THE HISTORY OF REIKI
Dr. Mikao Usui
Dr.
Mikao Usui was born in Japan on August 15, 1865.
One story about Dr. Mikao Usui states that he was the Principal of Doshisha University, a Christian school near Kyoto in Japan. It says that one day his students asked him about healing and asked him to perform some healing task. As he could not, he promptly resigned from the school and started his quest for healing. He is supposed to have travelled to Chicago, where he studied for 7 years and received a degree in Technology.
However a letter from Doshisha University in Japan where Dr. Mikao Usui is supposed to have taught and a letter from the Divinity School (Chicago University) show that Dr. Mikao Usui never appeared on their register (the University of Chicago did not even exist in those days). It is thought that it was Mrs. Hawayo Takata (see her story in the next few pages) who believed that if she introduced Dr. Mikao Usui as a Japanese Buddhist monk during the 1940's, nobody would be interested in Reiki. This was too close to Pearl Harbour and American citizens did not think much of anything or anyone coming from Japan in those days.
Another story, which is more plausible, is that Dr. Usui was interested in healing and in the life of Buddha. He wondered why Buddha and his disciples could heal physical illnesses and why this power had been lost.
As an adult, Dr. Usui made it his goal to rediscover how to heal the physical body. He started by visiting Buddhist temples and asking monks if they knew how to heal the physical body. Invariably the answer was that they did not. They were concentrating on healing the mind as they believed that this was more important as most disease came from the mind first.
One of the abbots of a Zen monastery he approached told him that "they no longer knew how to heal the body. They used to, but this had been lost through disuse". The abbot was also interested in healing and he invited Dr. Usui to study with them and look at their secret books in their original language. In order to do this, Dr. Usui learned Chinese and eventually Sanskrit. It was in the Indian sutras, written in Sanskrit that he found part of his answer. A formula that allowed him to contact higher power in a meditation.
Armed with this formula, Dr. Usui decided to go to the holy mountain of Kori-yama to fast and meditate for 21 days.
He sat on top of the mountain with 21 stones in front of him. Every day as dawn broke, he threw a stone away. The rest of the day was spent in meditation. On the twenty first day, he threw his last stone away and shortly after saw a very bright light in the horizon that was coming straight at him. He realised that this light was a message and that he was about to receive what he had been looking for all his life. The light was very strong and he realised that to receive the instructions he needed, the light would have to strike him. This light was very powerful and it might even kill him. Dr. Usui was given a choice whether or not he wanted to go through with the experience. He decided to receive the light and see what happened.
The light struck him on the third eye and knocked him unconscious. He then had an out of body experience when he was shown bubbles of light with symbols in them. He memorised the symbols and as he did so, he received an attunement from the light so that he was able to use the symbols. This was the way Dr. Usui was initiated to Reiki.
When Dr. Usui regained consciousness, he was full of energy although he had not eaten for 21 days. He set out to go back to the monastery and as he came down the mountain, he tripped and his toe started to bleed. Instinctively, he put his hands around it; the bleeding stopped and the pain went away. He knew then that he had acquired some healing power. On his way back, he had a full meal (having fasted for 21 days). He had no adverse effect from this meal (not something I recommend you do even after taking a Reiki course).
Whilst having his meal he was served by the Inn keeper's daughter who had a terrible tooth ache. Dr. Usui felt he could help her and held his hand near her jaw where it hurt. Within a few minutes, the pain had gone.
Back at the monastery, he discovered that the abbot was in bed crippled with Arthritis. He proceeded to relate his experience and at the same time successfully treated his friend's problem.
Please note that the above story of the meditation on Mount Kori-yama and the subsequent healing that took place only appears in Takata's story. This story is not mentioned in Japan when Reiki is taught.
Dr. Usui then spent 7 years taking care of sick people (beggars) in the slums of Tokyo. Unfortunately some of these beggars, although cured of physical illnesses, went back to begging as the life of a working man is much more tiring than begging. Dr. Usui realised that he had made a mistake and that the person receiving healing must first ask for it and that there must be an exchange of energy. This can be money, work, goods or whatever. Without the person asking for healing or exchanging, he believed the healing would not work.
After this realisation, Dr. Usui went around Japan and looked for people who wanted to be healed. He practised and taught Reiki throughout Japan for the remainder of his life. Before his transition on 9 March 1926, he gave the Master attunement to sixteen teachers one of whom was Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. Dr. Chujiro Hayashi is not supposed to have been Dr. Mikao Usui's choice as a Grand Master (a student named Eguchi who studied with Dr. Mikao Usui in 1923 was is chosen successor).
Dr. Usui was decorated by the Emperor of Japan. He is buried in a Zen temple in Tokyo.
Dr. Hayashi
Dr. Hayashi (1878 - 1941), a retired naval officer, was interested in Dr. Usui's work. Before his death, Dr. Usui initiated Dr. Hayashi as a Reiki Master. Dr. Hayashi was initiated as a Master in 1925 at the age of 47.
Dr. Hayashi is responsible for breaking Reiki into three degrees and setting up new hand positions. Up to that time, Reiki was given in a series of attunements and could be given in a very short period of time (Dr. Usui himself was given Reiki in one powerful attunement). Dr. Hayashi opened a Reiki clinic in Tokyo, near the Imperial Palace, and kept detailed records of the treatments given. His clinic consisted of a reception room and a large room with 8 couches and 16 practitioners working (2 per patient). The practitioners worked there from 7 to 12.00 and did house calls after this till 7 p.m. Dr. Hayashi designed the system of hand position taught during the first degree and their initiation procedures.
One of Hayashi's student was a lady called Hawayo Takata. Hayashi forced his own death by mentally rupturing the arteries to his heart on May 10, 1941. During his life, Dr. Hayashi initiated 13 masters (including his wife).
Hawayo Takata
Hawayo Takata was born on 24 December, 1900 in Kauai, one of the Hawaii islands. She was of Japanese origin and her father worked in a local sugar plantation. She married Saichi Takata who was the bookkeeper of the sugar plantation, where she eventually worked herself. Her husband died in October 1930 at the age of thirty four leaving his wife and two children. Takata took over the keeping of the family and eventually suffered from a nervous breakdown, abdominal pains and lung problems.
When her sister died, she went to Japan where her parents lived, to inform them of the loss of their daughter. Whilst there, she went to hospital and was diagnosed with a terminal illness and rushed for surgery.
Whilst waiting for the surgeon, she is supposed to have hear a voice that said : "The operation is not necessary." She wondered if she was dreaming but realised that she was fully awake. The voice once again repeated "The operation is not necessary.". Not knowing what to do, she decided to ask the doctor if there was another way. To the surprise of the staff in the operating theatre, she got off the operating table and looked for the surgeon and asked him if he thought there might be another way to get rid of her problems rather than operate on them. The doctor told her about Hayashi's clinic.
She underwent a course of treatments at Hayashi's clinic. Just by laying their hands on her, the Reiki practitioners described her symptoms accurately. This impressed Takata and gave her the confidence to go ahead with the treatment. She was curious about the heat she received whilst the two practitioners were treating her and thought that they may be using some heating apparatus. She looked under the couch for it and found nothing. Then she grabbed one of the practitioners' sleeve thinking that some heating equipment was hidden there. The startled practitioner laughed at her when she explained what she was looking for. He told her about Reiki and how it worked.
As she progressed with her daily treatment, her condition got progressively better. She decided that she also would like to learn Reiki. In a country where man was king and Japanese pride was high, she was told that Reiki should stay in Japan and that she could not be initiated. Takata was a stubborn person who did not take no for an answer. She went to her surgeon and asked him for a letter confirming that she was sick and needed Reiki daily. Eventually Dr. Hayashi was impressed with Takata's persistence and initiated her in First Degree Reiki in the Spring of 1936. She was initiated in the Second Degree in 1937.
She went back to Hawaii in the Summer of 1937 and invited Dr. Hayashi's daughter over. She knew that Dr. Hayashi would never permit his daughter to travel alone and that there was a good chance that he would come with her and possibly initiate her into a Grand Master. She was initiated as a Master on February 21, 1938. Hayashi registered her Masters' Certificate at Honolulu and gave her the rights to practice and teach in the United States (only). Her Reiki Masters' certificate shows her as being a Master (not a Grand Master).
