SpiritWeb

Origin and History of Reiki

Based on materials found in the book "Reiki: A practical Guide to heal over 150 physical disorders" by Martin Nazareth

Reiki, as it is practiced today, dates back to the teachings of Mikao Usui in Japan in the early 1920's. Much of what we know about Mikao Usui comes from a few Western books. These books reveal how he was the principal of Doshisha University, a Christian Institute in Kyoto, Japan. According to these books it was from the students from one of his classes at Doshisha that he received inspiration to start his quest and seek to discover how Jesus healed the sick. Further it is said that he travelled to the United States to enrol himself at the University of Chicago to receive a degree in Theology.

However it is interesting to note that in search for records, Reiki Master William Rand found that Master Usui had never been a principal, teacher or student at the Doshisha University. So also there are no records of his attendance at the University of Chicago, nor of his receiving a degree. This version is also supported by Reiki Master Kathleen Milner and Reiki Master David G. Jarrell. They mention that he was a Buddhist monk who resided in a Zen monastery.

Master Usui dedicated his life to the teaching of ancient truth and without his disciplined perseverance, we might not have the blessing of the Reiki energy. Our lives are enriched from his labour of live for humankind. He was totally dedicated to Reiki and today is a great inspiration to all Reiki students.

Dr. Mikao Usui, a buddhist monk, in the city of Kyoto, Japan, began a 28 year research to rediscover how Lord Buddha had healed. Before Jesus, the BUddha had possessed the gift of healing through Divine Love and the human touch. The traditional Reiki story begins with Dr. Usui, but Reiki was ancient even then.

Reiki was once universal and was never meant to be lost. In the civilization we call MU today, the children received Reiki 1 training at the beginning of the grade school. They received Reiki 2 at the junior school level. And Reiki 3 was available to everyone who wanted it. It is saidthat the people of MU culture left the mainland of MU to settle in India and Tibet, and Reiki was practised by them. MU was eventually lost.

Dr. Usui began his quest by visiting and asking Head Monks of the different Buddhist sects if they possessed the power of healing the body. Could they perform the healing miracles the Buddha performed? They always had the same answer. They felt that healing of the spirit and healing of the body were not always directly connected. They were focussing on the spirit and not the body.

Finally, Dr. Usui met the abbot of the Zen monastery. He asked the abbot: Do zen monks know to heal the body as Lord Buddha did? "Not any more", answered the abbot. Puzzled by the answer, DR. Usui questioned, "what do you mean, not any more?" The Zen abbot explained that they had neglected to heal the body since long, and now they totally concentrated on healing the spirit. Thus, they had lost the art to heal the physical body completely. Dr. Usui asked if he might stay and study at the zen monastery in Kyoto. He was accepted.

Under the zen abbot's guidance, Dr. Usui began meditating, reading the sutras, the writings and teachings of the Buddha. In the Japanese translation there was no suitable answer. Through meditation, Dr. Usui was guided to learn Chinese. He read the sutras in Chinese. He did not uncover what he felt were the essential teachings or keys to physical healing. Guided by meditation again, Dr. Usui first mastered Sanskrit and then the Tibetan language. He discovered what he felt to be the formula to healing in the teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist sect.

The material did not give information on how to activate the energy and put it to use. He needed to go through the test. The test was prayer, fasting and meditation on a holy mountain north of Kyoto in Japan, called Koriyama. During this time he would receive enlightenment and spiritual clarity.

He climbed the mountain and chose his meditation spot facing the east. He piled twenty-one stones in front of him to mark the days, throwing away one stone each morning. On the final morning, Usui awakened in the darkest hour just before dawn. He found his way to the meditation spot and picked up the last stone. He prayed before throwing it off the side of Koriyama, asking for confirmation of the formula together with enlightenment on how to use it.

Dr. Usui threw the stone and it rolled down the side of Koriyama. Then he saw a light on the eastern horizon moving towards him. It began getting brighter and brighter as it came directly at him. His first response was to run away from it. Usui was frightened but he thought: "28 years I have been on the search. I have prayed, meditated and fasted forthe last twenty-one days. I have prayed for enlightenment and confirmation, and now I want to run away from it." He composed himself and decided to accept what was coming in answer to his prayer even if it resulted in his death. The light became very bright as it streamed across the sky and struck his third eye, opened it and entered his body.

Usui thought he was dead. However, he was alive but had merely lost his consciousness. He was in a euphoric state. He saw millions and millions of rainbow bubbles and finally the Reiki symbols as if on a screen. AS he saw each of the symbols, he was given the information about each of them to activate the healing energy. It was the first Reiki attunement, the psychic discovery of an ancient method of healing. Now Usui heard a voice saying: "These are the keys to the healing, learn them, do not forget them, and do not lose them." Usui saw the bubbles, heard the voice, and finally heard himself speak out in his mind: "I have them. I will not forget them. I will not allow them to be lost." He was now wide-awake and realized that he was still alive. Gathering his wits and belongings, he hurriedly walked down the mountain. He was energized. He was excited. He wanted to be with the abbot at Kyoto to share the exciting discovery.

Mikao Usui left Mount Koriyama knowing how to heal as Buddha and Jesus had healed. Walking down the mountain, he experienced what is traditionally known as the four miracles. First, he stubbed his toe walking. His palms turned hot, and the torn toe was healed. Next he reached a home that served travellers at the foot of the mountain, and ordered cold rice and cold tea, a full meal, not wise after fasting for twenty one days on water, but ate it without discomfort. Third, the girl serving the meal was affliced with tooth-ache, and placing his palms on her jaw, he healed her pain. When he reached the monastery at Kyoto, the abbot was in bed with arthritis. Usui healed the monk.

Reiki was the name Usui gave to the newly discovered healing energy. Reiki means "Universal Life Force Energy". He took the method into the slums of Kyoto. There he lived for seven years giving healings from early mornings to late at night.He healed the young and old alike, and many beautiful healings took place.

In the culture of his time, people with deformities, missing limbs or with diseases were supported by the community as beggars. After each healing he asked that person to start a new life. But he found these people returning to the quarters. Seeing these healthy people still begging instead of making an honest living, he was discouraged. He left the slums. Then Usui resolved to cut off all beggars. Reiki will never be given away. The flow will always have to be completed. There will have to be an exchange for Reiki. Usui now realized that Reiki healing is a combination of the body and the spirit. He knocked the dirt of the Slum City off his feet and went back to the monastery at Kyoto.

Dr. Usui had by now discovered the Five Principles of Reiki.

If as a Reiki student you bring these principles into your life and give yourself a Reiki treatment daily, then you will experience love, health, happiness, success, prosperity and a peaceful life.

Mikao Usui became a pilgrim, taking Reiki on foot through Japan, carrying a torch and lecturing. He travelled from Hokkaido in the north to the southernmost province. On his travels, he acquired eigtheen disciples, spirited young men, who were his travelling companions.

Usui met Chujiro Hayashi during his travels. Hayashi was a retired naval officer still on reserve status. Hayashi received his Reiki Master's training from Usui in 1925 at te age of 47 and became Mikao Usui's successor. Usui died in 1930 and is said to have empowered around 18 Reiki Masters. Chujiro Hayashi trained teams of Reiki practitioners, men and women. He empowered 16 Reiki Masters in his lifetime. He opened a Reiki clinic in Tokyo where people came both for treatment and training. The patients lived at the clinic during the treatments. Reiki healers also paid visits to homes of patients who were unable to come to the clinic.

It was in 1935 that Hawayo Takata entered Chujiro Hayashi's "Shina No Machi" clinic for treatment. Hawayo Takata was born on December 24, 1900, to a pineapple cutter's family on Kauai Island, Hawaii at Hanamaulu. Frail and small built, she could not handle the plantation work. Instead, while still in public school, she worked as a soda fountain clerk and helped to teach younger children. Out of school she took employment as a domestic at the large and wealthy plantation owner's household and was there for the next twenty-four years, working as housekeeper and book-keeper, a position of much responsibility. She married Saichi Takata, the plantation's accountant. They had two daughters and a happy marriage.

A heart attack, at the age of thirty-two ended Saichi Takata's life. Widowed and with two small daughters to raise, Hawayo Takata developed nervous exhaustion and severe physical problems.She developed gall bladder disease that needed surgery, a respiratory condition with breathing difficulty that made the use of anaesthesia dangerous. Her health continued to deteriorate and she was advised surgery if she wanted to live and was told that surgery could end her life. Reaching Japan she took admission at the Maeda Medical Hospital in Akasaka.

She was scheduled for surgery after several weeks of rest in the hospital. They diagnosed appendicitis, a tumor, as well as gallstones. The night before the surgery a voice saidto her: "The surgery is not necessary." The following morning she heard the voice again on the operating table while being prepated for the anaesthetic, when she asked the surgeon if there was another way for her to be healed. The surgeon told her: "Yes, provided she could stay in Japan long for it," and mentioned the Reiki treatment given at Chujiro Hayashi's clinic. Hawayo opted for Reiki treatment. The surgeon's sister who had been healed through Reiki treatments, and had also taken Reiki training from Hayashi accompanied Hawayo to Hayashi's clinic.

Hawayo underwent Reiki treatment for four months at the clinic as an in-patient. She was completely healed in body, mind and spirit. She asked to be given Reiki training but at first was refused, not because she was a woman but because she was a foreigner. At that time Hayashi was not ready to share Reiki with the outside world. The intervention by the Maeda Medical Hospital surgeon made Hayashi change his mind. Hawayo was initiated as Reiki 1 channel in 1936. She worked together with the team of healers at Hayashi's clinic. In 1937 she received Reiki 2 initiation, following which she returned to Hawaii. She had spent two years in Japan.

In Kapaa Hawaii, Takata established her Reiki clinic and she was a great success. She obtained a massage therapist's license to keep at bay the harassing officials.

During 1938 winter, Chujiro Hayashi visited Takata in Hawaii. She took her Reiki 3 training from Hayashi during this visit. On february 22, 1938, Hayashi declared Hawayo Takata, both as a Reiki Master Teacher and his successor. Hayashi insisted on a fee and also advised Takata not to give Reiki training without charge. He also desired that she should visit Japan whenever he summoned her. A second healing centre was established by Takata in 1939 in Hilo. One morning in 1941, Takata awoke to psychically see Hayashi standing at the foot of her bed. This was the summons. Takata sailed by the next available boat to Tokyo.

On Hayashi's arrival at Hayashi's Tokyo clinic, in the presence of his wife, Chie Hayashi, and other Japanese Reiki Masters, Chujiro announced that a great war would soon be coming and that all Japanese involved in Reiki would perish in that war and his clinic itself would be closed. He now told the gathering that as a reserve naval officer he had been drafted, and that as a Reiki healer he cannot be a killer. Instead,determining to accept his own death, he had summoned Takata.

Chujiro Hayashi stopped his own heart by psychic means on May 10, 1941, and died in the presence of his wife, Chie, his successor Hawayo and his close family circle. The war he predicted was World War II and Reiki was indeed no longer available in Japan.

Hawayo Takata has been the backbone of Reiki as it came out of Japan. She was the means by which Reiki thrived, first in Hawaii, then in the United States, Canada and Europe. She lived to be eighty. Hundreds of people received training from her in the Reiki healing system. From 1970-1980, during the last 10 years of her life, she initiated 22 Reiki Masters. She died on December 11, 1980.

In her Reiki clinics, when she saw a patient seriously ill and needing long-term healing, she trained a family member in Reiki to contibue treatments. If the patient was strong enough, he took the training himself.

Reiki is progressing and changing since the time it was rediscovered by Mikao Usui and practised by Chujiro Hayashi and Hawayo takata. It is reaching more and more people.