Research: 145 Studies Tested Gratitude, a Reiki Precept. The Effect Is Small but Real.
October 22, 2026
When people apply for Shinpiden+ they very often say they want to go deeper. Deeper into what? Into ourselves. Not by adding more techniques and practices from outside, but by using the tools the system of Reiki already gives us, from a Japanese perspective, to find out who we are, why we practise, and what each practice means to us.
I noticed that in the application form for my Shinpiden+ course, where people have to say why they want to do it, a lot of them say it is because they want to go deeper. I think that is such an interesting thing. Where are we going deeper? We are going deeper into ourselves, and that is where we find out more about the teachings.
We do it from a Japanese perspective, not a New Age one. Finding ourselves is not about adding more techniques and practices and all that sort of thing. It is not about external things; it is about internal things. And I believe the system of Reiki has some fantastic tools that support us in going deeper into ourselves.
In the course there is a workbook, and in it you think about who you are, why you are practising, what each of the practices means to you and what each lesson means to you, and you follow your progress through that. Committing to daily practice on yourself, within a set period of time, is how it gets done.
The name. The nearest Japanese idea is shugyō, 修行: sustained, disciplined practice on oneself. Depth, in this tradition, is a measure of how long and how honestly you have practised, not of how much you have learned.
A common misunderstanding. That depth is a level, and you get there by taking the next course. Depth is a direction. A Shoden practitioner of ten years may be deeper than a new teacher.
Try this. Write one sentence on why you practise. Keep it somewhere you will see it. In three months, write it again without looking at the first, then compare them. The difference is the depth.
You might also ask: What is the Japanese word for a Reiki practitioner? · Why is meditation the foundation of Japanese Reiki? · What responsibility comes with Shinpiden, Reiki III?
If going deeper is what you want, that is what Shinpiden+ is for.
More questions answered: Reiki Questions Answered.
