A Holiday Gift of Japanese Reiki Poetry for Peace & Contemplation
December 24, 2025
When the 1974 Shiori (a beginner’s guide for members of the Japanese Reiki association the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai) describes “Our methods of Reiki Therapy,” it lists just two purposes:
- Elimination of your thoughts (through the Meiji Emperor’s waka)
- Explanation of Five Principles (or Precepts)
Not three methods. Not five. Just two.
What does this tell us? The waka and the precepts together form the complete mental training method of traditional Reiki. They are two sides of the same coin, designed to work in tandem for self-cultivation and healing.
When most modern Reiki practitioners think about the “mental” aspect of Reiki practice, they generally think of the Gokai, the Five Precepts. In fact, to live according to the Reiki Precepts is the aim of our Reiki practice. But what many don’t realize is that in traditional Japanese Reiki practice, the precepts were never meant to stand alone. They had a companion practice—one that has been almost completely lost in modern lineages.
Not Historical Artifact, But Living Practice
It’s easy to dismiss waka as a quaint historical detail—something the founder, Mikao Usui, did in his time that no longer applies to modern practitioners. But the Shiori reveals something different. The practice of working with the Emperor’s poems wasn’t ornamental or optional. It was Method #1 of the entire system and is still practiced as such by the Japanese Reiki Association today.
How Waka Brings the Precepts to Life
Here’s what I’ve come to understand: the precepts tell us what to aspire to, while waka gives us a way to get there.
The precepts say “do not anger, do not worry, be grateful, be true to your way, be compassionate”. Great idea, but how do we do that? How do we actually embody them? How do we move beyond simply reciting them to truly living them?
This is where waka enters the picture.
Waka practice isn’t about reading poetry. It’s about contemplation and self-inquiry. Each poem becomes a mirror, reflecting back aspects of our lives, challenges, and patterns. Through working with these poems—chanting them, sitting with them, allowing them to resonate—we begin to:
- Eliminate our thoughts (as the Shiori states) – quieting the mental chatter that keeps us from the present moment
- Access deeper wisdom – moving beyond the intellectual understanding of the precepts to embodied experience
- Practice self-reflection – examining our lives through these carefully chosen poems
- Cultivate the qualities the precepts point to – not through willpower, but through contemplation
Waka don’t just support the precepts—they activate them. They transform the precepts from aspirational statements into lived experience.
A Practice, Not Just Study
What makes waka so powerful is that they give us something concrete to do:
- You chant (recite) the poem, aloud or in your mind
- You sit with it
- You let it work on you from a multitude of angles as you dissect each word and phrase
- You allow the guided wisdom of the precepts to support this process
- You notice what arises
- Your waka wisdom brings the precepts alive
This is the “mental training” aspect of traditional Reiki practice that has been missing in most modern practices. We’ve kept the precepts as words to recite, but we’ve lost the practice that was meant to help us embody them.
Why This Matters Now
The Shiori tells us that Usui “chose 125 songs from [the Emperor’s] poems as a basic guidance for his study of Reiki Therapy.” This wasn’t supplementary material. This was basic guidance—foundational to the practice.
In our modern world, where we’re constantly bombarded with information, opinions, and distractions, the practice of “elimination of thoughts” through waka may be more relevant than ever. We don’t need more information about the precepts. We need a practice that helps us actually live them.
Waka offers us that practice.
Rediscovering the Complete Method
When we understand that waka and precepts were designed to work together as the “two purposes” of Reiki, we can begin to practice the system more completely. We’re not adding something extra—we’re recovering something essential that was always there.
The traditional teaching preserved in the Shiori makes it clear: if we want to practice the system of Reiki as it was initially taught, waka aren’t optional. They’re half of the practice’s fundamental purpose.
Going Deeper with Waka Wisdom
If you’ve been curious about how to work with waka as a living contemplative practice—not as historical study but as a tool for self-healing and transformation—I invite you to join my self-paced 21-Day Waka Wisdom Webclass.
In this program, we explore:
- How to work with the waka from a traditional perspective
- The relationship between the poems and the precepts
- Guided techniques for contemplation and self-inquiry
- How waka supports your self-healing journey
- The “elimination of thoughts” practice the Shiori describes
This isn’t about becoming a poetry scholar. It’s about recovering a complete practice that can deepen your Reiki journey and bring the precepts alive in your daily life.
