REIKI SYSTEMS AND REIKI STYLES
The word System is one of many Reiki terms
that may induce a kneejerk reaction unless explained and clarified. In Reiki a
System is a form of teaching and practice which has been designed by
experience, hindsight and wisdom to provide the best predictable way of
teaching Reiki.
In the Lineages
that teach Systems of Reiki, the belief is that the System needs to be one
which stretches and challenges the student and the Master. So these Reiki Systems are designed to change the student,
not the student to change the system. When a student feels frustrated or
challenged by parts of their system, they are encouraged to use the energy and
force of frustration to search for the sources of their discontents and learn
about themselves from so doing.
In other Lineages, the form or System is
very fluid and can be changed if the
Master or student wants to change it.. This more fluid form we are calling a
Reiki Style.
The way that a student progresses and
learns in a System can be different to how they will learn in s Style. All
Reiki Systems and styles will, as does life itself, include parts which are
flexible and others which are less so and are “givens”.
The question that Reiki students and
Masters are faced with is rather like the perennial question; what is best
accepted, what is best changed and how do I discern which is which? There are, of course considerable
differences of opinion on these points. We all have to make up our own minds
and sometimes change them in the light of Reiki experience!
It is clear that some Reiki students prefer
the fluidity and freedom of a style rather than a System, whereas others are
best served by being challenged by the still points of a System designed to
help them grow..
Where possible, we have indicated which
Lineages tend to produce more fluid styles and which have more definitive
Systems.
Again there will always be exceptions, quirks and paradoxes and you
need to ask the Master how much style and how much System they consider they teach
or believe in and why..And then you can decide for yourself.
Much of the confusion in the world of Reiki
has arisen because Systems have not been clearly defined. When a Reiki Master
develops a new System or introduces changes, it is so much clearer for everyone
if it is given a new name and the changes are explained, their true origins
known, and their teachers honoured and acknowledged.
Although the three main Reiki branches did
indeed follow this protocol, subsequent Masters have misleadingly named
modifications of Systems by the names of their originals or given them
attractive sounding names but not indicated what their true origins are..
This is why we feel such a strong need to
try and redress the confusion by giving you the information that has been lost
in this way.
HAWAYO TAKATA’S MASTERS.
Almost all Reiki Systems taught in the UK have evolved from Takata’s
Usui Shiki Ryoho. So to trace clearly the origins of our present day Reiki
varieties, we need to start with Takata’s System and then explain which changes
were introduced by whom in the different specific branches of our Reiki tree.
What is very clear is that the main branches in modern day Reiki
originate from Takata’s Masters themselves very soon after her death in 1980.
This means that a knowledge of what Takata’s Masters and their students did in
the 1980s are the key to understanding our current variety of Reiki forms.
There is a website which has a very informative section about Takata’s
Masters and, where appropriate, their up to date contact details at http://www.reikisystem.com/articles/reikipeople.html
THE THREE MAIN BRANCHES OF REIKI
IN THE 1980s
As early as 5 years after Takata’s death, three main branches had
emerged which still define the main features of most systems found in the UK
and Globally. So understanding these branches is very important. There were
others but their influence is far less than these three. We will identify each
of them briefly in chronological order before describing in more detail the
Reiki Forms and Systems that they have developed.
BARBARA RAY’S RADIANCE TECHNIQUE
The first Reiki organisation, which was formed while Takata was still
alive, was created by Barbara Weber, now Barbara Ray. Originally it was called
the American Reiki Association. Barbara Ray later made a series of changes to
the form of her system and eventually renamed it the Radiance Technique. Today
her organisation is known as the Radiance Technique International Association,
or TRTIA. This is now a small Reiki Organisation but for most of the 1980s, it
was the biggest group and many of the founders of our Reiki Association came
from this Lineage., and its influence is reflected in many systems of Reiki.
USUI SHIKI RYOHO AS EXPRESSED BY THE OGM.
In 1982, most of Takata’s masters met in Hawaii, and recognised Phyllis
Lei Furumoto as their chosen Grandmaster. The following year, 1983, they met
again in Canada and formed the Reiki Alliance.
The Reiki Alliance today is a global Masters organisation with over 600
members which broadly follow Takata’s original System of Usui Shiki Ryoho.
The Reiki Alliance does have a common Reiki System which all members
undertake to practise as a condition of membership. This today is called Usui
Shiki Ryoho as expressed by the Office of Grandmaster.
However, Reiki Alliance members do not teach or practise in exactly the
same way, and each of Takata’s Alliance Masters has their own distinct
characteristics which Masters in their Lineages often continue to nurture in
their teaching and practise.
Today, there are about 30 Masters in the UK who belong to the Global
Reiki Alliance, and at least twice that number who practise the same system
without being formal members.
The Global Reiki Alliance should
not be confused with the UK Reiki Alliance, a small, recently formed purely UK
organisation which has very different teachings and practices.
IRIS ISHIKURO AND ARTHUR ROBERTSON: RAKU KEI
The third main
branch of Reiki which today has the most adherents in the English speaking
world , (though not in Continental Europe or elsewhere) originates with one of
Takata’s Hawaiian Japanese Masters
called Iris Ishikuro. Iris developed a system called Raku Kei with one of her
American Master students called Arthur Robertson. Neither is still alive today
but their legacy is huge and often unacknowledged, even in their own Lineage.
Much more is
known about Arthur Robertson than about Iris Ishikuro, but most students and
Masters in this Lineage know very little about either or their contribution to
the form of Reiki that they teach and practise. We will try and rectify this
here.
Iris And Arthur
both believed in combining Reiki with other modalities and in changing the
Reiki System that Takata had taught to Iris. These patterns have continued as a
“Spiritual Genetic” down this Lineage, with two very important results.
Firstly, almost all the variety of more recent Takata Lineage Styles and
Systems originated with Masters in this
Lineage. Secondly, most Reiki Masters
in this Lineage teach much more fluid Reiki Styles rather than Reiki systems as
we have defined them.
A very important
question which is often asked of us by students in the Ishikuro Lineage and
others is, “Which ideas that I have been taught as part of Reiki were not part of what Takata brought to the west
and have been grafted on later?”
This question is
often about mixing in other concepts popular in our current culture as much as
about additional modalities or techniques which are much easier to discern.
Examples of commonly taught additions of this kind are Chakras , Auras, and 21 day Cleansing periods. There are many
others.
Some Reiki
Masters in this Lineage do not actually touch or put hands on the body when
giving Reiki to others, but do some or all of the treatment with their hands
off the body. This is also different from Takata’s form of Reiki where touch is
the norm except where it may be uncomfortable..
The aim here is
not to make any practice or variation more or less valuable than any other but
to give people a better idea of where they came from so that they can choose
which procedures that they feel are helpful with more insight into their
origins.
REIKI SYSTEMS
AND STYLES IN THE UK.
REIKI COMES TO THE UK
Several Masters from both Radiance Technique, including Barbara Ray
herself and several of Takata’s Masters in the Reiki Alliance taught their
respective forms of Reiki in the UK and Europe in the middle and late 1980s.
Masters from the Ishikuro Robertson Lineage did not arrive in the UK until late
1994.
THE FORMATION OF THE REIKI ASSOCIATION
In 1991, when the Association of European Reiki Practitioners, the AERP,
(which became The Reiki Association in 1994), was founded, the UK members of
the Reiki Alliance sought out and invited all known masters of whatever lineage
to join. Whilst the Radiance Technique masters declined, by this time most of
the Masters in Barbara Ray’s Lineage had left the Radiance Technique
Organisation and many of these independent masters did join right at the
beginning.
So the founder members of our Association were drawn almost equally from
Reiki Alliance Lineage members and Barbara Ray lineages, and for several years
worked together very harmoniously. This spirit of openness and inclusiveness
remains a defining aim and challenge of TRA.
THE GREAT UK REIKI EXPLOSION OF 1994 AND ONWARDS
In August 1994 two American masters in the Ishikuro / Robertson Lineage,
William Lee Rand and Judith Tripp Chasin, started training large numbers of
masters in the UK, many of them already TRA members. In a few months the number
of masters in the UK tripled from 50 to 150, and grew rapidly thereafter.
This sudden explosion in the UK Reiki master community, a far greater
divergence of systems and styles, and considerable conflict between their
adherents presented TRA with huge and often painful challenges. TRA responded
in 1995 by deciding to remain open to, and provide community for, all lineages
but also formally to recognise and identify itself with Phyllis Lei Furumoto
and Paul Mitchell as the “Office of Grandmaster”, or OGM.
It is a formidable paradox that TRA has embraced, to cherish its own
Reiki identity while honouring and being in community with all its members in other lineages, systems, styles and Reiki
identities. This challenge is rather similar to that which is presented to us
all in our multicultural society with the need to create real space for diversity
and pluralism and respecting other cultures and identities while nurturing ones
own. These are easy words to write but very difficult realities to truly
embrace.
We
will start with the Systems closest to Takata’s Usui Shiki Ryoho. The reason
for this is so that you know what Takata herself taught. Then you can trace the
developments in Reiki systems and styles from the form that Takata brought from
Japan, because all the systems in Takata Lineages evolved from this common
root.
While the OGM and the
Reiki Alliance were established to maintain the integrity of Takata’s system
and not to change it as the others did, they have seen fit to make some
modifications.
The two main developments
are that the system has been made more explicit, with the Four Aspects and Nine
Elements, and that the length of time between Degrees, and especially the
training period of Masters has been increased. This is because so many OGM
Lineage Masters felt with hindsight that they were initiated as Masters far too
quickly.
In almost all other
respects, the OGM system is that of Hawayo Takata.
USUI SHIKI RYOHO
AS EXPRESSED BY THE OFFICE OF GRANDMASTER (written by Margaret Pauffley)
Reiki is a form of healing and
spiritual awakening, received and developed nearly 100 years ago by a Japanese
man, Mikao Usui, In the late 1930s it was brought to the West via Hawaii by Mrs
Hawayo Takata under the name of Usui Shiki Ryoho. It is passed on from one person
to another through specific initiation rites, teachings and defined forms of
practice.
The Japanese word Reiki can be
translated as 'universal or spiritually guided life force' and Reiki Systems
are ways of working with Reiki for healing of self and others. The word healing
is used in the sense of regaining harmony and wholeness and Reiki addresses the
whole person, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
The OGM system of Usui Shiki
Ryoho has four Aspects: healing practice, personal development, spiritual
discipline and mystic order. For the gifts of the whole to be realised they
need to be held in a balanced way, not allowing any to overshadow the others.
These Aspects spring from a central core of practice and philosophy called the
Form, comprised of nine Elements, each bringing unique lessons. The combination
of all the Elements and Aspects and their inter-relationships creates the
system, which has a proven, predictable capacity to take people along a
profound path of healing, growth and spiritual deepening. If any part is
changed or left out, the whole balance, dynamic and structure will change and
it is no longer the OGM system of Usui
Shiki Ryoho.
The importance and deeper meaning of the Aspects and
Elements and the whole system is mainly beyond words and gradually unfolds
through personal experience. The following is a brief outline:
Four Aspects
·
Healing
Practice. Usui
Shiki Ryoho has as its basis a hands-on healing practice for regular
self-treatment and a form of treatment that helps others to use Reiki for their
own healing.
·
Personal
Development. Giving
and receiving Reiki through Usui Shiki Ryoho stimulates a process that brings a
clearer sense of one's own true self and humanity, with a deepening self love.
·
Spiritual
Discipline. Inherent
in the regular practice of this Form is the awakening of a spiritual practice,
spiritual development and awareness of the sacred in daily life.
·
Mystic Order. Practice of Usui Shiki Ryoho
brings mystic experiences and a sense of connection and common purpose with
others following this path.
Nine Elements
·
Oral Tradition. The ability to practise Reiki in
this System is received only through face-to-face relationship with a Reiki
master, and involves verbal and non-verbal communication and an energetic
transmission.
·
Spiritual
Lineage in OGM Usui
Shiki Ryoho is Mikao Usui, Chujiro Hayashi, Hawayo Takata and Phyllis Lei
Furumoto. The living lineage bearer embodies the essence of Reiki and carries
out a central role for the Reiki community, which includes leading, teaching,
and inspiring.
·
History. This is shared in Reiki classes
as part of the oral tradition. Although it tells the origin and key events in
the nurturing of Reiki, it is told not just as information but as parable and
teaching story.
·
Initiation is the ritual passed down from
Reiki master to master in a Reiki Lineage.
When performed with a student, this ritual results in the capacity to
practise Reiki.
·
Symbols. There are three symbols that
were received from Mikao Usui which are presented to the student in Second
Degree classes., together with a specific ritual and form of practice. They are
energetic keys, which access communion with self, others and the mysteries of
life.
·
Treatment. The basic treatment of self and
others is the foundation practice of the Form and is simple and clear, with
hands held still for several minutes in a sequence of positions on the head and
body. There is also a form for Distant treatments.
·
Form of
Teaching. This
covers both the energetic and physical structure of the classes.
·
The degree paras need to be
indented under form of teaching because at the moment they look like different
elementsFirst Degree is taught in four 3 to 4-hour
sessions, one per day over four consecutive days, with an initiation in each
session. Students are introduced to the Elements and Aspects of Reiki and learn
how to treat themselves and others.
·
Second Degree takes people deeper into
themselves, into Reiki and into Usui Shiki Ryoho and requires greater
commitment. Practices taught at First Degree prepare the student for this next
step and there needs to be an absolute minimum of three months between the
First and Second Degree classes.
However, it is recommended that students practise for a year or more in
preparation before committing themselves to Second Degree. There is one initiation and the student
receives the three symbols and learns how to use them as sacred tools.
·
Mastery is for those who realise they
have a calling to accept this far greater, lifelong commitment to the practice
and teaching of Usui Shiki Ryoho and are willing to take on the challenges and
responsibilities this involves. It is recommended students practise Reiki for
about six years before master initiation and be initiated by a master with
about ten years experience of teaching Reiki.
·
Monetary
Exchange Each step of the Reiki path has
a specific monetary fee: $150 US for First Degree, $500 for Second Degree and
$10,000 for Mastery. The fees call out a student's commitment at each level and
lead the student into a deeper understanding of the energy of money. Because
currencies fluctuate wildly, the amount charged may not be the exact equivalent
in Pounds sterling or any other currency.
·
Precepts. These are a spiritual teaching
and code of ethics for daily living.
They are:
·
Just
for today do not worry
·
Just
for today do not anger
·
Honour
your parents, teachers and elders
·
Earn
your living honestly
·
Show gratitude to every
living thing
This description of USR (OGM)
also appears on our TRA Website www.reikiassociation.org.uk
The OGM also has a
website: www.usuireiki-ogm.com
The Reiki Alliance’s website is at www.reikialliance.com
Reiki Alliance Masters in the UK can be
found on another website: www.reikialliance.org.uk
Many Masters listed as teaching USR(OGM) have Phyllis Lei Furumoto in
their Master Lineage. Others have Paul Mitchell, Wanja Twan, Mary McFadyen, Barbara Brown and Rick
Bockner; all Takata masters. All these Masters teach the same system but that
does not mean that they are identical. Each Master and OGM Lineage has its own
distinct and sometimes unique characteristics.
The OGM is also open to
any master of any lineage if they wish to adopt USR(OGM). This involves a
process known as alignment, which may take some years. Some masters who trained
in the Barbara Ray and Ishikuro lineages have realigned themselves over the
years and are listed here as teaching the OGM system. Other masters have done First or Second Degree with USR(OGM)
masters and then chosen to train as masters in other lineages. This should be clear from their information.
http://www.reiki.org/Download/Lineage.pdf
RADIANCE TECHNIQUE and THE BARBARA RAY LINEAGE
Barbara Weber changed her name to Barbara Ray in the early 1980s. During
this decade, she introduced a series of changes, dividing the master degree
into 3A and 3B, adding four more degrees to make 7 in total, and westernising
the teaching language. She changed the
name from Reiki to the Radiance Technique and set up an organisation now called The
Radiance Technique International Association
In this lineage, what early Barbara Ray masters teach may vary little
from what Takata taught, whereas later masters (after she made the changes) may
teach a completely different system.
All the masters in the Weber Ray lineage listed here come from early
Barbara Ray masters who had become independent of Barbara Ray and her group
before many of the changes occurred. The timings and prices are usually the
same as in USR (OGM). One group called the Reiki Network retained the 3A and 3B
division and the westernised teaching language; others did not. Some were
active AERP and TRA members from the outset, and now teach USR (OGM).
Barbara Ray’s organisation’s website is at
www.trtia.org where there is a full description of the Radiance Technique
system and also pictures of the three certificates that Barbarav Ray received from Hawayo Takata.
SYSTEMS
AND STYLES IN THE LINEAGE OF IRIS ISHIKURO AND ARTHUR ROBERTSON
LINEAGE: TAKATA, IRIS ISHIKURO, ARTHUR ROBERTSON
Iris Ishikuro and Arthur Robertson worked together prior to Ishikuro’s
death in 1984. This partnership created a distinctive form of Reiki called Raku Kei, which added to and
varied several features of the Usui-Takata Usui Shiki Ryoho System. They both
felt that Reiki could be combined with other healing and spiritual forms and
techniques.
They added extra symbols known as fire dragon symbols, which they believed to be of Tibetan origin. These are
used with the Usui symbols. Techniques derived from Chinese Taoism are also
used; a water ritual called Sui Ching, and treatment tables with a symbol
called the Antahkarana engraved underneath.
Ishikuro and Robertson taught first and second degree combined. Most
Masters listed here in their lineage teach them separately, but the intervals
of time between degrees, before Mastery, the length of Master training, and of
successive Reiki generations all tend to be much shorter than in OGM or Barbara
Ray lineages. Some Masters trained by Arthur Robertson went through a period of
apprenticeship. Others received a few days training. These same variations
continue down this lineage, and are reflected in our Directory..
The price charged for Mastery by Takata, $10,000, was thought to be much
too high and was reduced substantially, usually by a factor of ten, to $1,000
or less. The length of Master training was also reduced by comparison with
Takata’s other Masters.. Prices charged for first and second degrees also tend
to be lower than Takata’s, and classes tend to be shorter.
Towards the end of his life, Arthur Robertson seems to have dropped the
extra symbols from his system. Some Masters in his Lineage, especially Judith Tripp Chasin, had done the same
before being introduced to the UK.
Arthur Robertson’s
organisation, the American Reiki Master Association (ARMA) is at www.atlantic.net/~arma.
THE JUDITH TRIPP
CHASIN LINEAGE
LINEAGE: HAWAYO TAKATA, IRIS ISHIKURO, ARTHUR
ROBERTSON, JEANINE SANDE, JUDITH TRIPP CHASIN.
Judith Tripp Chasin taught about 50 UK Masters in three large weekend
Master classes in Glastonbury in 1994 and 1995. Judith did her First and Second
Degrees with one of Mrs.Takata’s Masters. Unlike Jeanine Sande, Judith Tripp
Chasin always taught First and Second Degrees separately. Judith Tripp Chasin
received a short apprenticeship from Jeanine Sande, an Arthur Robertson master
who had dropped his extra symbols from her teaching. However, when Judith Tripp Chasin trained masters in the UK in
1994 and 1995, the training period was three days over a long weekend. The
price charged was in the region of £600.
The difference between the Tripp Chasin lineage and USR (OGM) is, like
all Ishikuro and Robertson Lineage styles, mainly one of much shorter timings
between degrees, a shorter length of training, lower prices charged, different
teaching languages and terminologies, and combining other modalities We are
giving the various styles taught by Masters in this lineage the generic name “Usui-Takata Tradition”, but there are
a lot of important differences within this category, which you are well advised
to check out thoroughly with Masters in this Lineage.
Other Masters in this same Judith Tripp Chasin lineage who may retain
more allegiance to the form and content developed by Iris Ishikuro and Arthur
Robertson call their system “Usui Shiki
Ryoho in the lineage of Iris Ishikuro”.
When William Lee Rand taught most of the
Masters in the UK from 1994 onwards, he had the following four master
initiations and lineages.
·
HAWAYO
TAKATA, IRIS ISHIKURO, ARTHUR ROBERTSON, DIANE MCCUMBER, WILLIAM RAND
·
HAWAYO
TAKATA, IRIS ISHIKURO, ARTHUR ROBERTSON, MARLENE SCHILKE, WILLIAM RAND
·
HAWAYO
TAKATA, PHYLLIS LEI FURUMOTO, CARRELL ANN FARMER, LEAH SMITH, WILLIAM RAND
·
HAWAYO
TAKATA, PHYLLIS LEI FURUMOTO, PAT JACK, CHERIE WINE-PRASUHN, WILLIAM RAND
Much confusion
has arisen because most Rand Lineage Masters were not given the two Ishikuro
Lineages and were therefore unaware of where much of what they were teaching
had really come from.
You can see
William Rand’s own Lineage details from his website, at:
http://www.reiki.org/Download/Lineage.pdf
Much more
recently William has added Gendai Reiki and Komyo Reiki
(see section 9) to his Lineages but these will not have been taught to
or by Masters initiated before he learned them.
The System that William Rand created is a mixture which combines parts
of the Usui-Takata form with Ishikuro and Robertson’s Raku Kei and his own
version of Barbara Ray’s 3A, which he calls “Advanced Reiki Training”. Some
techniques which William Rand teaches such as scanning, beaming, Reiki Grids,
Reiki Spirit Guides and Reiki Psychic Surgery are unique to him.
William Rand teaches first and second degree together on two consecutive
days in the Ishikuro / Robertson style, followed by Advanced Reiki Training and
a three day Master Teacher training. For the Master trainings the charge when
he first came to the UK was £700.
In William Rand’s Master training, both Usui-Takata Reiki and Ishikuro /
Robertson Raku Kei Fire Dragon Reiki with its extra symbols and techniques are
taught, but he has renamed them “Usui Reiki” and “Tibetan Reiki”
respectively. Master students are given a choice; whether they wish to teach
one or both of these systems, and they are kept separate enough to give Masters
in his lineage this option.
Most of the Masters listed here in William Rand’s Lineage teach Usui
Reiki only, and teach first and second degree separately. Other Masters retain
Rand’s Advanced Reiki Training and the extra symbols of Ishikuro and Robertson,
which they call Tibetan Reiki,
and their systems are named accordingly
Another option given by Rand to his Master students is to combine the
four initiations in first degree into one, as William Rand himself does, or to
do them separately. You will need to ask all Rand Lineage Masters how many
initiations they do because it will vary.
The generic term we are using for this variety of styles and systems
which Masters in Rand’s Lineage have developed is “Usui Tradition”.
There are large differences in form and style between Masters in this Usui
Tradition category so it is very important to check all the details with the
Masters themselves.
William Rand now combines some of the Reiki techniques taught in Gendai
and Komyo Reiki (see section 9) with his first and second degree teaching but
this does not affect any Master who was trained by William Rand before he did
these extra trinings in recent years..
William Rand’s website is at www.reiki.org
LINEAGE: HAWAYO TAKATA, IRIS ISHIKURO, ARTHUR
ROBERTSON, RICK AND EMMA FERGUSON, MARGARETTE SHELTON, KATHLEEN MILNER AND
MARCY MILLER
Although these Systems all came from Masters in the Ishikuro Lineage,
they are definitely Systems and not so much Styles of Reiki.
In 1991, Marcy Miller, a student and friend of Kathleen Milner, had a
vision, in which the Indian Guru Satya Sai Baba, and what she called the “Great
White Brotherhood”, helped her “retrieve” four missing symbols which, she was
told, were for some reason not given to Mrs Takata.
These four symbols were at first used in addition to the four Usui
symbols in a mixed system. Kathleen Milner over the next few years dropped the
notion of missing Takata symbols in favour of symbols representing Earth, Air,
Water and Fire, and added the Raku Kei Fire Dragon Symbols and the water ritual
that she had learned in the Iris Ishikuro lineage, and other symbols.
Eventually, this became a system of 12 symbols. Kathleen Milner originally called
this system Seichem. William Rand
taught his own version of Kathleen Milner’s system using the name “Sai Baba
Reiki”.
Both Milner and
Rand later changed the names of their systems. Kathleen Milner called hers Tera
Mai, and William Rand called his Karuna, a Sanskrit word meaning compassionate
action. For further clarity, both systems and names were then trademarked
worldwide. They are taught in many
countries including the UK.
Tera-Mai™ Reiki and Seichem are systems of Reiki, which came into being
through Kathleen Milner. Kathleen
Milner trained as a Master in the Iris Ishikuro Lineage, and was later guided
by Ascended Masters to devise this healing system, which is standardised to
ensure the quality of the energy.
This system believes that Reiki is the earth element on which all other
rays depend, but that there are also water, air and fire elements to complete
the system.
Masters of
Tera-Mai™ Reiki and Seichem are taught very clearly the system and are asked to
affirm that they will initiate only as the system teaches. The system receives
updates through Kathleen Milner when appropriate
Tera-Mai™ has a website at http://www.kathleenmilner.com/Tera_Mai.htm
THE
KARUNA REIKI SYSTEM
LINEAGE: HAWAYO TAKATA, IRIS
ISHIKURO, ARTHUR ROBERTSON,RICK AND EMMA FERGUSON, MARGARETTE SHELTON, MARCY
MILLER AND KATHLEEN MILNER,
ELIZABET
AMAZON,ISABELLE DUSSAULT, GLENN DERRICK,
WILLIAM
RAND.
Karuna Reiki is
similar to Tera Mai and Seichim, except that the same 12 symbols are taught in
four degrees, and separately from Usui-Takata Reiki, usually to people who are
already Reiki Masters. It was developed by William Rand from Kathleen Milner’s system.
The Karuna
section of William Rand’s website is at:
www.reiki.org/KarunaReiki/KarunaHomepage.html -
21k
MIKAO USUI’S EVOLVING FORMS OF REIKI
TEACHINGS.
Although the vast majority of Reiki people
have a Takata Lineage, both Mikao Usui and Chujiro Hayashi initiated other
Masters. In the last few years, some of the different Reiki systems developed
and evolved by some of Usui’s and Hayashi’s other Masters in Japan have been
adapted for teaching in the west and taught in the UK. A few are offered by
Masters in our Directory. In order to describe and explain accurately these non
Takata systems, a brief Historical account of their origins and evolution is
provided here.
There has been much dispute and confusion
about the place and the relative importance in Reiki’s History of Takata
Lineage Reiki styles and of the other Lineages from Usui which have sometimes
been presented by their adherents as more “Original “ than Takata based Reiki.
This section is an attempt to provide a
clear perspective on these disputed issues as much as to explain what Masters
in this Directory teach. So this section needs to be longer in order to fulfil
our aim of bringing clarity to a contentious subject.
There is no single “Original Usui System”.
Like many pioneers and visionaries, Mikao Usui’s teachings evolved as he
developed Reiki.
Earlier on in his life, Usui mostly taught
spiritual self development, often to Buddhists who would integrate Usui’s
techniques with their Buddhist practices. Today, these earlier forms of Usui’s
teachings are being taught here by a UK Reiki Master called Chris Marsh, and by
his students.
Later on, towards the end of his life,
Mikao Usui was invited to teach Reiki to a group of Naval Officers. Several of
these Officers became Reiki Masters, of which Chujiro Hayashi was one, Masters
are known as Sensei, Shinpiden or Shihan in Japanese.
By this time, Usui’s Reiki system had
evolved towards the healing of others as well as personal spiritual practice.
Another of Usui’s Masters called Toshihiro Eguchi who was a renowned healer in
his own right, was also important in the Reiki community of Usui’s later life.
Eguchi may even have influenced and collaborated with Usui as well as being his
student.
THE USUI REIKI RYOHO GAKKAI
At least three Naval Officers, Chujiro
Hayashi, Juzaburo Ushida and Kan’ichi Taketomi plus Eguchi and probably other
Usui masters formed an organisation called the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai. Gakkai
simply means society. We will call this first Reiki organisation the Gakkai for
short.
One of the first tasks that the Gakkai
undertook was to write a very powerful inscription on the tomb of Mikao Usui at
Saihoji Temple in Tokyo which can be found and downloaded from
http://www.threshold.ca/reiki/index.html
However, like Takata’s Masters, Usui’s
students went their separate ways and developed different systems.. Eguchi left
the Gakkai fairly soon after Usui’s death.
Hayashi followed in the early 1930s and both of them set up their own
Reiki Societies with different names. So the diversity in Reiki Systems dates
right back to this time.
Chujiro Hayashi was very unusual in making
Reiki available to all who wished to learn, and even being willing, after some
persuasion by Takata to allow Reiki to leave Japan. Anyone who is aware of the
cultural and historical context surrounding Hayashi’s amazing decision (only a
few years before Pearl Harbour) will appreciate that this is one of the
greatest ever Reiki miracles.
The Gakkai, on the other hand, followed the
culture of their time and kept their Reiki to a very small and tightly knit
circle, and even today, they are not interested in spreading Reiki outside of
their existing members and students. For this reason, we have only relatively recently
become aware of the Gakkai’s existence and of the very different Reiki system
that has evolved within the Gakkai since Usui’s time.
When news of the Gakkai reached the West,
what was known of the Gakkai’s system was presented as more “Original Usui”
than Takata’s teachings. However it is now clear that the Gakkai’s system has
evolved and changed considerably since Usui’s time, but in very different ways
to Hayashi’s and Takata’s. These differences we will now try to describe.
WHAT WE KNOW OF THE GAKKAI’S REIKI SYSTEM.
Many important things about any Reiki
System can only be known or understood properly by students in that full System
who have experienced how that System really works.. Therefore, information
about the Gakkai needs to be treated with the utmost care, especially when it
originates from “outsiders” who have not studied in the Gakkai itself.
The Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai call their
system Usui Reiki Ryoho. There are groups in several of the major Japanese
cities and districts. These groups meet regularly at least once a month but are
far more important and pivotal than our “sharing groups”. A key element of the
Gakkai’s system is that the Reiki teaching and development happens
progressively and gradually through regular practice within the same group of
people in these meetings for many years; something that is extremely difficult,
if not totally impossible to replicate in the West.
Instead of initiations marking a rite of
passage into specific degrees, a form of Reiki attunement very different from
Takata’s initiations called Reiju is given at every meeting to everyone
present. The symbols are the same as Takata’s and are taught to the Gakkai’s
students but have nothing like the importance or the role that they have in
Takata’s system.
Progress through the stages in the Gakkai’s
system from Shoden (beginners) to Okuden (more advanced) to Shinpiden and
Shihan (Master) is much slower and more continuous than in Hayashi’s or
Takata’s systems; more like a gentle curve than a staircase..
The Reiki techniques taught in the Gakkai
have both similarities and differences from Takata’s. The Reiki principles are
chanted at every meeting and have a central role. Group treatments are called
Mawashi and the finishing strokes down the spine at the end of a treatment are
the same as Takata’s.
Much importance is attached in the Gakkai
to developing the ability to sense specific areas of the body which need
attention. The ability to intuit and sense these areas is a major criterion for
assessing the student’s progress.
The Gakkai also has different Reiki
techniques which involve moving the hands and using the eyes and the breath in
healing., Central to the Gakkai’s form are
two procedures called Gassho and Hatsurei Ho. Hatsurei Ho is derived
from the Japanese form of Chi Gong and may have even been taught in the
Japanese Navy. Both are usually done to prepare the student to give a treatment
on self or others. Takata’s early diaries show that she was taught the Gassho
technique by Hayashi but not Hatsurei Ho.
There is a handbook produced by the Gakkai called the Usui Reiki Hikkei. It was presented by Frank Petter and others as “Mikao Usui’s Manual” but it was in fact produced in the 1970s by the Gakkai for their members. This very interesting document can be downloaded free from: http://www.threshold.ca/reiki/index.html Amongst other things, it contains the Reiki principles as they are in Japanese, some reported “answers” of Usui to a few very juicy questions, some very detailed hand positions, and beautiful poems attributed to the Meiji Emperor (1867 to 1912) which are believed to be recited at Gakkai meetings. Usui was very much a product of the Meiji period in Japan, during which Japan opened itself up to the world..
GAKKAI
TECHNIQUES AS TAUGHT IN THE WEST.
No-one has attempted to try and reproduce
outside Japan the Gakkai’s Usui Reiki Ryoho system in its entirety with a
continuous cohesive group of students and slow gradual methods of progression
between stages.
What has happened is that some of the
techniques taught by the Gakkai have been extracted from the Gakkai’s system
and introduced to western Reiki Masters and students in western style class
formats with or without Takata style stages.