Reiki Cairns Teaching Usui Shiki Ryoho, the gentle folk healing art of Reiki

The book shop had several Reiki books and although I don’t usually give them any attention, I picked up one that looked nice on the shelf, a full colour glossy pages production.

As I flipped the pages I stopped at a page with a photo of Hawayo Takata, and there I read that her stories were untrue, that “she lied”, based on the opinion of yet another author of several well known Reiki books! I put the book back on the shelf questioning what possessed the writer to say that.

Had either author spoken with those whom Takata taught, and who knew her well, they would have been told that she would not do that, that she just didn’t lie. It was not something she would do. I have heard those very words from these persons.

So how did these words get into print, a judgement about someone that the authors didn’t know, and one that becomes fact for those without the experience to determine otherwise? As an author, one becomes an authority, its a context that the act of authoring a book creates.

It is too easy to repeat the words of another author. Its also easy to jump to a conclusion because it doesn’t fit with the facts or the story the author has decided are “the truth”. What can be true in one sense can and may not be true in another, and the truth suffers to the degree someone needs to make another person “wrong” to support a particular perspective.

The many stories from Takata all fit in my experience, though there were times I didn’t understand her meaning. But then, I was making them fit into my meanings. She didn’t explain herself. She didn’t lie. She didn’t need to.