1. PREHISTORY

One of the Reiki masters' meetings . Several masters are present ,Phyllis Furumoto is present . We are having a discussion on some topic , not being able to come to the consensus or any kind of conclusion . Things are becoming hot . And everybody feels uncomfortable and somehow stuck . When the conflict reaches its climax , Phyllis utters a few sentences and the energy of the whole group shifts dramatically . There is clarity , deepness and silence in the air .

I'm going to bed this night still beeing under the impression of this miracle . What happened ? Where did this strong feeling of conflict and discomfort come from? Where did it go ? What did Phyllis's words do to the energy of the group ? All these questions keep running in my head preventing me from sleeping . The answer seems to be somewhere very near , somewhere around . ..

It comes to me . Eventually it comes , at the moment , when I'm really tired of thinking and half asleep , I suddenly feel it's coming just like that !

There was a conflict , because some people were saying something and the others were saying something just the opposite . Both sides felt they were right and , most surprisingly , both sides felt that their opponents were also right . There was a logical contradiction , which was impossible for our minds to comprehend . We got confused , angry , uncomfortable . Then Phyllis came up with some words , and these words were not about the subject . They were about us , they helped us to move one level deeper and to hold this question not as a contradiction anymore , but as a paradox . A paradox , which is the possibility for two opposite statements to exist at the same time .

It seems to me , that this is one of the most important functions of the Reiki master : to watch the student encountering the contradiction on the way , to watch him struggling with it , to be patient and wait for the right moment to say something or to perform an action which will help the student to move deeper into the realm of the paradox and to learn how to deal with things which are illogical , not understandable for the mind but still very obviously existing right in front of us .

Here are some thoughts about how these contradictions can express themselves in connection with the elements of the form of the Usui System .

2.HISTORY

The contradiction of the element of History is becoming more and more obvious right now as more and more people are becoming interested in this particular element . There are many spiritual traditions that have stories as a part of the learning process . In the Sufi tradition , for example , it is said that a student can attain enlightenment just by fully understanding seven stories about Mulla Nasruddin put in a certain order .

The History of Reiki is certainly a number of stories put in a certain order . But at the same time they are not stories made up by some wise people for the teaching purposes , at least not all of them . Most of what is told actually happened and this may be checked . There are documents and people who remember the heroes of these stories and , most important of all , this History is being continued every moment , and each of us has his or her part in it just by being a part of the Reiki community . So , the History has a quality of myth , describing a certain pattern , the way things are happening and repeating themselves in the lives of all of us - the students of the System . And the History has a quality of the history in the common understanding of the word - a number of events and dates . For the second quality facts are important : names , dates , events . For the first one facts do not matter , what matters is teaching .

How do we hold these two qualities ? Being a master , do I present the History at the class as history or as a story ? Or both ? Am I able to pass both qualities on at the same time ?
Being a student , what am I interested in most of all ? Do I challenge the words of my master as being factually true ? Do I challenge this story as something which is supposed to reflect my own process of growth ?
Do I accept the challenge of this story with all its contradictions as part of the teaching this System provides me with ?

3.SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE

Most of us learn about the concept of the Lineage Bearer in the first degree class . Then gradually we get to know more about it , from seeing the pictures of grandmasters and hearing the story during the class to meeting the Lineage Bearer in person . Meanwhile we are struggling with the questions like: Is there any hierarchy in the Usui System ? Are some masters better than the other ones ? Does the title "Grandmaster " mean that this person is the "main" master ?

Theoretically we know , that all the masters are equal , but being a student it's very hard to believe , especially at the beginning , that our master is not the best one. Then we start doubting this last statement and sometimes go through a very difficult process of loosing illusions about the master who initiated us .
Becoming a young master we are tempted to see all the masters as very equal , because we are now members of the club , we don't want to be worse or lower than anybody else .

This whole process influences our ideas about the Spiritual Lineage . Sometimes we need to have someone to learn from , sometimes we are quite satisfied with just teaching , sometimes we want to learn from someone , but this someone must be different and somewhat better than someone everybody else are learning from . Going through each of those periods we give different answers to the question : "What is the role of the Lineage Bearer in the Usui System ? "

But none of these answers would resolve the contradiction : All the masters are masters . Some of them play special roles in the Reiki community , and some don't . And then there is a person , who is playing a very special role , has a special name , and is treated in a special way by other masters . Why is that ? And how is it decided , who is going to play this very special role ?

The variety of responses could be from total surrender to being an absolute rebel . And it doesn't resolve the contradiction .

4.PRINCIPLES

If we take this element seriously , the contradiction will become obvious pretty soon after hearing the Principles in the class . As soon as we get angry or start worrying and become aware about it , we realise that to follow the Principles is not in our hands . The best we can do is to notice that we are not following them . Then the question arises : Why learn them ? What for ? And how come people who are teaching us don't follow these Principles themselves so often ?

The Principles give us a description of a Good Person . Sometimes I think that the real value of this element is to make us face the contradiction : We all know what a good person should be like . But we don't follow it .

Somehow we do not want to follow. And even if we want to , we can't . Something is preventing us from doing it . This is upsetting , it creates discomfort , which is , if being with it long enough , very rich in discoveries and very profound experiences .

5.ORAL TRADITION

Sometimes a student comes to me saying : "I know about Reiki from such and such a book ". And I go : "Don't read books about Reiki , it's an oral tradition". And then I hear : " But if I didn't read this book , I would have never come to your class !"

This one is the "on the surface" contradiction . But there is a deeper one as well . I think most of the students would agree now that in order to learn Reiki one has to meet a living master in person . There is something being transmitted through the presence while the words are being spoken . It's a little mysterious , but not illogical.

The illogical part comes in when we realise that there is no guarantee and no way to check if anything was actually transmitted through person to person contact .

Sometimes we can judge by the results later on, sometimes the results are very difficult to see . But at the moment of transmitting we've got to have faith , in other words we have to rely on the knowledge , which is far beyond logic .

6.FORM OF TEACHING

Here we encounter the basic contradiction between the form and the essence. If Reiki is in everything , why do we have a special form of learning it ? Or :
Every person is unique , why does everybody have to go through the same classes ?
It might be even easier to handle , because we meet these kinds of questions in our daily lives as well . It doesn't mean we know the way to be with them , we are just used to them , so they don't disturb us so much .

That's why , I think , it's very important for the master to be alert and watch if the student has the slightest difficulty with the form . It might be expressed by the tendency to "break the rules" or by following the form fanatically . In both cases the work of the master is to make the contradiction even sharper instead of compromising the teaching by fulfilling the student's needs .

7.MONEY

This is probably the first contradiction we encounter in relationship to Reiki , since we have to deal with it even before the class . Why do we have to pay for something, which is available for everyone ?

At some point we learn , that treating people is good for the practitioner , because it is his own healing and spiritual practice , as well as teaching is a spiritual practice for the master . Then why do we have to pay for other people's spiritual practice ? Buddist monks are meditating for free !

We are really lucky to have this element in the System . Money is a very contradictory thing itself , and in connection with Reiki it brings us to the very basic question : " I was given this life for free , why should I pay for maintaining it ?"

This brings in the whole set of difficult questions about work . What is work ? Something unpleasant and tiring which I should do in order to earn my living ? Or something enjoyable , which is the way for me to express myself in this world ?

For many people , especially Reiki masters , practicing the Usui System becomes an attempt to combine doing something enjoyable and earning one's living . Is there any contradiction in it ? Or can these two go together perfectly well ?

Having given the answers to these questions should we have an honest look at what our experience is in combining enjoyment and earning money ?

8.TREATMENTS , SYMBOLS , INITIATIONS

These three elements are the ways to practice Reiki at three different levels . From the point of view of the contradictions they have a lot in common . In all three of them the basic contradiction between the form and the essence comes up very strongly .

We learn from our masters how to do the basic treatment , how to draw the symbols and how to perform the initiating ritual . What we also learn is :"Follow your hands" and "Reiki will teach you".

Our ways to deal with it along the path vary from following what we were taught precisely to changing the form of almost every element . What doesn't change is that we still need some kind of a form . Is there a borderline in the form changing, after crossing which the essence gets influenced ?

If we look back , we may find out that our individual answers to this and the ideas held in the different parts of the Reiki community are changing as time goes by . I would daresay they are changing in cycles .

9.EPILOGUE

We are living in the world of contradictions . Our logic has very limited capacities , even science is going to agree with this now . An electron is a particle and a wave at same time , whether we understand it or not !

But in order to avoid seeing these contradictions , we created for ourselves an artificial world , built on the laws of logic . We did it so well , that we can be born into it , live in it and die in it without ever knowing that there is more than just this artificial world .

Nevertheless , the most valuable things in life are the most contradictory . Take love as an example . As one of the russian poets put it so well : " She says she loves him , but doesn't know why� What a bitch ! "
Take beauty . How many people in the whole world can tell you what is so beautiful about Mona Lisa ?
Take death . How come we can't controll it ? If it is my life , why is it not in my hands to stop it ? Is it my life ?
Speaking about life� Let's not even speak about it . It is taken so much for granted , that we forgot about it being the very source of all contradictions .We learn how to avoid those , we gradually become masters of avoidance . Replacing love with marriage , beauty with usefulness , not being able to control our own lives we are trying to control lives of our family , friends , all the people around .This is the good old training we get from our society .

Systems like the one of doctor Usui make us aware about the contradictions of life in such a way as to make avoidance impossible. I want us to see it very clearly : contradictions are not in the System . It's life itself, which is completely illogical, and the Usui System just makes us see it and teaches us how to hold it in a new way , as a paradox , including and accepting all the different facets of life , so it brings us laughter instead of anger , joy instead of confusion , bliss instead of despair . Going along the path we begin to understand , that contradictions are not to be afraid of , they are actually fun ! And that is the greatest gift anything can bring to us in this lifetime .