Chapter 2: Receiving Your Attunement

For those who are new to Reiki, we can understand how this blossoming of many Reiki teachings can also mean that there is some confusion about Reiki. We understand that it can be confusing when searching for ‘authentic’ Reiki techniques, healing practices and Reiki lineages. So in order to help clear up some of this confusion, let us now talk a little more about the idea of the Reiki lineage. And as we do this, we will also try to explain how some of these various lineages have emerged in the modern day world of Usui Reiki. ***

To start with then, having now seen that Reiki is a healing modality taught from Master to disciple, you can perhaps start to see how this would create a chain of people who are authorised or qualified to pass on the Reiki teachings i.e. Master to student (who then becomes Master), Master to student, Master to student etc.

In all cases, all of these chains will lead back to the original founder - Dr Mikao Usui. And this is what we mean when we say an authentic or genuine Usui Reiki lineage. It is the idea that your Reiki Master Teacher should be able to trace their lineage back to Dr Mikao Usui. Otherwise, if you do not receive an authentic Reiki lineage, you will not be connecting with the same energies that Dr Mikao Usui ‘brought through’ as part of his Mt Kurama realisation. This is a very important point. When we talk about Reiki, we will ofen refer to this healing system as ‘Usui Reiki’. This is because of the great number of additional Reiki’s which have emerged during the 21st century that are not originating from Dr Mikao Usui. These other forms of Reiki are now being brought through by a great variety of different people, spiritual teachers and other channels & mediums and whilst many of these energy based healing systems are indeed valid & genuine - they are not the same energies that were ‘brought through’ by Dr Mikao Usui. So for our purposes here, we will be focusing solely on the Usui Reiki lineages (given that this is an Usui Reiki course) and we will not be talking any more about at any of the newer forms of Reiki such as Karuna Reiki, Kundalini Reiki, Celestine Reiki etc. (For more information about a broader definition of ‘Reiki’ and to help introduce you to some of the newer forms of Reiki and energy based healing, we kindly ask that you refer to our FAQ’s page where you can find more information about Reiki in a broader context). Ok, so getting back to the Usui Reiki lineages now and to the idea that the lineages are created through a continual teaching pattern from Master to student, we can understand that the global Reiki lineage these days is actually extremely complicated!

Reiki

For example, we have just read now that Dr Mikao Usui initiated 16 Reiki masters including Dr Hayashi who then went on to teach Hawayo Takata, and presumably many others. Hawayo Takata then then went onto teach 22 different disciples by the 1980’s. So just this small example (without accounting for the explosion of Reiki throughout the world), we can start to see just how many different lineages of Reiki can be spread and how there can be slight differences between these different lineages. For example, Dr Mikao Usui’s students will be practising Reiki in the way that it was taught to them. Mrs Takata’s students will be practising Reiki in the way that it was taught to them and Mr Hayashi’s students will be practising Reiki as it was taught to them. As each Reiki Master becomes acquainted with the Reiki teachings in their own way, each time, we will see a slight deviation or variation from the original Reiki teachings - and this is a very natural part of the learning and awakening process. We are all very different and we all process things in different ways. *** As an example of this, Hawayo Takata is said to have passed on these Reiki teachings slightly differently to each of her 22 students depending on their capacity to learn, so even just within this one lineage, there will be some differences between the different Reiki techniques and healing practices. And if you do further research into the different schools of Reiki on the internet, you will see that this is one of the main reasons why there has been some disputes or disagreements in the past within the global Reiki community. For Love Inspiration, we honour and respect all Reiki teachings, all Reiki practices and all lineages and we believe that they all have an equal share of Reiki authenticity. We believe that everyone is very different and will quite naturally connect with the Reiki energies in a variety of different ways. Furthermore, with many Reiki healing techniques now being available, this means that we are very blessed to have a wide range of choice in how to work with the Reiki energies. How wonderful!

For now though, we would like to point out here that it is important that your Reiki Master Teacher is someone who has received the Reiki energies from an authentic lineage and that this lineage can be traced back to Dr Mikao Usui. Love Inspiration’s own Reiki lineage is the Hawayo Takata Lineage, one of the most common Reiki lineages throughout the world. And as we’ve said in our introduction to this course, we have also opened up to receiving a wide variety of other teachings, healing techniques & attunements from other Reiki lineages also. (See the FAQ “Can you explain about the Love Inspiration Usui Reiki lineages?” for further information on the Love Inspiration Usui Reiki lineages).