When Mikao Usui shared reiki healing practices in Japan, his capacity of healing himself and others was extraordinary and as a result of his healing and humanitarian labour in Japan, the Emperor awarded him a Kun San To (doctorate for his honourable contribution to humanity).
He noticed that, without a strong, healthy spirit, oftentimes a person who had received healing could revert back towards the original condition a while after the treatment.
He shared these precepts with the aim to improve life quality. I was taught them during my Reiki training:
Just for today (Kyo dake wa):
Don't get angry (Okoru na)
Don't worry (Shinpai su na)
Be grateful (Kansha shite)
Work diligently (Gyo wo hage me)
Be kind to others (Hito ni shinsetsu ni)
Mornings and evenings sit in the gassho position and repeat these
words out loud and in your heart
I struggled for years with the first two precepts of don't get angry and don't worry as I believed it impossible for me not to get angry or not to worry just because I said so in meditation morning and night.
I believe that a lot of meaning was lost in the interpretation by the translators of the Japanese symbols in Usui's tombstone and other texts by him. These symbols are likely to have a deeper meaning within the buddhist tradition, culture and history that he was inmersed in.
I have added a link at the bottom of this blog for further exploration about the interpretatin of their meaning.
To me the interpretation of those precepts affirms that if I do feel this emotions of worry or anger I am in the wrong and I need to change, try harder not to feel them, only to fail again when I worry or anger. I feel looking at them through a blame concept does not serve me.
Feelings are natural and they come and go. They show me my learnt or natural tendencies when faced by the happenings of life and they can bring important information to my attention.
When I experience one of these feelings and consciously or unconsciously attach a story to them and keep them running for periods of time by feeding them with more snippets of trigering thoughts, I stop being in the present moment and have gone on a ride.
Strong hormonal or chemical changes in the body (for example after hysterectomy) also throw biological systems out of balance (including sleep patterns) and the effects of these changes can be translated into emotional states. In those circumstances, running loops of negative emotion for a prolonged time can further depleat the body of essential energy and extend the lenght of recovery time to homeostasys, balance.
So, instead of precepts, I have translated them into my permissions to allow feelings as natural phenomena, pointing me in the direction of noticing, of awareness and inviting me to step out of a story and stay present.
My permissions look more like this:
Just for today:
Feel/ be aware/meet the emotions that come
Ask if any or part of the emotion is mine or from the environment or people around me.
Release: Let go of the part that is not mine and take responsibility for the part of that emotion that is mine.
Listen: Is the emotion or feeling trying to communicate something to me? (emergency, unfairness, missing a loved one, nutrition and body function information, watchfulness about a perceived threat, need more sleep/rest....)
Take action: I can use tapping (EFT), energy healing or energy medicine to help a stuck or highly charged emotion or energy blockage to shift respectfully and lovingly.
Take action: Now that I am less trigered by my stress response to the feeling or emotion, I can take action with more clarity from a more honestly centered, less reactive place. What do I need? What is the best course of action now?
Be grateful. Sometimes emotions come with a gift. An unfair situation is pointed out so it can become more balanced, a danger can be avoided, ... The emotion may be pointing to an awareness of choice.
I can be grateful just for being, including for being aware. I can be grateful without negating any emotion that may come up (anger, fear, sadness, shame, happiness,...). I often notice myself using gratefulness as a tool to re-stablish a sense of wellbeing, contentment, peacefulness, joy and happiness.
Work diligently. Now that more of my energy is available and free to be put to good purpose and my perception is more expansive and clear, I can work towards my chosen aim or explore a new one, more truthfully aligned with me, with more vibrancy and without the need to play out self-sabotage systems of protection.
Be kind to others. That happens naturally when I am in a good place. My perception of the inner me is reflected in my perception the world around me so, working lovingly and respectfully on myself, brings me into more peace and coherence, making it easier to be truthfully kind to others.
Mornings and evenings sit in the gassho position and repeat these
words out loud and in your heart...Meditation is great for connecting with the experiencer as well as the experience and as I meditate regularly this spaciousness shows up more and more in my day.
Meditatin seems to increase awareness and it is very useful. If I notice I am on a mental or emotional ride, more of my energy then goes to the aware part of me and less to the story, freeing my resources and choice.
As I accept myself more (no need for vanity, or ego aggrandizement) I have more clarity and energy to participate in the world.
Link to more exploration about the reiki precepts: https://www.shingon-reiki.com/usui-precepts/