How do we arrive at the right frame of mind for receiving teachings? What starts to happen when we do? When are we on the path and have started to have trust and faith in the teachings, the practice and teacher? This is where receptiveness is important. This receptiveness is no ordinary receptiveness, it requires surrender, faith. Surrender so we can let go of our preconceived ideas, fears, worry, anger, and even expectations. Meaning totally open. With expectations we have a closed mind. With a closed mind even though we can ask questions, listen to teachings, read books, the teachings cannot penetrate our heart-mind. How can they? We are closed.
This openness, receptiveness, surrender is the start of finding our true way and being. Which is hidden in the precept be honest. What does this receptivity and honesty means? And how does it relates to receive teachings. How is it the start of being true to our way and being? I look at it as a womb-like receiving. When a female receives, at that very moment it becomes part of her. Just as the child is received, it’s not foreign or alien. It is part of her being and she nourishes it. It has been absorbed. Nothing is added on. It’s part of the feminine body. Now, the female is a creator and slowly the child grows within.
Similarly, when a student receives a teaching, seeds of the teachings, which at the moment are knowledge start to grow within, like in a womb. They are not be received as dead knowledge, but as womb-like receptiveness so that they now become part of us, our own being. Slowly the teachings will sprout as our own wisdom, because they are now absorbed in our being. This growth will bring transformation in us, which is really the beginning of being true to our way and our being.
The many times we go to retreats and classes, we may think now we have added something. We start to get this notion that now I am special. Or I haven’t received what I wanted. All these thoughts and ideas create a barrier to being open. We think that the teachings are external and then added onto our being. But that’s not how we can have true growth so we can stand with our own strength! We have to absorb the teachings in our being so they are part of us, without separation. Only then will they grow inside us, only then will they reveal our truth. They are not a carbon copy of our teacher. They not just regurgitating something that we ate.
We also have to give nourishment to the teachings. How we do it? We do it by practicing the tools in system of Reiki, by meditating on precepts, symbols and mantras, receiving and giving reiju, hands on healing, which really means doing practice on and off the cushion. Without practice the teachings become dead. Dead knowledge and nothing more, even if we read books, attend classes, go to retreats. To grow, practice is the only way.
I have used the example of female receptivity, but that doesn’t mean this is a quality just for female students. Let’s see how. We know that not everything is completely masculine or feminine. Teaching not only comes in words, it often comes in silence, often known as merging of minds. We must have seen some pictures of Shiva depicted as Ardhanarishwar, half man, half woman. Shakti is feminine half. A student becomes the other half of the teacher and merging evolves. When there is a merging of minds, the student simply absorbs; there is no fear, doubt, worry, but surrender and trust is there. Compassion is there. Faith is there. It is mind-to-mind merging and not mind to mind talk. It now becomes communion. No words are needed in this space and teachings start to grow within the silence. Our thinking mind starts to cease. There is no fear, worry, judgment, labels from either side.
A student becomes completely honest and intimate, to themselves and the teaching. There is no past, no present, and no future; only the moment becomes everything. And the teachings become the truth of the student and the student start to become true to their way and their being by being completely honest to themselves. This means that each and every student is different and unique, because we all receive, create and grow differently. It also means that each and every one of us is at different points on our paths. And it also means that traditional teachings are for bringing our own truth out and not someone else’s.
Off course it is not an easy thing to do. For this trust, honesty, compassion and faith is required from both teacher and student, which can take many years, and this is why it is a traditional spiritual practice.
This is another one my musings so if you agree or get something out of it, great. If not, they are just the musings of a confused mind. And off course please feel free to share your thoughts.
Photos by Polly Guimaraes, Brazil.