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TRANSLATED FROM THE USUI MEMORIAL STONE in Tokyo,Dr. Usui’s Five Reiki Ideals read:

The secret art of inviting happinessThe miraculous medicine of all diseases

Just for today, do not be angryDo not worry and be filled with gratitude

Devote yourself to your work and be kind to peopleEvery morning and evening join your hands in prayer,

pray these words to your heart,and chant these words with your mouth

Usui Reiki Treatment for the improvement of body and mindThe founder. . . Mikao

If we look at the fifth Ideal, be kind to people, it appears tobe fairly straightforward. It is pretty obvious to us as Reiki prac-titioners that one of the most important things in this world isto love and respect others, to show compassion and to be tol-erant, to have patience and to give understanding. Inherent inthe words of the ideal is the implication that, if we are to bekind to others, we must also be kind to ourselves. After all, weare people, too. It then follows that we must be kind to EVERYliving thing.

The statement be kind to people is straightforward—and it isprofound. The profoundness of the principle, if we truly thinkabout it, opens the door to an entirely new way of perceiving theups and downs of our lives, of relating to circumstances in whichwe feel we have been wronged by someone, or taken advantageof, even purposely hurt or embarrassed, or injured in any way. Itprovides us with a different way of relating to the many differentpeople who come into our lives. It is an invitation for us to acceptand embrace all that is sent our way by God and the Universe.

If we consider the fifth Ideal in paraphrase—“Just for today I will be kind to people…including myself,” or,

“Just for today I will love and respect every livingcreature…including myself!!”

—then two questions arise, which I believe we must answer if wewish to live this Ideal:

1. Can we truly love and respect others if we don’t love andrespect ourselves?

2. Can we truly be expected to love and respect EVERYONE??

Before going any further into the idea of loving even thosewhom we perceive as causing us pain or wishing us ill, let us, justfor a moment, think about our relationship with ourselves. Con-sider the following questions:

• Do you love yourself? • Are you proud of yourself? • Do you respect yourself? • Do you take yourself for granted? • Do you put yourself down? • Do you say unkind things about yourself?

Just for the next week, repeat this principle each day during yourdaily prayers, meditation, or spiritual practice, and then pay atten-tion during the day to the thoughts that you have regarding thethings you do. Notice when you have the impulse to criticize your-self or to be compassionate with yourself. Note how you feel whenyou make a wrong decision, or get lost on the highway, or break adish you are washing, or burn the supper, or simply forget to do some-thing important. What feelings do you have; what words fill yourhead at the moment? What sensations do you feel physically in yourbody? Where in your body do you feel them? Are you automaticallyhard on yourself, or are you compassionate and understanding?

Notice your thoughts for a week, and you may be quite sur-prised at what you discover. Many of us cannot even say outloud “I love myself”; “I think I am great”; “I am perfect just asI am.” Even those of us who can say these things and trulymean them, are still too often overly critical of ourselves. If wedo not GENUINELY love and respect ourselves, our pretense

Just for Today, I will BeKind to People - and Myself

B Y J A N E A B R A M O W I T Z

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at loving and respecting every living creature is justthat…pretense. Self-love is the first step in truly loving ourfellow creatures. And when we love and respect ourselves,everything and anything that happens to us can be dealt within a healthy way.

Truly loving ourselves means that we come to terms with ourown shortcomings and learn to accept ourselves exactly as we are;we extend unconditional love to the beautiful beings that we are;are compassionate with ourselves even when we are not all weexpected of ourselves; recognize the beauty of the soul within us;feel worthy and deserving and freely offer praise and genuinerespect to ourselves and cherish our own being, no matter wherewe may find ourselves at a particular moment or stage in our lives;we offer ourselves encouragement and love at each step along theway and appreciate our accomplishments—large and small; westop discounting our own needs and wants and understand that weare just as worthy and deserving as others. Only when we truly loveand respect ourselves can we begin to truly love the next person.

It is only when we find the way to love ourselves uncondition-ally that we can truly understand the words: …thou shalt love thyneighbor as thyself…(Leviticus 19:18). The great Hebrew sage RabbiAkiva said, “This is the most important point in the Torah…therest is just commentary.” Obviously, the idea has been around for along time and is not a new concept developed by Dr. Usui.

As the Buddha expresses it:

Like a caring motherHolding and guarding the life

Of her only child,So with a boundless heart

Hold yourself…. And all beings

The idea of loving the next person as we love ourselvesbecomes much easier when we simply extend the same graciousand loving attention to everyone that we extend to ourselves.And that brings us to the second part of this discussion—lov-ing and respecting EVERY living creature:

Let us look at this idea of loving and respecting EVERY ONE.This would seem almost impossible when we think of some of thestrange, difficult, inconsiderate, spiteful and even abusive peoplewe meet in our lifetime. But there is a profound lesson in extend-ing understanding, forgiveness, compassion, patience and toler-ance to those who truly wish us ill. It brings us once again intouch with the idea of faith—faith that God is sending these peo-ple into our lives for a loving purpose—no matter how difficultthat may be for us to see.

We must learn to Cherish those we dislike, even those we per-ceive as enemies, for they are gifts from God and we must be

thankful for this blessing and pray for the wisdom to learn the les-son these people have been sent to teach us.

We draw to us those who will help us learn about ourselves.Each time we are presented with a challenge dealing with anoth-er, we are really being presented with an opportunity to lookinside ourselves to see what about us it is that needs working on,so that we may grow.

The idea of loving each and every person, no matter what, isquite difficult to implement, and may seem impossible. If wechoose this path, it is almost guaranteed that we will have torenew our commitment to it daily, and that we will fall short ofour intention many times. However, simply intending to loveothers and making the effort to live love makes a tremendousdifference in our own lives and the lives of others. Therewards—among them peace of mind, harmony instead of dis-cord, and improved emotional and physical health—are wellworth the effort.

I offer the following selection of quotes for further thought:

In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.—DALAI LAMA

Everything that irritates us about othersCan lead us to an understanding of ourselves.—CARL JUNG (1875-1961), PSYCHOLOGIST

I have learned silence from the talkative,tolerance from the intolerant

and kindness from the unkind.I should not be ungrateful to those teachers.

—KAHLIL GIBRAN

Nothing can hurt youunless you give it the power to do so

—A COURSE IN MIRACLES

The main teachers of patience are our enemies.—DALAI LAMA

Every person sent to us is a blessing meant to teach us a lessonwe need to learn. 1—Jane Abramowitz can be contacted at janetrip2001@yahoo.com

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