Reiki Principles

1. Just for today, I will live the attitude of gratitude.

2. Just for today, I will not worry.

3. Just for today, I will not anger.

4. Just for today, I will do my work honestly.

5. Just for today, I will show love and respect for every living thing.

The History of Reiki

Reiki, or more accurately the Traditional Usui Healing System, is clothed in all kinds of rumors and stories. Most of these stories appear to have originated from Hawayo Takata. She is credited for bringing Reiki from Japan to Hawaii. Many believe that she created a number of stories regarding Reiki to make the teachings of Usui acceptable to post-war Americans and to Christians.

Mikao Usui was born on August 15, 1865 in the Gifu district of Japan. Around 1900 he created a system of natural healing based on established Oriental medicine. The system used symbols, had a set of affirmations and employed seven main hand positions set over important points on the body known by various healing systems as the main accupressure or Chakra points. This system of healing was based on ancient Taoist energy practices whose roots go back to even more ancient Tibetan healing practices. Reiki allows the practitioner to draw in energy and pass it on to the client without expending their own personal energy or having to "recharge" themselves.

Mikao Usui was sent at an early age to a Buddhist monastery that gave foundation to his interest in healing. Although there are others who teach otherwise, he had no connection with any Christian school and never went to Chicago (the U of C Divinity School did not even exist at that time). He is likely never to have left Japan and probably did all his research in one of the many Kyoto libraries.

After spending many years in his search for a way of connecting to the energy without spending years of exercises and training he meditated at Kurama Temple in the region of a 'power spot'. He is said to have undergone a twenty one day period of purification and was given the information that he sought to complete his system during the final meditation.

Stories regarding a spontaneously healing stubbed toe and the eating of a huge meal followed by the curing of the innkeeper's dental abscess should not be treated with much credibility. They only appear in the Western versions of the story.

He then spent seven years in the poor quarter of Kyoto and in 1922 opened a school in Tokyo, where he trained many students, sixteen to teacher level, before dying on March 9, 1926 in Fukuyama.

Usui was NOT a doctor. His title was "sensei" a term meaning teacher or master. The term "doctor" in the West of course was originally applied to academics, initially of the church. The term "sensei" is applied to teachers of Japanese martial arts such as Kara-te.

The founder of a healing society of the time, Jiro Asuke, had commented that Usui was a very popular healer, and considered a pioneer in this form of healing.

The names of some of these students are known. There were three naval officers: Taketomi, Hayashi and Guida who studied in 1925. His principal student was named Eguchi who studied in 1923 and passed on the system to a man named Miyazuki.

Chujiro Hayashi was born in 1878 and took the training in 1925. He used the knowledge to open a healing clinic in Tokyo. Hayashi developed a complex set of hand positions suitable for clinical use of the system; his clinic employed a method of healing that required several practitioners' work on one client at the same time to maximize the flow of energy.

Hayashi, as well as changing the focus of the system to fit a 'medical' model, also introduced a system of 'degrees' in his classes.

One of Hayashi's ways of getting practitioners for his clinic was to give level I attunements in return for 3 months commitment as unpaid help. After this time he would offer the better students the second level in return for a further nine-month commitment. Those who completed this had the chance of getting the #4 symbol. After a two-year's further commitment (which involved assisting Hayashi in the classroom) they were taught attunements and were allowed to teach.

Tatsumi went through all this and Takata must have too. No money exchanged hands in this training - they just had to work an 8 hour shift once a week for the duration of the commitment.

Tatsumi had reached the teacher level but became dis-satisfied by Hayashi's domineering way of operating (Hayashi had been a commander in the Imperial Japanese Navy), so Tatsumi went back to his village to live and work.

As well as training his practitioners, Hayashi trained several people to teach the system. One of these was a Japanese American from Hawaii named Hawayo Takata. She had turned up at his clinic with a terminal illness that was later cured. She was made a teacher/master (one of thirteen) on February 21, 1938. Her teacher/master certificate is notarized in Honolulu and does not confer the title of Grand Master. Hayashi also trained a man named Tatsumi who died on October 3, 1996 at an age of over 90 years. Tatsumi had kept notes of his training and allowed tracings to be made of his symbols and sketches.

Mrs. Takata first made her appearance at Hayashi's clinic as a terminal patient. Her course of treatment was a success and afterwards she persuaded Hayashi to teach her the system. Takata has been described as a very pushy and determined woman. This, plus the fact that she was "a Westerner in a Japanese body", must have affected the way Hayashi passed information to her. Takata's "Reiki Master Certificate" was registered by Hayashi at Honolulu on February 21, 1938 and simply gives Takata the right to practice and teach the system in the USA. It in no way gave Takata control of the system; in any case Hayashi was not Usui's chosen successor.

Takata's successors spread the system throughout North America and parts of Europe. However over time the teachings have become modified. There is evidence that Takata declined to allow her students to record either the Reiki symbols or names with all information being passed verbally. Over the course of many generations of teachings, quite a few different sets of symbols were derived as well as spellings for the different symbol names. This process of "Americanizing" the symbols and names has given rise to considerable dissention within the ranks of Reiki practitioners. Many of the more advanced Teaching Reiki Masters tend to look at these squabbles and smile, as they have come to a realization that the energy is self correcting and will work as long as the intent is sincere. Some teachers incorporate their own life-style philosophies or their healing modalities into their teaching, often without telling the student what they are doing. Some have created or adopted new symbols and mantras. There are some that claim to offer the entire teaching up to Reiki Master in one weekend! Some Internet sites publish symbols and attunement methods.

In the process of bringing an already changed version of Usui's method to the West Takata made further changes in order to make the system acceptable to a nominally Christian people. Apart from the "history", Takata also adopted a different method of performing attunements. A number of ex-priests and a woman brought up in a Central African convent (and was permitted to watch the rituals of initiation given to the priests) verify that there is a very close similarity between these initiations and those taught by Takata as Reiki attunements.

The symbols passed on by Usui started off in life as part of Buddhist ritual. They consist of a set of three "triune" symbols that are empowered by a fourth symbol. The triune represents POWER, LOVE and LIGHT. The remaining symbol is the master of the triune (not 'the master symbol'). Their adoption took on the aspects the symbol had in its original context.

S D Ashram healing Centre