What Is Reiki? – Truths and Misconceptions

When I was new to Reiki myself, I used to harbor lots of notions about this great healing technique.

These notions were picked up by me from the internet, from the newspaper articles that I used to voraciously read up on; as well as from the other people who I thought were more knowledgeable than I. (I still think they are! More knowledgeable, I mean.)

As I gradually began walking on the road to self-realization (now, that’s a “loaded” word!), and began delving into Reiki, fine-tuning myself with the universe around me, I began to shed, layer by thin layer, the misconceptions that I had wrapped around the subject. Now, it is I who am guiding people on the road to Reiki.

There are people who now view me as more knowledgeable than they are on this subject; and approach me with their doubts and queries on Reiki. Every such question immediately brings to mind past memories when I was struggling with the same point myself, and the effort I took to get them answered, partly through the training that I underwent, and partly through my own personal experience.

And, to tell you the truth, at the end of it all, Reiki *is* a profound personal experience, both as the healer and as the healed.

I now try to satisfy their doubts and answer their queries to the best of my abilities – uh, humbly speaking.

In this section, I have endeavored to list the misconceptions that people very commonly have about Reiki. Hopefully you will find your own list of doubts and queries in this list.

Read on, and enjoy!

What Reiki Is Not About

There are so many myths and false notions about what Reiki is ‘ and it is not surprising, considering the different flavors of Reiki that are doing the rounds, as well as the techno-babble and spiritual mumbo-jumbo that leaps out at you the moment you open your mouth to say “R e i k i”. So I will draw up a list of what Reiki is most definitely NOT.

Here goes:

Reiki Is NOT A Religion

Reiki is definitely not a religion. It is incidental that the first people to be inducted into this therapy were Japanese Buddhists; as the therapy first originated in Buddhism dominated Japan. Though Dr. Mikao Usui, or Usui Sensei, himself was learned in multiple religions, his roots lay in the Tendai sect of Buddhism that his parents were a part of.

Very interestingly, this particular sect itself draws from the Chinese Tiantai Buddhist doctrine, and inherently has a broad outlook and open attitude towards other philosophies and ways of thinking. The personality of Usui Sensei that got moulded as a result of the underlying tenets of the religion he was following, must have guided him into constructing Reiki so methodically and scientifically.

Reiki as an alternative healing therapy left Japan’s shores for the first time in 1937/38, and the first Reiki Clinic outside Japan was set up in Hawaii. The person behind this event, Mrs. Hawayo Takata, was a Hawaii-born second-degree Reiki practitioner who was instrumental in the first wave of awareness about Reiki as a powerful mechanism for healing around the world.

Today, people all over the world practice Reiki, not as religion, but with a religious zeal. So you can say your prayers and bow before your favorite God and spirit guide, and practice Reiki at the same time – the two are mutually exclusive.

Yet, the end result is the same: in both the cases, you are connected with the source that has brought forth both you and me and all of us here.

Dr. Mikao Usui Was Not A Christian

This is again another religion-related myth or misconception. As I have mentioned above, as well as expanded upon in Chapter II of this book, Dr. Mikao Usui was a Buddhist, and he embraced the Tendai Buddhist sect which was popular in those heady days of the Meiji regime around 1890.

As a scholar, Dr. Usui did learn all the major religions of those days, including Christianity. And he took up the position of Dean with Doshisha Elite School in Kyoto, which conducted courses on western religions.

This brought him face-to-face with students who had come to Japan under the exchange program that the School had with the Amherst College of Massachusetts.

In his quest for the technique to heal the sick and the ill by the touch of the hand, “just like Jesus did”, Dr. Usui traveled to the U.S. and also enrolled in the University of Chicago in order to pursue his search. From there, he traveled to India and Tibet, before returning back to his homeland.

When he conceptualized Reiki as a discipline, the symbols and drawings that he produced have all the hallmarks of Buddhist teachings that he was at home with.

So, I hope this notion is now at rest. Dr. Usui was a Japanese Buddhist, through and through. Not that this matters, one jot!

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