I've been asked by many friends to clarify the connection between Reiki and Meditation.

First of all, let's agree on what is meditation and what are the stages of meditation. Meditation is any state of relaxation that frees your mind from any thought and brings your body to silence, harmony and balance.

It is widely known among true yogis that there are five stages of meditation:  A basic prerequisite for meditating is to sit still keeping your back straight. Why? Because while sitting still for a period of time, you are enabling the body to relax gradually which in turn enables the mind to follow with such relaxing mood.Without sitting still you can never control the mind that keeps wavering from a thought to another. So this is a basic preparation and it is considered the 1s stage in order to meditate.

stage 1. Relaxation. It is time to relax the body and remind yourself that you are going to focus on your meditation and nothing else. You want to let go of any tension and stress. Do a few breathing exercises to let go of any stress you may have as 3deep breaths in/out from the mouth.

stage 2. Observation of Thoughts. The next stage is to observe your thoughts as they come and go. You don't expect to stop them straight away, but, you want to gradually detach yourself from them. By observing your thoughts you realise that thoughts are external to you, so it is easier to let go of them. You realise many thoughts come into the mind, and your job is not to judge, think, or even think that you are not thinking.

stage 3. Dharana. This is concentration or intent. When you concentrate you focus on only one object at a time. It may be a candle, flower, mandala or a mantra (with/without a meaning). In pure dharana all your awareness is focused on this object. Coming thoughts cannot enter your mind, for they get blocked out by the power of your concentration. (This is a major key in being transformed into deeper states of consciousness. Many meditate for many years yet in fact they dwell in the stage of concentration. This is not true meditation. Because beyond the flavor of focusing there are more distinct flavors to explore)

stage 4. Dhyana. This is contemplation. It is the state of meditation where your mind is still. Thoughts do not come to bother you. You have entered into a pure meditative consciousness and you are able to hold yourself in this fixed state of mind thus separating maya from reality to help attain the ultimate goal of moksha.In this state you well feel a sense of peace, oneness and expansion. You flow with your breath and you unite your mind-body together.

stage 5. Samadhi. In samadhi you are completely absorbed in your meditation. You have become so absorbed to an extent that you will lose sense of self and the external world. Your consciousness will be flooded with infinite peace, light and delight. Upon development of samadhi, one's mind becomes purified of poison, calm, tranquil, and luminous. You become one with the Bliss, thus uniting the realtive with the absolute. In this stage, You become "the breath" that flows in your being and unite your mind-body-soul altogether. (There is also 4stages within samadhi)

How do we connect Meditation to Reiki?
Well a prerequisite for a Reiki practitioner or a Master is Centering and Grounding*. A true requirement for centering and grounding is to stay still, be calm in mind, focus and visualize etc. So meditation is a basic initial step in activating Reiki and having it effective. Then Reiki does the job all by itself and for a centered/grounded master, it reflects upon him/her advanced stages of meditation. According to my experience in meditation and Reiki, I can simply say that Reiki puts meditation into action... you play while meditating for a purpose that you intent... within the ocean of pure silence and consciousness you bubble life force energy to any direction (as in distant Reiki)... This is truly what happened when I took advanced courses in meditation like "Siddha program"... In that program you actually invoke sutras and in Reiki you invoke the life force energy.... (to be continued)
* Centering / Grounding are also a requirement for a true successful distant healing aside from Reiki Meditation techniques.