Usui Pilgrimage

Visit 1 – 2008
For the last few months the calling had been very strong, to pay a visit to Dr.Usui’s (he re-discovered Reiki) grave in Tokyo and Mt.Kurama near Kyoto where he received his enlightenment. Since it entailed a special trip to Japan from Singapore, the cost was high but with involvement in Reiki at an all time high, both in passion and profession, I had to do it. Finally on 13th October,2008 I flew to Japan.

Grave & Memorial in Tokyo
My first stop was Tokyo. Part of Dr.Usui’s remains are buried at a graveyard in Saiho-ji temple ( He is originally said to have been buried at another private site in Tokyo). There is also a memorial stone erected by some of his disciples in 1927. The inscription in Kanji on the stone speaks about Dr.Usui’s life in brief, especially about his achievements in the field of Reiki. Various Masters have travelled to this place before me and some translations of the inscription on the stone are available elsewhere. I had this translated with the help of Mr. Masahiro Ueda, a Japanese scholar student. The translation can be found on the page “Usui Memorial”. In a nutshell, the following emerges from various translations provided –

1. The inscription at the top says Reiho Choso Usui Sensei Kudoku No HI. This means Memorial of the Benevolent Usui Sensei, the founder of Reiho.
2. His common name was Mika-o and other name was Gyoho. He was born on 15th August, 1865.
3. In 1922 (this is as per another translation I read elsewhere) he went to Mt. Kurama to meditate and received Reiki. In my opinion, this was his “attunement” by nature.
4. He opened a Training Centre in Tokyo and became very popular.
5. In 1923 there was a devastating earthquake near/in Kanto region and Dr.Usui offered to help those devastated by this calamity.
6. A sudden illness struck him and he died on 9th March,

The following are the pics of the grave and memorial –

       
      Chiba family crest  in front of grave           Memorial  erected by his students

Mt. Kurama
From Tokyo, I travelled to Kyoto. From Kyoto’s Demachi-Yanagi station, I changed to Eizan Line which operates a two carriage train which travels through the suburbs of Kyoto before starting its short climb to Kurama through densely forested slopes. Kurama is merely half an hour train ride from the Demachi-Yanagi station.

My intention to travel to Mt.Kurama was two-fold : 1. To visit the place where Dr.Usui received his enlightenment. 2. To charge and rejuvenate myself

From what I have read from other masters’ travelogues, Usui and Reiki are relatively unknown in Japan and it is not known  where exactly Dr.Usui sat down to meditate. At the foot of the mountain, just as the climb begins, there is a little hut where a monk sits to collect the fee of 200 yen and hands out a leaflet showing map and brief history of the place. Language being an issue at most places, I just uttered the word “Reiki” and he asked me “Usui Sensei” ? I nodded and he pointed to a spot numbered 29 on the map. This place called Okunoin Mao-den, is the place where, according to history given in the leaflet, more than six million years ago, Mao-son the great king of the conquerors of evil and the spirit of the earth descended upon Mt.Kurama from Venus, with the great salvation of mankind. Since then, Mao-son’s powerful spirit governing the development and the evolution not only of mankind but all living things on earth have been emanating from Mt.Kurama.

       
      No.29 on the map – Mao-den             That’s me. Is this the same spot  ??

While climbing, I had noticed a Japanese lady walking behind me. Intuitively, I had felt a strange connection to her. It was at this place that I had instinctively looked up at the Sun to the East and had felt the energies to be of the highest quality. At one point I was lost in a wooded area and turned back to retrace my steps and to my surprise, she was again walking towards me from the opposite direction. I pointed to the map and asked her where I was and that I wanted to go to spot 29. She just said “come” and guided me all the way till we reached that place. Not only she led the way but every few metres she would stop and look back to make sure I was making good progress. After we reached the Mao-den, she offered some prayers, said good bye and went back. As I reflect on this incident I get the feeling that I was guided by Reiki energy when I was lost. The message I get from my angel guide is that it (the Japanese lady) was the last floating spirit of Dr.Usui.

The energies on Mt.Kurama are dense and uneven. I was not quite satisfied with that climb, so I returned the next day. This time, I did a leisurely climb, stopping at places where I felt the energy was great, to raise my hands up in the sky, asking the beautiful energies to come in, to destroy the accumulated negative energies.

The journey ends on another side of the mountain, in the mountain village of Kibune. From here I took the bus to Kibune station from where I took the train back to Demachi-Yanagi, Kyoto. Mt. Kurama is 12 kms north of Kyoto and 670 metres above sea level.

I returned to Singapore, satisfied, however, the feeling is strong that I must return again, to seek what I am looking for, not sure what.

For more pictures, please click here http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568244532ZAphOS

I end this note with gratitude to the authors of all those web sites which have provided me details, maps etc. to enable me to successfully undertake this journey. This should help, if you are planning to travel to these places. http://www.reikitraining.com.au/reikisites.htm

If any reader needs more information on the above, please feel free to write to me at parag.pattani@gmail.com

Visit 2 – 2009
Ever since that last visit in 2008, the urge had been very strong, to return to this wonderful birth place of Reiki, to seek more. In my Reiki I classes, whenever I narrated the story of Dr.Usui, especially the part about his meditating under a tree, his walking down the mountain at the end of his meditation…those images from my trip would come back vividly, rekindling the fire within, asking me to return soonest. And thus, following another calling, I returned to Japan.

My first visit was the memorial in Tokyo. Unlike my previous visit, when I was the sole visitor, this time, I met a group of 10 Reiki Masters from Canada. The chemistry was instantantaneous, that feeling to share very much there. I shared with them my discovery of the true symbol Sei He Ki and they gave me little gifts of incense and memento from Canada. We parted after a circle of light and an Om recital.

My visit to Mt.Kurama this time was indeed unique in more ways than one. The moment I stepped into the area where I had met the Japanese lady on my previous trip and had also sensed the great energies from the Sun (please read para 4 of my previous report above) I started chanting the Gayatri Mantra. It was as if a sensor had trigerred off this chanting. And this happened not only once but on the second day as well. One of the translations of Gayatri Mantra reads thus :

“O God, Thou art the giver of life, the remover of pain and sorrow, the bestower of happiness; O Creator of the Universe, may we receive Thy supreme sin-destroying light; may Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.”

Phew ! The message was so clear…isn’t that the underlying motive behind Reiki healing – to heal physical and emotional pain ? Isn’t that what Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen and and Sei He Ki, the two symbols taught to advanced Reiki practitioners mean ?

Looking back in life, 11th and 12th May 2001 was my first participation as a Reiki Master at the Holistic Fair in Singapore, my first exposure to the holistic community as a professional. And it was  here that I was drawn to chantings of the Gayatri Mantra beacause a neighbour stall was playing this CD. Strange but true…the Gayatri Mantra does indeed carry a message for me in my chosen path. The journey of exploration continues..

I moved on to Mao-Den the place on Kurama where Dr. Usui is said to have meditated and received his Reiki powers. My instincts and angel guides this time led me to believe that the tree pictured below was the one underneath which, Dr. Usui meditated for 21 days. I could be wrong, but I think I am right. This place is to the left of the temple if you are facing it.

And then, I started walking down the mountain. (As the story goes, after he had received his light, he decided to stop the meditation, to break his fast and he started walking down the mountain in search of food. He found a way side stall selling breakfast…) As I came down to Kibune village, I crossed the street and entered a little cafe. An old lady lovingly served me a delicious cup of coffee and a little rice cake. I took a picture of hers, but surprisingly, as I transferred the pics to my PC, that picture has gone missing. Was that the same cafe where Dr. Usui broke his fast ? Mystery unfolds further … read my account of Visit 3 – 2011 below.

Visit 3 – 2011
While the calling was there for a long time, to return, this was perhaps an opportune moment as I was able to make a stopover in Japan en route from USA to Singapore.

I dedicated my book “Reiki Symbols – A Revelation” to the Great Master at two places – 1) His memorial in Tokyo and 2) The exact place where I believe he meditated on Mt.Kurama and received his enlightenment (he saw those symbols, he had seen in the Tibetan scriptures, come to him like bubbles of light, and with a flash and thunder, they burnt into his memory…as the story goes) .

In my earlier episodes, I have mentioned a spot where, I’ve had some interesting experiences, of meeting that  mysterious lady, of soaking in the energy from the Sun and recital of Gayatri mantra. On this visit too, the humming of the Gayatri Mantra started, the moment I reached this spot. I have tried to capture this spot on print. It is in the centre of the picture, near the fence in the foreground.

                                                         The spot where I had mysterious experiences

At this place, I moved my gaze from the Sun and looked straight ahead up the path, and I had wonderful visions of transparent, bubble-like figures of various saints and deities against the backdrop of the trees. This place is shown in the picture below :

        The path ahead

I once again paid a visit to the same coffee shop, where in my opinion Dr. Usui had stopped to break his fast. In my report of the second visit in 2009, I have mentioned about my strange encounter with a lady who served me coffee but did not appear in print. In fact, as mentioned earlier, that picture has gone missing. This time, when I knocked at the door, the door quietly opened, but there was nobody inside. I looked around, shouted, but nobody turned up. The lights were off, the crockery was neatly arranged on a wall cabinet and the furniture in its place. I returned the next day, and again I found the place devoid of any life. This place continues to be a mystery to me. Here are the pics of the exterior and the interior.

The Coffee Shop

The interior of the Coffee Shop

Message
While doing the climb on the second day, I received a very clear message that I must return to make a video documentary of the entire journey covering the Memorial in Tokyo and the climb up Mt. Kurama in Kyoto. The message further said that this video should be made available to all Reiki channels and others because not every body is fortunate to make this trip. However, to cover the expenses and to maintain the principle of gratitude, the video should be made available against donations. Part proceeds of theses donations would be used for charity – to make healing available to the poor at no cost.

I will return, to make this a possibility, at the earliest opportunity.