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DON BRENNAN "Just the Facts (Reiki Part X)"

There seems to be confusion as to what is considered to be “Usui Reiki,” and what is a modified derivative of Reiki. Mrs. Takata, the first Western Reiki teacher, made changes to the teaching of Reiki and this is the style of Reiki practiced by most people in the world, today. Strictly speaking, this style of Reiki should be called Takata Reiki, or simply Western Reiki.

Beginning in the 1980’s, people started creating different forms of Reiki with new names. Each claimed to be more powerful than the Reiki that Mrs. Takata taught. Over time it became clear that this was just marketing. So now, many people use the term “Usui Reiki” meaning it is Reiki, free of the many western embellishments that have been added to Reiki over the last 30 years.

Reiki requires patience and diligence to understand its true nature and power. There is no end to the learning and its healing potential, as you continue with your practice. But most Westerners are impatient and are easily seduced by the lure of something that is supposed to be better or more powerful. All of a sudden there were many new forms of Reiki being marketed by individuals who sought to feed their egos and/or their pocket books. Recently, another “new more powerful form of Reiki” has appeared on the scene, adding even more confusion to this situation.

Easterners consider the energy of Reiki to be the complete and eternal cosmic energy that has always been available, throughout history, to human beings who have activated the soul center of the brain through enlightening experiences or through the guidance of a mentor. Westerners seem to have the idea that the energy of Reiki is only one particular vibration of the universal energy brought in by Usui and is therefore incomplete and can be improved upon. This has created the setup for those Westerners who wish to claim to be bringing in other energies that make Reiki more powerful.
There is no place for ego in Reiki. We call ourselves Reiki practitioners rather than Reiki healers to remind us that we are simply helping people to heal themselves. Kathleen Prasad, the renowned animal Reiki author says, “The ideal state during a Reiki treatment is for your mind to be a blank sheet of paper. As facilitators of this process, we do not do anything except allow the energy to flow through us. In finding the courage to let go, we come back to our souls and touch the ultimate truth of why we are here in the first place–to help each other.”

Hiroshi Doi, the only person trained in Western Reiki and the first two levels of Reiki at the Usui Reiki Ryoho, the institute originally started by Usui, shares the following in his book, “Iyashino Gendai Reiki Ho.” “You are set up to resonate with the supreme energy by the attunement. All you have to do is just put your hands on. The energy needed for cleansing and healing flows effortlessly from your hands without concentration. It is important to apply the energy without any intention to control something. If you try to make useless, ponderous efforts to send stronger power, other kinds of power (non-Reiki energies) could be mixed in.”

Mr. Doi does not speak English, so his book is translated through several people. I think that he is trying to affirm that the energy we connect with, through attunement, is the pure complete energy from source. When we allow our human ego to deceive us into believing that through our own personal will we can make the healing more powerful, the potential is there for unbalanced human issues to interfere with the healing.

Kathleen Prasad reminds us again, to get ourselves out of the way of the healing. “Giving Reiki is a kind of meditation. You are simply creating an energetic space, and in this space, healing can happen…It’s about surrender, surrender to the universal flow, the ebb and flow of existence that creates balance through change.”

My favorite Reiki author and teacher, Frank Arjava Petter, was asked, “There are so many Reiki schools and lineages. What do you think of them? Why haven’t you started your own system?” He answered, “I think we can do without most of what is being offered on the Reiki Market because most of it is just that: a market with products. A couple of years ago I was asked this question in Athens at a Reiki Conference and before I could stop myself, I answered, “Mine is bigger than yours.”

He goes on to add, “Personally, I don’t see a point in adding another new form of Reiki to the confusion because I think that trying to improve on soul energy–Reiki–is quite inappropriate. Let’s be respectful instead to what we have been given by Usui Sensei and those who carried the torch after him. In the simplicity of the teaching lies its greatest charm. If properly initiated, what comes out of our hands is all the same: pure uncontaminated cosmic energy. That energy has no attributes and is strictly suprapersonal. And that is the beauty of it–let’s keep it that way!”

When we think of the energy of Reiki as Soul Energy, the eternal energy of the cosmos, created by the source of all that is, it really does seem a bit arrogant for us mere mortals to believe that we can make it better. So clear yourself of yourself, open up for this loving energy to flow through and simply allow the perfect healing to take place. That’s all we need to do!

Metaphysical Times Publishing