Origin & History of Reiki

Reiki roots in Japan:

The founder of Reiki is Mikao Usui (1865-1926). He was a Buddhist monk who traveled extensively and acquired knowledge in different fields such as medicine, religion or psychology.

He discovered Reiki after a 21 day fast and meditation retreat on Mount Kurama,
In 1922, he created in Japan the “Usui Reiki Ryoho Gokkai” or Usui Reiki Healing Method Learning Society, in order to teach Reiki. His teaching were based on the following 5 precepts:

Just for today, I will not be angry.
Just for today, I will not worry.
Just for today, I will be grateful.
Just for today, I will do my work honestly.
Just for today, I will be kind to every living thing.
 

For Mikao Usui, healing can only come through the decision to become responsible for our own health. We must accept responsibility for our healing and take an active part in it. Indeed, according to him the root causes of suffering are within ourselves.

To find these root causes and for healing to happen, it first requires a profound change in attitude because negative thoughts and feelings cause a disruption in the flow of life force. Being angry towards either ourselves or others around us creates negative energy blocks. Worry can lead to more severe conditions such as anxiety and panic related disorders.

On the other hand, by counting our blessings we begin to realize that we are truly abundant. This generates positive thoughts and energy that radiates out to the universe. By the law of attraction, this will invite more blessings to come into our lives. Being supportive and honest empowers us with positive feelings, filling us with feelings of joy and happiness.

Applying these guidelines on a daily basis enables us to take control of our lives instead of relying on others and will help us find inner peace and balance.

Development in the West:

Chujiro Hayashi was a student of Mikao Usui. He left the school in 1931 to found his own private clinic. He made significant changes to the original teachings of Mikao Usui. These were later used as a basis for the diffusion of Reiki in the West.

Hawayo Takata, who was visiting Japan from Hawaii at that time learnt Reiki from him and took it to America.
Back to Hawaii, she opened the first Western private Reiki clinic also changing the teachings received by Chujiro Hayashi to adapt them to the American culture.

After her death, the Masters she has trained created the “Reiki Alliance” to establish standards of practice and teaching. The practice of Reiki began to grow quickly and spread all over the world.

From the 1990's onward, many practitioners left this movement to become independent and found new branches of Reiki.
 

Reiki today:
 
Modern Reiki in the West is quite different from the one practiced in Japan at the time of Mikao Usui. Many different forms of Reiki exist, descending from different lineages of teachers. There are considerable differences between the various approaches, and certain groups strongly challenge the validity of others.

However, recently, original Reiki manuscripts have been discovered in Japan so that techniques from traditional Reiki are now being introduced in Western Reiki.

In Japan Usui Reiki Ryoho Gokkai still exists but remains a very closed circle which does not accept foreign members. The traditional practitioners are still reticent to disseminate Reiki teachings, which they considered sacred. It is thus difficult to learn more on the traditional teaching, as it is still practiced in Japan today.

Nevertheless, over the last few years, Western Reiki was introduced in Japan and, from now on, many schools have teaching techniques from the two systems.

"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.“

- Swami Sivananda Saraswati -