The History of Reiki Usui

With current knowledge, we are unable to trace the true human beginning of what we call Reiki. However, one man, Dr. Mikao Usui is credited with rediscovering the process of initiation into the spiritual path of Reiki. His story was for many years an oral history, passed on from teacher to student by word of mouth, and there are now two major historical accounts.

Dr Mikao Usui

One states that he was the Principal of Doshisha, a small Christian university in Kyoto, where after being challenged by one of his students about proof of the healing and miracles reported in the Bible. He resigned his position to dedicate his life to rediscovering how Jesus healed. Beginning his quest at the University of Chicago. There he received doctorate in theology, but did not find what he sought, so he returned to Japan where he began visiting the Buddhist monasteries, searching for someone who had an interest in, and some knowledge of, physical healing.

The other historical account states that Dr Usui grew up in the Buddhist tradition, becoming inspired by the Buddha's desire to help others, and the unusual metaphysical abilities he received after achieving enlightenment, enabling him to heal physical illness and pass these healing abilities on to his disciples, through his teachings. He became a Buddhist monk in Kyoto, Japan and began a quest to rediscover how the Buddha had healed through divine love.

Both accounts then merge as Dr Usui travelled throughout Japan, talking to Buddhist priests and scholars who always answered his questions about physical healing in the same way. They told him that this information had been lost long ago, because it was considered more important to heal the spirit. He became friends with the abbot of a Zen monastery where he was encouraged to study the sacred writings, the Japanese Sutras (ancient teachings), and he learned other languages also, in order to study the Chinese Sutras and finally the Sanskrit Sutras of Tibet. lt was within these Sanskrit Sutras that he discovered a formula for contacting a higher power which could bestow healing.

Usui then had the symbols, the technical, and mental information he required concerning healing but he lacked the physical and spiritual empowerment process that he needed to be able to heal. He discussed this with his old friend, the Abbot, who suggested that he should make a spiritual pilgrimage to the holy mountain of Kuri Yama where he should fast, meditate and follow the directions in the formula for 21 days. This he did, setting 21 stones before him as a way to count the days, and as the first rays of the dawn came over the horizon on the twenty first day, he threw the last stone away and he looked towards the horizon, wondering what he should do next.

He then saw a strong beam of light coming towards him, and as he looked at it he realised that the light had consciousness, and it was communicating with him. He recognised that this light had the healing power he had been seeking, but he was warned that there was a danger in what he sought - if the light struck him, it was so powerful that it might kill him.

He was given an opportunity to decide whether he was willing to risk death in order to gain the ability to heal, the ability which he had dedicated so many years of searching in order to find. He made his decision, and the beam struck him in the middle of the forehead, knocking him unconscious. His spirit rose out of his body, and he was shown beautiful rainbow coloured bubbles of light, each containing the keys or symbols of Reiki. As he contemplated each symbol, he received an attunement for that symbol, and knowledge on its use, and in this way he was initiated into the use of the Reiki healing power. He heard a voice saying to him ''These are the keys to healing; learn them, do not forget them, and do not allow them to be lost”, and with that his spirit returned to his body and he gradually came out of his altered state of consciousness, realising that he no longer felt exhausted, stiff or hungry, as he had moments before on that last day of his retreat.

He began to swiftly make his way back down the mountain, and on his journey several things happened which demonstrated to him that the healing gift he had sought really had been granted to him. On his way he stubbed his toe quite badly, tearing back the toenail, so that he jumped in pain, and naturally bent down to hold his toe in his hands. As he did so, he felt warmth flowing into his foot, and the pain and the bleeding stopped, and he could see that his toe had begun to heal with amazing speed. When he got down to the bottom of the mountain, he stopped at a food stall and ordered breakfast. The old man serving the food could see by the length of Dr Usui's facial hair and the condition of his clothes that he had been on a long fast, and said that it would take some minutes before he could. prepare food which would not upset his long-empty stomach, so he went to sit under a tree to wait.

Soon the old man's daughter came over with his breakfast, and as he looked at her he noticed that she had been crying, and that her face was red and swollen on one side. He asked what was wrong, and she told him that she had been plagued with toothache for three days, so he asked if he might place his hands on her face to see if this would help. She agreed, and in a few minutes the pain left her and the swelling began to go down. Returning to the monastery in the evening, Dr Usui was told that his friend the Abbott was in bed, suffering from a painful attack of arthritis. After bathing and having something to eat, Dr Usui went to see his old friend, and with his healing hands, relieved his pain.

He returned to Kyoto where, in meditation he was instructed to go to the beggars' camp to do healing work, which he did for 7 years, but then he began to notice that many he had helped were returning to the beggars' camp in the same condition in which he had found them. He asked them why they had returned to the beggars' quarters, and they told him that it was a way of life they knew, and so they felt comfortable with it. Dr Usui realised that he had healed their physical bodies of symptoms, but had not taught them an appreciation for life, or a new way of living. Again in meditation he was given further guidance about the healing of the spirit through a conscious decision to improve oneself to take responsibility for one's own health and well-being, in order for the Reiki healing energies to have lasting results. He was then given the five spiritual principles of Reiki to balance the physical aspect of his healing work.

Just for today, do not anger;

Just for today do not worry..

Honour your parents, teachers and elders..

Earn your living honestly;

Show gratitude to every living thing.

He then left the beggar camp and began to teach others how to heal themselves, and gave them the Principles of Reiki to help heal their thoughts. As a Master, Dr Mikao Usui practiced and taught Reiki throughout Japan for the remainder of his life, gathering a following of 16 teachers to whom he gave the Master attunement. When his life was drawing to a close around 1930 he asked one of his students, Dr Chujiro Hayashi, a retired naval officer, to be the next Grand Master of Reiki, to preserve the Reiki teachings so that they would not be lost, as they had been in the past.

Dr Chujiro Hayashi

Dr Hayashi went on to develop the Usui system of healing, which until this time had consisted of the energy itself, the symbols, the attunement process and the Reiki ideals. He founded the first Reiki clinic in Tokyo, Japan, in the early 1930s, where people could come for treatment and to learn Reiki. He kept detailed records of the treatments given, and then used this information to create the standard hand positions, the system of three degrees, and their initiation procedures.

Dr Hayashi was a powerful mystic, and was able to foresee the future, including the onset of World War 2. He could not reconcile being a Reiki Master and having to serve again in the Navy, and he knew that of the 13 Masters he had initiated, all the men would be killed, so he asked Mrs Hawayo Takata, a Japanese-American living in Hawaii, to be the next Grand Master of Reiki. Dr Hayashi told her many things about the war - who would win, what she must do, and where she must go to avoid trouble for herself. All these things he foresaw and passed on to her for her protection, and for the protection of Reiki. When all of his affairs were put in order, he called his family and all the Reiki Masters together. Giving them his final words, and recognising Mrs Takata as his successor in Reiki, he said good- bye, closed his eyes and left his body.

Mrs Hawayo Takata

Hawayo Takata was born on 24th December 1900 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, of Japanese parents who had emigrated from Japan to work in the sugar cane fields. She married the plantation book-keeper, Saichi Takata, and they had two daughters, but in October 1930 her husband died, and in order to raise her two children alone she had to work very hard. Eventually this hard work took its toll upon her health, and by 1935 when one of her sisters died, she was very ill with a tumor. However, it fell to her to go to Japan to tell her parents, who had returned there to live, and whilst there she was brought to the Reiki clinic by an employee of a surgical hospital in Tokyo, for just as she was being prepared for surgery, Hawayo Takata had a sense that the operation was not necessary, and that there was another way. She had been led to Reiki.

At the Reiki clinic she began receiving treatments. She had never heard of Reiki before, and the heat from the practitioners' hands was so strong that she thought they were using some kind of equipment. She looked around, but saw none, and seeing the large sleeves of the Japanese kimono one of the practitioners was wearing, she grabbed the sleeve to look inside for some form of equipment. The startled practitioner, upon being told the reason, laughed and explained about Reiki and what it was. Using their Reiki hands, the practitioners had also been able to sense what was wrong with Mrs Takata, and their diagnosis very closely matched the doctor's at the hospital, which impressed her and gave her confidence in what they were doing.

Within four months Mrs Takata was healed, and so impressed was she, that she asked to be allowed to learn Reiki. However it was explained that Reiki was Japanese, and that it was intended to stay in Japan, so could not be taught to an outsider. Realising that she must show a great commitment to Reiki in order to be allowed to learn, she went to Dr Hayashi and told him her feelings and her willingness to stay in Japan as long as was necessary. He consented to begin her training, so she and her daughters stayed in Japan with the Hayashi family for a year, and eventually, when her training was complete, Mrs Takata returned to Hawaii with her gift of healing.

Her practice in Hawaii flourished, and Dr Hayashi and his family came to stay for several months, teaching, practicing and spending time with Mrs Takata, until in February 1938 Hawayo Takata was initiated as a Master of the Usui System of Natural Healing, after which Dr Hayashi and his family returned to Japan. Later, as you have read, Dr Hayashi appointed Mrs Takata as the next Grand Master of Reiki, and it is she who introduced the gift of Reiki to the Western World.

As time went by, Mrs Takata contemplated the need to train other Reiki Masters. She realised that the Japanese concept of respect might be difficult to instill in the Western mind, and because Reiki is so easily learned she felt that Westerners might not value it, She felt that money was something that Western people understood and respected, and that to charge a large sum of money for those wanting to become Reiki Masters would help to create the appreciation and gratitude for Reiki that was needed. She decided that a fee of $10,000 would be a large enough sum to instill the respect needed for the Reiki Master attunement, and she also get the fees for Reiki First Degree at $175, and for Reiki second Degree at $500.

Between 1970 and her transition on 11th December 1980, Mrs Takata initiated twenty two Reiki Masters, one of whom was her grand-daughter Phyllis Lei Furumoto, the present Grand Master of Reiki, and since that time those original twenty two teachers have taught others, and Reiki has spread rapidly. lt is now practiced throughout North and South America, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and other pads of the world. There are now more than 2,000 Reiki Masters, with as many as 150,000 people Practicing Reiki throughout the world. You are a part of this history.