Shūyō (修養) is a Japanese word that means cultivation. It is the name I gave my daily Reiki practice app, and people often ask me what it means and why I chose it. Here is the short answer.

The two kanji

修 (shū) means to cultivate, to train, to polish. It is the same character you find in shugyō (修行), the word for committed spiritual practice.

養 (yō) means to nourish, to raise, to look after. It is the character used for raising children and growing crops.

Put together, shūyō is the steady work of cultivating and nourishing yourself: your character, your mind and your spirit. It is a gentle word. Where shugyō suggests austerity, long hours and hard discipline, shūyō suggests something closer to tending a garden. A little each day, with care, over a long time.

Shūyō in the system of Reiki

The memorial stone to Mikao Usui at Saihō-ji temple in Tokyo uses the phrase shūyō renma (修養練磨), which means the cultivation and polishing of oneself through sustained practice. The stone opens by defining virtue as shūyō renma, and presents Usui as its embodiment. The early Japanese Reiki society, the Usui Reiki Ryōhō Gakkai, called its regular gatherings shūyō-kai (修養会): cultivation meetings, where members received Reiju, practised the meditations and chanted the precepts together. In contrast to the modern day kenkyū-kai (研究会), members could also bring along people to experience healing through the practices.

So shūyō is not a modern marketing word. It sits at the heart of how the system of Reiki was practised in Japan. The precepts, the meditations, the hands-on healing and Reiju were never meant to be a one-off treatment or a weekend course. They were meant to be practised daily, as a way of living.

Why I called the app Shūyō

Most of us learn the system of Reiki and then wonder what to actually do each day. The Shūyō App answers that. Each morning and evening it guides you through a traditional Japanese Reiki practice: meditations, precept recitation, waka poetry to contemplate, and more. A little each day, with care, over a long time. That is shūyō.

You can read more about the app, and try it, at reikiwithbronwen.com/shuyo-app.