What is Reiki?

Reiki is an invisible subtle energy. The name 'Reiki' is a Japanese word, which can be translated to mean 'Universal Life Energy.' What we know as Reiki comes from ancient Sanskrit texts, which were discovered and developed by Dr. Mikoa Usui during the late 1800s in Japan. Reiki used this energy to stimulate the body in its own natural healing process, increasing the energy flow throughout the whole body.

In the life force energy of Reiki, the person who is attuned as a Reiki healer has had their body's energy channels opened and cleared of any obstructions by the Reiki attunements. They not only receive an increase in this life energy (or Chi or Ki) for their own healing, but also become connected to the source of all universal Chi or Ki.

Reiki is not a religion. This life force energy is the source of life itself and far older in concept and fact than any religious philosophy.

The history of Reiki.

1000 years B.C., Reiki was universal and never meant to be lost. 3000 years ago Reiki was as familiar to everyone as aspirin is to us today.

Due to tyranny and oppression Reiki was forced underground, where it remained in the knowledge of a select few. When in the nineteenth century a Japanese man sought the origins of Jesus and the Buddha's methods of healing. He found them in the ancient remains of Shiva's early culture, in the esoteric teaching of India.

The name of this man is Dr. Mikao Usui, who was principal of the Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan and also a Christian Minister. Asked by his students to be shown the method by which Jesus did his healing, Usui began a ten year quest to find and learn the skill.

Not finding the answers from Christian authorities, Usui sought the information through Buddhism. The Buddhist monks told him that the ancient spiritual healing method had been lost, and that the only way to approach them was by entering the Buddhist teachings, the Path to Enlightment.
Usui then travelled to the United States where he lived for seven years. On his return to Japan, he became a Buddhist and resided in a Zen monastery where he found the texts describing the healing formula, which he could now read in their original Sanskrit. 

The material did not include however, the information on how to activate the energy and make it work. It was the practice to obscure information in the Sutras and it was intentionally done to keep the powerful material from hands not ready to know and use it properly.

Dr. Usui went to study the Sanskrit, when he later studied hard to master it, he found a formula as clear as day. Nothing hard but very simple. The scripts had been written 2500 years before. He knew he had found it but how to activate it. The scripts were incomplete. He felt that he must do a test.

The test was a three week period of meditation, fasting and prayer on Mount Koriyama, Japan. On the final day of his quest, in the darkest hour just before dawn, Usui saw a projectile of light coming towards him. The sought after answers were given to him in the form of symbols.

On his journey down the mountain, he encountered what is traditionally known as the four miracles - healing his own foot with his hands; eating a large meal after a 21 day fast without discomfort; healing a woman of toothache; and on his return to the monastery he healed a monk of an arthritis attack.

On reaching Kyoto's beggars quarters he started to heal the people he encountered. Traditionally, the town supported people who were unable to work due to illness and disease. Once healed, Usui soon found that beggars were discontent because their means of income had now been taken away from them. They no longer wished to be healed because they had no other way of providing for their families and themselves.

The Five Principles.

It was then that Dr. Usui decided upon the five principles of Reiki:

Just for today do not worry.
Just for today do not anger.
Honour your parents, teachers and elders.
Earn your living honestly.
Show gratitude to every living thing.