A brief history of The System of Reiki
The System of Reiki was founded by a Tendai Buddhist Priest in the early 1900s. His name was Mikao Usui.
Whilst creating the system, there were quite a few spiritual influences from experiences that he gained in utilising various spiritual practices. These stemmed from Martial Arts, Shugendo, Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism which was the main religion practiced in Japan during the time of Usui’s period of study. There were some basic principles common to all of these spiritual practices that led Usui to believe we all have within us the innate ability to heal ourselves. Firstly he introduced the Reiki Precepts to his students: Just for today……Do not anger, Do not worry, Be humble, show gratitude, Work hard on yourself and be honest, Be kind, show compassion to yourself and others.
This was to develop mental and spiritual focus. Then he introduced meditation, techniques and mantras. It wasn’t until an event in 1922 that he started to use methods to heal with his hands. This was after spending 21 days on Mount Kurama in Japan. He was carrying out a practise called ‘kushu shniren’ which included fasting and meditation, a type of severe training born of Shugendo. It was on this mountain that Usui became enlightened by a sudden strong awareness of the spiritual energy we now call Reiki. Along with this awareness came inspiration and the ability to provide hands on healing. He wasn’t actually known as a healer until after this happened, when he, his family and other people felt healed from his teachings and practices.
Around 1925, he formalised his teachings and made them accessible to even those inexperienced with energy work, saying “It is much better to give this power widely to a lot of people in the world and enjoy it among them than to keep it exclusively by his family members”.
An earthquake hit Tokyo in 1923 – it caused a great fire and much devastation. Nearly 100,000 people were said to have lost their lives and Usui gave healing to many in the aftermath.
His methods and teachings were passed onto many others. He had over 2000 students in total. A lot were were naval officers, one of them a retired gentleman called Hayashi Chujiro. He didn’t study with Usui for long but did set up a successfully run clinic and is well renowned for passing on Usui’s teachings and practices to a lady from the West called Hawayo Takata. She brought Reiki out of Japan over to the West –she practiced and taught her version of the System until her death in 1980. There are many styles of Reiki, though once taught it is felt that there is only authenticity when the version learnt can be traced back to Usui via a valid “lineage”.
I have learnt the original Eastern Style of Reiki called Usui Reiki Ryoho. It has 5 elements to study within the system.
- Developing Mental & Spiritual Focus – this is where the Precepts are learnt and focused upon.
- Meditation and Techniques –these help students to work with and become more aware of the energy within and around their own human form.
- Hands on Healing – this is where the student focuses on learning practical techniques to heal themselves and share Reiki with others.
- Symbols & Mantras –at Level 2, here students use these tools to help develop further their connections with the energy within each main energy centre. They also study Mikao Usui’s teachings in more depth.
- Attunements & Reiju – at Level 3, these techniques are taught so that energy can be shared in a teaching capacity, enabling others to access the system and start their own journeys. Once able to effectively carry out these techniques, Level 3 students find that they can enable others who are ready to learn the System. At their Level One course students have the required number of attunements and use the first three Elements detailed above to begin the process of becoming more aware and sensitive to the energy that flows within and around them.
This page was designed for those who want to know more about where Reiki originated from and for people who wish to study the System and want a very basic outline of the 3 different Levels.
Please feel free to contact me via my Contact Page if you wish to know about The System of Reiki in any more depth.