5 Reiki Precepts: The Secret of Inviting Happiness
- Charisse Joy
- Apr 15, 2021
- 8 min read
Updated: Jul 25
Within the teachings of Reiki are guiding principles that help us embrace our life with peace, love and authenticity. They're known as the secret of inviting happiness through many blessings, and the spiritual medicine for all illness.
Central to Reiki are the principles established by its founder, Mikao Usui, to direct his students on their spiritual journey. By embracing these principles we embody the essence of Reiki, becoming our most genuine selves, and leading lives filled with peace, love, and authenticity.
Even if you're not a Reiki student, the Reiki Precepts offer valuable insights to anyone seeking greater peace and happiness. They offer a framework that encourages the cultivation of compassion and a positive mindset through mindfulness, emotional balance, and personal responsibility.
The Secret of Inviting Happiness
The fundamental principles of the Reiki system are referred to as "The secret of inviting happiness, the spiritual medicine for all illness." These include 5 guiding Precepts or Principles intended to lead us toward health and wellbeing.
As well as teaching us how to welcome happiness and healing into our lives, they outline the core attributes of our true self. Our True Self is the aspect of us that recalls the timeless and boundless power of our spiritual essence, enabling us to accept life's challenges with gratitude, free from anger or worry, and to extend genuine, non-judgmental compassion to everyone without exception.
Mikao Usui named the principles The Secret of Inviting Happiness through Many Blessings, The Spiritual Medicine for All Illness, because by reconnecting with and embodying our True Self, we discover happiness, and as we return to wholeness, we initiate the healing process.
To lead a life filled with happiness and good health while progressing on our spiritual journey, we must integrate these precepts into every facet of our daily lives.
I encourage you to remember these 5 principles and begin living by them; you'll experience a significant transformation in your outlook on life.
The 5 Reiki Precepts in English
Just for today:
Do not anger
Do not worry
Be grateful
Practice diligently
Be compassionate to yourself and others
Taking it Deeper
Just for today
When we look closely we notice that the precepts are states of mind that while beautiful in philosophy, are very difficult to put into practice. So Mikao Usui wisely begins by simply suggesting "just for today".
Applying all of the Reiki precepts to our life takes mindful, conscious effort. It can seem an impossible feat unless we remember that we only need to take it moment by moment, one day at a time, just for today. Striving to be the best version of ourself, in each changing moment, is what we are asked to do.
It asks us to become present, to get conscious and wake up to our old patterns of thinking and behaving. This gives us space to choose a different response. We become consciously responsive instead of unconsciously reactive. Watch how relationships transform when we apply "just for today" to our interactions!
It also reminds us to get grounded in the here and now. Not angry about the past or worried about the future, just experiencing the freedom and possibility within this present moment.
Reiki meditations provide practice in the skill of being grounded and present. As a Reiki practitioner this supports the Reiki healing sessions I offer - being present during a session is incredibly important while holding space for healing to occur.
Both meditation and Reiki healing sessions reinforce the concept "just for today", which in turn supports the integration of the other precepts into daily life.
Do not anger, do not worry
As part of our human experience we will feel a wide range of emotions, including anger and worry. This precept does not suggest denying these feelings when they arise, instead it asks us to remember something more important: the inherent qualities of our true spiritual essence. We need to remember we are infinitely powerful, compassionate and interconnected with all life.
Remembering that our true self is much greater than our physical body helps us release the attachment to our ego self, our “I” that only has a limited perception of reality.
Feeling anger and worry is just a moment where we have forgotten ourselves, and in remembering the truth we readily release anger or worry. When we choose to release these emotions, we become an empty vessel for possibility to fill.
Aside from this, there are other reasons to honour the feelings then let them go...
Staying in anger or worry physically harms us! Our body’s automatic response to these emotions is to activate Fight or Flight. When chronically activated, physiological changes occur that cause damage to the body.
As Buddha so wisely said
You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
Energy follows the mind so when we worry or feel angry our energy becomes scattered and we lose our power. Anger keeps our energy stuck in the past, and worry loses our energy to an imagined future. Our true power lies in the here and now with our body, mind and energy in alignment. Embodying this precept therefore concentrates and increases our energy!
In the present moment - just for today - we can witness our anger and worry to develop an understanding of when and why they arise. Having presence provides space to respond differently. Each new moment is a chance to remember who we really are, and choose a more authentic response.
To alleviate anger and worry we can also look to the other precepts for guidance: Just for today reclaim our power in the precious present moment, choose to feel grateful for whatever life brings us as it is truly a gift, and remember that we all have issues and triggers so be compassionate to everyone.
Releasing anger and worry saves our energy for what matters most: remembering our True Selves. It’s not always easy and it takes diligence, but we are supported by the interwoven practices in the system of Reiki. Each practice supports the others and this is the strength of practicing Reiki as a path to enlightenment.
If we can also recognise that we’re all interconnected, we realise that hurting others with our anger also hurts ourselves, and therefore healing ourselves of our anger can heal others.
Be grateful
As previously discussed, there are many beneficial reasons to shift ourselves out of anger and fear as soon as we can. We actually hold the power to change how we feel, it just takes a mindset of gratitude.
To change how we feel we must first be able to recognise and accept all our emotions, even the so called negative emotions like anger or worry. Every emotion has a purpose and a message that we can learn to receive with gratitude.
Accepting feelings without judgement allows them to communicate their message rather than be driven into hiding by shame, where they’ll simmer until boiling point or sneak out in ways we’ll later regret.
Anger and worry are the result of our primal survival fears, these emotions aren’t inherently bad, they are simply trying to keep us alive! We can receive their message with gratitude by understanding how the emotion is trying to keep us safe.
Once we’ve listened to our frightened, angry parts and understood why they feel threatened, we can remember our true nature and invite our true self/Reiki to embrace these parts in unconditional love with gratitude.
It is in doing this that we are making the choice to feel differently. It’s impossible to feel anger, worry and gratitude at the same time - they’re on different ends of the emotional spectrum and cause different physiological changes in our body.
When we consciously choose to feel grateful, we release anger and worry in favour of a much better feeling that promotes healing and growth in our body and mind.
Through the interconnection of the other precepts, Reiki teaches us to take our gratitude deeper and to choose appreciation for all of life's experiences, releasing our judgements of what is good or bad.
By no longer labelling or judging we come to a place of acceptance. This in turn helps our compassion for others to deepen, as well as filling us with a sense of inner peace. It demonstrates trust in the universe and enables us to become empty vessels for Reiki to fill.
One must not forget to feel grateful. Gratitude is a great cure for the mind.
Hawayo Takata - Reiki Master Teacher
Practice diligently
This precept contains Japanese cultural and spiritual concepts that don’t have a direct English equivalent, making it a little hard to translate concisely.
It’s often translated as "practice diligently", "do your duties fully" and "be true to your way and your being", but these short phrases don’t really capture the full meaning.
In essence this precept is about committing your heart and mind fully to the task at hand, continually striving to improve, and meeting all of life’s circumstances with acceptance.
Gyo is a Japanese term that can be translated as our “duty”, but it’s less about obligation and more about welcoming all of life’s experiences with gratitude, and a heartfelt commitment to doing the inner work so we can master our life lessons.
It implies acceptance, non-judgement, gratitude and continuous effort. When we accept all that life throws at us we release anger and worry, we feel grateful and have compassion. Notice again how the precepts are interconnected with each other!
Sitting down daily to meditate, perform self-Reiki or healing for others, are practices that teach us to put this precept into action. We approach the practices without expectation and with acceptance of all experiences because we know it is our Gyo.
When we apply ourself diligently to our spiritual practice we are honouring our personal growth and development, and inspiring others to reach for their best too.
"Practice diligently" reminds us that embodying these 5 Reiki precepts will take dedicated effort to put into practice. We just have to keep trying our very best, in each moment, showing compassion to ourselves if we slip up.
The famous Martial Artist and Actor Bruce Lee said
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Be compassionate to yourself and others
Compassion is empathising with someone's suffering and then taking action to ease that suffering. We can't do this if we are feeling anger or worry, and we can't do this if we have labelled or judged a person or their situation.
Compassion begins in the heart where there is no judgement of right or wrong, good or bad, just unconditional love. Reiki is pure, unconditional love and in this space there is no "self" and there is no "other", we are all unified as one. Therefore healing "self" is healing "others', and it starts with self-compassion.
Self compassion means easing our own suffering. Daily meditation and self-Reiki are self-care practices that surround us with the unconditional love of Reiki, reminding us of our divine perfection. This helps us to replace our self-criticism and judgement with self-forgiveness, self-acceptance, self-love and gratitude.
Developing compassion for ourselves then naturally develops into compassion for others. This fuels our desire to discover our spiritual gifts and use them to make the world a better place, and healing takes on a profound meaning.
If you have an overwhelming desire to create positive change in the world, I encourage you to take a Reiki class with me and see how your natural gifts unfold with your daily practice.
With love and gratitude,
Charisse
