Reiki to Ricardo Reis

Reiki to Ricardo Reis

Today's two R words are odd, I know. They are reiki and Ricardo Reis. They are two words many of you have probably never heard, but surely you will remember them now! Reiki was invented by Makao Usui in Japan in 1922. Usui claimed to create a technique of healing "without energy depletion" by using the palms. I have a reiki practitioner. Many years ago I was skeptical about the benefits of reiki. Not today! I find reiki provides me with new sources of energy, clears old negative energy from the past, and unleashes new waves of creativity and positive connections with yourself and others.

Ricardo Reis, on the other hand, is one of the heteronyms (or invented personalities) of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). Pessoa had many heteronyms, including Reis, Alberto Caiero, Alvaro de Campos, and even a French poetic heteronym, Jean Seul. Pessoa even wrote with heteronyms in English. Each heteronym had a different physique, manners, habits, worldview, philosophy, and poetic style. It makes for some incredible and variegated poetry.

What does Ricard Reis have to do with reiki? In one word: Healing. The poetry of Ricardo Reis (really Pessoa) and the practice of reiki offers us healing in a Western world where there are so many therapists, but nonetheless an abundance of psychological illnesses. There is a Hebrew word meaning tikkun olam (תיקון עולם). I add the Hebrew word to enhance its spiritual powers for all those needing it in the universe! Tikkun means to heal, to repair, to transform the world. And the ancient rabbis would say that healing is how the Torah and Jewish teachings may be summarized. Healing the world, the rabbis insisted is our purpose here, adding everything else is commentary. There is a great New York-based journal of politics, culture, and spirituality edited by Rabbi Michael Lerner called Tikkun. Here is the link:

http://www.tikkun.org/

Reading poetry, writing poetry, and getting reiki are all ways of healing ourselves and the universe. When we connect with our self, with the spiritual powers of the universe, we open to others; we are here and now enjoying the present; and we hopefully heal ourselves and others. We deepen our connections with others through greater understanding and compassion. We unite the different parts of ourselves, which might have been swimming in different oceans for many years.

I want to end this entry with a healing and powerful passage from Ricardo Reis written in 1916, who is really Fernando Pessoa:

Follow Your Destiny

Follow your destiny,
Water your plants,
Love your roses.
The rest is shadow
Of unknown trees.

Reality is always
More or less
Than what we want.
Only we are always
Equal to ourselves.

It's good to live alone,
And noble and great
Always to live simply.
Leave pain on the altar
As an offering to the gods.

See life from a distance.
Never question it.
There's nothing it can
Tell you. The answer
Lies beyond the Gods.

But quietly imitate
Olympus in your heart.
The gods are gods
Because they don't think
About what they are.

(Fernando Pessoa, "Follow Your Destiny," translated by Richard Zenith, Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems, New York: Grove, 1998, p. 113)

Tamir Bar-On