Reiki Energy Works

02/11/2026

“We should not be afraid of suffering. We should be afraid of only one thing, and that is not knowing how to deal with our suffering. Handling our suffering is an art. If we know how to suffer, we suffer much less, and we’re no longer afraid of being overwhelmed by the suffering inside. The energy of mindfulness helps us recognize, acknowledge, and embrace the presence of the suffering, which can already bring some calm and relief.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh (The Art of Living)

02/09/2026

Walk for Peace with the venerable monks

She screamed “Messiah” in panic.
The Venerable answered with calm and clarity.

Messiah Messiah Messiah
Messiah Messiah

Can somebody help her, please? Are you okay? Are you okay?
Are you okay?
The government.
Okay. Everything will be all right. Okay, let’s get back.

If we keep doing this to ourselves, and our mind is not clear, we need to purify these thoughts when they pop up. We need mindfulness to see the thoughts as they arise and to recognize they are present. When you see them clearly, you can manage them. You can manage your feelings and your emotions.

Most problems start with emotion.

When something happens, when someone throws lemons at us like I said earlier, we react right away. That is our habit. We react too fast, and then we suffer.

When you are mindful, you do not react so quickly anymore. You either take a deep breath to calm down, or you face the problem as it is, without judgment.

Even if someone criticizes you or curses at you, if you do not take it, it belongs to that person. It does not belong to you. You suffer because you choose to receive it.

It is like a rope on fire. If I hold a burning rope and throw it at you, you have a choice. You can grab it or you can let it fall. If you grab it, it burns you and it burns me too. We both become barbecue. But if you do not grab it, the fire rope comes back to me. I burn myself, not you.

This is how we should respond to problems, big or small.

But to do this, you need mindfulness. Mindfulness does not appear because you talk about it or think about it. Mindfulness is practice. Mindfulness is practice through the breath.

You breathe every second to stay alive, but you do not pay attention to your breath.

All you need to do is add awareness to the breath going in, and add awareness to the breath going out.

Breathe in, know the breath is coming in.
Breathe out, know the breath is going out.

Pay attention to the breath as it is. Do not force it. Do not make it long or short. Breathe normally, the way you are breathing right now.

When you keep breathing in and out with awareness, thoughts will pop up. Past thoughts, future thoughts, good thoughts, bad thoughts.

Your job is not to push thoughts away. Your job is not to eliminate them. Your job is to observe them.

Observe the thought.
Acknowledge it. Silently say, “Thought.”
Then come back to the breathing.

Thought, come back to breathing.
Thought, come back to breathing.

Your only job is to return to the breath at the nostrils.

If you hear any noise, any sound, observe it and acknowledge it.

“Sound, sound.”
Then come back to the breath.

If you feel sensations in your body, itching, numbness, pain, observe it and acknowledge it.

“Itchy, itchy,” or “Feeling, feeling.”
Then come back to the breath.

When you close your eyes and breathe like this, these things happen because concentration grows. You start seeing what is happening inside the body and the mind.

This is what you need to do every day.

You already breathe, but you usually breathe without knowing it. Now you breathe with awareness. You know the breath going in and out.

It is simple because the breath is already with you. You do not need to borrow it. You only need to use it in the right way.

If you do not practice now, in your last moment you will understand how important the breath is. At that moment you will fight for each breath. But if you practice now, mindfulness helps you in your last moment too. It helps you stay focused. It helps you stay calm. It reduces panic. It reduces anxiety. It supports depression recovery.

The goal is not to chase cures. The goal is to purify the mind. When the mind becomes pure, other things settle in the way they should.

Peace begins like this.

When you are mindful, you do not react the way you used to. You do not hurt others. You do not hurt yourself. You stay at peace.

Peace begins when you slow down.

Do not chase. Do not run. Slow down.

When you watch the monks walking, you pause everything. You focus. You pay full attention. In that moment, you feel peace and joy.

That is what I hoped for when I started this journey. I hoped people would slow down, stop, and look at us, so they would see themselves.

When you let go of everything and simply look at the monks, you come back to yourself. You reflect. You see how much you rush. You see the monks walking with mindfulness, and you ask yourself, “Why do I rush? Why do I suffer?”

Then you find your own answer. You understand how important peace is.

That is why we are here tonight, right?

Peace is what we are looking for.

Our message is simple. Our key is the way to peace, which is mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness is not only for Buddhists. It is for all beings. Everyone breathes. Everyone has a breath. All you need to do is pay attention to it.

We are not here to convert anyone. We are here to raise awareness for peace. Loving-kindness and compassion are necessary in this world. Without loving-kindness and compassion, there is no peace.

If you can love the person who hates you, who hurt you the most, that is loving-kindness. That is compassion. If you can forgive that person, that is loving-kindness.

But how many of us can do that?

Most of us love only the people we like. That is what we call love.

And the word “love” is easy to say. “I love you.” We say it all the time.

But do you mean it, or is it habit?

Like brushing your teeth, you do it without thinking because it is a habit.
Like driving a car, you do it without thinking because it is habit.

In the same way, we have an old habit of not paying attention to breathing. Now we must train a new habit, focusing on the breath.

To change an old habit, you need a new habit to replace it.

I will give you an example.

When I first ordained, I had a habit of shaking my leg while sitting. A friend noticed and asked me, “Venerable, what are you doing?” I said, “I’m eating.” She asked again. Then I looked down and saw my leg shaking.

From that day, I promised myself I would stop. Every time I sat down, I held my knee and reminded myself. It took time, but one day it was gone. A new habit replaced the old habit.

This is how you change.

You need consistency. You need repetition.

Now let’s talk about mornings.

When your alarm goes off, most people hit snooze. The mind negotiates. “It’s cold. Five more minutes.” Then five minutes becomes much more, and you lose the whole morning.

One thought can steal your whole day. Sometimes it can steal your whole life.

So here is a technique.

When the alarm goes off and you do not want to get up, give yourself five seconds.

Count backward.

Five, four, three, two, one, get up.

Get up right away. Do not negotiate.

Then what next?

Make your bed. Fold your sheets. Make it neat.
Then go to the bathroom without your “lover,” your phone.
Put a sign on the door, “No phones in the bathroom.”

Brush your teeth. Do what you need to do.

Then take a piece of paper and a pen. Write this sentence.

“Today is going to be my peaceful day.”

Write it.
Read it with your eyes.
Say it out loud with your mouth.

You give your hands and your mind one job together. This helps you remember throughout the day.

This statement reminds you that no one can ruin your day except you.

Remember the rope of fire. If you do not grab it, your day stays peaceful. If you grab it, you ruin your day.

It takes effort to have a peaceful day, but it is easy to ruin it. So do not waste your effort.

Then throughout the day, do one thing at a time.

No multitasking.

Eat and focus on eating.
Brush your teeth and focus on brushing.
Wash your face and focus on washing.
Walk and focus on walking.

This is mindfulness practice. This trains concentration.

When you have peace, your family also has peace. They do not have to see your stressed face. When you bring calm home, your home becomes safe.

Peace spreads like this.

One person becomes peaceful.
One family becomes peaceful.
Then it spreads to other families.

This is your mission with the venerable monks, to spread this message.

If everyone practiced mindfulness and sent the message, “Today is going to be my peaceful day,” every day, the universe would reflect it back as kindness, compassion, and peace.

That is how peace grows.

So let’s practice together, starting tonight.

When you leave here, be mindful of each step to your car.

Do not rush.
Do not react.
Do not give someone a harsh look if they bump into you.

Be mindful, step by step.

When you drive, keep your eyes on the road. Do not focus on breathing while driving.

When you get home, go to the bathroom without your phone.
Then eat mindfully.
Tomorrow morning, start again with the statement.

Today is going to be my peaceful day.

Thank you so much. May you all be well, happy, and peaceful.

02/04/2026

From a practical perspective, one of my teachers used to say that if a problem CAN be solved, then there is no reason to worry about it. And if the problem CAN'T be solved, then worrying about it will do no good.
Another one of my teachers had a different and show-stopping perspective on worrying. She said, "Worrying is praying for what you don't want."
Yikes! Think about that for a while..
But even at its most neutral state, worrying is just a waste of time. And since I'm a visual learner, I like this explanation the most: worrying is like a rocking chair—it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.

01/29/2026

1.28.26

01/14/2026

01/10/2026

https://fb.watch/Ey900HqWn2/?fs=e

08/31/2025

It was a turbulent time. The nation was divided. People were hurting across the country.

She wondered what she could do to help ease the pain, to bring people together.

After the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, she decided to write a simple letter.

According to NPR, she said:

'I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, hate, fear and violence.'”

~~~

Hi, this is Jon.

There is a popular quote that circulates every once in a while that reads “One person can make a difference and everyone should try.”

Several posts on Facebook recently went viral, featuring the story of how the Peanuts’ character Franklin was born.

This is the story behind the story.

The post, which was originally published by the Peace Page in 2018 and then copied verbatim without credit by sites looking to increase their reach, told the story of the courage of Charles M. Schulz and the importance of the introduction of Franklin.

During the first incarnation of this story, a reader in the comments shared his reaction of seeing Franklin for the first time.

Many of you know the rest of the story from the Peace Page (see original link in comments) and the hijacked versions currently circulating, but in this post I wanted to emphasize the role of the one person who started it all and made the difference with a simple letter.

According to the Press Telegram, “she was a white, 42-year-old suburban Los Angeles school teacher and mother raising three children when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.”

Her name was Harriet Glickman.

Although the Peace Page has shared her story before and that of Mr. Schulz and also of Franklin, we felt her story was even more relevant today because of her courage and the fact she never gave up.

~~~

"Harriet has a very interesting place in history," according to The LAist. "In 1968, she wrote to 'Peanuts' creator Charles Schulz asking him to do something remarkable at the time: integrate his famous comic strip."

Glickman didn't know whether Schulz would actually read her letter or even whether he would receive the letter.

Glickman was especially aware of the power of comics among the young. “And my feeling at the time was that I realized that black kids and white kids never saw themselves [depicted] together in the classroom,” she said in the Washington Post.

She hoped this would bring the country together and show people of color that they are not excluded from American society.

At the time, Schulz, the creator of the enormously popular “Peanuts” comic strip, was already being "published in hundreds of newspapers around the United States reaching nearly 100 million readers," according to the Press Telegram.

Surprisingly, Schulz did respond, but wasn't sure whether it would be right, coming from him, he didn't want to make matters worse, he felt that it may sound condescending to people of color.

But Glickman wouldn't give up.

She persisted, continuing her correspondence with Schulz, even having Black friends write to Schulz and explain to him what it would mean to them.

She told Schulz that "the gentleness of the [Peanuts would be] 'the perfect setting' for such representation," according to CBR.

“I am well aware of the very long and tortuous road ahead,” she added. “I’m sure one doesn’t make radical changes in so important an institution without a lot of shock waves from syndicates, clients, etc. You have, however, a stature and reputation which can withstand a great deal.”

This conversation would continue until one day, Schulz told Glickman to check her newspaper on July 31, 1968.

On that date, the cartoon, as created by Schulz, shows Charlie Brown meeting a new character, named Franklin. Other than his color, Franklin was just an ordinary kid who befriends and helps Charlie Brown.

In a speech at American University of Health Sciences in Signal Hill, California in 2018, talking to a group of children and adults, Glickman said, the 1960s in the United States was “a time long before any of you were born, a time when not everyone was understanding of other people, when young African Americans couldn’t go to the same beach as white children and when schools were separate.”

~~~

Glickman was born in Sioux City, Iowa, and lived in Chicago before moving to Southern California and a job in the Burbank School District and eventually UCLA before retiring.

Glickman explained in previous interviews that her parents were "concerned about others, and the values that they instilled in us about caring for and appreciating everyone of all colors and backgrounds — this is what we knew when we were growing up, that you cared about other people . . . And so, during the years, we were very aware of the issues of racism and civil rights in this country [when] black people had to sit at the back of the bus, black people couldn’t sit in the same seats in the restaurants that you could sit . . . Every day I would see, or read, about black children trying to get into school and seeing crowds of white people standing around spitting at them or yelling at them . . . and the beatings and the dogs and the hosings and the courage of so many people in that time."

Glickman, according to The LAist, said someone once commented to her that "‘It took courage [to do what she did, to make a stand].’ I said, ’No it didn’t, it didn’t take courage for me to sit in Sherman Oaks in my comfortable home with my three children and type a letter.'"

"Courage," she said, "was little Ruby Bridges, the little girl who integrated a school in the south who had to come with the National Guard with people spitting at her and yelling at her and throwing things at her and the parents who drew their children out. That was courage."

Because of Glickman, because of Schulz, people around the world were introduced to a little boy named Franklin, and even today, when Franklin is mentioned, fond memories are evoked, such as those like the young, Black man, who with tears in his eyes, started running and screaming throughout the house because he was introduced to Franklin for the first time.

Barbara Brandon-Croft, the first African American woman to have a nationally syndicated comic strip in the mainstream press, was 10 years old in 1968, said, “I remember feeling affirmed by seeing Franklin in ‘Peanuts.’ ‘There’s a little black kid! Thank goodness! We do matter.’"

When the Peace Page first shared its story about Franklin's birth, one Peace Page reader commented, "I normally don't comment on Facebook but I feel compelled to now. As a black child growing up in the 70's and 80's U grew up in mostly white neighborhoods. One of the most difficult things at that time is my sense of where I belonged in the world. I didn't have anybody in my position i could relate to on TV or in the movies. Then I started reading Peanut cartoons and I met Franklin and I saw myself for once. As a character, Franklin was so important to me I named my third son after him. thank you . . . for helping me find my place."

That Peace Page story has now reached 22,498,877 people, receiving 2,091,450 reactions. It has inspired an Upworthy article and has been shared all over the world, including by media companies in Australia and Italy.

When the Peace Page contacted the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, one of the representatives said that Glickman regularly visited the museum and she was fondly called "Franklin's Mom."

In the speech in 2018 at American University of Health Sciences, she told the audience that it still “feels like yesterday [when Franklin was introduced].” She said some things have changed, but others have not. “We still have so many problems on how we see each other,” she said in an article by the Press Telegram.

She told the children: “You can make a difference in making the world a better place. When you see something that makes you feel angry or upset, don’t just complain, do something about it. And remember that we all care for each other; we’re all the same loving, caring people.”

~~~

Before she passed away, Mrs. Glickman's son showed her the original Peace Page story of Franklin. She actually visited the Peace Page and liked the post. She also commented, "It's always a joy for me to share the Franklin story. I consider him my fourth child and he is very much loved."

Thank you, Mrs. Glickman.

May your story give others the courage to do what's right, no matter how small, whether it's speaking out for those whose voices are not heard or, even writing a simple letter.

One tiny act can make a big difference in the lives of many.

~ jsr

Image from American University of Health Sciences

08/30/2025