Daily Archives: October 30, 2006

The Real Reiki in Long Beach

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I thought I knew Reiki or at least I thought it was something else.  I have practiced for over seven years and have been a "master" for the last five years.

After doing a search online I stumbled on an interesting web pages from people who claimed to have retraced Reiki to the original lineage of Usui.  Apparently, Usui was neither Christian nor a University teacher as presumed by the Takata lineage.  At first I was sad and mad, then it occured to me, maybe Takata had given the beautiful Reiki story a Christian twist to have it more readily accepted by a West still shocked from a Pearl Harbour attack?

Mikao Usui was a deeply spiritual man, according to Frank Arjava Petter.  He committed his life to finding his spiritual truth and founded the Usui Do, or the Usui way.  Healing with hands was a by-product.  After all, a healthy soul heals itself and others.  He never taugfht students the way we were taught and only used symbols when a student had a hard time feeling it.  In fact, he did not have a hand system.

Strangely enough, or not, I lived in Kyoto, Japan and went to mount Kurama where Usui had his revelation.  I was not aware this was his place of enolightment.  It was a beautiful place.

I’ll let you read more on my site if you are interested.  As soon as I can, I will look more into a school that teaches a more closer to the traditional Usui-Do original philosophy.  It was a spiritual teaching system, not a healing system.

Here is the first place that caught my attention. 

Here is the Gendai reiki Center.

Tough For First-Time Buyers, Long Beach

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80% of Americans find it difficult for first-time buyers to buy a home, according to AP-AOL, and 59 % believe the situation is worse now than 5 years ago.

And according to the Census Bureau, a third of U.S. homeowners with mortgages spent 30 percent or more of their household income last year on housing costs. These costs, which include mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and utilities, are usually considered excessive if they top 30 percent of household income.  That is excessive and dangerous.  This is what we need to monitor as that will obviously greatly influence our economy.

With a nationwide jump in median home values of 32 percent from 2000 to 2005, I always feel bad for first-time buyers.

Here are more numbers:

46 percent surveyed found the market in their area is overpriced.

45 percent believed their market was priced about right.

5 percent found their market was under priced, with the remaining few having no opinion.

Interestingly enough, the poll found people in suburbs found the market as price-inflated than those who live in cities and rural areas.

The next two years, 49 percent believe housing prices in their area will go up.

18 percent thought they would go down.

32 percent believed prices would stay the same. The rest did not voice an opinion.

This number spoke a lot to me, 78 percent say they worry about paying more than the fair market value for their abode.  I wonder if this is due to the poor image some Realtors have portrayed with shady deals and unethical behavior? 

65 percent fret about being able to afford their mortgage payment

62 percent fear that the home might drop in value. Fifty-eight percent worry that they won’t find enough money for a down payment.

It looks like a lot of buyers don’t feel too optimistic over the near future.  It will be interesting to see how agents react to this.  As an optimist, I always see the bright side of things and can easily find answers to a gloomy scenario.  And after all, life is what you make it.

Here is the Real Estate article.