The Usui System of Reiki

Reiki – Usui Shiki Ryoho

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Reiki may be translated as “universal life energy”, the energy that we find in all things. Within the Usui System of Reiki this energy is used hands-on in order to stimulate physical as well as emotional and mental healing. The Usui System of Reiki is an orally taught tradition, and therefore not something that can be learned from a book or through the Internet. It is practiced in self-treatment, treatment of others and the Reiki Precepts, and learned by participating in a Reiki class where the Reiki Master is present and you receive initiations from him or her.

The information about this power has been lost for many centuries, and was rediscovered by Mikao Usui Sensei* in Japan about a century ago. He developed a system to pass on Reiki, that we know now as “Usui Shiki Ryoho”, and more familiarly as the Usui System of Reiki. Mikao Usui’s work was continued by Chujiro Hayashi in the first half of the previous century and later it was taken over by his pupil, the first non-Japanese Reiki Master, Hawayo Takata. She also took Reiki outside of Japan for the first time. Before her death Hawayo Takata had passed on her ‘office’ of lineage bearer to her granddaughter Phyllis Lei Furumoto. Later Phyllis Lei Furumoto established the Office of the Grandmaster together with her colleague Reiki Master Paul David Mitchell. They have defined the Usui System of Reiki in the Four Aspects and the Nine Elements.

* Sensei is the Japanese word for teacher or master. Further in the text names will be mentioned without this concept for the sake of readability.

Most of the by now millions of Reiki practitioners everywhere in the world will agree on the fact that “universal life energy” is just a minimal description of the extraordinary power of Reiki. Hawayo Takata, the woman who took the Usui system of Reiki out of Japan, writes in her diary: “This power (Reiki) is inscrutable, immeasurable, and as universal life force incomprehensible for humans. Yet, every living being, awake or asleep, receives its blessings every day.”

A Reiki treatment supports the person as a whole – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It is simple to learn, and can be used to improve health and enhance the emotional well-being. Reiki works towards balance and every living thing can benefit from it. Through Reiki psychological as well as physical problems can be relieved or healed. Of course this doesn’t mean, that Reiki is only meant for people who suffer from disorders. Reiki is certainly also meant for those who wish to gain more self-knowledge and stimulate their spiritual development. Reiki brings you into better contact with yourself. For many practitioners their purpose of life becomes more clear, and they discover more and more who they really are.

A Reiki treatment works by gently laying the hands on your own or someone else’s fully dressed body. Usually the energy that we call Reiki is experienced as a pleasant warmth, that enters deeper than the body temperature. Other sensations that might be experienced with Reiki are cold, a tingling or prickly feeling, and an unusual sense of heaviness. And sometimes people feel nothing at all.

It has been proven that Reiki relaxes the muscles, brings the mind to rest, improves the quality of the blood, and relieves pain. It has also been confirmed that hands-on healing has an overall effectiveness and accelerates the healing process.
On a physical level Reiki is relaxing. Pain is relieved or disappears, it shortens the time it takes to heal illnesses, wounds, etcetera, and to repaire damage to tissue as a consequence of burns or bruises and much more.
On a mental and emotional level Reiki diminishes fear, a sense of well-being is enhanced and relaxation is experienced on a deeper level.
On a spiritual level people feel more depth in their lives and they are better aware of themselves, their environment and the situations they are confronted with. The Usui System of Reiki deepens spiritual growth, whilst you stay grounded. Intuition is also increased.

The first response of people who have participated in a Reiki class is often a feeling of “home-coming”. Reiki intensifies your spiritual growth, whilst your two feet remain on the ground. Reiki augments the sense of reality. As it is natural, Reiki can be combined with practically every healing modality, traditional medicine as well as alternative. Reiki is not “psychic”, nor a religion, nor a sect. The energy easily passes through clothes and other materials, and penetrates the cause of the problem, so that the condition can be cleared up and/or prevented in the future.
Since Reiki in the Usui system is simple, it can easily be learned and applied by everyone. In fact, we all have the innate abilty to use this energy. But being human, we have forgotten how we can use the contact with our natural sources of energy, and are mainly focussed on our mental development. Eventually we have become more and more separated from ourselves, and the channels where Reiki flows through remained unused and blocked up.
On the page Reiki class you can read about the opening of these channels during a Reiki class.