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History of Reiki:
Hawayo Takata's teachings:
Mrs. Takata was a Japanese American woman. She was attempting to convey Japanese cultural ideas, practices and beliefs to Americans with a Christian cultural mindset and background. In addition, this followed a historical period where Japan had been at war with the United States. The traditional story, as told by Mrs. Takata, is that Dr. Usui was teaching in a Christian university called Doshisha University in Kyoto in the mid 1800's. His students began to ask him if he believed that Jesus' could heal as in the bible. When he replied that he did, they asked him to perform such healing so they might believe as well. Dr. Usui did not know how to heal. He began to question church leaders, who also did not know how this was accomplished. So he set out on a quest to learn of these methods. As the story goes, he traveled through Japan, China, studied at the University of Chicago Divinity School and eventually came back to Japan.
According to the story, Usui had failed to find this great healing and so Dr. Usui climbed Mt. Karamu for a 21-day meditation and fasting ritual. At the end of the 21 days when Usui was about to leave, he saw a great light approaching him from the distance. He was fearful, but he stayed. The light struck him in the forehead (third eye). This knocked him unconscious, but upon awakening, he saw millions of small glowing bubbles and the Reiki symbols were shown individually to him. The meaning and application of each Reiki symbol was then apparent to him.
Dr. Usui was then supposed to have healed his toe on the way down the mountain, as well as a girl, and then eaten a full meal after a 21 day fast. He began healing beggars in the slums of Kyoto. He found that those that he had healed would return again for treatment of the same illnesses. Usui found that many of these people held their illnesses and disease because they served them as useful. These people preferred to live with their illness because others, and various other reasons cared them for. It was then that Usui felt that treatment must include not only the physical, but also the emotional and spiritual. Usui also decided not to do Reiki for free after this, and that some form of energy exchange must occur.
It is taught that this system was passed on down to his chosen successor, Mr. Chujiro Hayashi who became the next "Grand Master" of reiki. It is also taught that this mantle of "Grand Mastership" was passed to Mrs. Takata, which was passed onto her grand daughter Mrs. Phyllis Furumoto. It should be noted that Takata Sensei did not ever refer to herself as "Grand Master"; this was something that some of Takata Sensei's students did and was perpetuated into a belief and dogma in the early practices of the Reiki Alliance circa 1982-1983.
