by Colin Mon Oct 10, 2011 3:35 am
I must admit that I am one of those people who tends to refer to myself as a Reiki Teacher or even simply as a Reiki Practitioner, not because I see it as some form of ego-reducing exercise but because, to me, the title 'Master' used in the context of a Japanese practice conjures up an image of a Mr Miyagi type character who has years and years of experience and is a Master of their practice. How many of us can say that we have mastered Reiki or are ever likely to?
I practice what I have learned and teach what I know - therefore I am a practitioner and a teacher. When I was at Grammar School in the UK we had Masters, rather than teachers, who taught us e.g. English Master, History Master, Science Master, House Master etc. These people people, in common with non-teaching academics who have achieved a Master Degree in something have also undergone long periods of intensive training. Can my Reiki Master training be compared to that? If I had a Masters Degree I would be happy to call myself a Master and if I had a Doctorate I would happily call myself a Doctor because the title would reflect a certain amount of training and hard work had been carried out.
Most Reiki Master training occurs over a short period and gives the student the tools and information they need to carry on further study and gain experience on their way towards Mastery. Completing a Reiki 3 or Reiki Master seminar does not make one a Reiki Master in the true sense of the word. In think it is just another unfortunate example of poor translation on Hawayo Takata's Reiki certificate where a Japanese word that has a certain understanding and cultural context is translated into English using the process of best-fit but in the process loses the original context and cultural significance - rather like the title Dr Usui. As I may have mentioned elsewhere, it is interesting that the word 'doctor' in Latin can also be translated as 'teacher' in Englsh!
I don't have a huge problem with people calling themselves Reiki Masters as long as they remain humble and do not portray themselves as all-knowing people who are above the lesser degree practitioners in some way.
I like to say that as we progress along our path, the less there is to be taught but the more there is to learn!
The path to Reiki Mastery is never ending but is a rewarding one!