About Reiki
We have all come across things, places and people that make us feel good, like a place that cheers us up, music that makes us dance, a delicious meal or a book that warms our hearts. The reason for this is that the cosmic energy of matter is distributed in the form of vibrations, and the highest one is the vibrations of love, the life energy that keeps everything alive and leads to harmony. Yes, as quantum physics has already shown, everything in the world has a consciousness or a vibration, and they all emit it at different levels. When this cosmic energy, which is the vibration of love, is in the human body, it becomes life energy, which gives us the power to heal ourselves and the energy to live life strongly. When we are in tune with the macrocosm, we return to our true self and our physical and mental activities are in balanced. This high level of macrocosmic energy and love has been called “Reiki” in Japan, “Ki” in China, “Prana” in India and “Mana” in Hawaii since ancient times.
photo: © Sigel Leicht
About Reiki Ho
A remedy unexpectedly obtained during a fast by Mikao Usui (1865 – 1926), who was born in 1865 in Taniai, Yamagata City, Gifu Prefecture. The Reiki method is a way of achieving a healthy state of mind and body by tuning in to the wavelengths of nature and the universe. The official name of the method is 心身改善臼井霊気療法, Shinshin Kaizen Usui Reiki Ryoho, which starts from “the way to health and happiness” and leads to the statement “安心立命, Anshin Ritsumei”.
It is the practice of connecting with Reiki to make life more peaceful and profound. It begins with the application of hands and the practice of raising our own vibration, protecting us from damaging vibrations such as illness, anger and worry. Through the practice of healing, we become proficient in harnessing the energy of the universe to support us in creating our own lives. The comfort of being your natural self, free from negative energy, comes from learning to be mindful, starting with hand healing.
Learning the Reiki-ho starts with an energy transmission or attunement (opening the Reiki pathway), which is the essence of Reiki. In other words, by connecting yourself to Reiki, the cosmic energy and vibrations of love, you become a channel for it. The attunement is to be able to heal everything, to unite and resonate with the cosmic consciousness and the cosmic rhythm. After 21 days self-practice, you will be able to heal yourself and others. The pathway opened by the attunement is a lifelong one, but it is the start of a real learning process, which is very relevant to your daily spirituality and practice.
During my first energy transmission, I was so moved by the euphoria of being embraced by the universe and surrounded by so much love that I could not stop crying tears of joy and gratitude, and I had an instant experience of feeling that we are microcosmic beings. Afterwards, through self-healing, my body, which had been in a state of physical and mental disarray due to an unfamiliar life abroad and a difficult cross-cultural marriage, gradually healed and regained its energy. When I put my hands on my liver, the organ of anger and sadness, I could not help crying and kept putting hands on it until the tears stopped. At that time I had forgotten how to shed tears, so this was the greatest healing experience for me. At the same time, I was gradually recovering from atopic dermatitis and I could no longer ignore the connection between mind and body. As I continued to practice, I noticed that the tonsil infections which I suffered from every year stopped recurring, and I felt that my immunity had improved.
Each level of the course becomes simpler and more direct approach to the spirituality. The understanding that comes from experience (the use of the technique and self-healing) rather than from theory is immeasurable. What you experience and understand will last a lifetime and you will never learn more than that. Everything that happens in this world is a learning experience, but the key is to accept as it is. A change in consciousness is one of the phenomena that can be observed when deepening the Reiki-ho.
Reiki-ho is the technique that can be used to awaken our innate but forgotten potential, and to achieve ultimate relaxation and awareness. However, it is not a technique for the pursuit of special abilities or power. This is the way of life with Reiki.
About Gendai Reiki Ho
About Mikao Usui
There are many theories about Mikao Usui Sensei (Sensei = Master or Teacher in Japanese), but the following is based on the book “A MODERN REIKI METHOD FOR HEALING” by Hiroshi Doi Sensei and the monumental inscriptions created by Usui Sensei’s trainees at the Saiho-ji temple in Tokyo, Koh Toku no Hi ( 臼井先生功徳の碑 ). These letter have been translated into modern Japanese by Doi Sensei.
Usui Sensei was born on 15 August 1865 in Taniai Village, Yamagata-gun, Gifu Prefecture (present-day Taniai, Yamagata-city, Gifu Prefecture), as the eldest son of the Usui family. Even though Usui Sensei struggled to learn as a child, his academic abilities far exceeded those of other children. In his mid-teens he left his hometown and went to Europe and the United States several times, and then to China to study. He was a gentle, modest and unpretentious man, with wide-ranging interests in history, biography, medicine, Buddhism, Christianity, psychology, the arts of the Immortals, magic, I Ching and physiognomy, amongst other topics. He also worked as a civil servant, a company employee, a businessman, a newspaper reporter, a secretary to a politician, a religious missionary and a churchman who taught prisoners. Throughout his career and life experiences, he was able to broaden his horizons, and gained experience in many different fields.
Through these different jobs and life experiences, he began to ask himself “What is the purpose of life? “ He came to the realisation that it is “to achieve the statement of Anshin Ritsumei (安心立命).” This is the first enlightenment for him, the realization that after you have done your best, you can leave the rest to the universe.
From this first intellectual enlightenment of the ego-consciousness, Sensei entered the three-year path of Zen meditation with the aim of attaining a deeper enlightenment: unification of intuitive perception with the true self. This was the path to the attainment of the state of peace of mind and life. However, the practice did not progress as he had hoped, and he was troubled, so he consulted a Zen master. But the answer was very Zen-like: “Try dying once.” He decided that his life had come to an end, so in March 1922 he retired to Mt. Kurama in the suburbs of Kyoto and began fasting. After a few days, he felt a resonance between Reiki in him and Reiki in the mountain. It became stronger and stronger day by day until finally, around midnight of the third week, he felt a shock like a lightning strike in the centre of his brain and fell unconscious. The next thing he knew, the night was beginning to open up and felt more refreshed than he had ever felt in his life. He felt that he had reached the state of true enlightenment that he had been seeking, as he had achieved a sense of oneness with the universe through the resonance between the cosmic Reiki and the Reiki in his body. In other words, he has achieved the state of peace of mind and life that he had been seeking. This is the phenomenon of the “Great Enlightened One”, who has attained true enlightenment in an instant, as has been said in the past.
As he made his way down the mountain with great joy, he stumbled and his toenail came off. He put his hand on it and the pain instantly left him and he was healed. From this point on, as he saved people with his miraculous healing powers. He realised that the universe had given him the power to heal, and discovered that this healing was a result of the resonance between cosmic Reiki and his own inner Reiki, similar to the oneness he experienced on Mount Kurama. He decided to teach a healing method that eveyone can use.
In April 1922 Usui Sensei established the Usui Reiki Ryo-ho Gakkai in Tokyo (Usui Reiki Ryo-ho Gakkai still exists to this day). There, he treated people with mental and physical illnesses and passed on his therapeutic know-how to his members. It is said that there were long queues of people outside the door seeking treatment and guidance, especially the high naval officers of the time. It is speculated that this was due to their great interest in acquiring the ability to manage their own health on long sea voyages, and especially to improve their spirituality.
The following year, he and his students saved many lives during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. On 9 March 1926, while teaching in various parts of Japan, he died suddenly at an inn in Fukuyama, aged 60.
About Hiroshi Doi
Hiroshi Doi Sensei (Sensei = Master or Teacher in Japanese) was born on 2 November 1935 in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, into a family associated with Zen monks. His grandfather’s family background meant that he was familiar with Zazen, meditation and invisible world from an early age, although he was not a monk. After his vocational training, he worked for the national telephone company, where he developed his career, and then for a number of prestigious companies. Although he and his family were in good health, he was concerned about the illnesses of his friends and colleagues, which despite the best medical treatment, were not completely cured. After a close friend suffered a stroke, he became very interested in Eastern medicine as well as folk healing.
He became especially fascinated by the world of spirituality and cosmic energy, and studied more than 30 alternative healing modalities. In 1991 he studied the “Radiance Technique” (founded by Dr. Barbara Ray) with Mieko Mitsui. Doi Sensei became convinced that everything he had learned and everything he was looking for was in this method. This intuitive conviction that came from the fact that after receiving Reiki levels 1 and 2, his physical problems disappeared and he began to see the positive side of things. He also experienced a smoothing effect that improved everything in his daily life.
In October 1993 he was introduced to the Usui Reiki Association, Usui Reiki Ryo-ho Gakkai, founded by Mikao Usui Sensei himself. There, Doi Sensei studied the original Japanese Usui Reiki Ryo-ho and received Reiju from Kimiko Koyama Sensei, the 6th President of the Usui Reiki Ryo-ho Gakkai. The experience was so moving that he could not stop crying. He wrote in his book, “This is the energy of inner peace, which washes away stress and fills the mind and body. “ As he studied the original Usui Japanese Reiki Ryo-ho (Traditional Reiki), he discovered that there were differences between it and Western Reiki. This led him to study the various Reiki methods that exist in American and European styles. After Mitsui Sensei and Koyama Sensei, his third teacher was Arpan, who had studied under Bhagwan in India and who founded Neo-Reiki. This gave him a three-dimensional understanding of the whole Reiki method, from beginning to the end.
With the aim of combining the original Japanese Usui Reiki Ryo-ho and the Western Reiki, the two techniques that he learned from these three masters, he decided in 1995 to simplify the techniques to the point of guaranteeing their effectiveness, and to establish a curriculum that could be easily used in everyday life. From the first Gendai Reiki seminar in 1996 to the first publication of A MODERN REKI METHOD FOR HEALING in 1998 and its translation into English by the URRI Association in Vancouver in 1999, the number of Gendai Reiki practitioners overseas has grown rapidly. In October 2015, a World Gathering was held with Doi Sensei in El Escorial and Madrid, Spain, on the theme “The Spirit of Usui Sensei and the Truth of Traditional Reiki”.
In 2018 he completed his wish to have a monument dedicated to Usui Sensei at his birthplace, the Amataka Shrine, and as of 2021 he is a member of the Usui Reiki Ryo-ho Gakkai and Holistic Medicine Japan. He regularly holds seminars in Japan, although his overseas expeditions have decreased.
About Hayashi
The instrumental person in the development of Reiki therapy from its origins in Japan into Reiki worldwide
Hayashi was born in 1879, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1902, and was a military doctor during his working life. In 1925 he became the last of Usui’s Shinpiden holder apprentices, and founded 林霊気研究会, the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyu-kai (research center) in Shinanomachi, Tokyo, where he studied Reiki as well as its therapies. There, he emphasised the importance of meridians, acupuncture points, chakras and other energy centres, combining scientific and spriritual healing styles. The results of many previous traditions were passed on to the present day Western Reiki, according to Doi Sensei, seems to be the origin of the 12 basic positions and attunements used all over the world. Hayashi had thirteen Shinpiden holder apprentices, one of whom was Hawayo Takada.
About Hawayo Takata
The founder of Western Reiki, the world's first Reiki Master
Born in 1900 in Hawaii to Japanese parents, Hawayo Takata was a second-generation Japanese immigrant. In 1935 doctors diagnosed her as having little time left to live, and she returned to her parents’ hometown in Yamaguchi Prefecture for medical treatment. She was due to undergo an operation at Maeda Hospital in Akasaka, but just before it was about to begin, she heard an inner voice telling her three times that she must not submit herself to it. Having refused this procedure, she was referred to Dr. Hayashi’s Reiki clinic for non-surgical treatment, which she attended daily. After three months, her symptoms disappeared, and after eight months she made a full recovery. In 1937, after returning to Hawaii with her two daughters, she opened a Reiki clinic there. The next year Hayashi granted Takada the title of Reiki Master, and legally registered and guaranteed her a special status. Despite the difficulties of the war years, she devoted herself to the Reiki treatment of the many incurable patients at the clinic, and began training Reiki Masters when she was over 75 years old. Having trained both Phyllis Furumoto (founder of The Reiki Alliance) and Barbara Ray (founder of the Radiance Technique), it can be said that all Western Reiki began with her.
Energy Lineage
Mikao Usui → Chujiro Hayashi → Hawayo Takada → 22 masters