Reiki means "Universal Life Force Energy" and is the energy that is in and around us and in everything. It is energy from the source - the source from which everything is created. It can also be termed "sacred" or "spiritual" energy.

The word Reiki also refers to a system of healing, originally founded by Mikao Usui (1865 - 1926). Today Reiki is thought of mostly as a method of healing incorporating treatments given by a Reiki practitioner. In fact, when Usui was working with his students, the emphasis was very much on following a spiritual path based on the Reiki Precepts, working with the energy and healing the self.

Reiki spread to the West via a lady called Hawayo Takata from Hawaii. She came for healing of several serious medical conditions and was so impressed that she stayed to learn the system herself. She was taught by Chujiro Hayashi, one of Usui's students at whose clinic she had been treated. When taking Reiki back to the USA she made up her own story about Usui's life and this story is passed down to this day from Reiki Master to student. In recent years a much more accurate picture of Usui's life has emerged from surviving students of Usui.

Mikao Usui

Mikao was born to a Tendai Buddhist family on 15 August 1865. As a child he entered a Tendai Buddhist monastery near Mount Kurama. From age 12 he studied  a martial art called Yagyu Shinkage Ryu (Samurai Swordmanship) and achieved the highest level in this in his 20's. He also studied several other Japanese martial arts as well as "kiki" (a Japanese version of Chi Kung) and was well respected by the leading martial artists of the time.

Usui married and had a son and daughter and at some time became a Tendai Buddhist Monk. He was known as a "Zaike" which is a monk posessing a home and not living in the temple. Usui's studies were prolific, giving him a vast knowledge in areas such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, western medicine, the world's religious scriptures, psychology, fortune telling, numerology, astrology and psychic development. He also studied Zen Buddhism.

The system of Reiki that Usui developed comprised many elements of his knowledge and is rooted in Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism (the indiginous Japanese religion). Shugendo (mountain ascetism) also seems to have influenced the system and is the source of Mikao Usui's precepts which are re-worded from a set of precepts dating back to the 9th century. 

Usui practiced a meditation called "The Lotus Repentance" a number of times in his lifetime and he meditated on a sacred mountain called Kurama. He was an enlightened master and developed his system which he originally called "Method to Achieve Personal Perfection". He taught many students and gave them empowerments (Reiju). Of all the students he worked with, 17 went on to reach master level (Shinpiden). One of these was Chjiro Hayashi, a naval officer, who then taught Hawayo Takata from Hawaii to master level. She brought the system to the West via the USA and initiated 22 Reiki Masters between 1970 and 1980 when she died. The system has thus spread from these 22 masters to the thousands practicing and teaching Reiki today.