The Anatomy Of Peace: Mind, Body And Soul

This article was carried by news portal newswithchai on March 26, 2015.

The Anatomy Of Peace: Mind, Body And Soul ~ Hariharan Iyer

POSTED BY NEWS WITH CHAI - MARCH 26, 2015 ⋅

The body, with which we identify so deeply, is actually a solidified form of energy, which we have mistaken to be matter. It is matter alright, but it’s form has manifested from formless energy. Just as a potter can give any shape to his clay, energy can attain any kind of shape. The beginning of understanding lies in the appreciation of energy as the essence of existence and not matter.

A human being goes through many small life changing events. Yes, there are major experiences that change your life forever in some way. But truth is it is the series of small experiences that keep impacting your life continuously. I have felt this deeply over the years as I keep going from one life changing experience to another.

Having said this, what brought about an institutionalised change in my life was the First Degree Reiki Seminar I attended in December 1993. That day something dramatic happened – I got introduced to myself. I was just 24 years old and had been meditating for the past four years, thanks to the shaktipat dikshaI received from my Guruji Dada Nakhate. While Dadaji’s divine touch at the center in between the eyebrows, much like the Guru-Shishya initiation parampara, was all grace, the Reiki training on that day was grace, science, introspection and inner opening – a package deal. I believe it is because of my Guru’s grace that I came into Reiki and life has never been the same again.

Reiki taught me two critical things that day: 1. I am responsible for my life and everything that happens in it and 2. My physical sickness was a result of my emotional and mental processes. This understanding was a massive opening as it unleashed in me a healing power I am enthralling in ever since. I was a sick child and till that day suffered from problems like weak digestion, nose bleeding and poor stamina. Reiki taught me that I was basically `sick` – in my thoughts and in my feelings.

In many ways what I learnt that day and teach now as a Reiki Grandmaster is common sense. The whole understanding emerged from a simple awareness that happy feelings create a healthy mind and body, and unhappiness creates an irritable mind and body. But simple as it may seem, it is difficult to accept this phenomenon. This emerges from a lack of holistic orientation in life.

The body, with which we identify so deeply, is actually a solidified form of energy, which we have mistaken to be matter. It is matter alright, but it’s form has manifested from formless energy. Just as a potter can give any shape to his clay, energy can attain any kind of shape. The beginning of understanding lies in the appreciation of energy as the essence of existence and not matter.

That day during the Reiki First Degree Seminar I acquired the quintessential understanding that emotions and physical well being have a deep connection. In fact, it may stun you to know that the visible body is an inept entity. Its harmonious functioning is purely dependent on the invisible forces of emotions and thoughts. This is contrary to what is normally understood – that the body is an independent entity in itself and sickness and health are factors which are caused by chance or are connected to nature’s whims.

While this may seem true given the strong tangibility of the physical, it rebels against the fundamental principle of inter-connectivity in nature. Everything in this universe is connected by an invisible but not unfelt thread, which binds people, objects, dynamics and perspectives in a manner both perplexing as well as wondrous. To think that the body, mind, emotions and spirit are disjointed independent entities co-existing in a single person smack of an understanding disorder which is creating havoc in the lives of people globally.

A holistic approach, rather than threatening you with an abstract existentiality, actually empowers you to take charge of your life and health. What could be more empowering to know that what you feel, what you think, how you behave can have a direct impact on your physical energies? Acceptance or realisation of this understanding helps you to take charge and do what is entirely in your control – change yourself. What could be more un-empowering than to believe that things happen by chance in your life, that you are a slave at the hands of `luck`?

Spiritual sciences like Reiki – yes, spirituality is the mother of science and it is not obligated to prove its worthiness to its child by proving its efficacy as a science, though a scientific approach to spirituality does help build greater connection with the real essence of life – explore the inner dimension of a human personality through both technique and satsangs,or put simply discussions and arguments. While there might exist a whole body of research on the mind-body connection, we can do this at our level and within ourselves everyday. All we need to do for that is, observe ourselves – our thoughts, our emotions and our behavior.

We are our own best teachers, provided we are ready to be good students of life. In the Reiki system we learn about the inner reasons for both common diseases like cold, cough, etc, as well as the life threatening ones. When we are armed with the understanding that cough is a result of lack of expression and headache is a function of intellectual conflict – just to take couple of simple examples – we can rise above our limitations and act on the inner weaknesses rather than hope for external solutions which are largely dependent upon somebody else’s intelligence, interpretation and knowledge.

In the Reiki Level 1 course, we help students analyse a range of diseases which can potentially offer sustainable solutions to long standing physical-mental-emotional issues and open up long-held blocks. Essentially, the whole discussion about the anatomy of peace is about who we are from the inside. The `outside` is an illusion, simply because we all are present even physically within the universe which is just ONE large entity without a beginning and an end. So everything is really within and `without` is just an imagination we can actually do without. So peace needs to be released from the clutches of both pieces of understanding as well as piecemeal understanding. A holistic approach to life is both empowering and enchanting. Let us weave in the pieces together to form a whole rather than get stuck with the parts which just appear to be the whole.

Article Contributed By: Hariharan Iyer, who lives in Mumbai, is an Inspirational Speaker, Corporate Trainer, Author and Reiki Grandmaster. He is practicing meditation for over 25 years and Reiki for over 21 years. You can get more details of his work from his website www.lifetransformation.in. You can write to him onlifetransformation69@gmail.com.

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