Hi,

One of my team of Reiki Teachers, Kay Gillard, recently put together this short video sequence to teach the Reiki precepts in Japanese. Kay said:

“I love to chant the Reiki precepts in Japanese when I am sitting in gassho – Usui would like us to do this every morning and evening as part of our practice… do gassho every morning and evening, keep in your mind and recite… In Japanese, they just have a wonderful mantric quality about them and they bring a cascade of energy after you have said them, so sit in the silence and that energy after. Lovely.  PS – the pronunciation is ok, I think. But I’m from South East London, innit, and I was taught these by a German guy ;-)”

I agree that once you set in motion your Reiki precepts chant it has a lovely resonant, meditative quality to it, and it doesn’t take very long before you can remember the sounds, so it becomes second nature. Keep the chant going and your mind empties, and after a short while you can really feel the energy fizzing. Sound is a very effective way of eliciting and moulding the energy, I find, and the Reiki kotodama are ideal for this. I’ll talk more about them in another post.

For those who don’t know, the Reiki precepts (or principles) are a set of ‘rules to live by’ passed on by Reiki’s founder, Mikao Usui. They read:
 

Just for today

Do not anger
Do not worry
Be humble
Be honest in your dealings with people
Be compassionate towards yourself and others

Together with the practice of mindfulness, they were the very foundation of the original system that Usui Sensei taught.