2:05
And then I went to Brazil, let’s see, now it’s been four years ago (2011) and there is this wonderful man, (0214) (räusper) (0216)who is actually Italian, but his whole family has lived in Brazil for, I don’t know, generations. And he is a physiologist and his doctorate thesis on Reiki, because he received Reiki when he was 14 and was depressed and suicidal and Reiki saved his life, I mean, he’s totally clear about that and he became a master when he was 18. And now he’s like 30… something. And he said: «Reiki is the largest ‘healing’ (he didn’t really use the word «healing»), largest healing method after allopathic medicine in Brazil, by far”. He says, millions of people practice Reiki in Brazil and that it’s the «go to thing» … you can go to a doctor and sometimes in the outback, you know in the countryside and so on in Brazil (I don’t think they call it countryside, but..). there… it’s amazing that they have Reiki and that that is what sustains them. And I believe that that’s true in many, many countries.
3:29
Reiki is coming into its own as a spiritual practice as well… I think in the US is one of the most profound developments that’s happened with the Reiki students is that they’ve gone from in being a kind of thing that you used to like “get rid of headaches” to really being in touch with their core essence of who they are. I know that was that’s my story. And because of that my whole priority of life is very different. And if you get a community of people like that then their priority of their whole town becomes different.
4:17

1:44
Trying to translate Japanese into English or any other language is difficult and what he doesn’t really understand is that of course he can go to a generalized thing but she had full knowledge of Japanese and she had full knowledge of English and so her translation not just included the linguistic translation but included the cultural and the practice translation. So for me it’s like “well why not Reiki Master?”. And I agree with him on the point that in Japan you don’t declare yourself a Reiki Master and you don’t declare yourself a Grand Master. These are done through recognition. And I was not … I didn’t declare myself a Reiki Master nor did I declare myself a lineage bearer or a Grand Master. That was done through the recognition of my grandmother and of my colleagues and of students. So I’m fine with being Phyllis Furumoto and this other part for me really is important. That recognition has a lot to bear. So I agree with him on that point. (0306) … (räusper) And…
3:11
And as an aside to term these politics, for me it’s not politics because we are not talking about social behaviour. We are talking about the manifestation of spiritual practice which has a totally different meaning. So there are….
3:34

2:48
So my experience of the US$ 10’000 is that people receive the US$ 10’000 through.. when they are ready through the universe by totally miraculous ways. I mean even the people who have the money in the bank, really don’t have the money in the bank. I mean people have more money in the bank but for some people because they inherited or they worked hard for it or they won the lottery, but most people don’t spend US$ 10’000 on a whim. And you know Reiki Master candidates are asked to give these 10’000 saying this is all that I have, this is what represents my life commitment to Reiki. And it means something to them. It’s not a matter of bucks in the bank, definitely not…..
3:54
It’s part of our spiritual practice. So if we were talking about a technique this is the thing that I keep hammering away, if we talk about a technique of course you can shop and say “ok, I want to learn Swedish massage and in this school I go for, you know, 6 months, you know 2 hours a day and I pay this amount of money. For somebody.. for another school I go for a year but I go all day but it costs me 5 times more. So I can choose which one I want, what kind of technique building I want to get. But here you are talking about a spiritual practice. And everybody, as far as I’m concerned, has the capability to hand me US$ 10’000 when they’re ready. And it has proven to be so time after time after time. And most of these people, this is the most money they’ve ever accumulated in their lifetime and probably never will again.
5:01

6:27
So we’re again talking about a spiritual practice. We have to get above social norms and social judgements and social understandings about how much dignity a person can have. So for instance, like I have a couple of stories: So there is this master who’s been teaching in Mexico. She is from Chile and there is a woman who comes to her 1st degree class and she recognizes her as a woman that sells lemons on the street corner by her place where she teaches Reiki. And she says “what are you doing here?” and she said “well I want to take 1st degree Reiki”. And she said “oh, okay, well…” and she said “I have the money, I have the money” the woman this lemonseller says. So she said “okay”, so she taught her 1st degree, everything is fine. So a year or two later she you know keeps coming back and finally the lemonseller says to her “I want to take 2nd degree now. I have the money saved”. And she said… and inside this Reiki Master said to herself “I can’t accept it, this is like a half a years’ lemons you know sold, I can’t accept this”. And so she calls me on the phone. And I said “who are you to steal this woman’s dignity? She knows exactly what she is doing! She knows exactly what she saved this money for! And you in your middle-class complacency are going to steal her dignity and say ‘you can’t do it because you’re too poor’. Like that is totally crazy!” And she said “okay, so there’s one more thing” So I said “okay, so what?” She said “Well she’s illiterate” and I said “So?” She said “Well, she’ll never learn the symbols”. I said “Are you crazy? This woman was smart enough to be able to sell lemons and save US$ 500, are you kidding me?” like, I mean, you know the wonderful thing about Reiki that brings us as Masters to these places where we confront our own believe systems about people, about what’s intelligence, about you know… significance of social standing, I mean, all these different things.
9:25

0:00
The question is, do I… start again
0:12
The question is, do I consider Reiki a complementary therapy or just a spiritual practice? Well there are two things that I have to adjust in the question. First of all I don’t consider… I don’t like the term “complementary therapy”, so I don’t consider Reiki to be a complementary therapy. I consider Reiki to be a bonified option for anybody who wants to have benefit on a physical, emotional, mental or spiritual level.
0:49
Reiki is a healing practice, not a complementary practice. It is often why people come to becoming a Reiki student and for sure it is the aspect of this practice that people come to be relieved of symptoms or perhaps to have some condition corrected in the physical body or in other bodies.
1:27

1:27
In the practice that I teach and maintain Usui Shiki Ryoho I have four different aspects: the healing practice, personal development, spiritual discipline and mystic order. And for me the 1st degree student in their first class in their first Reiki treatment experiences each of these, maybe just for a fleeting second, but it’s there.
2:01
So I would like to generalize into all Reiki practice, because I think that this is true from what I have observed and what I have heard from Reiki practitioners in many, many different forms of practice, that Reiki comes and it heals in the large sense of the word and the small sense of the word, it provokes, often our practice provokes own personal development and Reiki treatments can provoke a personal development process in the person that we are treating.
2:45

2:45
If practiced long enough and if needed, Reiki can become someone’s spiritual practice. And this for me is a choice of the student and if it is a choice of the student then it becomes a much broader landscape from which to operate as a human being. And as a community of people who practice a spiritual practice, such as Reiki, then we are a mystic order, a group of people who are able to have mystic experience without the benefit or intercession of someone else, like a minister, a priest, a facilitator, whatever. It’s really direct between ourselves and the universe. 0345 … 0348 räusper
3:53
So I can’t really answer the question “Yes” or “No”. (laughs) 0400 (René: thank you)
4:00