I never felt particularly drawn to this idea of lineage; it seemed externalized and overly simplified. And yet it can be important who a practitioner's teachers are. It affects the practitioner's approach in personal self-practice and shared practice with others. For teaching practitioners, it can also directly affect how Reiki teachings are passed along to students and how the teacher models the practice in her character.

Perhaps it was the "line" in lineage that threw me off. For such a holistic practice, one line seemed reductive. Teaching and learning don't follow a single-line path. The process is more dynamic and multi-dimensional, with the give and take moving in many directions, from and to multiple places, weaving together within an individual to become an ever-expanding, cohesive whole.

What we feel during a hands on healing session or a meditation is calledhibiki in Japanese. Literally, hibiki means an echo. The reason why these sensations are called hibiki/echo is because they are not real--an echo is empty, like a reflection or an illusion.

We need to experience the hibiki without labeling it. When we label hibiki we see it as real and we start to make distinctions between a good or bad hibiki, which in itself creates a dualist state of mind.

Here's something to ponder for those inetrested in hibiki and Usui's spititual practice of the system of Reiki.