Reiki is one of the most widely known forms of healing today practiced all over the world. In the 19th century, Dr Mikao Usui, a Japanese monk, decided to undertake a 21-day meditative retreat. Reiki is a result of this mediation. From the ancient Buddhist scriptures, Dr Usui was able to discover the system of natural healing. All meditative systems of healing
believe in energy that is universal and boundless. In all cultures, there is a belief that the physical universe is made of an underlying spiritual essence, which is in the form of vital force or energy. 'Rei' means boundlessness and universality; 'ki' means the vital energy which flows through life. Reiki is a system for channeling that energy to someone for the purpose of healing.

The practice of Reiki healing is performed in a very simple manner. It involves a technique of attuning a person physically and mentally to become a channel for the universal vital energy to flow. The practitioner places his or her hands upon the person to be healed with the intention for healing to occur, and then the Reiki energy begins flowing within the recipient. It draws through the healer the energy, which the recipient needs.

This system believes that pain or disease comes from a deviation from the underlying ideal form each of us has. Reiki healing means regaining the ideal form through the flow of the universal vital energy. The attuning techniques involve the head, the hands and the palms. The modern practitioners of Reiki healing believe that there are 28 body points that should receive the Reiki, and that each body point should receive it for three minutes.

It is quite obvious that Indian classical music is preeminently for Reiki healing. It has very similar spiritual foundations and a similar belief in the boundless universal vital energy that runs through living beings. It is through this kind of music that we can reach the inner, inaccessible layers of consciousness. The Indian concept of a raga with its deeply meditative and spiritual nature clearly fulfils the needs of the techniques of Reiki healing. Pandit Shivkumar Sharma is one of the most eminent instrumentalists of modern India.

It is he who elevated santoor, the folk instrument from Kashmir, to the status of a dignified classical instrument. His approach to the instrument as well as to the music played on it is highly meditative and spiritual too. In many of his concerts, he begins by appealing to his audience not to clap for appreciation, as it would disturb the flow of meditative and spiritual energy generated by his music. For him, the inner experience is more important than the external expression of it.
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma has a vast repertoire, and here we have anthologized appropriate pieces to help the Reiki channels to develop the meditative frame of mind necessary for receiving Reiki, so that the healing can effectively take place deep inside the human spirit.