The Reiki Cafe 

Has anyone read this yet? Just found it on the web ( there is an ebook available which Im still trying to download). The author met several Usui students, 11 of them over 90 years old & apparently with a different perspective of Reiki than that which is commonly taught in the States. Should be interesting.

peace & joy,
holobon

Ooops! Forgot to mention I found the ebook at johreiki.net. Click on New Reiki Books & you can get a download.

peace & joy,
holobon

Holobon,

Thanks for the site. I have downloaded the E-book and am enjoying it. I recommend it for all to read.

Donna

Dear Reikimerlot,
Please let me know what you think. I made the mistake of reading other articles on this site & the one about the "truth" of Jesus bothered me so I havent gotten to the Reiki material as yet.

peace & joy,
holobon

Oh do you have a link to the article about Jesus?

Some websites are nice abotu such things while others may not be.

I think there are alot of things that do not historically click about the Bible. Rob has a website that will give you the mean view.

From what i read about the e-book you mentioned. this really isn't anything new. the past few years or so have been filled with info on the net and in books.

and traditional Reiki is much different. From the bits i have seen here and there it is easy to see why the western version is as it is. But it seems to lose some important stuff here and there. Different understandings of the symbols and such.

Alot of this info seems to be ignored by folks. People seem to just go on teaching how they have always taught and it still seems most do not try to incorporate this new info.

Dear Conflagration,

johreiki.net is the site, go to articles & at the bottom of that list is Truth about Christ & it will also have a link to another site within the article.
Everyone has an opinion about the Bible. :) It always makes me smile when someone says they know the "truth" that a million others do not. Personally, I dont think the world will come to a screeching halt if the things we were taught were later proven incorrect. A little respect when dealing with belief systems is nice though. Everyone is so quick to tear apart other peoples beliefs & elevate their own truth. Isnt this what wars are fought over? Sorry, on a soapbox here.
My interest was in what the elderly Usui students had to say about what Usui taught them. Have been interested in that ever since I discovered ( before my RM did) that the Usui traditional Reiki I was taught was not really traditional Usui. At the time I did not realize that western Reiki was such a mish mash. Have read some of the material dealing with the new info that has come out. :)
peace & joy,
holobon
P.S. When you said Rob's site gave the mean view: did you mean middle of the road mathematical type mean or something else? :)

LOL no i meant the not nice view.

The site has some good valid points.

I consider all belief systems flawed as they are from seperateness. I think there is Truth in all of them.

I don't care to tear down other's beliefs. Only that I wish to know the truth behind such things. To see the root where they truly come from.

I do think that modern western society often tears into other religions and seems to ignore the info that comes about in terms of Christianity.

But in general I think folks only see their side as valid.

For instance we are often taught in school that pagan ways are all about the poorly educated seeking to understand nature and such. Greek and Roman mythology is not really taught as being valid religious stories in example. Any more mainstream religion has to be left out of schools currently ( well it's supposed to be anyways)but some things get passed on because they are just "stories" which to me is just totally rude. It's looked at as totally fictitious.

I believe in seeing these things historically we get more of an idea of what religion X is all about.

www.crossveil.org
LOL

Namaste

Rob
Truth is not a property of language because language has not been able to express abstract ideas as efficiently as concrete items

Dear Conflagration,

I agree, the history of a story/belief/teaching is very important & every belief system has flaws. Getting to the core truth can be a convoluted ride!
It appears to me that you are right regarding the human tendency for tunnel vision.
Perhaps there are times when our stories seem more important to us than the truth? Or maybe we dont like to look foolish. It is a horrible feeling when you admit the fact that you believed a lie.
I have been wondering lately if subtle disrespect is so rampant in our culture that we just dont see it.
Well, you got me thinking...a good post!! :)

peace & joy,
holobon

In alot of ways i think there is that subtle disrespect. I don't think it's intentional it's just how people were raised.

For instance I have a boss that laughs at the idea of gremlins during WW2. He talked about how everyone was just being silly and such. How they were looking for reasons to cover up bad mechanical work. I see this as a possibility but he casually dismisses the whole spirit thing in general.
He thinks it's fairy tale nonsense.

Yet he is a devout christian who believes God turned people into pillars of salt and Jesus died and was reborn. This to him is not flakey.

To me it's funny to see this kind of attitude. People will say other gods/goddesses are myth but the Bible is no less "spectacular" and they will attend church every Sunday.

For my wedding we wore chinese style clothes. Frog button kung-fu style shirts and such. the ladies all had cool chinese dresses. I heard a comment or two about "costumes" and "uniforms" so i made aa sarcastic joke and was like " Yeah some folks call this clothing" to which they kinda got the point.

I'm not saying i'd never use such info to support my views ina debate and/or argument. But i'm really curious to what the actual historical basis is for alot of this. Seeing the truer more traditional understandings and seeing how they correlate to the modern view of such things. Like with the Reiki symbols you can find info on the buddhist perspective of the symbols ( the site that sticks out to me is fascin8or's) and they make more sense and seem more complete. Yet it is extremely simple to see where the western view came from.

I think people don't like to be wrong. Let's look at christianity. If the truth of the bible is different enough it means people have been following something flawed for 2000 years. Which means that there is the chance all these folks who thought they were saved aren't because the message got mixed up over time. It means the churches lose power over the various congregations because they have led folks through falsehood when they were looked at as THE Source for such information. I don't think the world would be thrown into turmoil or anything. But I think alot of people will have a much different view. Imagine going through life thinking you're definitely a shoe in for Heaven to find out someone 2000 years ago screwed up and now you're at a point where you are worried for your soul. I think psychologicaly this can have some serious effects for some folks. But more likely , and sad as it is to say, i think the masses will cling to what they have been doing because they are told that such things are the work of Satan. Even if the truth is drastically different, people want to believe they have been right the whole time.

Dear Conflagration,

I think for some it may be more than not wanting to be wrong. There is something that rocks us very deeply when tenets of faith are toppled ( faith in love, govt, someone's word, the Easter Bunny & Santa Claus,etc). Its as if the ground under you is rocking. If you have not thought outside the box or considered possibilities beyond what you were taught this is very scarey. There are always those who want to be right but there is also the fear factor & the foolish factor. Many would rather just keep on keeping on rather than examine, question & challenge their status quo.
Just like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men said " You cant handle the truth"!!!! ( You meaning "we" humans).
Change comes slowly. Even revolution takes time. Evolution is forever.

peace & joy,
holobon

It should perhaps be said that this infomation(on Usui), as far as I can see, has not been verified by anyone other than the one westerner who has seen it. He was shown it before he got into reiki and he is a keen martial artist. i.e qi gong etc.

Having said that it does seem to fit.
It is said that Usui studied a shinto version of Qi Gong (which at some time may have been adapted from the Taoist version) and many Qi gong people do say that there are a lot of simularities between Usui's methods and Qi gong.

Namaste

Rob
Truth is not a property of language because language has not been able to express abstract ideas as efficiently as concrete items