Reiki, Presence and Healing

We are Reiki. Presence is how we recognize it. The Precepts shape how we embody it. Healing is how it expresses itself.

What if Reiki is not something we have to create? What if it is not something we have to produce, send, or even do? What if Reiki begins with something much more intimate:

What if we are Reiki?

Frans Stiene often speaks of this understanding: that we are spiritual energy. This points to Reiki not simply as an energy we work with, but as something fundamental to our being.

This opens an interesting question: If Reiki is what we are, then what does it mean to experience and embody it in everyday life?

For me, the answer begins with presence.

We are Reiki

In Reiki practice, we often speak about receiving Reiki, giving Reiki, or channeling Reiki. These expressions can be useful, but they can also subtly create a separation: I am here, and Reiki is something that comes through me.

The deeper perspective is different.

If Reiki is spiritual energy, if it is part of the life that animates us, then perhaps Reiki is not something outside of ourselves that we need to acquire. We don’t have to become Reiki. We already are Reiki. The practice then becomes less about obtaining something and more about remembering, experiencing, and embodying what is already here. And this is where presence becomes important.

Presence is how we recognize it

We can know something intellectually without actually experiencing it. We can believe that we are spiritual energy and still spend much of our day lost in thoughts about the past or future, caught in worry, reacting to circumstances, or disconnected from our bodies and from the people around us.

Presence brings us back. Presence is the simple act of being here. Presence is not somewhere in an imagined future. Presence is not trapped in what has already happened. Presence is not trying to make this moment different from what it is, just here: this breath, this body, this moment, this life.

When we become present, we may begin to recognize something that was never actually absent. We don’t necessarily create Reiki through presence. Rather, presence gives us the space to notice and experience what is already here.

The Reiki Precepts shape the quality of our presence

This is where the Reiki Precepts become especially profound.

The Precepts are sometimes presented as principles for living or as ethical guidelines. But we can also experience them as a training in presence.

The Precepts describe the qualities with which we meet the present moment.When we practice Just for today, we return to what is here now.

When we practice releasing anger, we learn to meet reactivity without being completely carried away by it.

When we practice letting go of worry, we cultivate trust and the ability to remain with uncertainty.

When we practice gratitude, we learn to notice and appreciate what is here.

When we practice honest and dedicated work, we bring integrity into our actions.

And when we practice kindness toward every living thing, presence becomes relational, t includes how we meet ourselves and others.

The Precepts therefore don’t simply tell us what to believe. They invite us to cultivate a particular quality of being.

Presence is not perfection. This is important.

Presence does not mean that we become permanently calm, peaceful, grateful, or compassionate. We will still become angry. We will still worry. We will still lose ourselves in thought. We will still react. We will still forget.

The practice is not to become someone who never leaves presence. The practice is to learn to return, again and again.

This is why Just for Today is so powerful. It brings the practice back to something immediate and possible, today, this moment, this breath. And when we notice that we have become lost, we return.

Healing is how Reiki expresses itself

So what happens when we bring these ideas together?

We are Reiki. Presence is how we recognize it. The Precepts shape the quality of that presence. And then something beautiful becomes possible: healing can express itself through the way we are.

Healing here does not have to mean curing an illness or producing a particular physical outcome. Healing can be understood more broadly as a movement toward greater wholeness, integration, balance, connection, and wellbeing. It might be deep relaxation, a moment of clarity, a softening, a release, a renewed sense of connection.

Healing might be ability to meet something difficult with greater acceptance, a feeling of being supported, or simply the experience of resting without having to fix anything.

Sometimes healing may be subtle. Sometimes it may be profound. And sometimes we may not know what has happened at all. That is why healing does not need to be something we force.

From doing to being

This changes the way we might approach Reiki practice.

Instead of: How can I make healing happen?

we can begin to ask: Can I be fully here?

Instead of: What do I need to do to produce an effect?

we can ask: What happens when I stop trying to control the experience?

Instead of: How can I fix this person?

we can ask: Can I meet this person with presence, compassion, and openness?

This doesn’t mean that techniques don’t matter. Hands-on practice matters. Training matters. Skill matters. Knowledge matters. But beneath all of these is something more fundamental:: how are we being while we practice?

Healing presence

Perhaps this is what we mean by Healing Presence. It is not a special state that we achieve, not a technique, not another thing to add to our Reiki practice, but a way of being. A way of meeting ourselves, others, and life with grounded awareness, compassion, openness, and integrity.

The Reiki Precepts become our companions on this path. They remind us to return ,to soften, to trust, to appreciate, to act with integrity, to cultivate compassion. And each return brings us back into relationship with what is already here.

A different way of understanding the Reiki path

Perhaps the Reiki path is not ultimately about becoming more powerful at doing Reiki. Perhaps it is about becoming more intimate with being Reiki.

We begin with the recognition: we are Reiki.

We practice returning: presence is how we recognize it.

We cultivate its qualities: the Precepts shape how we embody it.

And we allow rather than force: healing is how it expresses itself.

This gives us a very simple invitation for practice:

Be here.

Be Reiki.

Let presence guide you.

Let healing unfold.

Not as something we have to make happen, but as something we can become increasingly available to.

Perhaps this is what it means to move from doing Reiki to being Reiki and becoming a healing presence.

 Offered by Veronique Frede, Reiki Teacher at www.moonstonesanctuary.com