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The Origin of Reiki

Reiki originates some one hundred years ago, discovered, by way of lengthy discovery, meditation and fasting, by a Japanese Buddhist monk called Dr Mikao Usui. Whilst he was helping to translate some Sanskrit sutras he found some symbols and phrases, written some 2500 thousand years ago, that could be the formula for the Buddha's Manual Healing System. Within the Buddhist belief system they believe that physical illness stems from the mind by way of negative thoughts and actions. On finding these symbols, and wanting to turn them into a practical and useable form, Dr Usui decided to undertake fasting and meditation in order to receive an explanation of what he had found.

He left instructions for the other monks to come and find his body if he was not back in twenty-two days.

With just a container of water, he climbed a mountain, and sat under a tree within earshot of a stream. Gathering 21 stones he started his mediatation. Each day, he threw away one of his stones.

During the darkest part of the night, on the twenty-first day, finishing his meditation he opened his eyes.

He saw flashes of light moving towards him very fast, which struck him in the forehead. Falling backwards he lost consciousness. As dawn broke, his vision occurred. He saw many bubbles of colour - colours of the rainbow all jumbling about. The each of the colours of the rainbow, in turn, came from the right and moved to the left, filling the whole sky, staying for a moment, and fading away. When the last colour had faded, a white light appeared from the right forming a screen in front of him, and appearing before him, in golden letters, were the Sanskrit symbols he had been studying. As with the colours, they appeared from the right and moved off to the left, with the next symbol appearing. As each symbol appeared, so too the understanding of their meanings and how they were to be used.

When Dr Usui eventually came too, it was daylight, and as he recalled what he had seen and heard, closing his eyes, all the golden letters and symbols appeared to him.

He got up, feeling full of energy, and headed back to the monastery. He tripped on a rock which tore his toenail back, blood flowed and it hurt. He grabbed his toe with his hand and held it - he felt a pulse of energy, the pain had disappeared, and the blood had dried and the toenail was in its proper place!

On his way back to the monastery, he came across a family with a young girl who had toothache - he felt around her jaw to find the tooth that was bothering her, and in doing so, the toothache disappeared. "The pain is gone" the girl exclaimed.

After travelling the seventeen miles back to the monastery, Dr Usui met with the Abbot - who had been laid ill with arthritis and backache for several days whilst Dr Usui was away - whilst speaking with him, his hands had been laid on top of the futon covering the Abbot. As Dr Usui told the Abbot about his meditation and visions and that he had finally found what he had been searching for, the Abbot proclaimed that his pain had all disappeared and that his body felt full of energy.

Dr Usui said "This is Reiki".