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from The Reiki Magazine International
March, 2003
While visiting the cathedral of Montserrat near Barcelona, I listened to the boy’s choir sing to the glorification of a higher essence, to another way of being. I think of the people in those long-ago years who envisioned the cathedral, and of the laborers and craftsmen who responded to the work. Did they seek a path to heaven? Were they exalted simply from working on the building? Did the spiritual essence that they sought outside of themselves come into them as they stood back and gazed at their work?
When thinking of these people who worked on the great cathedrals of Europe or the temples of the East or any building that stands now to house the experience of spirit, I wonder about myself. As I do my daily practice, I feel as a worker placing the stones one by one to build a wall of the inner chamber, or as an artisan carving the gargoyles over the choir loft. Will I transcend the labor to experience spirit? I think I have such experiences, but can I live this throughout the days of my life?
I think often of a man called Dr. Mikao Usui and the search for him. I wonder what is being sought? The personality? Reassurance that someone did not just make everything up in their need to make money? A way to relate to the foundations of the practice? I see him as a man who wished to connect to the essence of human spirit so strongly that its wholeness manifested in others—what some call the healing of Jesus.
In his search for the way to the essence, Usui simply put one foot in front of the other, doing the next step as it came to him. As he kept going, he was blessed by the grace of discovery, or perhaps he had the courage to put into practice what he felt inside, no matter what others thought of him or what occurred in his seeking. As a result of whatever happened, we have the gift of the connection to Reiki.
How then do we honor him and his path? How do we contribute to the practice and assure the continuation of the practice? By putting one foot in front of the other. By taking each step of our lives as they come to us with the same conviction. By respecting his privacy and his spiritual journey. By understanding that it is within each of us to do the same thing he did, but we don’t have to do that exact path. We have the opportunity to walk our own.
Will we stand back in a few decades and see what is being built? Will it be a space created for the experience of spirit? Will the community be one of living the precepts? Will we be affected by the accumulation of all who practice? The answer to these questions lies in each of us, within the spirit of our own practice and attitude.
Our legacy from Mikao Usui seems to me to be the importance of keeping to our own search, to finding the answer to the ultimate questions of life. How can we transcend the mortal, relative life and move into the realms of oneness? He gave me his transcendent experience in the form of a practice that has been developed over the last one hundred years. This is enough for me.
As I practice, I see more and more of my life being dedicated to this search for myself. I see this time ahead for me as an opportunity for me to pay attention to myself, my own search, and my own practice.
Already I look back and see the great gifts I have received from traveling and from meeting people from so many cultures who choose this path for themselves. As I speak and hear their questions, I see that we are all on the same path and share the same experiences. These all come from one man’s search—a search that echoes the call in each of us through the ages to find the source of peace within the soul, the ultimate healing. © Phyllis Lei Furumoto 2003 |
