About Second Degree Reiki
at StoneWind Institute

As taught in the Japanese lineage of Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, Second Degree Reiki (called Okudan in Japan) was divided into two segments (not weekends) of training: Okudan-zenki (focus on connecting with the advanced energies) and Okudan-koko (focus on distance healing and mental healing). The two training segments were intended to allow students to grow and mature at their own pace into the full Reiki potential. In Japan such training often extended over months if not years with fees for the training quite high.

Mrs. Takata had begun her Reiki training under Dr. Hayashi In 1935, while on her extended visit to Japan. According to her diary, which is in the possession of John Harvey Gray, she completed Okudan in May 1937, at which time she returned to Hawaii as a Reiki practitioner. A few months later in the fall of 1937, Dr. Hayashi traveled to Hawaii with his daughter, and for the next six months gave lectures on Reiki and trained Mrs. Takata as a Reiki Master, completing that training February 21, 1938.

When Takata began teaching Reiki in 1938 in the vastly different cultural environment of the West, she chose to teach both segments of Okudan in a shortened "class format" more compatible with western schedules and styles of learning, and she afixed a set fee of $500 for the weekend of training. Takata taught in English and usually omitted reference to Japanese terminology since insistence on foreign terminology was unnecessary to the process and off-putting to mainstream westerners. She did, however, introduce the full scope of Okudan techniques to students as they were ready. Yet for a wide range of reasons, not the least of which are the perils inherent in all traditions of oral transmission, some of what Takata taught has been lost in otherwise completely traditional lineages.

In keeping with the form of Takata's teaching and methods, Second Degree Reiki in the unbroken lineages of Western Reiki has typically been taught over a weekend with a set fee of $500.00, the amount Takata charged sixty+ years ago. But in too many cases a weekend of training does not provide enough contact time to help students open fully to the new abilities in their hands or to the enormous potential within the energies. Under the pressure of time and unfamiliar paradigms, advanced Reiki understanding and use too often go dormant in a large number of practitioners. What is not understood, is not used, never develops, and is lost. Many traditional Reiki Masters, aware of the difficulties presented by the weekend format, arrange sequent meetings either as Reiki circles, clinics, or practicums in an effort to foster their students' development in the remarkable potential within Reiki.

In my own teaching, it has become more and more obvious over time that Second Degree students are rarely able to absorb the rich scope of advanced techniques and abilities inherent in Reiki when the information, training, and attunements are compressed into the space of a weekend. In addition, at StoneWind the knowledge of two Reiki Masters (John Harvey Gray and Beth Gray) trained through close personal association with Takata over many years, flows into one river then forward into the lineage so that students can have a rich teaching context in which to discover the unlimited potential of Reiki practice.

There is no "one" way to guide students into that potential. Aware of the number of Second Degree practitioners who don't seem ready to use advanced Reiki after one weekend, I have experimented over the years with different class structures trying to find one that fits our cultural time constraints and methods of instruction, honors the traditions of western Reiki instruction, and still provides sufficient time and energetic space for students to open to the fullest range of Takata's teaching and to an understanding of Reiki that flows from that teaching. In the end, I have opted for a structure that tracks generally with other traditional masters but provides additional time for students to understand, integrate, and practice the rich scope of Reiki extensions available through this lineage. To this end, I have elected to offer Second Degree Reiki at StoneWind for the traditional fee but in a two part course (and payment) structure that seems effective in providing students adequate time to move at their own pace into the level of Reiki practice suitable to each one. Detailed descriptions of my approach to Second Degree are included at the back of my First Degree Manuals and are avaible from me on request.