Diminuitive Dynamo - part 2

After Mrs Takata recovered her health, she was ready for the next step: 

Learning how to do this wonderful Reiki! 

She asked Mr Hayashi, but he was reluctant to teach a Western person Reiki, feeling that Japan had already 'lost' enough of its teachings to the US. “It is a closely guarded treasure. It is for Japanese people only.” She WAS an American woman! When she wanted to see something, she stopped and looked. When she wanted to know something, she asked. She respected his answer, and said no more; but she wasn't about to give up!

One day, her surgeon, Dr Maeda, asked how she was doing. She told him that she had a reaction after the forth treatment. Then, for 14 days & nights, 'bathroom, bathroom, bathroom! So much I had to crawl back to my room. I was able to walk for the first time December 24, my birthday; and the next day I was a new person. I gained 14 pounds, and lost 10 years! I am getting well, & I want to learn Reiki. Please, doctor, help me!'

Studying Reiki would involve remaining in Japan for at least another year – could she do this? Yes! It would not be inexpensive, how would she pay for it? She told Dr Maeda “I'll SELL My HOUSE!” … 'But, if you sell your house, where will you live when you return to Hawaii?' “There is much illness in my family, if I don't have my health, what good is my house? If I have my health, I can buy another house!”

Finally, Dr Maeda decided to support her effort, & took out traditional writing implements, a brush, a sumi stick & the Ink stone. He used a scroll 'about two and ½ yards long.' ground ink, & wrote a letter, recommending Mrs Takata as a student in Hayashi's Reiki School. Because the doctor wrote the letter himself, & pleaded Mrs Takata's case, that because of her health, because of her family, she needed the tools to help herself & her family. He granted her request.

So Mrs Takata took care of her 'family details,' and moved into the Hayashi home. She received the initiations over four days, & learned to give Reiki treatments. In later years as she taught, she would say “spend half your treatment time on the front of the body, because this is the main factory. It processes the fuel taken in and delivers it to the places where it is needed.”

Each morning, from 7-noon, the interns gave treatments to those who came to the clinic. They worked in pairs, sixteen practitioners, treating eight clients. They had an hour for lunch, then made home visits, individually, treating each client for 60-90 minutes. Sometimes she was given just a scrap of paper with the address. The streets were not simple to navigate, nor the addresses simple to find – yet with the help of Reiki, she always arrived on time, & offered the treatment. 

Sometimes they would ride a train for several hours to reach the home.  She occasionally traveled with Dr Hayashi to a luxurious home, even having opportunity to treat a princess! They usually finished by 7 in the evening, and she found both a hot bath & a hot meal awaiting her. She was ready for the next level, Oku Den, 'if you can afford it.'

So in 1936, she paid $500- US for the next training, and then returned to Kauai. At first, she had no intentions of practicing Reiki professionally, but just to help her family & retain her own health. But as she treated family & friends, word spread, & more & more people sought healing. In October of 1936, she opened her office in Kapaa.

November of that year, Hayashi Sensei & his daughter came to Hawaii, first to Kauai, then to Honolulu to offer demonstrations & lectures about Reiki, at no charge. He also offered private consultations.

By February of 1938, Dr Hayashi had initiated both his wife and Mrs Takata as Reiki Masters, announcing it at a banquet in Honolulu, & saying “she has had many tests and has lived up to the principles. I ask you to give her your support. She is the Master and she can carry on.”

Over the next 35 years, Hawayo Takata offered healings, traveled back & forth between the US and Hawaii, & taught many people the 2 levels of Reiki she called First & Second Degree (In Japan, the 6^th level was the lowest level, with level 1 being the top or Mastery). In the early 70s, she began initiating Masters, including her Granddaugher Phyllis Furomoto, in 1979. She initiated 22 Masters before she made her transition at almost 80 years old, in Seattle Washington, December 12, 1980.

Hawayo Takata

Takata affirmed “It is not I that does the healing, but the God Power coming through me that heals. Place your hands, trust your hands, allow the Reiki Energy to flow through you into your client without concerning yourself as to how or when the healing will take place.”

Information from my Master's stories, from The Reiki Sourcebook, from Fran Brown, Living Reiki, Takata's Teachings