The Practice
Usui Shiki Ryoho can be described as a Healing Art,
meaning that the practice arose from a need to resolve
a basic question of humanity at that time. Mikao Usui
formulated this question as “How did Jesus heal?” As a
result of practicing Reiki for many decades, we could
rephrase the question as “How can each of us heal our
individual suffering while contributing to the evolution
of humanity?“
The system continued to develop through Chujiro
Hayashi who influenced the practice because of his
being a medical clinician. Healing in the Japanese
culture naturally included more than just the physical
body.
Hawayo Takata was a gifted practitioner and student.
Her total surrender to the practice and her unwavering
trust in the way that Reiki, the energy, worked within
her, the students, and clients, gave the system a way to
be tested through another culture, a societal revolution
that occurred after WWII, and on thousands of
individuals. When she delivered this system of practice
to her group of masters in the 1970’s, they in turn
spread the practice, this Japanese Healing Art, around
the world.
The word Art indicates that the practice becomes a way
of living not a skill applied only when needed. Value
received by the student is in direct correlation to the
amount of daily practice on self and others, through
mental and spiritual teachings of the 5 precepts, and
the surrender to Reiki, the energy, which moves the
individual into a clearer alignment with the authentic
self. In the practice of the Reiki Principles, self-
reflection and conscious choice call the student back to
their true selves. Thus the Healing Art becomes a part
of the fabric of the student’s life. The student is
consciously creating a balanced way of living and being
in relationship with the self, other human beings and
the earth with all of its living creatures.
Phyllis Lei Furumoto, as lineage bearer, has carried the
Practice as it has become a global community with
many different layers of practice. From Reiki taught as
a folk art (treating family and friends), there is
emerging a call for a professional level of practice. This
development calls for thoughtful preparation.
Right now medical treatment and the folk art healing
practices are coming together to support the human
desire for maximum physical health coordinated with
energetic and spiritual health. For the Reiki student,
there is the folk art: Reiki being first for the self. For
the student who moves into public practice, treating
others outside of the family and friends circle, the
place of treatment is in a dedicated space for these
treatments. Money is exchanged for treatments, and
Reiki becomes a treatment model. As the public
practitioner becomes more educated and more
experienced, the practitioner may be hired by other
institutions of health care such as hospitals, hospice
homes, centers for treatment of specific conditions
such as drug and alcohol dependency.
The professional practitioner training and educational
programs are beginning to be formed at the time of
this writing. This is the cutting edge for Reiki practice:
To maintain the fullness of the folk art practice while
treating the public through the mandate of other
healing practices.
What this will take is the student/practitioner and the
public to see Reiki as a way of restoring wholeness on
all levels of the human being. The inspiration of Mikao
Usui, the desire of Chujiro Hayashi to Heal rather than
Repair, and the unwavering trust of Hawayo Takata is
our legacy in this next step of the practice.
