How Old is Reiki?
by Don Brennan
If Reiki is less than 100 years old, shouldn’t it be considered a “modern system of healing?”
The original story of Reiki describes Mikao Usui, the creator and founder of Reiki, as a Christian minister who went on a quest to learn how to perform the miracle healing of Jesus. After many years of searching without any success, Usui, supposedly, began researching the healing of Buddha. The story claims that he discovered references in Buddhist Sutras to a long-lost system of healing. Later versions change Usui into a Buddhist monk, but both versions claim that he went to Mt. Kurama to receive the spiritual guidance needed to reactivate an ancient system of healing. And still later stories have sought to connect Reiki, by way of Tibet, with healing systems from Atlantis and Lemuria.
It’s true that Usui went to Mt. Kurama, but his purpose was his own spiritual development. In March of 1922, Mikao Usui, a simple Buddhist, visited Mt. Kurama where he experienced satori, a fleeting moment of enlightenment, and received Reiki as a byproduct of that spiritual experience. Usui had been working very hard on his spiritual development and went to Mt Kurama, to seek enlightenment, through a regimen of fasting and praying for 21 days. He wasn’t looking for an ancient system of healing, or any system of healing. However, Reiki came looking for him.
How do we know that Reiki isn’t a long lost system of healing? Well, if we honor Usui for the healing gift he has brought us, then we should also honor his own words. In his Reiki Ryoho Handbook, Usui says, “Our Reiki Ryoho is something absolutely original and cannot be compared with any other (spiritual) path in the world.” And he later says,” I was not initiated into this method by anyone in the universe. I also did not have to make any efforts to achieve supernormal healing powers. While I fasted, I touched an intense energy and in a mysterious manner, I was inspired. It became clear to me that I had been given the spiritual art of healing.” 1
Hyakuten Inamoto, a Reiki Master and Buddhist monk from Kyoto, Japan, has studied the sutras, visited Usui’s village and continues to do extensive research on Mikao Usui and the origin of Reiki. It is his determination that there is no connection between Reiki and Buddhism. Even William Rand has now acknowledged, on his web site, that Usui originated the healing system that he taught, that it has no connection to Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan shamanism or any other religion, and that no researcher has ever found a Tibetan sutra with Reiki symbols in it. 2
Usui described Reiki as, “an original therapy, which is built upon the spiritual power of the universe.” As he felt the energy first coming in through the top of his head, Usui soon realized he had been given the ability to heal others without depleting his own energy. In April of 1922, one month after his satori, he opened his small clinic and began healing and teaching simultaneously.
Usui pushed himself to bring Reiki to as many people as possible. In March of 1926, during one of his teaching excursions, he suffered a stroke and died, just four years after beginning his teaching. It was his wish that the practice of Reiki would one day spread all over the world, helping to heal not only the people, but also the earth itself. Usui must be pleased because Reiki is practiced by millions of people around the globe and has become the most familiar and the most frequently applied individual healing technique in the world today.
© 2009 Don Brennan www.lifecenterforwellbeing.com
1. Reiki, The Legacy of Dr. Usui, Frank Arjava Petter, 1998.
2. http://www.reiki.org/FAQ/HistoryOfReiki.
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