by Helen Clover
Chesterfield

Reiki I - Usui Shiki Ryoho
Reiki II - Usui Shiki Ryoho
Reiki III - Usui Shiki Ryoho Seichem

OTHER LINKS:

 

History

Reiki is a very ancient natural healing technique of laying on of hands, and it’s a system of great simplicity and power. To fully appreciate and understand Reiki it’s helpful to know a little of its most recent history. Reiki’s beginnings go back many thousands of years. It originated in part with the Ling Chi of the Chinese Taoists over 5000 years ago. But the knowledge of it was lost for several thousand years until its recent rediscovery in the mid 1850’s by Dr Mikao Usui who also fashioned the name Reiki.

Throughout history, humanity has experienced healing methods that were based on the transfer of healing life energy. This particular science comes from ancient Tibetan texts. Other cultures have referred to this same energy by different names, such as Chi (Chinese), Mana (Kahuna) or Prana (Hindus).

There are several accounts on the rediscovery of Reiki, and accordingly there are variations with each. There is however one aspect that remains constant. And this is that it was due to the commitment and life long dedication of one man, that we can today give and receive Reiki.

Dr Mikao Usui was born in the Gifu Prefecture, Japan. He was a Buddhist monk who lived and worked in Christian boys’ school in Kyoto, teaching about the Bible. One day his students approached him and asked if he believed in the stories contained within the Bible about the instant healings that Jesus performed. On replying that he did, he was then asked how Jesus had been able to perform such healings. This greatly disturbed Dr Usui because he had no answer for the students, and he too wanted to know how to help the sick whose disabilities were causing them so much pain. How did Buddha and Christ heal the sick? He decided to leave the school and go in search of the answers to these mysteries of healing. Even if it was to take him a lifetime he was determined to find the answers to these questions.

His 10-year quest began in The University of Chicago (although his cannot be proven through their records) and there he studied the teachings of Christ, the sacred literature of Japan and China, and learned to read Sanskrit which is the ancient scholarly language of India and Tibet.

Dissatisfied with his process he decided to go back to Japan. Some believe that he also spent time in India on his return journey. He started to ask Buddhist priests and scholars if they knew how the Buddha had healed people and how his disciples had learnt healing as well. He found that the ability to heal physical bodies was not known about in his time. That there were possibly a few secret sects, but they kept their knowledge to themselves. This led him to travel throughout the Far East, searching for information that would help him to develop the ability to heal. Once home he returned to monastery life where he continued his studies. After a lot of searching he found a formula in the Indian Sutras that he felt contained what he was looking for. He found texts written in Sanskrit describing the healing formula. This told of a higher power that could bestow the power to heal. But due to the sacred nature of these texts, they did not explain how to activate the healing process. This was often the case to prevent powerful information falling into the hands of those who would not know how to use it properly. So he decided that the best way forward was to live by the principles outlined by the formula.

So, at the end of his quest, the complete system of Reiki came to him during a mystical experience on the holy mountain of Kuri Yama near Kyoto, in Japan. He decided upon a near-fatal 21-day fasting meditation. He went to this mountain and placed 21 stones in front of him, throwing away one stone every evening so that he could keep a record of the days that passed. He fasted, meditated and followed the formula’s directions for 21 days, but nothing happened until the very last day. During a deep meditation he saw a brilliant ray of light coming towards him. The initial response was of fear and a desire to flee. But he became aware that the light had consciousness, intelligence, and contained the healing power he was seeking, and that if he wanted that knowledge then the light had to hit him. He was also aware that the light could kill him. But he decided to stay and accept what was to be given to him. The light hit him on his third eye and knocked him out. He went out of his body and saw rainbow coloured bubbles, each one containing a symbol. He contemplated on each symbol and was given the attunement for each of them, and the knowledge of their use. This was the first modern Reiki attunement.

It was on his way back down from the mountain when the first of the three miracles happened:
He was in such a hurry to have some water and food and to share the great news, that he stubbed his toes quite badly. He held his toes between his hands which became very hot, and the pain and the bleeding stopped and he was able to carry on quite quickly.
Secondly, he stopped at a local inn to eat, and the innkeeper saw that he’d been fasting and knew that eating a big meal directly afterwards can be dangerous, so he advised Dr Usui to eat only rice. However, Dr Usui insisted that the food be served. And after his big meal he experienced no ill side effects.
Thirdly, the daughter of the innkeeper who served him the food was holding on to the side of her face and was close to tears. She told him about the terrible toothache that troubled her. And with her father’s permission Dr Usui held her face gently between his hands, and the pain was gone.

When he returned to Kyoto he was instructed during a meditation to begin working in beggar camps. And with each healing he asked them to go out into the world and make a new life for themselves. This was all fine until one day he recognised a familiar face among the beggars. And it was then that he realised that those who had once been healed had since returned to these camps. When he questioned the reason for this he was told that life was much easier in the camps than living elsewhere. Bitterly disappointed he acknowledged the fact that a healing had taken place on a physical level, but not spiritually, so was therefore incomplete.

It was from then on that Dr Usui was ‘given’ the precepts and the principals of Reiki, from which it is also taught and lived today.

Dr Usui then travelled on foot, spreading Reiki throughout Japan. He met a retired naval officer Dr Chujiro Hayashi who was the first person to be initiated into the full Reiki tradition by him, in March 1926. Dr Usui asked him to accept responsibility for preserving Reiki in the future, which Dr Hayashi agreed to do. Before his death in 1930, Dr Usui had initiated 13 (or 16) Reiki Masters.

Under Dr Usui the Reiki Healing System consisted of the healing energy, the symbols, attunement process and the Reiki Ideals. Dr Hayashi developed the system further. He opened a healing centre in Tokyo in 1922, which was the very first Reiki clinic, taking Reiki off the streets. He kept very detailed records of all treatments given. From these developed the standard hand positions. In this clinic the Reiki practitioners would work together, often several people to one client.

But where once Reiki had been free of charge to all, there was now a fee attached to the treatment to cover the costs of the clinic and to ensure an energy exchange. It is said that mainly the middle and upper classes made use of these services that were offered in the clinic.

It was to this clinic that an American lady, Mrs Hawayo Takata came looking for a treatment. She was born in December 1900, into a family of Japanese immigrants who lived Kauai, Hawaii. They worked in the pineapple plantations. She was married to a bookkeeper Saichi Takata and had two daughters. When she was 30 years old her husband died leaving her to bring up the children on her own. She worked long and hard in order to support her children. The result of this was her very poor health. Her younger sister contracted tetanus and died three days after her husband had died. Duty and tradition required her to return her sister’s ashes to Japan and inform her parents of the death who had also by that time returned to Japan. Whilst she was there she sought medical help for she was suffering from a nervous breakdown, cancer of the stomach, a lung condition, gal stones to name but a few of her physical conditions. Surgery seemed her only option, but the night before the operation she heard a voice that told her that, it was not necessary, there was another way. This voice came back as she lay on the operating table and she asked her surgeon if he knew of anyone else who could help her. He replied that his sister worked in a clinic for something called Reiki, and that perhaps they could help. So she booked herself in for treatments and although at first her conditions got worse, after four months of having several treatments a day, she was completely cured. She was so impressed by it that she wanted to learn to become a practitioner herself. She received Reiki I and II in 1936 and 1937. In exchange for this she dedicated one year of her life to working in the clinic before returning to Hawaii, in order to practice and spread the teachings of Reiki. She set up a Reiki clinic in Hawaii with the help of Dr Hayashi who went to see her there.

Dr Hayashi realised the coming of the second world war and feared that none of the existing Reiki Masters would survive this period. With this in mind he decided to give the complete teachings of Reiki to the level of Reiki Master to two women. They were his wife, and Mrs Hawayo Takata who received it in 1938 in Hawaii, on the understanding that after the war Mrs Takata would return to Japan, work in the clinic and promote Reiki. He also asked her to take this knowledge to the West and preserve the tradition. He told Mrs Takata to come to him in Japan whenever he summoned her. Several years later she awoke to see an image of Dr Hayashi at the foot of her bed. She realised that this was the sign and went to Japan. There she was told of the coming war and the fear that Reiki would again disappear if it were unknown outside of Japan. She was asked if she could take the responsibility of keeping Reiki alive, which she agreed to do.

Being a naval officer Dr Hayashi understood that he would be called up for the active duty, and that this would conflict with his beliefs. So on the 10th of May 1941 in the presence of his family and students, Dr Hayashi stopped his heart and went into a transition.

After the war the Reiki clinic was the only building left standing in that area. It had been converted into an orphanage. Mrs Takata decided that it would serve the community better to remain that way and returned to Hawaii.
During her remaining years she practised Reiki intensively throughout the islands and America. Before her transition on the 11th of December 1980, she had initiated 22 Reiki Masters to carry on the lineage. And shortly before her death she also instructed her granddaughter Phyllis Lei Furumoto.

In the following years Reiki has spread all around the world. There are now an estimated 20,000 Reiki Masters with as many as 1,000,000 people practising it.

It was Mrs Takata that created the fee structure that some use today. She was concerned that the Western mind might not accept the concept of respect necessary, feeling that in the western world people only had respect for things that cost a lot of money. She therefore decided to put a high fee of $10,000 on the Master’s attunement, to instil proper respect. Whilst some teachers continue to charge high fees, many now feel that it is important for Reiki to be available to all who need it, rather than the few who can afford it.

Meanwhile in Japan, some of the Reiki Masters survived the war and there are Japanese lineages unconnected with Mrs Takata.

Dr. Usui created 3 degrees:

The Shoden (First Teaching)
The Okuden (Inner Teaching)
and the Shinpiden (Mystery Teaching)

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Dr. Mikao Usui (1865 - 1925)

Dr. Chujiro Hayashi (1873 - 1941)

Dr. Hawayo Takata (1900 - 1980)