It is thought that he entered a Tendai
Buddhist school on or near Mt. Kurama ("Horse Saddle Mountain") at age
four. He also studied kiko, the Japanese version of Qigong, which is a
health and healing discipline based on the development and use of life
energy.
The young Usui found that these healing
methods required the practitioner to build up and then deplete his own
life energy when giving treatments. He wondered if it were possible to
do healing work without depleting one’s own energy.
He went on to study in Japan, China and
Europe and ended up spontaneously receiving Reiki during a meditation
practice on Mt. Kurama.
Usui Sensei had an avid interest in learning and worked hard at his
studies. He traveled to Europe and China to further his education. His
curriculum included medicine, psychology, and religion as well as
fortune telling, which Asians have long considered to be a worthy skill.
It is thought that he was from a wealthy family, as in Japan only the
wealthy could afford to send their children to school.
Eventually he became the secretary to Pei
Gotoushin, head of the department of health and welfare who later became
the Mayor of Tokyo. The connections Usui Sensei made at this job helped
him to become a successful businessman. Usui Sensei was also a member of
the Rei Jyutu Ka, a metaphysical group dedicated to developing psychic
abilities.
In 1914 Usui’s personal and business life
was failing. As a sensitive spiritualist, Usui Sensei had spent much
time meditating at power spots on Mt. Kurama where he had received his
early Buddhist training. So he decided to travel to this holy mountain,
where he enrolled in Isyu Guo, a twenty-one-day training course
sponsored by the Tendai Buddhist Temple located there.
We do not know for certain what he was
required to do during this training, but it is likely that fasting,
meditation, chanting and prayers were part of the practice. In addition,
we know there is a small waterfall on Mt. Kurama where even today people
go to meditate. This meditation involves standing under the waterfall
and allowing the waters to strike and flow over the top of the head, a
practice that is said to activate the crown chakra.
Japanese Reiki Masters think that Usui
Sensei may have used this meditation as part of his practice. In any
case, it was during the Isyu Guo training that the great Reiki energy
entered his crown chakra. This greatly enhanced his healing abilities
and he realized he had received a wonderful new gift - the ability to
give healing to others without depleting his own energy!
He opened a clinic in Harajuku, Aoyama,
Tokyo in April of the 11th year of the Taisho period (1922). He not only
gave treatment to countless patients, some of whom had come from far and
wide, but he also hosted workshops to spread his knowledge.
In September of the twelfth year of the
Taisho period (1923), the devastating Kanto earthquake shook Tokyo.
Thousands were killed, injured, or became sick in its aftermath. Dr.
Usui grieved for his people, but he also took Reiki to the devastated
city and used its healing powers on the surviving victims. His clinic
soon became too small to handle the throng of patients, so in February
of the 14th year of the Taisho period (1925), he built a new one outside
Tokyo in Nakano.
His fame spread quickly all over Japan,
and invitations to distant many ailments. Once he went to Kure, another
time to Hiroshima prefecture, then to Saga prefecture and Fukuyama.
It was during his stay in Fukuyama that
he was hit by a fatal stroke on March 9th, of the fifteenth year of the
Taisho period (1926). He was 62 years of age. - Reiki Master Teacher William Lee Rand - "Reiki,
The Healing Touch"
