What changes, Reiki practice or us?<\/p>\n
We, the practitioners, change if<\/em> we practice daily self Reiki diligently<\/a>. And why wouldn\u2019t we? That\u2019s what a spiritual practice is for, to improve our state so we\u2019re steadier and more content, more willing and able to transform our wrong understanding and heal the undigested emotion lingering within us so we can be happy, clear, and compassionate, regardless the situation.<\/p>\n But spiritual practices also change, if they\u2019re around long enough, especially if they jump cultures,\u00a0and even more so when they land in cultures that don\u2019t have a strong spiritual practice tradition (which of course is where they\u2019re most needed).<\/p>\n Spiritual practices such as meditation and Reiki have been exported to many other countries. On the surface, it seems those practices adapt naturally to each culture. The question is always whether the integrity of the practice is maintained in the process of adaptation. That\u2019s more likely to be the case where they are practiced with respect and diligence, which in turn is more likely when the culture receiving the practices already has a tradition of spiritual practice.<\/p>\n History gives us a relevant example. As Buddhism spread from northern India throughout Central and East Asia more than a thousand years ago, new forms developed, such as Zen and Tibetan Buddhism. The fact that these forms are practiced alongside the southern Asian Theravada Buddhism and that they all share many common values indicates those changes were adaptive, not arbitrary, that they occurred organically over time, as the practices were carried with respectful gratitude and integrated into different cultures.<\/p>\n Buddhism morphed over centuries, reaching more people while maintaining its core values. We can\u2019t count on that being true for Reiki practice.<\/p>\n The speed with which ideas can now be disseminated makes it much easier for misinformation and arbitrary changes to become fashionable and spread, changes that came from someone\u2019s mind rather than developing organically through diligent practice over time, changes untested by actual practice.<\/p>\n Change is inevitable, but is change good? That depends. Changes that occur organically as committed practitioners reap the benefits of dedicated practice over time don\u2019t seem to be a problem.<\/p>\n Arbitrary changes, however, often have unforeseen repercussions. These \u201cside effects\u201d are unforeseen solely due to the short sightedness of the practitioners who don\u2019t value traditional wisdom and feel it\u2019s their right to make changes on a whim.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t to say change is always a bad thing and never warranted. Not at all. Tradition can calcify and need to be revived. That kind of change isn\u2019t what\u2019s being addressed here.<\/p>\n Capricious changes can involve rearrangements that drop out an important detail. They could be additions that might actually weaken the practice or make it harder to practice. What good is a practice that\u2019s so complicated it isn\u2019t practiced?<\/p>\n This is what we\u2019re seeing with Tibetan Buddhism. The destruction of Tibetan monasteries led to the spread of Tibetan Buddhist practices throughout the world, and countless people have benefited.<\/p>\n But at same time, the complex Tibetan rituals practiced by monks whose lives are devoted to spiritual practice can\u2019t be transplanted from monastics to contemporary householders. As the population of monasteries declines, the practices need to be accessible to lay practitioners or the lineages will die out.<\/p>\n Many Reiki practice changes cannot be traced to their source because Americans (and others) made changes without acknowledging having made changes. That\u2019s brought a lot of confusion to Reiki history and lineages.<\/p>\n People often say, \u201cI\u2019m in Takata\u2019s lineage\u201d without realizing their practice is very different from what Hawayo Takata<\/a> taught. (For example, Takata didn\u2019t teach chakras<\/a>,\u00a0which aren\u2019t part of the Japanese system.)<\/p>\n Even the most traditional Reiki practitioners who say they practice Usui Reiki Ryoho likely don\u2019t practice as Reiki lineage founder Mikao Usui<\/a> taught. The organization Usui started in Japan, the Gakkai<\/a>, exists today and has about 500 members. It\u2019s likely even the Gakkai\u2019s practices have changed somewhat during its nearly 100 years.<\/p>\n Until recently, the United States has not had a strong tradition of independent spiritual practices. Spiritual practices such as prayer and Bible study were affiliated with religions and protected from change by religious dogma. If you grew up in a religious family, it likely never occurred to you to change the prayers you were taught by your parents or teachers, or to edit the Bible.<\/p>\n Reiki practice has no dogma and isn\u2019t protected by religious traditions or authority, so it was fair game for the American penchant for innovation.<\/p>\n American Reiki students didn\u2019t know that changing a spiritual practice arbitrarily is quite different from the adaptations that happen organically through practice over long periods of time, and that change for the sake of change weakens a practice. And given the changes were usually in the direction of a more complicated ritual than what Takata taught, most of the post-Takata changes made the practice less accessible. Whereas Tibetan Buddhist practices had to be made more accessible for householders, Takata\u2019s practice already had the advantage of simplicity and accessibility, making it possible for people living worldly lives to practice regularly and deepen their experience.<\/p>\n But Hawayo Takata also changed Reiki practice, as had her Reiki master Chujiro Hayashi, a direct student of Reiki founder Mikao Usui. The adaptive changes made by Takata and Hayashi came from their years of diligent practice. Those changes are a valuable part of Reiki history, perhaps critical to Reiki practice still being available today. They were not arbitrary changes made by restless minds.<\/p>\n How exactly did Takata change Reiki practice? To help address that question, I turned to my colleague, Reiki history scholar Justin Stein, Ph.D.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Justin Stein* learned Reiki practice in 2001. His daily self practice lapsed after a few years but he returned to it when he decided to devote his academic career to the history of Reiki practice. Justin\u2019s doctoral dissertation details how Reiki practice first formed in Japan and how it has morphed over the years. His research is especially valuable because he writes as both a practitioner and an academic. All research involves judgment calls, and Justin\u2019s years of Reiki practice help him discern what matters and what is of less import.<\/p>\n One of the things Justin\u2019s research has focused on is the period of Takata\u2019s apprenticeship under Hayashi, starting in Tokyo in December 1935. During this period, when Takata moved from being a patient at Hayashi\u2019s Reiki clinic to being one of the practitioners there, Hayashi recognized her as an exceptional student. He invited Takata to move into his family\u2019s home, becoming what the Japanese call an uchideshi <\/em>(\u201cinner disciple\u201d). She stayed with the Hayashis for some months, practicing daily in the clinic and making house calls. Before Takata returned to her home in Hawaii in June 1936, Hayashi gave her the shinpiden <\/em>initiation, equivalent to what we now call the Master Degree.<\/p>\n Hayashi wrote on Takata\u2019s shinpiden <\/em>certificate that, although she had not studied Reiki practice for \u201ca long period of time, due to a combination of natural talent and sincere enthusiasm, she diagnoses quickly, reliably gives effective treatments, and has the \u2018wonderful ability\u2019 (reinou<\/em>) to cure every type of illness\u201d (Justin\u2019s translation).<\/p>\n Takata\u2019s presentation of Reiki practice continued to develop during the remaining 42 years of her life and career. She made adjustments that seem geared to support her American students, knowing they not only lacked the cultural context in which Japanese students learned Reiki practice, but also were unlikely to get as in-depth training and follow-up as Japanese students received.<\/p>\n Within 10 years, Takata was teaching the foundation treatment<\/a>, a standard protocol<\/a> that was the basis for all treatment. Takata encouraged students to follow their hands while using the protocol, lingering where they sensed the need or experienced sensation.<\/p>\n During the 1970s, Takata settled into the \u201cuniversal life force\u201d or \u201cuniversal life force energy\u201d translations now often used to define Reiki (unfortunately too often given as pat answers that stop conversation rather than stimulate contemplation of what universal life force energy is<\/em>) .<\/p>\n Takata\u2019s translations of the Reiki Principles<\/a>\u00a0(also called the Reiki Precepts) morphed over time. A 1948 version sounded like an addendum to the Ten Commandments, but was later softened to be more conversational. Still, the translation she presented of the middle precepts bears no resemblance to the Japanese original, \u201cwith thankfulness, work diligently.\u201d<\/p>\n Justin offers insightful perspective on this change. By the 1970s, many of Takata\u2019s students were hippies or had a youthful counter-cultural bent that didn\u2019t respect authority or tradition. But in spiritual practice, after you\u2019ve chosen to learn a practice from a teacher, there comes a time to settle into a deferential relationship with that teacher, to follow her guidance with gratitude and respect.<\/p>\n Japanese and Japanese American students didn\u2019t need to be taught that, as respect for teachers was a strong cultural value with which they had been socialized from an early age. But Justin points out that Americans didn\u2019t have the same respect for authority or traditional values. Takata\u2019s addition of the precept \u201chonor your parents, teachers and elders\u201d may have been aimed at giving her students much needed guidance, not only for their sake, but also to protect Reiki practice going forward.<\/p>\n Japanese students, for example, would respect their teacher too much to make arbitrary changes to the practice or (gasp) to the initiations. They would understand that their teacher had a more informed perspective than theirs, and that the best way to advance would be to practice diligently as they were taught.<\/p>\n In the 1970s, Takata began telling her students a story detailing how Usui had given Reiki treatment to beggars and helped them start a new life, only to have them return to the beggar colony because life in the work-a-day world was too hard. This was not a factual account, but a teaching story to introduce her American students to Japanese values that would support them and the practice.<\/p>\n Justin views the story of Usui giving treatment to beggars without requiring anything from them as communicating the importance of reciprocity. That concept, sometimes referred to as an exchange of energy, is another value Japanese students would have but Americans would not necessarily, or at least not to the same degree.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One thing that did not change from Usui through Takata, however, which she also expresses in the story of Usui helping the beggars, was the primacy of healing what I\u2019ll call the heart\/mind. The Japanese term is kokoro<\/em> and (as with Reiki), there simply isn\u2019t an English equivalent.<\/p>\n Balancing the heart\/mind sets the foundation for lasting healing. This isn\u2019t recognized in conventional (evidence-based hospital) medicine with its focus on body parts, but it\u2019s understood in every traditional, indigenous medical system I\u2019ve come across (I\u2019m not an academic, but medical anthropology is a lifelong interest of mine). Traditional African medicine states explicitly there is no lasting benefit without a change in consciousness, aka balancing the heart\/mind.<\/p>\n Reiki is a spiritual practice empowered by initiations carried by a lineage. At every level, the benefits of Reiki practice stem from healing the heart\/mind. That value has remained constant even as superficial changes were made to Reiki practice.<\/p>\n Our understanding of Reiki practice can be enriched by knowledge of those who came before us, especially our Reiki founder, Mikao Usui, and the masters who brought Reiki practice from Japan to the United States, Chujiro Hayashi and Hawayo Takata. Yet everything needs to be seen in perspective.<\/p>\n Western Reiki students and professionals often look to their lineage to authenticate their practice. As more information about Reiki history and especially Usui\u2019s practice becomes available, there is a tendency among some American Reiki practitioners to value the new knowledge of Usui\u2019s practice as the real McCoy, as inherently more legitimate and authentic.<\/p>\n Too much outer focus on Reiki history misses the point of spiritual practice and healing the heart\/mind. We don\u2019t have to practice precisely as Usui did to reap the benefits of the practice lineage he started. But we do have to practice, and practice consistently and with gratitude: with thankfulness, work diligently.<\/em><\/p>\n Any sense of less-than cannot be removed by buying another certificate or adding another lineage to your Reiki family tree<\/a>. The authenticity of practice is found in the healing that happens within us, that settling of the heart\/mind, as we dive into daily self practice diligently over time.<\/p>\n A practice that deviates somewhat from that of Usui, Hayashi or Takata isn\u2019t wrong or less than; it\u2019s different. And sometimes it\u2019s so different it might warrant being called something other than Reiki practice<\/a>, but that doesn\u2019t negate its value.<\/p>\n If we don\u2019t practice as Usui, Hayashi or Takata did, is it sufficient to rely on being in their lineages to authenticate our practice?<\/p>\n Rather than looking to such outer hallmarks as a pedigreed lineage, when we commit to daily self practice of the practice we have<\/a>, we discover authenticity in our own hands and the increasing steadiness of our heart\/mind.<\/p>\n It\u2019s so very American \u2014 memorialized on social media as FOMO \u2014 to forever look outside for fear of missing out on something better. Instead, we could turn inward through regular self practice and discover just how good what we already have is.<\/p>\n *Justin B. Stein (PhD, Study of Religion, University of Toronto) is an instructor in Asian Studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. His doctoral thesis (2017) examined the development of Reiki in mid-twentieth-century Japan, Hawaii, and North America. He has written several scholarly articles and given numerous presentations on the subject. You can read some of\u00a0<\/span>Justin\u2019s scholarly articles online<\/a>\u00a0or connect with\u00a0<\/span>Justin on Facebook<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n _____________________<\/p>\n I cambiamenti nel Reiki<\/a>\u00a0is an Italian translation of this article you can print and share as is, without copying or changing the content or presentation in any way.<\/p>\n _____________________<\/p>\n INVITING HAPPINESS: Engaging the Reiki Precepts live, interactive online retreat<\/a><\/p>\nHow spiritual practices change<\/h2>\n
When speed becomes an impediment<\/h2>\n
Who changed Reiki practice?<\/h2>\n
Reiki history in the United States<\/h2>\n
Introducing Justin Stein<\/h2>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nTakata and Hayashi bring Reiki practice to Hawaii<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Hayashi spent 5 months in Hawaii helping Takata establish Reiki practice. She gave many classes and presentations under the watchful eye of her Reiki master. As he left Hawaii to return home in February 1938, Hayashi made a public announcement that Takata was a fully credentialed Reiki master, and the only one outside Japan.<\/p>\nHow Takata changed Reiki practice to support non-Japanese students<\/h2>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nOne Reiki practice constant<\/h2>\n
Authenticity \u2014 why Reiki history matters, and when it doesn\u2019t<\/h2>\n