The Reiki Cafe 

I did a search on this, but there were hundreds of hits, none up front to answere the question.

Does reiki use breathing in it's practice?
Is there special breathing involved, or attention to one's breathing?

Try "kokyo-ho" as a keyword. Interesting commonality with Aikido as well. Not all lineages include these techniques - mine didn't, but teacher emphasized important of breathing free.

Blessings,
Aronaya

Beautiful day to you, swarm. What is not to be enhanced by good breathing.....hmmmm???

ponderings said on

>What is not to be enhanced by good breathing.....hmmmm???

But that doesn't address the question of whether it's taught in reiki. For one example of breath training, the internal martial arts teach a method of "reverse breathing" that augments the power of martial applications. For another example, the Quantum Touch healing method uses specific breathing patterns (time ratios of inhalation to exhalation) to boost the level of energy that flows through the practitioner. So far as I know, the reiki systems don't include such training.

Bruce

Bruce, I believe they originally did -- see keyword "kokyo-ho". And this may continue to be taught in the re-discovered Japanese lineages, though I'm not up on any details.

There were some elements of breath work in my Reiki lineage, but not as a practice all by itself.

Blessings,
Aronaya

aronaya said on

>Bruce, I believe they originally did -- see keyword "kokyo-ho".

It's possible. In searching on "kokyo ho" and "kokyu ho" on this site, I see a couple of references, not very detailed. (Thanks for the keyword tip.) James said that Takata's diaries reference it. But I don't personally know anyone who was taught it as part of reiki practice. If it were/was part of the system originally, I wonder why it's been dropped out of most lineages.

And this may continue to be taught in the re-discovered Japanese lineages, though I'm not up on any details.
>

That's the problem -- without any details, we really don't know anything about it.

>There were some elements of breath work in my Reiki lineage, but not as a practice all by itself.
>

Can you describe the breath work that you were taught in your reiki training?

Bruce

Maybe can find more by looking into Gakkai or Gendai Reiki-Ho, or Hiroshi Doi. Frank Arjava Petter may have written about it as well.

My experience of kokyo-ho was in Aikido. Breath was key but we were only taught the physical movements at the beginning levels. See the videos on your keyword search.

Can't specifically describe the breathing approach in my lineage, as it's part of the teaching and would be unwise to take out of context. However, I will make a post for an independent reference in Resources.

A Chinese man told me once that "chi" (ki) translates as "air" (or breath).

Best way to explore this topic: breathe. An exercise I am trying to rediscover, that I could easily do as a child: focus my whole awareness on the act of breathing, while at the same time letting the body breathe naturally, without the brain trying to force any particular pattern.

My feeling is, that I must recapture that feeling, of letting my body breathe, in full awareness, before I attempt to do any more sophisticated techniques.

In older times, the student would have practiced such a simple beginning exercise for months, years even, before the teacher would introduce new material. Here in the West, we want to jump ahead to the fancy razzle-dazzle, before we master the basics. Predictable results, or lack thereof, ensue.

My Reiki Master had two posters on her wall. One said, "Breathe, my dear", and the other "Breathe -- you are alive!".

Nevertheless, breath is still a mystery to me.

Blessings,
Aronaya

aronaya said on

>
>Can't specifically describe the breathing approach in my lineage, as it's part of the teaching and would be unwise to take out of context. However, I will make a post for an independent reference in Resources.
>

Okay, they're add-ons. Thanks for your clarification in the Resources post.

>A Chinese man told me once that "chi" (ki) translates as "air" (or breath).
>

Yes, it CAN mean air or breath. It can also mean other things. E.g., a friend told me that when she was very young, whenever she was angry, her parents told her "Ni de qi hen re." ("Your ch'i is very hot.")

Is the qi in the meridians the same thing as "air?" Doubtful.

And if you're saying that rei ki means "spirit air," well, I think there are probably better translations.

Anyway. Thanks, again.

Bruce

I was never taught anything about breathing, but now I'm thinking about it, the attunement process involves certain breathing practices, so it is possible that reiki used to have breathing exercises and they have simply fallen out of use.

A funny thing happened to me recently. While I was giving reiki to a client she said "Is it not going well? - You seem to be sighing a lot,". And I said "No, it's going fine! Sighing? I wasn't sighing, was I?" It turned out I was, and I hadn't even noticed. I told her that doing reiki always makes me feel very relaxed, so quite naturally, I feel like breathing more deeply. It has the same kind of effect on you as meditation does.

Nelys.

Hi,

Namaste,

The Hatsurei-ho meditation that Dr Usui taught his students to enhance the flow of Reiki certainly uses an awareness of breathing. You might find it interesting to read, I'll put a link on the resources board for anyone that is interested :)

Helen