Usui Shiki Reiki Ryoho
Reiki, Lineage, and Oral Tradition.
In Traditional Reiki, as in some forms of martial arts, lineage is associated with oral traditions of
teaching, with relationships between teachers and students, and with the
teacher's relationship to the body of knowledge entrusted to him or her by the
teachers who came before. The concept of
lineage obviously embodies old values not currently in vogue in the West. For
instance, being in a traditional lineage requires of the teacher a deep honor
for inherited knowledge that includes the commitment to abide by rules and ways
of doing that come down from elders honored as wiser and more knowing than the
new generation teacher--or even the teacher's immediate master. Respect for the wisdom of those who came before
is preserved and conveyed forward in time through subtle bonds of commitment
that are in themselves part of the energetic transmission of knowledge.
Reiki Masters in unbroken lineages experience these bonds as a process, as a continual unfolding of the wisdom within the energy that guides the way in which Reiki must be held by its human keepers. This ever growing understanding of Reiki can only be acquired through time and experience, with those whose awareness is already more mature allowed to guide the way. Such is the practical nature of lineage.
The important point for westerners to
understand is that the obligation a teacher owes to his or her own teacher is
not grounded in personal rights or personal ego. The bond between sensei and kohai, between teacher and student, lies in an integrity that
demands we accept the obligation of a long-established, hereditary promise and act upon it without dissension,
without demanding logical explanations at every step, without the modifications
our egos would impose. Such is not an
easy mentality for Americans to adopt.
Submission of the individual will and ego to the demands of honor,
integrity, and tradition are quite distasteful to our sense of freedom and
individuality. We are usually willing to tolerate such restraints only during
war time or military service where the common good can be served no other way.
The message here is old, unwavering. In the end, there
are no shortcuts. Those truly interested in finding the most complete training in Reiki must finally go to the well, to
those who have accepted responsibility for preserving the integrity of the knowledge they carry.
For training at the practitioner level as well as the master's level, you have to be able to discern which lineages are intact, i.e., in which are the bonds of integrity between Sensei (older teacher) and Sempei (younger teacher) unbroken, in which has the core knowledge not been changed, lost, or contaminated. Such discernment must be based on some good old fashioned research to discover who is in what lineage and where the most complete knowledge is held, not always an easy task. For the would be teacher such training will demand deep commitment and a willingness to go beyond the obvious and the simplistic. It will cost you money and time, and it will not be easy.
So what are you looking for? How will you know when you find it?
In western Reiki, integrity of lineage and oral transmission is maintained in only a few of the lineages that descend
from Hawayo Takata. In those lineages, Takata's teaching and methods of attunement have been accurately
preserved and handed forward through Masters willing and able to hold the mark.
As a result, a great deal of Reiki knowledge, even additional abilities, remain
in some of the unbroken lineages that have been lost in those in which the
bond between Master and student never existed or was broken through individual
choices.
The hallmark of unbroken lineage is that ultimately, current fashion, popular ideas of what should and should
not be done, the demands of individual ego, and the bickering of politics do
not matter. A few years ago people honestly believed "all Reiki is the
same," but in the last decade or so enough practitioners have been cross-
trained in different lineages and forms of Reiki for it to become clear that the original techniques open specific frequencies of energy in students' hands and
that changes to those techniques alter the energies.
We now know there are many different frequencies of energy that are called "reiki.", and that many are not the same ones originally used and taught by Dr. Usui, the Japanese man who originally re-discovered the healing energies called "Reiki." Since the word "reiki" is not trademarked, it can be--and has been--applied to a range of practices that have nothing to do with the original Reiki Method of Healing taught in Japan and then in the West by Hawayo Takata, the Japanese women who brought Reiki to the West.
Most of the different energies called "Reiki" are healing, some are not, and a very few have long term deleterious effects on the practitioner. The only way a student can verify
which of the energies called "reiki" he or she will receive is by
knowing something about the nature of Reiki lineage in general and about the
specific lineage of the master who will do the teaching and attuning.
Masters in unbroken lineages do not have a large presence on the web. So you can know them when you see them, the hallmarks of Reiki Masters in unbroken lineages are:
They can tell you the names of all the masters in their lineage, i.e., from themselves back to Dr. Usui.
See WW Lineage
for an example.
They always give four (4) and only four attunements at First Degree.
They will never teach First and Second Degree in the same weekend, much less mastership.
They require some waiting period after First Degree before Second Degree, often six months or longer.
Traditional Masters do not train someone else's students in Second Degree or mastership; all training is done by the same Master. If s a student wishes to study under another Master, he or she must begin again with First Degree.
Mastership is by invitation after two to five years or longer as a practitioner.
There is a $10,000 fee for Mastership training, which takes a year or longer.
Training of masters and advanced students in the use of the energies is primarily oral, although there may be manuals and handbooks geared to specific teaching contexts the master uses to prepare students to use Reiki effectively.
Copyright © 2003 Suzanne E. Parnell, Ph.D., RM
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