I‘ve discussed few of the elements of running a successful Reiki Business in the past, in my posts on Strategic Reiki and Reiki Kaizen but today I’d like to look at some of the more ethical considerations of running a Reiki business and the impact it may have on your karma (more on that in my Reiki and Karma post).

Running a Reiki Business is a tricky matter. A business is generally designed to make money, yet the spiritual practice of Reiki is one of compassion and the problem is that compassion is not a big part of most business plans. Spiritual teachers who charge a lot of money are putting spirituality on the back burner to practicality. Teaching transcendence while waiting for the student’s check to clear creates a noticeable imbalance, so how does one balance the two so that they are not seen as money hungry businessman but rather caring teachers? How does one pay the rent while at the same time preach and practice spirituality? Tricky indeed.

Many business practices, which are well and fine in non-Reiki businesses don’t wash well with Reiki as there are moral considerations to take into account. Many doctors face the same dilemma on a daily basis. They took an oath to help people, yet if the people have no money to pay there’s always another golf course to explore. Unfortunately for Reiki, there are hundreds of so called Reiki Masters out there who will do anything to make a quick buck and the blurring of the line between what is ethically and morally acceptable has really been pushed to the extreme. Ultimately, I’m afraid it’s up to the student to decide where to draw the line. It’s up to the student to decide what is acceptable and what is not.

There are a multitude of arguments supporting what some of these non-ethical teachers are doing (any spreading of Reiki is a good thing, there is no such thing as bad Reiki, I’m only doing what I was taught, etc.), but far too many of those arguments are being abused and manipulated purely for profit to the point where I really gotta wonder what’s going on. Is it my place to even question the practices of another? An example I’ve given before are the distance teaching of Gendai and/or Komyo Reiki. There is no such thing as distance teaching of Gendai and/or Komyo Reiki. There never has been and probably never will. Anyone selling such courses (a quick search in Google will reveal them) is not only blatantly lying, but also disrespecting their teachers as well as their students and Reiki itself. That is not  a very good way to conduct a business, so why do people do it?

Another area of concern are the Reiki Certificates being sold on eBay and the like. 99 out of 100 of those are scams designed to take your money and run. Many of the free attunements and certifications found in Reiki forums and chat rooms are not much better. There are a few legitimate ones out there but they are few and far between. This is only accomplished because people just don’t know any better and you would think that a spiritual practice like Reiki would be the last place you would find these con artists. Would that it were so.

These charlatan Reiki businesses are not limited to the Internet either, I have seen people who have received their certification over the Internet and then proceeded to teach live classes… and in most cases they have no idea what they are doing as they have never attended a Reiki class.

There are many ways of running Reiki practices that are both successful and ethical. They do, however, require some degree of business knowledge. Just because you are a good Reiki teacher doesn’t mean you are a good business person. The same rules of business apply whether you are selling Reiki or selling shoes. I’ve seen this type of thing all too often here in Japan where people come to teach English and are very successful at it. Ultimately they begin to wonder why they are doing all the work and the school owner is making all the money. So they inevitably strike out on their own. The problem is, they may be great teachers, but that does not make them great business people and invariably within 2 years 90% of them fail and head back to their homeland with their tails between their legs. The same rules apply when starting a Reiki practice. Economics, marketing, management, & accounting are all necessary and unless you are VERY lucky, you won’t get far without at least a basic understanding of each.

The bottom line is that you need to understand business if you want to practice it and for goodness sake, please be extremely careful when choosing a Reiki class and Reiki teacher. There are plenty of good ones to choose from, just don’t get pulled in by the bad apples… it can really have long lasting effects if you do.

For further explanation or discussion, your thoughts are most welcome and highly encouraged, please feel free to comment below!!!