The Usui System of Reiki Healing has its origins in the person of Mikao Usui, a Japanese gentleman who lived in the late 1800`s and died in 1926. The Usui system of Reiki evolved from the experience and dedication of Dr. Mikao Usui who gained the initiation through extensive meditation, study and travel. Dr Usui developed this healing art based on ancient Sanskrit teachings and budhist scriptures as well. The rest of his life he spent in devotion, practice and teaching.
Reiki as a healing art, as we know today, has been passed on to us through a series of lineage bearers. The ones following the Usui Shiki Ryoho have been guardians and preservers of the integrity of the original practice. As a renowned successor of Mikao Usui, Chujiro Hayashi practiced and taught in a clinical setting in Tokyo, Japan. As a young Japanese-American, Hawayo Takata, was brought in and was healed in this very clinic in the year 1932. This transformation resulted in her staying in Japan for a year of training and practice in Usui Shiki Ryoho, the Usui System of Reiki Healing.
In 1937, Hawayo Takata became a Reiki Master in Usui Shiki Ryoho. In that same year and for the first time, Takata`s teacher, Chujiro Hayashi, taught the Usui System of Reiki Healing outside of Japan. Mrs. Takata was chosen as Dr. Hayashi`s successor and as an ambassador that brought Reiki to the West. Mrs. Takata continued the lineage by teaching these master level students: Paul Mitchell, Beth Gray, Ursula Baylow, Barbara McCullough, George Araki, Iris Ishikuro, Fran Brown, Barbara Weber-Ray, Ethel Lombardi, Wanja Twan, Virginia Samdahl, Phyllis Lei Furumoto, Dorothy Baba, Mary McFadyen, John Gray, Barbara Brown, Shinobu Saito, Harry Kuboi, Patricia Bowling Ewing, Bethel Phaigh, Rick Brockner, and Kay Yamashita.
Traditional Reiki is usually taught orally with little or no notes given. The entire system of Usui Shiki Ryoho comprise of three degrees.
In First Degree, a student is initiated with four attunements. In this level the history, precepts, a series of hand positions and disease cause/effect and treatment is also taught.
Second Degree involves one or two attunements. The student is also introduced to teachings of three symbols out of four, (names, meanings and how to use them), a distance/absentee healing technique and a mental/emotional balancing technique.
Mastership Degree is finalized with one attunement. Apart from that one additional symbol (name, meaning and how to use), how to do first, second and master initiations, a breath empowerment technique and other things are also taught in details.
It is only after getting through this level that a person acquires the power to teach or initiate others in Reiki.
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