What Mikao Usui
actually meant.

One method and a surprise

When most people hear "Reiki" today, they think of relaxation, warm hands, maybe a nice little time-out somewhere between yoga and singing bowls.

That's true enough, but it's only the surface, and there's a great deal more underneath.

Mikao Usui had more in mind than relaxation. His method touches the whole person, body, mind, and soul, along with abilities that reach beyond all three. We know this because his companions wrote it down, quite literally in stone.

What the memorial stone actually says

In Tokyo, at Saihōji Temple, there's a stone. Usui's companions put it up in 1927, a year after he died. The text was written by the scholar Okada Masayuki. It records who Usui was, how his method came about, and what he wanted it to do.

I've read this text in the original Japanese and translated it sentence by sentence, with commentary, in a long series of articles over the years. What it says surprises almost everyone who reads it for the first time.

There's no mention of relaxation here, and laying on hands isn't an end in itself. What stands at the center is the unfolding of supernatural abilities as the ground on which the spiritual heart can mature.

Laying on hands still matters, but it's only one part of the practice, alongside meditation and the five life principles.

Who Usui actually was

Mikao Usui was born on August 15, 1865, in the village of Taniai in Gifu Prefecture. His Buddhist name was Gyōhan 暁帆, “sail at dawn.” The memorial stone describes him as naturally gifted, deeply curious, and passionate about reading historical records.

He knew his way around medical literature, Buddhist sutras, and the sacred texts of East Asia. The stone is explicit: "From the realms of knowledge of the soul, the methods of mountain hermits with supernatural powers, the magic of incantation and binding formulas, divination with oracle sticks, and the art of reading the future from the face — there was nothing he had not studied."

That list is worth reading again, slowly. It talks about mountain hermits with supernatural powers, incantations, oracle sticks, and reading the future in a person's face. Someone who knew all of that had explored the hidden forces of life with a great deal of curiosity.

Three weeks in the Kurama mountains

The Kurama range lies north of Kyoto. Japanese makes no distinction between singular and plural, which is why most translations say "Mount Kurama." In reality it's an entire range, several peaks linked by saddle-shaped dips. The name Kurama means horse saddle, and that's exactly what it looks like: between two heights the ridge dips only slightly, like a saddle, so you can move from peak to peak without dropping deep into the valley.

For centuries, the Kurama range has been full of places for ascetic practice, places used to awaken spiritual abilities. That was well known in Usui's day. He most likely chose it because tradition held that the energies there were especially favorable for such an undertaking.

Usui fasted and meditated there for three weeks. On the twenty-first day he felt a great spiritual power above the crown of his head, 靈氣 reiki. In that moment, the memorial stone tells us, he received his method: Reiki Ryōhō 靈氣療法.

It was hardly a lucky accident. Everything points to a long, carefully prepared search: Usui knew what he was looking for, and he looked for it in a place where people had been having moments of awakening since the eighth century.

The five life principles as a key

Many people read Usui's life principles as friendly advice, five nice sentences to hang on the wall. The memorial stone, though, puts them in a much bigger context.

• 一 Today, do not be angry.
• 二 Do not give in to sorrow.
• 三 Be grateful.
• 四 Devote yourself to your karma.
• 五 Practice being kind to all beings and to your own soul.

And then the memorial stone says something remarkable:

So the principles are a practice in their own right, a kind of tool for developing the power of the mind and unfolding subtle perception.

Usui gave his companions a simple form for it: morning and evening, join your hands at the heart, recite the five principles aloud, and turn your attention inward. Body, speech, and mind work together here, and anyone familiar with esoteric Buddhism will sit up at this point. That's how esoteric Buddhism has described the three mysteries, sanmitsu 三密, for centuries.

One path, many lineages

Usui began passing on his method in Tokyo in 1922. By the time he died in 1926, he had initiated a great many people. According to sources from his successors' circle, he brought around twenty of them to the master level, shihan 師範 in Japanese. Among those known by name are Jūzaburō Ushida, Kan’ichi Taketomi, and Chūjirō Hayashi.

Many lineages grew out of these masters. Hayashi's line reached the West through Hawayo Takata. That means so-called Western Reiki has a Japanese lineage too, just like all the others.

I've written about this in more detail in Western vs. Japanese Reiki. The short version: every Reiki lineage starts with Usui.

Of course there are differences. Each lineage has found its own emphasis. In many forms today, hands-on practice is at the center; others work more with the life principles, with breath, or with posture. That doesn't make for a ranking. These are simply different paths people have taken to carry Usui's impulse forward.

Which brings up an interesting question: what did Usui actually draw from?

What Usui drew from

The memorial stone already gives a hint if you read between the lines. It mentions sutras, hermits with supernatural powers, incantations, and oracles. Behind them stand four roots that have been interwoven in Japan for centuries:

• 一 Esoteric Buddhism (Shingon) — mantras, mudras, and a practice that brings body, speech, and mind together.
• 二 Shugendō — the way of the mountain ascetics, the yamabushi, in places like the Kurama range.
• 三 Shinto — reverence for the kami, the powers of heaven and earth.
• 四 Shamanic Daoism — the old art of nourishing life energy and making contact with unseen forces.

In a place like the Kurama mountains, you can still feel these currents today. Temple, shrine, and mountain trails sit right next to each other.

The spirits behind the symbols

At Kurama-dera, three spirits are venerated as a trinity: Senju Kannon, the thousand-armed bodhisattva of compassion; Bishamonten, guardian of the light; and Maōson, who according to temple tradition came down to earth from Venus about six and a half million years ago. Together they stand for love, light, and life force.

For Reiki, this is fascinating, because the symbols Cho Ku Rei, Sei He Ki, Hon Sha Ze Shō Nen and Dai Kō Myō have their origin in the ritual traditions of Japan, and some of them lead straight to these spirits. Sei He Ki goes back to the Siddham seed syllable (Siddham is called Bonji in Japanese) hrīḥ (Japanese: kiriku), the seed syllable of Senju Kannon. The shape of Hon Sha Ze Shō Nen contains a pagoda, and Bishamonten holds a pagoda in his hand too, as a sign of the Great Sun Buddha Dainichi Nyorai. Two spellings fit Cho Ku Rei: 勅令, the imperial mandate, which applied to the symbol I read as the mandate of the sun kami Amaterasu, and 直靈, a Shugendō term for the creative power that appears in an instant. More in the article on Cho Ku Rei.

That's why in Shingon Reiki we practice with the symbols and, at the same time, with the spirits behind them, through initiation, meditation and the three mysteries of body, speech and mind.

Where Shingon Reiki stands

I developed Shingon Reiki over many years, following the path of my heart. It grew out of my research as a Japanologist, my years in Kyoto, and my own practice in Japanese temples. Ever since I first came into contact with Reiki in 1993, I've wanted to know what Usui drew from.

It goes straight back to the sources Usui himself drew from: esoteric Buddhism (Shingon), Shugendō, Shinto, and shamanic Daoism.

Among the spiritual beings at the heart of Shingon Reiki practice is the Medicine Buddha, Yakushi Nyorai 薬師如来, the deep-blue Buddha holding a medicine jar. I first encountered him on the Shikoku pilgrimage, in a Medicine Buddha temple, at a point when my feet could barely carry me after many days of walking. He hasn't let go of me since. His traditional healing mantra has been part of Shingon Reiki practice from the very first initiation. You'll also meet the Bodhisattva Senju Kannon and the protective deity Bishamonten.

That doesn't make it better than other paths. It's simply clear about where it comes from. And if you come from another lineage, everything you've received and experienced is still yours.