Fantasy
Mrs Takata had a simple and direct style of teaching that was very “Japanese”. She was the teacher and the student was the student. As a student you were expected to do as she taught and the learning arose from your practice. She would say “Let Reiki teach you”.
One of many anecdotes is her response to questions and descriptions related to the personal experiences of the Reiki practice, that could be described as esoteric or metaphysical. She would simply say “Fantasy!” and go on to whatever was of practical concern in that moment. She was seemingly uninterested in what these experiences meant or what they were about.
I was not one of those students, nor did I ever meet Takata. Even so, her response has exercised my mind over the years when the same sorts of questions and stories were received from students taking my own classes. It was, and is, in fact a brilliant and practical response. She wasn’t saying that the experience wasn’t real, just that the mind’s meaning was without a basis in reality.
Imposing meanings and making explanations about our experiences is something the mind does automatically. It makes up a story of what happened, or why something just happened, which doesn’t need to be based on fact, can be fanciful and even magical. With so many facets of our experience that are genuinely in the realm of the unknown, the mind’s “meaning” is easily just a fantasy.
Ending the stories that lie at the heart of our human suffering is the way to the healing of our lives and hearts. The mind’s fantasies about what could be, are only another distraction from what is real, the “here now”, and “what is”.