I recently received an email from a reader in Semarang. This reader is a practitioner of Reiki, the healing technique of energy channeling originated in Japan, and says he has had some positive results from the practice.

He expresses his appreciation for my yoga column, but asks me to enlighten him on an issue that had been nagging him for some time. Apparently he finds there are contradictions between Yoga and Reiki. While Reiki is a practice of managing the mind, yoga deals more with the management of the physical body, he writes. He asks me how to synchronize the two so that they complement each other.

I am glad he brought up this issue, because, while I will not use this forum to compare yoga to other spiritual disciplines, I admit that his observation is a common misperception about yoga.

A Japanese word, reiki means “universal life energy”. The spiritual practice of Reiki is a healing technique that aims to channel this energy through a practitioner’s hands and transmit it to the client.

This activates the natural healing process of the body and restores physical and emotional well-being.

Reiki practitioners believe they are mere conduits of reiki energy and that their hands need only rest on or hover above a recipient’s body to get the job done. In fact, they claim Reiki can even be accomplished long distance by a practitioner’s focusing energy and intention on a person.

Reiki is taught through courses or a series of workshops, during which the participants go through attunement or unlocking of the person’s reiki energy. According to Reiki’s underlying principles, everyone has the innate ability to channel reiki energy, but that ability is very difficult to access unless it is unlocked by a Reiki teacher.

Yoga, as we have already discussed before is the ancient art and science of balancing the physical and subtle anatomy of the individual. Yoga, which means “yoking” or union in Sanskrit, is an integrated discipline. In its purest form, it is the state of bliss, a merge of heightened awareness, in which the “self” merge with its divine nature. In today’s popular speak, it is the merger of the mind, body and spirit.

There are many types of yoga, but the most commonly practiced today is Hatha yoga, the attainment of the state of union — or awakening, some would say — through disciplines of kriyas or actions of the body and mind.

On the physical level, so many scientific studies have proved the effects of yoga on human body, from improving the nervous system through strengthening the endocrine glands and internal organs; to alleviating very specific physical or medical conditions such as arthritis, asthma, heart problems and mental problems.

But the yoga that we know now, as practiced and taught in fitness centers or even yoga studios, is often too focused on the physical body, even artificial body. Most people come to yoga either to lose weight, build muscle tones, detoxify their body, improve postures or lessen back or spinal muscles.

Yet many also come to yoga to seek peace of mind, to manage their turbulent mind or boost their low spirit; to practice how to focus or release pent-up emotion; or to learn to submit and accept. Many come to practice yoga intensively after a major loss, whether it is of loved ones, job or statuses.

But even those whose main original aim was more superficial or physical, after regular, intensive and committed practice often grow internally through this contemplative practice. Hatha yoga works from the outside in to bring the physical forces into alignment with the subtle anatomy of our higher divine nature.

The yogis believe the key to life is the prana or life-force energy, and that a committed practice of yoga can improve the presence and distribution of this prana inside our body. Now, does that not sound familiar to the meaning of the Japanese word reiki?

While I will not attempt to compare apples to oranges, there is nothing contradictory about practicing both yoga and Reiki or other healing modalities. In fact they may complement each other.

Many long-time yoga practitioners and teachers supplement their practice with Reiki work. Some swear Reiki training enables them to experience the flow of prana (or reiki or qi in traditional Chinese medical science) in their yoga practice and daily life.

I believe yoga can help a person understand Reiki in a much deeper way, just as Reiki helps a person understand the deeper energies of Yoga.

Both yoga and Reiki bring people to a place of stillness, clarity and greater awareness by uniting body and mind. While Reiki invites life force into the body, yoga creates pathways for life force to flow more freely. Namaste.

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