What Are The Five Principles Of Reiki Healing?

There are several different versions of the Reiki principles, Five Precepts or Reiki Ideals as they are also known. All of the versions are valid and none is better than any other.

When you are attuned to Reiki and thus become a channel for Reiki, it does affect every thought, feeling, every choice, every action and thus every moment of our lives. When Usui originally began to formulate and then teach Reiki, he realised that what he was working with was and is more than just another healing technique. Thus, he asked his students to live by the Reiki Principles as he considered that working closely with the Reiki principles was and is a valuable part of Reiki practice. Today they still provide a valid means of guidance for all of us on our Reiki journey as we look to integrate Reiki into every moment of our lives.

Most of us try and live our lives by a version of the teachings as and when we can, but actively working with them and thinking about them as we go about our lives does provide a deeper level of understanding of their meanings. Here are some further thoughts for you on the five precepts.

Just for today, I let go of anger

Just for today, I let go of worry

Just for today, I give thanks for my many blessings

Just for today I do my work honestly  

Just for today I am kind to my neighbour and every living thing

Just For Today

This phrase prefixes all of the principles as they are mentioned above, and I think this is one of the most important parts of them, or indeed life.

First of all, it is a practicality. If you were to take a vow or make a promise to live your life by the Reiki principles forever after, then odds on that sooner or later you would probably break that promise. We’re all human after all, and such a promise would be a very tall order. However, if you make the promise to yourself to do it “just for today” then that is a goal that’s much easier to achieve. If you happen to “break the promise” today, then you can try again tomorrow.

The phrase “just for today” also tells us that we should be living in the “now”, in the present moment and be conscious of what is going on around us. Many people spend a lot of time with their thoughts on the future, thinking about what they’re going to do when they finish work tonight, their holidays in two weeks time etc or in the past; why they didn’t take that opportunity that came up last week etc. When we have these thoughts, then we are not living in present time and as part of our journey to Mastery we need to bring all of our energy into present time.

When we do live in present time, or in the “now” then we are more mindful, we are more conscious of what is going on around us and we are effectively more alive and better connected to everything that is. You have experienced being in the moment many times in your life and hopefully you do on a regular basis. You are completely absorbed in what you are doing and when you are completely absorbed, then you are living it and effectively being it. If you listen to a sports person, or another performer such as a dancer, or a singer then they will tell you the same thing but in slightly different language; they might “be in the zone” or call it “being in the flow”.

Eckhart Tolle wrote an excellent book called “The Power of Now”  in which he says (among many other wonderful suggestions) “Wherever you are, be there totally”, whether it’s doing the washing up, walking along the street or engaging in a performance of some kind. What Tolle suggests is that people try and escape the present with thoughts of the future and memories of the past because their “here and now” is not good enough. When I have “x” then everything will be ok, or when I am with “y”, or in “z” then I will be fine. This suggests that we don’t accept ourselves as we are and are thus not taking responsibility for our life as it is. Acceptance is the first key to healing in the sense that admitting or accepting a condition is very often the first step on the path to recovery. It doesn’t mean that we can’t aspire to bettering some aspects of our life but the first step to that is accepting where we are now and thus accepting ourselves.

There are many ways to be in the “now” – simply take time in your life to perform simple tasks with complete attention, using all of your senses and being in the moment. It’s a form of meditation; Buddhists call it a mindfulness meditation. Being grounded (and using the grounding exercises in the Reiki I course) is a very good start to living in the “now” and of course breathe is one major key.

Just for today, I let go of anger

Although we may not always like to acknowledge it, anger is actually a conscious choice. Often it can be a habitual reaction to a set of certain circumstances arising in our external environment or even as a reaction to pattern within our own behaviour that we do not like (or wish to accept).

Anger is frequently linked to responses from the past. We experience anger because our expectations are not being met in some way or often if we are not meeting our own expectations.

The letting go of anger does not mean suppressing or repressing it. The storing of anger can have a very detrimental effect on health and can also drain a person of energy. It is important to express the emotion but in a responsible manner. If you perceive someone else’s action to be the source of your anger, then there are several ways you can deal with this. You can be passive about it, make no comment about it and just allow it to happen; this is effectively storing the anger internally. You can express the anger as you feel it at the other person. This will probably be seen as aggressive behaviour by the other person (and possibly yourself at a later date) and physiologically doesn’t do either of your any good. The effective way is the middle way; by being assertive. Taking a deep breath and telling the other person how you feel in a constructive fashion will ultimately have a positive impact for both of you. Your own self-esteem is boosted by standing up for yourself and expressing how you feel, your health will receive a boost in the process, and assuming you are expressing yourself appropriately then you are not damaging the other person.

 Keeping a diary or journal is also a good way of releasing emotions. Often it is the best way of truly expressing how we feel. The very act of writing something down is effectively a release of energy and thus a positive action.

Just for today, I let go of worry

Again, worry is a conscious choice and again, we can choose to let it go. Worry is simply a fear of the future, the unknown and the fear that we may be unable to cope in the future with whatever may happen. This often focuses around a “what if” type scenario – a future event that hasn’t happened and may never actually do so.

The American author Mark Twain once famously said “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

By worrying, we are actually indulging in bad energy management. We are actually projecting our fears (also energy) into the future and we may actually end up creating what it is that we don’t want. We are creative beings and it is important for us to focus on the positive and what we want, rather than the negative and what we don’t want to attract. By letting go of worrying, we start to live in the “now”, and in doing so we begin to manage our own energy that bit better.

Just for today, I give thanks for my many blessings

“Gratitude is the best attitude” is one of my favourite sayings. By developing an attitude of gratitude and actually be grateful for our many blessings, we start to attract more positive experiences into our lives. Most people take a lot of things in their lives for granted, or regret what it is that they haven’t got. Neither is energetically beneficial. Gratitude is also widely regarded of a way to raise your energetic vibration or energy levels.

By focusing on the reality of what we have got and being grateful for it (however little it may be) then we raise our consciousness and start to attract abundance of every kind into our lives. This is something we can easily do at the end of every day; before we got to sleep at night we can quickly review our day, simply being grateful for everything that came into our lives. When we decide to view this from a spiritual “high point” then we can actually give thanks for everything (whether it is good or bad) that comes into our lives. There is a reason and often a lesson in every experience.

Just for today I do my work honestly 

“Work” in this context means much more than your job. Firstly, it also means your purpose (the reason you are on the planet), and in that context it means the whole of our path and all we do, think and feel. Effectively, you are your life’s work!

Therefore, the most important person to be honest with is you. By being honest with yourself, and thereafter others, you raise your level of consciousness and awareness.

Honesty with oneself also sometimes involves making difficult decisions. Staying in our comfort zones is generally the safe option, and it is only when we venture out of our comfort zones that the real growth begins. Sometimes, the decision to step out of the safe and comfortable takes a lot with honesty with oneself.

Essentially, being honest is the basis for Mastery; whether that is Reiki Mastery or life mastery is irrelevant. It means listening to oneself; the inner voice or the spirit (or whatever we choose to call it) and then to be true to it, even if we may not be overly delighted about the possible consequences. Ultimately, it’s about moving away from the personal and moving into the bigger picture, whether we choose to call that the Universal Plan, Destiny, God’s will or whatever your personal preference is. A relevant spiritual teaching is “Thy will, not my will” and sometimes that takes true honesty to oneself.

Just for today I am kind to my neighbour and every living thing

Being kind to everyone we meet and every living thing, under any circumstances that we may encounter, might seem like a huge commitment. It is not, however, about liking every single person that we meet. It is about respecting everyone we meet and respecting their life path. We may not like someone or we may not like what they are doing but we can honour and respect the fact that their path is different from ours and in no way better or worse; it’s just different. Everyone that we meet is in some way one of our teachers and are offering us some form of lesson, whether we choose or are able to see it or not.

Once again it is, of course, very important to remember to be kind to ourselves first and foremost, and thereafter to extend this kindness outwards towards every living person and thing.

This principle is based on the Sacred Truth or premise what “all is one” and/or that “We Are All One”, so that whatever we do to others, we are effectively doing to ourselves (or the one).

Therefore, the most important person to be honest with is you. By being honest with yourself, and thereafter others, you raise your level of consciousness and awareness.

Honesty with oneself also sometimes involves making difficult decisions. Staying in our comfort zones is generally the safe option, and it is only when we venture out of our comfort zones that the real growth begins. Sometimes, the decision to step out of the safe and comfortable takes a lot with honesty with oneself.

Essentially, being honest is the basis for Mastery; whether that is Reiki Mastery or life mastery is irrelevant. It means listening to oneself; the inner voice or the spirit (or whatever we choose to call it) and then to be true to it, even if we may not be overly delighted about the possible consequences. Ultimately, it’s about moving away from the personal and moving into the bigger picture, whether we choose to call that the Universal Plan, Destiny, God’s will or whatever your personal preference is. A relevant spiritual teaching is “Thy will, not my will” and sometimes that takes true honesty to oneself.

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