History of Reiki
The history of Reiki to date has always been handed down personally from master to pupil. I'd like to share a brief
explanation of it with you.
Dr Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki lived at the end of the nineteen century and was the director and christian priest of
a small university on Kyoto, Japan.
One day some of his senior students asked him if he believed in the healing miracles of Christ and whether he was able to
demonstrate such a healing.
Dr Usui had no answer for this penetrating question.
However, the incident led to great changes in his life.
He gave up his position and started on a quest to study the healing method's of Christ.
While he was searching he came across some material that greatly interested him in Buddhist scriptures.
Buddha, an enlightened master who lived around 600 BC, travelled as a monk through distant regions of India, and taught meditation and self realisation.
In the year's following his death, most of his followers were driven out of the country.
As they fled they spread his teachings through Tibet, Nepal, Japan, China and distant parts of Asia. Today, Buddhism is widespread
in these eastern countries. Usui was aware that Buddha had also possessed
the power of healing and so he searched for specific information on the
methods Buddha used.
Usui learned the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit and studied the original Buddhist writings in his quest for healing knowledge.
In one of these ancient writings he found symbols and mantras which are the key to the Reiki system of healing.
However, at that time Usui did not know how he should use the pictorial characters and names to bring about healing.
During his year's of study usui spent a considerable time in a Buddhist monastery, where he became friends with the head abbot.
On the abbots advice Usui embarked on a 2-day meditation and fast on a holy mountain near Kyoto.
On the last day of his fast, he had a deep meditation experience.
He saw a shinning light in the sky which moved quickly towards him.
This light struck him in the middle of his forehead (the third eye/sixth chakra) and he found himself to be in a state of extended
consciousness.
In this higher state Usui saw many small bubbles of rainbow coloured light in front of him. Finally, a great white light appeared to him, in
which, as if on a film screen, he recognised the familiar symbols from the Sanskrit sutras, glowing in gold. simultaneously, the application of the symbols and mantras became clear to him and he felt charged with a powerful healing force.
At the end of this incredible healing and enlightening experience, Usui began his descent from the holy mountain.
In his haste he stabbed his toe badly causing it not only to throb but to bleed as well.
When he held his hands around his foot, the bleeding immediately stopped and the pain vanished.
This was his first experience of such extraordinary and rapid healing.
After Usui had spent a few weeks in the monastery of his friend he decided to go to the slums of Kyoto on order to heal the sick.
Through his seven years of experience in the slums, Usui came to recognise that, although he had healed the physical body of its symptoms of disease, he had not taught a new way of living.
This prompted him to set out the Reiki rules for life. These principles although laid down more than a hundred years ago, are still of significance today.
Usui recognized that while many of the beggars he had treated had become healthy thanks to Reiki, they had not reintegrated themselves into society and were unable to handle their responsibilities.
Usui realised how important the patients own desire to be healthy was in the healing process.
The sick person must ask for healing and he or she must really want it.
Usui had offered his services free of charge in the slums.
Now he saw how essential it is, when people receive healing, that they also give something in return.
An energy exchange between healer and receiver is vital.
On the basis of his experience in Kyoto, Usui now decided to travel in order to apply and to teach Reiki so
that the way of thinking of the people would also be healed.
A new phase began in his life.
A few years before his death, Dr Usui initiated a retired navel officer, Dr Chijiro Hayashi in the Reiki method and declared him his successor.
Dr Hayashi opened a private Reiki clinic in Tokyo. Here Reiki practitioners were trained and patients treated.
The Reiki healers worked in groups often around the clock, and also made home visits.
Dr Hayashi left documents and reports of physical symptoms filling the body with the required energy and restoring it to
wholeness.
Hawayo Takata, a young Japanese woman living in Hawaii who was suffering from a number of serious
disorders including a tumor, followed a inner call not to have an operation, but to seek healing in Japan.
Through sheer coincidence she heard of the Reiki clinic and went there for several months of
treatment. As a result she became completely cured of her illnesses.
Takata became Hayashi's student and stayed with him for a year.
Then she returned to Hawaii where she worked as a healer.
In 1938 she was initiated by Dr Hayashi a a master of the Usui system.
After Hayashi's death in 1941, Takata became his successor. She healed and taught for many years as far as is known ,
was the only Reiki master until 1976.
In the last years before her death she began to train some of her students as Reiki masters.
By the time she died in 1980, she had initiated 22 Reiki masters, among them her grand daughter Phyllis
Lei Furumoto, who in 1983, was recognised by the Reiki Alliance as a grand master of Reiki.
Through Takata and the Reiki teachers Furumoto had initiated, the art of Reiki healing became known to the western world. Today,
Reiki is known in every country in the world and there are several thousand Reiki masters.
Today there is a large number of directions and enormous variety within the Reiki healing method.
Some Reiki masters have formed themselves into organisations, while others others work independently as freelance
Reiki masters and teachers.
The traditional Reiki system still exists, representing the form and content of the teaching in line with
the original lineage of Usui, Hayashi, Takata, and Furumoto.
Here we also find the original symbols and mantras and the traditional initiation ritual.
In addition there are newly developed Reiki branches, which also use the same universal energy for
healing, but which may differ in the form and content of the teaching, in initiation rituals, and symbols used.
explanation of it with you.
Dr Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki lived at the end of the nineteen century and was the director and christian priest of
a small university on Kyoto, Japan.
One day some of his senior students asked him if he believed in the healing miracles of Christ and whether he was able to
demonstrate such a healing.
Dr Usui had no answer for this penetrating question.
However, the incident led to great changes in his life.
He gave up his position and started on a quest to study the healing method's of Christ.
While he was searching he came across some material that greatly interested him in Buddhist scriptures.
Buddha, an enlightened master who lived around 600 BC, travelled as a monk through distant regions of India, and taught meditation and self realisation.
In the year's following his death, most of his followers were driven out of the country.
As they fled they spread his teachings through Tibet, Nepal, Japan, China and distant parts of Asia. Today, Buddhism is widespread
in these eastern countries. Usui was aware that Buddha had also possessed
the power of healing and so he searched for specific information on the
methods Buddha used.
Usui learned the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit and studied the original Buddhist writings in his quest for healing knowledge.
In one of these ancient writings he found symbols and mantras which are the key to the Reiki system of healing.
However, at that time Usui did not know how he should use the pictorial characters and names to bring about healing.
During his year's of study usui spent a considerable time in a Buddhist monastery, where he became friends with the head abbot.
On the abbots advice Usui embarked on a 2-day meditation and fast on a holy mountain near Kyoto.
On the last day of his fast, he had a deep meditation experience.
He saw a shinning light in the sky which moved quickly towards him.
This light struck him in the middle of his forehead (the third eye/sixth chakra) and he found himself to be in a state of extended
consciousness.
In this higher state Usui saw many small bubbles of rainbow coloured light in front of him. Finally, a great white light appeared to him, in
which, as if on a film screen, he recognised the familiar symbols from the Sanskrit sutras, glowing in gold. simultaneously, the application of the symbols and mantras became clear to him and he felt charged with a powerful healing force.
At the end of this incredible healing and enlightening experience, Usui began his descent from the holy mountain.
In his haste he stabbed his toe badly causing it not only to throb but to bleed as well.
When he held his hands around his foot, the bleeding immediately stopped and the pain vanished.
This was his first experience of such extraordinary and rapid healing.
After Usui had spent a few weeks in the monastery of his friend he decided to go to the slums of Kyoto on order to heal the sick.
Through his seven years of experience in the slums, Usui came to recognise that, although he had healed the physical body of its symptoms of disease, he had not taught a new way of living.
This prompted him to set out the Reiki rules for life. These principles although laid down more than a hundred years ago, are still of significance today.
Usui recognized that while many of the beggars he had treated had become healthy thanks to Reiki, they had not reintegrated themselves into society and were unable to handle their responsibilities.
Usui realised how important the patients own desire to be healthy was in the healing process.
The sick person must ask for healing and he or she must really want it.
Usui had offered his services free of charge in the slums.
Now he saw how essential it is, when people receive healing, that they also give something in return.
An energy exchange between healer and receiver is vital.
On the basis of his experience in Kyoto, Usui now decided to travel in order to apply and to teach Reiki so
that the way of thinking of the people would also be healed.
A new phase began in his life.
A few years before his death, Dr Usui initiated a retired navel officer, Dr Chijiro Hayashi in the Reiki method and declared him his successor.
Dr Hayashi opened a private Reiki clinic in Tokyo. Here Reiki practitioners were trained and patients treated.
The Reiki healers worked in groups often around the clock, and also made home visits.
Dr Hayashi left documents and reports of physical symptoms filling the body with the required energy and restoring it to
wholeness.
Hawayo Takata, a young Japanese woman living in Hawaii who was suffering from a number of serious
disorders including a tumor, followed a inner call not to have an operation, but to seek healing in Japan.
Through sheer coincidence she heard of the Reiki clinic and went there for several months of
treatment. As a result she became completely cured of her illnesses.
Takata became Hayashi's student and stayed with him for a year.
Then she returned to Hawaii where she worked as a healer.
In 1938 she was initiated by Dr Hayashi a a master of the Usui system.
After Hayashi's death in 1941, Takata became his successor. She healed and taught for many years as far as is known ,
was the only Reiki master until 1976.
In the last years before her death she began to train some of her students as Reiki masters.
By the time she died in 1980, she had initiated 22 Reiki masters, among them her grand daughter Phyllis
Lei Furumoto, who in 1983, was recognised by the Reiki Alliance as a grand master of Reiki.
Through Takata and the Reiki teachers Furumoto had initiated, the art of Reiki healing became known to the western world. Today,
Reiki is known in every country in the world and there are several thousand Reiki masters.
Today there is a large number of directions and enormous variety within the Reiki healing method.
Some Reiki masters have formed themselves into organisations, while others others work independently as freelance
Reiki masters and teachers.
The traditional Reiki system still exists, representing the form and content of the teaching in line with
the original lineage of Usui, Hayashi, Takata, and Furumoto.
Here we also find the original symbols and mantras and the traditional initiation ritual.
In addition there are newly developed Reiki branches, which also use the same universal energy for
healing, but which may differ in the form and content of the teaching, in initiation rituals, and symbols used.