lies elsewhere.
(Article Copyright, Jeremy O'Carroll 2020)
To find out more about Jeremy O'Carroll's Reiki courses, visit the Om Reiki Centre website. Or to catch up with his daily reflection, visit the Om Reiki Centre Facebook page.
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