On Gendai,
Jikiden, and Komyo:
Just how 'traditional' are these 'Japanese Reiki' styles?
Copyright
© 2008 James Deacon
Gendai Reiki
Ho: a brief glimpse behind the hype...
Gendai
Reiki Ho, the system taught by Hiroshi Doi, is a modern
invention (its name literally means Modern Reiki Method).
It is quite obviously based on western Radiance Technique Reiki
(which Doi learnt from Mieko Mitsui - a student of Radiance Technique
founder Barbara Ray), though with numerous additional techniques
and practices (several, claimed by Doi to be 'original' Reiki
techniques, several others probably borrowed/adapted from other
healing and related arts, and even some*
created by Doi himself).
Doi
has stated that at the time he learnt 'western-style' Reiki, he
was seeking to develop his own healing technique by uniting various
systems he had already learned.
Amongst the systems he mentions are: Nishino Breathing, Shinmeikan
Healing, SAS Shinkko, Genkyoku Kiko, Crystal Healing, Kihodo Healing,
Hypnotic Kiko, Osteopathy, Energy Balancing, Astral Healing, Silva
Mind Control Method, the Natural Vibration technique, Seikiho,
Dokiho, Balance Therapy, & Multi-dimensional Body Work....
So,
just how heavily has Gendai Reiki Ho been influenced by these
various, non-Reiki, modalities?
As
mentioned, in promoting his newly created Gendai Reiki Ho, Doi,
shared some techniques which he claimed were original Usui
Reiki Ryoho techniques - as practiced by the fabled Usui Reiki
Ryoho Gakkai ...
Now,
several people have commented how it is perhaps primarily
due to the hype generated around these so-called 'original Reiki
techniques' that Gendai Reiki Ho caught the attention/imagination
of the Reiki community in the first place - that without this
hype, Gendai Reiki Ho may have in fact gone the same way as any
number of other, modern-day, 'chakra-ridden' New Age Reiki styles....
In
fact, probably due to this hype around the 'original Reiki techniques',
many people now seem to think of Gendai Reiki Ho as actually being
'traditional' Usui Reiki Ryoho; however, it must be stated that
Doi himself has pointed out that what he teaches is not
Usui Reiki Ryoho - that he has never taught Usui Reiki
Ryoho (Which, of course, not being a Gakkai Shinpiden, he would
not be trained/entitled to do)
In
an extract from the English translation of a 2006 announcement,
Doi states:
"I
have taught nothing but Gendai Reikiho until now, and I will never
teach anything else in the future as well....
...Gendai
Reikiho does include traditional techniques. However, if a Master
simply picks out these techniques and says that I teach both Gendai
Reikiho and Usui Reiki Ryoho, this is wrong. I never taught anything
but Gendai Reikiho Seminars, and this will remain the same in
the future...."
[*
Most
notably, the reiju process!
Doi has pointed out (though not loudly enough, it seems...)
that the particular version of reiju used and taught in Gendai
Reiki Ho is his own creation - his attempt to replicate
the experience of receiving the reiju empowerment as used by the
Gakkai - something that Doi, not being a Gakkai master, has not
learnt how to perform]
*
* * * *
Jikiden:
Some things that do not seem to 'sit' quite right...
It was only
a few years before her passing that Chiyoko Yamaguchi began teaching
Reiki under the name 'Jikiden'.
Jikiden claims to be Reiki as Hayashi-sensei taught it.
Yet Mrs Yamaguchi apparently had no knowledge of the DKM
being used as a Reiki symbol, and was not aware of the
term 'shinpiden' being used for the third level either...
In defence of this, it has been suggested that perhaps Hayashi-sensei
didn't use the term shinpiden.
However, we know from Takata-sensei's diary that he did.
It has also been suggested by some that the DKM was not yet used
as a Reiki symbol at the time of Mrs Yamaguchi's training - that
this was something introduced by Hayashi-sensei himself at a later
date!
However, the use of DKM as an initiating symbol was indeed part
of the system when both Takata-sensei and Chie Hayashi (Chujiro
Hayashi's wife) were initiated as Reiki Masters.
Having been initiated to Master Level some time around
1936, Takata-sensei had completed her Master level training
(- she received her certification as a Reiki Master in February
1938 - ) more than a year and a half before Mrs Yamaguchi
claims to have completed her training (training received,
not from Hayashi-sensei, but from her own uncle, Wasaburo
Sugano, who had apparently been one of Hayashi-sensei's students)
So
if Mrs Yamaguchi had not heard the term shinpiden, and was not
taught the DKM,
had her uncle taken it upon himself to alter Hayashi-sensei's
teachings?
Or perhaps, had Mrs Yamaguchi not actually been given level three
initiation and training at all?
(Could it be that, unlike Hayashi-sensei, Wasaburo Sugano didn't
hold with the idea of women learning the complete system?)
It
is interesting that the other three symbols, as taught in Jikiden,
are slightly different from the ones Takata-sensei had learnt
earlier as part of her level 2 internship with Hayashi-sensei
(in 1936).
[The
Jikiden version of the 'power' symbol is actually very similar
to one of the modern 'alternative CKR's' created by western Reiki
practitioners in the early/mid 1990's...]
And
not only does Jikiden seem to break with tradition by teaching
the first symbol at level 1 (similarly to the the way in which
the modern Japanese 'Reido Reiki' style teaches a new, 'non-traditional'
symbol at level 1); Jikiden symbols also have different names
to those learnt by Takata-sensei, and
what, in Usui Shiki Ryoho, we
refer to as the 'distance symbol', Jikiden classes not as a symbol,
but as a jumon.
Even though it is claimed by some that both Usui-sensei and Hayashi-sensei
provided training manuals for their students, when she started
teaching Reiki (informally) in the 90's, Mrs Yamaguchi did not.
[Shades of Usui Shiki Ryoho...]
She
didn't provide manuals when Hyakuten Inamoto (founder of Komyo Reiki)
trained with her (1996-7). It seems she only began to provide them
when she later began to teach on a formal basis. (A response, it
seems, to the inability of some western students to memorise the
symbols as used in Jikiden, and also, to their confusion about the
lack of training materials.)
Also,
it seems, when she began teaching in the 90's, Mrs Yamaguchi did not
provide certificates for her students, and there was no specific
format to the training – in particular, no clear division
between the levels as now taught under the 'brand name' Jikiden.
Apparently,
when Hyakuten Inamoto began training with Mrs Yamaguchi, her son,
Tadao, showed little interest in Reiki (it seems he was involved with
Johrei healing at the time).
However
by the time Mrs Yamaguchi began to teach formally (around 1999-2000)
Tadao had become actively involved (- and now stresses his involvement
with Reiki since childhood...)
According
to Hyakuten (who would technically
have been the 'senior' student at the time?), although he had
been taught how to do so, Mrs Yamaguchi instructed him not to
teach Jikiden to others - as Tadao wished to be the only individual
to bear her direct lineage.
[A
case of 'Keeping it in the family'?]
Mrs
Yamaguchi claimed she used to have copies of Hayash-sensei's notes and
other Reiki-related materials. It had been said that these were all
lost in a fire while she was living in Manchuria; however, in
another account, all her Reiki-related materials, including her Reiki Certificate were apparently lost on board the ship bringing her back to Japan from Manchuria.
We do know that
in the last years of her life she had a copy of Hayashi-sensei's
'Healing Guidelines' (the Hayashi Ryoho Shishin) in her
possession - however it transpires this copy of the Guidelines
was actually a gift from Canadian Reiki Teacher Rick Rivard!
The
Jikiden lineage is given as: Usui - Hayashi - Yamaguchi; though,
as Mrs Yamaguchi admitted she did not complete her training with
Hayashi-sensei, but apparently with her uncle Wasaboro Sugano,
there should really be another link in the lineage-chain…
Could it be that Wasaburo Sugano was simply omitted from the lineage
in an attempt to put Mrs Yamaguchi on the same level, lineage-wise,
as Takata-sensei?
Or could there be some other reason?
It
has defensively (and IMO, somewhat confusingly) been suggested
that it was not necessary to include Wasaboro in the lineage -
that Hayashi-sensei's name appears in place of Wasaboro's
because, at the time of Chiyoko's training with her uncle, Hayashi-sensei
was head of the school (the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai), and thus,
the name of the head of the school - rather than the name of the
actual teacher appears in the lineage, as it was with the permission
of the head of the school that the teacher had trained the student?!
However, to the best of my knowledge (and also based on some personal
experience), in Japanese disciplines (Spiritual, martial, therapeutic,
or otherwise) where lineal instruction/initiation is important,
your immediate instructor/teacher in that lineage is always
acknowledged.
To
dis-acknowledge your actual teacher by omitting them from
that lineage is to dishonour both the teacher and yourself.
And
by the very nature of lineage, the head of the given school is
automatically already acknowledged in the 'teaching chain'.
For
the chain to be broken by omission is perhaps one of the most
disrespectful things one can do.
The
only 2 instances I'm personally aware of where a teacher has been
omitted from a lineage was where that particular individual did
not have the 'license' (i.e. right/permission) to train a student
to the given level - and in both cases the student was, as a matter
of course retrained and mentored by the 'unauthorised' teachers
own teacher, thus providing an amended lineage...
And
why, if Jikiden is supposedly Reiki as taught by Hayashi-sensei,
has the 'teacher' level now been broken up into 2 parts (a practice
originating in some Western styles of Reiki that were imported
into Japan in the 90's)
Also,
I find it interesting that, especially after all the hoo-haa about
the spurious nature of the 'Grandmaster' title in Reiki - and
how it was never used by Hayashi-sensei or Usui-sensei - Jikiden
has, relatively recently, acquired the new 'uber'-level of dai
shihan.
You
see, while the term dai shihan is commonly used to indicate
a senior instructor, it also has the meaning: Grandmaster...
[In
the Jikiden teaching structure, those who have achieved the first
part of level 3 (referred to as Shihan-Kaku - 'assistant
teacher') are permitted to initiate students to level 1 (shoden).
Those who have achieved the second part of level 3 (referred to
as Shihan - 'teacher) are permitted to initiate students
to both level 1 (shoden) and level 2 (okuden). A Dai-shihan
l can initiate levels 1, 2 and 3.
While
this type of teaching structure is also used by certain other
modern styles of Reiki in Japan, such as Reido Reiki, it is actually
derived from the structure found within Radiance Technique
Reiki - the first, modified and augmented, Western style
of Reiki to be introduced to Japan in the 1980's...]
*
* * * *
Komyo:
a Reiki hybrid for the New Millenium...
Komyo Reiki Kai is based primarily on the Reiki training
Komyo's creator Hyakuten Inamoto received from Chiyoko Yamaguchi.
As
mentioned above, Hyakuten trained with Mrs Yamaguchi in the late 90's, however Mrs Yamaguchi had instructed him not to teach Jikiden to others.
It seems it was primarily in response to this that Hyakuten chose to begin teaching
Reiki under the name 'Komyo' (or more fully: 'Komyo Reiki Kai').
While Komyo contains much of what Hyakuten learnt from Mrs Yamaguchi,
it actually appears to be the product of a blending of techniques, practices
and beliefs from several different sources:
Komyo
would seem to include elements drawn from Hiroshi Doi's modern Gendai Reiki
Ho teachings. (Hyakuten had spent a good deal of time acting
as Doi's interpreter, and had obviously been influenced by Doi's
approach to Reiki)
It has further elements from what seems to be Rand-lineage western
Reiki (including a reiju version of Rand's non-permanent 'healing
attunement'), and Komyo also uses a 4-level structure which is
very reminiscent of the 4-level - 1, 2, (3)ART, (3a)Master - format
of teaching used by many Rand and many 'independent' western Reiki
Teachers.
And
Hyakuten has also 'adopted' the use of the DKM symbol into his
Reiki practice - a symbol which, as stated, was not something
found in Jikiden (at least, not originally)...
Also, unlike Jikiden, Komyo does not teach the first symbol until
level 2...
There
have been other changes also, in relation to the use of
the jumon associated with each symbol:.
For
some time Hyakuten had apparently been teaching the jumon as an optional
practice; however now it seems Hyakuten may have finally made
the decision to abandon the use of the jumon altogether.
In order to reflect his own Buddhist beliefs, Hyakuten has chosen
to give Komyo a particularly Buddhist flavour which is not present
in the styles he has borrowed from.
Amongst
other things, early on in Komyo's development, he introduced three
Buddhist mudras: jo sango, renge bu sanmaya, and butsu Bu sanmaya
into Komyo. These mudras, to be used in the Komyo Reiki attunement/reiju
process, comprise part of the esoteric Buddhist practice known
as goshimbo ('five-fold protection method').
Hyakuten
also introduced the Buddhist meditative practice of anapanasati
or 'watching the breath' into Komyo
And
whereas, in Jikiden, the emphasis is on healing,
in Komyo the emphasis is on personal spiritual transformation
- or Satori - through Reiki practice. (Hyakuten teaches
that Usui-sensei intended his system to be a path to enlightenment).
Even
though, as stated, Komyo is essentially a hybrid system - drawing
influences not just from Jikiden but also from Doi's modern Gendai
Reiki Ho, 'western' Reiki, and Buddhist practice, it still uses
Jikiden's somewhat problematic lineage...
*
* * * *