Usui Reiki Ryoho Level 3 den Manual

Usui Reiki Ryoho Shinpiden Manual

USUI REIKI RYOHO

Shinpiden Training Manual

 2006 Infinite Harmony Randall Hall San Antonio, TX Phone 210.410.4980

Mikao Usui Founder of Usui Reiki Ryoho

Essence of Shinpiden Shinpiden means "the deep mystery" or “mystery teachings” The purpose of Reiki-ho Accomplishing the purpose of life (Reaching higher level of spiritual dimension) • Establishing “self” (Becoming aware of the true meaning of life and being part of the universal life ) • Exercising love (Spreading the vibration, mingling with people, growing together) • Exercising harmony (Raising your level of vibration, contributing to the world peace and the happiness of human beings) The current status of the earth • There is serious air pollution and environmental destruction from human-created vibration. • We are facing a crisis of existence for human beings and other living things. • An increase in people’s consciousness level (spiritual growth) is necessary to prevent the destruction.

The current status of human beings • We are hurting ourselves by the vibrations we have created. • We are hurting others by trying to control them. • We are hurting the earth, our common foundation for existence, by destroying the environment.

Need of awakening • Most people are not aware of the fact that the destruction is caused by the vibrations they have created. • Those who are aware of it feel they cannot do anything about it alone. • The truth is that changes can be brought by increasing the consciousness level of everyone.

Everything is a wave (vibration) • The universe is a wave and everything in existence is made of waves. • Consciousness is also a wave and works to the rules of waves and resonance. • Increasing the level of peoples' vibrations helps purifying and revitalising things.

Everything contains the root memory within • The sea and mountains, people and animals, all retain the root memory (vibration) inside. • If you vibrate at a higher level, you will resonate with the root memory and can recover it. • You can extend the resonance to the universe level.

Using the 4th symbol • The highest symbol in Reiki-ho (master symbol) • Helps connect to the higher consciousness and to bring light • A valuable symbol that acts as the key to true self-establishment

The key phrase for level 3 – Increase the conscious wave level and live creatively • By connecting to the consciousness in the higher dimension and growing spiritually through everyday life, you will be awakened to be the true self which is in essence the same as the higher being. • You will learn the meaning of your existence and the mission you should accomplish.

• Your soul will be purified and you will grow spiritually. You will develop more power in Reiki healing. You will be freed from fear and able to get closer to a more stable and higher state.

Goals in level 3 Re-understanding the nature of Reiki healing Reiki Healing 1. Practices and techniques for reaching self-establishment (Exercising love and harmony, a barometer for one’s spirituality) 2. Art of healing (Rei = works on the nature of the person, Ki = works on the mind and body) 3. Assists in one’s awakening (Healing is the result of one’s choice through awakening)

Integrating symbols Symbols integrated 1. At level 2, you have learned 1st symbol (the earth), 2nd symbol (the moon) and 3rd symbol (the sun) , their meanings and usage. 2. At level 3, you will learn to do only with the 3rd symbol. 3. The 3rd symbol (the sun) has the function of healing beyond time and space. It integrates the1st and the 2nd symbols and can provide the functions of these by itself. 4. After having learned the meaning and the usage of 4th symbol (the universe), you will learn to work with only the 4th symbol for healing. You need to let go of all the symbols in the future and this is your first step toward that direction. 5. The 4th symbol (the entire universe) represents the vibration as the base for existence and is used to connect to the enlightened sacred vibration sent by the being in a higher dimension. It incorporates, integrates, transcends and represents all the other symbols. Usage of the integrated symbol 1. First, learn to use the 3rd symbol for healing and the 4th symbol for spiritual growth 2. You can further grow to use the image of the sun for the 3rd symbol and the image of uniting with the light for the 4th symbol. 3. Second, Use the 4th symbol (or the image of uniting with the light) for everything. 4. If you can, you can skip the first step above. 5. Migrate from the use of individual symbols to the use of integrated symbols, depending on your level of recognition. Letting go of symbols 1. Symbols are useful and effective but are something you have to let go of eventually. 2. Do not misunderstand the function of symbols and keep looking for newer and more effective symbols. 3. You will learn to do without symbols. 4. When you first practice riding a bike, having extra wheels for support helps. The symbols work in a similar way. With the help of the symbol, anyone can execute distant healing safely and with confidence. They are very useful but you do not need to depend on them forever. You have that ability from the beginning.

Learning the master symbol Learn the role of the 4th symbol 1. In spiritualism, our souls are reincarnated on the earth many times to do the necessary learning to clear the clouds of the soul in the past and grow spiritually. After completing the learning, they will ascend to the higher dimension – the state of the happiest. 2. According to this, everyone has lessons to learn and goes through many lives until he/she completes the learning. The lessons to learn are different depending on individuals but the goal we have in common is to learn the truth of our existence and to unite with the universe, departing from all the illusion (wrong recognition that phenomena are reality). This state of mind is called enlightenment, which means transcending reincarnation and entering the dimension of eternal peace, silence and happiness. Some people have gone through severe training to reach that state. For those who believe in enlightenment, the 4th symbol exists for going beyond reincarnation 3. Some people does not believe in reincarnation and think anyone can have only one life. Even for those people, the 4th symbol works to make them aware of the reason of their existence and has a role and a function of guiding them for leading a worth-while life. Making use of the master symbol in Gendai Reiki-ho 1. In Gendai Reiki-ho, we do not talk about reincarnation but we will learn to live comfortably, seeking for the enlightenment reached by Usui-sensei: The whole purpose of life is to learn to live peacefully. 2. The core of Reiki-ho is considered to achieve ultimate relaxation. It is important to make efforts as a person but as for the results, we should leave them to the universe and learn to be in complete peace without having any worries. Once you are in this state of mind, you can keep doing what you are supposed to be doing if you come to know the earth will disappear tomorrow, keeping complete peace of mind to the last moment. 3. For this purpose, we will try to grow spiritually and to become part of the universal consciousness by boosting our vibration. a. Exercise the self cleansing technique to recognize your past karma and trauma, cleanse them and make them disappear. b. Purify your thoughts, words and deeds and practice a way of living that would not cause any new karma. c. Understand the truth of karma and exercise the control of your mind, freeing you from phenomena and emotions in everyday life.

Making use of Reiki vibration in everyday life Steps for making full use of the master symbol 1. Resonate with super conscious energy transmitted by the being in higher dimension and utilize it. 2. Learn to use the master symbol for everything with results. 3. Reach to the state where you do not need symbols any longer. (you become symbols) Path to self-establishment through spiritual growth 1. Steps for realization a. Know who you are by looking at yourself (self recognition) b. Accept yourself as the way you are (self acceptance) c. Transform yourself into who you should be (self transformation) d. Live in resonance with the universe and realize a creative life (self establishment) 2. Issues to be resolved at the same time a. Cleansing and resolving trauma, negative printing and negative vibration from the past b. Creating a life style for preventing these negativity's any more.

The core of Reiki-ho by Usui sensei Usui-sensei’s perception of Reiki 1. Everything in the universe (any existence) holds Reiki, without any exception. He said “The great Reiki filling the great universe exists within the human body too." Try to remember that the further you grow spiritually, the stronger the Reiki within becomes. 2. Reiki Ryoho is a unique healing technique using Reiki based on Reino in the universe. Reiki-ho is a technique for utilizing the conscious energy of the great universe through the Reino (mysterious and noble working) in the universe. 3. Reiki Ryoho is a spiritual healing technique and an energy healing technique at the same time. Spiritual healing and energy healing are integrated into Reiki Ryoho. 4. Any part of a healer’s body can emit Ki and light while eyes, mouth and hands emit them most. He explained that Ki and light are radiated from the whole body of a healer bringing healing. He clearly stated that Reiki-ho is a healing technique utilizing Ki and light. 5. It will make people strong and healthy and promotes healthy thoughts and a joyful life. 6. Heal your heart first and make your body healthy. Live a peaceful and joyful life while you heal others in need and promote happiness of you and others all together. Keep your mind and body healthy and live a peaceful and joyful life. At the same time heal others sick in their mind and body with Reiki and promote the happiness of yourself and others all together.

Empowerment (Master) Symbol Types and characteristics: Symbolizes the entire universe. The highest symbol in Reiki-ho. For activating 7th chakra.

Sound (Jumon) Dai Ko Myo The meaning and functions The whole universe is made of vibration/light. The 4th symbol has the function of transmitting subtle vibration of love, healing and harmony for all beings by resonating with conscious energy in a higher dimension. This is considered to be a very sacred symbol and given the highest expressions like “God inviting symbol”, “The symbol for guiding spiritual awakening”. But the symbol has its value in the function of connecting to sacred being and becoming part of it. The source (higher dimension) represented by the symbol is honourable but the symbol itself is just a tool. Dai Ko Myo means "Great (Dai) , Light radiated by Buddha (Ko-Myo)." Ko-Myo is a symbol for wisdom which is light that breaks the darkness.

How to make full use of the master symbol Self cleansing with light It is said to help receive support from a higher dimension if you exercise this before healing sessions or practicing various other exercises. 1. Stand relaxed after doing ‘kenyoku’ and draw a master symbol in the air. Say the kotodama (mantra) three times. 2. Hold your hands up and feel the Reiki vibration flow into your body and you are becoming part of the great universe. 3. While feeling the vibration with your eyes closed, move your hands and place them on the top of your head and on your chest. Feel the Reiki flow in through your hands, putting your whole body in harmony, balancing all the chakras. The Reiki filling your body will turn into radiating aura surrounding your whole body and expand all around you. 4. Lower the energy to Tanden with your hands, cleanse the aura and return it to the sky. Receive guidance by your higher self all day If you have any specific religion you believe in, you can choose to use what you believe in instead of the higher self. After getting up in the morning 1. Do Kenyoku, draw the master symbol in the air, say the kotodama (mantra) three times. 2. Hold your hands up and connect to the light from the being in the higher dimension. Do Gassho while feeling the vibration and say the affirmation “Today I will do what I should do right with the guidance and healing by my higher self. I will grow in all aspects and be in harmony.” (You can use any other affirmation of your choice.) Before you go to bed at the end of the day 1. Do Kenyoku, draw the master symbol in the air, say the kotodama three times.

2. Hold your hands up and connect to the light from the being in the higher dimension. Do Gassho while feeling the vibration and say the affirmation “I am thankful that I’ve been with guidance and healing by my higher self. I am progressing and more in harmony. Anytime, anywhere When you are faced with negative emotions or unpleasant events, exercise the light breathing and feel you are with your higher self. Accept and be thankful for the event as a necessary experience for your progress.

Kotodama Kotodama are very old. The word means 'word spirit' or 'the soul of language'. They come from Shintoism, the indigenous animist religion of Japan. At the birth of the physical and the spiritual world, there was the kotodama suuu. This developed into U, and U split into two opposing forces: A and O. The kotodama represent the forces of the universe, and there are a collection of 75 kotodama which turn up in many aspects of Japanese life. They appear within Shintoism and Buddhism as mantras for meditation, within Martial arts like Aikido, and within Reiki. There are historical accounts of kotodama being used to stop armies, to heal and to kill. There are barely a handful of kotodama Masters in the whole of Japan now, and they take us back to the earliest of Japanese spiritual traditions, almost lost in the mists of time. Japanese people of earlier times believed that words had mystical power and that the fact of saying something could make it so since each syllable or kotodama could be thought of as divine aspects of creation. Modern Japanese people do not understand the kotodama, and they do not believe in them. They are seen as ancient Shinto practices. One example of their use, though, is by pearl divers: the girls who would undertake the dives would use the kotodama 'su' to still the waters before the dived in. Some of the "New Religions" in Japan from the Meiji era to the present have diagrams that show how each sound in the Japanese language creates and sustains the universe. The founder of Aikido – Morihei Ueshiba - taught kotodama that were inspired by Onisaburo Deguchi’s new Omoto-kyo religion. The 'doka' poetry of Ueshiba was used in a similar way that Usui used Waka poetry ...as teaching tools to help students capture the spirit of their teachings. Interestingly, the Waka poetry chosen by Usui actually contain kotodama within them. The Gakkai use a list of 125 of the Meiji Emperor's tens of thousands of Waka poems for study and meditation, but it seems that Usui used other Waka poems, chosen because they contained kotodama. Kotodama were one of the ways that Usui taught his students to connect with the different energies, the other main way being meditations, and – for maybe four students - symbols. Kotodama thus predate the use of symbols within Reiki. Of Usui's surviving students, only one was taught symbols, and they were introduced into Reiki jointly by Usui and Eguchi in about 1923, three years before Usui died. They were designed as tools that you could use to access the energies. The intention was that in time you could leave the symbols behind and then work directly with the energies that they represented. The kotodama, too, are tools to use to contact the energies, and with familiarity with the energies, these too can be left behind as you come to access the energies directly. But this took a long time. Please note that Usui’s use of kotodama is ‘classical’ kotodama, not any new interpretation that may have come through Omoto-kyo, the new religion developed by Onisaburo Deguchi, an associated of Usui and mentor of Morihei Ueshiba.

The Kotodama Energies Focus ChoKuRei corresponds to the 'Focus' kotodama. This kotodama produces earth energy. Ki that emanates from the earth is heavy, firm and powerful. It grounds the body and mind, giving mental and physical strength. Earth Ki is forest green in colour and links the body to the earth. This energy can be seen as a physical healing energy, an energy that reminds you who you are. In original Usui Reiki there is no conception of the 'focus' energy being a 'power' energy, so the idea that ChoKuRei represents a 'power' symbol seems to be a Western misconception or misunderstanding: the main effect of the 'focus' kotodama is to produce physical healing, it is earth Ki, and ChoKuRei represents the same energy. Harmony SeiHeKi corresponds with the 'Harmony' kotodama. This kotodama produces heavenly energy. Ki that emanates from heaven is light, etherical (relates to the etheric body) and is passive. Heavenly Ki increases intuition, psychic ability (psychic awareness) and mental focus. Heavenly Ki is golden in colour. The harmony kotodama is heavenly Ki, and SeiHeKi represents the same energy. The kotodama are said to access the energies in a more focused way than the symbols. Connection HonShaZeShoNen corresponds with the ‘Connection’ kotodama. This kotodama does not produce an energy. It produces a state of mind in the practitioner, a state of mind of ‘oneness’. Oneness is one of the goals of Usui’s system, and chanting this kotodama, as Usui’s Shinto students would have done, helps you along this path. A side-effect of oneness, an extrapolation of the idea, is the ability to send Reiki to another person ‘at a distance’. But treating another person is an expression of oneness too. Empowerment At Master level, a fourth Kotodama was introduced: the empowerment Kotodama, which represents the energy of the Usui Master symbol – DKM. The Usui Master symbol and the corresponding empowerment kotodama are related to the Japanese deity Dainichi Nyorai (Mahavairocana, Great Shining One), the Great Buddha of Universal Illumination, Great Sun Buddha, great light of the Universe. Dainichi Nyorai is the embodiment of Illumination (enlightenment) and represents the Universe in its ultimate form, totality and reality. Through his life force he maintains the creation and operation of the Universe and all things emerge from and are nourished by him. Dainichi Nyorai is literally everywhere and everything. All the other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are various emanations or aspects of his love, compassion, wisdom and other activities. The core teaching of the Mahavairocana sutra is that Enlightenment is simply 'to know one's mind as it truly is'. The way to achieve this, it says, is to have a mind bent towards enlightenment, to be motivated solely by compassion, and to be expedient in practice to the last. The empowerment kotodama represented creative energy, regenerative energy, the energy of rebirth. The idea here is that when Reiju is carried out it connects the recipient to the energy, allowing them to be ‘reborn’: reborn in the sense of creating a place within that is ‘what we originally were’, the state within the ovum when we were Divine essence in complete connection to the universe. The energy was the essence of earth and heavenly energy, white light, source, ultimate being.

Kotodama Meditations Usui’s students got to grips with the energies by carrying out meditations or working with Kotodama, which would have been chanted again and again. Through daily practice, the students learned to ‘become’ each of the energies, focusing on one energy at a time for many months. We can echo this tradition. Why not chant the Kotodama, either out loud or in your head, by way of a mantra used for meditation, and see what you experience. Breathe the kotodama out of your whole body, let them resonate from your Dantien. Then fall quiet and experience the energy. Do this regularly and you will be echoing Usui’s practice. With time, your individual ‘picture’ of the energy will become more distinct, more detailed, and more profound.

Reiki Kotodama in Context We need to keep reminding ourselves that treatments were not emphasised in Usui’s system. They were something that it was possible for you to do, but the system was about your selfhealing and spiritual development, not treating others. So the kotodama were used not because they were useful in treating others – though of course they are – but because they represented energies that you needed to ‘become’ again and again during your path of self-healing and spiritual development. Some students, if they had a Buddhist background, used meditations over a prolonged period of time to learn to become the energies that we would recognise as Cho Ku Rei and Sei He Ki, and to experience the state of mind that is generated by using Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen. If they had a Shinto background then they would be given the kotodama, which they would chant daily, learning to become the energies (and experience the state of mind) that they represented over a long period, becoming familiar with one energy at a time over many months.

Practical use of Kotodama Treatments To use the kotodama when treating others you would let your intuition decide which of the kotodama you would use, if any. The kotodama would be intoned silently, either three times, or endlessly like a mantra. I prefer to use them three times. The kotodama would be used one at a time, and not combined, so Usui's original way of using the Reiki energies did not involve mixing energies as is done a lot in Western Reiki. Basically you would connect to and use only one energy at any one time, as far as the vast majority of Usui’s students were concerned.

With time and experience you might learn to blend earth Ki and heavenly Ki, and use them together intuitively, when this felt the right thing to do when treating someone. But this would only have been done after several years of practice at second-degree level, at the sort of level when you were about to start your Master training, and had experienced the blend of the two energies again and again through long meditation. Distance Healing Distance healing was not taught overtly, because it was a side issue, and students would have accepted that this is something that could happen easily. It is a side-effect of oneness. In fact the ability to treat others is also an expression of oneness.

To carry out distance healing you would hold in mind the recipient and chant the kotodama, and let the energy flow.

How do you pronounce Kotodama As is the case with most mantras, one has to be careful to pronounce the syllables correctly. Remember these are all from Japanese traditions so called bija-mantras (short and meaningless words-syllables), filled with high vibrations. So, be careful to pronounce them as it is shown below: A

as in ah

E

as in hey

I

as in ee

O

as in nose

U

as in blue

KU

as in too

KI

as in see or tree

HO

as in go or throw

ZE

as in may or play

NE

as in play

KO

as in so or go

YO

as in go or throw

may

or

There are three respective Kotodama used in Usui Reiki Okuden Level: Name

Symbol

Kotodama

Pronunciation

Focus

Cho-ku-Rei

ho ku ei

hoe koo ey-eeee

Harmony

Sei-he-ki

ei ei ki

ey-ee ey-ee keee

Connection

Hon-sha-ze-sho-nen

Ho a ze ho ne

hoe aah zay hoe neigh

Empowerment

Dai-ko-mio

a i ko yo

aah ee coe yo

Gendai Techniques A Combined Treatment Source: Essence of Gendai Reiki ho - Sensei Hiroshi Doi; translation by Yukio Miura; editing by Richard R. Rivard, Tom Rigler.

Purpose: A method of combining the major Okuden techniques into one application. Method: 1. The receiver is sitting in a chair, hands in their lap. 2. Gassho. 3. Raise your hands up and connect to the Reiki energy. 4. Bring your hands down and all through the following treatment send Reiki energy with the intention of peace and harmony. This treatment is actually Ketsueki Kokan-ho and uses the full body process, Zenshin Koketsuho, as well as the half body process, Hanshin Koketsu-ho. First do Aura Cleansing: 5. Stroke the air above the whole body of the receiver with both hands, or a single hand, about 10 centimetres away from the body. It is done from head to toe or from left to right of the body, and in one continuous movement. 6. If you are using one hand, do one side of the body and then go around to the other side and do that side. Next, follow the Usui hand positions for the head: 7. Apply Reiki to the receiver's forehead and back of head. 8. Apply Reiki to the sides of the head. 9. Apply Reiki to the top of the head and the mouth. 10. Apply Reiki to the sides of the neck. 11. Apply Reiki to the shoulders (or shoulder joints). 12. With your thumbs at the bottom of the back of the head (top of the spine), create an image that the whole spine is in correct position and working properly. Next, Hanshin Koketsu-ho: 13. Drag your thumbs down the sides of the spine to the sacrum, Do this 3 times 14. Using your index and second fingers of each hand, do the same thing. Do this 3 times. 15. With your right hand or palm, rub in circles down the right side, rubbing Reiki into the edge of the scapula. Use the ball of your hand. Repeat with on the left side. 16. Rub in the Reiki energy throughout the spine area, from top to bottom. You can use your fingertips if you can't use your palms. Do the right side of the spine and then the left side, or do both together. Next do Oshite Chiryo-ho. 17. Using the first two fingers of each hand, send Reiki into the body. Place the fingertips between the shoulder bone and the neck (the soft spot there) and add a little bit of pressure. If you have large fingers, then just your index finger is fine. You can do this anywhere there is a soft spot, but do not do this on a bone. Now do Uchite Chiryo-ho. 18. Using both palms, begin lightly tapping in the shoulder and back areas. Intend Reiki to flow from the palm into the area being worked on. Once the back is done, you can tap with more pressure on the shoulders. Next do Nadete Chiryo-ho 19. Take the left arm and massage in circles. Then shake the arm a bit and finally stroke the complete arm several times.

20. Then do the right arm the same way. 21. Sweep the left leg from the thigh the tip of the feet several times. 22. Then sweep the right leg the same way. Now do Aura Cleansing. 23. Perform Aura Cleansing from top to bottom, sweeping the sides together, then the back, then the front and back together, and finally the front. 24. Walk around to the front of the receiver and bow. 25. Gassho and shake your wrists. Comments: Take your time as you give this treatment, paying attention to the comfort of the receiver. You may use the energy of the symbols as required, preferably by way of the integrated symbol method.

Sekizui Joka Ibuki-ho Source: Essence of Gendai Reiki ho - Sensei Hiroshi Doi; translation by Yukio Miura; editing by Richard R. Rivard, Tom Rigler.

Purpose: Ibuki-ho is a breathing technique to cleanse karma with Reiki. This method uses Ibuki-ho to cleans the spinal cord with your breath. Spinal cord cleansing is necessary for purifying karma completely, according to Koshin-do. God stays in peoples' spinal cords where all karma is recorded. You need to cleanse the spinal cord to extinguish your wrong deeds from the past. Through this technique, you will be filled with the universal life force in vibration, fixing the disorder in your spinal cord, making the cells of your whole body healthy. Method: 1. You can stand up or sit down. Keep your backbone straight and close your eyes. (For explanation purpose, it is assumed you are sitting on a chair.) 2. Hold your hands up and feel the vibration of Reiki falling down onto your whole body like a shower, washing and cleansing your body inside out. Retain this sensation of Reiki shower all through the exercise. 3. Put your hands down slowly and place your hands on your knees with your palms down. Focus your attention onto your tanden and breathe naturally. 4. Imagine your backbone is a long pipe from your crown to your coccyx. Warm up the outside of the pipe with your hot breathing in of Hado breathing, melt the dirt from the crown to the coccyx, wash the dirt out of the body. 5. As you breathe in with your nose, imagine pure water in the sacrum and visualise the water move up in the pipe to the third eye area. 6. Repeat (4) and (5) for 3 to 7 cycles, counting 5 breaths a cycle. (Maximum 7 cycles, once a day – therefore 15 to 35 breaths). Comments: After completing the Ibuki-ho practice, meditate in silence. Close your eyes and focus your light attention to your third eye. Imagine you are breathing through your skin. All of your cells will be charged with Reiki energy

Hado Kokyu-ho Source: Essence of Gendai Reiki ho - Sensei Hiroshi Doi; translation by Yukio Miura; editing by Richard R. Rivard, Tom Rigler.

Purpose: The Hado Breathing Technique. Everyone knows that breathing changes our mood. When we are mentally and physically in a calm state, our breathing becomes slower and deeper. On the other hand our breathing becomes faster and more shallow, when we are nervous and worried. When we are surprised, we often stop breathing for a moment. The Japanese character for ‘breath’ can be broken down as ‘own self’ and ‘heart’.

Man can survive for a few weeks without eating anything, or can live without water for a few days, but he would die in a few minutes if he stopped breathing. We breathe involuntary and this is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, also we breathe voluntarily, which is controlled by the motor neurons. The function of breathing is to exchange gas, however it has also been known to change our mood and can become like a switch to control our subconscious mind. The fact that our breathing changes with our feelings sends information either way between the subconscious and conscious minds. Every existence is composed of waves, and breathing is also made of waves. Frequencies created by the breathing can change ones own waves, becoming like a tuner to meet and synchronize with the higher dimension. The Hado breathing technique is done by breathing out and making the "Haa" sound at the same time, which creates precise vibrations. A breathing technique has been practised by ‘Ko Shin Do’ (a Japanese religion). Mr Minoda who offers Balance Therapy for relaxation created this breathing technique. Doi-sensei developed the Hado breathing technique by gaining some useful knowledge and ideas from Mr Minoda’s breathing method. Later Doi-sensei had the opportunity to know a teacher of meditations combined with breathing techniques; his name is Mr Tsuda. He had practiced serious exercises such as Za Zen (religious contemplation), fasting and Taki Gyo (praying under a waterfall). After that he developed his own breathing technique and also a meditation technique, then set up his own research clinic. Doi-sensei was amazed by the great power that his methods created when Doi-sensei attended his class. Generally meditation is done to calm and relax the mind and emotions, however when Doisensei experienced his method he felt that a powerful energy ran through his body. According to Mr Tsuda the sound of ‘Haa’ is a basic breathing sound from antiquity before man started using words. There is some spiritual power in the sound as it synchronizes with the universal energy. Doi-sensei also came across Mr Fujiwara who is an expert at Aikido ( a Japanese martial art). He organises a study group into Ki (the Japanese word for energy), and also teaches a breathing technique using the ‘Haa’ sound. In Gendai Reiki Doi-sensei has introduced this breathing technique of using the ‘Haa’ sound, in the Hado breathing technique to develop the abilities. You only need to pay attention to the breathing sound of ‘Haa’. It is a simple exercise yet very effective, and you can practice anywhere. Hado (waves) breathing method creates various physiological effects, the same as practicing abdomen breathing. These are as follows: • Functioning of the internal organs will improve by moving the diaphragm up and down. • The circulation will be improved by inhaling more oxygen. • Your metabolic rate will improve. • Improve the function of Autonomic Nervous System, Endocrine and Immune System. • Raising the energy level. • Bringing about deep relaxation and calming the mind. The Hado breathing method also improves the function of each Chakra. It creates precise vibrations which have the ability to synchronise with each Chakra. Also it creates synchronisation with conscious vibration and so creates a new dimension. Method: 1. Sit or stand, be comfortable. When you are accustomed to practising this exercise, you will even be able to do this whilst standing in a busy train holding on to something. You may also practice before you sleep and as you awake lying on the bed. (For this explanation, I will describe the sitting position). 2. Remove your shoes and ground yourself by making sure that the soles of the feet are touching the floor.

Sit with you legs slightly apart, do not use a back support and do not have anything on your lap. Palms on the lap facing upwards. Make yourself calm and relaxed. 3. Close, or half close the eyes. Release the tension from the forehead, eyes, neck and shoulders. 4. Breath out from mouth with ‘Haa’ sound as if you are feeling relieved, and continue to hold the sound-breath for as long as you can. At first you may last for only about 10 seconds, but it will gradually become easier. Try to hold the sound-breath for 30 seconds, with the final aim being to hold for 40 seconds. You should not try too hard to succeed at this exercise. 5. Concentrate your mind only on the ‘Haa’ sound as you breath out until you reach your limit. Release the tension from the hardened abdomen, at the same time your inhalation will feel so easy and natural. Do not worry about doing the abdomen or Tanden breathing. After you have practiced the Hado breathing technique for a while, you will be doing deep abdomen breathing naturally anyway. There is a method that teaches that you stop breathing for a moment between inhalation and exhalation, but in Hado breathing we do not do this. Our aim for the breathing exercise is different. The important factor is to breath in and out as smoothly as possible without causing any tension. 6. At the beginning, open the mouth widely and try to vibrate the ‘Haa’ sound throughout the mouth. 7. Next, cover one ear by using the palm to fold the ear forwards with one hand. Cover the mouth with your other hand. Then listen to the ‘Haa’ sound. You can also listen to the ‘Haa’ sound in the bathroom. Comments: It is important to make the ‘Haa’ sound until you master the basics of Hado breathing. Later on you will only need to imagine the sound and this will create the same good results. The Hado breathing method is one of the foundation techniques for developing and increasing the ability to raise your vibrations, and to cleanse yourself.

Hado Meiso-ho Source: Essence of Gendai Reiki ho - Sensei Hiroshi Doi; translation by Yukio Miura; editing by Richard R. Rivard, Tom Rigler.

Purpose: A meditation that makes use of Hado breathing. The Hado breathing protects you from the problem of your mind floating away. The Hado breathing itself has the effect of moving you into a meditative state. The Hado meditation method uses this breathing technique, and will bring you even more powerful life force energies. Meditative techniques have their own particular forms in Za Zen and in similar practices. For example, the sitting styles, postures, and the methods of breathing have been firmly restricted within those forms and have not been allowed to change. These meditations can be quite dangerous, if not practiced properly. By carrying them out one can contact our deep unconscious mind and cleanse our soul, and be able to raise the soul level by activating life energy. The powerful energy, which exists deep in the subconscious mind, can become out of control. There is a possibility that mental breakdown could occur if the person’s vibration is influenced by low vibrations during the meditation. This is why strict forms of meditation are taught to prevent this possible dangerous occurrence. The Hado meditation technique is based on the Hado breathing technique (Hado Kokyo-ho), which has a great power. Therefore as long as you follow the correct method you should not need to be concerned about any problems. The key point in Hado meditation is to carry out Hado breathing while you are feeling Reiki vibrations in your palms. The precise vibration waves will change our consciousness and lead us to a deep meditative state.

So, what is the ‘Meditative State’? It is the state of harmonization with your super consciousness and making contact with the universal life force. I think it will also bring about the possible condition that you will be healed and you will reclaim your true inner self. The subconscious exists deep within the conscious. The super consciousness exists in an even deeper level to the subconsciousness. The super consciousness is a higher dimensional consciousness and connects to the universal intelligence. Therefore one can say that getting into a meditative state is not only a change of consciousness, but it greatly widens your consciousness. Method: 1. Sit or stand, be comfortable. Straighten your back. This is important as you will be carrying out deep vibrational energy breathing. Here I will explain the sitting position: 2. Remove your shoes and ground yourself by making sure that the soles of the feet are touching the floor. Sit with you legs slightly apart, do not use a back support and do not have anything on your lap. Palms on the lap facing upwards. Make yourself calm and relaxed. 3. Gassho, and calm the mind. Hands up as high as possible, and feel the vibrations of the light showering into the whole of the body. 4. Bring down the hands, feeling the light vibrations. Next open your arms so that they are straight out from your shoulders. Then bring your hands together in to your chest with the palms facing down. 5. While you are doing the Hado breathing with the ‘Haa’ sound, push both hands down to move your body energy downwards. (When you are seated, push both hands down along the sides of the body to prevent your hands from hitting your knees.) Notice the hands movement and feel the stagnated energy moving down and leaving the body. Do this just once at the beginning of the meditation. 6. Move your hands upwards to just above the forehead, whilst you breath in. Remove any tension from the hands and move them slowly down as if following the edge of your aura downwards whilst breathing out. When you breath out, fully relax your abdomen then the air will flow-in naturally. Whist you are breathing-in raise the hands again then bring them down with Hado breathing. Do these exercises 3 times, and then resume normal breathing. Keep still and feel the movement of the energy inside your body. 7. You can practice number 6 as many times as you wish. Due to the activated energy, you may experience that your body moves. However, do not try to stop the movements as you need to allow the body to react naturally and for you to experience the wonderful life force energies. (Just feel where the energy is moving). As you experience these sensations maybe you should have your eyes half closed. After a while, stop the movement by your will. Should you experience any difficulty then shake your wrists in all directions and tell yourself ‘I have completed the meditation.’ Then open the eyes. This will stop any movement. 8. If you see some vision or colors you can enjoy these phenomena and continue meditating calmly, but you should not feel excited or fascinated by them. When you become accustomed to these practices, following three Hado meditations as number 6, then you might reach a state of deep meditation. As long as you keep carrying out the Hado breathing you should be able to control your mind so that there is no danger. 9. When you finish the Hado meditation, always move your hands in all directions and clear your mind really well. 10. Then Gassho. Comments: You do not stop breathing by your conscious mind, however after you have carried out the Hado meditation you may often notice that you have not been breathing for a while. This indicates that you have entered a very deep meditative condition, and have moved onto a higher state.

Reiki Meditation Source: Essence of Gendai Reiki ho - Sensei Hiroshi Doi; translation by Yukio Miura; editing by Richard R. Rivard, Tom Rigler.

Purpose: When you have been practicing meditation, carry on in the way that you are used to. However add the Reiki symbols before you start, to fill and surround yourself with high vibrations. This creates an environment that low vibrations cannot penetrate, therefore you are protected and will be within a peaceful atmosphere. Method: 1. Stand, sit or lie down. Make yourself comfortable. (For this explanation I will explain the sitting position on a chair) 2. When you have completed Level 3, use the 4th symbol. When you have completed Level 2, use the 1st symbol. Draw them in the air and repeat their name 3 times. People who have not received the symbols, cleanse yourself with the Reiki shower. 3. Raise your hands above your head, palms facing the sky. Visualize or imagine you are contacting the universe. Feel the sensation of Reiki flowing throughout your body and merge with the energy emanating from your palms. Feel that your whole body is enveloped by the energy 4. Close the eyes, bring the hands down to the face, then Gassho. Feeling the vibration of light in the palms, your fingers should be straight up. Use them as an antenna to contact the universe. The middle fingers to be at the forehead, the brow chakra. your thumb is placed 3-5 cm away from the tip of the nose. Feel you are merging into the universal energy with your breathing. Should you feel any tension anywhere, loosen-up to relax. In this position you visualize that you are breathing in and out from the tips of your fingers. (As your meditative state becomes deeper, your hands might drop down to the mouth or the hands may become wider apart and relaxed. However, there is no need to pay any attention to them, should any of these happen.) 5. Raise the left hand a little higher. Place your right hand on your lap, palm upwards with the fingers curled-up loosely. (If you are left-handed, do the opposite.) this position is for breathing in the universal energy through the raised hand, and out from the other hand. Enjoy the sensation of the universal energy running through the body. (If there is any imbalance in the body, apply the dominant hand which was on the lap, to that area.) 6. Move the raised hand down to your lap, with the palm upwards. Now both hands are on your lap. (If you wish you can make a ring with your forefinger and thumb on each hand.) In this position feel the universal love and merge with it, and enjoy the interchange with the higher dimension. 7. Apply either your left or right hand to the heart. Send Reiki energy to your higher self and say an affirmation. This way is more affective. Also, apply one hand to the forehead and the other to the back of the head, and give an affirmation 8. Gassho, then open the eyes slowly. Comments: This practice should be carried out with positive affirmations, every morning and evening. By doing so you will feel your consciousness rising.

Solar Image Training Source: Essence of Gendai Reiki ho - Sensei Hiroshi Doi; translation by Yukio Miura; editing by Richard R. Rivard, Tom Rigler.

Purpose: This is an application of integrated symbols. Learn to use the image of the sun in place of the 3rd symbol. Use this solar image training for practicing use of images instead of symbols. Method: 1. Gassho. Hold your hands up becoming a symbol of light and connect to the light of Reiki. (Keep your eyes closed or half closed.)

2. Face your palms to each other and visualize the red or golden sun between your palms counting to 10. If you have a high blood pressure, use the color of blue or water color, imagining the sun to be cool). 3. Hold the head between your hands and visualize the sun come down into the head, counting 10. 4. Keep counting another 10, moving your hands to the sides of the neck. Continue to move to cover the heart, upper stomach, tanden and sacrum. Visualise that the tanden and the sacrum are completely inside the sun. 5. Take your hands off and relax, close your eyes and feel the energy from the sun is expanding., Comments: Before you start healing hold your hands up to connect to the light then hold your hands in front of your chest, facing your palms to each other, visualising you are holding the sun between your hands. Try to feel the sun in your hands when you place your hands on or hands above the recipient. For distant, past, future healing, place the image of the target object into the sun between your hands. In healing with the master symbol, exercise the healing by holding your hands in front of your chest facing your palms to each other, feeling the vibration and glow of Dai Ko Myo between your hands.

Additional Gendai Reiki-ho Comments How to make a contact with higher-beings Getting in touch with pioneer’s vibration You can contact the vibration of pioneers who have reached the highest state. Communicating with higher self 1. Do kenyoku and calm your mind. Get relaxed and receptive. 2. Draw the master symbol in the air and say the mantra three times. Hold your hands up and connect to the great universe. 3. Close your eyes and place your dominant hand on your chest. Say in your mind “My higher self, my soul” three times as you breath slowly. Be calm and try to feel the subtle sensation within. 4. Switch to the other hand and do the same. 5. It should feel different depending on which hand is one your chest. (You may not be able to feel the difference at first but will develop various sensations – comfort, security, warmth, vibration, calmness, etc. eventually.) • If you feel sensations only in one hand, put the hand on the chest again. • If you feel sensations in both hands, put the hand with better sensations on your chest. • If you do not feel anything in both hands, put your non-dominant hand on your chest. • Calm your mind and communicate with the higher self through the hand. The light in a higher dimension emitted from the hand will cleanse whatever is preventing the higher-self from glowing. Breath naturally, focus your attention onto the whole of the hand on your chest and concentrate on the sensation within yourself. (Relax and enjoy the subtle signals. It is OK if you do not feel anything. You will eventually.) • Do Gassho and give thanks before finishing.

The milestones to enlightenment Definitions in Gendai Reiki-ho The enlightenment we are trying to achieve is to get ultimate relaxation. In order to reach that state you should “believe in the universe and be with it” and “learn to be in sync with the rhythm of the universe every day”. 1. People are always worried about their future. You can have social position, honour, a fortune and an ideal family and everyone knows that these are fragile and can be corrupted in one moment. Everyone wishes to be freed from fear and agony and to live happily with a peaceful state of mind. 2. The purpose of life is to reach true happiness Usui-sensei also sought for the purpose of life and came to the conclusion that it is to achieve great peace in mind and reach true happiness. As long as you value status or phenomena, like property, sense of satisfaction or sense of happiness, for measurement of happiness, you remain unstable and will not be able to achieve the great peace of mind. He taught to become part of the great universe through one’s enlightenment. 3. Getting closer to the state of the great peace of mind, following Usui-sensei’s teaching. Gendai Reiki-ho is aimed at achieving calmness, peace and happiness, ultimately getting out of agony through Usui-sensei’s teaching and the use of Reiki-ho. 4. The step for making full use of Reiki At level 3, you obtained the key for escaping from the agony of human beings through the guidance of the light of higher dimension (Dai Ko Myo). But unless you put it into right use, the door to the great peace of mind will not open. Just having the key does not mean you can grow

spiritually or just having learned healing and its techniques will not take you to enlightenment automatically. You learn these to introduce Reiki into everyday life and to be with the universe, preparing for the next step. In this sense, you are now starting to make true use of Reiki energy, trying to be in resonance with the universe. 5. The basic idea

In short, the enlightenment in Gendai Reiki-ho means a. To reach ultimate relaxation and achieve self realization in calmness, peace and happiness. b. To live in resonance with the rhythm of the universe, feeling you are part of the great universe and let live by it. c. To believe in the universe and seek for self realization through the guidance of it. As for the result, leave it to the universe.

How we should practice what Principles 1. You are eternal life and the earth is the place for learning. 2. “Now” is when you learn and “here” is where you learn. And your subjects to learn are all the problems you face. 3. You can judge, select and determine these subjects freely. You can deny, take or get away from them at your own will. The accumulation of your selections determines the result of your learning. 4. You are what you fully express through the free selections. At this moment you are expressing yourself through the free selection and producing the cause of self realization. 5. Self-expression is made with thought, verbal expression and actions. When emotion is involved here, abnormal selection can be made. Mind control within is especially important. 6. Vibration of past disharmony do exist and should be made to disappear regardless of who created them.

What and How 1. Think right, talk right and act right so you will not cause new disharmony. 2. Try to recognise the energy of past disharmony and cleanse and extinguish it. 3. Create a field of peaceful vibration in resonance with the universe and maintain the rhythm in everyday life.

Put Usui-sensei’s teaching in action 1. Exercise Usui-sensei’s five Reiki principles in everyday life as a Reiki practitioner. 2. Practice Hatsurei-ho and self-cleansing technique to become part of Reiki vibration and light, seeking for the spiritual growth, along with the five Reiki principles. 3. Keep always in mind to try to raise your conscious vibration level so you will not be in tune with the vibration of disorder.

Reiju empowerments Background Reiju is the way that the ability to channel Reiki is conveyed. The Reiju that we teach is Usui's original method of conveying the ability to channel Reiki, as passed on to Chris Marsh by his surviving students, and we know that it comes from Tendai Buddhism. Reiju is used in original Usui Reiki and a version of it is also used by the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai. The first information that we received in the West concerning Reiju came from Hiroshi Doi. He taught a version of the Gakkai’s Reiju, and his technique seems to have been based on his personal experience of receiving the empowerments repeatedly, rather than by him having been taught it specifically. We now know that Usui's Reiju differs a little from the method that Doi has reconstructed, though Doi’s method is basically sound. As far as the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai is concerned, Doi has explained that students attend weekly training sessions called "Shuyokai" where they practice "Hatsurei Ho". After the last step of Hatsurei Ho, in Seishin Toitsu (concentration), students would meditate for a while. That is when the teachers would give Reiju to each one of the students in meditation. Through these training sessions and their own practices, the students' Reiki channelling power (or ability) would advance. New Reiki levels were given to the students by the teachers, depending on their progress. You can write "Reiju" in two different ways using Japanese kanji, one way meaning "accepting the spirituality" and the other meaning "giving the spirituality". Spirituality in this case means connection to the Reiki energy, of course. The word Reiju has also been translated as the 'giving of the five blessings', the five powers. The five blessings are given by each of the five hand positions/points that are held after the crown has been opened. The blessings include the following, and they come through Mikkyo teachings (Mystical Buddhism): Hands - wisdom (hands in gassho is a symbol of wisdom) Heart - knowledge: part of going through spiritual evolution is remembering A further interpretation of the word Reiju is ‘the unity of mind and Ki’. Reiju is a ‘spiritual empowerment’, it is not just a mini-attunement: it is much more than that: 1. Reiju connects the student to Reiki and continually reinforces that connection, increasing the strength of the student’s Reiki. The student works on and develops that enhanced connection by practicing energy exercises daily. 2. Reiju enhances the student’s spiritual development, moving the student along his/her spiritual path. This aspect is enhanced through energy exercises also. 3. Receiving Reiju empowerments on a regular basis is the key to maximizing intuition and sensitivity to the energy, and in the Gakkai students work on and develop this potential by practicing Reiji Ho. My experience of Using Reiju on my courses during the last 2 ½ years is that they are really something special, allowing students to be more sensitive to the energy right from the word go, and more intuitive, when compared with my earlier experiences in teaching Reiki using Westernstyle attunements. I have seen other Masters in various parts of the world comment on their experiences of using Reiju and the general consensus is the same. One of my Master students – who had already been teaching using attunements – said to me that her ‘Reiju students’ were ‘flying’!

How to Give Reiju Reiju empowerments consist of two stages: 1. A general introductory stage where you open yourself to the energy and create sacred space. This is done only once, at the start of the Reiju session, no matter how many students you will be empowering. 2. The individual empowerments for each student. Self-Empowerment Stage The self-empowerment stage of Reiju is described below, and can be used out of context in these situations: • As part of Western-style Reiki Attunements • Before you are about to start Reiki treatments You will be making one movement that opens you up to Reiki and brings Reiki into your Dantien (Tanden, Hara). Then you will be making three repeated movements that expand your energy to include or engulf the people who are going to receive Reiju from you, connecting you to them and creating sacred space. 1. Raise your hands to connect to Reiki in the way that you learned as part of Hatsu Rei Ho, with palms uppermost to the sky. 2. Feel energy or light cascading down into your hands, filling your hands, flowing through your arms into your torso and your Dantien. 3. Bring your hands slowly out to the sides, palms facing the floor, imagining that as you do this you are bringing energy through your crown, flooding the energy over your body and passing this energy through your body to your Dantien point as you lower your hands. Finish this movement by hovering your hands in front of your Dantien, with the dominant hand closest, and the non-dominant hand hovering further away. The hands overlap but do not touch each other. 4. You have now surrounded yourself with energy and brought the energy into your Dantien. 5. Hold this position until you feel a real sense of connectedness with the energy. Maybe you can feel a strong bolt of energy through your crown, your hands may heat up or fill with energy, or you may feel changes in your Dantien. This movement is done only once, and we follow this with three repeated movements… 6. Move your hands away from your Dantien, straight out in front of you, with your palms facing away from you, moving your hands forwards and upwards to above your head, to achieve the same 'connecting position' that you learned in Hatsu Rei Ho. 7. Bring your hands slowly out to the sides, just like before, this time imagining that as you do so you are expanding your energy to engulf the people you will be empowering. 8. Return your hands to your Dantien point as before. 9. Repeat this 'expanding' sequence two more times, each time finishing with your hands hovering in front of your Dantien. The above could appear to be the reverse of something called Shaou Gong, a closing down exercise used at the end of a QiGong session, so the above can be seen as opening up the person to energy. It also seems to be similar to a QiGong exercise called Parting the Clouds.

Individual Empowerments The recipient should sit on a chair, relaxed, holding their hands in the Gassho position and with their eyes closed. Reiju empowerments are usually given as part of the Hatsu Rei Ho sequence at the Gakkai's weekly training sessions, so what you can do is this: and after carrying out Seishin Toitsu for a while, the student will simply meditate with their hands in the Gassho position while they wait for their empowerment. The empowerments can also be given on their own, though, without Hatsu Rei Ho being practised by the recipient: the student sits with their eyes closed and their hands in their laps, palms down. When it is their turn to receive Reiju, rest your hand on their shoulder as a cue for them to put their hands together in Gassho, they receive their empowerment and then you can bring the hands down into their lap again.

1. Stand in front of the recipient. In Japan they would do Gassho and bow one time. 2. Touch the recipient's shoulder to indicate that they should place their hands in Gassho, if they are not already doing the meditation that follows the Seishin Toitsu stage of Hatsu Rei Ho. 3. Move your hands high up above you, as in the illustration below, and feel energy coming down into your hands from above. Splay your fingers out.

4. ENERGY PATH: Move your hands down a little and join together the first two joints of your index fingers, with the other fingers floppy and relaxed. 5. In one continuous movement, move your hands down in front of the recipient, and draw down a line of light which enters the crown, and trace an energy path down the centre of the body, intending that you are opening the energy centres as you do so. Keep on tracing the energy path until you are pointing at the base of the spine, at which time your hands will be close to the recipient's knees. 6. Part your hands and, with your palms face down, move your hands sideways past the knees and move them downwards towards the floor, ritually grounding the energy without touching the floor. Move your hands to the sides as you stand up straight.

7. Now you are going to be holding a number of hand positions where you will be flooding an area with light or energy. Each position should be held for a count of at least ten seconds. 8. CROWN: Stand up and move your hands down so that they are hovering, one over another, above the recipient's crown. If the recipient has long legs, you may want to stand to one side of them, so you do not have to lean forwards uncomfortably. Touch the recipient's aura above their head using your dominant hand, and hover your nondominant hand over your dominant hand, palms face down. Open the crown. Direct energy down the energy path that you traced with the previous hand movement. Hiroshi Doi's interpretation is that this stage helps to 'clarify the energy body' and attune the energy body with the cosmic rhythm. 9. TEMPLES: Following the outline of the aura, slide your hands to both sides of the recipient's head, the temples. Each palm faces the side of the recipient 's head (at about the height of the eyebrows). Hiroshi Doi says that the intention here is that you are expanding the energy path so that the student's entire body is being flooded with Reiki. 10. THIRD EYE: Again following the outline of the aura, move your hands to the front of the recipient's face and make a triangle with your index finger and thumb tips, with the other fingers splayed out. This is said to be the symbol of the sun. Hold the centre of the triangle in front of the recipient's third eye. Your palms are facing their face. Hiroshi Doi says that the intention here is that you are flooding the third eye with light, and this is said to help the third eye to function more sensitively and to connect with higher-level consciousness.

11. THROAT: This is an intermediate step that does not come from Hiroshi Doi, but from Usui’s surviving students. Hold the hands behind, and in front of, the throat, and flood the throat with light. It does not matter which hand is in front or behind. 12. HEART: This is an intermediate step that does not come from Hiroshi Doi, but from Usui’s surviving students. Hold the hands behind, and in front of, the heart area, and flood the heart with light. If because of the positioning of the recipient’s hands you cannot place your hand in between the hands and the heart, simply direct Reiki into the heart with your palm further out from the hands. 13. HANDS: Touching together the tips of your first three fingers, move your hands down and around the recipient's hands, cupping round their hands, without touching their hands. Rather like cupping your hands round a big cup of Cocoa on a cold evening! Let energy flow through the recipient's hands: flood the hands with light. Hiroshi Doi's interpretation is that the intention here is to connect "the centre of the student" and "the

centre of universe", create an ‘energy path’ from the shoulders to the arms, from the arms to the palms, and to integrate left energy and right energy.

14. Move your hands up and over the recipient's fingertips, and bring your hands down towards the knees (your three fingertips are still touching at this stage). Smoothly separate your hands and, with your palms face down, move your hands sideways past the knees and down towards the floor, starting to ‘scoop’ round in a circle. 15. With the intention that you are 'scooping up' excess energy and returning it to the source of Reiki, bring your hands together just above the floor, palms facing away from the floor. You make contact with the tips of the two smallest fingers of each hand, and with the side of your palms touching along their length also - rather as if you were scooping up water from a stream. Quickly move your hands up, pointing your fingers towards the centre of the recipient's body as if you were scooping up the energy and returning it to the sky, returning the energy along the energy path that you traced at the beginning of the empowerment. As your hands reach towards the sky, open your arms, releasing the little finger contact toward the end of the movement. 16. In Japan they would do Gassho and bow. If you are empowering a group of people who have been practicing Hatsu Rei Ho, when they have received Reiju they could keep their hands in Gassho and when they have all been empowered, bring them all back together.

First Degree Empowerments The Reiju empowerments that you have read about above can be used as an alternative to Reiki First Degree attunements. Carry out the empowerment with the intention that the recipient is permanently connected to Reiki, that they should receive what they need. How many you perform during your course is down to your personal preference. It is nice to do a few; I do three because it fits in nicely with my schedule. Ideally, people would then have access to regular Reiju, because this helps to enhance intuition and spiritual development. This could be in person (preferable) or at a distance. I provide both: each week at a distance.

Second Degree Empowerments We should not be surprised that Usui did not have one standard way of connecting his students to the energies and moving them from one level to another. What he did with them depended on their background. ‘Buddhist approach’ One way of dealing with things was to carry out plain Reiju at all levels. At Reiki1 and Reiki2 levels the intention was that the recipient should receive what they needed. Alongside this, the student would carry out the various meditations that were designed to enhance their awareness of their hara (a preparation for second-degree), and at second-degree level allowed them to fully experience earth energy, heavenly energy, and oneness… the ‘Buddhist’ meditation approach. ‘Shinto approach’ But this was not the only approach, and one of Usui students – who followed Shinto – carried out empowerments in conjunction with the Reiki kotodama. This is how it was done…

At second-degree, there would be three empowerments, one empowerment representing each of the three energies/states that are taught at Second Degree level. While carrying out each empowerment, you would intone the kotodama silently to yourself, either three times or endlessly. This has the effect of giving the empowerment the 'flavour' of that energy, flooding the recipient with one energy during each separate empowerment. Reiju #1 Reiju #2 Reiju #3

intone the 'focus' Kotodama. intone the 'harmony' Kotodama. intone the 'connection' Kotodama.

Once this had been done, the students would use regular chanting of the Kotodama in order to learn to become earth Ki, to become heavenly Ki, and to experience oneness. They would focus on one energy at a time for many months before moving on to the next.

Master Level Empowerments Again, Usui had different approaches. We have already seen that at Reiki1 and Reiki2 levels you might use just ‘plain’ Reiju with the intention that the recipient should receive what they needed. Students carried out various meditations to experience the second-degree energies/states. The alternative was to carry out empowerments that flooded the student with the essence of the three kotodama, one empowerment for each of the three second-degree kotodama. Well at Master level there were a couple of choices too. You could carry out plain Reiju, but with a different intention: you intended that the recipient be enabled to learn to transfer energy (the ability). The Shinto, or Kotodama, version of this would have been to give the empowerment while intoning the 'empowerment' Kotodama. While carrying out the empowerment, you would intone the empowerment kotodama silently to yourself, either three times or endlessly. This has the effect of giving the empowerment the 'flavour' of that energy, flooding the recipient with that energy during the empowerment.

Where does that leave the Reiki symbols? The Reiki symbols were experienced by only four of Usui’s students. They were introduced in maybe 1923 and taught to the three naval officers and one of Usui’s surviving students. They do not turn up in the connection rituals, of course, because Usui had been teaching his system since at least 1915; his system was established, up and running, without them. So the symbols are a bit of an afterthought, introduced jointly by him and his senior student, Eguchi, for the benefit of a few of his students who could not get to grips with the more traditional meditation/kotodama approach that Usui used with his Buddhist and Shinto students. So with Usui you were not attuned to the symbols in order to be connected to Reiki. You were connected to Reiki using Reiju, which doesn’t use symbols. You were not attuned to the symbols by Usui at all. His students were simply given them and they were used to represent different energies/states. These few students would have to have learned to become the energies using symbols rather than using meditations or kotodama chanting, it would have still been a long process, and the energies would have been worked individually, not mixed together. I have been using Reiju in my Reiki courses since Spring 2000 and they work brilliantly. I have been using the Reiju/kotodama combination at second-degree level since Summer 2000. Despite the fact that one is not 'attuned to the symbols' by this process, I have found that symbols given to such students work in the same way as if they had been 'attuned' to them, as we do in the Western tradition. In fact, they even work at First Degree level using 'plain' Reiju, with no kotodama and no symbols entering into the process. It seems that the widely held Western view that the symbols are useless unless you are specifically attuned to them is incorrect. If you are attuned to Reiki then the symbols represent the energy in much the same way that the Kotodama represent the energy, but Reiki is the energy, not the symbols. You can use the symbols to direct the energy, you can use the kotodama to direct the energy, and you can use intent to direct the energy. I believe that once you are connected to the energy than *any* symbol will push the energy in a particular direction. But in Usui’s system you used the energies once you had become thoroughly familiar with them. That was the first stage. You would spend months meditating on each energy in turn, experiencing it, ‘becoming’ it, and then you might work with it when treating others. There were no short cuts. The kotodama are training wheels, and the symbols are training wheels: they connect you to an energy that would have been thoroughly familiar to you already, through your meditations, through your long chanting of the kotodama, through again and again experiencing the characteristic energies of each individual symbol. And with time and experience you could dispense with the ‘training wheel’, to work with the energies direct. You could dispense with symbols and you could dispense with the kotodama, if through long practice you could fully ‘become’ the energies.

Reiju Variations Western ‘experiments’ Reiju variations have been developed by some people who are using the method to attune people to symbols in the 'Western' system. I experimented for a while by using two Reiju empowerments and one Western-style attunement at Reiki1 level. It worked fine, and people seemed to be noticing more than they would normally notice on the average Reiki1 course. I now use three Reiju empowerments on my Reiki1 courses, and I find that students notice just as much, if not more in fact, than using the Western methods. I know a Reiki Master who - before we learned about the kotodama - used Reiju three times at Reiki1 level, one Reiju for each of the three symbols. For Reiju #1 he visualized CKR passing into the third eye while holding the 'triangle' there, for Reiju #2 he visualized SHK in the same place, and for Reiju #3 he visualized HSZSN there. This seems to have worked fine. This Master had also used Reiju empowerments with symbols at Reiki2 level. This time he again did three Reiju empowerments, one for each symbol. For Reiju #1 he visualized CKR passing into the third eye (as before) and visualized CKR passing into the hands while he cupped his own hands around them. For Reiju #2 he used SHK in this way, and in Reiju #3 he used HSZSN. Again, he says that this worked well. He has also used Reiju at Master level, with impressive results seemingly, sending DKM into the third eye and hands. Again, this was before we knew about the kotodama. He has tried giving people Reiju without physically doing anything to them, by simply intending that the recipients would receive the empowerment, or the empowerment energy. He says that this works powerfully too.

Self-Empowerments Distant Reiju It is perfectly possible to arrange for another Reiki Master to send you distant Reiju. When I have done this, I have had an empty chair in front of me and imagined that the person I am sending the empowerment to is in front of me. Alternatively, when carrying out the 'self-empowerment' stage of Reiju (see above) I have imagined my energy expanding to engulf the other person at their home. I used this technique to attune the children of a friend of ours. Later that day, the young lady felt her hands tingle and when she 'treated' her mother, it was Reiki!

We should not be too surprised that this works, because we do not actually attune someone, we are just essential bystanders… making the introductions, so to speak. I send a Reiju 'broadcast' every Monday, with the intention that it be received by any existing Reiki person who wishes to 'tune in' to it any time on a Monday. That has been experienced powerfully too.

Distant Reiju on yourself You can, of course, do distant Reiju on yourself, with the intention that the empowerment will be received at whatever time you decide upon. Then sit yourself down with your hands in Gassho, at the appointed time, and receive the empowerment that you sent out earlier. Or you could intend that the empowerment be received by you when you sit down and request to receive it. Using your 'Energy Body' A variation of the distant Reiju that can be used on other people is to imagine yourself doing Reiju on yourself. Sit in a chair with your hands in Gassho, and imagine that you are standing in front of you. See yourself go through the self-empowerment stage, and then see yourself performing the empowerment on you.

Some people have tried sitting in a chair, and then they get up, imagining that they have left their 'energy body' or 'etheric double' behind in the chair. They then do the empowerment on their energy body. Other people have experimented using a mirror. A Further method Reiki Master Carly Horbowiecz in the Netherlands takes another approach. She simply visualizes a line of light entering her crown and opening her energy centers down to the base of the spine, the energy then being grounded. Then she imagines, or rather feels or experiences energy flowing through her crown down that energy path, then into her temples, then into her third eye and so on. So she experiences the energy's effects on herself, drawing the energy into the appropriate areas, without using the 'prop' of someone imagined outside her. She finds it very effective.

Gendai Power Reiju – a concentrated Empowerment ceremony At the November, URRI 2000 Workshop weekend in Kyoto Japan, Doi-sensei held a special Reiju class where he taught Reiju, Power Reiju and Self Reiju. Power Reiju is his way of giving an intense, simple attunement. He recommends it not be given as the first Reiki attunement to a student, but it is a good process to use as a Reiki attunement boost. Sometimes Doi-sensei uses it in between attunements in class, if he feels the student could use a boost.. The technique follows the standard Doi Reiju process, but adds in a Kikou (Qigong) like focus of the 2 index fingers of each hand, at each attunement position. Note: The recipient should sit on a chair relaxed, holding hands in Gassho and eyes closed, usually performing the Sei Shin Toitsu part of Hatsurei-ho. If they have finished, their hands may simply be on their lap. Method: (similar to Reiju) 1. Stand in front of the recipient and do Gassho, then bow one time. 2. Touch the person on their shoulder and say to yourself "I will begin Reiju now." If their hands are on their lap, they will raise them into Gassho position (as you have explained to them previously.) 3. Move your hands high up from both sides and hold them with your palms open, reaching to the ceiling. You become the symbol of light and connect to the Reiki energy/vibration. Intend to connect the person to Reiki (you can even focus on a specific version of Reiki). 4. Slowly lower your hands above the recipient's crown. Join the index fingers of both hands, together making contact of the second joints of your 2 fingers above the recipients head (your other fingers are relaxed). The index fingers are pointing horizontally over the recipient's head. 5. Then in one continuous movement, move your hands down in front of the recipient, as you draw a line of energy down the center of the body, to the height of the recipient's knees. Release the index fingers contact and start opening your arms to both sides around the knees, still moving down and to the floor, finally facing your palms to the floor. 6. Continue to move your hands back up in a circle until they are over the recipient's head. Join your hands, one on top the other, palms face down (dominant hand on the bottom) and then point the combined fingers downward to the recipient's crown (as pictured below). Let Reiki flow into the crown and hold this position for about 10 seconds. OPTIONALLY, you can just point the first 2 fingers of each hand (overlapped) towards the crown) - this may actually feel stronger. 7. Now flatten your overlapped hands as in normal Doi-sensei Reiju. Join your hands, one on top the other, palms face down (dominant hand on the bottom) and rest them on top of the recipient's aura. Stop here and let the Reiki energy flow into the recipient's head for about 10 seconds. 8. Next bring your hands along to either side of the head, following the aura, but FIRST hold the 2 fingers out again, this time pointing in towards either side of the head as pictured below. Hold for about 10 seconds. 9. Then flatten the palms again, placing them on the edge of the recipient's aura. Each palm faces the side of the recipient 's head (at about the height of eyebrows). Let the energy flow through both sides of the recipient's head for about 10 seconds. 10. Next, come around to the front with the 2 fingered hands to point at the forehead or 3rd eye position. Join the fingertips, making a "V" with your hands. Hold for about 10 seconds.

12. Change your hands to make a triangle with your index fingers and your thumbs (symbol of the sun, as pictured below) and keep the center of the triangle in front of the recipient's forehead/third eye. Your palms are facing the recipient's forehead. Let the energy flow into recipient's third eye for about 10 seconds. 13. Next, move down to the recipient's hands and point towards them with your 2 fingered hands at the edge of the aura (like you did at the sides of the head. Hold for about 10 seconds. 13. Now, open your hands and face the palms towards the recipient's hands, your fingers pointing towards the recipient's body, as in normal Reiju, . Let the energy flow through the recipient's hands for 10 seconds. 15. Smoothly separate and move your hands outwards and downwards. When they are below the knees, bring them together, palms facing upward, making contact with the tips of the two smallest fingers of each hand (like a scoop or open cup). Quickly move your hands up along the center of his/her body in front as if you were scooping the energy and returning it to the sky. You open your arms, releasing the little finger contact, toward the end of the movement. 16. Touch the recipient's shoulder to inidcate to the person that Reiju is over. Say to yourself " I have finished Reiju." 17. Do Gassho and a bow. 18. Proceed to the next Person

Gendai Self Reiju – a simple way to use his Reiju on yourself At the November, URRI 2000 Workshop weekend in Kyoto Japan, Doi-sensei held a special Reiju class where he taught Reiju, Power Reiju and Self Reiju. Self Reiju is his way of giving Reiju to yourself. Note: You can do this standing up or sitting down. Method: 1. Do Gassho, then bow one time. Tell yourself you begin Reiju. 2. Move your hands high up from both sides and hold them with your palms open, reaching to the ceiling. You become the symbol of light and connect to the Reiki energy/vibration. Intend to attune yourself to Reiki (you can also focus on a specific version of Reiki). 3. Slowly lower your hands above your crown, joining them together. Invert your fingers so they point downwards toward your crown (see photo below), and the backs of your fingers are touching. Then bring the channel of Reiki energy into yourself as you run your fingers down the front of you. As in Reiju, separate the hands below the tanden, letting them flow outwards and back up in a circle to your crown. 4. Join your hands, one on top the other, palms face down (dominant hand on the bottom) and then slowly bring them down to touch the top of your aura above your crown. Stop here and let the Reiki energy flow into your head for about 10 seconds (or as long as it feels appropriate to you). 5. Following the outline of your aura, move your hands to both sides of your head. Let the energy flow through both sides of your head for about 10 seconds. 6. Next, bring your hands around to the front of your head and overlap them just as you did over your crown, this time facing your forehead. Hold for about 10 seconds. 7. Now bring your hands (in the same position) down in front of your throat. Leave them here if you feel a need for Reiki at your throat. When you are ready, continue. 8. Bring your hands down in front of your heart. Check to see if you need energy here. 9. If not move down to the Solar Plexus and do the same. At each position, if you feel the need for Reiki, leave the hands there for as long as you like. 10. Bring your hands to in front of your tanden and hold here if you feel the need for Reiki. 11. Smoothly separate and move your hands downwards and bring them together, palms facing upward. Make contact with the tips of the two smallest fingers of each hand (like a scoop or open cup). Quickly move your hands up along the center of your body as if you were scooping the energy and returning it to the sky. You open your arms, releasing the little finger contact, toward the end of the movement. 12. Tell yourself you are finished with Reiju. 13. Do Gassho and a bow.

The Hayashi Attunement The following attunement process was shown to Dave King by Dr. Hayashi's 12th master level student, Mr. Tatsumi, before he passed away in October 1996. Mr. Tatsumi owned a business that manufactured miso and he would travel to Tokyo to sell this. He met Dr. Hayashi and enrolled in his training. Students could pay for training or work in the clinic 8 hours each week, giving Reiki to patients. Level one practitioners would work the lower part of the body using hand positions devised by Dr. Hayashi. After 3 months a student could be promoted to level 2, given new training, and would then be allowed to work the upper half of the body. After 9 more months, the student could then be promoted to level 3 and given responsibilities for a shift in the clinic. At this level a student could even receive some monetary compensation. After a two year's further commitment (which involved assisting Dr. Hayashi in the classroom) the student would then be taught attunements and be allowed to teach. Mr. Tatsumi explained that part of this training involved copying all of Dr. Hayashi's notes, as well as those of Usui-sensei's that were in Dr. Hayashi's possession. Dave and his associate Melissa Riggal were allowed to see these notes as well as several written by Dr. Hayashi and Mikao Usui. The notes explained the system of Reiki as Dr. Hayashi had learned it, including the origins of techniques used and that of the symbols. Dave was allowed to trace the symbols that were in Dr, Hayashi's hand. This is what he shared with me. Mr. Tatsumi also gave empowerments to Dave and showed him the attunement process he had learned from Dr. Hayashi. Notes on the Attunements: In Shoden or Reiki 1 level, Dr. Hayashi gave the same attunement up to 4 times; essentially one a day for each day of the class. This seemed to be his way of duplicating Usui Sensei's method of giving the student an empowerment each time they met (or at each Reiki gathering). In Okuden or Reiki 2, the same empowerment was given for each of the 3 "symbols," such that in the first empowerment, Dr. Hayashi concentrated on the Focus symbol/energy; in the second it was the Harmony symbol/energy; and the third time, the Connection symbol/energy. So only ONE symbol is placed into the hands in any empowerment. In the first part of Shinpiden or Reiki 3, the Okuden empowerment was used again with only the Empowerment symbol/energy placed into the hands. The symbols above the crown seem to be just a ceremony for the teacher to connect to all the energies. For each attunement, the student is sitting in a chair and has feet (usually stockinged) flat on the floor or on a cushion. Their hands are in Gassho (prayer position and at heart level).

Shoden Empowerment 1. Standing behind the student, with hands in Gassho, bow. 2. Tap the studen't shoulders to indicate they should place their hands in Gassho. 3. Step back and draw or visual the Empowerment (Master) Symbol in the air (or simply call on the energy) and move it over your own body. 4. Clear the student's energy by making three descending sweeps of the hands from above the student's head to the ground. 5. Place your non-dominant hand on (or just above) the student's crown chakra and place your dominant hand just above it. Draw or visualise the symbols (or energies) in order - #1, #2, #3, #4 with the dominant hand over the crown. As you do so, focus on opening the Reiki channels. 6. Place your hands on the student's shoulders for a few seconds with the intent of grounding. 7. Stand in front of the student and open the student's hands.

8. Place your dominant hand slightly above the student's hands and your other hand slightly below the student's hands. Focus on opening the Reiki channels and hold the position until you feel a good energy flow. 9. Place the student's hands back into the prayer position and blow gently and continuously along the space between the hands, going from the thumb side of the palm to the little finger side of the palm. Rotate the student's hands whilst doing this. 10. Give a short, sharp blast of breath to the student's crown, heart and dantien (just below navel). This may be done by blowing straight at each point, or by blowing along the back of your hand, directed towards each of the points. 11. Go behind the student and, with your hands cupped, make a single upward sweep from floor to above student's head. Bow. 12. Take the student's right hand and place it on the student's left shoulder. 13. Take the student's left hand and place it on the student's right shoulder. 14. Place your hands on the student's shoulders and `revive' the student. 15. Step back, Gassho and bow to the student. 16. Ask the student to share their experience. Comments: o The attunement is given 4 times during the class, most likely in an attempt to emulate the process Usui-sensei had of attuning the student each time they came for instruction or a gathering of the Reiki society. This still occurs in the society today. o Above the crown, although you are drawing the symbols in the air, you are not saying the mantra out loud. Also, your focus here is on opening the Reiki channels in the student. o Again, when in front of the student, you are holding a strong will, intent and focus that the Reiki channels be opened - you will find this is a bit different for each person. I usually find that the energy builds to a peak then levels off. o The blowing along the line of the joined hands is one continuous blow - it is used to seal the energy. o The sharp blasts at the 3 energy centers are associated with the three dantiens. 'The Three Pure Ones' or 'Three Treasures' Ching (body essence - sexual energy). Chi (life force energy) Shen (spirit) o Lower Dantien (navel): Most important center. CHING. More condensed than Chi, Earth, mostly Yin. Middle Dantien: CHI. Soul, Higher Self, Cosmic energy. Upper Dantien: SHEN. Heaven. o In a separate attunement that Doi-sensei demonstrated, he blew along his hand towards the individual Dantiens. o Dave King he refers to Level one as connecting to - Heaven = Tian QI, Earth = Di Qi, Man = Ren Qi. o The scoop at the end is intended to reverse the flow of energy and thus help revive the student. o Before and after the attunement, while behind the student, Dave had also taught me to bow to the student.

Okuden and Shinpiden Empowerments Note: Only one symbol is placed in the hands per empowerment. 1. Stand behind the student, draw the Master Symbol in the air and move it over your own body. 2. Clear the student's energy by making three descending sweeps of the hands from above the student's head to the ground. 3. Place your non-dominant hand on (or just above) the student's crown chakra and place your dominant hand just above it. 4. Draw the symbols in order - #1, #2, #3, #4 with the dominant hand over the crown. As you do so focus on the symbol that you are attuning.

5. Place your hands on the student's shoulders for a few seconds with the intent of grounding. 6. Stand in front of the student and open the student's hands. 7. Place your dominant hand slightly above the student's hands and your other hand slightly below the student's hands. Draw the appropriate symbol four times with the upper hand then `lead' the symbol into the student's palm. 8. Place the student's hands back into the prayer position and blow gently and continuously along the space between the hands going from thumb side palm to little finger side palm. Rotate the student's hands whilst doing this. 9. Give a short, sharp blast of breath to the student's crown chakra, heart chakra and dantien chakra (just below navel). 10. Go behind the student and make a single upward sweep from floor to above student's head. Bow. 11. Take the student's right hand and place it on the student's left shoulder. 12. Take the student's left hand and place it on the student's right shoulder. 13. Place your hands on the student's shoulders and `revive' student. Ask about experiences etc. Comments: · As you "lead" the symbols into the palm, just imagine that they are moving into the hand. · I was taught to draw the symbols with my hand open, focusing on the flat of my palm. Here are some interesting notes from Dave King's web site: Tatsumi had kept notes of the attunements and symbols. There was never any requirement to maintain an 'oral tradition'. Hayashi had large quantities of notes in both his own and in Usui's penmanship and some of these remain in Tatsumi's possession. The attunements for first level are intended to 'remind' the candidate that he is connected to a limitless energy system. He calls it the 'connecting transformation'. It is a ceremony that simply tells the energy to flow along the channels. No symbols are passed in the set of four attunements. The attunements for second level are intended to remind the candidate that they have access to the energies that act as 'filters' to the flow given at level I. Each symbol is given separately in an attunement called a 'control transformation' which precedes the disclosure of the symbol that is being attuned. The attunement for the third level is intended to fully empower the candidate. The symbol is given in an attunement called an 'empowerment transformation' which precedes the disclosure of the final symbol. It has no connection with teaching the system. ……… The fourth symbol is for empowerment. It is used in everyday life and is not restricted to teaching. The original system before Hayashi had seven hand positions. These positions are part of a standard healing pattern in use long before Usui's time. The 'patient' remains on their back or the whole treatment which follows the 'top-down' rule of traditional medicine.

Lotus Repentance Meditation The Lotus Repentance meditation is not an essential part of original Usui Reiki. It was not part of the daily practice of Masters, though they were encouraged to carry out the meditation at some stage during their training. The meditation comes from Tendai Buddhism. The purpose of this meditation is to bring satori, or a moment of enlightenment, and it is the practice that Usui carried out on Mount Kurama. He did this meditation at least five times during his lifetime. This meditation, in its full form, is not for the fainthearted. It involves 21 days of fasting and meditating, and nobody would carry out the full form nowadays in Japan: they are all too busy and it is for the brave or foolhardy. What you can see below is a modern version of the meditation, sanctioned by the Tendai monks at Mt Hiei. Only a handful of people in Japan might know the earlier – longer – version that Usui would have carried out. The meditation is included here for your information only. Mrs Takata’s story of Reiki has Usui Sensei going up a mountain for 21 days of fasting, seeing symbols in bubbles of light, and coming down with Reiki. But the reality is that Usui’s meditations – an established Tendai practice – would have helped him to progress along his own path of spiritual development, but do not seem to have provided that ‘eureka’ moment that we are all familiar with. He seems to have been teaching his system long before he undertook the meditations.

Zazen Shikan Taza Outside the meditation hall or spiritual practice area

1

Shikan Zen Yo No Ichi Ge the verse displaying the main point of samatha-vipasyana meditation

Recite once: "In the genuine entering nirvana, apparently there are a multitude of roads. But if we think about only the vital necessities, two practice methods stand out. The first, samatha, quiets one's evil passions, and the second, vipasyana, further leads one to deny unwholesome desires. When samatha results in one's winning entry into dhyana-samadhi, then vipasyana becomes the foundation of prajna. When both samatha and vipasyana are successfully practiced, the meditator enters samadhi and receives prajna. In that state, the dharma's altruistic goal of helping both self and others is fully completed." Notes: Samatha stopping, ceasing all activity Dhyana-Samadhi meditation trance Vipasyana insight Prajna wisdom Dharma the path/truth 2

Kokoro No Ryo verse on food for the heart/mind

Recite once each:

"Practicing the dharma includes food and clothes, but in food and clothes the practice of dharma is not found." "Monetary wealth is not a national treasure; a person who brightens a single corner is a national treasure." "The height of compassion is to welcome evil onto myself while giving good deeds to other people, and to forget myself while doing good for others." "By holding grudges and repaying with hatred, hatred never ends; but by repaying with virtue, hatred is completely exhausted. Rather than bearing grudges about the things happening in this long night's dream called the world, cross the boundary into the dharma realm of the true Buddha." 3

Method of entering the hall

Line up outside the hall. Recite the Sange Mon (repentance verse) once: "Ga Shaku Sho Zo Sho Aku Go, Kai Yu Mu Shi Ton Jin Chi, Ju Shin Go I Shi Sho Sho, Issai Ga Kon Kai Sange" Translation: From beginningless time I have generated negative karma through my misdirected thoughts, words and deeds. I wish to acknowledge and atone for all. Enter the hall… Inside the meditation hall or spiritual practice area

4 San Rai three prostrations Recite three times, each time performing a grand prostration after each recitation: "Isshin Chorai Jippo Hokai Joju Sanbo" Translation: I the penitent come to make amends for my transgressions Great Prostration: Stand in gassho, then move into the kneeling position with hands in Gassho, than lay on ground face down with hands straight out in front of you 5

Ten non-virtuous states of mind the recitation on self-discipline

This is done individually. Contemplate: Reflecting on my own life, I should abandon those heart-states in which bad actions accumulate, namely the realms of hells, animals, hungry ghosts, fighting entities, mundane life, heavens, evil spirits, Hinayana followers, professional priests, and conflicting emotions.

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Godai Gan five great vows

Recite: "Shujo Muhen Segan Do Sentient beings are limitless. I vow to save them all. Fukuchi Muhen Segan Shu Knowledge and wisdom are limitless. I vow to accumulate them all. Homon Muhen Segan Gaku The dharmas are infinite. I vow to study them all. Nyorai Muhen Segan Ji The tathagatas are endless. I vow to serve them all. Mujo Bodai Segan Jo Supreme enlightenment is unsurpassed. I vow to attain it. Goji Busshi Jodaigan" May this seeker of enlightenment fulfil these vows. Note: The Tathagata means the accomplished one, an enlightened being, like a buddha. There are ten levels of bodhisattvaship until you reach the state of a buddha with the complete realisation of emptiness and compassion. The buddha himself had several incarnations as a bodhisattva (a being that is completely motivated by the wish to help others and no more interested in anything for himself), before he became the buddha. Take your seat for meditation… 7

Entering samadhi

First, check one's posture. If sitting in the half-lotus position, place the left leg over the right leg. Pull it close to the body, with the left toes and the right heel equally spaced. Loosen the belt and arrange the clothes neatly so as to cover the legs. Form the meditation mudra with the hands in the lap, right palm on top of the left palm, with the tips of the thumbs lightly touching, pulled close under the stomach. Twist the body left and right a number of times, coming to rest in a correct, straight posture. The backbone should not be curved, and the shoulders are thrown back. If the posture should relax, without hurrying, quickly correct it. Clear the air passages, expelling muddy spirits. Exhale with the mouth open, releasing stagnant air slowly while leaning slightly forward. Don't exhale quickly or slowly, but continue until you are satisfied. Breathe all defects out during exhalation, completely exhausting them. The straighten up again, and through the nose breathe in endless, pure spirit. Imagine it entering through the top of the head, in and out three times. Then with the torso straight and relaxed, allow the diaphragm to move in tandem with the movement of air through the nose. Close the mouth, teeth lightly together, tongue against the upper palate. With the eyes half-closed to reduce the brightness of the outside light, let the line of sight fall about six feet in front. Second, check the breathing. Listening to the sound of the in- and out-breaths, it should not be loud, not gasping or sucking in air, not jerky, puckering or sliding. Allow the breathing to remain in a natural state, as if in a closed system. Third, check the activity of the thoughts. Separate the attention from the breathing and concentrate it at the red field. Abandon those thoughts outside the practice, such as gross thoughts, random thoughts, daydreaming, thoughts about emotional ups and downs, or relaxed and tense states.

Note: the red field is what you can see when you half close your eyelids and turn your eyes upwards. 8

Dwelling in samadhi

Observe the harmony of the Three Mysteries of the body, the breath and the thoughts. Note when the three are not in harmony, and continually apply mindfulness and recollection to again produce unity and harmony of the body, breath and thoughts. Rely on this practice to cross over. One sits single-pointedly, not being shaken by thoughts or activities of daily life, not even if enveloped in raging flames. 9

Exiting samadhi

First, release the mind from samadhi, and establish connections and relations. Next, open the mouth and breathe deeply so as to release the spirit. Next, move the body very slightly. Then move the hands, down over the arms with a sweeping motion from shoulder to fingertip (a la kenyoku), then returning the hand back up the arm, from the elbow to the shoulder and on over the neck, head, the neck and shoulder on the other side, finishing with a flourishing flick as you remove negative energy. Do the same with the other hand. Next, rub the pores of the whole body (rub your forearms), then rub the palms together, using warmth to cover the eyes. Next, open the eyes behind the palms. Finally, light incense or recite sutras depending on the time. 10

Method for leaving the hall

If there is time, recite sutras. This can be the Heart sutra, the Ten-verse Kannon sutra, portions of the Lotus sutra, the sutra of Saintly Fudo, or any other sutra you choose. You may also chant the Nembutsu and dedicate merit. Finally, recite the San Rai (three prostrations) again, three times, each time performing a Grand Prostration. "Isshin Chorai Jippo Joju Sanbo" Depart the hall…