Value of attending events with experienced teachers

I have recently come to deepen my understanding of the benefits of attending group events with people who have experience of doing energy work for a good few years.

I attended the talk that Thich Nhat Hanh (also known as Thay) gave in London in August 2010. I am quite embarrassed to admit that I dozed through most of the talk. I was quite disappointed with myself to begin with as I had been really looking forward to go and listen to him, learn from him for months. Since attending the talk I have had some very interesting experiences. There has been a strand of Thay’s teachings running through these experiences. This makes me strongly believe that I have had these experiences due to the inner shifts that happened when I went to see him. Even though I was sleeping through most of his talk and I was not aware of listening to his words with my mind, I am convinced that his teachings were being absorbed at an inner energetic level within my whole being. You can read about the recent experiences that I am referring to on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ReikiwithMamta in the post Reiki Precept: Just for today, do not anger, and in the post suffering.

I am a student of Reiki, Usui Shiki Ryoho. I practise Reiki in the oral tradition. I have found listening to Phyllis Lei Furumoto’s (lineage bearer for Reiki, Usui Shiki Ryoho) webcasts on this topic very rewarding to deepen my understanding of this concept. She did a series of talks on this topic in February 2010. These talks are archived on and are still available on http://www.reikitalkshow.com/. The first interview with Phil Morgan in this series is really special.

It was really helpful to remind myself of what I had learnt about oral tradition. This enabled me to understand and appreciate what I had experienced by going to the talk with Thay. I found it quite comforting to remember that even if I was asleep, my body, my whole being was still listening and absorbing his teachings that were not merely being given through words but energetically as well. Maybe I needed to be asleep to get the conscious mind out of the way so that I could absorb his teachings at an inner level!

This is not the first time that I have had this experience of sleeping through a workshop with an experienced Master. I remember sitting through a session with Phyllis Furumoto in Birmingham last year, but not being able to take in a single word. I also remember sleeping through a talk with Wanja Twan, my Reiki great grandmother, a few years ago in Wales. I had wondered about these experiences after listening to the talk on oral tradition with Phil Morgan and Phyllis Furumoto. Now I feel that the universe has helped me find the answer to this question through my recent experiences. I feel that all these inner shifts that I have been experiencing are due to the cumulative benefits of all the work that I have been doing over the years. In fact this is the ethos of Reiki. We cannot receive all the gains from our practice in one day, but we receive them gradually over time as we continue to practise.

I had heard about group energy being exponentially more powerful than just a sum of all the individual energies attending an event. I am finally coming round to understanding what these words might mean. I feel that there is a wonderful synergy in group energy.

Now I attend an event with an open mind, looking forward to all the shifts that will unfold within me over time, liberated from the worry of having to remember what I have heard at the event or what I may have missed or what I may forget afterwards, comforted by the knowledge that I am absorbing the teachings with my whole being not just with my mind and by the thought that what I take away with me from attending an event is what I have absorbed at the innermost level.

You can also learn about the concept of oral tradition, and Usui Shiki Ryoho, the form of Reiki that I practise, on Phyllis Lei Furumoto’s website http://www.usuishikiryohoreiki.com/usui-shiki-ryoho.

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