History of reiki

History of reiki

Dr. Mikao Usui

Quest for Knowledge

Reiki was rediscovered and revived in the middle of the 19th Century by a Christian monk by the name of Mikao Usui. The story of Usui's search for the secret knowledge has been told many times by Grand Master Hawayo Takata (1900-1980).

Usui was the Principal of a Christian seminary in Kyoto, Japan. When his students asked him why they had not learned anything of the healing method used by Jesus, they asked Usui to demonstrate it for them, but he was unable to do so. It was at that time that he decided to relinquish his position as Principal of the seminary and he left to study Christianity in a Christian country until he gained the knowledge.

The Holy Writings

Usui's quest led him to America, where he attended the University of Chicago and became a Doctor of Theology. However, he could not find any answers in Christian writings regarding hands-on healing. Able to read Japanese, Chinese, English and Sanskrit, Usui searched Chinese scripts to no avail, and eventually traveled to North India, where he was able to study the Holy Writings.

Meditation and Revelation

Usui later returned to Japan where he discovered some Sanskrit formulas and symbols in old Buddhist Sutras which seemed to hold the answers to his quest. At the time of his find he was living in a monastery in Kyoto, from where he traveled to the Holy Mountain of Kuriyama. It was there that he decided to fast and meditate in solitude for 21 days with the hope of gaining contact with a level of consciousness as described in the Sanskrit formulas. Upon his arrival at the mountain, he placed 21 small stones in front of him, to enable him to count the number of days in his fast. As each day passed he would discard one of  the stones.

During his time on the mountain Usui read in the Sutras, sang and meditated. Nothing unusual happened until the last day, when he saw a shining light moving toward him at great speed. It became larger and larger until it finally hit him in the center of the forehead. He saw millions of little colored bubbles of blue, lilac, pink and all the colors of the rainbow. A great white light appeared, and he saw the little-known Sanskrit symbols in front of him glowing in shining gold. This was the birth of Usui's system of Reiki as revealed to him from the Buddhist Sutras.

The Healing Miracles

When Usui returned to a normal state of consciousness, the sun was shining high in the sky. He felt an elation of spirit and a sense of strength and energy, and thus he began his descent from the mountain. In his rush downward, he stubbed his toe on a rock and he fell upon the ground. His toe was bleeding, and when he instinctively grabbed his toe in both of his hands for a few minutes, the bleeding stopped and the pain disappeared. THIS WAS THE FIRST MIRACLE.

Usui was very hungry, and he stopped at an inn along the wayside and ordered a large Japanese breakfast. The innkeeper warned him not to eat such a large meal after fasting for so long, but Usui was able to eat it all without any adverse effects. THIS WAS THE SECOND MIRACLE.

The granddaughter of the innkeeper had a bad toothache from which she had been suffering for several days. Usui laid his hands upon her swollen face and she immediately felt better. She ran to her grandfather and told him that their guest was no ordinary monk. THIS WAS THE THIRD MIRACLE.

The Birth of the Ethical Principles of Reiki

Usui returned to his monastery but decided after a few days to go to the beggar City in the slums of Kyoto to treat the beggars and help them lead a better life. He worked for seven years in an asylum treating many illnesses. One day, however, he noticed the same people with the same old faces kept returning. When he asked them why they had not begun a new life, he was told working was too troublesome and that it was easier to go on begging.

Usui was deeply shaken, and he wept. He suddenly realized that he had forgotten something of great importance in his healing work, namely to teach the beggars GRATITUDE. In the following days he thought out the Reiki principles as follows:

              

Just for today do not worry

Just for today do not anger

Honor your parents, teachers, and elders

Earn your living honestly

Show gratitude to everything

 

Soon afterwards he left the asylum and returned to Kyoto where he kindled a large torch and stood in the streets. When asked why he stood in the streets with the torch, he said he was looking for people in search of the TRUE LIGHT - people who were ill and oppressed and longed to be healed. This was the beginning of a new part of his life, which he spent traveling around Japan teaching Reiki.

Usui is now buried in a Kyoto temple, with the story of his life written on his gravestone. It is said that his grave was honored by the Emperor of Japan. One of Usui's closest collaborators, Dr. Chijiro Hayashi, took his place, becoming the second Reiki Grand Master in a line of tradition. He ran a private Reiki clinic in Tokyo until 1940, where unusually severe illness and disease could be treated with Reiki. This clinic was where Hawayo Takata of Hawaii first received Reiki treatments that would later lead her to study with Dr. Hayashi. Takata returned to Hawaii after her studies and was made a Reiki Master by Hayashi when he visited the Island in 1938. Upon his death in 1941, Takata succeeded Hayashi as Grand Master herself when she was about seventy-four years of age, initiating 21 Reiki Masters to carry on the great work. On December 11, 1980, Hawayo Takata passed to the higher side of life, leaving 22 Masters in the United Stares and Canada.