“I enjoyed the video a lot! It is very lively and joyful conveying good and important points. It’s a great atmosphere allowing the discussants to feel free and just to be themselves.” (First viewer)
In this engaging discussion René talks with authors and Reiki teachers Silke Kleemann and Amanda Jayne on the topic of collaboration. They explore the questions:
What is collaboration? and Is collaboration easier for women? … and look at what it takes to collaborate most effectively.
The two women discuss their experience of collaborating on their new book ‘Women in Reiki. Lifetimes dedicated to healing in 1930s Japan and today’. René teases them about the English and German stereotypes they come from and asks how this affected their collaboration and they agree that their very different approaches to writing could well have destroyed the project. So why didn’t it?
Silke explains that the key is seeing the whole puzzle rather than being concerned with the spotlight. In this way, we find things together that we could never come to on our own.
“For me in a collaboration the important thing is the outcome … the vision I had or we had in the beginning, that we can see the result.”
Amanda looks at how connection is key to having a deeper experience of collaboration and producing a better result.
“… connection that allows the collaboration to kind of roll and flow with ease.”
She talks of what qualities are needed between people to bring connection and wonders whether the need for vulnerability makes it more difficult for men to collaborate deeply.
René shows a clip of a TED talk which corroborates all they have been speaking to and Silke explains how the Japanese calligraphy on the cover of their book illustrates what the speaker expressed. It represents women with open arms, holding Reiki together.
A short video clip demonstrating a collaboration brings a smile to everyone’s face and the three discussants contemplate how all of life is a collaboration. Before they know it, the time has come to bring the conversation to a close, the collaboration though, all three of them hope will continue.
Biography Silke Kleemann
Born in Cologne, Germany, Silke spent a significant portion of her early twenties in Argentina, studying applied cultural studies in addition to Spanish and English. Since 2007 she has been based in Munich, working as a freelance literary translator, editor and author. Her main expertise is in Latin American literature, but she also appreciates pouring her curiosity into a variety of other projects such as poetry or non-fiction books and loves to host cultural events. She published a children’s book in 2015 and has two young adult novels in the pipeline. Silke has won several awards and grants for her literary work.
Alongside her activities in the publishing industry and the concentrated work she does in solitude at her desk, Silke works with people. She is a certified naturopath in the field of psychotherapy, has done training in Hakomi, mindfulness-based psychotherapy, and teaches meditation and Jikiden Reiki.
Websites (mainly in German):
www.drachenbauch.de (literary work, including list of publications)
www.jiruka.de (therapeutic work)
Biography Amanda Jayne
Amanda left her native England in 1999 and has travelled the world and lived in various countries since then, feeding her curiosity about the world, people and cultures. She became a Jikiden Reiki teacher during her five years living and teaching English in Kyoto, Japan, and gained a masters in Spiritual Psychology in the USA in 2009.
More recently Amanda has been living in a quiet corner of the UK where she writes children’s books, travel books and is in the process of writing about her solo experience walking 1,200km around the 88 temple pilgrimage on Shikoku island, Japan. She teaches and gives Jikiden Reiki treatments, offers Heart Circle coaching and recently completed the book Women in Reiki with Silke Kleemann.
Websites:
Publications
Women in Reiki. Lifetimes dedicated to healing in 1930s Japan and today. Kleemann, S. and Jayne, A. (2021) See www.womeninreiki.com for more information on the book.
References
28:19-29.20 The power of collaboration, Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sánchez, University of New Mexico, TEDxABQWomen https://youtu.be/VmQVNE-MbKI
32:51-33:56 Flashmob Nürnberg by the “Hans-Sachs”-Choir and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nuremberg – Ode to Joy (Ode an die Freude): https://youtu.be/a23945btJYw
