THE MANY STYLES OF REIKI
One of the areas of confusion for people new to Reiki is the number of Reiki styles and schools available. It seems that since the late 1980’s many new schools of Reiki have sprung up – especially outside of Japan. And the course content is not always the same. Even for experienced Reiki practitioners this can certainly be mind boggling at times. But at the very least the styles can be divided into 2 segments; what is called the Western Reiki or Reiki styles developed outside of Japan; and Japanese Reiki including traditional styles going back to 1926, as well as more current Japanese styles. If we look at the beginning of Reiki we can see how such diversity came about.
ORIGINS OF REIKI
There are many different forms of Reiki, such as Usui Reiki, Takata Reiki,and Hayashi Reiki. Each form of Reiki has its own methods and tools used to channel the healing universal energy and each form of Reiki has its own benefits. There really is no one style that is better than the next. It is simply a personal preference and it will depend on whether you enjoy a complex or simple approach, with or without formal structure, and with or without elements of the traditional or modern methods. The advantage of the Reiki method is that regardless of the Reiki style, the heart of Reiki is truly easy and quick to acquire, and it can be applied using very simple methods.
The First Reiki Systems
In March of 1926 Usui Sensei passed away and for a time the navy people along with Dr. Hayashi and Eguchi continued to work together, although the healing and training moved to Hayashi-sensei’s own clinic. Treatments were now given on beds slightly raised above the floor, with 2 practitioners per patient, and there were no formal hand positions used. Most of the students formed a society (Gakkai) they called Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai under the leadership of Ushida. However some of the original Shinpiden had already returned to their own areas to teach independent of the Gakkai, forming their own schools. The terms “Reiki” and Reiho were for some now becoming the short name for the methodology of applying the high energy Ki attributed to Usui. Others still referred to it simply as Teàte. The Hayashi System By 1931, Dr. Hayashi had decided to further change his style of training, focusing more on the healing side of Reiki. He left the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai and changed his own school name to “Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai”. Until this point Hayashi had also been teaching the complete original teachings of Usui Sensei, as well as the modified approach. He had taught at least 12 students to the original Shichidan level of Usui Sensei’s method plus his own Teàte or hand healing style. One of these students was Tatsumi-san whom Dave King met in 1995. It is quite possible that this original style still exists quietly somewhere in Japan. Dr. Hayashi continued to make changes to his system and from 1935 to 1940 on his travels he would visit a village near Osaka and teach. One of his students, Mrs. Chiyoko Yamaguchi, went on to teach a Buddhist monk in 1997, Rev. Hyakuten Inamoto of Kyoto, along with 4 others in a simple weekly gathering in the back of her son’s (Tadao) stationery store). Inamoto-sensei began teaching this method along with other concepts and he now calls his system Komyo Reiki Kai. In 2000, Yamaguchi-sensei was encouraged by Doi-sensei to teach in the original Hayashi style she had learned. Her son Tadao immediately took over the school and named it Jikiden Reiki (the term refers to an old style of training where the teacher would imprint a part of himself on the student.)
The Hayashi System
By 1931, Dr. Hayashi had decided to further change his style of training, focusing more on the healing side of Reiki. He left the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai and changed his own school name to “Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai”. Until this point Hayashi had also been teaching the complete original teachings of Usui Sensei, as well as the modified approach. Dr. Hayashi focused more on his healing system, even abandoning many of the techniques the URR Gakkai was using. He continued to experiment with ways to improve the healing of others and he would even apply some of the spiritual tools involving symbols Usui had taught. For Hayashi, the original spiritual side to the system now seemed to take a back seat. Dr. Hayashi continued to make changes to his system and from 1935 to 1940 on his travels he would visit a village near Osaka and teach
Reiki Leaves Japan – The Takata Systems
In 1935 Mrs. Takata was receiving healing and training at Dr. Hayashi’s clinic and by 1938 she had returned to Hawaii to begin teaching her own version of Reiki calling it “Usui Shiki Ryoho” (note that on some of her certificates she used the term Usui Reiki Ryoho). Over the next 40 years she continued to change and adapt her system as she found suitable methods for those she taught and as she gained more and more experience as a healer. According to Arjava Petter’s book “The Hayashi Reiki Manual” in 1952 Mrs. Hayashi had asked her to take over the Hayashi school in Tokyo but Takata-sensei said she had changed the system too much to do so. Some of her changes involved adding in a structure of 12 hand positions for the front and back of the body, and combing the Shinpiden and Shihan levels into what she called Reiki 3 or Reiki Master. She retained the flexibility of Dr. Hayashi in allowing some students to progress through the levels much faster – sometimes just a week apart. Takata-sensei took her classes to the USA mainland in 1975 and to Canada in 1976, and soon she was teaching master level for the first time. She taught about 22 people at this level including 5 Canadians living in B.C. After she died, several of her students formed a master level support group called the Reiki Alliance. Over the next 2 decades the Alliance would try to standardize Reiki in the West, and would make changes from time to time as they saw fit. They continued to charge the fees set up by Takata-sensei but they added in restrictions to space out the training and required an apprenticeship at master level.
Traditional Reiki Reaches the West
Aside from the additional symbols, Western Reiki was now following the same path that Japan had experienced in the early years of Reiki – that of continued variation. In 1996 Dave King began to teach more Traditional Japanese Reiki concepts he had learned while traveling in Japan in the 1990s. These were based mainly on his work with a senior Hayashi student named Tatsumi who had trained and worked in the Tokyo clinic from 1927-31. Dave and colleague Melissa Riggall had originally trained in the Usui-Do and Usui Teàte spiritual styles and the Teàte styles of Eguchi and Hayashi in 1971 in Morocco with Eguchi student Yuji Onuki. It is important to note that these are not Reiki healing styles, and do not compete with Reiki or Usui Reiki Ryoho. However they are very effective methods of personal growth as originally presented by Mikao Usui Sensei. Finally, in 1999, Hiroshi Doi of Japan – a URR Gakkai member – and a German named Frank Arjava Petter (who lived and taught Reiki in Japan) began to travel to other parts of the world sharing original Japanese ideas. Some were complex while others where quite simple and intuitive. Doi-sensei also shared some of the original spiritual components retained within the URR Gakkai Reiki when he was hosted by me and several others at 5 annual Reiki conferences we called URR International, or URRI for short. Takata-sensei’s style of Reiki became known as Usui Reiki by many although it is not like the original method that Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai taught. However it may have been more appropriate for Westerners to learn as it had a more structured approach to Reiki, and like Hayashi Reiki, it was focused mainly on assisting healing with the self and others.
Reiki Evolving Again
The 1990s saw an explosion in new systems, many with shifted Reiki energy and new symbols. Kathleen Milner’s Tera-Mai system included new energies, like Patrick Ziegler’s Seichim, and also symbols received by her and her students. William Rand, who already had his Centre for Reiki Training style of Reiki, borrowed 9 of these symbols to create a master level training eventually called Karuna Reiki. The addition of new symbol energies into Reiki systems began to grow more and more as Spirit seemed to be nudging individuals to awaken their own personal energies
.Reference: http://www.threshold.ca/reiki/Reiki_styles.html
