THE “REAL” STORY ABOUT MIKAO USUI,
THE CREATOR OF REIKI AND HIS ORIGINS
After a long and grueling several years of a major illness
from which part of my recovery was a contract I made with myself that I would
do daily Reiki self-treating for 1 hour minimum a day and healed it, I made
another contract with myself to read every Reiki book I could get my hands on
for the rest of my life. I felt like if
I have the capacity to make other people Reiki, then I really need to know
everything there is to know about Reiki!
As a result, I am at 55 books and counting. In my reading (and my connections with many
very high level Reiki Master Teachers all over the world) I have come to know
so much more about the REAL origins of Reiki and its creator, I feel I could be
considered to be somewhat of an expert on the topic – the definition of an
expert being someone who has studied a subject for 5 years. I’ll going on year 10 shortly.
I am writing this article because it has come to my
attention that there are local teachers out there in 2013 still telling their
students the Christian story about the origins of Reiki. The creator of this myth died in 1980 and it
was debunked after her death. I find it
astonishing and incomprehensible that any Reiki teacher in this day and age
would not know this. Obviously someone is not doing their homework and as a
result is giving out false and possible harmful information to their students
and the general public.
The original Christian story was perpetrated by the last
person in what I call the original “Reiki Triune” of larger than life teachers,
Mrs. Hawayo Takata. Mrs. Takata was a
Japanese national living in Hawaii just before Pearl Harbor. She was trying to establish a Reiki healing
and teaching practice in an area of the world where many of her students and
clients were white Western Europeans or Americans. At this time, T’ai Chi, Qigong and even Feng
Shui were not on the radar of most of non-Asian individuals, so imagine how a
tiny little Japanese woman in Hawaii teaching about and doing a Japanese Buddhist
hands on spiritual healing system with Shinto (the ancient national religion of
Japan that venerates nature spirits and departed loved ones, and Shugendo (a
form of Japanese Shamanism) would have been
received.
It is said that she created the “Christian story” because in
Japan it is traditional for someone to make up a parable to get across a sacred
spiritual truth. If you’re not familiar
with the story here is how it goes:
Mrs. T (as I like to affectionately call her) said that Usui
(the creator of Reiki) was a Christian teaching in a Christian school in Japan
and one day his students asked him if he believed everything he read in the
bible, to which he replied “YES”. Then
they ask him if he also believed that Jesus could heal with his hands and again
he replied “YES”. So they ask him to show
them how he did this and he said he couldn’t and the story goes that right then
and there he quit his job and vowed to find out how it was done and come back
to tell everyone. I’m sure the details
defer from teacher to teacher but this is the gist of it.
Supposedly he went out on a trek all over the world looking
for the system of how Jesus healed with his hands, going to China, all over
Japan, India, and Tibet or so the story goes, even supposedly coming to the US
and studying theology at the University of Chicago. There is no record of anyone who has a name even closely resembling his
ever studying at that University at that time.
It is possible that Usui, at some point in his life did
travel to some of these places (possibly even Europe) because he worked for a
Japanese diplomat who is said to have traveled to some of these places also –
Usui was supposedly his bodyguard. Usui studied martial arts (his family was of
ancient Samurai descent) and was said to be very highly accomplished and respected
martial artist in his day.
The story goes that he found the instructions in ancient
possible Sanskrit texts about how to do this but couldn’t make it physically
work, so he decided to go on a traditional 21 day fast and meditation (Lotus
Repentance Meditation) atop a very sacred mountain in Japan (Mt. Karuma) and
hopefully get some guidance. He took 21
stones with him to mark the days and at the end of 21 days nothing had happened
and he had just thrown the last stone off the side of the mountain when he saw
a very bright light coming at him at very high speed and knew he could duck and
let it pass him by or allow it to strike him.
He chose to allow it to strike him and it is said to have hit him the
middle of his forehead (third eye chakra) knocking him unconscious. It was then that all the secrets of the system
were revealed to him in what is called an “enlightenment moment.” There are 4 miracles that supposedly happened
as he came off the mountain which I won’t go into here.
What’s interesting is that he did not go back to the school
he supposedly taught at the reveal this information to his students, instead he
went into the beggar section of Tokyo and begin healing beggars for free
(another story around this also with a lesson).
In truth, Usui was born in Japan around the end of the 19th
century to an ancient Samurai family of Buddhists and as is traditional, was
put into a Buddhist monastery at the tender age of 4, where he was also taught
Japanese Qigong (Kiko) and martial arts (grappling and swordsmanship to name a
few) along with the Buddhist teachings (some say he family were Pure Land
Buddhist, some say Tendai Buddhist). He
is buried in a Pure Land Buddhist cemetery (see “This is Reiki by Frank Arjava
Petter for information on this).
In his short life he held many jobs including the
aforementioned, such as prison guard, industrialist, and quite possibly as a lay
Buddhist Priest (Zaike) or even as a Shinto Priest, to name of few. From all that I have read about him in books
and manuals by other teachers, Reiki is actually a compilation of all the many
and varied subjects he studied in his life (Western and Chinese Medicine,
religions of the world, Buddhism (possible both Pure Land and Tendai) Zen
Buddhism, Kiko and much more. It is said
at one point he wanted to discover the secret of achieving Satori (a state of
being where no matter what is going on around you, you are peaceful and calm,
you know what your life’s purpose is and are doing it).
Trying to find the method of achieving Satori is said to
have been the real reason why he did actually perform the 21 day fast and
mediation on Mt. Kurama (possible several times). On his memorial stone erected a year after
his death by some of his followers, the story of one such fast and mediation on
Mt. Kurama is immortalized and is said to have actually happened (the
enlightenment moment with the white light). There is even a newspaper or
magazine article written by Usui himself where he clearly states that he
created the system and had the enlightenment experience (“This is Reiki” –
Frank Arjava Petter).
Dr. Usui’s original system (he was awarded an official
doctorate by the Meiji Emperor for his work in healing it is said thousands of
people after the worst earthquake to hit Tokyo in recorded history, at that
time) was about self-actualization, not a healing modality. He originally taught his system to those
seeking enlightenment but it was later tweaked into the “hands on healing” modality
most of us know it as today through the machinations of Japanese Naval Officer
named Dr. Chujiro Hayashi (the 2nd figure in the Reiki Triune) who
as a Western Medical Doctor turned Reiki into a formalized healing system for
his and his Naval Officer buddies benefit right before the War.
Dr Usui died of a stroke in 1926 while out teaching and
doing healings in the Japanese countryside one day. Dr. Hayashi opened a healing clinic and wrote
a large manual with prescribed hand positions to treat specific illnesses. Many people think of Hayashi as Usui’s
predecessor but there is another group of Reiki Practitioners that you never
hear of that still carry on Usui’s original teachings in Japan – the Usui Reiki
Ryoho Gakkai – a secret Japanese Reiki society.
The United States government
outlawed the practice of Reiki in Japan after WWII and it went underground.
The Gakki has an elected president of its closed and secret society,
although due to the efforts of the men and women who in the last 10 years or so
from outside of Japan (mostly American and Western European Reiki Master Teachers and
Practitioners they are leaking out more
and more information as to the real origins of which I am writing of here.
These teachers and practitioners went to Japan to get the
real story and have brought back amazing discoveries about all that I
mentioned. Pictures of Usui’s ancestral
home and town, 100+ year old documents and manuals he signed or wrote,
interviews with 100+ y/o Buddhist nuns who actually studied with Usui and MUCH
MORE.
If you want to read up on the latest information about Reiki
and Usui, I highly suggest you read
“This is Reiki” by Frank Arjava Petter and Tadao Yamagucchi’s book (his mother
was taught by Hayashi and he is now touring Japan and I think the US and Canada
teaching as Hayashi taught) “Light on
the Origins of Reiki”.
The newer Reiki books coming out today are reflecting all
this new knowledge brought in by Frank, and people like Chris Marsh, James
Deacon and I believe William Lee Rand of the International Center for Reiki
Training in Michigan.
Patricia Penner, Usui & Karuna Reiki
®Master
Teacher, Crystal Reiki Master and Crystal Healer, Heart-Light-Reiki, LLC
www.Heart-Light-Reiki.com
