WHAT IS REIKI ?

Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.

Reiki is a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use. It has been effective in helping virtually every known illness and malady and always creates a beneficial effect. It also works in conjunction with all other medical or therapeutic techniques to relieve side effects and promote recovery.

Hawayo Takata

Hawayo Takata, the Master who introduced Reiki in the West, wrote in her diary: "I believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, Infinite and Absolute, a Force which rules the world and the universe, an invisible Spiritual Power in front of which all the other powers wither in their insignificance. This power is incomprehensible to man, unimaginable, not measurable, it is the Universal Force of Life from which every single being receives continuous blessings. I will call this energy Reiki..."

REIKI is a Japanese word meaning "Universal Life Energy" and deriving from the union of two concepts:

REI can be defined as a Spiritual Force containing the Japanese ideograms meaning "Rain", "Mouths" and "Making sacrifices"

KI is a basic concept for the Traditional Chinese Medicine and for Martial Arts. We can translate it as "Energy flowing through the Body" or "Inner Force". In it we find the "Rain" ideogram again together with another one meaning "Rice Seed".

The union of REI and KI forms the word ReiKi. It is used to define both the Discipline or Practice and the involved Energy.

HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF REIKI

According to the oral tradition as known in the western world, MIKAO USUI was a Christian Monk, born in Japan, in the second half of the XIX century. After years of hard researches and intense mystic experiences, he discovered the secret of the healing, calling it REIKI.

Until some years ago there were only vague information about Usui’s life, but recently, new important proves and evidences of his passing in this life were discovered.

The inscription on his memorial, the recovery of his personal notebook helped to make a clear image of the life and work of Usui Sensei. We must also add that the suspicion that his followers nourished against the western nations were, little by little, got over.

We are grateful to our member and friendly brother Giuseppe Gaviraghi for the evidences and information he gave to us after having personally visited the Usui’s memorial.

We now know that MIKAO USUI was born on the 15th of August 1865 in the Kyoto district, Japan, at the village of Tania-Mura, now called: Miyamacho, district of Yamagata, prefecture of Gifu. In 1869 he started his studies at a monastery of Tendai Buddhism. Usui’s family was follower of the Tendai Buddhism and came from a legacy of Samurai (Hatamoto).

At the age of 12 he started to devote himself to the martial arts, reaching a high degree. He was a very diligent and gifted pupil. He travelled a lot, both for his studies and his work, but he was not so much lucky in the business field so fell into disfavour. Anyhow he soon recovered and got on with his research of growth. When he was 30 Usui Sensei married Sadako Suzuki who gave two sons to him: a male called Fuji (born in 1908) and a female, Toshiko (born in 1913).

In March 1922, as a result of a spiritual Journey which led him, at the end, to fast and meditate during 21 days, Usui came into contact with Reiki and understood how to use it as an instrument of personal growth, spiritual evolution and self-healing.

In April 1922, when he was 37, he opened his first centre of practice and teaching at Harajuku, Aoyama, Tokyo. Its “motto” was “ In union with one’s own inwardness, through harmony and balance”. Usui’s fame grew rapidly and many persons went to study with him.

In 1923 Tokyo was destroyed by a dreadful earthquake thousands of peoples died, others were injured or got hill. Usui did his utmost to alleviate the pains of those victims with his healing power.

In 1925, due to the crowd of peoples wishing to attend to his centre, he moved to another bigger place, at Nakano, in the outskirts of Tokyo.

Usui was a loving, sensible, warm person and his manners were humble. He was strong, healthy and physically well proportioned. He never gave himself airs but was always smiling at everybody and faced bravely any difficulty that could occur. He liked to read and write and had a deep knowledge about medicine, psychology and theology; he practiced the art of foretelling and knew all the religions of this world. During his life he handed down his teachings to more than two thousand peoples and initiated 17 Masters.

He died on the 9th of March 1926 at the age of 62. After his death, some of his students founded the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai ( an association for the learning of Usui’s Reiki healing method), and appointed Usui as Chairman “after death”. On February 1927 a memorial stone was raised in the cemetery of the Saihoji temple in Tokyo, which is our main source of news about Usui’s life. A month later, his son built a family grave where he buried the remains of Usui Sensei.

One year after his death, in 1926, the Reiki Ryoho Gakkai was founded, which was the organism that intended to keep and transmit the Usui’s original teachings. From that time 6 chairmen were appointed: Mister Ushida, Mister Taketomi, Mister Watanabe, Mister Wanami, Misses Kimiko Koiama and the present chairman Mister Kondo.

Regarding Reiki in the west, it is necessary to go back to the meeting between Usui and Chujiro Hayashi, a naval officer on leave, which took place in one of the markets where Usui used to wonder holding a torch in his hand. Hayashi was fascinated by Usui’s truth and belief and he decided to follow him. He likely created a more organized method for the Reiki treatment and the position of the hands, the three degrees of initiation, the ceremonies of activation and the possibility of paying a price in change of Reiki. Hayashi died on 10th March 1940, just when Japan’s entry in the II world war seemed nearly unavoidable.

Hawayo Takata met Hayashi in the Hawaii islands in November 1936. She brought Reiki to the Western World when she moved to California. She was born on December 24th, 1900 and she died in 1980 leaving 22 Reiki Masters, many of who were American. They are: George Araki, Dorothy Baba (deceased), Ursula Baylow (deceased), Rick Bockner, Patricia Bowling, Barbara Brown, Frank Brown, Phyllis Furumoto (grand-daughter of Takata Sensei), Beth Gray, John Gray, Iris Ishikuro (deceased), Harry Kuboi, Ethel Lombardi, Barbara McCullough, Mary McFayden, Paul Mitchell, Bethel Phaigh (deceased), Shinobu Saito, Virginia Samdahl (deceased), Wanja Twan, Barbara Weber Ray, Kay Yamashita (sister of Takata Sensei).

From these Masters the Western Reiki started. In less than 20 years Reiki spread all over the world and it is actually practiced by dozens of millions of people. Thousand Masters work in every country spreading new seeds. We hope one day everyone will know the benefits of Reiki. That day wars will not exist any longer.

*All that is known about the western tradition of Reiki is apparently due to the evolution of Hawayo Takata’s teachings to her American students. Among them Phyllis Furumoto and Paul Mitchell have been respectively designated Grand Masters and Heads of the Discipline of the Reiki Alliance, the American organization for the propagation and ward of the Usui’s Method.

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