Mikao Usui – The Seeker

The turning point in his life came when Dr. Mikao Usui was appointed Dean to Doshisha University, a private university in Kyoto, Japan. The university was founded by Niijima Jou, who modeled it on the lines of such western institutions as the Andover Theological Seminary and the Amherst College, both based in Massachusetts.

Since its inception, the Doshisha Elite School, as the university was then known, maintained a student and faculty exchange program with the Amherst College. By its nature, the school followed a western and Christian culture, and imbibed Christian thoughts in its course curricula and studies.

I would consider the group of students, who engaged Dr. Mikao Usui on that day in a lively metaphysical discussion, as the motivators for the “Usui Reiki” system that we are now the benefactors of. It was somebody in that group – perhaps a scholar with a deep grounding in Christianity and the Bible, no doubt – who asked Dr. Usui whether the latter believed in the Bible.

To this, Dr. Usui – himself an erudite scholar, well-versed in the tenets of Christianity – answered in the affirmative.

Pop came the next question: “Doctor, do you believe in the ability of Jesus to heal the sick?” Again, the good doctor replied in the affirmative.

The students persisted. “And Jesus also said, ‘You can do this and more.’ So, surely, doctor, when can you teach us how to heal just like Jesus did?”

I do not know whether the students were merely thinking abstractly, letting their flights of fancy go wild that day, or whether they were serious. I believe it was more likely the former. The students perhaps came from a background where such intellectual jujitsu with professors was an in thing – to be indulged in as a pastime. But, on the conservative Dr. Usui, the flow of this conversation was having a profound impact.

The students had posed a question to him: “When can you teach us how to heal, just like Jesus? Since you believe that Jesus could heal people by the touch of his hand, you should be able to teach us how to do it, too?”

That night, Dr. Usui couldn’t sleep for a wink. The question posed by the students kept him tossing and turning in his bed. What the students said made sense to him.

He believed in Jesus. He also believed fully that Jesus had the powers to heal the sick and the ill by the touch of his hands. He also believed in Jesus’ words – “You can do this too, and more”. Then where was the hitch?

In order to teach the students how to heal just like Jesus could, he, Dr. Usui, himself had to learn the technique.

Dr. Usui’s background and cultural values taught him that he had to satisfactorily respond to the questions of his students and teach them what they aspired for. His standing as a Guru in the eyes of his students, he thought, was justified only when he had all the answers. In the circumstances, therefore, it was not right for him to continue as their teacher any more, he perceived.

The next day, Dr. Mikao Usui resigned his job as Dean of Doshisha University. As he tendered his resignation to the President of the School and walked out of the office, he was calm and peaceful, his inner strength shining on his face.

From there began his quest to find the solution to the problem of healing the sick and the ill “just like
Jesus could”.

I do not know the reaction of the students when they heard about Dr. Usui’s decision. But I am sure grateful to them for the conversation they had with their teacher that day.

The question before Dr. Usui was: Where can he find the knowledge of healing people a la Jesus? Thinking logically, he thought that since Jesus was a Christian, perhaps the solution lay in the lands where the religion was predominant.

With this in mind, Dr. Usui set sail to America. In those days, the University of Chicago had acquired a name for itself in the domain of Metaphysics. Dr. Usui enrolled himself as a student in the university, and began his search for a solution to his question: how to heal the sick and the ill by the touch
of the hand, just like Jesus did?

Days passed into weeks, weeks passed into months. And months passed into years. Dr. Usui spent his time absorbing the tenets of Christian religion, its philosophy, as well as the scriptures of all the religions that he could lay his hands on, in the vast libraries of the University.

One fine morning, realization dawned on him that he had come to Chicago almost seven years ago, and still had gotten nowhere in his quest – he was still standing exactly where he had started.

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