Usuido

USUI-DO
Unity of self through harmony and balance

Usui-Do is a way of achieving

Empathic connection with the self and all of creation
Unity of self through harmony and balance
Transformation
Unconditionality
Liberation
Deep peace

The daily pressure of modern life is a major contributing cause of poor health. For a solution not involving drugs we can turn to ideas developed thousands of years ago in Asia. Around 600 BCE, Taoism emerged in China, offering suggestions on how one can live a long healthy life by following simple concepts. The highest concept was called "wei-wu-wei" - do as little as is needed for the current task - in the words of Lao Zi: "Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river."

Over the centuries, these thoughts of Taoism developed into what is known as Traditional Chinese Medicine. As Buddhism swept through China it absorbed these ideas. As Buddhism made its way to Japan, it absorbed ideas from Shinto, itself a celebration of life rather than a religion. Around 1920, a man named Mikao Usui started to experiment with these ideas. He came up with a simple system that could improve the quality of one's life. Like Taoism, it has a set of concepts that form the basis of the system. It uses movement and sound to connect to our ancestral self. The movements resemble those of of Taijiquan (Tai Chi). We make a journey into the unknown and maybe we will find our true selves on that journey if we travel with an open mind and heart.

Usui simply called his teachings "My System". Some of his students began to use the term Usui-Do or more accurately Usui-no-Michi. We have retained this terminology as a way of identification. This spiritual art, like the martial art judo, is presented in a formal dojo, where it became known as Usui Teáte. The main difference between spiritual and martial systems is that martial arts are derived from ancient fighting systems. Most of the spiritual arts are derived from practices of Zen Buddhism. Usui-Do was developed by its founder, Mikao Usui as a way of achieving unity of self through harmony and balance.

Amongst the many Japanese traditional martial arts, such as judo and karate there are many other, more spiritual, arts which also developed in Japan. These include Usui-Do as well as ikebana (flower arranging), shodo (calligraphy) and by far the most well known chado (the Way of Tea, sometimes known as Tea Ceremony). Each is practised in a mindful yet precise manner that honours Man's connection with nature.

The system remained active after the death of its founder in 1926. Some of Usui's senior students including a teacher named Toshihiro Eguchi and a retired naval captain called Chuujirou Hayashi, continued to present the system in its original form. By 1927 Usui's dojo had been taken over by Rear Admiral Ushida who formed the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai. In 1931 Hayashi modified his presentation more in line with the teachings of this group.

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Site revised on 24/11/2002 and last updated 12/07/2021 03:46:34 PDT

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