All levels in styles honoring the original Reiki created by Usui Sensei, such as Gendai Reiki Ho and Komyo Reiki Kai are important. Once you have completed any level of the four levels you can find your focus shifting to wellbeing of yourself and all on this earth.
In the first level you can find the key to health and happiness in the Usui Gokai (five principles),
Practitioners and teachers of original Reiki coming directly from Japan, such as Gendai Reiki-ho or Komyo Reiki Kai, move their hands over the receiver’s body and feel where balance and harmony is needed. The healing balance and harmony then flows to where is needed without any training wheels/symbols, material objects or medications. Medical treatments/surgeries/medical procedures treat the body or mind; original Reiki flows to mind, body and spirit and heals the entire life form.
“The physician treats, but nature heals.” – Hippocrates
Due to an abundance of canards/distorted stories and translation errors the beautiful spiritual healing art that Mikao Usui created might seem complicated and mysterious. As you can learn in classes, it is beautiful gentle key to health and happiness <read more>
Usui Reiki Ryoho, as Usui Sensei created, cannot be learned on-line, through books, or DVDs.
You can read about something, see it done by others, or watch videos, but to know requires experience.
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Diagnoses, symbols, mantras, or material objects do not advance Reiki as originally created by Usui Sensei; universal energy cannot and does not need to be made better.
When asked about his method Usui Sensei said, “This is surely a secret process to bring a good fortune and also a miraculous medicine to remedy all kinds of disease”.© Hiroshi Doi 1999
It is human nature to want to make things better.
Nevertheless, Usui Reiki is a piece of universal energy/the source of all energy, which cannot be made better.
Styles of the original Usui Reiki Ryoho, such as Gendai Reiki Ho and Komyo Reiki Kai, can help you to connect with the true universal you, which is one of the most important gifts you can receive.
Healing the spirit/true self is overlooked in some practices. Translated words of Usui Sensei, “If our spirit is healthy and conformed to the truth, body will get healthy naturally.” © international 1999
Advanced Usui Reiki Ryoho can best be summarized as belief in Mikao Usui’s original spiritual practice and trust in universal wisdom.
Gravity does not require symbols to bring anything down once thrown in the air or pushed off a building. Usui Reiki does not require symbols to flow. Once a person’s pathway is opened (empowerment/reju/attunement) by a qualified Shihan (master instructor) Usui Reiki naturally flows without any assistance, as I explain in classes.
2020 was a year of challenges. I included the following in one of my monthly newsletters that I send to my students, “While you are doing what is best to keep others and yourself safe, take time throughout the day to focus on positive things. Disasters happen, but disasters do not define our lives unless we allow them to”. 2020 © Shihan Roberta R. Barnes That is something that applies to many things that happen in life.
Doi-Sensei, Hyakuten-Sensei and the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (society Mikao Usui founded in Japan)have made it clear that Reiki cannot be learned from a book, through DVDs, online, or over distance.
In styles that honor Usui Reiki Ryoho as it was created in 1922, there is an unbroken succession of Teachers/Shihans, linked by the sacred touch of empowerment/initiation/Reiju (attunement), directly back to the founder Usui Sensei. <What is Usui Reiki Ryoho>
It is good to remember that Usui Sensei was advanced Martial Arts, and it was in martial arts that he was known as master, grand master and O’Sensei. He did not refer to himself as master of the original spiritual practice, Usui Reiki Ryoho, which he created. It is unknown who first called him or herself a reiki master, which could have been a simple translation error. The Japanese noun Shihan can be translated as teacher of high standing or master instructor. <read more What is Reiki>
Being blessed to have been able to study in-person under a member of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai and a Japanese Buddhist monk I learned much about the true history of Mikao Usui and the gift he gave to the world. Each of my Japanese Shihans who live in Japan has only 2 teachers between himself and Usui Sensei. I share with my students in classes things I learned from my Shihans in-person classes. When appropriate I share things I learned during my meditations, and visions for my personal growth.
Symbols go back to drawings on cave walls. Usui Sensei created only 3 symbols in 1925, to help those of his students who needed something visual to represent energy. There is a 4th symbol that represents all, but it is unknown who created that. Once Usui Reiki Ryoho left Japan and crossed the oceans various teachers created more symbols for their students needing something visual to help them understand something that is beyond matter.
Only positive comes from all styles of Usui Reiki Ryoho that honor the quintessence of Mikao Usui‘s original spiritual practice/healing art.
Usui Reiki is one of the unseen forces in the universe. Using gravity as an example, if you step off a roof it pulls you down without any assistance. Nevertheless, how do you describe the force that pulled you down? Gravity, the same as Usui Reiki in that it does not require human thought, an on/off switch, or symbols; it simply is.
If you have a magnet, it simply attracts without you saying anything, drawing any symbol, or painting it any specific color.
Distorted stories can come from translation errors or simply hearing things differently than they were said. Miko Usui said all life forms have an invisible inner healer, which is different than universal energy. He recognized that at times the illness or injury was too great for the inner healer to handle alone, and at those times Usui Reiki supported and gave strength to the inner healer. <Reiki myths>
One of the purposes of Gendai Reiki-ho is to uncover the true universal you. The true universal you/your dharma that allows you to move forward in the best way for you.
An example of the power within the stillness is after years of meditation and then 3 years of daily disciplined Zen meditations Mikao Usui attained enlightenment, opened to an actual piece of Universal Energy, and created his original Usui Reiki Ryoho.
Usui Sensei did not create a way to fix things. Usui Sensei created a spiritual practice/healing art that allows universal vibrations of love and harmony to flow to bring the wellbeing that is best for any life receiving at that moment in time.
- trusting in universal wisdom
- practicing the first of the three basic techniques you are introduced to in the first level to feel inharmonic and harmonic vibrations.
- feeling your life rhythm and then universal rhythm
- knowing that your heart is the place of true knowledge and not emotion.
- daily repeating the Usui Gokai (five precepts/principles) from your heart and living it
- practicing the exercises and meditations enough to know your true self/your dharma.
- transcending training wheels such as symbols, music and material objects.
- allowing universal love and harmony to flow into all life forms and areas of life in its pure form.
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There are grand masters in martial arts, and Mikao Usui was a grand master in martial arts; he did not refer to himself even as a master in the healing art/spiritual practice that he founded. <What is Gendai Reiki-ho and Komyo Reiki Kai>
What appeared in several photographs I took in my healing studio, two of which are shown on this page, was unexpected. As was what appeared in another shown on my What are Gendai Reiki-ho and Kmoyo Reiki Kai page .
These photographs might fall into the mysterious category, ‘if’ Roberta Barnes did not have the piece of universal energy we call Usui Reiki always flowing through her.
The photo to your left is a visual the universe gave to her to show me that universal energy is present even when we are not aware of it. This was before digital cameras and photo shop. She was using her Canon 35mm (old fashion film camera) with average color print film, The only light was afternoon Western sunlight and light from the tea candle in my hands. Her camera was on self-timer.
Best if you do not combine your hands with any flames. Instead resonate with your reality of universal energy and see where that takes you.
Opening the envelope of photographs in my car I did not expect to see anything like this. The photograph at the top of Reiki healing sessions page came from that same roll of film, and as you see there are no colors. The colors also appeared in one frame when I was taking photographs of me allowing Usui Reiki to flow my Scottish Terrier. Both photos were taken in Natural Healing & Learning Center with the same Canon film camera and average Kodak film.
You can think of learning Gendai Reiki-ho and Komyo Reiki Kai in much the same way as Roberta Barnes create her sculptors.
First you begin with a block or form–such as the whole you, which includes your mind, body, spirit and everything in your energy field (aura).
You take away from that block what is not needed, such as complicated and negative beliefs.
Continue taking away until all those things preventing you from seeing/revealing the beauty that is within are gone.
Once the negative such as anger and worry are gone, self-growth begins and your true universal self can take flight.©
It may take hours of sanding and polishing, but the end result is a beautiful form that is uniquely yours.
This is why she gives time in classes to know the feel of vibrations and the importance of each of Usui Sensei’s first and second awakening.
When every corner of this world is in-balance and with harmony there will be World Peace.
We cannot visually see all that is within each of the zillions of atoms within the mind, body, and spirit. We cannot know the source of all symptoms the body, mind, or spirit display. The nice thing is that we do not need to see or know. Usui Reiki directed by universal wisdom knows where to flow and what to do when it arrives.
If this sounds a bit magical, it perhaps is because universal energy is one of those things beyond human logic. With Usui Reiki Ryoho your awareness expands and each time you look out your window you can see that the way in which nature unfolds is magical.
Learning and embracing any style honoring Usui Reiki Ryoho as created by MIkao Usui takes time. There is no instant download for the essence of universal love and harmony to be embodied by your jing. In spite of this, each step of the Usui Reiki Ryoho journey is blissful, if you allow it to be so.
The photograph to you right was taken by one of my students. It shows something neither of us
expected. At first glance, this photograph looks like it should be tossed. Actually, the word ‘should’ is best tossed.
At second glance, what appears above my upward turned palms and me being out of focus makes it a perfect photograph.
This photograph was taken with 35mm film, with no retouching.
I am out-of-focus even though settings on the Canon Rebel camera were set for me to be in-focus. The white circle that clearly appears above my hands is an energy circle.
Many forms of energy create visuals. I never expected energy circles to appear in any photographs taken of me. Universal energy does not go by human expectations. This photograph shows that the balance and harmony that flows through a person outshines physical appearance and clothing.
The focus of life is not on a person’s features, skin, hair, or the clothing worn.
The focus is on the energy that flows through her or him.
When balance and harmony flows, the unexpected can happen. © Shihan Robeta Barnes 2002
Take a moment and think about the various people who impressed you throughout your life. Do you remember the clothing he or she wore, or the hair style? Or do you remember what he or she did or said. It is the energy flowing from a person that makes the biggest impression.
Regardless of what molecule you examine, energy is at the core.
Usui Reiki flows to the core to bring healing balance & harmony
Usui Reiki can flow into everything, even hobbies you may have. Sculpting is one of the things I enjoy doing. At the bottom of this page are photographs of one of my sculptures that appeared when I focused on Usui Reiki only.
When I stepped back and looked at the form the words of one of my college professors came to mind, “form does not have to resemble details of life. Form flows, that is art.”
Usui Reiki Ryoho is a spiritual healing art in that it flows without any preconceived form; energy takes many forms and that which Mikao Usui created takes the best healing form for that moment.
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Daily practice allows Usui Reiki to flow in a pure way that can enhance all your skills and relationships, even those in the workplace.
At first glance, these might look like two separate sculptures. 
However, they are shots taken of the same sculpture from different sides.
The vibrations of love and harmony are always the same. Different Usui Reiki practitioners and teachers go into the light and connect to the energies within in his or her own reality.
No way is better than another, simply different and once all the training wheels, material objects, etc. are put aside the unencumbered universal energy is the same.
We thank you for not copying any of this page without the written permission of Roberta R. Barnes.
Call 207-445-5671 or Contact Roberta R. Barnes by Email today and begin your healing journey
Roberta R. Barnes, Gendai Reiki-ho Shihan, Gendai Reiki Healing Kyokai Shihan, Komyo Reiki Kai Shihan, Master Herbalist, Author and Speaker.
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last updated 06/11/2025