Evolutionary Reiki
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Evolutionary Reiki Newsletter
DECEMBER  2014   #51

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in this issue
COMMUNICATIONS
HEALING CIRCLE
UPCOMING REIKI CLASSES
UPCOMING CLASSES IN BROOKDALE
EAST COAST REIKI RETREAT
JOIN A GLOBAL VIGIL
THIS DECEMBER WORLD LEADERS MEET
AS SHOCKING AND PAINFUL AS IT MAY BE
THICH NHAT HAHN
A LITANY OF GRATITUDE
COMMUNICATIONS 
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OUR HEALING CIRCLE ON DECEMBER 10TH
IS CANCELLED 

Need to visit my sister, AGNES,  who is seriously ill 
your Reiki is welcome
HEALING CIRCLE
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HEALING FLOWER
           
          
               NEXT HEALING CIRCLE               
            
 
   6 - 9  PM
 
NOTICE CHANGE IN DATE 
 
You are welcome to attend the Healing Circle on Wednesday,    2014. It is from 6-9 pm. This is an opportunity to gather with other practitioners and share what is going on, ask questions, and receive support. It is also a time for both meditation and receiving of an attunement and, of course, this is all followed by an exchange of Reiki. Hope to see you there.
DIRECTIONS 

HEALING CIRCLE DATES: 
 
Wednesday, September 10, 2014  6-9 pm 
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 [cancelled] 
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
 
(There are no healing circles in July and August)
UPCOMING REIKI CLASSES IN ASBURY PARK
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 NEXT CLASSES IN ASBURY PARK 
 WILL BE IN THE LATE SPRING

CHECK THIS NEWSLETTER
FOR INFORMATION

 


UPCOMING CLASSES AT BROOKDALE
COMMUNITY COLLEGE

YOU MUST REGISTER FOR THESE CLASSES 
WITH BROOKDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
CALL 732-224-2315 

TEACHER: BILL STEVENS 
 REIKI LEVEL I TRAINING
Saturday,  February 28, 2015
10 - 5:30 pm  $149 
LINCROFT  CAMPUS
Call Brookdale College to register 732-224-2315  


 

REIKI LEVEL I TRAINING

Saturday, March 28, 2015
10 - 5:30  $149
LINCROFT CAMPUS
Call Brookdale College to register   732-224-2315
 
East-Coast | USA 4 Day Reiki Retreat | 16-20 April 2015

Pendle Hill 
Wallingford, 338 Plush Mill Rd 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA


 

The 4 Day Reiki Retreat at The Barn in Pendle Hill takes your Reiki journey to a different level and understanding.


 

Arrive Thursday afternoon and leave Monday afternoon!

During these 4 days we will discussion the spiritual aspects of Mikao Usui's teaching and how to apply them in our daily lives.

We begin each day with a 45-minute silent meditation during which Frans performs Reiju for everybody. We will practice techniques like Hatsurei-ho, Joshin Kokyu Ho, Hands on Healing, chanting mantras and much more... AND if the weather allows, we might do a walking meditation through the retreat centre.


We practice 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon, with lots of time in the evening to share healing, stories, and fun with your fellow retreatees.

Frans has been hosting these Reiki Retreats for many years now and infuses them with great humour, knowledge of Japanese spiritual teachings, and his own depth of practice of Mikao Usui's teachings.

Come and share with all the other participants to create a wonderful Reiki community.
 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION


 


 


 


JOIN A GLOBAL VIGIL FOR A CLIMATE AGREEMENT 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7TH 2014

 

WORLD LEADERS ARE GATHERING IN LIMA TO PURSUE AN AGREEMENT TO PROTECT US FROM CLIMATE CHANGE

THEY NEED OUR SUPPORT 

 

JOIN US AND OTHERS AROUND THE WORLD


 

OUR VOICES.NET/LIMA   #LIGHT FOR LIMA


This December, as world leaders meet in Lima, our future is

on the line


 

Time is running out for our leaders to reach an agreement to save us from devastating climate change.


 

This is why OurVoices is organizing #LightForLIMA - a global, multi-faith prayer vigil.


 

On Sunday evening, December 7, around the world people from diverse faith and spiritual communities will gather for public vigils, lit by solar lamps! We want you to be involved


 

When world leaders come together in Lima, they need to know that we're holding them in our thoughts, meditations and prayers. Our prayers will bring hope. Our lights will guide the way.


 

As people of faith we can make a difference Even if you can't make it to a vigil in person - you can still take part.


 

Each evening from December 1-7, households and communities around the world will light a candle, or solar lamp, and pray, meditate, or offer an invocation for a climate agreement. Then they'll take a photo, post it on Facebook or Twitter with #LightForLima along with your hopes for the future.

Our digital vigils will tell politicians that people around the world, are watching and praying for action. And the time to act is now.


 

Why Lima?


 

If we're to stop climate change we need a strong meaningful climate deal which all countries agree to.


 

Lima is where our leaders have to nail down the fundamentals of the agreement, giving a year to work on the detail so that world leaders can sign the treaty in Paris December 2015. They need to know we are supporting them to be determined and generous in overcoming difficulties in Lima for the sake of our planet, and our future.


 

The IPCC (the United Nation's international panel of climate change experts) has released the most comprehensive report on climate change ever made. The conclusions are sobering - our climate is changing at a disastrous rate because of our carbon emissions. We must act now.



 

 

 

 

As shocking and painful as it may be, we must recognize that without swift and dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use and major efforts to increase carbon sequestration, global temperatures will rise close to or beyond 2 degrees C. 


 

This increase will lead to injury and death for millions of people worldwide and the extinction of many of the Earth's species.


 

Millions more will experience severe trauma and stress that threaten their physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. These stresses will, in turn, trigger social and political unrest. 


 

In a grave injustice, low-income communities, poor nations, and people systematically subjected to oppression and discrimination, who contributed little to climate change, will initially be harmed the most. 


 

Even worse, as frightening as it is, if we fail to make fundamental changes in our energy, manufacturing, transportation, forestry, agricultural, and other systems along with our consumption patterns with utmost urgency, in mere decades irreversible climate shifts will occur that undermine the very pillars of human civilization. 


 

Only by recognizing these truths can we adopt a meaningful path toward solutions

 





Ever since being caught up in the horrors of the Vietnam war, the 86-year-old monk has committed his life to reconciling conflict and in 1967 Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying "his ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity."

 

So it seems only natural that in recent years he has turned his attention towards not only addressing peoples' disharmonious relationships with each other, but also with the planet on which all our lives depend.


 

Thay, as he is known to his many thousands of followers, sees the lack of meaning and connection in peoples' lives as being the cause of our addiction to consumerism and that it is vital we recognise and respond to the stress we are putting on Earth if civilisation is to survive.

What Buddhism offers, he says, is the recognition that we all suffer and the way to overcome that pain is to directly confront it, rather than seeking to hide or bypass it through our obsession with shopping, entertainment, work or the beautification of our bodies. The craving for fame, wealth, power and sex serves to create only the illusion of happiness and ends up exacerbating feelings of disconnection and emptiness.


 

Thay refers to a billionaire chief executive of one of America's largest companies, who came to one of his meditation courses and talked of his suffering, worries and doubts, of thinking everyone was coming to take advantage of him and that he had no friends.

In an interview at his home and retreat centre in Plum Village, near Bordeaux, Thay outlines how a spiritual revolution is needed if we are going to confront the multitude of environmental challenges.


 

While many experts point to the enormous complexity and difficulty in addressing issues ranging from the destruction of ecosystems to the loss of millions of species, Thay sees a Gordian Knot that needs slicing through with a single strike of a sharp blade.

Move beyond concept of the "environment"

 

 

He believes we need to move beyond talking about the environment, as this leads people to experience themselves and Earth as two separate entities and to see the planet in terms only of what it can do for them.

Change is possible only if there is a recognition that people and planet are ultimately one and the same.


 

"You carry Mother Earth within you," says Thay. "She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment.


 

"In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. In that kind of relationship you have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change your life.


 

"Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.


 

"Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.

"So to breathe in and be aware of your body and look deeply into it and realise you are the

Earth and your consciousness is also the consciousness of the earth. Not to cut the tree not to pollute the water, that is not enough."

 


 

Putting an economic value on nature is not enough


 

Thay, who will this spring be in the UK to lead a five-day retreat as well as a mindfulness in education conference, says the current vogue in economic and business circles that the best way to protect the planet is by putting an economic value on nature is akin to putting a plaster on a gaping wound.


 

"I don't think it will work," he says. "We need a real awakening, enlightenment, to change our way of thinking and seeing things."


 

Rather than placing a price tag of our forests and coral reefs, Thay says change will happen on a fundamental level only if we fall back in love with the planet: "The Earth cannot be described either by the notion of matter or mind, which are just ideas, two faces of the same reality. That pine tree is not just matter as it possesses a sense of knowing. A dust particle is not just matter since each of its atoms has intelligence and is a living reality.


 

"When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born.


 

"We want to be connected. That is the meaning of love, to be at one. When you love someone you want to say I need you, I take refuge in you. You do anything for the benefit of the Earth and the Earth will do anything for your wellbeing."


 

In the world of business, Thay gives the example of Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of outdoor clothing company Patagonia, who combined developing a successful business with the practice of mindfulness and compassion: "It's possible to make money in a way that is not destructive, that promotes more social justice and more understanding and lessens the suffering that exists all around us," says Thay.


 

"Looking deeply, we see that it's possible to work in the corporate world in a way that brings a lot of happiness both to other people and to us ... our work has meaning."


 

Thay, who has written more than 100 books, suggests that the lost connection with Earth's natural rhythm is behind many modern sicknesses and that, in a similar way to our psychological pattern of blaming our mother and father for our unhappiness, there is an even more hidden unconscious dynamic of blaming Mother Earth.


 

In a new essay, Intimate Conversation with Mother Earth, he writes: "Some of us resent you for giving birth to them, causing them to endure suffering, because they are not yet able to understand and appreciate you."


 

How mindfulness can reconnect people to Mother Earth


 

He points to increasing evidence that mindfulness can help people to reconnect by slowing down and appreciating all the gifts that the earth can offer.

"Many people suffer deeply and they do not know they suffer," he says. "They try to cover up the suffering by being busy. Many people get sick today because they get alienated from Mother Earth.

"The practice of mindfulness helps us to touch Mother Earth inside of the body and this practice can help heal people. So the healing of the people should go together with the healing of the Earth and this is the insight and it is possible for anyone to practice.


 

"This kind of enlightenment is very crucial to a collective awakening. In Buddhism we talk of meditation as an act of awakening, to be awake to the fact that the earth is in danger and living species are in danger."


 

Thay gives the example of something as simple and ordinary as drinking a cup of tea. This can help transform a person's life if he or she were truly to devote their attention to it.


 

"When I am mindful, I enjoy more my tea," says Thay as he pours himself a cup and slowly savours the first sip. "I am fully present in the here and now, not carried away by my sorrow, my fear, my projects, the past and the future. I am here available to life.


 

"When I drink tea this is a wonderful moment. You do not need a lot of power or fame or money to be happy. Mindfulness can help you to be happy in the here and now. Every moment can be a happy moment. Set an example and help people to do the same. Take a few minutes in order to experiment to see the truth."


 

Need to deal with ones own anger to be an effective social activist


 

Thay has over many years developed the notion of applied Buddhism underpinned by a set of ethical practices known as the five mindfulness trainings, which are very clear on the importance of tackling social injustice.


 

However, if social and environmental activists are to be effective, Thay says they must first deal with their own anger. Only if people discover compassion for themselves will they be able to confront those they hold accountable for polluting our seas and cutting down our forests.


 

"In Buddhism we speak of collective action," he says. "Sometimes something wrong is going on in the world and we think it is the other people who are doing it and we are not doing it.


 

"But you are part of the wrongdoing by the way you live your life. If you are able to understand that, not only you suffer but the other person suffers, that is also an insight.


 

"When you see the other person suffer you will not want to punish or blame but help that person to suffer less. If you are burdened with anger, fear, ignorance and you suffer too much, you cannot help another person. If you suffer less you are lighter more smiling, pleasant to be with, and in a position to help the person.


 

"Activists have to have a spiritual practice in order to help them to suffer less, to nourish the happiness and to handle the suffering so they will be effective in helping the world. With anger and frustration you cannot do much."


 

Touching the "ultimate dimension"


 

Key to Thay's teaching is the importance of understanding that while we need to live and operate in a dualistic world, it is also vital to understand that our peace and happiness lie in the recognition of the ultimate dimension: "If we are able to touch deeply the historical dimension - through a leaf, a flower, a pebble, a beam of light, a mountain, a river, a bird, or our own body - we touch at the same time the ultimate dimension. The ultimate dimension cannot be described as personal or impersonal, material or spiritual, object or subject of cognition - we say only that it is always shining, and shining on itself.


 

"Touching the ultimate dimension, we feel happy and comfortable, like the birds enjoying the blue sky, or the deer enjoying the green fields. We know that we do not have to look for the ultimate outside of ourselves - it is available within us, in this very moment."


 

While Thay believes there is a way of creating a more harmonious relationship between humanity and the planet, he also recognises that there is a very real risk that we will continue on our destructive path and that civilisation may collapse.


 

He says all we need to do is see how nature has responded to other species that have got out of control: "When the need to survive is replaced with greed and pride, there is violence, which always brings about unnecessary devastation.


 

"We have learned the lesson that when we perpetrate violence towards our own and other species, we are violent towards ourselves; and when we know how to protect all beings, we are protecting ourselves."


 

Remaining optimistic despite risk of impending catastrophe


 

In Greek mythology, when Pandora opened the gift of a box, all the evils were released into the world. The one remaining item was "hope".


 

Thay is clear that maintaining optimism is essential if we are to find a way of avoiding devastating climate change and the enormous social upheavals that will result.


 

However, he is not naïve and recognises that powerful forces are steadily pushing us further towards the edge of the precipice.


 

In his best-selling book on the environment, The World we Have, he writes: "We have constructed a system we can't control. It imposes itself on us, and we become its slaves and victims.


 

"We have created a society in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, and in which we are so caught up in our own immediate problems that we cannot afford to be aware of what is going on with the rest of the human family or our planet Earth.


 

"In my mind I see a group of chickens in a cage disputing over a few seeds of grain, unaware that in a few hours they will all be killed."

 




A Litany of Gratitude


 

Leader:

We live in all things

All things live in us
 

Response: We rejoice in all life.


 

Leader:

We live by the sun

We move with the stars 


 

Response: We rejoice in all life.


 

Leader:

We eat from the earth

We drink from the rain

We breathe from the air


 

Response: We rejoice in all life.


 

Leader: 

We share with the creatures

We have strength through their gifts 


 

Response: We rejoice in all life.


 

Leader:

We depend on the forests

We have knowledge through their secrets


 

Response: We rejoice in all life.


 

Leader:

We have the privilege of seeing and understanding 

We have the responsibility of caring 

We have the joy of celebrating 


 

Response: We rejoice in all life.


 

Leader:

We are full of the grace of creation

We are graceful

We are grateful


 

All: We rejoice in all life