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Reiki
History
There
are many interesting versions of the history of modern
day Reiki, from it's discovery (or rediscovery as some believe)
to it's current state of confusion.
Shedding
a different light on the origins of Reiki is the first modern
book written in Japanese, by a Japanese Reiki teacher.
The book is called "Iyashi No Te" (Heal of Hand,
or Healing Hands) and is authored by Toshitaka Mochizuki,
and was published in October, 1995. Although Mochizuki originally
learned Reiki from Western sources, he has since teamed
up with several Reiki teachers in Japan whose training history
is partly Japanese.
Mochizuki
attributes some of his historical information to an old Japanese
book whose title translates to "The Secret of How
to Take Care of Your Family Members" by Takichi Tsukida.
I do not know if this book is in print, and there are many
things about Reiki that the Japanese would prefer to keep
to themselves for the time being (I can't say as I blame
them seeing how much Reiki has been altered). Some of these
things I have learned and will honour for now. Others seem
to be out in plain view in Japan, for all to see, anyway.
One version
of the history of Reiki indicates that the founder,
Mikao Usui, taught Reiki to at least 17 people. One of these
was another healer at the time by the name of Toshihiro Eguchi.
Eguchi studied with Usui at least 3 years before Usui's death
in 1926. Through his students one form of Reiki has
continued on in Japan (We now know there are other lineages).
Eguchi reportedly taught thousands of students before the
war, including Goro Miyazaki. Miyazaki taught a person by
the name of Mieko Mitsui, who is around 60 years old
today. According to "Iyashi No Te", Mitsui assisted
Barbara Ray in translating her book "The Reiki Factor"
into Japanese, which Mochizuki admits to reading.
One
of Mitsui's current students is a Reiki teacher named
Takahashi (I don't know his first name, but I now know another
of her students was Mr. Hiroshi Doi.) Takahashi and the author,
Mochizuki, are part of a group of 10 Japanese Reiki masters
who come together to teach monthly Reiki classes. When
I talk about the Japanese Reiki masters, it is this group
that I am referring to . There are usually about 40 students,
with a 4 to 1 master to student ratio. Taught in a classroom
setting, Reiki levels one and two are presented over
a weekend for a fee of about 60,000 yen. Level three and the
teacher or master levels cost 90,000 yen and 150,000 yen respectively
(still cheaper than $10,0000).
According
to the history in the book, Usui, born in 1865, made
his discovery (assumedly sometime around 1914) and then spent
the next seven years working in the lower class district of
Kyoto. Kyoto is a religious centre and a former capital city,
and apparently in most Japanese towns and cities, people
on the street are taken in and cared for, and each family
looks out for it's own. So the story about Usui working with
the beggars may have been stretched a bit, or just misunderstood
in the West. Although Takata said Usui was a Christian
monk, the Japanese claim that he was a member of a spiritualist
group named "Rei Jyutsu Ka". This group had a centre
at the base of the holy mountain, Kurama Yama, just west of
Kyoto. They have since left this site and another group
occupies it now. Yama translates to mountain, and Kurama translates
to horse saddle. There are several shrines on the mountain,
including one at the top and one near the bottom. One shrine
at the bottom is a very large statue of the Amida Buddha
with it's base placed well below ground level. Steps lead
down to the base where one can sit and meditate. This may
have been one of Usui's meditation sites, although there can
be a lot of people visiting there. In the city of Kyoto,
there is also a well know library with religious and theological
works from around the world. The Japanese do not think Usui
would have needed to travel far to do his research.
In
1921 Usui went to Tokyo and set up his school. The Japanese
believe that when Usui taught you, you would have just lived
with him till you got it all; therefore you became a teacher
yourself. They feel that he may not have required a
process or ritual (like an attunement) to pass on the Reiki
energy. (In the "Awakening Your Light Body" process
taught by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer, the student learns
to work with energy centres and duplicate their vibration
by listening and emulating frequencies presented by Duane's
guide, DaBen. So the concept of Usui and members of his Spiritualist
Group not requiring attunements to pass on Reiki may be valid.)
However,
Usui did teach lay people. In 1925, a retired naval
officer (and doctor) by the name of Chujiro Hayashi (at the
age of 47), took the training from Usui. It may have been
this act of creating teachers outside his movement that caused
Usui (and Hayashi) to develop an attunement process.
A Canadian Reiki teacher named Dave
King spent some time with one of Hayashi's surviving
masters, Tatsumi, in April, 1996. He was allowed to trace
copies of the four Reiki symbols in Hayashi's handwriting,
and he also learned Tatsumi's attunement process. This process
is shorter than the one currently used by the Japanese group.
Dave was also invited to spend time with the Japanese group
of masters during his stay in Japan.
Usui
taught a couple of other naval officers by the name of Juzaburo
Giuda (also pronounced Ushida) and Kan'ichi Taketomi. From
the original Hayashi training and the current Japanese group,
it is taught that the original hand positions he taught (presumably
from Chinese medicine) stopped at the midsection of the body.
The additional hand positions were added by Hayashi to accommodate
the two practitioners-to-a-client style that he used in his
eight bed clinic. Initially, Usui may have only laid hands
on wherever the person had pain. Since the Japanese had rediscovered
and were using the ancient art of Chinese acupuncture (and
acupressure), the hand positions seem to evolve around the
body's energy channels and pressure points.
The
Japanese do not name the Reiki symbols the way we do. They
call them symbol number one, symbol number two, symbol number
three and symbol number four. The names are actually the mantra
you chant and the symbol is the yantra you draw and
visualize to focus on the specific energy you are working.
The 3rd symbol, known as the connection or distant symbol,
is actually Kanji and if you look up the words in a Japanese
dictionary you will find it's original form. Just overlay
each of the parts to get it's final form. The same can be
said for the number four symbol. Of course, in the Japanese
language, everything seems to be context oriented; so there
are many version of the word "Rei" and "Ki".
You won't find the number one or number two symbols there.
But the number two symbol comes from a symbol in Japanese
Buddhism, and the number one may have as well.
In
the summer of 1996, Melissa
Riggall visited Tatsumi, and was able to learn that
Usui taught five Buddhist nuns the method as well as the three
naval officers and nine male associates. She also learned
Usui was sent to a Tendai monastery at age 4 where he remained
for several years. He apparently used to meditate in the Kurama
Yama power spots regularly. He also studied qigong (called
ki-ko in Japan) to a very high level while a monk and did
qigong projection healings.
Tatsumi
thought that he was the last of Hayashi's students that were
given the complete system as sensei. He never created teachers
of his own and only shared sensei information with Melissa
and Dave King. Some of his grandchildren were attuned
as practitioners (all 4 symbols). He had heard of Mochizuki
but had never communicated with him.
Tatsumi-san
showed Melissa a stack of notes that Hayashi had left with
him, and that he had made as part of his learning..
These will not be taken out of Japan and were to be deposited
in a shrine on Tatsumi-san's death.
On
October 3/96, Melissa sent me an e-mail to inform me that
Tatsumi-san had recently passed away. We are fortunate that
at least 2 western Reiki Masters were able to meet with
him and learn some of his knowledge of the origins of Reiki.
Source:
http://www.threshold.ca/reiki/origins.html
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