Reiki Around the World

A Little History

Without a doubt we are indebted to Mikau Usui (1865-1926) a Japanese Tendai Buddhist. Tendai Buddhism is a mystical form of Buddhism that's practiced in Japan. He was a member of a wider group of spiritually advanced people of his time, all of whom were going in different directions but were keeping in contact with each other, swapping ideas, sharing experiences.

Part of this group of people was a man called Ueshiba who developed Aikido. We also know he  was in contact with Deguchi who was responsible for developing a new religion called Omoto kyo. He also had  connections with a group of people the people who developed the spiritual system called Johrei.

So Usui was part of this larger group of people who were all working with and developing energetic and spiritual methods. The ultimate outcomes were:
•    Reiki, a spiritual path / healing technique
•    Aikido, a  spiritual and compassionate martial art
•    Omoto kyo, a new religion based on the use of ancient Shinto mantras.

But we do need to be aware that Reiki draws on an ancient tradition of Japanese Palm Healing, called teate. This wasn’t all brand new by any means. It uses empowerments (connection rituals which we call attunements) coming from Tendai Buddhism. It also involves ways of controlling the energy that come from Shintoism, the  religion of Japan. So whilst Reiki isn't new, Usui is seen as being responsible for  putting  together different existing traditions in a new way.

We are told that Usui  had some moment of enlightenment after a long period of fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama, and this moment of enlightenment does seem to have contributed in some way to the development of Reiki. But along the way the spiritual path aspect has to a massive extent been lost although without exception from my own experiences and those I have taught and other reiki practitioners I speak to we all do pursue that spiritual path, even if we never considered it prior to being introduced to reiki.
The point I want to make here is that the spiritual path aspects have been lost from the teaching and practice of reiki as we know it
And we can see how this occurred if we look at how it came to the Western World. One of Usui's students was Dr Hayashi, a retired surgeon commander from the Imperial navy, and a  Christian. His interest and focus was in the healing aspects of Reiki and he taught Mrs  Hawaya Takata who brought Reiki to the West during the 1930s. And its at this point that Usui‘s history and background gets radically changed-  because Mikao Usui our Tendai Buddhist becomes Dr Mikao Usui a Christian theologian.

You  may see many websites about reiki who talk about Usui being a Christian scholar but its part of the myth. The  story now is about him travelling the world, studying theology at various universities, to try and find out about the healing powers that Jesus displayed.
This was said to culminate with a 21-day period of fasting and meditating on the top of Mount Kurama, near Kyoto, when Usui saw the reiki symbols in bubbles of light, and Reiki was born.
But for sure what we call Usui Reiki here in the West has very little resemblance to the ways in which Usui worked. His main focus was the spiritual path to enlightenment