A New Look at the Five Reiki Principles

The Five Reiki Principles

For the past months, I’ve been practicing Hatsurei-Ho, a Japanese Reiki meditation technique that incorporates the reciting of the 5 Reiki Principles.  What struck me a few weeks into this practice was the feeling I got from the words that make up the 5 Principles; that a “stern someone” was standing over me telling me what to do as well as what not to do.

The Secret Art of Inviting Happiness

It has been 25 years since these principles were first told to me in my Reiki 1 class and while I worked with these principles early on, my personal work with them has become less so in the years that followed.  Hatsurei-Ho revived that interest in the principles as well as giving me a preamble to the principles that put into context what I wasn’t taught in my Reiki 1 class;  “The secret art of inviting happiness; the spiritual medicine for all diseases is this”.

Adding Power to the Principles

What I began to ask myself about the 5 Principles was two things.  First, if the understanding from hypnotherapists and self-help leaders is true: that our subconscious mind doesn’t recognize the word “not”, then why are the 5 Reiki Principles using phrasing such as Just For Today “Do Not Anger”, “Do Not Worry”?  In thinking more about this phrasing, it seemed to become less and less self-empowering as I recited it.  Yet, I’ve been teaching my students for years about how using the 5 Principles can lead to self-growth and greater personal empowerment.  Therefore, I surmised that there must be a way to add power to these principles.

Second, and with all due respect to Master Usui, if there is a way to modify the wording of the principles to help create a greater self-empowerment for myself and my students, can I develop a step-by-step process that incorporates the 5 Principles that will facilitate this growth?

New Phrasing for the Five Reiki Principles

What presented itself was new phrasing for the 5 Reiki Principles and a process for using this new wording that any Reiki or non-Reiki-trained practitioner can use for self-change.

The modified principles are as follows.

Just For Today:

I release angry thoughts and feelings

I release thoughts of worry

I’m grateful for my many blessings

I practice expanding my consciousness

I’m gentle with all beings including myself

This wording is telling me it is my choice to do these things or not.  When I recite them, I find myself more at ease and empowered to create my life as I choose.  What came out of this new phrasing is a process for using each of the principles consciously to evoke internal growth.  Here is the process.

How to use the 5 Principles for Personal Growth

1)  After you recite the preamble (“The secret art of inviting happiness; the spiritual medicine for all diseases is this”) think or say out loud: “Just For Today, I release angry thoughts and feelings.”

2)  Think about the times that day (or if you’re doing this in the morning, the previous day) that you became angry and see if you can recognize that anger lives inside you, it is not coming from outside you.  The anger you felt was triggered by an event outside of you, but the event wouldn’t have had an emotional impact on you if you didn’t already have that angry energy inside you.

Now, go back in your memory to the last few times you reacted to something with anger (or if you can find an event from your past that seems identical to the current one that brought up your anger) and see if there are any similarities to your current angry thoughts and feelings.  Now, ask your (Reiki) guides, higher self, angels, and masters from light and love to help you let this angry energy you are holding from the past go now.  Ask these spiritual helpers to transform this angry energy back into that which is for the highest healing and growth for all.  Take 1-2 deep, slow breaths, and on each exhale, release any remaining heavy-feeling energy from your physical body and aura.

3)  Next, do the same as above with the second principle “Just For Today, I release thoughts of worry”.  Think about the times that day (or if you’re doing this in the morning, the previous day) that you engaged in worry and see if you can recognize that worry lives inside you, it is not coming from concern for some future event outside you that hasn’t happened yet.  The worry you felt was triggered by thinking about some future event outside of you, but the event itself wouldn’t have had an emotional impact on you if you didn’t already have that worry energy already inside you.  Now, go back in your memory to the last few times you reacted to something with worry (or if you can find an event from your past that seems identical to the current one that brought up your worry) and see if there are any similarities to your current thoughts and feelings of worry.  Ask your (Reiki) guides, angels, and masters to help you let the energy of worry (and the thoughts which trigger it) go now. Ask these spiritual helpers to transform this worry energy back into energy that is for the highest healing and growth for all.  Take 1-2 deep, slow breaths, and on each exhale, release any remaining heavy-feeling energy from your physical body and aura.  When you are done with thoughts of worry, go onto the third principle.

4)  Think or say out loud, “Just For Today, I’m grateful for my many blessings”.  Name, visualize and feel grateful for each blessing (person, object, situation) in your life.  Let your heart expand as you do so.  Take some time with this.  When you are complete with this process, go onto the fourth principle.

5)  Think or say the fourth principle out loud: “Just For Today, I practice expanding my consciousness” and visualize or acknowledge each circumstance that day or the previous day where you endeavored to expand your consciousness (working with the 5 Principles, meditating, seeing someone’s behavior in a new light, feeling grateful, doing a relaxation exercise etc.)

6)  Think or say the fifth principle out loud: “Just For Today, I’m gentle with all beings including myself” and remember times that day or the previous one when you were or weren’t gentle with others or yourself.  Replay them in your mind and ask your (Reiki) guides, angels, and masters from light and love to help you let any feelings of guilt or anxiety go now.  Ask these spiritual helpers to transform this energy back into that which is for the highest healing and growth for all.  Take 1-2 deep, slow breaths, and on each exhale, release any remaining heavy-feeling energy from your physical body and aura.

A Work in Progress

This method of using the principles is a work in progress and some of you may already be doing something similar.  For those who find this information and method new, I hope you’ll give it a try and see what you (and your students) discover as we all continue to use the gift of Reiki to create greater balance and peace within ourselves and by extension, the world.

By Neal Harris
Visit https://www.relax4life.com

**This article appeared in The Reiki Times, the official magazine of the International Association of Reiki Professionals.