What is the real purpose of Reiki symbols?
September 8, 2026
Mikao Usui asked his students to sit in meditation each morning with their hands in gassho and recite the five precepts. The Japanese word for recite, tonaeru, also means to chant, so you can chant them or say them.
There are guidelines set out by Mikao Usui for us to follow. They are very easy, well, they are not easy at all, but they are simple. There are five of them.
Mikao Usui asked us, every morning, to do gassho, to bring our hands together, to sit in meditation, and to recite these guidelines.
The word recite is tonaeru in Japanese, and that also means to chant. So you could chant, or you could recite, the Reiki precepts every morning when you sit in meditation.
The name. The precepts are the gokai, 五戒, the five precepts. The instruction that follows them in Usui’s text says: morning and evening, sit in gasshō, 合掌, hold them in the mind and recite them, tonaeru, 唱える, with the mouth.
Where it sits in the system. The precepts are the first of the five elements and the point of the whole system. Everything else, the meditations, hands-on healing, the symbols and Reiju, is a way of becoming the precepts.
A common misunderstanding. That the precepts are rules to obey. They are a description of a person who is in balance, and reciting them each morning is how you check yourself against that description.
Try this. Tomorrow morning, before your phone, sit for two minutes with your hands in gassho and say the five precepts out loud. Do it again in the evening. That is the whole ritual.
You might also ask: The hidden layer of the Reiki precepts most students completely miss · What is Joshin Kokyu Ho? · Why is meditation the foundation of Japanese Reiki?
Chant the precepts with me every morning in the Shūyō app.
More questions answered: Reiki Questions Answered.
