Rainbow Woman Reiki. Reiki Master Teacher/Practitioner Patricia "Patty" Penner. Reiki. Tai Chi. Chi Gong. Lightbody.
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What is Reiki?

Reiki is a “hands on” healing modality that promotes relaxation and stress reduction which supports and accelerates your body's own ability to heal. Reiki allows everyone to tap into an unlimited supply of "divine life force energy" to improve their health and enhance the quality of their life. The system of Reiki as we know it today was developed by a Japanese Buddhist Monk named (Dr.) Mikao Usui around the turn of the century. Much new information on the history of Reiki and Dr. Usui was has come to light in the past several years, thanks to the tireless efforts of people like Frank Arjava Petter, William L. Rand, Chris Marsh and Hiroshi Doi and many others. Reiki is thought to be a combination of many ancient healing modalities and systems studied by Dr. Usui. Our Westernized version of Reiki was revised and revamped by his successors Dr. Chujiro Hayashi and Mrs. Hawayo Takata and the 22 people Mrs. Takata made teachers before her passing. The style of Reiki I teach is known as Traditional or Usui Reiki (Usui Shiki Ryoho). Now there are literally hundreds of styles of Reiki, in the United States and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Reiki Practitioners and Teachers worldwide.

See full size imageThe symbols for Reiki:
 
It is very difficult to translate the Japanese Kanji characters that we are all familiar with that represent Reiki (pronounced Ray-kee), into English. There is an older set of these characters that can be interpreted to mean "divine or spirit life force energy," and a newer set that can be interpreted to mean "universal life force energy." I prefer the older definition. As someone who has studied and practiced  T’ai Chi Chun and QiQong for more than two decades, both of which utilize or cultivate universal life force energy, or Chi (the energy that is all around us, in the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breath, nature exudes it, etc), I feel very strongly that Reiki comes from the source of what we call the Divine (whatever the Divine means to you – Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Kwan Yin, Great Spirit, God., etc) and refer to it as Divine Life force energy.


Mikao Usui
Mikao Usui was a Japanese Buddhist monk who also studied many energy and healing modalities and devised a system that we now call Reiki. In the now classic story, Usui fasted and meditated on a sacred mountain in Japan and had an “enlightenment” experience where he was given all the information on the system and its uses. There is much debate about this but it is generally accepted that this is how Usui received the information that validated his many year search for a hands-on-healing system and how to fully utilize it.

Dr. Chujiro Hayashi
Dr. Chujiro Hayashi (a retired Japanese naval officer) trained with Usui and later developed his own system of Reiki, opened a Reiki clinic and also trained other naval officers. Some say it was Hayashi who is responsible for the development of the Reiki symbols, not Usui.   Dr. Hayashi trained a woman named Hawayo Takata, a Japanese national living in Hawaii who came to Japan for healing of various mental and physical conditions. After being treated by Hayashi and his other Reiki practitioners, Mrs. Takata was healed of all her maladies.  After much convincing, Hayashi agreed to train her and eventually made her a Reiki Master Teacher.

Hawayo Takata
     Mrs. Takata is responsible for Reiki being taught and performed all over the entire planet; thanks to the 22 people she made Reiki Master Teachers before she passed. There are now hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Reiki Practitioners spread all over the Planet. Reiki, in the Western form is now experiencing a resurgence in Japan.
     Born in Japan she migrated to Hawaii and worked on a sugar cane plantation. She married the bookkeeper of the plantation and had two children. The bookkeeper died very young of a heart attack and left her virtually penniless.  A small, frail women she was not able to do the hard labor required of sugar cane field hands and soon became quiet ill. At this time, her sister living in Hawaii also, died and as is tradition in Japan, she was required to take her sisters ashes back to Japan for burial.  While in Japan she sought treatment for her many medical/emotional maladies.  While on the operating table (some say gallbladder some say tumors) she heard a voice directing her to “Get up, Get dressed and Leave” over and over.  She looked around but no one was there.  When the surgeon came in she told him what was happening and asked him if there was another way she could be treated and he suggested Hayashi’s clinic.  She was treated and healed of all her maladies by Hayashi and his students and went on to become what I call the “Mother” of modern day Reiki.

Reiki utilizes divine life force energy channeled through the practitioner's body and out their hands to restore health and a sense of well being. The divine intelligence of Reiki adjusts to each individual's needs, creating a customized healing session, and giving rise to the saying that it is an "intelligent" energy.  People who have experienced Reiki report a warm, loving energy wherever the practitioner's hands are applied. Reiki creates a deeply profound state of relaxation, which releases blocked energy within and around the body for accelerated healing. During a Reiki session, the client (receiver) lies on a massage table fully clothed with a sheet and/or blanket covering them, and Reiki is administered with a gentle touch using a series of hand positions on the body, or occasionally with the hands of the practitioner a couple of inches above the body.  Reiki also balances the chakras and is said to act as a pain reliever.

For more info on the latest findings regarding Reiki’s History:
http://www.threshold.ca/reiki/origins.html
http://www.reiki.org/currenttopics/history/truehist.html

The Five Principles of Reiki:

Mika Usui devised a set of precepts to live by as Reiki Practitioners (many liken them to Moses’ Ten Commandments) and are very much in the Buddhist tradition (Tendai).  These precepts are chanted daily by the practitioner and are considered a path to live by.  Here is one version: :

  1. Just for today I will live an attitude of gratitude

  2. Just for today I will not worry

  3. Just for today I will not anger

  4. Just for today I will do my work honestly

  5. Just for today I will show love and respect for all living things

Further resources on Reiki:


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Patty Penner.  Rainbow Woman Reiki.

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