Symbols

When I was learning reiki, symbols were a big part of what I learned. Their purpose is to help learn to connect with the energies involved in reiki. The person teaching me, though, said that some people (including him) don't use the symbols after a while. Once you become familiar with the energy and forming the specific intents, you don't need them anymore. They are a tool and nothing more.

It's the same with all symbols really. They help us connect to whatever it is we're trying to learn. They serve as a reminder. But like all tools after a while, they just become obsolete.

And yet... so many people cling to them like a lifeline they can't seem to let go of. I've had people actually tell me you can't use reiki without the symbols. Well, yes you can... I do it all the time!

I've never understood the need to place so much importance on symbols and rely on them so much. From my perspective, reliance on them once they've outlived their usefulness only serves to stunt ones spiritual growth.

To be honest... I have no idea where I'm going with this... just felt compelled to say it.

Can you give me a basic understanding of Reiki, I've never heard of it?

Not to be lazy, but typing on my phone is too difficult on this site for some reason. So I found this instead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiki

There is also this. The site of my teacher's teachers: http://www.threshold.ca/reiki/home.html

I agree with you, Naya. I think of words as symbols, and so they too can be a hindrance if rely on them too much.

Words and symbols distract use from what is at any given time, they are in the same boat as history and tradition and people sometimes mistakenly pay these things too much importance...

Ever meant to say something but when it's said it comes out wrong and people get offended? That is them paying too much importance to what you say rather than what you mean, similarly with symbols when the object becomes more important than its meaning...

I don't know. I love symbols. But I think it's from the artistic side of me. They alow me to express myself in ways that I couldn't otherwise to people that wouldn't understand me without it.

Personaly, I use symbols because I enjoy them. I understand they are NOT the energy, but the representation of that energy.

For others, the symbols help me share at a place that others understand. A common ground I guess.

But, I'm a highly visual person to begin with

Words are the sounds we use to express and represent meanings. Thus, one cannot get wet in the word 'water'. That, to me, is how I think words are symbols. Ever say a word over and over just for that word to lose its meaning because you suddenly forgot it? I did that a few times as a child and I spent minutes trying to figure it out again. lol

Words are the sounds we use to express and represent meanings. Thus, one cannot get wet in the word 'water'.

True...but water doesnt mean wet anyway... Though yes, you do get wet in water, but not exclusively water.

You cant get wet in the word wet, would be a better example.

Still, as a symbol, saying your wet really wouldnt lead to a misunderstanding, unless you were lying and dry.

Words, are pretty accurate in the meaning they contain, if your saying what you mean, and honestly want to communicate that meaning past only your own view of it.

More often than not, it seems more and more, people just ascribe any meaning they feel like to a word, and then blame the words, or the other individuals for a lack of understanding, either in the symbolism of the word, or peoples ability to understand it, and yet, if your not using to symbol to symbolize the meaning it contains, really, your just not attempting to communicate clearly with others.

Hence, if you say you are wet, I wouldnt really misunderstand unless you werent wet.

Symbols, any form of communication, will always unlock more than it binds, if ones goal is truly to communicate.

"People don't hear each other. We talk to each other, but very seldom do we ever communicate." — Charles Manson,

Yes, a word will never translate to the experience, but thats not what symbols are really used for.

While yes Reiki as a practice, for those advanced, may not need the symbols, it is a good way to communicate and transfer the practice to beginners, as with any teaching, your going to need some form of communication to convey the practice, and the reasoning behind it.

In regards to tools outliving there usefulness, well, I dont do away with my screwdrivers just because im not using them right this second.

Just as its good not to forget what you may wish to teach, and of course, you could argue that you will teach it differently, but more than likely it will rely on some form of communication, metaphor, and parables,symbols,etc, so why not use the ones you were given?

Like learning martial arts, my sensei does not forget the fundamentals of teaching and transmission just because he himself doesnt necessarily need it anymore.

Hence the martial arts spread, through ones ability to communicate through the symbolism used respective to it.

A kimura lock, is not the same as being in the armlock, or applying it, but to teach it, I will probably use the word in demonstration, as well as the physical movements( also a form of communication)

Just imagine if people were so blase with sign language, haha.

Of course, if one isnt planning on becoming a teacher, and doesnt plan to really go beyond themselves with there understanding, I suppose its irrelevant.

However, when asked what a basic Reiki understanding was, did you not give a wikipedia link, which more than likely possesses the symbolism, words,etc you claim you are beyond?

But are you not then reliant on it for communication, going back to it, etc?

As a tool, its not as obsolete as you think.

You can use Reiki without symbols perhaps...but can you communicate it?

If you cant communicate it, how long will it remain in use/useful?

Just some food for thought.

Ther is one symbol people can't do with out, at least easily......$

I am a reiki master and I agree with what you say, is like the radioestesista, initially using tools, pendulum, rods, etc..., but once it acquires experience and does not need to rely on those crutches to capture the signals coming from inside.

Why do they get the designation "crutches" exactly?

I could say you needing your body to receive the signals is a crutch then, or that Reiki is needed at all.

I mean, why not just heal all the sick, cure world hunger, etc.

Crutches can provide mobility for someone who previously had none.

Much like a walker can help an older person.

Is this a limitation? Something to criticize?

Well see how you feel about it when your older

One day, a support system, such as a crutch or a walker, will be what frees you.

I suppose thats symbolic....or ironic....huh.

You use what you need when you need to use it and when you don't need it you don't use it. Energy work is feeling and visualizing. Sometimes you need a some help to focus. As you become more sensitive, relaxed and focused the better you can feel. It takes time and practice.

Okay I'm going to do this the easy way. I'm on my phone again so there's no way I'm using the browser to type this all up so I'm not quoting...

Akkarin... Yes, I've had that happen before where people have mistaken what I've said. People often hear what they want to hear. And often people will twist your words to try and use against you...but yes, people have a tendency to become too attached to words and symbols.

Kamizu... I think symbols are a wonderful thing too. I'm a very visual person as well. I wasn't suggesting that there was anything wrong with symbols or their use. Just that some people get so hung up on the need for them that they end up relying on them too much or becoming so attached to their use that they don't believe they can work without them.

In the case of reiki I knew someone who was told she could not do reiki without the symbols at all. She hadn't performed reiki in so long she had forgotten the symbols. So I told her she no longer needed them. I asked her to think of the power symbol and how it felt when she drew it. So she did and suddenly it was there. She didn't need the symbol after all. Once you're familiar with the energy they become obsolete. The symbols are just a tool to help you become familiar with the energy. And yet she believed she needed them or she could not do reiki at all. That's a hindrance to growth.

Luthien... Lol yes, we actually did that as an exercise when I was learning shamanism. He was trying to show us how words and symbols lose their meaning from overuse and how our minds can become "numb" from their overuse as well.

Khaos... I never said the symbols were not useful, just that they were no longer useful to me. As in, I no longer need them to perform reiki. However, if I was teaching reiki to someone, of course I would teach them the symbols. I would not, however, give them the impression that they would always need to use them. I would tell them that the symbols are a learning tool and that one day they too would no longer need them as they do when they're learning.

As far as a screwdriver being thrown away if not being used. Well just because it's not being used doesn't render it obsolete. So why would you throw it away? You might need it again. However if you got an electric screwdriver with all kinds of nifty attachments, suddenly that other little screwdriver isn't as useful as it once was.

Symbols are just tools. Good and useful tools for when they are needed, but sometime people become overly reliant on their use. When that happens, it becomes a hindrance to one's growth, as I explained earlier with the woman who thought she couldn't do reiki at all without the symbols. Her belief in the need for those symbols created an obstacle for her that didn't need to be there.

Again, I never said those symbols were not a useful teaching tool. I've just seen too many people become so hung up on their use that they literally believe reiki can not be performed without them, which is not true. And it's not just with reiki. People get hung up on symbols everywhere. To the point where they will kill or hurt someone over a symbol. Or become offended because of a symbol. That kind of attachment and dependence on symbols can be harmful and dangerous.

To refer to something as a crutch means that someone has become so dependent on something that they can no longer function without it. Or at least they believe they can't. It began as an expression, I believe, due to people who are on crutches for an extended period of time who are then afraid to come off of them because they have come to rely on them so much. They develop an unhealthy dependency.

In the case of using the symbols as a crutch in reiki, it's just suggesting that people become so reliant on them that they believe they can't do reiki without them. That's all that means. It has nothing to do with someone actually needing crutches.

And I suppose I should also point out that reiki does not work in that way. It helps to reinforce someone's natural immune system, but unless that person is taking care of themselves in other ways as well, it would be pretty useless for that person to bother with a reiki treatment at all. I've seen reiki do some pretty amazing things, but it's not a miracle cure for everything. If life were that simple people wouldn't learn anything.

I don't know about symbols in Reiki, but I do know a fair bit about semiotics, which is the study of signs and sign systems. I can post about semiotics and symbology if you guys would find that relevant to Reiki, since there's actually a lot to say cognitively about how symbols are developed.

I've been having fun lately going through the Chinese (Mandarin) language, associating them as pictograms to concepts of Taoism and the Force. I usually do not like pictogram's so much and prefer to see symbols more as relevant geometric constructs, which speak to some order in a relationship of values. For something like energy healing I'd love them to represent energetic tools in that way, designed to focus energy in a particular fashion to engineer an energetic response. If that was the case then not needing them anymore could indicate less not using of them, but more using them so dynamically that they no longer rest in any one form long enough - instead changing dynamically as they work.

Archaic Smile wrote: I don't know about symbols in Reiki, but I do know a fair bit about semiotics, which is the study of signs and sign systems. I can post about semiotics and symbology if you guys would find that relevant to Reiki, since there's actually a lot to say cognitively about how symbols are developed.

Absolutely!

Adder wrote: I've been having fun lately going through the Chinese (Mandarin) language, associating them as pictograms to concepts of Taoism and the Force. I usually do not like pictogram's so much and prefer to see symbols more as relevant geometric constructs, which speak to some order in a relationship of values. For something like energy healing I'd love them to represent energetic tools in that way, designed to focus energy in a particular fashion to engineer an energetic response. If that was the case then not needing them anymore could indicate less not using of them, but more using them so dynamically that they no longer rest in any one form long enough - instead changing dynamically as they work.

I guess it might be more politically correct to say that the symbol becomes more a part of me rather than saying I no longer use it. The way it works in reiki is generally you draw the symbol on your hand and it starts the flow of the energy. Once you reach a point where you recognize how to start the flow without drawing the symbol, you just stop drawing the symbol.

Naya wrote:

Archaic Smile wrote: I don't know about symbols in Reiki, but I do know a fair bit about semiotics, which is the study of signs and sign systems. I can post about semiotics and symbology if you guys would find that relevant to Reiki, since there's actually a lot to say cognitively about how symbols are developed.

Absolutely!

Okay. This weekend I'll type some stuff up for you. I hope that you all will find it useful. I personally find semiotics to be fascinating.