© August 2005 - David L.
Gleekel, CRMT
Most of the readers of RCGW News have already
received their Reiki I training. For those of you who have
not, I will explain about the three Reiki Masters who are
the “lineage bearers” of Reiki, i.e. those whose
work resulted in its being brought to the West from Japan.
Mikao Usui aka Dr. Usui
Dr. Usui was born in 1865 in a town near Kyoto,
Japan. He was a teacher in a boy’s school. One day,
one of his students asked him whether he believed that the
hands-on healing that Jesus and Buddha had been able to do
still existed. He replied that he did. The student next asked
him to heal him. Dr. Usui replied that he did not know how
to do this.
This single question formed the next six or
seven years of Usui’s life. He researched all over Japan
and the countries he could travel to nearby to find out if
there was some way to do hands-on healing that was described
in treatises and articles located in libraries and monasteries.
When he did not have success after all that
time, he resolved to do a 21-day meditation and fast at the
top of a local sacred mountain, called Mt. Kurama. He took
a large container of water with him and gathered 21 stones
to keep track of the days. After 21 days of fasting, on the
morning of the 21st day, Dr. Usui had an initiatory experience
that changed his life. He was struck with an energy that he
later called Rei-ki, meaning, universal or guided or spirit
or conscious life force energy. This experience occurred in
June 1921. Dr. Usui lived until 1926 and taught eleven teachers
of Reiki during this five-year period.
Dr. Usui is very helpful to communicate with
when discussing the history of Reiki or when you need to confirm
a spiritual truth for yourself. Dr. Usui is very gentle and
helpful and wants Reiki to succeed, so may be contacted when
you are trying to formulate your Reiki classes or healing
sessions, you can ask him where to place your hands or how
to handle a difficult client healing.
Chujiro Hayashi aka Dr. Hayashi
Among the teachers that Usui taught was a retired
Admiral named Chujiro Hayashi. Dr. Hayashi was also an engineer
and naturopathic doctor. He had a clinic in Tokyo and a successful
Reiki practice with his students practicing to earn their
training along with the professional practitioners. Hayashi
taught and practiced until 1940 when he is said to have invited
all of his students to his home where he used his natural
KI or energy to burst several blood vessels in his brain to
avoid participating as a military officer in the Second World
War.
Dr. Hayashi is very helpful in questions regarding
details or planning since his expertise as a businessman and
engineer has stayed with him.
Hawayo Takata aka Mrs. Takata
In 1935, Hayashi’s clinic was visited
by Mrs. Hawayo Takata, a widow from Hawaii, who had a serious
gall bladder condition. She was in great pain and had previously
visited the local hospital, but after hearing her dead husband’s
voice in the operating room telling her that the operation
was not necessary and that there was another way, she was
directed to Hayashi’s clinic for Reiki.
Mrs. Takata stayed with the Hayashis for several
months and was healed. After her healing, she inquired whether
she would be able to learn Reiki from Dr. Hayashi. While he
initially refused, he later changed his mind when Mrs. Takata
presented him with a hand-calligraphed request from a family
friend. He told Mrs. Takata that he would teach her on the
condition that she stayed with him to work in the clinic for
a period of one year at no pay.
Even though this was a difficult bargain, Mrs.
Takata agreed and sold her house in Hawaii to pay for the
time in Japan. When later asked why she did this, she said,
“I could always get another house, but this was a once
in a lifetime opportunity to study with someone who was only
available at this time and this place.”
Mrs. Takata returned to Hawaii in 1936 and opened
a clinic in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Two years later,
she invited, Hayashi to come to her daughter’s wedding
and did her Reiki Master training with him while he was visiting
the island. From that year, 1938, until 1975, she taught only
elementary and intermediate Reiki classes.
In 1975, when her some of her students contacted
her about Reiki Master training, she agreed to begin training
them for a fee of $10,000 each. She eventually trained 22
Reiki Masters between 1975 and her death in December 1979
at the age of 79.
Since 1979, the roots of Reiki that were established
by these “Big Three” have helped the healing system
that is also known as the Usui System of Natural Healing to
flourish.
I have found that the spirits of these Reiki
Masters are still involved in the crafting of the system.
You can call on them in meditation for advice on your healing
practice, when doing healings, or when doing classes yourself.
Mrs. Takata is very helpful when you need a
supportive, grandmotherly presence that has done Reiki for
over 40 years. You may also notice that the presence is also
a bit firm, like a grandmother, sometimes pointing her finger
at you when she wants to emphasize a point.
One way to do this is as follows:
- Get into a meditative state in whatever
way that feels comfortable for you. You may do the Gassho
meditation for this, or see yourself in a small hut with
another chair for the Master(s) you are calling on.
- State the problem that you are trying
to solve or the help you need.
- Invite the Reiki Masters (or the one
Reiki Master) you wish help from to join you. If you aren’t
sure which one to invite, then invite all three. I have
found that Dr. Usui is helpful with life mission questions
and self-healing issues. Dr. Hayashi is helpful with logistics
and hand-position issues. Mrs. Takata is helpful with practice
development issues and gives grandmotherly advice about
your path as well.
- Once you have completed your questions
which it may help you to write down as well, thank the Master(s)
you have worked with and close the connection by placing
your hands together, one on top of the other.
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