What would happen if you discovered that our planet has cancer? Diabetes? Heart disease? Constipation? High blood pressure? AIDS? Depression?
This topic can be an empowering workshop if you have the opportunity to share this topic with friends, colleagues or students in your community. The whole group brainstorms questions such as: What is the nature of this disease? What is its symbolic meaning? How can we treat it? How can it be prevented?
Organize into groups of three to six people for discussion. Each group selects a disease for analysis and answers the questions as effectively as possible. Afterwards, the entire group meets again to share their findings. Finally, reflect on how these issues inform us about how we should take care of our personal health.
In response to the above questions during a recent course on sustainable development in Thailand, participants brought up several profound practices designed to heal our planet. Their suggestions included harnessing indigenous wisdom, rejuvenating nature, establishing a new value system in family and community, practicing permaculture and sustainable resource use, learning from the elders, celebrating the positive, controlling greed, and creating aware of all these issues. It was a truly inspiring learning session between participants from China, Indonesia, Great Britain and a dozen other countries. We concluded that in addition to practicing mindfulness, we also needed to understand the concept of “planetary“We are the mind, the consciousness of this planet, embodied.
Planetary Responsibilities
Is there a limit to healing? My articles present a concept of healing that encompasses the full scope of personal transformation. These pages have been dedicated to healing oneself and others. The culmination of this process points towards planetary healing. This suggests using all aspects of existence as a tool to nurture the planet. The question of healing is no longer limited to the healing of the individual self, but expands to the healing of life as a whole.
Consider the following questions and how to transform yourself on a personal or planetary level. Choose a particular situation in which you are involved and make it the topic of today’s reflection. You may choose to raise these questions in your own written meditations or suggest them in your community meetings or seminars.
- To what extent does this behavior benefit humanity?
- Does this activity nourish or harm the environment?
- Do I actively create the world in which I pretend to be a victim mother?
Discuss these topics with your community and see what ideas come up. Another process you can lead with your Reiki or spiritual community is to collectively send energy to a person with serious health problems or to troublesome places in the world, such as earthquake zones or regions experiencing civil unrest. Sit together in a circle and hold hands if you wish. If it helps, place a photo or news article in the middle of your circle as a reference point to focus your group’s attention. All members visualize the recipient or problem area and send distant healing simultaneously. Visualize the three Reiki symbols as described above and send them just as you would send distance healing to a person.
Another way to extend the scope of Reiki healing is to take your healing community outdoors to perform planetary healings. Group members place their hands on trees, stones, or water to represent the entire earth. If the weather doesn’t allow you to sit outside, perform the same ritual using a houseplant as a proxy for the earth. Visualize Reiki healing the earth in all directions.
You are the universe, so the practice of healing the universe is the logical extension of self-healing.
