3

Origins of reiki and the 'reiki' word
Understanding the Reiki word to its fullest and deepest meaning is more complex than the common literal translation.
At a simple level, Rei (pronounced 'ray' - this first syllable is stressed) is generally considered to signify 'Soul or Spirit' and Ki (pronounce 'key') is generally regarded as meaning literally 'atmosphere, air, universe' and more philosophically: 'Life Force', hence, Reiki assumes a typical translation meaning 'Universal Life Force'.
At a deeper level however it is helpful and worthwhile to consider the meaning in a little more depth, and why modern language struggles to carry all of the original meaning:
Rei would originally have been written by Dr Usui as an old 'kanji' character or symbol, the sort (in its modern form) that we commonly associate with Chinese and Japanese 'pictorial' writing. Kanji characters often visually represent their meaning, and so are also known as pictograms, pictographs, ideagrams or ideagraphs. These words in themselves suggest how much more meaning a kanji character conveys compared to a written word - just as 'a picture tells a thousand words', so a kanji character carries more meaning than a single word or syllable. Kanji characters are originally Chinese, and were adopted by the Japanese into their own language many hundreds of years ago. Over time, due to the complexity of the Chinese kanji system, the Japanese characters have changed, notably during the 1940's grammar reform by the Japanese government to increase language simplicity. Some loss of subtlety and depth of meaning inevitably results from such simplification (bear in mind that Usui would have used an older kanji character than today's equivalent). There is also some difference between the appearance and meaning of brush-drawn (older) and pen-drawn (modern) characters, which likely contributed to the narrowing of the modern translation. According to reiki.org (the International Centre for Reiki Training), when the Japanese kanji character Rei is more deeply interpreted in Reiki context, the meaning is 'supernatural knowledge' or 'spiritual consciousness'. This in turn represents the wisdom that comes from (one or other) God or the 'higher self'; an 'all knowing' consciousness that understands each person completely. This deeper meaning underpins, and hopefully makes it easier to appreciate, the central principle of Reiki healing, whereby the 'universal energy' naturally knows and focuses on the ailments or imbalances existing for anyone.
The word Ki equates to 'life force' in the same way as the word Chi in Chinese (Chi forms a central aspect of Acupuncture, which uses needles to unblock and free the flow of Chi), and other similar sounding words in Sanskrit and Hawaiian, for example, Ti. According to Reiki theory, and others besides, Ki is the life force present in all living things. When blocked, health and well-being suffer. When a person's life force is at a low level, or its flow is restricted, there is greater vulnerability to ill-health and emotional anguish.
Thus Reiki signifies the energy that vitalises and unifies everything, and connects the person with the universe and its forces. Whether or not you believe in a personal God or hold to a particular religious doctrine is immaterial to Reiki's effect. Many people find a Reiki treatment to be a spiritual experience - others prefer to interpret the experience using different concepts.