Who was Dr. Mikao Usui?

Mikao Usui was born on August 15, 1865 in the town of Taniai in Japan, not far from where Nagoyo is today. His family had lived here for eleven generations and Mikao was born into the Tendai sect of Esoteric Buddhism. At a very young age he was sent to a Tendai monastery to receive his primary education. He continued his Buddhist education until he became a Tendai lay priest.

The Tiantai teaching was first brought to Japan by Chinese monks in the 8th century. It soon became what became the Japanese Tendai. The Japanese Tendai did not deviate substantially from the beliefs created by the Tiantai school in China.

The Tendai sect flourished under the patronage of the imperial family and became the dominant form of mainstream Buddhism in Japan and was also the basis for most developments in later Japanese Buddhism.

Mikao Usui was also influenced by Shintoism, the traditional faith of the Japanese people before contact with China. The original Shintoism was a very simple religion and had only one mandate: the need to be loyal to the ancestors. Its early aspects were naturalistic, including spiritism, totemism, and nature worship. The early Japanese worshiped the sun, thunder, earth, tigers, snakes, all three, stones, etc. A later stage has a more intellectual and ethical orientation.

As Mikao grew up, Japanese society underwent great changes. Now it was beginning to open up to the west again. For the first time since foreigners were allowed into the country in the 1640s, the ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873 and the country abandoned a feudal society and adapted to an industrialized society.

Mikao was an enthusiastic student and received his doctorate in literature, spoke several languages, and studied Western medicine, theology, and philosophy. He had the opportunity to travel to China, the United States and Europe where he could develop his studies.

Early in his adult life, Mikao lived in Kyoto with his wife and two children. He had several carriers as a businessman, and at one point was also Count Shinpei Goto’s private secretary. At the same time, he continued his spiritual studies and became involved with a group called Rei Jyutsu Kai. This group had a temple (Kurama-dera) at the base of the Kurama-yama mountain.

Mikao Usui is also said to practice Shugenja in addition to Tendai Buddhism. Shugenja is a Japanese mountain ascetic shamanism that incorporates Shinto and Buddhist practices.

Around 1900, Mikao fell very ill when an epidemic swept through Kyoto. He had a near death experience in which he had a vision and instruction from the Buddha Mahavairovana. This was a very important experience for Mikao and it made him rethink his life. He turned his mind to the esoteric science of healing as thought by the Buddha, and developed a compassionate desire to be able to learn healing methods to benefit humanity.

Mikao went on to study Shingon Buddhism to find explanations for his vision. This led to a confrontation with his family that declared him a traitor to the family and ancestors.

He spent a lot of time and money studying Buddhist scriptures, particularly healing techniques and energy disciplines. For many years he continued to study and practice the Buddhist teachings. Over time, he became a respected and scholarly Buddhist teacher with a following of students.

In 1914 he went on a meditation retreat at the Kurama-yama monastery. It is believed that during this retreat he was able to merge all his knowledge and come to an understanding of how he could work with divine life energy.

He first practiced the new healing technique on himself and his friends before, at a later stage, offering his healing to the residents of Kyoto. This gave him the opportunity to hone and refine the healing method, later known as Reiki healing.

In 1922 he moved to Tokyo and opened a Reiki clinic where he practiced and also taught the Reiki system to his students. He founded Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, that is, the Usui Spiritual Energy Therapy Society, which is a society of Japanese Reiki masters that still exist today.

After the 1923 Kanto earthquake in Tokyo, where more than 140,000 people died and more than three million people were left homeless overnight, Mikao and his students took to the streets and offered Reiki healing to countless victims.

His fame quickly spread throughout Japan and he began to receive invitations from all over the country. His schedule grew tighter as requests for teaching increased. He traveled all over Japan giving healings and teachings. On March 9, 1926, he died unexpectedly of a stroke at the age of 62.