The Original Usui Reiki Ryoho
Reiki—named ‘Usui Reiki Ryoho’ by it’s founder—is a very gentle, natural, yet extremely powerful energy healing modality. Reiki is used to harmonize health, and to heal oneself, others, plants and pets. Reiki can also be used for relaxation; to dissolve fear and anxiety; to uplift one’s spirit; to purify one’s space of unwanted energies; to heal specific life issues and events in one’s past, present or future; to imbue the foods we eat with purifying healing energy; to send inspiration to our future selves; to energize and cleanse crystals… and for any other positive purpose. In my years of practicing and teaching reiki, I have been witness (and channel) to many reiki miracles, which were given through me on behalf of my clients and students. And despite my years of experience as a reiki master, I am always in awe of just how amazing Usui Reiki Ryoho is.
The reiki energy is basically the Divine energy of life and Creation that flows through all of us and animates every living thing. Connecting with this energy harmonizes our multidimensional health and brings happiness, Divine abundance, and if you wish, enlightenment—the Ultimate bliss. While the connection with Divine life-force—Ki—is every person’s birthright, in most of us the ability to channel it for the benefit of others is dormant. Reiki offers a way to reawaken our innate ability to channel enhanced amounts of Divine energy (ki) for healing, purification, and empowerment of every positive thing.
Usui Reiki Ryoho heals issues at their root cause, as opposed to Western medicine, which mostly heals symptoms or corrects (medicinally or surgically) the end result of a problem, but almost never addresses the root cause of an issue. Since all changes of health (and indeed all manifestations in our physical reality) originate at the ethereal-energetic level and only lastly manifest physically, healing things at the energetic level enables reiki to address the root causes of issues, and heal them on a more permanent basis, unless there is a karmic Soul-lesson attached to the issue.
Because the reiki energy is Divine, it is always pure, can do no harm, and always acts for the highest-best good of both the receiver and practitioner. This means that the practitioner’s ego and agendas don’t ever (or at least they shouldn’t) figure into the reiki treatments, because during the process, the reiki practitioner is only a channel; the healing energy itself, and the intelligence of where to it goes and what it does, comes straight from the Divine Source.
Reiki, however, is not a religion, and thus can be practiced by Catholics, orthodox Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Shinto, as well as atheists. Reiki is also compatible with many other healing practices, including Western medicine.
You may choose to receive reiki treatments from a reiki practitioner, or you choose to become a practitioner yourself, and use the energy to heal yourself and your loved ones. The process of becoming a reiki practitioner involves training, empowering attunements, and practice.
The reiki energy is basically the Divine energy of life and Creation that flows through all of us and animates every living thing. Connecting with this energy harmonizes our multidimensional health and brings happiness, Divine abundance, and if you wish, enlightenment—the Ultimate bliss. While the connection with Divine life-force—Ki—is every person’s birthright, in most of us the ability to channel it for the benefit of others is dormant. Reiki offers a way to reawaken our innate ability to channel enhanced amounts of Divine energy (ki) for healing, purification, and empowerment of every positive thing.
Usui Reiki Ryoho heals issues at their root cause, as opposed to Western medicine, which mostly heals symptoms or corrects (medicinally or surgically) the end result of a problem, but almost never addresses the root cause of an issue. Since all changes of health (and indeed all manifestations in our physical reality) originate at the ethereal-energetic level and only lastly manifest physically, healing things at the energetic level enables reiki to address the root causes of issues, and heal them on a more permanent basis, unless there is a karmic Soul-lesson attached to the issue.
Because the reiki energy is Divine, it is always pure, can do no harm, and always acts for the highest-best good of both the receiver and practitioner. This means that the practitioner’s ego and agendas don’t ever (or at least they shouldn’t) figure into the reiki treatments, because during the process, the reiki practitioner is only a channel; the healing energy itself, and the intelligence of where to it goes and what it does, comes straight from the Divine Source.
Reiki, however, is not a religion, and thus can be practiced by Catholics, orthodox Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Shinto, as well as atheists. Reiki is also compatible with many other healing practices, including Western medicine.
You may choose to receive reiki treatments from a reiki practitioner, or you choose to become a practitioner yourself, and use the energy to heal yourself and your loved ones. The process of becoming a reiki practitioner involves training, empowering attunements, and practice.
What’s in a Name:
The word ‘Reiki’ is composed of two Japanese words: Rei—Universal or Divine; and Ki—life-force energy (the same energy called Chi in Chinese). So reiki can be translated as simply, as my monk-teacher explains, ‘the energy of the Universe,’ or more esoterically as ‘Divine life-force.’
However, the modality that we in the West simply call ‘Reiki’ was originally named by its founder ‘Usui Reiki Ryoho’ – which translates to: Usui’s (=the name of its founder) Divine energy (=reiki) healing method (=ryoho).
The word ‘Reiki’ is composed of two Japanese words: Rei—Universal or Divine; and Ki—life-force energy (the same energy called Chi in Chinese). So reiki can be translated as simply, as my monk-teacher explains, ‘the energy of the Universe,’ or more esoterically as ‘Divine life-force.’
However, the modality that we in the West simply call ‘Reiki’ was originally named by its founder ‘Usui Reiki Ryoho’ – which translates to: Usui’s (=the name of its founder) Divine energy (=reiki) healing method (=ryoho).
The Original Style of Reiki:
In 2006 (some years after I was already a practicing reiki master) I became aware that the original Japanese style of reiki—the way its founder Mikao Usui originally practiced and taught it—is considerably different than the way reiki is taught in the West. Besides some inaccuracies in the way in which Western teachers conveyed the history of reiki, I became aware that there are fundamental differences in the nature of the healing itself. The original reiki—as taught by Usui—was a pure and benevolent practice, devoid of all the commercialism and hefty-fee-schedule that later got attached to it in the West. The simple, natural way in which Usui practiced and taught Usui Reiki Ryoho didn’t incorporate any techniques through which Western reiki practitioners enforce their wills and egos into the healing process (with good intentions, of course). The original Usui Reiki Ryoho does, however, contain some wonderful techniques that never made it to the Western-taught reiki – techniques that help practitioners purify their energy and stay tuned into pure Universal energy, thereby enhancing the purity and power of the energy healing that they are able to offer.
It then became my quest and dream to reconnect with the original Usui Reiki Ryoho – a dream that was, thankfully, fulfilled for me. As the synchronistic flow of the Universe would have it, a couple of years after I became aware of the East-West differences, I “stumbled across” a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study with a reiki master who was a Japanese monk, living on Mount Kurama—the mountain where Usui first had his enlightenment experience which precipitated this reiki healing art. Although the monk himself has founded a new offshoot version of reiki he calls “Komyo Reiki,” his reiki-lineage was extremely close to the founder, so he was knowledgeable enough of the original Usui Reiki Ryoho to pass onto me Usui’s original reiki healing style – a knowledge that I was able to verify and perfect later by meditating to channel the spirit of Mikao Usui.
In 2006 (some years after I was already a practicing reiki master) I became aware that the original Japanese style of reiki—the way its founder Mikao Usui originally practiced and taught it—is considerably different than the way reiki is taught in the West. Besides some inaccuracies in the way in which Western teachers conveyed the history of reiki, I became aware that there are fundamental differences in the nature of the healing itself. The original reiki—as taught by Usui—was a pure and benevolent practice, devoid of all the commercialism and hefty-fee-schedule that later got attached to it in the West. The simple, natural way in which Usui practiced and taught Usui Reiki Ryoho didn’t incorporate any techniques through which Western reiki practitioners enforce their wills and egos into the healing process (with good intentions, of course). The original Usui Reiki Ryoho does, however, contain some wonderful techniques that never made it to the Western-taught reiki – techniques that help practitioners purify their energy and stay tuned into pure Universal energy, thereby enhancing the purity and power of the energy healing that they are able to offer.
It then became my quest and dream to reconnect with the original Usui Reiki Ryoho – a dream that was, thankfully, fulfilled for me. As the synchronistic flow of the Universe would have it, a couple of years after I became aware of the East-West differences, I “stumbled across” a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study with a reiki master who was a Japanese monk, living on Mount Kurama—the mountain where Usui first had his enlightenment experience which precipitated this reiki healing art. Although the monk himself has founded a new offshoot version of reiki he calls “Komyo Reiki,” his reiki-lineage was extremely close to the founder, so he was knowledgeable enough of the original Usui Reiki Ryoho to pass onto me Usui’s original reiki healing style – a knowledge that I was able to verify and perfect later by meditating to channel the spirit of Mikao Usui.
A Little History:
Usui Reiki Ryoho was founded by a man named Mikao Usui in Japan of 1922.
Mikao Usui, later called by his students Usui Sensei (sensei is a Japanese honorary title which means master), was born in 1865, and spent some of his early childhood being educated in the Tendai Buddhist school near Mount Kurama. As an adult, Usui held numerous ordinary jobs. But Usui’s life wasn’t about these ordinary jobs. He had been looking for the purpose and meaning of life, as he later expressed it. One could only speculate, but I believe that deep down, without even knowing it at the time, he had been looking for enlightenment – the ultimate bliss that usually drives a person to fulfill his/her life mission.
In 1922, dissatisfied by not having found the meaning of life, Usui travelled back to Mount Kurama (just north of Kyoto), and attended a 21-day training retreat in the Tandai Buddhist temple – a course that probably included some fasting, and most definitely included meditation, chanting and prayer. Some time during that retreat, Usui has attained enlightenment and received the ability to heal. In his own words: “I accidentally realized that I was given the mysterious healing ability,” which means that prior to this event, Usui had never sought after the power to heal, and never set out to develop a healing modality; it was bestowed on him by the Divine. After having realized he was given a healing power, Usui opened a clinic in which he offered treatments of Usui Reiki Ryoho.
It is interesting to put all this in historical context: In Japan of the 1920s, there was no Western medicine, and the only medicine available was Eastern medicine, which generally involved some form of energy treatment harmonizing the energy flow between the meridians and body organs. Because of the demand, there were many people who have attained enlightenment or who have otherwise been blessed with the ability to do energy healing. What was unique about Usui’s method was that he discovered that he could not only use this energy to heal, but also “attune” and empower others with this ability to channel Divine energy for healing. And if his attunees/students persisted with the daily practice of reiki healing, self-purification, meditation, striving to live holistically healthy lives, and if they received more attunements along their path, they could attain the power to pass attunements to others – making them what we in the West call masters (simply called reiki Shihan=teacher, in Japanese). So beyond the purity of the energy and the benevolence of the method, the thing that made Usui Reiki Ryoho survive (as opposed to the many energy healing modalities in Japan of the 1920s that didn’t outlive the lives of their founders) was the fact that the empowerment that Usui received during his enlightenment experience was powerful enough to give him the ability to pass it on to a next generations of masters.
After Usui’s passing in 1926, reiki has gone through many transformations, some of which were done by Mr. Hayashi – one of the sixteen masters initiated by Usui, some by Mrs. Takata – the student of Mr. Hayashi who brought reiki to the West.
Under Usui, reiki was one continuous path of purification of one’s energy channel and enhancement of one’s healing powers along a path to enlightenment, a path that was dotted with reiki meetings and the receiving additional attunements. The degrees attained were not important, as they were only a way to mark what additional training a student still needs. Hayashi Sensei—the last of the 16 masters attuned directly by Mikao Usui—changed the reiki path into four distinct degrees, each with their own level of “prestige.” It was Hayashi that started to charge for reiki training (for first and second degrees alone) fortunes large enough to buy a house. Accordingly, Mrs. Takata—Hayashi’s student—also instituted an exorbitant schedule of fees ($10,000 for reiki mastership training), which made it cost restrictive for people to learn reiki. She, too, emphasized the “prestige” of the various degrees of reiki. While I understand the circumstances in which Mrs. Takata found herself, having to provide for her daughters as a single mother in Hawaii of the 1930s, and while I am grateful for the fact that it was through her reiki-lineage (some of that 22 masters that she had attuned that broke free from her mandated fee schedule) that reiki spread throughout the world, her practices did change the original benevolent and pure Usui Reiki Ryoho into an overly commercialized practice that emphasizes the importance and “prestige” of the practitioner way too much.
Even the original society that Usui has founded, which still exists in Japan today, has grandly misinterpreted the spirit of Usui’s original teachings. In an article written by one of his students Usui is quoted conveying his belief that “if something is genuine in the greater sense, it doesn’t need advertising, and would naturally become popular amongst those who resonate with it.” But this belief only conveys Usui’s humble and benevolent nature; he did not mean that we should keep reiki shrouded in secrecy. Quite the contrary. He was simply wanted Reiki to prove itself as genuine through the test of time. And it has. Misinterpreting this statement was, I believe, why today the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (gakkai means society) has become a closed doors society. The Gakkai brings into the fold a select few, only Japanese people, and only those who have “an in” within the society. And they too charge hefty fees for membership.
Evidence that Usui didn’t intend to keep this marvelous healing modality all hush-hush or keep it for the elite, comes from a quote commemorated on Usui’s tombstone-monument: “It is much better to give this power widely to a lot of people in the world and enjoy it among them than to keep it exclusively for one’s family members.”
Usui’s generous and benevolent nature is also reflected in his actions. While it is true that he opened a couple of reiki clinics, which supported his livelihood, it was never about the money for him; it was about doing good in the world and helping people. During the fire the broke after the earthquake in Tokyo in 1923, Usui gave free reiki treatments to thousands of people who couldn’t afford treatment – in exchange for a couple of bowls of rice a day.
Other than the closed-doors Gakkai, and besides “Komyo Reiki,” other streams of reiki in Japan today include a man named Osho, who was trained in the Western style of reiki, but who lives in Japan, and teaches his own new energy healing modality that’s loosely based on reiki, and as I understand, also incorporates meditation and a bunch of new symbols that he has received/channeled. A man named Frank A. Petter, who was living in Japan for a while, has made great contributions to translating much information from Mikao Usui’s healing journals. Mr. Petter has published a few books in which he investigates different Japanese historical aspects of reiki and its development. But as far as I know, Petter is still missing some of the original Japanese reiki techniques, taught to me by the monk I studied with, which are part of the original Usui Reiki Ryoho.
So today, I regret to say that I am one of only a handful of people in the world that can teach the original Japanese Usui Reiki Ryoho – as it was originally taught by its founder (albeit I teach it in English).
Usui Reiki Ryoho was founded by a man named Mikao Usui in Japan of 1922.
Mikao Usui, later called by his students Usui Sensei (sensei is a Japanese honorary title which means master), was born in 1865, and spent some of his early childhood being educated in the Tendai Buddhist school near Mount Kurama. As an adult, Usui held numerous ordinary jobs. But Usui’s life wasn’t about these ordinary jobs. He had been looking for the purpose and meaning of life, as he later expressed it. One could only speculate, but I believe that deep down, without even knowing it at the time, he had been looking for enlightenment – the ultimate bliss that usually drives a person to fulfill his/her life mission.
In 1922, dissatisfied by not having found the meaning of life, Usui travelled back to Mount Kurama (just north of Kyoto), and attended a 21-day training retreat in the Tandai Buddhist temple – a course that probably included some fasting, and most definitely included meditation, chanting and prayer. Some time during that retreat, Usui has attained enlightenment and received the ability to heal. In his own words: “I accidentally realized that I was given the mysterious healing ability,” which means that prior to this event, Usui had never sought after the power to heal, and never set out to develop a healing modality; it was bestowed on him by the Divine. After having realized he was given a healing power, Usui opened a clinic in which he offered treatments of Usui Reiki Ryoho.
It is interesting to put all this in historical context: In Japan of the 1920s, there was no Western medicine, and the only medicine available was Eastern medicine, which generally involved some form of energy treatment harmonizing the energy flow between the meridians and body organs. Because of the demand, there were many people who have attained enlightenment or who have otherwise been blessed with the ability to do energy healing. What was unique about Usui’s method was that he discovered that he could not only use this energy to heal, but also “attune” and empower others with this ability to channel Divine energy for healing. And if his attunees/students persisted with the daily practice of reiki healing, self-purification, meditation, striving to live holistically healthy lives, and if they received more attunements along their path, they could attain the power to pass attunements to others – making them what we in the West call masters (simply called reiki Shihan=teacher, in Japanese). So beyond the purity of the energy and the benevolence of the method, the thing that made Usui Reiki Ryoho survive (as opposed to the many energy healing modalities in Japan of the 1920s that didn’t outlive the lives of their founders) was the fact that the empowerment that Usui received during his enlightenment experience was powerful enough to give him the ability to pass it on to a next generations of masters.
After Usui’s passing in 1926, reiki has gone through many transformations, some of which were done by Mr. Hayashi – one of the sixteen masters initiated by Usui, some by Mrs. Takata – the student of Mr. Hayashi who brought reiki to the West.
Under Usui, reiki was one continuous path of purification of one’s energy channel and enhancement of one’s healing powers along a path to enlightenment, a path that was dotted with reiki meetings and the receiving additional attunements. The degrees attained were not important, as they were only a way to mark what additional training a student still needs. Hayashi Sensei—the last of the 16 masters attuned directly by Mikao Usui—changed the reiki path into four distinct degrees, each with their own level of “prestige.” It was Hayashi that started to charge for reiki training (for first and second degrees alone) fortunes large enough to buy a house. Accordingly, Mrs. Takata—Hayashi’s student—also instituted an exorbitant schedule of fees ($10,000 for reiki mastership training), which made it cost restrictive for people to learn reiki. She, too, emphasized the “prestige” of the various degrees of reiki. While I understand the circumstances in which Mrs. Takata found herself, having to provide for her daughters as a single mother in Hawaii of the 1930s, and while I am grateful for the fact that it was through her reiki-lineage (some of that 22 masters that she had attuned that broke free from her mandated fee schedule) that reiki spread throughout the world, her practices did change the original benevolent and pure Usui Reiki Ryoho into an overly commercialized practice that emphasizes the importance and “prestige” of the practitioner way too much.
Even the original society that Usui has founded, which still exists in Japan today, has grandly misinterpreted the spirit of Usui’s original teachings. In an article written by one of his students Usui is quoted conveying his belief that “if something is genuine in the greater sense, it doesn’t need advertising, and would naturally become popular amongst those who resonate with it.” But this belief only conveys Usui’s humble and benevolent nature; he did not mean that we should keep reiki shrouded in secrecy. Quite the contrary. He was simply wanted Reiki to prove itself as genuine through the test of time. And it has. Misinterpreting this statement was, I believe, why today the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (gakkai means society) has become a closed doors society. The Gakkai brings into the fold a select few, only Japanese people, and only those who have “an in” within the society. And they too charge hefty fees for membership.
Evidence that Usui didn’t intend to keep this marvelous healing modality all hush-hush or keep it for the elite, comes from a quote commemorated on Usui’s tombstone-monument: “It is much better to give this power widely to a lot of people in the world and enjoy it among them than to keep it exclusively for one’s family members.”
Usui’s generous and benevolent nature is also reflected in his actions. While it is true that he opened a couple of reiki clinics, which supported his livelihood, it was never about the money for him; it was about doing good in the world and helping people. During the fire the broke after the earthquake in Tokyo in 1923, Usui gave free reiki treatments to thousands of people who couldn’t afford treatment – in exchange for a couple of bowls of rice a day.
Other than the closed-doors Gakkai, and besides “Komyo Reiki,” other streams of reiki in Japan today include a man named Osho, who was trained in the Western style of reiki, but who lives in Japan, and teaches his own new energy healing modality that’s loosely based on reiki, and as I understand, also incorporates meditation and a bunch of new symbols that he has received/channeled. A man named Frank A. Petter, who was living in Japan for a while, has made great contributions to translating much information from Mikao Usui’s healing journals. Mr. Petter has published a few books in which he investigates different Japanese historical aspects of reiki and its development. But as far as I know, Petter is still missing some of the original Japanese reiki techniques, taught to me by the monk I studied with, which are part of the original Usui Reiki Ryoho.
So today, I regret to say that I am one of only a handful of people in the world that can teach the original Japanese Usui Reiki Ryoho – as it was originally taught by its founder (albeit I teach it in English).
Soul-Light School of Usui Reiki Ryoho - Coming Soon
I agree with Usui Sensei that reiki should belong to the people of the world. The world needs this healing now more than ever. And I strongly believe that it should be made available to people at affordable prices. So to preserve the original Usui Reiki Ryoho, I have written a manual that captures the original Usui Reiki Ryoho, as I have been privileged enough to learn it. It is my dream and mission to open a school that will offer training in all levels of the original Usui Reiki Ryoho.
To honor the spirit in which Mikao Usui intended for reiki to be taught, the Soul-Path School of Usui Reiki Ryoho will aim to make the teachings available to people of all walks of life at affordable prices, spread the Light among all the people of this world, promote peace, Love, and harmony in the world, and create a community of reiki practitioners supporting one another in doing the Lightwork.
To honor the spirit in which Mikao Usui intended for reiki to be taught, the Soul-Path School of Usui Reiki Ryoho will aim to make the teachings available to people of all walks of life at affordable prices, spread the Light among all the people of this world, promote peace, Love, and harmony in the world, and create a community of reiki practitioners supporting one another in doing the Lightwork.