If you are familiar with Hatsurei Ho meditation, then you are practicing Reiki as a spiritual practice. This meditation is is taught in Okuden Reiki II of traditional Reiki, which means that it already presupposes the presence of basic skills and concepts of the traditional Reiki system. That is, you already understand that Reiki is a practice of knowing your true essence, and not primarily a method of healing others.
So let’s take a deeper look at this meditation.
Hatsurei ho consists of 3 basic meditations:
乾 浴 法 Kenyoku ho
淨心 呼吸 法 Joshin kokyu ho
精神 統一 Seishin toitsu
All three are the essential basic meditations.
However, what do these meditation practices teach us?
By tradition, for a detailed analysis, we turn to the source – the kanji of the name of the techniques.
Below is the translation of the kanji. *
Kanji can be interpreted in many different ways, but in this article I suggest we pay attention only to the first kanji of all three techniques.
Interesting enough they all mean “clear” or “clean”.
Three meditations and all begin with purification!
So what are we supposed to clean three times?
My answer is: focus!
Let me explain why focus.
The best way to do it is to turn to the Reiki precepts for clarification.
The precepts in a deeper translation indicate that
anger is an illusion;
fears and worries – distractions;
and being true to ourselves leads us to compassion, which is our true nature.
So being true to ourselves is the key to our essence.
Great, so when are we true to ourselves? We are true to ourselves when we are not distracted by the past, future and even the present and do not get lost in the illusion of dualism.
We are true to ourselves when we fully experience the present moment, when we merge with what is happening into a single whole,no object or subject, pure wholeness. There is only this moment and everything that happens exclusively in this moment is focus.
This present moment is consumed by all of our focus, one hundred percent.
So Hatsurei ho teaches us to concentrate to the maximum, without force, on what is happening.
And we are invited to train it as follows:
In dry bathing, kenyoku ho – mostly with the body
In joshin kokyu ho – primarily through breath
In seishin toitsu – mainly with the help of the mind
Moreover, each of the mentioned meditations also has a combination of the components body – breath – mind.
For example, in dry bathing, we produce an action (body) that is combined with breath and concentration (mind).
In joshin kokyu ho, we concentrate on breath, combined with posture and visualization.
In seishin toitsu – visualization is primary, but is definitely combined with breath and posture.
Body – breath – mind in Buddhism, represent a trinity to describe the integrity of our essence.
Only when all three elements are in balance can we experience a sense of complete presence and, accordingly, experience the states of clarity and compassion inherent in our true nature.
So we see that technically Hatsurei ho is a trinity in a trinity.
And in terms of content, it is an intensified training of focus to achieve a state of full presence in the moment.
Full presence or focus is a state of being true to ourselves and our essence, our true nature.
Thus, Hatsurei ho is the key to comprehending our true nature!
However our true nature has never been unfamiliar. This state is very familiar to us, like coming home.
It’s just that sometimes we forget this state, because we are running in pursuit of a better … house, work, life and so on.
We get distracted and worried, we get lost in illusions and get angry instead of stopping, feeling our body, breathing in and out, opening up to life in the moment and actually enjoying it!
Hatsurei ho is the key to our True Self: our calm harbor, our happy home!
*
乾浴法 Kenyoku-ho
乾 ken = dry, clean
浴 yoku = bathe
法 ho = dharma, ultimate truth, method
淨心呼吸法 Joshin kokyu ho
淨 jō means clear, pure, without taint or defilement, lucid
心 shin means heart, mind, essence, the mind as the principle of the universe, the enlightened mind
呼吸 kokyū means to exhale and inhale, breathing
法 hō means method, dharma, principle
精神統一 Seishin Toitsu
精 sei = polish – refine – pure – undiluted – clear – effort – essence – essential
神 shin = spiritual power – incredible – kami – deity
精神 seishin = mind, essence, consciousness, intention
統 toi = to gather into one – the whole – unification
一 tsu= one
統一 toitsu = unity – unification, harmony
