Reiki and the Healing Buddha

Reiki and the Healing Buddha
Maureen J. Kelly
Lotus Press
ISBN: 0-914955-92-6
Non-Fiction, Reiki, Buddhism
Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady

Many resources on Reiki mention a connection between Master Usui’s Reiki and Buddhism. Often the comment is made almost in passing, suggesting that the Master studied Buddhist texts and questioned many monks about their healing techniques. Some even delimit this experience by noting that the monks told him that they had lost the ways to physically heal that now their methods only healed at the spiritual level.
Reiki and the Healing Buddha goes beyond the myths that surround Master Usui and his techniques. The author compares important aspects used in Buddhism with the Reiki precepts. She even delves deeper into the Usui story to illustrate that perhaps the happenings show an underlying Buddhist connection. That the founding story actually contains two levels of understanding: a surface story that everyone learns by rote and the hidden symbolism of something more profound.
Beyond being very intriguing reading, I learned some very practical skills from this work. I had always been taught that when drawing symbols, they should be perfect in all ways. However, Reiki and the Healing Buddha discusses the possibility that flaws in the way we draw symbols might actually be used to note particular areas of dis-ease that need to be addressed.