Review: Living Reiki, Takata's Teachings

Fran Brown, the author of Living Reiki, Takata's Teachings, was one of the 22 masters trained directly by Mrs. Takata. She also had good quality access to Mrs. Takata and in this book has collected the oral stories she told to the students.

Hawayo Takata taught her students orally, with little or no written instruction. Much of her teaching was through telling stories which she claimed was the true origins of Reiki, and the history of its development. We now know her stories did not tell the whole truth, yet the worlds understanding at the time of this books publication (1992) is that Takata was telling the truth.

This book contains the Reiki History as most of us learned it. Among them is the story of Usui's meditation in which he found Reiki, his first miracles, and so forth.

As a historical artifact, this book is vitally important to understanding the history and development of Reiki. Even though we now know Takata's story of Reiki's history left out or changed some facts, it is her story which most of us who have learned Reiki know. Her story, whether completely true or not, has affected the development of Reiki in the world.

I had occasion to exchange email with Fran Brown a couple years ago. She now knows for herself the true history of Reiki. On her web site (http://www.reikifranbrown.com/) she has pictures of Mt. Kurama and describes having met with students trained by both Usui and Hayashi. In the email she said she now regards Takata's stories as "teaching stories" in the same vein as the parables used by Jesus to teach his message. Takata's stories are not useful as literal truth, but are very instructive in the message they convey in any case.

For example, the story of how Usui learned the value of charging money for giving Reiki treatment is still lodged in my mind. The story goes that Usui had given healings to some people, healed them of their illnesses allowing them to stop being beggars living on the street. Then later he found them again living on the street begging for a living. He learned that when giving a healing, that the recipient must see value in being healed in order to stay healed, and that one effective way to convey that value is to charge money for the healing session.

Whether that episode actually happened in life, it is an interesting story that gives much grist for thought.

This story and more is contained in Living Reiki by Fran Brown.