To All Seekers Of The Truth,
Many people have asked: What makes Gayatri Reiki different from Western Usui Reiki? The answer that you will find below will illustrate these differences and show that Gayatri Reiki comes so much closer than does Western Reiki to the original intent of Reiki's founder, Mikao Usui. Gayatri Reiki is an attempt to honor and implement Master Usui's Original Intent.
And Here Is The Reason Why . . .
Gayatri Reiki utilizes a unique process which is very similar to Mikao Usui's original method of Reiki initiation which is called Empowerment. Until now, Western Reiki students have been familiar with the initiation provided by Western Reiki teachers which is typically called attunement. There is a major difference between these two methods and I will try to explain.
First, attunement is very transferable from teacher to student and operates immediately upon receipt. Attunement initiates students into the possession and use of Reiki primarily on the physical level of existence and partially on the emotional level. It rarely touches upon the remaining two levels, the mental and spiritual. When it does, it is because the teacher has gone through a substantial amount of personal spiritual development and "owns" his or her access to the mental and spiritual planes. This access is not a direct result of the Western Reiki process, but rather is a manifestation of the process of spiritual development itself. This is not something that is easily accomplished and rarely is such a quality possessed by any person including even Reiki teachers.
The practice of Western Reiki does not open the gateways to these two missing dimensions and this state of affairs is what has caused Western Reiki to become so bogged down in materialism and the commercialization by a few successful Reiki teachers and authors who perpetuate this incomplete system.
Reiki's Commercial Roots
Reiki was first introduced to the West by Mrs. Takata, when she began charging $10,000 (decades ago) to initiate her students as Usui Master/Teachers. And, for whatever reason(s), she left the core elements of Mikao Usui's original system out of the material that she transferred. As history has shown, Reiki has continued along these commercial lines and even today a major motivating factor by many who desire to become Reiki Master/Teachers is the ability to earn a living or make extra money by having the apparent right to initiate other students. It appears to be an easy way to charge money and that there are thousands of potential students who would also like entry into this potentially lucrative "system." Unfortunately, this is more true than not, and Western Reiki has been skewed in this direction many times.
Unfortunately, today's world needs a lot of help and everywhere around us, commercialism has exploited our relationships, our environments and has prevented us from moving forward as a spiritual culture of people. Its not just Reiki that has caused this or supported its continuation, but rather its part of the evolutionary process itself. What most people don't realize is that the next step of the evolutionary process is to move away from self centered personal interests and to become more universal in scope. This does not mean we will begin to form groups. On the contrary, the next level of consciousness exploration is for the individual to become more powerful as a CO-creator. However, along with the ability to create comes a responsibility to honor the evolutionary principles that form the background of all of creation. Even as individual CO-creators, we must flow within the harmony of nature and these laws or we will perish.
Much of what I'm discussing I our new Gayatri Reiki curriculum. Rather than go any deeper into this subject at this time, I will go back now to answer the original question that I started with - what is the difference between Gayatri Reiki and Usui Reiki?
THE ANSWER
Many Western Reiki students on a regular basis experience a "healing crisis" after they have gone through the "standard" Usui Reiki initiation process. Most Reiki teachers consider this normal and claim that the individuals affected needed to go through a cleansing process and Reiki is helping them do that. Unfortunately this approach is completely incorrect and nothing could be further from the truth.
The reason a "healing crisis" occurs is that during the initiation process, the students third eye and heart chakras are partially opened and this forms a dangerous situation. Because Western Reiki doesn't operate on all four planes of existence (spiritual, mental, emotional and physical) in a powerful and balanced way, the "Light of the Divine" does not accompany the initiation adequately to keep these precious gateways (3rd eye & heart) open. The partial opening that results allows both a mixture of Divine Light as well as the student's own negative emotions to coexist. In addition, because the negative emotions have been stirred up on a subconscious level, they become enlivened and empowered and begin to surface within a student's life either during the initiation or shortly thereafter.
Whatever negative emotions have been suppressed and lying dormant in the student's subconscious now rise to the surface of daily life and either emotional conflict results or actual physical discomfort or pain follow. This can be expected since neither the Reiki Master Teacher or the student is spiritually prepared to hold the space open and allow Divine Light to saturate the 3rd eye and heart centers completely. In all honesty, this is a difficult thing to do and requires not only serious preparation on the part of the Reiki Teacher, but true compassion and love in serving the student correctly.
With today's Western Reiki initiation process, an inadequately prepared teacher initiates a student into Reiki and almost immediately that student gains the right to then initiate other students. There is no spiritual development system underneath Western Reiki that helps either the teachers or students to ever acquire the powers needed to grant full four level balanced initiations. Rather, money and greed and status and other factors motivate the very process and Western Reiki continues to become transferred and this two level initiation continues to geometrically perpetuate itself.
WHY GAYATRI REIKI IS UNIQUE
The first step of our Gayatri Reiki curriculum is to Connect our initiates to the realm, the Source of all Creation. Through the combination of our unique and proprietary Empowerment Process (performed on a distant basis) two initial initiations are performed for our new participants.
First, they receive eight days of Empowerments (many sessions each and every day) which trace the step by step movement of consciousness from the spiritual realms down to the material plane. This is done through the erection of The Mother's Temple, an energetic three dimensional model of consciousness as it moves through time. It is this initiation provided through the auspices of The Mother's Temple that allows the spiritually guided life force of the Reiki energies to move into the initiates subtle energetic field in a full and balanced manner. By the end of the Empowerment Session, an initiates heart and third eye centers have been opened and Reiki energies have been fully transferred.
As with most spiritually focused practices, if daily practice isn't involved, the original energies do not multiply and become stronger. as with most everything in life, effort must be applied in some way to allow a practitioner of any line of work to master the underlying practice.
The Gayatri Mantra
Our second initiation, initiated the practitioner into the possession and use of the Gayatri Mantra. This mantra carries with it an intelligence that through reasonable and heart felt daily recitation will continue to maintain the Connection that was first established during the Empowerment Session and on a gradual and every expanding basis builds the participants innate energetic powers. Western Reiki does not contain any kind of practice development system or spiritual process that allows an original Reiki initiates expansion of power.
In Mikao Usui's still existant Reiki Society, new participants take up to 10 years to move from the first level of Reiki to the second. We make such a move here in the West in a single Reiki workshop. During that 10 year development period, an original Usui Reiki initiate focuses almost exclusively on developing the Connection with the Source of Creation before moving forward to actually practice Reiki on self or others. In our Gayatri Reiki curriculum, we utilize the Gayatri Mantra to accomplish this same task along with a full and balanced original Reiki initiation.
As a result and through participation in our three Level curriculum, our Gayatri Reiki students gain access to the true powers of Reiki within 18 to 24 months of daily practice. Compared to 10 or 20 or 30 years of work as has been common in the past (under the guidance of a qualified master) this is truly something that is appropriate for our time and busy lifestyles.
Our 4 Level Empowerment Process
Through our unique and propriety 4 level Empowerment Process, the Force of the Divine Mother and Father energies are invited to initiate this process and follow it through until the energetic field of each student "quickens" and is able to hold both the 3rd eye and heart centers permanently open.
However, initiation into the possession and use of the power of Reiki is just the beginning of an opening process rather than an end goal like many Western Reiki teachers promote.
This ceremonial act and the resulting presence of the Grace of God begins your opening process, which in reality is the beginning of a rich and fulfilling and inherently natural human path - infinitely satisfying and right. Without being able to recognize this presence and the ability to commune with it and to become filled with its loving and righteous intuitive prompting, messages and suggestions, your ability to possess and powerfully utilize the Force of Reiki is greatly diminished if not made impossible to connect with on a conscious and practical basis. You are "out of balance" and your intuitive capacity has not been developed adequately and you do not posses the emotional strength to operate at this level even if it was available to you.
Our answer is to initiate our students utilizing a full and complete 4 level initiation process which we call Empowerment. Our students in our First Level Course, our Usui Reiki Master Teacher and Gayatri Reiki Practitioner Course, are allowed to initiate their owns students into typical Western style Usui Reiki just like any other Western Reiki teacher. They haven't yet done the work to gain access to all 4 levels and that is the focus of our remaining two Courses. In our 2nd Level Course (Gayatri Reiki Master) we share with them the working of The Manifestation Process and additional powerful practice techniques. In our 4rd Level Course, we allow them to share our Level 2 Course with others while they participate in our Mental Emotional Balancing Program.
It is our Balancing Program that provides long-term and lasting growth in consciousness and perception of life. We ask our students to refrain from initiating others into possession and use of Reiki to until become "balanced" and "locked" through their completion of our Balancing Program. That decision is theirs, however, and if they wish to perpetuate the current Western Reiki system, they are prepared and welcome to do so. They will have become initiated into standard Usui Reiki on all levels - 1,2,3 and Master Teacher and have established a more powerful Connection than through any other approach.
IN SUMMARY
The discussion that I just shared with you is my best attempt at providing an answer to the original question asked by many of our students. Even if you are already initiated into Western Reiki as a Master/Teacher, you too still need to make a 4 level connection and all of our Gayatri Reiki participants are required to go through our Level 1, Usui Reiki Master Teacher and Gayatri Reiki Practitioner Course to be able to receive their 4 level initiation (this includes all current Western Reiki Master Teachers without exception). In addition, the initiation into the possession and use of the Gayatri Mantra is an absolute must to truly expand Reiki healing powers and positive and powerful manifestation of personal desires.
Hopefully the information I have shared helps you to feel more comfortable with our approach. If you go through our process, you will find that what we share is true and that it is in complete alignment with Mikao Usui's original intent. What is special about our approach is that it doesn't take 10 years or more of difficult work and that it doesn't require becoming a Buddhist or following a specific religious path or doctrine. It is open to all people from all walks of life and spiritual inclination.
What is truly unique, however, is that we are now adding the missing spiritual foundation and development system that many existing Reiki Master Teachers intuitively know is missing and needs to come back into the Reiki formula.
Please forgive me if you cannot accept this approach or have a need to cling to the Western system as it has evolved over many years. I know that you may have a serious financial investment as well as an emotional investment to deal with. If you can just stay open, however, and try to allow what we are doing to move into your life to release this commercial hold that sits within Reiki today, you just might be able to help us touch thousands of lives in a very positive way. You also might be able to help us create a "Balanced" group of people who are properly connected to the Voice of the Divine and have the necessary corresponding emotional development to be able to bring serious and effective healing into the daily lives of so many in need on this planet today.
I extend my best wishes and invite you to see if what we have to offer can make a marked difference in your life. And I apologize if I appear to fail you in any way because of my new approach and my criticism of Western Reiki as it stands in its current condition. Please allow me the chance to make a difference and I will do the same for you.
With All My Love
And
May God Bless You And Keep You,
Director, Centers for Gayatri Reiki
Centers for
Gayatri Reiki
P.O. Box 7300, Ann Arbor, MI 48107
E-mail: center@gayatrireiki.org
• Internet: http://www.gayatrireiki.org
© 2003 Centers
for Gayatri Reiki, All Rights Reserved
