Colin wrote:Still can't see the Reiki Principles though ...

meant to say, probably the reason you are having difficulty seeing them is that the wording is not the same as in the more familiar 'paper & ink' depictions. Also the memorial stone uses a combination of kanji and the katakana phonetic script, whereas the more usual depictions generally use kanji and the hiragana phonetic script.

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Rlei_ki wrote:

Colin wrote:Still can't see the Reiki Principles though ...

meant to say, probably the reason you are having difficulty seeing them is that the wording is not the same as in the more familiar 'paper & ink' depictions. Also the memorial stone uses a combination of kanji and the katakana phonetic script, whereas the more usual depictions generally use kanji and the hiragana phonetic script.

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Thanks, James. I can see some familiar kanji now in that area and I realized that the wording was not the same as the 'paper and ink' depictions. No wonder the memorial stone is difficult even for Japanese people to translate, involving old style kanji and katakana.

For the benefit of those who may not have seen a fairly literal translation of the Reiki Principles section of the memorial, Rick Rivard's website has this:

Looking back, the main purpose of Reiho was not only to heal diseases, but also to have right mind and healthy body so that people would enjoy and experience happiness in life. Therefore when it comes to teaching, first let the student understand well the Meiji Emperor's admonitory, then in the morning and in the evening let them chant and have in mind the five precepts which are:

First we say, today don't get angry.
Secondly we say, don't worry.
Third we say, be thankful.
Fourth we say, endeavor your work.
Fifth we say, be kind to people.
(My friend Emiko Arai was very firm about the above wording.)

This is truly a very important admonitory. This is the same way wisemen and saints disciplined themselves since ancient times. Sensei named these the "secret methods of inviting happiness", "the spiritual medicine of many diseases" to clarify his purpose to teach. Moreover, his intention was that a teaching method should be as simple as possible and not difficult to understand. Every morning and every evening, sit still in silence with your hands in prayer (gassho) and chant the affirmations, then a pure and healthy mind would be nurtured. It was the true meaning of this to practice this in daily life, using it. (i.e. put it into practical use) This is the reason why Reiho became so popular.

Source: http://threshold.ca/reiki

Follow the link for Usui Memorial Translation in the Experienced Reiki practitioner articles section. (Lots of interesting stuff there!)

Any ideas as to where the photograph of the "paper and ink" version, said originally to be in Usui's own hand, came from? Could it really be from a secret shrine to Usui sensei, which contains his original brushing of the Reiki Principles and the original, now ubiquitous, photograph of Mikao Usui? A shrine so secret that only the likes of Dave King and Chris Marsh have been allowed access?

Ai to Hikari
Colin

Colin, you're contact in Japan, or James also. Can you guys find out how common, or acceptable, the practice of bones from one body being sperated, and placed in different graves/shrines. Ask Rick says.. http://www.threshold.ca/reiki/ .

not really acceptable in the west, though that doesn't mean it's same in Japan. Wanna know if possible please, .

Milarepa wrote:Colin, you're contact in Japan, or James also. Can you guys find out how common, or acceptable, the practice of bones from one body being sperated, and placed in different graves/shrines. Ask Rick says.. http://www.threshold.ca/reiki/ .

not really acceptable in the west, though that doesn't mean it's same in Japan. Wanna know if possible please, .

Hi Wayne

I didn't contact anyone in Japan but I did find this, which would tend to confirm that splitting the ashes into more than one urn for taking to different places is certainly not taboo and a distinct possibility:

This is from Wikipedia and the whole article is quite interesting!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_funeral

The coffin is placed on a tray in the crematorium. The family witnesses the sliding of the body into the cremation chamber. A cremation usually takes about two hours, and the family returns at a scheduled time when the cremation has been completed. According to the Yamaguchi Saijo Funeral Parlor and Crematorium in Sapporo, it takes about an hour and a half to cremate an adult body, 45 minutes for a child, 15 minutes for a stillborn baby.

The relatives pick the bones out of the ashes and transfer them to the urn using large chopsticks or metal picks, two relatives sometimes holding the same bone at the same time with their chopsticks (or, according to some sources, passing the bones from chopsticks to chopsticks). This is the only time in Japan when it is proper for two people to hold the same item at the same time with chopsticks. At all other times, holding anything with chopsticks by two people at the same time, or passing an item from chopsticks to chopsticks will remind all bystanders of the funeral of a close relative and is considered to be a major social faux pas. The bones of the feet are picked up first, and the bones of the head last. This is to ensure that the deceased is not upside down in the urn. The hyoid bone (a bone located in the neck) is the most significant bone to be put in the urn.

In some cases, the ashes may be divided between more than one urn, for example if part of the ashes are to go to a family grave, and another part to the temple , or even to a company grave or a burial in space. Many companies have company graves in the largest graveyard in Japan, Okuno-In on Mount Kōya, burial place of Kūkai (774 - 835). These graves are for former company employees and their relatives, and often have a gravestone related to the company business. For example, the coffee company UCC has a gravestone in the shape of a coffee cup, and a metal rocket sits on top of the gravesite of an aeronautics company.[citation needed]

Depending on the local custom the urn may stay at the family home for a number of days, or be taken directly to the graveyard.

Ai to Hikari
Colin

thanks for that Buddy! just goes to show how much cultures can be different!

Historically Wayne, in English culture, it was common for parts of bodies to be buried in different places, usually places that held special significance for that person. There is a story of a queen who kept the heart of her husband in a special container which she carried with her everywhere. She called it her "sweet heart and faithful companion" and is the source of our word "sweetheart". I'll try and find out who it was.

Ahh, thanks Chris, i never knew that!

Pandora wrote:Historically Wayne, in English culture, it was common for parts of bodies to be buried in different places, usually places that held special significance for that person. There is a story of a queen who kept the heart of her husband in a special container which she carried with her everywhere. She called it her "sweet heart and faithful companion" and is the source of our word "sweetheart". I'll try and find out who it was.

I found a link to the story:

http://www.scotland.org.uk/guide/Devorguilla_Balliol

thnaks! will check ot out now!

Hi everybody!

One of my traditional reiki friends sent me a hungarian translation of the 'questions and answers' section from the Hikkei. I know the text from Petter's book and from James Deacon's fantastic pages. This reiki guy (Master Gyorgy Fodor, Hungary) and his followers have a strong relationship to the Gakkai in Tokio. He often goes to Japan and learns reiki straight from the Gakkai masters. They spent a lot of money on translating the Hikkei text to hungarian, which they own.

The text is basically the same which can be found on Deancon's page and in Petter's book. BUT! There is an important section, where it differs from the formers. In the answer of the question 'How does Usui Reiki Ryoho work?' the last sentence 'One day, there will be a scientific explanation.' is completely missing.

Another difference can be found in 'What does the government think?'

Deacon's text (which is similar to Petter's) is the following:

'On February 6th 1922, Parliamentary Representative Teiji Matsushita, asked the Budget Committee about the government's position on therapists practicing spiritual and psycho-therapy without a medical practitioner's licence.

Mr Ushio, a Committee member replied "Little more than a decade ago hypnosis and similar practices were considered demonic, but nowadays, after proper research these practices are effectively used to treat psychiatric patients. It is difficult to try to solve all human problems with medical science. Physicians adhere to scientific medical practices in order to treat disease. The Medical Faculty does not consider touch therapy or electro-therapy to be medical practices."'

While Fodor's text (I mean the English translation) is:

'On February 6th 1922, a member of House of Representatives of the Japanese Empire, Dr. Omamatsu (member of the Budget Committee) asked that there are a numbers of spiritual and mental healing methods developed not by physicians, these methods give their health back to a lot of people, when will they receive official acceptance? The Budget Committee officer replied that little more than a decade ago hypnosis and similar practices were considered demonic, but nowadays, after proper research these practices are effectively used to treat psychiatric patients.

[New line] It is very difficult to solve human intellect with just science. Doctors follow the instruction how to treat patients by medical science, but it’s not a medical treatment such as electric therapy or just touching with hands to all illnesses. So our healing system basically differs from the modern medicine, the acupuncture or moxa therapy.'

(Sorry for the poor English, but the main problems can apparently be seen without academic style.)

Problems:

Matsushita vs. Omamatsu. The name of Mr Ushio is missing. The quotations are not marked. It is confusing that who is the speaker in the final section...

Is it possible that the Gakkai manipulates the text of the Hikkei continuously? Is it possible that there are different editions of the Hikkei containing a bit different content?

Thanks!

yuki

good post Yuki! You're freind form Hungary, where did they recieve the Hikkei from? How was it gave to them, in what way? When was there copy made, and what way was it made?

I personally doubt the Hikkei for many reasons, but that's just me.

warmest wishes
Wayne

yuki wrote: BUT! There is an important section, where it differs from the formers. In the answer of the question 'How does Usui Reiki Ryoho work?' the last sentence 'One day, there will be a scientific explanation.' is completely missing.

Hi Yuki,


All translations of the various Reiki-related documents include a degree of paraphrasing in an attempt to convey meaning which can actually get lost in literal word-for-word translation. And in some cases,where available from other sources, additional details, may occasionally be included for clarification.

For your interest, here is the Japanese text for the 'How does Usui Reiki Ryoho work?' Q & A:

問　臼井霊気療法は如何なる理由で癒りますか。

答　私はこの療法を天下何人より伝授されたのでもなければ、又治療の霊能を得んがために研究したのでもありません。断食中に大気に触れて不可思議に霊感し、治病の霊能を得たことを偶然自覚したのでありますから、肇祖の私にも確然と説明を申上げるに苦しみます学者も識者も熱心に研究して居りますが、現代の科学に頼って断定することは困難にせよ科学と一致する時代の来ることは当然であります。

yuki wrote:
Another difference can be found in 'What does the government think?'


Problems:

Matsushita vs. Omamatsu. ...

here is the relevant portion of the Japanese Text:

問　政府は何と見て居りますか。

答　大正十一年二月六日帝国議会衆議院予算分科会に於て代議士松下禎二医学博士曰く、

The highlighted portion of text speaks of “representative 松下(Matsushita) 禎二(Teiji or Teizi?)”


At least it Probably does.

Unless you are very fluent in Japanese, there is always opportunity for error in translating Japanese names (whether peoples names or place names), due to the fact that a particular name can be written using several different sets of kanji characters

and also, most sets of kanji used in writing names can also be translated in different ways - not just meaning-wise, but sound wise also.

And on occasion, even native Japanese speakers have problems.

A good example of this occurs in the translation of the Japanese article:

"A Quest for the Origin of Reiki Healing", by Shiomi Takai, which was translated for AETW.org by three people fluent in Japanese (Two of them have always lived in Japan)

in the text of the article there is a passage which mentions an organisation given in kanji-to-romaji (I.e western alphabet) translation as: "Daihonkyo",

“From the Meiji era to the early part of the Showa era, while the established religions were losing power, many new spiritual leaders appeared on the scene.
Amongst them were, Tennen Kuwahara, and Morihei Tanaka, the founder of Taireido. These especially are said to have had 'spiritual skill' / 'spiritual power' ('reijutsu') and attracted many followers. Onisaburo Deiguchi of Daihonkyo and Mokichi Okada, the founder of Sekaikyuseikyo are also seen as 'great lights' who shone around that time. “


The three kanji characters in the original Japanese can indeed be read as Diahonkyo, however they can also be read as Oomotokyo (which is actually the name of the organisation referenced.) However, it seems that in this instance none of the three translators were aware of the Oomotokyo, hence Diahonkyo appearing in the English text.

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[ I picked up on this translation issue simply because I knew of the Oomoto kyo, however I let it stand as it acts as one of the many hidden clues scattered throughout the site for certain personal students – though several years on, I'm still for some of them to pick up on the clues....]

Milarepa wrote:good post Yuki!

Thanks!

Milarepa wrote:You're freind form Hungary, where did they recieve the Hikkei from? How was it gave to them, in what way? When was there copy made, and what way was it made?

Well, these are the questions that I dare not ask them, since, they have to keep the sources and the whole connection in secret.

(And indeed, sometimes they are very arrogant and elitist. Btw, there is no doubt that they have learned methods, that I know solely from the net. I could join them, but I won't do that, for I don't like secrecy and elitism.)

Milarepa wrote:I personally doubt the Hikkei for many reasons, but that's just me.

As we know, the Hikkei is an edited text and it was compiled by the Gakkai. Fodor has told about the samurai tradition in the teaching of the Gakkai. Hence, for me, the Gakkai is just another special reiki group, one of the hundreds, so I also doubt about them.

Wow! Thanks for the exhaustive explanation, James!

Rlei_ki wrote:

All translations of the various Reiki-related documents include a degree of paraphrasing in an attempt to convey meaning which can actually get lost in literal word-for-word translation. And in some cases,where available from other sources, additional details, may occasionally be included for clarification.

Yes, I agree with that. Even the difference of the names may be caused by the different translations. However, I was told that, that translation was made by an expert of the Japanese language of the 1920's. But, an expert of a language is not necessarily an expert of a healing system.

Rlei_ki wrote:
A good example of this occurs in the translation of the Japanese article:

"A Quest for the Origin of Reiki Healing", by Shiomi Takai, which was translated for AETW.org by three people fluent in Japanese (Two of them have always lived in Japan)

Thanks for your useful response and comment! Getting clearer

yuki

yuki wrote:Wow! Thanks for the exhaustive explanation, James!

Rlei_ki wrote:

All translations of the various Reiki-related documents include a degree of paraphrasing in an attempt to convey meaning which can actually get lost in literal word-for-word translation. And in some cases,where available from other sources, additional details, may occasionally be included for clarification.

Yes, I agree with that. Even the difference of the names may be caused by the different translations. However, I was told that, that translation was made by an expert of the Japanese language of the 1920's. But, an expert of a language is not necessarily an expert of a healing system.

whoever is saying this is then claiming to have a copy of the hikkei pre-dating Koyami's 1970's Gakkai one.

How can i put this. It's claimed (by someone who said they have/had it) that the 1970's Gakkai Koyami version is actually wrote in new Kanji, post 1946 kanji. save for the grammer is wrote in the old way. though i don't understand what that means.

These two claims don't match up. It's either two Hikkei, or well, hehe. Though it's one thing making a claim bout something, cause i can do that later on, .