When I found out about the letters exchanged between Saicho and Kukai, I was just blown away. Imagine two young monks, carefully chosen, to travel to China to study Buddhist teachings and to bring back the select texts to Japan. The year was 804! This is the beginning of a journey of friendship, hope, anticipation, collaboration and rivalry. One of the monks was Saicho, later to be the founder of Tendai School of Buddhism, the other was Kukai, the founder of Shingon school of Buddhism. Even though the storm separated their ships and they each went their own separate ways in China, the passion and dedication of these two men, unknowingly, impacted the history of religion in Japan and in some subtle ways our practice as Reiki practitioners.
Continue Reading ›
Lately, there has been some discussion in the Reiki community questioning whether the founder of the system, Mikao Usui, actually taught the DKM mantra/symbol in the system of Reiki. DKM is encountered in the system’s final teachings of Shinpiden Reiki Level III. Most Reiki practitioners know of DKM through the teachings of Mrs Takata who, in the late 1930s, brought the system from Japan to the West. Mrs Takata taught the DKM mantra/symbol as the last of the system’s four mantras and symbols. Those questioning the DKM’s origins stem from the lineage of Mrs Yamaguchi.
Continue Reading ›
Last week’s article Distance Healing Symbol? looked at the historical background of the so called “distance healing symbol”. For people who are interested in the historical background of Japanese spiritual practices you might also want to read this article which includes an interview with author Serge Mol about his recently published book “Invisible Armor”.
Continue Reading ›
Within Okuden level II you will study something that many know as the “distance healing” symbol. This is a modern, rather than Japanese, interpretation of a practise which we shall call HSZSN. But how was HSZSN used in Mikao Usui’s time, and where did this symbol come from?
Continue Reading ›
This lecture has been reprinted with permission from the Berkeley Zen Center. It is a lecture by a Japanese Zen Master about zazen (meditation practise). Many Reiki practitioners today are looking for avenues to build their skills without branching too far away from what we are growing to understand are the original teachings of Mikao Usui.
Continue Reading ›
Usui Mikao, the founder of Reiki, was a Tendai practitioner all of his life. Tendai was brought to Japan by Saicho in the 8th century and names Nagarjuna as it’s patriarch. Apart from the belief that the lotus sutra is Buddha’s perfect teaching it also teaches meditation based on esoteric elements. It is interesting to look at the 10 major precepts of Tendai and see their correlation to Reiki and it’s 5 precepts.
Continue Reading ›
If you ask people what it might mean to research the system of Reiki you will get many different ideas, some scientific, some historical, some energetic. Research, therefore, can be accomplished at many levels.
If we were wanting to research something specific - such as what the intent behind the teachings of the system of Reiki was - how would we go about that? We could look at…
Continue Reading ›
The memorial stone was erected by a Japanese Reiki society called the Usui Reiki Ryôhô Gakkai in 1927, one year after the founder of Reiki’s death. The founder’s name is Usui Mikao. Engraved with old Japanese kanji, the memorial stone stands in the peaceful grounds of the Saihoji temple in Tokyo.
Continue Reading ›
