Re-visiting Japan in my mind

I’ve been reflecting again upon my journey to Japan over the past year and climbing Mount Karama while there. I had an interesting insight and recently I shared it with the Reiki Master group that is just beginning their journey. I thought I would briefly share it here too.

This path up the mountain to the temple has lots of stairs! And there are many shrines and sites along the path upward to offer your gratitude and gifts as symbols of your requests, inspirations and dedication to your spiritual path. Further up the mountain, there is the bell, a big one, that when you ring it, the sound echoes out over the mountain, speaking to the other surrounding mountain.

We reached the temple around noon hour and after touring the temple, the model of the universe in the basement of the temple and crawling under the buddha shrine to hold the rope that connects us to the infinite universe, we stopped for lunch. While eating lunch, most of us ‘played’ on the sacred geometry outside the temple in the embedded stonework and surrounding rocks which carry incredible vibrational energy.

What is interesting as I look back is that most of the tourists and pilgrims went to the temple and visited the temple and what was offered there and then went back down. For Reiki practitioners, however, the climb to the place where it is believed that Usui had his enlightenment experience, still was to be continued. And so we climbed more.

This time, there were no steps. Just the trodden path in the dirt and roots of the ancient trees. Some of the trees were over 800 years old. We got to the place where it was believed he had his enlightenment and it is a place of soil and exposed roots from trees.  Indeed, one had to be mindful in the path they walked. Nothing fancy. No Temple. No shrine. Just trees and mountain.

Close by was a wooden shack type of covering with some basic wooden benches. Here we lit incense, did Reiki and Sensei Inamoto offered us Reiju. A simple place in nature and we meditated. Very few people journeyed this path past the temple. Mostly Reiki practitioners and a few others who maybe wanted a more rustic experience.

We then travelled down the ‘back’ of the mountain through the trees and rocks again, though a trodden path, no concrete stairs.

It made me think how often we confuse ourselves about where and when ‘enlightenment’ is to happen. How often do we get caught in the trappings of decor and ritual, when perhaps it’s the simple place in Nature with pure mind, heart and deep listening and awareness (meditation) that the real experience of enlightenment happens.

It makes me think about Reiki methods of spiritual awakening. It is simple and yet with practice, provides profound results. It’s not complicated or fancy. Kind of like its birth place. However, like Nature, the relationship with Reiki and its healing effects can be as awesome and simple as we experience life in Nature.