Positive Health Online

General

I was very impressed by this book, which has clearly been very well researched. It is easy to read and would be highly appropriate to either the Reiki student or the individual who knows nothing about Reiki but who has the desire to learn more outside of a classroom situation.

This book is divided into easy to read chapters, and could be dipped into if the reader only has short spurts of time available.

Steve Gooch starts out by explaining Reiki and the Attunement process and what they both are. He then spends a number of chapters attempting to make sense of the history of the Reiki Jin Kei Do branch of Reiki, starting from Mikao Usui through to his Reiki Masters, Gordon and Dorothy Bell by way of Churijo Hayashi, Sensei Takeuchi, Seiji Takamori and  Ranga Premaratna. Gooch attempts to make sense of the many histories that abound relating to Dr Usui.  After discussing the history of RKJD, the author discusses the spiritual aspects of Reiki and how this can bring peace to our lives through changing our thought processes (mindfulness).

Spiritual Reiki

What I liked so much about this book was the emphasis Steve Gooch put on the goals of Reiki. He dwells not just on the therapeutic aspect of Reiki, but quite rightly emphasizes that wisdom and compassion are the true goals of practising Reiki which will lead us to freedom and liberation from attachment, desire and suffering. I particularly liked the simile he chose when talking about attachment. He states…”as we loosen the bindings of attachment and hold everything with an ‘open palm rather than a closed fist’, we help to reduce the suffering in our lives that is a consequence of our former strong attachment to things, ideas and people.”

He emphasizes that the core tenets to Reiki are the Reiki Principals or tenets (that came via Dr Usui), and that living by them is an extremely difficult but necessary process for our own spiritual development.  It is only through applying these Reiki principles to everyday life that we become peaceful to our core. Ranga Premaratna talks about meditation, the cornerstone of RKJD, when he states “that we begin to become aware of our own negative mental processes and the root cause of these negative emotions. Through this understanding combined with the practice of meditation our minds become purer. With that purity our minds become more compassionate towards ourselves and others.”

Steve Gooch talks about Buddho EnerSense a form of meditation that was handed down from the Buddha, and he postulates Usui may have found this information from texts he read and used it to fashion his Reiki system of healing. This meditation system is central to RKJD and in their method of training is applied alongside study of the Reiki system of healing and development.

Therapeutic Reiki

In the last part of the book the author discusses the application of Reiki to others as well as using it for our own self-treatment.  He discusses the different ways to effect this; present, distant or absent healing and how this works, discussing research undertaken by American scientists on this particular aspect of healing. Gooch also goes into the ramifications of intuitive healing.

Conclusion:

Although the reader may have no knowledge or necessity to know about the RKJD method of healing or the Buddho EnerSense meditation system, I would very much recommend this book to those who feel drawn to read more about Reiki. It is well thought out, well executed and most important of all, easy to understand.

Further Information

This title is available from www.o-books.com and www.amazon.co.uk

This book can be ordered from the Positive Health bookstore. Please click the Bookshop image at the top of the column to your right, then click on Reiki.