Mikao Usui,
the founder of Reiki,
the "secret method of inviting happiness through many
blessings".
1865
- 1926
History:
Reiki is believed to have begun in Tibet several thousand
years ago. Seers in the Orient studied energies and developed a system of sounds
and symbols for universal healing energies. Various healing systems, which
crossed many different cultures, emerged from this single root system.
Unfortunately, the original source itself was forgotten.
Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese Buddhist Monk in Kyoto, Japan,
rediscovered the root system in the mid- to late 1800s. He began an extensive
twenty-one-year study of the healing phenomena of history's greatest spiritual
leaders. He also studied ancient sutras (Buddhist teachings written in
Sanskrit). He discovered ancient Tibetan sounds and symbols that are linked
directly to the human body and nervous system which activate the universal life
energy for healing, but he did not know how to use them.
He felt he had come to an understanding and
that to go further required in depth meditation. He declared to the monks
of his monastery his intention to fast and meditate for 21 days at a nearby
mountain and that if he did not come back they should come and get his body.
He went to the mountain and gathered 21
stones with which to count the days. Each day he would throw away a stone
and in this way count the time. On the 20th day nothing had come as yet
and he threw away the last stone saying "Well, this is it, either
I get the answer tonight or I do not". During the night on the
horizon he could see a ball of light coming towards him. The first instinct was
to get out of the way, but he realized this might just be what he was waiting
for, so allowed it to hit him right in the forehead. As it struck him he was
taken on a journey and shown bubbles of all the colors of the rainbow in which
were the symbols of Reiki, the very same symbols in the Tibetan writings he was
studying but had been unable to understand. Now as he looked at them again,
there was total understanding.
After returning from this experience he
began back down the mountain and was, from this moment on, able to heal. This
first day alone he healed a broken toe-nail, his own starvation, an ailing tooth
and the Abbots sickness which was keeping him bedridden. These are known as the
first four miracles.
He wanted to use these healing abilities to
help others, he spent the next seven years in the beggars section of Tokyo
healing the poor and sick people there, sending them to a priest to assist
finding them employment, and elevating them out of poverty. After the seven
years he noticed familiar faces, those of people whom he'd healed long ago who
were back again. Asking them, they complained that life outside beggartown was
too hard and that it was much simpler to beg for a living. They had thrown
away the gift of health, as if it had no value, to return to the supposed
comfort of the life they knew.
This threw Usui into a quandary and he
returned to the monastery. From this he realized he hadn't taught gratitude
along with the healing. That he'd focused on the physical ailments without
dealing with the spiritual matters. The people did not understand the value
of the gift he gave them.
Dr. Usui returned to the monastery for
further reflection and planning. After some time in the monastery he
developed the precepts. In this new plan he traveled around the
countryside from village to village. In each one he stood in a public
place during the day holding aloft a lit torch. When people told him he
didn't need a torch in daylight, he answered was he was looking for the few who
are interested in improving themselves. In this way he traveled around
teaching and healing, working both with the spiritual healing as well as
physical healing throughout Japan until his death
around 1926.
Sources:
http://reiki.7gen.com/history.htm
http://www.reiki-evolution.co.uk/aarwhat.htm
http://www.mastersinstitute.org/reiki-class-description.html