Guide to Original Usui Reiki
By Taggart King
This in an incredibly exciting time to be involved with Reiki.
Just a few years ago everyone thought that Reiki had died out in Japan, and that the only Reiki that was left to the world was Mrs. Takata's. The discovery that Reiki had still continued in Japan, and was being practiced in a way that was very different from Takata Reiki, has led to a flood of new information coming from the East. Unfortunately it has all ended up quite confusing now, with information coming from what is said to be Usui's Association in Japan (the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai), from what is said to be Usui's training manual, and from what are claimed to be long-forgotten Usui documents found in an old Japanese casket in someone's garage in the States.
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Usui's Surviving Students
The most exciting development in all this confusion is the discovery that some of Mikao Usui's students are still alive. There are about a dozen of them, they are all very old (the youngest is about 107) and they are in contact with only one or two people in the West. Since we cannot speak to the man himself directly, it would seem that these students are the best source of reliable information about what Usui's system was all about, and the message coming from these students contradicts many of the things that we are used to in Western Reiki, and many of the things that are being promoted as 'original Usui Reiki'!
In this article I want to run through the basic message that is coming from Usui's surviving students, to show the simplicity of the original system, and to show which of the many techniques currently being taught as 'Usui originals' are in fact original Usui techniques.
The 'Gakkai' Myth
A lot of what are claimed to be 'original' techniques are coming from an Association in Japan called the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (Association for Usui's Reiki Healing Method), a society that certainly carries Usui's name. But Usui Sensei did not set up 'the Gakkai'; it was set up after his death by some of his less experienced students, Dr Hayashi and the two other Imperial officers, rather like a memorial society. They were all fairly inexperienced Masters, because they had trained with Usui for a very short time, had been taught a limited form of Reiki, and had only started on their Master training, not completed it. Dr Hayashi left the 'Gakkai' quite soon; it seems because of the many changes that the other Masters were making to their practice of Reiki. So most of the practices of the 'Gakkai' that have been passed to us do not represent Reiki in its original form. The 'Gakkai' have not 'opened their doors' to the West, but some of their methods have been passed to the West via Frank Arjava Petter, and through Hiroshi Doi as 'Usui Reiki Ryoho'.
Dr Usui's Handbook?
There is an 'Usui Manual' available in the West, based on a manual that is given to students of the 'Gakkai'. It contains a long list of different medical conditions with suggested hand positions for each condition. This is being called the 'Usui Healing Guide'. In fact, rather than being Usui's work, this is the work of DR Hayashi, and the guide was included in the 'Usui' manual given to 'Gakkai' students. DR Hayashi's medical background seems to have led him to try and push Reiki into fitting the medical model: you diagnose a condition and react in a standard way. Usui's way was much simpler, though Hayashi was doing this research with Usui's knowledge and approval.
Two Big Revelations
So what was Usui's Reiki like? Well, the first revelation about original Usui Reiki is that it was not called 'Reiki'! The system had no name, though it has been described by one of Usui's students as "Method to Achieve Personal Perfection". The word Reiki does appear in the Reiki precepts, but the word 'Reiki' seems there to mean 'a gift of satori. The name 'Reiki' came later, probably introduced by the Gakkai's founders.
The next revelation is that the purpose of Usui's method was to achieve satori, to find one's spiritual path, to heal oneself. Usui's system was not really about treating others. Treating others was not emphasised; it was not focused upon; it was a side-issue.
Origins of Usui's System
The system was rooted in Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism. Tendai Buddhism (a form of mystical Buddhism) provided spiritual teachings, and Shintoism contributed methods of controlling and working with the energies. Usui had a strong background in both kiko (energy cultivation) and a martial art with a strong Zen flavour (Yagyu Shinkage Ryu), and he also took Zen training, and these studies may have contributed in some way to the system that he developed. There also seems to be a strong connection between Usui's system and Shugendo (mountain asceticism). The system was based on living and practising the Reiki principles; that was the hub of the whole thing. The vast majority of Usui's students started out as his clients, people who came to him because they wanted something treated. He would routinely give people empowerments (connect them to Reiki) so that they could treat themselves in between appointments with him, and if they wanted to take things further then they could start formal training. The training was rather like martial arts training: you had an open-ended commitment to study with Usui, not a fixed-length training course, and it was only when you had developed sufficiently that you were invited to move on to higher levels.
First Degree Training
First Degree (Shoden) was very simple, and it seems that Usui taught
hundreds of people at this level. Shoden was all about opening to the
energy through receiving many Reiju empowerments (simple connection
rituals), it was about cleansing and self-healing. The student would
practice different forms of self-healing, including self-healing meditations,
they would chant and live the Reiki affirmations, and they would practice
a couple of energy exercises. The exercises taught at first-degree level
were Kenyoku and Joshin Kokkyu Ho, which are taught in the Usui Reiki
Ryoho Gakkai as part of a longer sequence of exercises called 'Hatsurei
Ho'. Students would be introduced to the concept of mindfulness, they
would focus on developing their awareness of their hara, and that would
lead to second-degree level. Students would not treat others at first-degree
level.
Second Degree Training
Second Degree (Okuden) was split into two levels (Zenki and Kouki).
Maybe 70 students reached Zenki, and maybe 30 reached Kouki level. Second-degree
was all about strengthening your ability as a channel, becoming familiar
with some specific energies and a particular state of mind, and receiving
spiritual teachings. You became a stronger channel for Reiki by receiving
Reiju empowerments on a regular basis, and by practising energy exercises.
Reiju continually reinforced your connection to the source and allowed
you to grow spiritually. You would work on that renewed connection by
doing daily energy exercises which took a different form from those
carried out at first-degree. At this level you spent many months working
with one energy after another, using meditations, or working with sacred
sounds called kotodama, or working with both. This process was not rushed,
since you had to learn to 'become' the energies fully. Spiritual teachings
were introduced at Second Degree level, which involved studying Buddhist
sutras, specifically the Lotus sutra, the Heart sutra and the Diamond
sutra. The Lotus sutra is the foundation document of Tendai Buddhism.
Though one source of 'original' information claims that Usui became
a Shingon Buddhist, his surviving students insist that he was 'Tendai
to the end'. The fact that he was Tendai did not stop him from drawing
from other spiritual traditions in Japan though.
Kotodama, or Jumon
The sacred sounds that you used to further your self-healing and spiritual development could also be used to treat others, and students might do some treatments at this level, though it was a bit of a sideline to the main thrust of the system. These 'kotodama' (also called 'Jumon' from a Buddhist perspective) come from Shintoism, the indigenous religion of Japan. This is really ancient stuff. This takes us back to the mists of ancient Japanese history, to a time when the sound of the human voice was said to be able to stop armies, to kill, to heal and to control the weather. There were three kotodama, or jumon, taught at second degree, representing the three energies that in the West we use the symbols to represent. Two energies were introduced at Okuden Zenki and had to be fully integrated before you moved on to Okuden Kouki, where you worked with a state of mind that would allow you to carry out distance healing if you wanted to. Again this was not emphasised.
Meditations
The interesting thing here is that Usui would give his students a series of meditations to work with over a long period of time. They used these meditations to experience - to become - the three energies again and again and again. It was only when the students had become completely familiar with the energies that they were given a 'trigger' to connect to what they already had strongly within them. In the West we use a symbol to connect to an energy that is unfamiliar to us; in Usui's system you became familiar with an energy and then were give a way of triggering it. No symbols entered into Usui's system for most of his students, and thus the empowerments (connection rituals) do not use symbols either; why would they, since Usui's system was up and running long before he introduced symbols for the benefit of DR Hayashi and the other naval officers in 1923. Usui seems to have taught his system as early as 1915.
'Techniques'
Most of the various 'Usui' treatment methods that are practised by the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai are in fact not Usui originals, but are Japanese QiGong healing techniques. No doubt Usui knew of these techniques, because he practiced kiko, but they were not part of his system. So far we have a picture of an elegant system where the focus is firmly on the individual: you are travelling a path to enlightenment, you have committed yourself to carrying out daily exercises and meditations, and you receive spiritual empowerments regularly. You are focusing on self-healing and spiritual development, and if you worked on others you would work intuitively. So rather than using a set of 'standard' hand positions, you let the energy guide you to the right place to treat, and let the energy guide you in terms of what aspect of the energy - if any - you might emphasise.
Master Level Training
The Master levels (Shinpiden and Shihan) involved receiving further
spiritual teachings, receiving Reiju and other 'higher' empowerments,
and learning how to empower yourself. You worked with a further kotodama,
and you practised a whole series of meditations which built on each
other and were designed to move you closer and closer to your own satori.
The goal here was to travel further along your spiritual path and bring
you closer to enlightenment. Eventually you learned how to perform Reiju
and other 'higher' empowerments, though this was near the end of your
training.
Teachings
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