The authors discuss the religious spiritual healing practice Reiki, revealing components of it that help transform the message held by the alleged life-force called reiki energy into meaning expressed in efficacy for the recipient's body, mind and spirit. Components that are analyzed include but are not limited to, touch, symbols, initiation, and precepts. The practitioner's surrender to a combination of internal and external authority - with reiki energy being part of that - is a crux in Reiki practice and one means with which practitioners speak of beneficial effect. This work contributes to academic knowledge about how practicing a religious or spiritual practice may contribute to one's well-being and flourishing life. Moreover, it explores the question of the nature of Reiki in academic definitions of religion.

This dissertation is a study of kenosis spirituality aimed at determining how the spiritual formation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) can be effectively infused with a more profound and genuine understanding of kenosis spirituality. Employing a communication-oriented method involving three interconnected and progressive steps, namely, an analysis of syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and concentrating on the role of the text-immanent reader, this study conducts an in-depth textual analysis of five key texts. These have been chosen from the Bible, the Eastern and the Western monastic traditions, the early writings of the CMI, and the Indian Christian Ashram to ascertain a deeper understanding of kenosis spirituality. The study subsequently considers how to introduce insights regarding kenosis into the CMI's spiritual formation. Pratheesh Michael Pulickal, from Kerala, India, a Catholic priest of the Syro-Malabar rite, belongs to the CMI Congregation.

This study analyzes ritual and domestic water use in a rural and an urban community in West Java, Indonesia. This is an area where water quantity and quality is a problem. The focus is on people who live at the edge of Citarum River, one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Most people there are Muslim. What is the relation between people's perceptions of pollution (of Upper Citarum River) and purification (in Islamic teaching) and their practices of water use. It studies the perceptions of pollution and purification of Sundanese Muslims in West Java and the effects of those perceptions on practices of domestic and ritual water use. Making a discourse analysis of local narratives the study argues that most people don't see pollution as problematic. For them it has become normal. They make a distinction between clean water (in medical sense) and pure water (in ritual sense).

The world of Buddhism has always been a dynamic one. There are endless developments and interactions as the dharma spread throughout Asia. In more recent times Buddhism has even made a more global appeal, dharma centers are everywhere nowadays. Transforming Buddhism presents a number of casestudies of a group of scholars who each of them focus on the ways how Buddhism transforms and is transformed, both in the past and in modernity. The book presents results of research performed in Asia for instance on women in the Buddhist monastic tradition of Thailand, foreigners living in the harsh conditions of specific Thai Theravāda monasteries, and childmonks in Tibet. Other subjects are developments within Japanese Zen Buddhism in interaction with modern western philosophy and the Japanese Buddhism incited by Kōbō Daishi (774-835). Next there is the inspiration for modernity that can be found in the works of the Korean monk Chinul (1158-1210), and themes in Buddhist life-histories, legendary, historical and personal. As such Transforming Buddhism gives a broad view on a number of transformations of the Buddhist dharma from various perspectives.

This book discusses Ravanisation: the revitalisation of Ravana among Sinhalese Buddhists in post-war (after 2009) Sri Lanka. The Hindu Ramayana generally portrays Ravana as a cruel king. How and why, then, has Ravana gained the interest of Sinhalese Buddhists? This study takes an ethnographic perspective to answer these questions. The book discusses multiple Ravana representations that have emerged at an urban Buddhist site (the Sri Devram Maha Viharaya) and a rural site (Lakegala), and discloses how Ravanisation relates to Sinhalese Buddhist ethno-nationalism. In addition, the material, ritual, and spatial perspectives offer unique insights in the personal and local relevance of Ravana.

The poet-saint Raskh?n lived in the 16th/17th century C.E. Story has it he was born as a Muslim, but later converted to Krishnaism. This conversion took place because at first he was infatuated by a young boy, but later on transformed his love to a mystical devotion to the young cowherd god Krishna. Due to this conversion his mystical poems have a particular place in the bhakti cult of Northern-India. Raskh?n's songs rank among the finest of Krishna poetry in Brajbh???, the language the young god Krishna is supposed to have spoken when he lived on earth. It is the language of the pilgrimage site of Brindavan in Northern-India. Raskh?n's songs are on the lips of many devotees up to the present day. Paul van der Velde is professor of Asian Religions, Sanskrit and Hindi at the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He stayed long periods in the village of Brindavan and did research there on the devotional cult on Krishna and R?dh? and the Brajbh??? language.

An Ethnographic Account of Reiki Practice in Britain is the result of 14 months of ethnographic research. This study, while filling a gap in the qualitative literature on Reiki practice, contributes an ethnographic portrayal of a particular group’s construction of well-being. Contributing to medical anthropology, the research findings demonstrate culturally situated ideas and practices related to health wherein the intersubjective nature of healing is a constitutive element for well-being. The distinctions of this are specific to culture and environment, broadening how spirituality and well-being are conceptualized anthropologically. In addition, this book offers a framework for the commoditization of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), a process where products become a simple commodity. For Reiki practice, this results in spirituality being out of place in the healthcare market. The book will be of interest to academics interested in CAM research and Reiki practitioners alike.

Krishna Reiki

Enjoy the journey of Usui Shiki Ryoho (Usui System of Reiki) led by a traditional Reiki Master as she takes you through her 20+ years of real-world experience to support new students and enrich the lives of existing practitioners. Gain a deeper understanding of Reiki Natural Healing Learn why doctors, nurses and health insurance companies are embracing Reiki across America and around the world See how Reiki goes beyond an amazing healing modality and benefits all aspects of life, including finances, career and overall health and happiness Read dozens of real case studies where people have experienced healing with Reiki, from emotional pain to broken bones, diabetes to cancer and much more. Shalandra Abbey discovered a simple way to heal herself and other people through Reiki in 1988. She left the IBM Corporation in Coral Gables, Florida in 1990 and moved to Kauai, Hawaii to live the life of a fulltime Reiki Master. Since that time she has been a member of The Reiki Alliance-an international, professional organization of Reiki Masters. Her classes are approved for continuing education credit by the Hawaii and Arkansas Nurses Association and the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. She is a guest speaker for various organizations and has appeared on several radio and TV shows. Shalandra provides hands-on and distant treatments and trainings in Hawaii, on the mainland and internationally. As she travels she is in contact with hospice, hospitals, clinics, business groups, churches, etc. to assist them in establishing Reiki programs in their areas. She currently resides on the island of Maui, Hawaii. Ms. Abbey can be reached through her website: www.ReikiHawaii.com

Walter Lubeck describes in a clear concise fashion a method of treatment which--irrespective of all challenges, obstacles or legal restrictions--offers therapeutic possibilities in the face of the challenges confronting naturopathy and empirical medicine today. This book will help to broaden the knowledge thus gained and provide more insight into Reiki so that it may be applied with greater ease and care. This book is especially commendable as it establishes connections between Reiki and biological medicine by pointing out combinations possible with herbal extracts, homeopathiic preparations, Schussler salts, and the spagyric remedies which have been rediscovered. The combined action of Reiki energy and natural medicinal substances, some of which have been known from time immemorial, speed up and improve the therapeutic effect to a considerable degree.