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What the caterpillar
calls "end of the world",
the master calls "butterfly".
Oriental saying |
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Growth is never easy, and each
of us has their rhythm, but the actual evolutionary path of a
person cannot disregard a minimum degree of knowledge of the means
they want to employ and, most of all, a conscious and responsible
acceptance of them.
Reiki is not a game, nor a self-experiment
you can make lightly, nor a universal panache to escape the perils
of everyday life.
Reiki is an extraordinary and
wonderful way to grow as a person.
But does a person really want
to grow?
Often, we believe we want to grow
up and, at the same time, we subconsciously oppose with all our
might to any attempt at change.
Strong fears we are often unaware of compel us to express ourselves
in untrue ways.
Therefore, we manifest a number of false Selves. A person who
hides behind a false Self substitute his authentic life with an
«as if» life. They create, as we all do, their own
balance, but that balance too is an “as if” balance.
In the life of an individual – a person, from the Latin
persona, which means «mask» – two different
ways of facing experience can be summarily described which, while
being opposed to each other, often intersect.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
In an extremely summarized way,
this pair of opposites may be described as follows: the authentic
mode and the “as if” mode.
The “as if”
mode is expressed in a way not unlike dreams, imaginary
life, illusion. The “as if” wears the veil of Maya
with elegance and grace. The “as if” is the realm
of the constrained Self, the watcher-Self, the Self who remains
outside experience. “The “as if” identifies
itself only as “as if”, as illusion itself: it is
self-deception and self-indulgence. Therefore, its fullest expression
is the negation of being “as if”.
The authentic mode,
on the other hand, manifests itself as total identification with
authentic life experience (being here and now), which, paradoxically,
leads to an extreme “risk”: the loss of one’s
Self inside experience. This is one step beyond the art of playing
con games with ourselves, it’s putting ourselves at stake,
accepting change, recognizing the pain we usually hide...
Only a strong and mature Self,
harmonized and centred on the heart plane may wish taking such
a risk, because it lives with the need of authentic manifestations,
and is not kept at bay by fear – potentially a driving force,
but most often a strong inhibiting factor – of dissolving
into experience and not existing in the world anymore. Only a
very spiritually evolved Self, one who has WORKED MUCH ON ITSELF
and experiences authentic Self-acceptance can face the fear that
would otherwise force him or her to take refuge behind the battlements
of the “as if”, in the realm of virtuality.
Presence, being-in-the-world (for
primitive people) or identity (for contemporary people) have an
enormous value for the Self, who will not forfeit it. Therefore,
a presence or identity crisis are the dark face of the coin: panic.
One may easily think that every being will grip at a certain,
stable and durable identity with all its might, thus needing a
certain, stable and durable balance between its different parts
to do so.
FALSE PERSONALITY
After all, everybody spent all
of their lives to become what they are, starting from a multitude
of role models and finally becoming special, original, unique.
This is our masterpiece, what we are most fond of: our “False
Personality", our "Mirror of Self Reflection",
our "Character".
Some form of balance, even if
it’s not authentic or is due to a thousand defence mechanisms
and compromises, is fundamental for a person’s survival.
Only through some degree of balance we may face the countless
requests of everyday life, which “force” us to remain
true to ourselves, no matter how contents continue to change.
Therefore, any attack to our personal balance will be avoided,
or faced, with all our might..
If this defence mechanism protected
the real, authentic balance of a person, we might certainly say
that it is quite valuable for personal evolution. Mostly, though,
it binds us to our Character, to rigidity, to immobility.
REIKI AND
EXCESSIVE RIGIDITY
What can happen when a person
whose defence mechanisms protect very rigidly a non-authentic
balance, an “as if” balance – a person headed
more towards crystallisation than towards evolution, is initiated
to Reiki?
A conflict may ensue: on one hand
the non-authentic balance (where such non-authenticity is not
consciously perceived) tries to keep itself up, on the other hand
Reiki is an incessant drive towards a more authentic balance.
This force leads to an accelerated ethical and spiritual growth,
to the manifestation of one’s true essence.
The individualization process
drives everyone to make their innate human nature real, as long
as they are aware of it. The Ego plays a prominent role in making
the whole of our psyche, our Self, real. But that is surely a
slow and difficult conquest.
SOCIALISATION
In fact, the unlimited flow of
information coming from the environment as sensorial perception
since the day we are born is interpreted (by our Ego) through
socially accepted modes and constitutes an extensive inventory
which allows us to move through the world with rationality and
consistency.
Our own sense of identity is an
integral part of such inventory, of the unique depiction of the
world we built for ourselves.
Nevertheless, our depiction of
the world, compared with the universe, is extremely limited, no
matter how comprehensive it may rationally seem. All of our perceptions
which are free from rational thought always alert us, always make
us feel that much of ourselves is still «out there»,
yet to be discovered.
Human psyche, while being naturally
rigid, has within itself the potential to grow, to realize its
evolutionary potential. Making this happen, though, is all but
easy. Quite often, the Ego is unable to recognize and accept the
messages coming from our subconscious and from the outside world.
Also, the Ego is often unwilling to put itself at stake and accept
within itself those parts we utterly reject. We are a whole.
Getting in touch with our inner
Self is a precious and sought-after achievement, because we know
by intuition that we would express ourselves as a whole when we'd
reach it. Burt reaching our complete Self means following long
and taxing paths where we may be so frightened by meeting our
darkest sides at every step that we’d want to yield, and
desist. Persisting in our will to grow can actually take us to
a frantic confrontation with our own fears. In any case, growing
implies working deeply on ourselves.
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