Monastic Reiki School:

Is the Lineage authentic? Are the teachings reliable?

 

This letter was written by a group of several of Michael Bruney's longest-standing students to highlight the discrepancies in his behaviour and teachings.

Information on the lineage has come from only one source - the current Grandmaster, Michael Bruney, since he began teaching Reiki from around 1995. Over this period, details of the lineage have been altered and modified from time to time. With regard both to the original description of the lineage and subsequent modifications, it has not been possible to find independent corroboration. The exception is the alleged connection to Phyllis Furumoto. This was emphasised in the early years of the teaching, and the certificates produced by Michael Bruney in the first few years had her name and that of the Reiki Alliance on them. Yet Phyllis Furumoto has denied any knowledge of Michael Bruney, the Monastic School or any lineage he has named.

As originally presented, there are two lineage routes - one from Dr Usui and the other through Chinese and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. The Usui connection is through Dr Kawahara - who allegedly taught Michael. There is no evidence yet of any Reiki master by the name of Kawahara. Moreover, later modifications of the lineage, suggesting that Kawahara is linked to the Japanese Tendai tradition (perhaps Nicherin), have not been verified - neither with regard to the teachings from Kawahara to the Monastic Reiki school, nor of Michael Bruney's connection.

Grandmaster Wong is allegedly Michael Bruney's teacher through the Tantric line. However Grandmaster Wong's existence has not been verified. A possible model is Sheng-yen Lu (Grandmaster to the True Buddha School). In the early days of teaching, Michael Bruney told some of his students that although his teacher was Grandmaster Wong, his 'Root Guru' was Grandmaster Lu, who lived in the USA, and these students were shown a picture of this man. However, Michael Bruney made it clear that he did not wish to discuss this any further, and since then Grandmaster Lu has never been mentioned by Michael Bruney as part of his lineage. The website of the True Buddha School shows photographs of Grandmaster Lu which bear a striking resemblance to that which was shown to Michael Bruney's students. Grandmaster Lu also seems to embody certain characteristics which Michael Bruney attributed to his Grandmaster Wong.

* he is recognised as a living Buddha and reincarnation of Padmakumara

* allegedly many Tibetan lamas have taken refuge with him

* Michael Bruney is known to have chanted his personal 'heart mantra' when doing his 'Guru Yoga' practice.

Michael Bruney's actual teacher may have been Simon Wong. He is a disciple of the True Buddha School and claims to be the only master of the School to teach westerners. He runs the Yellow Dragon School, which teaches Martial Arts as well as the form of Tantric Buddhism taught by the True Buddha School. Later modifications of this side of the lineage refer to Grandmaster Wong Hai Chu and his teachers - Maeda Suzuki and Toda Yamamoto. The emphasis is on mantra, yantra and mudra and energy cultivation rather than healing. There is no confirmation that these masters exist, nor that they taught Michael Bruney.

The "Samyama pledge" was made by a number, but not all of Michael Bruney's students before beginning the fourth degree. This appears to have been based on the Buddhist "Samaya Pledge", which is normally only taken after taking refuge with a high level teacher, and then spending time, often many years, observing and questioning the teacher to make sure that he is sound. In order for this type of pledge to be valid, there are several prerequisites also from the side of the teacher. For example, the teacher must have practiced all the methods which he teaches and gained realisations from each of them. He must always act in accord with the student's best interests and never in any way which would cause harm. He must also be able to fully rectify any harm caused to a student through carrying out his instructions. This information on the 'Samaya Pledge' has been verified by a recognised Lama of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Given these questions, there must be doubt regarding the system of Seven Degree Reiki which has been taught by the Monastic Reiki school - particularly after the third degree. There is little evidence of where the healing and meditation techniques of the school come from, although it is certain that some of them appear in various books having no connection with Reiki. These practices may have value to many practitioners as part of their spiritual cultivation, but do not appear to have come from any long standing, integrated and verifiably authentic tradition as Michael Bruney has described his school of Monastic Reiki.

It should also be noted that there are doubts concerning the propriety of Michael Bruney's actions in two areas.

The first concerns money. There have been a number of cases where money has been requested from students by Michael Bruney and paid in order to expiate some aspect of negative karma. These payments were on occasion large and burdensome.

The second concerns behaviour with female students. Michael Bruney asked a significant number of his female students to remove all their clothing - ostensibly in order to enhance the effectiveness of attunements.

27 September 2003