Happy Birthday Mikao Usui

Mikao Usui Sensei

All over the world this month there are people celebrating the birth 150 years ago of a Japanese man named Mikao Usui.  I am constantly grateful for the miracle of his discovery of this wonderful healing method we call Reiki.   He developed a simple, accessible way for any human being to have healing in their own hands by connecting with Universal Life Energy that surrounds us, no matter where we are on the planet.  All we need is the willingness and commitment to learn his method or receive treatment.

Having spent many years traveling and searching for the answers to deep questions of faith, he finally made his discovery late in life.  He overcame many difficulties: we are fortunate that he didn't give up!  He taught a few hundred students, all of them Japanese.  One of those students, Chujiro Hayashi, agreed to teach a Japanese American woman from Hawaii.  Her name was Hawayo Takata and through her teaching Reiki is now practiced on every continent of the world.

It's interesting to think about how different the world is today than it was 150 years ago.  Mikao Usui was born into a Samauri family just after the Meiji emperor was enthroned.  At that time the emperor was seen as a deity rather than a political leader.  During Usui's lifetime Christianity was re-introduced to Japan, having been outlawed for centuries.  We are told that Usui was inspired by the stories of the healing miracles performed by Jesus, prompting his long search that resulted in the discovery of the Reiki healing method.   When he travelled to America he wasn't able to catch a plane, but would have sailed there.   The telephone wasn't even invented until he was 11 years old.

Usui, we are told on his memorial stone in Tokyo, "wanted to make it possible for many people in the world to be able to experience this joy of healing".  I often feel when I look at his picture that he is very pleased with how Reiki has spread around the world and is now practiced by millions of people of many different nationalities, colours and beliefs. 

I'm very grateful for Usui Sensei's dedication, because his commitment has resulted in a healing method that is very easy for us to learn and use.  In other hands-on healing methods it is often the student themselves who has to go through many challenges to be able to heal.  Usui Sensei offered us a clear path: all we need to do is decide to practice and learn from Reiki itself. 

I'll be celebrating Usui Sensei's birth with self treatment, thinking of how we are told he discovered he could heal himself after injuring his toe.  I'll also be teaching a Reiki class in Birmingham and sharing Reiki with other Reiki students.  In a corner of Shropshire we will be practising a healing art that would not have existed were it not for the life of a man from Japan that we would otherwise have had no connection with: awesome!

What is even more awesome is the potential Reiki has for making this a better world.  If it can spread and grow so much in less than 100 years, what will happen in another 100?  Could Reiki bring to the world more of the kindness and compassion we crave?  Could it change how families and communities relate to each other?  I believe this is possible with Reiki practice. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you Mikao Usui for bringing Reiki healing to our planet!

100 Years Ago...

On the 100^th anniversary of the start of the First World War I have been thinking about the fact that there has always been a war going on somewhere for the whole of my life, with all the suffering that goes with it.

In a letter written by my great grandmother she says that when my great grandfather heard the news of the outbreak of that war he declared: “The worst has happened”.  In another letter she writes: “if father has been anti war (as he has been all his life) he is more anti war than ever today.  The great difference is simply that he feels the present war was absolutely unpreventable... It is just as if you and Alec were standing quietly talking and some rough fellow were to come along and sat to Alec “You stand aside while I knock this little girl down.”

So could we have a world without war?  There is often a feeling of inevitability about war taking place, such as was expressed by my great grandfather.  Is it just part of what human beings do that cannot be changed?

At about the same time as my great grandmother wrote those words, many thousands of miles away in Japan a man named Mikao Usui was beginning a journey that would lead him to develop a healing method that we now know as Reiki.  He saw it as something that should be available to anyone and that it would help people re-connect body and soul.  This practice also spread around the world and has lasted almost 100 years so far.  So perhaps there is hope in the fact that something that heals us has lasted longer than any of the wars.

Our practice encourages people to overcome conflict, starting with ourselves through daily self healing and continuing with sharing this peace of mind with others.

At an event for homeless US war veterans some of them received Reiki. one of them commented: “If we would’ve had this type of ‘technology’ before we went to war, nobody’d want to fight” (watch the video here: http://midwestreiki.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/hands-to-hearts-bringing-reiki-to-us-military-veterans/)

Today there is conflict in Gaza, that seems unlikely to end soon.  However I came across a blog entry about an Israeli woman learning Reiki in a Palestinian area (http://jerusalemgypsy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/learning-reiki-in-beit-jala.html) The class brought together Jews, Palestinians and others and enabled them to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s lives.  I have often seen how Reiki classes bring together people who would not otherwise meet and I think that this is part of the key to an end to the suffering caused by wars.  Reiki, as a world wide practice, also brings people of different nationalities together and this is also one aspect of the Reiki Home project (reikihome.org).  War is only possible when the other person is not seen as a human being, but as some other concept which is called ‘enemy’. 

Fundamentally I believe human beings want to be kind to each other.   The unkindness often starts with ourselves.  When I cared less about myself I often felt more blame, resentment and anger towards others.  The more I have learned to love and care for myself with the help of my Reiki practice, the more I’ve been able to share that love and care with others.  In simple terms the more I was able to forgive myself, the more I could forgive others.  When there is forgiveness there is no war.

So while I’m not naïve enough to believe that there will soon be no war in the world, I do think that we can each make a difference through Reiki towards creating a world that is more at peace with itself, because we are each a piece of that peace.