Interview with Phyllis Lei Furumoto

Oliver Klatt: Phyllis, first of all many thanks for your willingness to this interview. In the past years there were many world-wide changes with Reiki and this is the reason for asking you some questions on various themes. We, as the editors of "Reiki Magazin" know, that these themes move numerous Reiki practitioners. Let´s start with the first question. At the moment, how do you feel about Reiki in the world? How do you envision yourself in your role of Grandmaster in the Usui System of Reiki Healing? In relation to this has anything changed in the last few years?

Phyllis Furumoto: Reiki as a practice is alive in the world under many forms. The world wide recognition of Reiki in the world was a wish of Takata's. The diversity that has occurred is both a challenge and a gift. I have found clarity for myself of what I am and what I am not; what the practice is for me and what it is not.
What I have been given is a practice that is teaching me the value of being me, of being able to heal wounds that are found in the multi-layers of my being human. Thus, the spread of the practice in many forms is an indication that the practice of Reiki speaks to an inner need that surpasses cultural boundaries. The need comes from our desire as a human being to realize our own true relationship with the self and with the world around us.
I am not sure what you mean by "envision myself in the role of Grandmaster. After the death of Takata, many people recognized me as her successor. At that time no one could define what that meant. Now I feel that this role exists because people recognize and acknowledge it. Within that, I simply am myself. I accept the recognition because it has been a gift. A gift that has changed my life and has stimulated a life long process of healing. The healing is the integration of all of my selves into a human being with full expression of self.
There is no rule or desire on my part that everyone acknowledge my place in this system. There are those that do, and those that do not. There is no right or wrong involved. It is a matter of "just so.”
If there is a change in the last years, it is simply that this quality of healing and the power of recognition as a healing process grows stronger. The more I recognize the quality of my relationship with the energy of Reiki in my life, the more I practice the form, Usui Shiki Ryoho, the more I am willing to surrender to the process.

Oliver Klatt: I wish to ask you a question which is very important for me personally: In the last few weeks I read the book "Medicine Dharma Reiki" from Lama Yeshe, who recently discovered a diary containing apparently authentic notes from Dr. Usui. I must say I am very impressed by it. My first question is: Are you acquainted with this book? If yes, do you wish to comment on how it affected you? When no, are you interested in the book? Do you intend to read it?

Phyllis Furumoto: I have not read this book. I asked Lama Yeshe many years ago to share this information with me since I was recognized by a group of people as Takata’s successor. This seemed like an honorable thing to do. Not to give it to me, but to come and discuss the impact that this discovery would have on the practice. He was not willing to share it with me at that time.
I did not feel respected as an another master at this time and felt that the material was withheld for some reason. Now it is the basis of another form of practice of Reiki. In this light, I have my own practice and am satisfied with it.

Oliver Klatt: My third question is also connected with the history of Reiki. Lately there are many publications from various authors (Frank Petter, William Lee Rand, Lama Yeshe), which, with recourse to various sources, arrive at the conclusion, that contrary to the contents of the Reiki story which most of us know, Usui was a doctor, he spent his life in Japan, he was a Buddhist, and he developed the Reiki System from a buddhist background. How do you see that? What especially interests me is, has this information influenced you in the way in which you now tell the Reiki story?

Phyllis Fururmoto: My story of the history of this system has not changed. The items that I feel are the basic information from the stories that have been put forth support the story and feeling that Takata recounted in her classes and in her teaching. I have a different way to hold this "information." For instance, I do not have a need to categorize Usui as a Buddhist or Christian... but have always understood his deep appreciation of spiritual practice of any kind and his personal spirituality that superceded any category.
I have not ever thought of Usui as a Christian minister in the way that we think of ministers today. I felt his connection with the stories of Jesus to be natural. Here was a man that people wrote about many hundreds of years ago with gifts that were not natural to the human being at the time. Who was this man and how did he heal? In discovering that there was such a man, it seems a natural starting point for seeking the answer to a deeper calling within Usui.
There is also, in my opinion, a misunderstanding of the nature of Buddhism. This is not a system with a closed mind. The nature of the many forms of Buddhism have within them, an understanding that spirituality is a natural part of the human being. And with this there is an open mind that encourages exploration and development of the human being, no matter where it comes from. Buddhism is a way of life and a way of thinking, it is not appropriate to use it as a way to label others.
This is all I can say in the written word. It is not possible for me to recount the feeling and knowing I have about the history of this particular system on paper.

Oliver Klatt: I wish to ask further questions in a complex of themes. I know very many Reiki-practitioners, including me, are interested in these. Repeatedly we receive questions from interested readers who are often enough motivated from sincere interest in the historic development of the Usui System of Reiki Healing. They concern the time after Hawayo Takata´s death. As you wrote in the "Reiki Magazine International", a year and a half after Takata´s death, at your initiative, there was a meeting in Hawaii, to which most of the 22 masters initiated by Takata came. Most of the masters recognized you as Takata´s successor. At that time you search out Barbara Weber Ray, one of the Masters initiated by Takata. She saw herself as Takata´s successor and did not take part in the gathering in Hawaii. Do you wish to speak about your motivation and your action in this truly difficult time? How was it, so soon after Takata´s death, which obviously left so many unanswered questions, having to make decisions concerning the further development of the teaching and practice of Reiki in the world?

Phyllis Furumoto: I have very little to say about this period of time. For one, I am not sure I have words for what was happening. All of us initiated by Takata did the best we could at that time with our understanding of a system of practice that came from a very different culture and came to us through often mystical and mysterious means. Each of us acted as masters as best we could. The result is that the essence of the practice is still intact. Why do I say this? Because it is still functioning. Even through many years, through many cultural understandings, and through personal interpretation.
I did what I thought was important to do to honor the process that was occurring while at the same time growing: as a human being, as a young woman, as a master, as a granddaughter, and as a member of a circle that was left by Takata to carry on the teachings of her teacher.
In writing this interview, I asked Paul Mitchell to read my responses and he wrote this about my response to this question:
"What I missed in your response was more of you as the person in that time. As a reader, since I am not with you in the same room, I would love to have some detail, some insight into you as the person then. I feel that then I could touch you more and the result would be that I could take in the gifts that you are sharing from this moment. It is an opportunity to give them some personal history and in that, link more solidly to the present.”
I can understand this point. However, I am not able to do this now. Sometimes when I am speaking in a group and this question arises, there is more that I share. This moment is not a withholding because there is nothing to hide. This is a matter of respect for depth of the processes that were manifesting in each of the masters at that time. And the inadequacy of words to describe what I think was happening at the time.

Oliver Klatt: Repeatedly we receive questions concerning your relation to The Reiki Alliance, the wellknown world-wide association of Reiki Masters who recognize you as the Lineage Bearer of The Usui System of Reiki Healing. What is your relation to the Reiki Alliance?

Phyllis Furumoto: I am recognized by the membership as the lineage bearer of the system, Usui Shiki Ryoho, which is the practice that the membership has in common. There is no word that can describe the "relationship." We are simply in relationship and the flavor of this relationship changes as the needs and personal development of both shifts. The question sounds like there are concerns. I am not sure if this is a hidden agenda within this question.
I am available to all masters regardless of form of practice. I am available to all groups of Reiki students. I am asked continuously by the Alliance for presence and for guidance. This I accept as I would from any other group.
The Reiki Alliance is not the only place that masters of this system, Usui Shiki Ryoho, reside. The organization is a choice made by some masters to work together within a community. This is a big step since it is much easier to draw an imaginary circle around oneself and say, "This is my territory. I am the Master here.” Within the community of the Alliance, masters are consistently confronted with being a part of a group, not the leader of the group. It is a challenge and not a validation. I support the nature of this community.

Oliver Klatt: For a number of years at the Reiki Gathering in Gersfeld, a question concerning your visit to Japan which had taken place a few years before, was asked. At that time, if I remember correctly, you did not respond in great detail. Now I am aware, that even until now, I have not forgotten this and since then, I have the need to know more about your visit to Japan, as it is sometimes heard, in connection to how Reiki came to be. Today, with the distance of several years, do you wish to say more about it?

Phyllis Furumoto: No. This trip was basically a personal one as a Japanese-American woman. My practice did not change. I had one insight that was important to me as a Reiki student. I went with an unconscious idea that the truth of reiki was in Japan. When I went there, the people in Japan were struggling with the same issues and questions as the Americans, the Germans, the Dutch, and so on. Eventually, I realized that the only truth I had was my own experience, my own relationship with reiki, the energy. And this was true for every person who practices, no matter what the form is or how much information they have. "The truth is in our own hands.”
The lineage of which I am a part of has carried the practice out of Japan and put it in the hands, literally, of non-Japanese people. In my experience, there is no way to put the practice back into the Japanese culture of that time. So I must carry the practice as it has developed through the points of time I call lineage.
There is no truth of practice. No right way. No wrong way. There is a way that I carry and this, I have grown to realize, is only this, one way. I am not drawn to practice another form nor become involved in learning another spiritual practice. The practice I have fills my life and my need as a human being. This is enough for me.

Oliver Klatt: Well, now I wish to ask you for your assessment of the development of Reiki in the coming years. At present there are so many Reiki groups as well as Free Masters all over the world. Is the mutual tolerance among these many groups something on which you have set your heart? How do you assess the development, the further growth of Reiki throughout the world?

Phyllis Furumoto: I wish that the people who practice with this lineage grow into human beings that are able to honor and respect other human beings. A step in this process is to be able to chose a practice for themselves. In doing this, the students of the practice do not use others to determine their own practice but chose the practice because it has value in their lives. As it becomes clear that they cannot do someone else's practice and someone else cannot influence their practice, then there is no need for tolerance.
One simply just has a practice and the other person has their own.
The growth of Reiki implies that there is value in numbers. I do not have this opinion. I am not concerned about the number of Reiki students. I am concerned about their willingness to choose and to simply do the practice no matter what form.
If growth actually implies the deepening of understanding, then I see that this is inevitable for it is the nature of Reiki... to take us deeper into our experience as a human being.

Oliver Klatt: In conclusion I have one more question for you: How does one make contact with you?

Phyllis Furumoto: The best way is to come to a gathering or other possibility for meeting. I travel and am available to many students in many countries. This is contact.
Paul Mitchell and I have a web site that contains some information and our schedule of seminars and public events. This address is www.usuireiki.com

Oliver Klatt: Phyllis, thank you very much for this interview.