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Does it still count as writing every day if sometimes the computer eats it? ;-)
July 19th, 2003
There is a story told among Reiki practitioners of the lost symbols of the ancient art of Reiki which await rediscovery. Of hundreds of symbols that have been lost to the art, and of how the symbols of Usui are the first to have been reclaimed.
As far as I can tell from my research into the actual history of Reiki, this story is entirely fictional. Usui Reiki started out entirely without symbols, and they were later added only to give people a mnemonic aid for the various levels or flavors of energy. Further, Reiki has a fairly clear and direct connection to other healing arts such as qi gong, and there is no evidence to connect it with a mysterious lost art from a lost culture or another world, although it is entirely possible that similar arts have been practiced in such places. The lineage of Reiki, however, does not trace to those places unless it was at a point far in the remote history of energetic healing techniques on this world, long before Usui was even born. And even then, since the symbols he used were not unique to Reiki, it can hardly be said that he rediscovered any lost symbols. Even the name Reiki was in use to describe other energetic healing techniques in japan at that time, and Usui actually referred to his technique as Usui Reiki Ryoho.
So... what to do about the myth? Discard it as worthless, since it seems to have no historical basis? That's my first inclination, but I'm not at all sure that's the right thing to do. Maybe we need a myth for something like Reiki... maybe it will help us connect with a greater vision of what Reiki is and could become.
Maybe those thousands of symbols and lost cultures and other worlds using an advanced form of Reiki are not a memory of the past... but a vision of the future.
What a myth that would be. :)
As far as I can tell from my research into the actual history of Reiki, this story is entirely fictional. Usui Reiki started out entirely without symbols, and they were later added only to give people a mnemonic aid for the various levels or flavors of energy. Further, Reiki has a fairly clear and direct connection to other healing arts such as qi gong, and there is no evidence to connect it with a mysterious lost art from a lost culture or another world, although it is entirely possible that similar arts have been practiced in such places. The lineage of Reiki, however, does not trace to those places unless it was at a point far in the remote history of energetic healing techniques on this world, long before Usui was even born. And even then, since the symbols he used were not unique to Reiki, it can hardly be said that he rediscovered any lost symbols. Even the name Reiki was in use to describe other energetic healing techniques in japan at that time, and Usui actually referred to his technique as Usui Reiki Ryoho.
So... what to do about the myth? Discard it as worthless, since it seems to have no historical basis? That's my first inclination, but I'm not at all sure that's the right thing to do. Maybe we need a myth for something like Reiki... maybe it will help us connect with a greater vision of what Reiki is and could become.
Maybe those thousands of symbols and lost cultures and other worlds using an advanced form of Reiki are not a memory of the past... but a vision of the future.
What a myth that would be. :)
Wow... I'm pretty sure that with this ruling Connecticut just invalidated one of the main reasons for the constitutional right to bear arms.
http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-sc0715.artjul15,0,4155120.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-sc0715.artjul15,0,4155120.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
