Category: Guest Post

The internet fascinates me, for the opportunities it has in store for each of us. One such opportunity I’ve had, is to connect with a lovely soul, Donald Lee. He too, is a new spiritual author who’s learning how to gracefully step into the role. This week, he wanted to share this interesting metaphor with you and me, to enhance our spiritual growth.

Here’s what he has on his mind.

I love metaphors. I use them to describe and explain spiritual reality. As a musician and a teacher, I often use a music or teaching analogy, like “Life is a school”, “Life is a band”, etc.

After all, how can we understand spiritual things except through metaphors, analogies and paradox? 

With all our modern developments, there are many more possibilities. “Life is a movie”, is another great one.

Here is a metaphor of “Life is a video game”. I wish I’d come up with it. But I didn’t. I’ll share it with you anyway because it’s great. Let’s see how it resonates with you.

Life Is a Video Game—Here Are the Rules

This metaphor will help in our spiritual growth, because it has some profound truths nestled within it in the utmost simple yet impactful way.

#1 – The Rule of Accountability

You can only control one player, and that player is you.

#2 – The Rule of Purpose

You will have challenges presented to you. The purpose of these challenges is to help you grow and progress to the next level—to master the game.

#3 – The Rule of Smart Living

You will have limited resources, both internal resources and external resources. You will not know the level of resources assigned to you until you begin the game.

Players who figure out how to best use their resources will do better in the game. Having more resources does not guarantee success; you must learn how to leverage your resources.

Players who can create new resources/tools (both internal and external resources) will do better in the game.

#4 – The Rule of Change

Players are responsible for their own experience in the game. If you are not happy with your experience in the game, you are the only person who has the power to change it.

Other players will come in and out of your experience in the game.  However, you will enter and exit the game on your own.

#5 – The Rule of Choices

Players will have many options in the game; choose wisely. Your choices will impact your experience. Your choices will also impact who you become as a player in the master game.

The more you put into the game, the more you will get out of it. Within the master game, there are a multitude of game modes and avatars you can choose.

#6 – The Rule of Virtual Reality

You may identify with the game mode and your Avatar, but neither the Avatar nor the game mode is the real you or the real reality. You are only playing a character in the master game. 

#7 – The Rule of Replay

If you fail a lesson or a level of the game, the particular challenge at hand will continue presenting itself to you repeatedly until you successfully figure out how to master that challenge.

Some players may never master all their challenges. Those players may opt to change the gameplay—a new game, using a new Avatar.

#8 – The Rule of Success

The game should be fun, challenging, and fulfilling; the goal is to help you learn. The more you learn, the more successful you will be at the game of life.

The more you can align who your Avatar is with the real you, the more successful you will be at the game of life.

The goal is to create your Avatar into the best version you can make it, given the context, resources, and challenges you have in the game. 

#9 – The Rule of Failure

There are no winners and losers, only those who were able to make the most of the opportunity, or less of the opportunity this time.

Players who do very well typically opt to not continue playing new games, since they got the development they needed.

Whatever happens in the game, the real players are safe. Avatars may get hurt but the actual players behind the Avatars are simply watchers of the game.

#10 – The Final Rule

You are already in the game.

Created by Angela Cotellessa.
Used with permission of the author.

Does that give you a new perspective on life? I hope so.

Is it Disrespectful to Use Such Figurative Thinking?

It might seem irreverent to think of life as a game, but on the other hand, most of us take ourselves too seriously. 

Most of us think to ourselves, “Why is God doing this to me?
Why is my husband doing this to me?
Why is it just my fate to be unhappy?”
And similar thoughts.

This metaphor helps our spiritual growth because it encourages us to take the perspective of,
“I wonder what I am supposed to learn from this?
How could I change my avatar and my results in this game?”
and so on.

As you may have already realized, changing our perspective changes our experience.

You could also consider that, if you’re happy with the level you’re on, you can just stay there for a while. But the game always has other levels to explore—whenever you are ready to go there.

So, this analogy helps to dissipate fear. There really is nothing to fear. We, that is, the spiritual self that is our true self, can never be hurt. We are eternal beings of light. This avatar we currently inhabit will one day pass away.

All of us know that. Yet we still fear it. We fear getting old, becoming feeble, death, and a hundred even more minor events.

When we perceive our true self, our immortal and invincible self, then all fear passes away.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope this metaphor is an inspiring and enlightening perspective in your own game of life, for your spiritual growth.

Oh and I have a spiritual gift for you, before I go! Here is an abridged version of my book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. You can download it right here.

God Bless You!

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What is Reiki? What can reiki do, and what can’t it do? Today, Jim, a level 2 Reiki practitioner is kindly sharing his experiences with us.

What IS Reiki?

Reiki is an intelligent energy – it will only go where it’s sent, and only where it’s wanted. It has some very practical applications. And it also has limitations.

Mikao Usui was the first person to channel this energy. I have seen online that he “developed” reiki.

Reiki was not developed by a person. It was first channeled by Mikao Usui. I wanted to clarify that fact.

Reiki was not developed or invented by any person. It existed long before Mikao Usui and will continue to exist for a very long time.

But I’m not going to write about the history of reiki. I would rather write about my personal experience with reiki.

How I Got Into The Practice Of Reiki Healing

I knew people who had reiki attunements but I was never interested. Then years later, I became more inclined towards it. I felt called to it.

But like most people, I was too busy. I ignored it and went on with my life. Then, I met someone who had recently received a reiki attunement.

After a few weeks we didn’t see each other for a while. To my surprise, I missed her very much. How could I miss someone I had only known for a few weeks? After thinking about it, I realized it wasn’t her, it was the energy. I knew it was time to find out more about reiki.

I began to search online for more information. There were many people in my area that offered attunements. Some people made wild claims about it.

There are many different ideas about what reiki is and what it can do. So I did what I usually do, I continued to search and learn with an open mind and heart.

After a month or so of searching, I finally began to feel drawn to a
teacher whose website I had visited several times. I was hesitant because she lived 75 miles away from me! But I was feeling more and more sure that she was my reiki teacher.

Some teachers will do a reiki attunement on your first visit. I called her, and she scheduled me for an informational class. In that class, we learned about this form of energy healing.

Then she told us to go home for a week and think about it. If we felt we wanted to move forward, we should call her in a week and tell her.

I went back and received my level one attunement.

With my level one attunement, I could give reiki energy to someone very near me through my hands. And with my level two attunement, I can send the energy over any distance to any person in the world.

Other Facts & Myths

I want to be clear about some more things.

I have read that people learn reiki, or develop it.

You do not learn or develop reiki. It is a mystical and powerful energy that exists independently of any person. You are only attuned to channel that cosmic energy.

I have seen articles online trying to discredit reiki because it would be
impossible to learn how to heal someone in one or two classes. Of course that is true. But you are not learning how to heal.

You are only becoming a conduit, a vessel through which the energy flows. The energy will do what it can to help, heal, and even comfort the receiver.

It’s important to remember, however, that this healing energy that will only go where it is welcome.

So, you cannot force reiki on anyone. If you try to send it to an unreceptive person, it will go somewhere else it is needed and welcome.

Now for the topic of what reiki can do and what it cannot do.

I’m sure there are many undiscovered and subtle benefits. It would be impossible for me to state here everything it can and cannot do. I am only going to share my personal experience.

As for the wild claims that it can cure cancer, and many other physical,
emotional, and mental diseases, please do not substitute it for proper medical care. While it may supplement standard medical care, it should never be assumed that it will replace it.

A disease may be a natural learning experience for us or even the natural way we transition from this life to the afterlife. Reiki may give us more insight and understanding into this, rather than cure a disease or illness.

It should not be assumed that it will change the course of a natural part of our life.

Benefits Of Reiki Healing

And in my experience, the most practical applications of reiki are for burns and stress.

Reiki For Burns

You can’t use reiki to walk through a burning house without getting harmed. But sometimes we burn ourselves on a hot stove or take a sip of tea or coffee that is too hot. As soon as it happens, if you immediately use this healing energy, I often notice the burn will not be as bad as it otherwise would have
been.

I will usually use cold water and reiki immediately. But again, if you seriously burn yourself with a second or third degree burn, seek proper medical attention immediately. I’m talking about minor first degree burns.

Reiki For Stress

I think the best practical use for reiki is for stress. This is the kind of stress you get from a bad day at work, peer pressure at school, or angry people in traffic.

There are many kinds of energy that claim to deflect negative energy and stress. Many of them work very well, but it works far better than anything else I have tried.

It is an intelligent energy, but you need to ask it for what you would like it to do.

If I know I’m going to be stuck in traffic, or have a difficult phone call at work, I will ask reiki to repel negative energy from the people and situation, and to send that energy to a higher dimension and let it dissolve into light.

I notice this especially helps to stay calm in bad traffic. Again, this has its limitations.

So, if you have a job where you are constantly under severe stress and are stuck in traffic jams for hours every day, I would suggest trying to make some big changes in your life.

Reiki can help to improve a bad situation, but it cannot make you completely immune to stress.

Stress, like many other things in life, is healthy in the right amounts at the right time. Like stressing our muscles in the gym, emotional and mental stress can help us to learn, grow, and mature.

If you tried to lift heavy weights all day for many days in a row, you would collapse from exhaustion. Think of reiki like an energy drink or a protein shake to help you with your workout.

It can help with normal amounts of stress, but cannot completely shield us from chronic, severe stress.

If reiki shielded us from all the stress of life, we would miss out on those opportunities to learn, grow, and mature!

Does Reiki Really Work?

Yes, I have some crazy stories. One time I was driving a truck for work and I made the mistake of letting the truck run too low on gas before I pulled into a station to fill up.

I did not know that if a truck like that runs out of gas, you need a special mechanic to come out to the truck and prime the fuel pump.

Facing a long wait and an expensive bill, I remembered reading a story where a woman claimed that reiki made her washing machine suddenly start working again. I was skeptical but desperate.

I had tried to start the engine many times without success. Then I mentally intended to send healing energy to the truck to help it start again. And when I turned the key – it started immediately!

I was surprised and have no explanation of how the truck started. Having said that, I do not walk around every day asking reiki to fix my car, reveal tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers, and fix every ache and pain I have.

It won’t work. This intelligent energy assumes that I know what is best for my life path.

Concluding Thoughts

Life’s joys and challenges all help us grow if we face them with the intention to learn and grow from all of it. This has been my experience with reiki. I hope it helps you to know what you might expect, if you feel drawn to it.

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