Comments on: Earn Your Reiki Training

By: Nadya

Nadya — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:15:15 +0000

What lovely stories!
When I met my Reiki Master, I ‘knew’ that was something I needed to do! I took my first degree class a week or two later, then she moved away!

No one I knew did Reiki (I was already offering massage), then I met another MT to exchange with, & when I realized she was also a Master, began trading sessions toward my 2nd degree initiation. . . . & got a letter from ‘my’ Master, saying she’d rented a beach house, & when she was offering classes!
For $25- I could stay overnight (I live ~ an hour inland) as well, & I recall going outside & dancing the symbols under the stars late at night.

The next year, 1991, I moved to Breitenbush Hot Springs (where the annual NW Reiki Gathering is held), & contacted my Master (still living out of state) to let her know where I was, so she could contact me when she’d return to Oregon, & I could take the next step – Mastery. She told me her dau. was expecting a baby, & she’d be up in a month or two! All staff made minimum wage (worker owned co-op) plus board. The 3 other therapists on our massage team had taken 1st Degree already, & were slated for level two soon. I met with the manager/founder, & ‘petitioned’ for help with the class fee.
I commented that maybe my teacher could initiate the team members in the 2nd level, & he asked ‘won’t you be able to initiate them??’ oh – gulp – of course! So I agreed that I’d initiate other Healing Arts Team members (current & future) in exchange for my master training (& we arranged space for the class & comp. stays for the teacher in exchange)
While she was up, she taught several Mastery students, & some of her Portland stu. took their second degree training with us auditing.

Later that summer, I attended the Reiki gathering, & met Phyllis & others in the Reiki community – such a lovely time! A couple of years later, I’d begun playing harp (& ’sending’ Reiki with music) & Phyllis invited me to play for the gathering after we’d done a meditation!
I treasure the way my ‘earning’ my Mastery played out! I initiated many of the Breitenbush staff members (I invited non Healing Arts staff to pay a small fee, or think of something to barter!), & 19 years later, several of those Reiki practitioners & a few of my Master students are still on staff, serving the springs, holding sacred space.

By: Pamela Miles

Pamela Miles — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:56:22 +0000

The more I contemplate this story, the more deeply I appreciate how many ways there are to earn one’s training.

We have no way of knowing all that was behind this woman’s tears. She might have been foolish with money or recently lost a job or just feeling hopeless–the list of possibilities is endless.

I find the power of her willingness to be present with all she was feeling so very inspiring. Instead of staying with the pain as she did, it’s easy to turn away or distract ourselves when seemingly insurmountable obstacles appear in front of what we want. And of course when we do that, the obstacles become truly insurmountable.

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:26:10 +0000

Thank you, Pamela. This is wonderful! It’s interesting that in the end the woman did not “earn” the fee, but she was gifted with it. One might say that her commitment to taking the Reiki and her yearning brought it to her.

By: David Bandas

David Bandas — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:56:17 +0000

The idea of energetic and financial exchange for Reiki treatment as well as teaching is so richly complex!

As a practitioner, if I find myself wanting to “give” Reiki, a misnomer in itself but bear with me, it doesn’t ever take very long to explore a little deeper and discover that I have expectations about what I may receive in return. Another discovery is that if someone is not required to pay, they may be reticent about returning for treatment for fear of imposing upon me. Appropriate payment mitigates this concern.

By: Gisela Stewart

Gisela Stewart — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:41:28 +0000

Mrs Takata’s perspective is very similar to the Yamaguchis’, who, like Haywayo Takata, have learnt Reiki from Chujiro Hayashi and pass this on in the same way as they have received it from their teacher, nothing added, nothing taken away. (Jikiden Reiki means ‘directly transmitted’).
Tadao Yamaguchi stresses the importance of making an ‘effort’ in exchange for the teachings, based on the idea that we value more that for which we have worked hard and have chosen to make a priority.

love
gisela

By: Sunny

Sunny — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:33:03 +0000

i really thought money was important in learning reiki.. my master told me its just like energy exchange .. you gotta value others time and work and money is just the thing that is chosen by the others to meet the requirements.
I really appriciate what Mrs.takata said.
Its like the master was teaching a lesson to Marta even when she wasnt in the class.. so good..
now a days when reiki learning is more of money then reiki itself.. i really appriciate Marta for sharing this!!
Thanks to the reiki in medicine too!!

By: Jeffrey Hotchkiss

Jeffrey Hotchkiss — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:57:07 +0000

I believe I’ve borrowed and read a book by Marta, last year when I wanted to fill in some of the blanks in my knowledge of Mrs. Takata’s story. This one you have shared is lovely, and gives me another way of expressing the key principle of exchange. I am most grateful for Marta’s sharing of these stories.

There has been a lot of ferment and reinvigoration of Reiki lately, with the lineages coming out of Japan and the like. Through it all, my gratitude for Mrs. Takata’s giving of her life’s work to bringing Reiki to us, grows stronger. She is present in so many ways in our healing, day to day.

Let her guide your hands.

Blessings,
Jeffrey