Okuden/Reiki 2: Shining brighter
Everything covered over the last 100 pages relates to Reiki 1. (It’s amazing how much is possible after just a two-day course!) It’s perfectly fine to remain on this level. We can use Reiki for ourselves, and others, and basically give it to everything we feel could benefit from it. We can open up more by using meditation, breathing and cleansing techniques. And we have principles to apply in our everyday life. What can possibly be added by Reiki 2?
Well, a lot, actually. I often hear that students find Reiki 2 an even bigger step than Reiki 1. The first course introduces something new. No matter what we’ve done before, we’re all beginners when it comes to learning Reiki. It’s for that reason that it’s called Shoden in Japanese: ‘the beginner’s level’. Reiki 2 is called Okuden: ‘the deeper teachings’. And this is what we do now: go deeper. Now we have our connection to universal energy, we can explore what the universe is all about.
The main tools for this exploration are the famous Reiki symbols. But to use them properly, we first need to demystify them.
For many decades, these symbols were either called sacred or secret, or often both – terms normally used to scare people, or at least keep them away. What was the reason for it? I assume a simple one: these words tend to be used to deflect from our own lack of knowledge. When something is secret or sacred, we don’t need to explain it…
I would like to take the myths away. The symbols are neither secret (certainly not in the age of the internet) nor sacred. They are man-made. They serve a purpose. They are simply tools created by Mikao Usui to help us see more: they help us to concentrate on different aspects of Reiki. And, as always in Reiki, they don’t just point to theory but to experience.
However, one thing needs to be conceded to those who try to keep the symbols secret: they are only of use once we’ve been attuned to them. Without the attunement, they are nothing but decorative drawings. So, as much as I am opposed to any form of secrecy, there is no need to publicize the symbols widely to people who don’t practise Reiki.
And yet (to demolish another myth), they will do no harm in uninitiated hands. Absolutely not! It is impossible to do anything bad with Reiki, or with the Reiki symbols.
A symbol is a representation of something else. It’s never about the symbol itself, it’s always about what it points to. The dollar sign ($), for instance, is a symbol. And (unfortunately) we cannot buy anything with it. All it does is make us aware that the product it is attached to doesn’t come for free. It is exchanged for money, it has a price. The power doesn’t lie in the symbol, but in our purse.
Or take the Eiffel Tower. Does anyone looking at it ever think of the World Fair that it was erected for in 1889? Or of the remarkable technical effort needed to construct what was then the tallest man-made structure in the world? Probably not. Most people simply think of Paris. The building has become a symbol of the city – the most romantic city in the world! People think of Edith Piaf, chansons and romantic dinners. So the Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of love and romance. Here, as so often, the meaning isn’t apparent in the symbol itself, but lies in the associations we ourselves have made.
The same applies to the Reiki symbols. Teaching his system to a variety of people, Usui noticed huge differences in their ability to feel and understand Reiki. Everybody got healing hands, but when it came to sensing subtle differences in the energy, only a few were able to do it naturally. For the others, he designed the symbols as concentration tools for meditation and applying Reiki practically. And (to eliminate yet another myth), he didn’t rediscover ancient symbols. Two of those he used were already part of different Buddhist traditions and the other two he made up himself.
The fact that a student needs to be attuned in order to use the symbols shows where the real power lies: in the attunement. In Reiki. Not in the symbol.
The symbols help us to understand the structure of the universe and our own place in it. And then to make the most of it!
Finally grasping this concept was a big turning-point in my view of Reiki. It moved from being a complementary therapy to a complete philosophical system. The real magnificence of what it allows us to understand started to shine through.
Few books have included this concept yet, as research has only recently brought it to light. So if you’ve been practising Reiki for a while, even if you’re a Reiki Master, you may not have come across it. What I love about it is that it makes sense. In fact, I feel that it is only in the light of this concept that the system of Reiki makes complete sense.
The ideas Mikao Usui utilized were well known in his time in Japan. Based on Taoist teachings, they formed the basis of the flower-arranging art of ikebana, as well as a variety of cultural and philosophical traditions. But through Reiki, they moved from theoretical to tangible.
As we’ve already seen, the universe (or cosmos) is a macrocosm – and our body a micro version of it. The fact that the universe and our individual existence are connected means, in turn, that everybody is connected. With Reiki (universal energy), we are tapping into the power of this interconnectedness.
From our perspective within the universe (in the Master level we go even further and take a step beyond), we can distinguish between three levels: the level of form, the level of spirit and the level of oneness. Fascinatingly, even down here on the level of form it’s possible to experience them all.
In creating the symbols to grasp this connection, Usui did such a good job that they even work for people who don’t know anything of the theory behind them. But together with this awareness, they can open up a whole new world.
The size of this book restricts a very deep exploration of the symbols, which could easily fill an entire book. For now, though, I feel the following pages will give a sufficiently good idea of what the symbols stand for – and how their use can make an enormous difference.
We all learn, remember and even sense in different ways – some visual, some auditory, some intellectual. With this in mind, Mikao Usui incorporated three facets into these learning tools:
The visual representation, or simply shape. Using either a finger or your whole hand, you normally draw the symbol in the air in front of you. Another way is to draw or visualize it in your mind. Most people do this when they concentrate on their third eye chakra. In the Western tradition, drawing the symbol is accompanied by repeating its mantra (see below) three times.
A mantra is a sequence of kanji evoking the same qualities as the symbol. As mentioned earlier, kanji are logographic characters that represent a word or a syllable. Imported from China about 2,000 years ago, until the early 20th century they made up the entire Japanese language. After the Second World War many of them were simplified or replaced and new characters added. Each has an individual meaning, but together they reveal a deeper message.
A mantra is normally used in connection with the respective symbol, but also works on its own. It is repeated three times and can be said either silently or aloud.
A kotodama uses vowels to create a certain energetic vibration. In the system of Reiki the vowels contained in the mantras are used. A kotodama can be chanted silently or aloud. Neither a good singing voice nor a particular note is necessary, so no excuses – chanting is not singing!
The idea behind the kotodama is the notion that words and sounds carry energy.
Initially, the use of any of these elements will feel a bit odd. You draw an elaborate sign with your fingers, repeat foreign words and chant vowels – what are you doing?! But just wait for the effect. It is mind-blowing. Very soon using these elements will be second nature.
Here are three practical tips for drawing the symbols:
The symbols are a means to an end. The more we use them, the more we open up to the different levels of our existence in the universe. One day we may be so open that the symbols have served their purpose – and we can discard them. Japanese Reiki teacher Hiroshi Doi, an ex-member of the Gakkai Training organization, refers to the symbols as ‘training wheels’. They are helpful to get us going, but aren’t needed when we’re up and running. Frankly, though, it is very rare to be skilled enough to use Reiki entirely without them. Personally, I don’t know anybody who does. For most practitioners, the symbols will be an important part of their practice throughout their life.
The Power Symbol (sometimes also called the Focus Symbol) represents Earth energy. Once we internalize this idea, we’ll have no problems deciding when to use it. It helps to bring Reiki to the level of form: our life in the here and now. Although in essence we are spiritual beings, while we are incarnated in a body we have corresponding needs. Our body needs to function, and we depend on food and drink, income and home. When there’s a problem, Reiki is at hand – in the shape of Earth energy.
As we have already noted, the energy centre in the body where we hold Earth energy is the Hara, the lower Tanden or navel chakra. In many Eastern energy traditions, this is seen as the centre of our life-force energy. Focusing on building up energy here can significantly improve our physical strength and wellbeing.
The spiral is used in many spiritual traditions. It has been found on Sanskrit, Celtic and ancient Egyptian artefacts, among others. When we look at a spiral it often ‘comes to life’, starting to spin and drawing us into its centre. But Mikao Usui added two more lines when he created this Reiki symbol, which means that, contrary to information given elsewhere, the symbol does not seem to be plucked from other traditions, but custom-made for Reiki.
I like the following interpretation: the first, horizontal, line signifies the manifestation of energy – an object or a situation is created. The vertical line then goes straight inside this creation. Finally, we just concentrate on the problem … and circle into the centre of what needs Reiki.
The anticlockwise movement may symbolize that Reiki can change a situation – just as a screw is turned in this direction when it is in the wrong place and we want to undo it. What had been stuck is loosened – and can be recreated.
The Power Symbol
CHO KU REI (pronounced ‘Chow Koo Ray’)
As the meaning of individual kanji tends to change with context, we will only look at the translation of these three kanji together. Cho Ku Rei can best be translated as ‘direct spirit’. It cuts through the form and brings in spirit.
O-U-E-I (pronounced ‘Ow ooh ayh eee’)
The kotodama has no intellectual meaning – it simply carries energy. Even if you haven’t learned this on your Reiki course, I would suggest sitting quietly for a moment (and closing the doors, otherwise your family may think you have become a bit odd), taking a deep breath and then chanting: ‘O … U … E … I.’
Do this for a few minutes and then observe how you feel. It’s a great way to sense the energetic vibration.
The Power Symbol is surely the most often-used symbol in Reiki. I don’t think a day passes when I don’t use it at least 10 or 20 times. It helps to bring Reiki into the here and now – and that’s always needed! I sometimes just seem to be walking around ‘Cho-Ku-Rei-ing’ everything: a dying plant, a cut or bruise, my computer, my car, my dinner in a restaurant, a plane before take-off, the ingredients before cooking. It brings strength, focus and energy, and many people use it for protection and space clearing.
Often, Reiki practitioners draw the Power Symbol on their palms before giving a treatment. It feels as if they are turning into a Teflon pan with a red-hot dot in the middle just radiating energy!
During a treatment, whenever an energy blockage or a physical problem is detected, you may either draw the Power Symbol over the area or (silently) chant the kotodama.
The Harmony Symbol represents heaven energy. And again, once we understand the concept behind it, it’s easy to determine when to use it. It deals with our mind, our emotions and our connection to the spirit realm – everything we cannot grasp with our five senses, yet are very much aware is there (and if we aren’t, Reiki will make sure that we become aware).
It helps us to realize that we’re not on our own. We can always ask for help, guidance and insight from the ‘other side’. And it works on issues of the mind, bringing harmony and balance and dealing with trauma and negativity.
The energy centre for heaven energy is the third eye: the upper Tanden or brow chakra. Many Reiki students even feel a physical sensation when it is activated (but it works anyway, whether we are aware of it or not).
When Usui searched for a concentration tool representing heaven energy, he was reminded of the religious teachings of his childhood. They must have been a pleasant memory, as he decided to use the symbol for Pure Land Buddhism’s main deity: Amida Nyorai. He represents the heavenly aspects of love, compassion, grace, harmony and forgiveness, and is often called the Buddha of Infinite Light. Usui seems to have slightly streamlined the drawing to bring it into line with the way the other symbols were drawn.
The Harmony Symbol
SEI HEKI (pronounced ‘Say Heh-kee’)
Together, the kanji of Sei HeKi can be translated as ‘natural tendency’, ‘mental habit’ or (as they are most often translated) ‘bad habit’. And we have quite a few bad habits! Being out of balance, negative or lonely. Not seeing or seeking guidance from the spirit world. Identifying only with our physical body. However, a bit like the first two Reiki principles, repeating the negative helps us to realize these are misconceptions and go beyond them. (See also Do not be angry in Chapter 8.)
Times change, and so does language. Please note that in contemporary Japanese the expression Sei HeKi has taken on a new meaning and is now associated with certain sexual practices – or even used as a synonym for ‘perverted’. (I would therefore not suggest walking around Tokyo and shouting this at people.)
E-I-E-KI (pronounced ‘Ayh eee ayh kee’)
It took me a while to relate to this symbol. Its energy felt so much subtler than that of the Power Symbol that I hardly noticed it. In time, though, I was able to feel it much more strongly – so please keep on using this symbol and don’t be disappointed by a potentially slow beginning. I am sure you’ll eventually see extraordinary results!
The Harmony Symbol is used for the following:
Heaven energy can also be used to help overcome depression. In fact I’m certain that Reiki could significantly reduce the dangerous (and scarily widespread) habit of prescribing anti-depressants. (Sorry, pharmaceutical industry, but I really think you’ve got it wrong there.)
Occasionally, Reiki students are able to develop full mediumistic abilities: they can see and sense spirit guides and relay messages from relatives, helpers and ascended masters in the spirit world. For some, this ability will stay on; for others, it will be a one-off. Just be open and see what comes your way.
The Connection Symbol (sometimes also called the Distant Symbol) helps us to realize the State of Oneness. We are tapping into quantum physics – the level where everything is interconnected. Every being is part of the same experience, and what happens to one has an effect on everyone. So, the Connection Symbol doesn’t bridge space and time, it makes us aware that both are an illusion.
Oneness also means love. The origin and the goal of love are the same: to go beyond separation, to become one.
To illustrate the idea of original oneness and the illusion of separation, Mikao Usui combined five kanji. But he literally combined them: the ending of one kanji forms part of the next. So as soon as we separate the individual kanji, the meaning of the symbol is lost.
The Connection Symbol
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN (pronounced ‘Hon Shah Tsay Show Nen’)
The mantra can be translated as: ‘My original nature is a correct thought’1 or, more simply, ‘I see truth.’
(H)O-A-ZE-(H)O-NE (pronounced ‘Ho ahh zay ho nay’)
To connect – with a person (partner, friend, colleague, client or even someone you don’t particularly like), a situation (to send Reiki) or even an object. To connect with the past and the future. And in any situation where we feel lonely – or disconnected from ourselves. And of course it enables us to send a full Reiki treatment to anyone anywhere in the world. (There is a step-by-step guide later in this chapter.)
It is also a great tool to use in meditation to connect to deeper levels of ourselves.
The best way to explore the symbols is to use them. Apply them, play with them, see what works best for you. They can open a whole new world.
You can use any symbol (one at a time) together with the deep abdominal breathing technique (Joshin Kokyu-Ho) to become one with its energetic vibration.
The symbols can be used in various ways in a Reiki treatment. Use the Connection Symbol to connect deeply with the client before you begin the treatment (or halfway through if your mind has drifted off), the Power Symbol whenever you feel physical healing is needed and the Harmony Symbol when you feel the person needs guidance, or mental or emotional problems are involved.
Simply draw the symbol over the area in need or silently chant the kotodama.
There are two extraordinary Reiki methods of developing (or deepening) our intuition. In the first, we listen to our hands; in the second, we listen to spirit. We could say the first works on the principle of Earth energy, the second on heaven energy.
Byosen is a key word in Japanese Reiki, but apparently cannot be found in any dictionary. It is Reiki-specific and means ‘that which is there before an illness’. It points to an area of the physical or energy body where toxins have accumulated. To find such an area, do the following:
Byosen scanning
In this exercise you place your hands intuitively – guided by spirit.
Guided by spirit
For many students, the ability to send a distant treatment is the most fascinating aspect of Reiki. Not only does it heal, but the recipient doesn’t even have to be present!
On my courses, I place half of the group in one room, where they lie on treatment couches, and the other half in the neighbouring room, from where they send a Reiki treatment to their respective partners next door. To make it easier, I suggest using a teddy bear as a prompt to know where to place the hands (ears, eyes, throat, etc.), but it’s perfectly possible to simply visualize the recipient. Many students get sensations that are as strong as if the client were physically present. They feel Reiki being more strongly drawn into some place than others and they often sense any emotional imbalances. The recipients also tend to feel sensations that are similar to a hands-on treatment.
The funniest experience I ever had on a course was one guy mentioning that he’d felt a bit of pressure around his throat while receiving the treatment. The girl sending the treatment got terribly embarrassed. It turned out that when she’d reached the throat area, she’d briefly nodded off and ended up leaning on the teddy’s throat!
It’s amazing how we notice everything once we’re on the same wavelength as someone. So, although you can’t do any harm giving Reiki, when you give a distant treatment, please don’t behave any differently than you would if the client were physically present!
Straight after the course, every student is able to send Reiki anywhere in the world. I got this email a few weeks ago:
‘After we finished the course I was up late chatting to a friend on the phone and she said, ‘I have to go – my daughter is coughing so much, it sounds as if she is going to vomit.’ So I asked her if she wouldn’t mind me doing some distance Reiki on her. She had been coughing nonstop for over two hours. So I did the distance Reiki and felt like a pain in my abdomen and a word popped up: ‘Constipated.’ I finished and sent a message saying, ‘Please let me know how she is feeling in the morning.’ And she did, she said her daughter had stopped coughing within the hour, had had a very restful sleep and one of the first things she had said [in the morning] was ‘Mummy, I need a poo!’ She’s two and a half years old and she hadn’t had one the previous day, so it turned out she was a bit constipated.’
Please note that a full distant treatment should only be sent with the recipient’s consent. Otherwise, just send Reiki in general to improve the situation. But if you have consent, this is how to do it:
One day you may get into the embarrassing situation of agreeing to send someone distance Reiki at a certain time – and then forgetting all about it. It gets really embarrassing, however, when you then receive a phone call thanking you for the treatment! It once happened to me, and all I managed to say was: ‘Glad you liked it.’ As soon as the person hung up, I sat down and sent the treatment, only I timed it backwards. The universe knows that a treatment is going to happen. After all, time is an illusion.
This Japanese technique can be used to change behaviour, bad habits or addictions.
It can be used on yourself or for treating others.
This technique is absolutely incredible! I teach it on Master courses and in some advanced workshops. Amazingly, when I first came across it in a seminar I was only taught half of the hand positions and it still worked! Yet another confirmation that the key to Reiki is intention, not technique…
Byo means ‘illness’ or ‘problem’, gen means ‘cause’ or ‘root’. Always the doubter, when I first tried this technique in a workshop (in my very early Reiki days), I didn’t think it could possibly work. Not expecting anything, I still followed the instructions and set my intention to get an idea of the cause of any problem the other person might be suffering from. After a while, I saw an image of a girl on a swing. She was playing – but on her own. I got the impression she felt lonely. And I saw a train moving rather fast – obviously something completely unrelated.
When I mentioned these images to the woman afterwards, she broke down in tears. She had been suppressing some childhood experiences for most of her life and they had come up for the first time in this treatment. She realized that she needed to deal with them so she could move on with her life. Maybe this was where the image of the train came in…
I’ve used this technique on many courses now and the results have never been anything less than stunning. Some people become absolutely psychic!
I learned this version at a seminar. It worked brilliantly and I’ve used it ever since. My surprise, therefore, was all the more profound when I found out that this wasn’t the original version! Traditionally, there are more hand positions:
The choice is yours – both techniques work.
It gets even more interesting, because the very same technique can also be used for reducing fever. The only difference is the name – confirming once again, and even more strikingly, that Reiki is about intention…