Karuna Reiki

Everything You Need to Know About Karuna Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide to Energy Healing

By Dennis Bluthardt, Namaste Studios

Karuna Reiki can be incredibly transformative.

“Karuna” is a Sanskrit word that translates to “compassion.” Unlike traditional Reiki, which focuses on channeling universal life force energy for healing, Karuna Reiki strongly emphasizes the need to develop deep compassion and understanding for ourselves and those around us.

Karuna Reiki adds a new level of symbols. These additional symbols can resonate with higher frequency energy levels, allowing the more profound issues to disappear. It extends its reach beyond just individual healing but also to help improve our relationship with others and our surrounding community. The incredible amount of negativity that can be removed with this form of Reiki is quite extensive. Thus, it allows the Self to return to a happier, more peaceful place of stillness and well-being.

It is an approach to healing that gently encourages removing negative dark energies from past experiences and emotional wounds. The visualizations and meditations within this healing format are very positive yet incredibly humbling. This practice, while not as well known, continues to grow, especially as we all continue looking for ways to add deep inner peace and gentle calming into our lives.

Understanding Karuna Reiki

Karuna Reiki is an energy healing modality developed by William Lee Rand in the Western tradition in the late 20th century. The Sanskrit term “Karuna” is commonly translated as “compassion,” so you can probably tell that this Reiki is about love and our ability to heal through empathy.

What differentiates Karuna Reiki from traditional Reiki (Usui or otherwise) is the addition of special symbols and methods that allow the practitioner to delve into different areas of healing. 

Rather than just healing the body with a burst of pure energy, Karuna Reiki practitioners can heal the spirit on a deeper level. They can have the foresight needed to identify emotional blockages.

In other words, Karuna Reiki (and energy healing in general) is about more than just offering a client some temporary relief. It allows healing practitioners to address the root causes of disturbances, allowing them to move other people beyond their blockages so that they can continue their spiritual journey.

What I love about energy healing, in general, is that it can allow us to make profound shifts in our lives in ways that sheer willpower will just never be capable of. When we can address the root causes of our fears, worries, and disturbances (which often have emotional or spiritual causes on a more subtle level), we can quickly and effectively move beyond those problems. 

Anything else is usually only temporary. So, while I do not necessarily believe that all in-person therapies (except things like massage) are generally not as effective as energy healing is (because they cannot address as wide of a range), I do not want this post to become an argument regarding one or the other. Energy healing techniques (including Reiki) have proven very effective in my life, so I recommend it to anyone who believes in a mind, body, and soul approach to well-being.

The Principles of Karuna Reiki

Karuna Reiki is an influential healing art that teaches us, by way of practice, about oneness. Its core principles are the embodiment of all-pervasive, selfless love. As practitioners, Karuna Reiki enhances our intuition and “in-feeling” empathy, “empathetic,” thereby enabling us to channel the compassionate healing energy of God, the Universe, Source, or Spirit (in more sensible ways). Amazingly, our healing practice creates a nurturing environment vital for constructing the “new” body-mind complexes that we inhabit, not just for us, the healers or bodhisattvas, but also for the people we serve.

Karuna Reiki comes with its own set of symbols (not “new” symbols, at least as far I know), with each symbol serving as a spiritually guided (spontaneous) expression of an aspect of our subtle anatomy or another person’s. Understanding every symbol and its complementary energy means understanding how to “use” it in healing yourself and another person. Moving the energy through your body and another person at a typical session affects a change consistent with the operational meaning of the utilized symbol. For example, one symbol might promote emotional development in the body, and another might contribute to developing one’s ability to clear bad energy from the body-mind complex.

Like the Indian-influenced chakra material, Karuna Reiki serves as a simple reminder that processes happening at various centers in the body give rise to specific experiences. While we are in the growth stage (leading up to transcendental enlightenment), drawing energy from the Source into the body produces remarkable psychophysical changes, supporting our devotion and service to God, humanity, and the world. After the primary adaptation of the body-mind complex to God’s Liberating Divine Spiritual Baptism, we experience the same chakra-energizing process, but a bit differently. In both cases, we achieve balance in everyday life. The balance is conducive to the expression of the functional modalities of all human beings.

Benefits of Karuna Reiki

Karuna Reiki is a form of healing that actively works to alleviate discomforts and provide a sense of overall well-being to both the body and the mind. It is a non-invasive practice that enhances the flow of universal life energy or chi throughout a body system. Adherents of this practice believe that this energy flow revitalizes and stimulates the energy in a way that helps to rid the body of emotional and mental burdens, and the pains associated with many physical illnesses. Unlike traditional Reiki, Karuna Reiki, notably enhanced by the power of empathy and compassion, provides and promotes a deep emotional release from the sufferer. This release is known to clear the brain and promote relaxation and sereneness, which aligns the physical body with the inner Self.

Karuna Reiki also gives a person a higher ability to channel relatable, creative energy to the Self, promoting the creation of more profound meditation experiences. Through deep meditation practices, a person is open to creative problem-solving. During these private personal strengthening exercises, a person can close the curtains on the mind and begin the exercises from within. Karuna Reiki successfully provides guided tours into the Self and personal blockages at high-energy frequency healing when combined with progressive, automated sequences that integrate processes that promote healthy sleep rhythms before crisis.

How to Practice Karuna Reiki

To get started with Karuna Reiki, it will be helpful to:

Find a teacher or take a course with a certified practitioner.

Learn with certified teachers so you will receive accurate initiation and can ask anything you need to know directly. Many teachers provide workshops or online courses, and you will discover all types of Karuna Reiki communities.

Karuna Reiki incorporates a range of techniques that can help heal the

mind. Several techniques, such as symbols, sounds, or light, can target the brain. Whether used during meditation or self-healing, the distinctive energies of Karuna Reiki can be felt with each breath and can deepen your spiritual practice.

Body. Like other forms of Reiki, Karuna Reiki uses the laying on of hands or a simple touch to convey the universal life force energy.

Spirit. Many commonly practiced techniques of Karuna Reiki encourage the use of sound through toning and chanting. The various sounds and their vibrations can heal.

Following receipt of the three types of Karuna Reiki training, dedicate a portion of each day to:

Reiki meditation

A Reiki self-treatment

Provide Reiki to others. You should share Reiki in ways that feel most comfortable to you. 

Remember, use Reiki frequently! You will experience continual filling up with joy and gratitude for all your life!

Frequently Asked Questions about Karuna Reiki

There are many misconceptions surrounding the realm of energy healing. These misconceptions can sometimes sway people away from trying out Karuna Reiki, as many people are of the presupposition that energy healing is not scientifically proven or merely a placebo effect. It is important to note that Karuna Reiki (just like any other form of Reiki) operates in the principle of channeling universal life force energy into the body to bring about healing and balance.

As mentioned above, we must identify personally with these concepts. Although the process of healing through channeling energy is a relatively simple topic, an extra depth accompanies the wisdom found within this practice. Karuna Reiki is not meant to be understood by everyone. That said, we can now transition to who best suits this practice.

Believe your gut and indigo third eye (your intuition). Try it out first, determining if it aligns with your spiritual growth and emotional healing needs. If you do not feel you are right or it is aligned with your personal healing goals, this practice is not for you (and that’s okay). That way, you can find a professional healer who leads Karuna Reiki sessions and have them address your misguided doubts or fears (or new-found faith with a growing hope for the best).

Karuna Reiki focuses on compassionate, intuitive healing for the Self and others. We will be exploring:

The ability to heal one’s emotional body

Stress reduction techniques

Unplugging from situations that are no longer serving

Tools for spiritual growth

Removing blockages from self-expression

Activating intuitive abilities

Abundance practices

Growth from studying Karuna Reiki comes from healing with others and within oneself. You can begin to find a greater sense of peace. Once people are more attuned to peace, they radiate that peaceful energy into the world. That’s when we become real game-changers.

A deeper study of Karuna Reiki involves meditation work, self-discovery, and the aid of an attuned practitioner. For some of you, the following steps include meditating and living in self-study. That’s awesome. But programs are available for others looking to explore Karuna hands-on or with a certified practitioner!

Please feel free to comment below about your experiences with Karuna Reiki, whether you’ve come to learn about it for the first time from this article or have had multiple encounters with Karuna Reiki practitioners.

Questions or comments are also welcome. This blog serves as my heart space and an educational hub for my students. I’m happy and open to dialogue about this or any other topics I cover here.

To learn more, visit Reiki at Namaste Studios to book a Reiki session. Additionally, you can find more of our Reiki Blogs here.

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