8/9/2019 Reiki Tibetan Origins Part1
2/2
Blackwell even went so far as to claim that the 'Tantra of the
Lightning Flash' had been brought toJapan by Kobo Daishi (Kukai),
the founder ofShingon - one of the two major branches ofJapanese
Mikkyo (Esoteric) Buddhism.[It is historical fact that Kukai had
actually returned to Japan (from China) with the sacred texts
onwhich Shingon was founded, several years before Guru Rinpoche
(founder of Tibetan Tantric
Buddhism) had even taken the Tantric teachings from India to
Tibet. Further, the originalcatalogue of the texts brought to Japan
by Kukai still exists, and this 'Tantra of the LightningFlash' is
not one of them].
More recently, it has emerged that Blackwell based his whole
premise for the Tibetan origins ofReiki almost entirely on
so-called 'channeled' information...Much of the (unfounded)
'evidence' that Reiki comes from Tibet, revolves around the fact
that inTibetan Buddhism there is a deity: Sangye Menla referred to
as the 'Medicine Buddha' - aBuddha of Healing. It is frequently
suggested that this 'Medicine Buddha' is the source of
Reikihealing.However, Sangye Menla is simply the Tibetan name for
the Buddhist deity known in India as:
Bhaishajya-guru.
And most of those who are of the 'Reiki comes from Tibet'
persuasion seem to either gloss over(or be unaware of ) the fact
that this same Buddhist deity - under the name:Yakushi- has,
fromthe very outset, played an important role in Japanese Mikkyo
tradition, which as mentionedabove, was actually established before
Vajra (Tantric) Buddhism was taken from India to Tibet...
Others of the 'Reiki comes from Tibet' persuasion, cite the fact
that Tibetan Buddhist traditionsutilise initiation procedures to
confer ability/'spiritual power' from master to student as evidence
-but miss the point that allesoteric Buddhist traditions - Indian,
Chinese & Japanese, etc., alsomake use of such practices...Many
have claimed that the Reiki Symbols (that is, the
fouroriginalsymbols taught by Usui-
Sensei himself - as opposed to later additions, modifications
and 'other-cultural imports') aresecret Tibetan symbols.
Now while the origin of the socalled 'power' symbol is still
disputed, it is generally accepted thatthe 'mental/emotional'
symbol is almost certainly a stylisation of a character [from a
form of theSanscrit script known as 'Siddham' - orshittan in
Japanese] which is used in esoteric JapaneseBuddhism as the
'spiritual emblem' of the Buddha Amida.
The 'distance' symbol and the 'master' symbol however, are
actually Japanese phrases written inkanjicharacters. While adopted
by the Japanese, kanjiare originally Chinese ideograms, notTibetan
characters or symbols. Tibet had (and still has) it's own
independent system ofwriting.The Chinese system of writing was
notused in ancient Tibet.
Part 2 of this article to follow at a later date
