Self-Attunement Step One:
Preparing For Self-Attunement
This is the preparatory step for self-attunement. As you go through this list, you will find it resembles the list that I have already laid down in Chapter 4 (A session with the Reiki healer).
In those pages, you were reading from the point of a Reiki-energy-recipient. Here, you are reading them again from the point of view of a Reiki-energy-channel. You see, the concept continues to be the same.
The days of preparation may vary; depending on how closely you have been following the following dos and don’ts already.
I would normally recommend anywhere between one day to thirty days be spent in this step, since we are talking about changing one’s lifestyle and set of habits here.
Here goes:
Wear loose clothes. Tight-fitting clothes are not an impediment for Reiki, but you will be more in tune with the environment around you when you are wearing clothes that are comfortably loose.
If you are pursuing a career, profession or calling where they will look at you strangely if you arrive in baggy clothes, fine.
Take on the appropriate formalwear during such times. But change back to wearing loose clothes as soon as possible.
Avoid smoking, alcohol and non-vegetarian food during the preparatory period. It is not an absolute must, but your body shall really be prepared for accepting Reiki energy rather than remaining busy in assimilating your intake.
Spend some quality time with yourself everyday. See if you can switch off the regular blare of the television and radio, and also wean yourself away from the computer for a while. This stilling of the mind makes you sensitive to what is going on around you, makes you aware of the present, and grounds you for
what follows.
Take care of your body. Understand its urges and needs. Don’t suppress the body’s desire to cleanse itself by flushing out the contents of the bladder and the colon whenever you get the warning signals. Follow its signals.
If there is a twitch in the muscle somewhere, take your focus there. If your heart begins to palpitate suddenly, become aware of it. If you observe a tingling sensation or a warming or cold sensation anywhere on your body, shift your focus there, and simply observe. This increases your power of tuning into yourself.
You become more and more aware of your body, as the days go by.
Take a good sleep everyday. Abstain from anything that comes in the way of deep, refreshing sleep.
Not very stringent conditions, are they? Very plain and simple, and I think, mandatory, for any seeker walking on the path of healing self and others, “just like Jesus could”.
Self-Attunement Step Two:
Cleansing The Mind
Step two need not follow step one. Both these steps may be coalesced into one, depending on where you already are in the preparatory process.
If, after reading the dos and don’ts in step one, you feel that you already meet them, then you may start step two immediately. On the other hand, if you feel that there are some points in them that you need to work on further, perhaps you may work on them first, and then proceed with step two.
Feel free to go by your own intuition. Your intuition and gut feeling is your best guide.
Your first action after getting up every morning and freshening yourself; is to sit in meditation. (You may take very light breakfast if you wish.)
Designate a place in your house where you shall be meditating everyday. This place, over a period of time, begins to develop an energy that comes from your continuous meditation. Ensure that nobody or nothing disturbs you during the meditation session.
The time that you can devote to meditation really depends on your initial stamina. I recommend a minimum of twenty-minutes of daily meditation time for people who have never ever meditated in a sitting position all their life. This time may gradually be increased to about an hour or two as days go by.
You may sit cross-legged on the floor; in which case place a slightly thick mattress made of cotton on the floor before sitting. If you are comfortable sitting in the chair with a backrest, then use it by all means.
After ensuring that you are comfortable in your sitting position, keep your hands on the lap or on the knees. Keep your spine straight, but do not insist on keeping it ramrod straight all the time. The idea is to not slump while you are meditating.
Always keep your eyes closed throughout the meditation session. Now bring your attention on the body, beginning from the toes to the crown of your head, quickly.
Feel every inch of the body in as much detail as possible, and then move to the next higher part all the way to the head.
Complete two cycles of attention focusing – from the toes to the head; and from the head to the toes.
Now bring your attention to your breathing. Shift your attention to the tip of the nostrils, and feel the breath as it goes in and comes out.
As the breathing continues, and as your body becomes increasingly relaxed, feel your thoughts now stilling. All irrelevant thoughts – about yourself, your family, profession, unpaid bills, piled-up work, reprimands from the boss, tiff with the spouse – they all begin to vanish away.
In fact, you see them coming and going on their own, and you become watchful whenever any thought comes in, careful that you do not engage in it.
Initially, and this holds especially true for the newbie, if you find yourself going to sleep, its okay. Do not castigate yourself. It’s okay. Do it with a more alert state of mind the next time.
Perhaps you may begin to set an alarm clock now. Time will begin to pass so quickly in this state, that you will be surprised when the alarm rings. When you begin to observe that you are able to slip in and out of meditative state quickly, and achieving a state of “no-thoughtful” mind is now easy, you are now ready to go to the next step.
The duration of this step? It really depends on you. Just observe what depth of meditative state you are able to go to. If you feel that you already satisfy the condition that I have indicated in the preceding paragraph, by all means move to the next step straightaway, without much ado.
Otherwise, I have seen newbie’s achieving a deep meditative state of mind anywhere within thirty days to three months after a daily practice of one hour.
Provided they are honest and sincere about the whole exercise, and provided they are able to maintain the same tempo with which they started on day one.
I have been more than thrilled to have found you and I have throughly enjoyed the course, and the attunment was powerful beyond belief and was just beautiful.
