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Every Reiki practitioner knows the five lines: for today only, do not anger, do not worry, be grateful, be true to yourself, be compassionate to yourself and others. Most students miss what surrounds them. Above them Mikao Usui wrote that this is the secret method of inviting happiness and the miraculous medicine for all illness; below them he wrote how to practise: morning and evening, in gassho, reciting them aloud with a mindful heart. And the three small words at the start, for today only, contain the whole thing.
Everyone knows the precepts: for today only, do not anger, do not worry, be grateful, be true to yourself, and be compassionate to yourself and others. But if you look at the actual text, there is something else at the very beginning. There is an opening that Mikao Usui wrote, and it says: the secret method of inviting happiness, the miraculous medicine for all illnesses. He is telling us that this practice will take us to a place of wellbeing, of healing, and he is pointing at the precepts as the central healing system of the practice. They are everything. Not symbols, not hand positions, not even meditation. It is being the precepts.
Then there is a second thing people do not tend to look at: the precepts come with directions on how to practise them. After the five lines the text says: morning and evening, sit with your hands in gassho, and recite or chant these precepts aloud with a mindful heart, kokoro. We are being told exactly how to practise them. Every morning and evening, sit in a meditative space and chant the precepts. It is no secret.
And there is a third layer, and it is not the five precepts either. It is the three small words just before them: for today only, or just for today, however you wish to translate it. If we could do just that, be here now, in this moment alone and nothing else, we would not need the rest. We would be living all five in those three words. For today only, we would be here now. All our past, all our present, all our future, here, for today only.
The name. The precepts are the gokai, 五戒, the five precepts. The opening line is often rendered shōfuku no hihō, manbyō no reiyaku, the secret method of inviting happiness, the spiritual medicine for all illness. The instruction to recite is tonaeru, 唱える, and the mindful heart is kokoro, 心.
Where it sits in the system. The precepts are the first of the five elements and the reason for the other four. Everything else in the system is a way of becoming them.
A common misunderstanding. That the precepts are a code of conduct, five rules to keep. They are a description of what you are like when you are in balance, and the instruction to recite them twice a day is the practice, not a reminder of the rules.
Try this. Tomorrow, say only the first three words, for today only, and sit with them for a minute before you go on to the rest.
You might also ask: What is the morning ritual that Mikao Usui asked us to do each day? · Why is meditation the foundation of Japanese Reiki? · Japanese Reiki Waka: Three Times a Day
This answer is in three short videos; the second and third are on the channel as Part 2 and Part 3. I chant the precepts with you every morning in the Shūyō app.
More questions answered: Reiki Questions Answered.
1 Comment
I was wondering about your course, Shinpiden+. I have completed my workshop and ignition to become Usui/Holy Fire III World Peace Reiki Master now. I still have SO much to learn! I don’t feel like a master of anything yet. But I received my Reiki Level 2 in that tradition, so wanted to complete my Holy Fire training.
I am very drawn to your Japanese style Reiki and would like to join your course. I am also considering the Shinpiden workshop offered by Frans Stiene in Pennsylvania USA next spring. Should I complete that before I enter your course?
Thank you for any advice you can offer.
Kathleen Adams