| A reiki master symbol may be used during a healing | | | | appreciated. It is easy to understand. Most people |
| by a Reiki practitioner or during an attunement, which | | | | readily accept the responsibility of protecting an item |
| may be described as the first step in learning Reiki. | | | | for which they have paid a high price, but are less |
| The reiki symbols revealed to Usui Mikao at the end | | | | inclined to protect something for which they paid |
| of his twenty-one day fast are referred to as Usui | | | | nothing. So, he closed his practice and began traveling |
| Reiki symbols. Other Reiki systems use different or | | | | throughout Japan teaching the Reiki healing system |
| additional symbols. | | | | to others, with the understanding that Reiki power |
| Some believe that Reiki symbols should be kept | | | | should not be given away for free. |
| secret. Others will share the symbols easily enough, | | | | Around the same time, he became aware that the |
| but will only explain how to use them after a student | | | | reiki symbols revealed to him on Mount Kurama, after |
| has paid a fee. Some Reiki masters charge for | | | | his long fast, were to be used for helping others to |
| healings and attunements, while others teach that the | | | | learn the system. The Reiki Master symbol or the |
| power to heal lies within each of us and charge a fee | | | | Usui Master symbol was taught or given after a |
| for teaching a person to tap into that healing power. | | | | student had reached the Master level in his studies. |
| Charging a fee is actually a Reiki tradition. | | | | Other Usui Reiki symbols were used by Master Mikao |
| According to legend, Usui Mikao originally performed | | | | to help his students focus on different aspects of |
| healings for free in the poor sections of Kyoto Japan. | | | | Reiki energy. |
| Among other things, he used Reiki to help beggars | | | | There is some disagreement among Reiki masters |
| find jobs, return to work and leave the life of | | | | concerning the power of Usui Reiki symbols, but |
| begging behind. He was disappointed when he saw | | | | most agree that the symbols have no real power of |
| that many of the people he had helped eventually | | | | their own. Even a Reiki Master symbol has no |
| returned to begging. After questioning the beggars | | | | protective or healing value, unless a Reiki Master has |
| and meditating on the problem, he came up with a | | | | "empowered" that symbol. Even Master Mikao did not |
| solution. | | | | use the Reiki symbols revealed to him on the |
| He believed that without attaching a fee to the | | | | mountain, until he saw that the symbols allowed |
| service, the value of the treatments was not | | | | students to more easily focus their healing energy. |