history of reiki

8/14/2019 History of Reiki

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HISTORY OF REIKI

The Authors, CT Conroy & JA Conroy, have made their best effort to produce a high

quality, informative and helpful document. But they make no representation or warranties of any kind with regard to the completeness or accuracy of the document.

They accept no liability of any kind for any losses or damages caused or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, from using the information contained in this document.


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He decided that he would make it his lifes mission to seek

out the ability to heal as Jesus had done and went off in search ofthis knowledge. He reasoned that as Jesus was a Christian hewould find this knowledge in a Christian country and travelled toAmerica .

On his arrival in America Dr Usui studied at the University ofChicago. Despite spending seven years studying Christianity,philosophy, the scriptures and several other religions, he wasunable to find the knowledge he sought.

He had learned that Jesus was said to have travelled

throughout India and Tibet and so decided that he too wouldfollow in his footsteps.

Further studies in Buddhism

It was here that Dr Usui learned Sanskrit and studied theIndian and Tibetan Sutras . But still he was unable to find what hesought and so decided to travel back to Japan to further his studiesin Buddhism, as he knew Buddha had also healed the sick.

Kyoto, at that time, had all the largest monasteries sonaturally Dr Usui continued his search there.

He visited every monastery in turn, asking the monks whetherthey were able to heal as Buddha had done. The response fromeach monastery was always the same. No .

They were aware that Buddha had healed the physical bodyand that it was written in the Sutras.

However it was their belief that healing the spirit was moreimportant and because of this they did not know how to heal thebody.

Dr Usui was becoming more and more despondent but he didnot give up his search. He continued on and came across a Zen

monastery.It was here that he met with great support for his search.


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Even though the monks at this monastery were also

concentrating on healing the spirit they believed that theknowledge for healing the body would be made available to them

through their meditations.

They invited Dr Usui to join them.

Nearing the end of his search

He spent three years there, searching the Sutras andmeditating with the other monks, and eventually he discovered a

formula for contacting a higher power able to bestow on the seekerabilities for healing the physical body.

This formula was, in itself, very simple , but it was going toneed interpreting and testing to see if it worked.

Through meditation and discussion with the other monks, DrUsui came to the realisation that enlightenment on how to use theformula would be given to him if he fasted and meditated for 21days .

Mount Kurama

Near Kyoto was a very holy mountain called Mount Kurama ,and it was to here that Dr Usui travelled. He climbed the mountainand found a beautiful spot, facing east, with water for drinkingnearby.

To prevent himself from losing track of time he gatheredtogether 21 stones with the intention of throwing away one stoneat the dawn of each new day.

Ready for whatever experience that presented itself, Dr Usuibegan his vigil.

Dr Usui sees the light


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For twenty days Dr Usui fasted, meditated, read the

scriptures, chanted and prayed without anything out of the ordinaryhappening.

Then on the morning of the twenty-first day whilst lookingout into the darkness of the pre-dawn he noticed what seemed to bea small flicker of light away in the distance.

As Dr Usui focussed on this light it began to travel towards himbecoming brighter and brighter.

He became very afraid and was in two minds as to whether to

stay or run away. Calming himself he remembered that this was thevery reason he was there. He stood up and determined that hewould stay where he was and accept anything that happened, evenif that meant his own death .

The light continued to get closer becoming much brighter asit did so.

Dr Usui was suddenly aware that the light was actually aconsciousness and was seeking to communicate with him.

It said that this was the enlightenment to healing others thathe had been seeking. He was to understand however that the lightwould have to strike him in the third eye , and it was so powerful itmight actually kill him.

The decision to allow this to happen was entirely up to Dr Usui,it had to be his own choice .

The light strikes

Dr Usui decided to allow the light to strike him.

The force of the blow knocked him unconscious and it waswhilst he was in this trance like state that he saw beautiful bubblesof coloured lights rising up before his eyes.

Inside the bubbles were different symbols and as he studiedthem he became attuned to their energy.


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When Dr Usui regained full consciousness he knew that what

had transpired had been all that he had been looking for.

He felt tremendously energised and not at all weary.Quickly he got his few possessions together, he wanted to get backto the monastery to share his experiences with the abbot.

The first miracle

Setting off at a great pace he stumbled , stubbing his toe quitebadly in the process.

The pain lanced through his body and he instinctively bentdown and cupped the damaged toe in his hands. Immediately thepain began to subside and a few minutes later both the pain and thebleeding had stopped completely .

Dr Usui was thrilled. It was like a miracle .

There was something very different about his hands now.

They seemed to have emanated a tremendous heat whilst hewas holding his toe.

Quickly he got back to his feet and hurried off down themountain in the direction of the monastery.

At the foot of the mountain he came across a typical Japanesesnack bar that had been set up to feed weary travellers. Dr Usui

stopped and, with great enthusiasm, ordered a full breakfast .The proprietor warned Dr Usui to only have a light meal of

rice gruel. He could see by Dr Usuis unkempt and unshavedcondition that he had obviously been meditating and, therefore,fasting for some time.

He did not want his first customer of the day gettingindigestion.

Dr Usui, however, felt so good he ignored the concerns of theproprietor and ate heartily, finishing the complete meal with no illeffects whatsoever.


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Another miracle.

Dr Usui heals his first patient

As Dr Usui was preparing to pay for the meal the proprietorsgranddaughter came to clear away the dishes.

He noticed tears in her eyes and that the side of her face wasvery red and swollen.

She appeared to be in great pain.

On enquiring from the proprietor as to why this was, helearned that the young girl had been suffering severe toothache formany days.

He also learned that the proprietor was unable to afford eitherthe time or the money to take his granddaughter to the dentistseventeen miles away in Kyoto.

Overwhelmed with compassion

Dr Usui was overwhelmed with compassion and asked forpermission to attempt to heal her.

The girl gladly accepted this offer of help and allowed Dr Usuito gently cup her face in his hands. Within seconds the discomfort

began to subside and minutes later the pain and the swelling hadcompletely disappeared .

A third miracle.

With the profuse thanks of the proprietor and the girl ringingin his ears Dr Usui set off on the rest of his journey back to themonastery.

On arrival he learned that the abbot had been laid up in bedwith an acute attack of arthritis .


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Wasting no time he went to his old friend and whilstrecounting his experiences on the mountain gently rested his handson the abbots body.

Again within moments the discomfort began to subside andminutes later had disappeared altogether.

The abbot was astonished at this demonstration of healingand as the two friends talked into the night it was decided that thebest thing to do next would be to go out into the city to heal thesick.

Dr Usui chose to go out and take up residence in the BeggarsKingdom .

He spent the next seven years working in this poor part ofKyoto, helping as many people as he could.

Many remarkable healings took place and Dr Usui wascontent with his life until he came across a beggar that he hadhealed many years before . Dr Usui questioned this man as to whyhe had returned once more to the life of a beggar , and wasextremely dismayed at the response.

It turned out that the beggar had been, initially , very happyat having been healed. He had gone back into the main part of thecity and had even found himself a good job . For a while he hadprospered but the responsibility of looking after himself becametoo much for him.

It was much easier living the life of a beggar.

Unfortunately this was not an isolated case. Dr Usui discoveredmore and more people who had returned to begging after havingbeen healed, and it greatly saddened him.

Perhaps, he thought, the Buddhist monks were right. Perhapsit was more important to heal the spirit than the body.

Reiki should not be given for free


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Dr Usui went into meditation to seek the answers on how hecould have got it so wrong.

He discovered that his biggest mistake was in healing the

bodies of the beggars without teaching them the value ofresponsibility .

He also realised that because he had been giving away thehealing for free, none of the beggars had apportioned any value tothis help.

Dr Usui had unwittingly strengthened their belief in beggingas being the only way of getting what they wanted.

With this realisation he immediately closed his healingpractice and left the Beggars Quarter.

It was also during this period that Dr Usui developed his FivePrinciples of Reiki, and became aware that the symbols he hadbeen shown on Mount Kurama were to be used for initiating othersinto this healing system that he now called Reiki .

For his remaining years Dr Usui travelled the length and

breadth of Japan spreading his Reiki healing.

On his death in 1926 he had initiated 16 people as ReikiMasters and had charged one of his most dedicated students, DrChujiro Hayashi , with the responsibility of preserving andcontinuing the Reiki teachings.

1. Just for today, I will let go of anger.

2. Just for today, I will let go of worry.

3. Today, I will count my many blessings.

4. Today, I will do my work honestly.

5. Today, I will be kind to every living creature.

ThefiveprinciplesofReiki


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Dr Chujiro Hayashi

A retired naval officer, a commander in the Imperial Navy ofJapan, Dr Hayashi was forty-seven when he was initiated as a ReikiMaster.

He had spent many years following Dr Usui on his travelsaround Japan and had become a very capable and dedicated healerin his own right.

It came as no surprise, therefore, that Dr Usui, muchimpressed with this competent leader of men, rewarded him bypassing to him the title of Reiki Grand Master prior to his death.

Dr Hayashi went on to open the first Reiki clinic in Tokyo andit was here whilst using a combination of observation and clinicalrecord keeping that he developed the twelve basic handpositions in use today.

He also refined the attunement process by dividing it intothree separate levels called degrees.

It is not known how many people Dr Hayashi trained in Reikibut it is known that, being a renowned psychic , Dr Hayashiforesaw the coming of the Second World War and decided to passon Reiki to two women .

This he did in the knowledge that many of the men he hadtrained would be killed in the fighting and he wanted to ensure thatReiki survived.

The two women he trained were his wife and Mrs Hawayo

Takata.

Mrs Hawayo Takata

Mrs Takata was born on 24 December 1900 in Hanamaulu, on theisland of Kauai, Hawaii. Although being born in Hawaii, gave herAmerican nationality, her parents, Mr and Mrs Otogoro Kawamurawere Japanese immigrants.


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Her father worked at a sugar plantation on Kauai and it wasthe bookkeeper of this plantation, Mr Saichi Takata , that Hawayoeventually fell in love with and married.

They had two children but, tragically, Saichi died in 1930 atthe age of thirty-four leaving Hawayo to bring up the familycompletely on her own, as her parents had returned to Japan.

Mrs Takata continued to work at the sugar plantation but withthe loss of her husbands wage she found she had to work harderand longer to make ends meet.

As a result her health began to suffer and in 1935, when on avisit to her parents in Japan, her condition deteriorated so rapidlyshe was admitted to hospital.

She was in the operating theatre being prepared for surgicalintervention when she was strongly impressed to question thedoctor on alternatives to surgery. Her surgeon, knowing of DrHayashis work at the Reiki Clinic, mentioned that she mightbenefit from Reiki treatment and suggested she might try it.

Mrs Takata immediately cancelled her operation and went to

the Reiki Clinic for consultation.

Mrs Takata was very encouraged when the clinics diagnosisof her illness, matched the one she had been given by the hospital ,and decided to begin treatment with them.

Over the next few months Mrs Takata attended the Reiki clinicon a daily basis.

Not only did she experience the wonder of Reiki at first hand,making a complete recovery , she also saw Reiki in action withother people. The results spoke for themselves and Mrs Takataknew she had to learn the art herself.

Mrs Takatas two great hurdles

Unfortunately , Mrs Takata had two very large hurdles toovercome first if she was to be taught Reiki. Number one , she wasa woman and number two, she was not Japanese. This was 1935 ,


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and the notion of any Japanese art being taught to foreigners wasunthinkable .

And to teach a woman was impossible .

Mrs Takata, though, was not the kind of person to give uplightly.

She knew that to be taken seriously she would have to showtotal commitment and dedication . This she did and even offeredto sell her house in Hawaii to emphasise her devotion . But all ofthis may not have been enough however, had it not been for DrHayashis psychic abilities.

As already mentioned, he knew that the Second World Warwas coming and that many of the men he had taught Reiki would becalled on to fight and die.

He also knew that a woman would have a greater chance ofsurviving this madness.

Mrs Takata became the beneficiary of this insight.

Finally Accepted into Reiki

Mrs Takatas Reiki instruction began with her immediatelyreceiving the First Degree initiation. She spent the next yearworking with Dr Hayashi and then received her Second Degreeinitiation.

On completion of this training she returned to Hawaii andopened her own Reiki clinic.

In 1938 Dr Hayashi travelled to Hawaii and ensured thecontinuance of Reiki by initiating Mrs Takata as a Reiki Master.Just prior to his death in 1941 he declared Mrs Takata GrandMaster .

At this time Mrs Takata was the only practicing Reiki Master inthe West, and for quite a while that was the way it stayed.


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Eventually she saw the need for more Reiki Masters and,beginning in the 1970s , initiated 22 people before her death in1980 .

The Eastern Version

Dr Usui was born on August 15th

1865 in the village of Yago in theYamagata district of Gifu prefecture.

He was a very happy and industrious person who gave agreat deal of his life to the study of metaphysics and spirituality .

He read voraciously and became extremely knowledgeable inmedicine, psychology and religious practices from around the world.He was also known for his abilities as a psychic and fortune-teller.

Before re-discovering Reiki he had been running a smallbusiness but it had failed, leaving him deeply demoralised andheavily in debt .

As many people do, when life seems to be letting them down,he sought help and guidance from Higher Sources .

He wanted to know what the meaning of life was all about.And it was to Mount Kurama that he went to seek his answers, forit was well known in the area as a place of spiritualenlightenment .

Dr Usuis Satori

At that time it was not unusual for people to go on a twenty-one day meditation and fasting retreat on the mountain, and itwas known that Dr Usui had a favourite place where he liked tomeditate.

It was a beautiful spot near a waterfall and it was whilst

actually meditating under the waterfall that he had a moment ofenlightenment or Satori as it is known in Japanese. This is when


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the full realisation of the meaning of life , and the healing systemhe called Reiki, became known to him.

From this time on Dr Usui used the Reiki energy on himself

and then on his friends and family.

As it worked well he began using it on the general public andeventually opened up his first clinic in Tokyo.

His fame as a healer began to spread, bringing people fromfar and wide. These people came not only for healing but also tolearn the system for themselves .

This led to the founding of the Reiki movement, which Dr Usuicalled Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkei (Usui Healing Method Society).

The Tokyo earthquake

In 1923 a powerful earthquake hit Tokyo causing massive damageto the city, and death and injuries to many thousands ofinhabitants.

Dr Usui used his Reiki healing to great effect during this timeand such was the success of his Reiki that his first clinic soonbecame too small to cope. To rectify this problem a larger one wasbuilt in Nakano outside Tokyo.

Dr Usuis fame began spreading even further now; indeed hisname began to be known throughout Japan.

With this fame came invitations to travel to distant cities,which Dr Usui undertook, and it was while on one of these visits to

Fukuyama that he had a stroke and died on March 9th

1926 .

Now as you can see, the two versions are quite different. And,wouldnt you just know it, the proponents of each one claims theirversion to be the original and genuine article.

Which one would you like to choose? Either or neither maybe the truth.


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Whilst youre deciding lets give you another issue toconsider.

Western Reiki has recently discovered , that Reiki stillexists in Japan. It had not died out in the Second World War as

was originally believed.

Inevitably this has led to comparisons between the twostyles.

There are differences, of course, bringing about the almostobligatory; Ours is better than yours game being played by bothsides.

If this werent so sad it would be laughable.

Reiki is supposed to enlighten , for Gods sake, and we reallydo mean - for Gods sake . This childish nonsense has no place inReiki and should be firmly set aside.

Reiki is the energy of the Divine . It cares not one jot as tohow or where it is brought into the lives of those who havechosen to receive it.

Reiki simply enters and works regardless.

So, just know and understand this

Reiki as taught and practised in the West WORKS .

Reiki as taught and practised in the East WORKS .

It cannot be any other way.

To say any different is to deny the essence of Reiki itself.

Reiki is the life force energy the life force energy isGOD , for in our universe there is only one energy.

Anyone, therefore, saying that their method of receivingReiki is better than another is implying that God shares their

jaundiced view.

How arrogant . How misguided .


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Okay, well put the soapbox away for now. But before wemove on too much further lets just go over the main issues.

Dr Usui was not a Christian

Dr Usui was almost certainly not a Christian; he was far morelikely to have been a Buddhist . His knowledge of other religionswould probably have included Christianity but there is no record ofhim being Dean of Doshisha University in Kyoto.

It is known that he did travel to western countries and China,but there is no record of him attending Chicago University as eithera student or lecturer.

He was not a doctor in the conventional western sense, hisJapanese students or disciples referred to him as Usui-Sensei(sensei means teacher). [We have no problem in continuing to callhim doctor though, by the way].

Reiki was not just an oral teaching Dr Usui and Dr Hayashiboth produced manuals for their students.

No Grand Master Title

There was no title of Grandmaster created; instead there wasa president of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkei. Dr Usui was, quiteobviously, the first president. There have been six furtherPresidents: Mr Ushida, Mr Taketomi, Mr Watanabe, Mr Wanami, MrsKoyama and finally Mr Kondo who is the present president at thetime of writing.

Reiki did not die out in Japan and only become available inthe West through Mrs Takata, as some people believe.

The existence of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkei now known asUsui Kai confirms this.

Dr Hayashi was not given the title of Grandmaster (for as wehave said this title did not and does not exist) he was a respecteddisciple of Dr Usui who had been granted teacher status. Dr Hayashidid teach Mrs Takata and did pass on the complete teachings toher.


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He obviously did not pass on to her the title of Grandmaster.

Dr Usui did not develop the five principles; he adapted themfrom the Meiji Emperor and which were:

The five principles of the Meiji Emperor

Dont get angry today.Dont worry today.Be grateful today.Work hard today.Be kind to others today.

The Reiki that was taught by Dr Usui probably consisted ofthe following five items:

1. The ability to channel the Reiki energy and give Reiki treatments.2. The attunement symbols and the ability to pass on Reiki toothers.3. The three degrees of Reiki.4. The five Reiki principles.5. The necessity to charge for a treatment

Dr Hayashi added the twelve hand positions of Reiki throughhis observations on healing taking place in his clinic.

Mrs Takata introduced the high fee structure of $10,000 fortaking the Reiki Master attunement

Students of Mrs Takata introduced the required waiting timesbetween the classes for the attunements.

A clearer picture?

We hope this is beginning to bring a somewhat clearer pictureof Reiki history to those people who may already be involved in theart, and who might have received mixed messages from others.

If you are new to Reiki, please ignore and forgive thepolitical wrangling and just enjoy Reiki for what it is.


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Drawing some final conclusions

As you can now see, Traditional Reiki, if there could ever be

such a thing, can probably only be the Reiki as taught by Dr Usui.

He taught his students how to use the Reiki energy forhealing , both themselves and others. The three degrees of Reiki(although in Japan they teach six ).

The ability to pass the energy on to others through theattunement processes.

The five principles of Reiki, sometimes known as the ReikiIdeals.

And possibly the notion that people have to pay for Reikitreatments.As far as we are aware at this time, thats it.

That is the entirety of Reiki as originally taught by Dr Usui toover 2000 people.

He almost certainly did not teach crystal grids, psychicsurgery, the healing attunement, the Antahkarana, Tibetan Reiki,Karuna Reiki, Seichem, Tera-Mai, Raku Kei, Sekhem, AdvancedReiki or any of a host of other techniques and trainings nowavailable.

All of these are add-ons and have been introduced by otherReiki Masters who have followed on after.

Most of these additions are quite valid in their own right andcan be extremely useful.

Some, like the splitting up of Reiki into many more levels isnot . That, to us, would appear to be just going for the money!

It also has to be taken into account that Dr Usui was a greatstudent of metaphysics and spirituality , and, from what we canmake out, very eclectic in nature. The probability , therefore, isvery high that he might have gone on to expand Reiki by includingthese extras himself, had they proved to be useful .


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As far as we are concerned, bringing Reiki into your life is andalways should be a wonderful experience. For us it is simply the actof experiencing God more directly. It has nothing to do withreligion of any kind. God is not accessible purely through a religion.

For us Reiki simply means this:

Personal Communion with God

This is, of course, our interpretation of the word. You see, inJapan, Reiki is a generic term for healing; which is why the Reikifounded by Dr Usui was called Usui Shiki Ryoho (Usui System ofNatural Healing).

Interpreting the word Reiki

In Japanese the Kanji Ideogram Rei apparently can beinterpreted as having several meanings, (and we say apparentlybecause we cannot read Japanese ourselves and have to rely onothers).

Anyway, the meanings for Rei are - universal, holy, spiritualconsciousness.

The kanji for Ki can mean - energy, life force, vital forcethat animates all living things.

So from this it can be seen that the word Reiki can betranslated into the universal and holy, spiritually conscious,life force energy that energises and animates all livingthings .

Are there many more apt descriptions of God ?

Even if you are someone who cant, at the moment, bringyourself to believe in such an entity, or prefer to use anothername .

Right we are then, thats the potted history of Reiki.


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Dont take any of it too seriously.Just remember, Reiki was not invented by Dr Usui, it was

already there. He merely discovered or, more accurately, re-discovered a method for pulling it more clearly into his life.

Reiki does not , indeed cannot , belong to any one society,country or person.

It belongs to everyone .

To imagine differently would be like believing only members ofa certain religion have the right to breathe the air . Reiki, just likeair, is everywhere and can be drawn upon by anyone at any time.

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