History of Reiki

We know that Hawayo Takata  bought Reiki to the West.  We also know that for the good of Reiki  she had to "water" down the true teachings of Reiki for the West to accept it.  Mainly due to the  war (Pearl Harbor in particular),  This leaves room for some interesting interpretations of Reiki history.

How much did she alter or leave out ?

It is doubtful we will ever know the exact answer to that question.  We can take into consideration new evidence that comes up now and again and follow our own intuition whether it is what we want to believe about the History, Symbols.  There is currently evidence to show Reiki going back to Egypt  some 6000 years ago.  So the exact origin of Reiki can be some what difficult  to source.  

Fact,   Mikao Usui rediscovered Reiki.   No matter what lineage is taught Usui is given the credit for the re introduction of Reiki.  He formed two groups the Gakkai ( Gakkai being the traditional Reiki Ryoho) and the Usui Reiki Ryoho ( Western Reiki)  There are a lot of groups that have evolved from Reiki as far as I am concerned as long as they are for the benefit of mankind GO FOR IT!!!!!

Fact, Chujiro Hayashi was was attuned to Reiki by Usui. He went his own way and formed the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai (where research was done) It is also worth noting here that Hayashi was never a President of the Gakkai. It was also Hayashi that bought about the three degrees of Reiki and he bought in the standard hand positions. 

Fact, Hayashi attuned Takata to Reiki. She in turn bought Reiki to the West.  It is well known that she attuned  twenty-two Reiki Masters in her time. 

There have been many people involved  in trying to sort the correct history of Reiki. To those who help us understand the origins of Reiki.

 THANK YOU 

Well as I said at the beginning of this page Mikao Usui started two Reiki Groups 

Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai.  Which is still studying/practicing Reiki today as taught by Usui himself.

Usui Reiki   Ryoho  . Western Reiki. that came from Takata.

Was  this a bit that Takata left out to help the West accept Reiki?.

 Usui contracted Cholera in the 1890`s  and while he was ill he had a near death experience.  During this experience he had visions of Mahavairochana Buddha who gave him direct instructions to follow.  This was a starting point for Usui, his need to understand Buddhist healing techniques.  However this caused problems with his family and the family priest who was a Tendia  Buddhist.

It was a Shingon  Bonze Buddhist priest who realized   Usui`s potential  and took him as a student of Shingon Buddhism.  A start had been made and this led him to finding and researching sacred texts from areas like Tibet and China .

Usui found some text that went back to the Seventh century. This scripture held special knowledge of the "Lightning flash" ( for healing all illness of body, mind and speech)  With these texts in his ownership he went to mount Kurama Yama to meditate the next step of his journey.  This is where he came to the conclusion that he should share these teachings with others. So bringing his eastern, western and esoteric understanding together he formed a practice called Rei   Ki. 

Below is how I started my Reiki Path. 

I was taught that Usui was a was a Christian theologest.  He was, but we are now finding that his sole up bringing was not of a Christian  background as Takata had implied. He was opened to a great many Religions. 

Mikao Usui looked at people around him and he saw unhappiness and discontentment. Therefore, he decided to look something that would help them. After many years of studying ancient manuscripts, he found a formula for helping such problems but the formula alone didn't give him the power to release the energies that were written about in the sacred manuscripts.  Dr Usui discussed this with a close friend and together they decided that Usui himself would follow the instructions of the formula.  Which stated that somebody should go to the top of a sacred mountain for twenty-one days? 

 So it was done Dr Usui went to the sacred mountain and waited for whatever to happen.  He took with him twenty-one pebbles and at the end of each day, he threw one pebble away so he knew how long he had been there for.  On his last day he got up to throw his last pebble away and in the distance he saw a light coming towards him he realized it was heading straight for him. He pondered weather to move out of the way or to let this ball of light hit him.

Usui decided to investigate and found that a young girl had suffered from bad toothache for a couple of days.  Therefore, Usui laid his hands on the girls face, and after a few minutes, she stopped crying and the swelling to her face went down.  He went back to the Inn his food had been prepared the Inn keeper told Usui that to eat this much food after fasting for twenty one days would not do his stomach any good.  He ate all the food and had no adverse effects.  Therefore, it was Reiki had been found again through questions and study of  Mikao Usui.

Thank you.  

 Rei Ju where does it come from?  Taggart King helped me to formulate this piece

It came to the West via Hiroshi Doi who
presented it to western Reiki Masters who attended a seminar in Vancouver,
Canada in 1999. He did not create Rei Ju, but it is said that he
reconstructed it based on his experience of receiving these empowerments
many times during his training with Mikao Usui's Reiki Association in
Japan. Hiroshi Doi is a member of this association. Other traditional
sources in Japan - separate from Usui's association - have confirmed that
Hiroshi Doi's Rei Ju is valid.  The training that Doi received from the
Gakkai (Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai - Mikao Usui`s Reiki Association) gave him
his understanding of Rei Ju and Doi uses these empowerments in his school of
Reiki, which blends western and traditional Usui Reiki forms from the
'Gakkai. I strongly believe that Rei Ju IS from Usui`s teachings, there are
too many traditional Reiki streams in Japan that use Rei Ju for it not to
part of Dr. Usui Teachings.