NEW WEBSITE: www.ephesians-511.net AUGUST 2004, AUGUST 2009, MAY/OCTOBER 2012 R e i k i , a n d H o l i s t i c H e a l i n g WHAT IS REIKI? Pronounced as “ray-key”, REIKI is a Japanese word that means “Universal Life Force Energy”. It is a kind of ‘healing energy’ that was supposedly ‘rediscovered’ by a medical doctor named Mikao Usui in the 19th century. However, different schools of this ‘New Age’ technique have evolved, and, with them, several versions of its origin and development, differing in some details. Sterling Publishers of Delhi, in their New Age ‘New Dawn’ ‘All You Wanted to Know about…’ series of pocket-sized books on Alternative therapies, says this on Reiki which is “dedicated to the Lotus Feet of Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba” by Sumeet Sharma: “REIKI is a Japanese word comprising two parts –Rei and Ki, and these are Japanese Kangi characters. REI means universal spiritual wisdom or consciousness. The wisdom that comes directly from GOD or the HIGHER SELF. It is not only God-conscious but is also all-knowing. It understands each person completely, with the root cause of the person’s problems and difficulties, and knows how to heal them. KI means the LIFE FORCE, and this is referred to by the Chinese as the CHI, [and] by the Indians as PRANA… Anything that is alive has a life force circulating and surrounding it, but the life force departs when it dies. When the life force is high and free-flowing, one is less likely to get sick, and vice-versa. It animates the body and is also the primary energy of our emotions, thoughts and spiritual life. KI is present all around us and can be accumulated and guided by the mind. There is no doubt that Reiki energy is present everywhere. But one cannot learn Reiki healing by merely reading books, because one has to be initiated as a Reiki channel or healer by a Reiki Master. The attunement process is a sacred and secret one. It opens the psychic Chakras in the body, and establishes a spiritual link between the student/channel and the Reiki source.” ORIGIN AND HISTORY According to the International Center for Reiki Training [ICRT] web site at http://www.reiki.org/, the Usui System of Reiki is attributed to Mikao Usui or Usui Sensei [Sensei= Master]. “Usui was born August 15, 1865 in the village of Yago in the Yanagata district of Gifu prefecture, Japan. It is said that he entered a Tendai Buddhist school on or near Mt. Kurama ("Horse Saddle Mountain") at age four. He also studied kiko, the Japanese version of qigong**, which is a health and healing discipline based on the development and use of life energy. [**see earlier write-ups such as CONYBIO, Acupuncture, etc.] The young Usui found that these healing methods required the practitioner to build up and then deplete his own life energy when giving treatments. He wondered if it were possible to do healing without depleting one's own energy. He went on to study in Japan, China and Europe, and his curriculum included fortune telling. Usui was also a member of the Rei Jyutu Ka, a metaphysical group dedicated to developing psychic abilities. As a sensitive spiritualist, Usui Sensei [= Master] had spent much time meditating on the power spots on Mt. Kurama where he had received his early Buddhist training. So he decided to travel to this holy mountain, where he enrolled in Isyu Guo, a 21-day course sponsored by the Tendai Buddhist Temple located there, and during this training that the great Reiki energy entered his ‘crown chakra’. This greatly enhanced his healing abilities and he realized he had received a wonderful new gift - the ability to give healing to others without depleting his own energy!” Sumeet Sharma again: “Reiki is as old as mankind itself. It was however in use for a long time without any distinct identity. Information from clairvoyants like Michelle Griffith throws light on the origins and metaphysics of Reiki. According to Griffith, Reiki was originally brought to the earth by the GREAT BEINGS during the Lemurian times over 100,000 years ago. This was the first place where humans were incarnated on the earth. They had a GREAT BEING among them who revealed the secret of Reiki. Finally when Lemuria sank, the knowledge of Reiki was also lost. The Great Being also realised the problems emerging out of the negative Karma, viz. greed, lust, anger, jealousy and delusion. Reiki helped in overcoming these, and, being a perfect energy, establishing the connection with God. 1. NOTE: FOR INDEX, SEE PAGE 93 Reiki does not expect one to be spiritually inclined for it to work, because it is UNCONDITIONAL HEALING ENERGY. Reiki was again brought back to the earth by the GREAT BEING to the Atlantis city some 50,000 years ago… However, Atlantis also sank, and with it the treasure of Reiki energy. Some 7,000 years ago during the Egyptian civilization Reiki was brought back for the third time, and continues to remain with us even today… The clairvoyants of the New Age School of thought believe that Reiki is a contract between Mother Earth and God, in order to heal Mother earth and its denizens”. [New Agers believe in the lost continent theories, karmic debt, reincarnation, higher beings and spirit guides etc.] THE MODERN ‘RE-DISCOVERER’ OF REIKI Sumeet Sharma continues: “Dr. Mikao Usui was the principal of Doshisha Christian University in Kyoto, Japan… Once when he was asked by one of his students as to how Jesus Christ healed his followers, Dr. Usui could not give an answer… Ashamed, he resigned from his [job] and started his quest to discover how Christ had healed. He traveled to Chicago and studied there for 7 years and acquired a degree in theology, although he was unsuccessful in finding the answer to his question. He later traveled to India and Tibet, learnt Sanskrit, and finally studied the sacred Tibetan Lotus Sutras and found clues to the healing power of Jesus. He then returned to Japan and focused on Buddha as he was known to have performed the same miracles as Jesus. His journey finally led him to a Zen Monastery where he read the Sutras, writings and teachings of Buddha. On the advice of the monks, he took to meditation… “Fasting and meditating for 21 days atop a holy mountain near Kyoto… he received enlightenment when a golden light hit his forehead with the sacred Reiki symbols and he heard a divine voice… Dr. Usui ran down the hill in excitement and hurt his toe, and it started bleeding profusely. He placed his hands on the area of pain and the pain vanished in minutes… He went to the Zen monastery the following day, and on seeing a monk suffering from acute arthritic pain, he simply placed his hands on the area of discomfort, and the monk was relieved of the pain”. Usui was said to have originally desired to heal the masses, and first lived in the slums near Tokyo, performing seemingly miraculous healings on the poor without charge. Then, after a time, these same patients who had been healed returned to him, having lost their ‘healings’. He meditated on why this was so and how he could remedy the problem. He decided that they became ill again because “in any action of man, there should be an exchange of energy, thus Karmically releasing the other person from any debt that may take fruit in the future” [S. Sharma], and so he began to charge money for his services. However, Dr. Richard Blackwell who claims to have discovered and translated some of Usui’s own original notes in 1993, disagrees with the above version. According to him, Usui was neither a Christian nor the dean of a college. As a youth, Usui reportedly had a powerful vision. He then studied Shingon Buddhism which was founded in 7th century Japan by Shuichi and Kukai who themselves had been trained by Indian Buddhist Masters in China. Blackwell believes that Usui was a reincarnation of Kukai and in earlier life would have already mastered the practices of ‘The Tantra of the Lightning Flash which Heals the Body and Illumines the Mind’ known to Kukai. Since there was no living guru who knew the tantra, Usui began to practice all by himself and finally received empowerment. He poured water empowered by this tantra on his hands before healing. BEYOND USUI Dr. Usui continued to propagate Reiki throughout Japan till around 1926, and gathered 16 teachers, one of whom, Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, founded the first Reiki clinic in Tokyo. One of his students, Hawayo Takata, a Hawaiian widow was suffering from various ailments was healed through Reiki and succeeded Hayashi as Reiki grandmaster when he died in 1941. Before her death in 1980, she had created 22 Reiki Masters in the US and Canada. Today, Reiki is propagated world-wide by three major organisations: The Reiki Alliance founded in 1981 by Phyllis Furomoto, the grand-daughter of Takata, The International Association of Reiki [centered in the Czech Republic, Poland and Scotland], and The American International Reiki Association, founded in 1982 by Dr. Barbara Weber Ray [see below]. One of Reiki’s foremost proponents and author of several best-sellers on the therapy is Paula Horan [see below]. She has made several visits to India. According to Paula Horan, the Level III Reiki in use today is only the first of seven levels of tantric practice.