Reiki ("RAY-kee"): This is a Japanese word that represents Universal Life Energy. It is based on the belief that when spiritual energy is channeled through a Reiki practitioner, the patient's spirit is healed, which in turn heals the physical body.
There are a lot of different version on how Reiki came to be. It was an oral story, told and retold through many years until someone finally wrote it down. Here's one version (found at
http://www.reikiconnection.com/p27.html - with some editing):
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The origins of Reiki go back some 2,500 years to the Tibetan monasteries where it was used as a system for spiritual enlightenment. We are told that there was a special room, which had highly polished brass from ceiling to floor. There was a stool or bench on which the student sat and behind him the teacher would draw in the air—so that they were reflected on the brass walls—what we have come to know as the Reiki Symbols. The student would then study and work with them for enlightenment.
A by-product of the symbols was their healing properties, which the monks were not overly concerned about using unless a student developed a pain or physical problem that kept attention from his spiritual work. Then the healing properties of the symbols were used. Since the monks did not travel out into the countryside doing healing, the symbols and their healing properties stayed in the monasteries and were almost forgotten.
Picture to the right of Mikao Usui.Now we move into the late 1800’s to Kyoto, Japan, where Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese Christian educator at a Christian school had just given a talk to a graduating class. After his discussion several of his students asked him if he believed, as he had said, that they all could go forth and heal as Jesus had done. Dr. Usui said he did. At that point, his students asked him to show them how. Dr. Usui could not show them, but he felt in his heart there must be a way.
Dr. Usui decided to come to America because it was a pre-dominate Christian country. He felt we would know how to do the healing of Jesus. We are told he came to the University of Chicago to study Theology. Every chance he got he went around to the different religions and asked them, “Do you know how to heal the body”? They all answered, “No, we heal the spirit.”
Finally, while studying some Sanskrit texts he found mention of Buddha who also had healed. That sent him back to Kyoto, which even today is a city of many monasteries and shrines. At each monastery, he asked, “Do you know how to heal the body”? The answer was always, “No”.
That is until, as the story goes, he came to the last monastery, which was a Zen Buddhist monastery. After he had asked his question, the reply was, “Well, we used to, but we don’t any more”. With that reply Dr. Usui asked if he could live in the monastery and study their texts. Permission was given and Dr. Usui studied the texts, many of which were written in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, and Japanese.
In studying the texts, Dr. Usui found the symbols he was searching for, but there wasn’t any further information on them (to put it into day’s language, there wasn’t any user manual). Consulting the head monk, Dr. Usui asked his opinion and was told that when the Zen had a question they always meditated on it and prayed. So he did.
In his meditation, it came to Dr. Usui that he should go to Mt. Kurama-Yama, a holy mountain some 25 miles away, and do a 21-day fasting prayer and meditation to seek understanding about the symbols. He made arrangements that if he did not come back after 21 days, that someone should come and “collect his bones”. He said that because he felt he was either going to find the meaning of the symbols—his life’s quest—or perish and make his transition.
At the top of the mountain, there was a small cave that was used by the monks on their silent meditation retreats. Since he would be fasting and could loose track of the time, Dr. Usui made a pile of 21 stones. Each day, we are told, he would remove one stone from the pile when he awoke so he could track the days.
On the last day, as he was sitting on the mountain at dawn, a great light appeared in the sky. It got bigger and bigger and started coming right towards him. He was afraid, ran into the small cave, and remained there until suddenly it dawned on him that this is what he had been asking for. So he emerged out of the cave, faced the light, which came to him, and struck him in the forehead. He fell backwards and lost consciousness for awhile.
Some time later, he awoke and saw the sky filled with thousands and thousands of beautiful rainbow colored bubbles. And then he saw a golden bubble which got bigger and bigger until it stopped in front of him. Inside the bubble was one of the symbols he had discovered at the monastery and the meaning of that symbol was revealed to him. Then another golden bubble appeared with another symbol and so on until he had been told about all the symbols.
As he looked up into the sky he saw written in gold letters, “Remember this, Remember this, Remember this,” three times in all.
Sometime later, he decided to go back down the mountain. He was wearing open toe sandals and stubbed his toe. It started to bleed and he put his hand down on his toe. In a few minutes, the pain was gone and the bleeding had stopped. The First Miracle!
At the bottom of the mountain was an inn that had a red blanket on the bench outside. This meant that food was available for travelers. Dr. Usui was very hungry after his 21 day fast and he went inside and ordered hot tea and hot rice. The Innkeeper noticing his monk robes and gaunt appearance was afraid that after his fasting he would be sick if he ate too much hot food. But Dr. Usui insisted and the man went away to fix his food.
The Innkeeper had a daughter who appeared with a rag tied around her hear and a distended swollen jaw. Dr. Usui asked her what was wrong. She told him that she had a toothache, but could not leave the inn to travel the 25 miles into town to have it treated. At that point he asked her if he could gently put his hands on her cheeks. When he did, his hands got warm, the swelling went down and the pain went away. The Second Miracle! She ran to get her father who asked Dr. Usui, “You aren’t a regular monk are you? What is that you do? What do you call it?”
At that moment Dr. Usui gave this healing method the name of Reiki, pronounced (Ray-key). Rei being the Universal Life and Ki being the Energy. So Reiki means Universal Life Energy.
We are told that this is how the healing system that started out in Tibet received the Japanese name we know it by today.
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Most Reiki Practitioners and Masters carefully guard the secrets of Reiki. I don't believe that it should be kept a secret. I believe that while it MUST be used with reverence, Reiki energy should be readily available to anyone who has need of it.
