There have been stories of saints who made use of this great divine power or cosmic energy for healing people by touching or through “Sankalp” - imparting healing by using mental power. It is not limited to Hindu religion alone, where many such narrations can be quoted. As mentioned in the Bible, Jesus Christ had healing touch and with twelve appostles he used to heal people. It is said that Gautam Buddha and Sri Chaitanya cured people by their Divine touch.This unexplainable phenomenon of channelising the universal energy to cure human ailments, was practiced by Indian spiritual Sadhaks throughout the ages.
It was Dr. Mikao Usui, The founder and the First Grand Master of Reiki, a Japanese, who rediscovered this amazing healing therapy towards the end of nineteenth century through his dedicated efforts, spanning decades. He had a noble vision for welfare of the common people,suffering from various mental and physical problems and also for those who were healthy but believed “prevention was better than cure”. He developed and gave this healing therapy to people in such a form that anyone could take advantage of it. In his mother tongue he called it Reiki.
No proper records are available pertaining to the life of Dr. Mikao Usui, the founder and foremost Guru of Reiki. According to one version, Dr. Mikao Usui, was born on August 15th, 1865 and was the Dean of a Christian University called Doshishua University in Kyoto in Japan. Apparently, during an interactive session, a student asked him if he had read the Bible and whether he believed in it and practiced its teachings. Dr. Mikao Usui answered in the affirmative. That student then asked him to demonstrate “touch healing” as it was practiced by Jesus Christ. Dr.Mikao Usui did not know how to heal with touch healing.This inspired him. The very next day, he resigned from his job and left in search for the answer.Being a matter concerning the Bible, he thought he could find the answer in a christian country. So he went to Chicago and studied all the scriptures particularly about healing done by Jesus Christ. It took him many years but he could not find what he was searching for It occurred to him that Gautam Buddha also practiced touch healing. So he returned to Kyoto, to study Buddhist tradition of healing. Dr. Mikao Usui met many Buddhist monks, who told him that they were too busy doing spiritual
healing and physical healing had low priority in their endeavour. He was feeling frustrated till he met an old abbot in a Zen monastery, who helped him and encouraged him to studyabout this healing process, so that all common people could benefit. Dr. Mikao Usui spent many years studying Buddhist scriptures in Japanese language but could not find
any clue about healing. He realised that Buddhism came to Japan via China and possibly some books on Buddha’s healing method, remained untranslated in Japanese language.He learnt Chinese and studied all the available scriptures,but again failed to get what he was looking for. Then he learnt Tibetan for the same reason but once again could not find any clues. Ultimately, he learnt Sanskrit / Pali to trace recordings at its place of origin i.e. – India and while going through the Buddhist Sutras, he found how Gautam Buddha healed. He felt very happy about this finding which he shared with the old abbot of Zen monastery. Soon he realized that this knowledge was of no use since it didn’t empower him to use this energy. This was just a theoretical knowledge. He then meditated and had inner guidance that he should go to an isolated place and fast for 21 days without even taking water,then he would receive the divine guidance.Inspite of serious risk to his life, Dr. Mikao Usui decided to fast and meditate on top of a sacred mountain, known as Mount Kurama Yama, seventeen miles away from Kyoto. He found an isolated place on top of the mountain, collected twenty one small stones and kept them in front of him. Each morning he would throw one stone to keep a count of days. Just before completion of twenty-first day in the early hours of dawn, sky still dark, he saw an amazing white light in the sky moving towards him at a great speed till it touched his forehead. He went into a trance. He saw a number of rainbow colours, subsequently he saw them merging into soothing divine white light. Then he saw huge transparent balloons carrying some golden symbols and instructions written in golden letters. One by one each balloon remained in front of him till all instructions were clearly absorbed in his consciousness. On regaining his normal consciousness in the afternoon, he felt empowered and remembered all the divine guidance that came his way, and felt charged with this energy - a great feeling of total positive transformation. He was excited and started running down the hill. He felt strong and totally filled with vitality & joy.On the way down the hill, he hurt his right toe with a stone, which started bleeding profusely. And to his amazement he noticed that bleeding stopped, pain vanished in a few minutes, when he held his bleeding toe instinctively in his palm. Down the hill he came to a “dhaba” (road side restaurant) and ordered a sumptuous meal. Condition of his dress, beard etc. revealed that he had come after fasting and meditating for a long time. Normally such fast is broken with only spoonfuls of juices and water and a heavy diet can be dangerous. Even against the advice of the dhaba’s owner, Dr. Mikao Usui had a full meal and was absolutely fine. The dhaba owner’s 8 years old grand daughter was there crying with pain due to toothache. Dr. Mikao Usui touched her swollen cheek and to everyone’s surprise her pain vanished. By the time Dr. Mikao Usui stepped into the Zen monastery, news had already reached that he had returned with divine blessings and his two hands had become ‘healing hands’. He saw people eagerly waiting to welcome him with garlands, but he could not see the old abbot who had given him shelter. Upon enquiring he came to know that the old abbot was bed ridden with arthritis. He went to his room and affectionately touched the painful knees.Almost immediately, the pain disappeared. These were early miracles of healing, experienced by Dr. Mikao Usui.
He, along with old abbot meditated on how to use this divine healing energy - Reiki. And then according to his inner guidance, for the next seven years he provided free healing treatment to beggars who lived in a colony outside Kyoto. Those who were healed were sent to lead normal life by rehabilitating them into the society. Many took up new jobs, some young people decided to get married and settle down. After about seven years he noticed some familiar faces entering the beggar’s colony. He asked them the reason for returning. They told him that they felt the life of beggars having no accountability or responsibility,was much easier to lead. This was very disappointing for Dr. Mikao Usui. Decades of his dedicated hard work was of no value. He left the beggar’s colony and meditated on this experience for inner guidance and then it dawned on him, what Buddhist monks had told him - that they were too busy doing spiritual healing - something that he had missed. He had only treated the symptoms on physical body, but he had failed to inspire them to take their own responsibility along with a sense of gratitude for what they had received. As such, spiritual healing was also as important as healing of body.
Dr. Mikao Usui, then propagated the Five Principles of Reiki.
Just for today –
1) I will live with an attitude of gratitude
2) I will not worry
3) I will not be angry
4) I will do my work honestly
5) I will show love and respect to all living being
He also framed two rules to be followed by all Reiki channels or practitioners as given below :-
RULE I : Reiki should not be given unless requested.Of course it is for the Reiki practitioner to explain and motivate people to accept Reiki so that they may request for a treatment. Reiki, being divine energy, is intention based and has no limitation. As such, in case some one is in a coma, or in case of children who can’t understand,one can give Reiki without being requested.
RULE II : There must be “energy exchange’ or ‘give and take’ for a Reiki treatment.Dr. Mikao Usui felt that people were required to give for what they received or else there will be no value to it. He did not elaborate on this by quantifying the remuneration but energy exchange could vary from an honest ‘thank you’ or blessings within a family, to the prevailing professional fees for treatment to outsiders.
Subsequently Dr. Mikao Usui spent rest of his life promoting Reiki in the soceity by training and treating common men till his death due to stroke on 9th March 1926.He also left behind his deciples to carry on with this spiritual art of healing after him. Today world over Reiki is being practiced by people of different back-groung ,religeous beliefs due its simplicity and huge range of application in day to day life.
We remain indebted to Dr Mikao Usui for such a precious gift he left behind .We remember GURU JI ( Dr Mikao Usui Ji ) with love and deep respect.
Courtesy: Reiki Kendra
www.reikikendra.com
From book - REIKI - KEY TO HEALTH & HAPPINESS ( by Amar Kumar)
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