What Are the Reiki Precepts
At the heart of the system of Reiki are five short phrases. They are among the first things taught in Shoden, and they are often the last thing we do together before a class ends.
They are not rules. They are not affirmations. They are not a code of behaviour to achieve.
They are mirrors.
The Precepts
The five precepts, in their most common English form:
Just for today, do not anger.
Just for today, do not worry.
Just for today, be grateful.
Just for today, be diligent in your practice.
Just for today, be kind to others.
The phrase “just for today” is not a limitation. It is the whole teaching. It points us back to this moment rather than the accumulated weight of the past or the imagined difficulty of the future. Just for today is enough.
What They Are For
The precepts are not asking us to suppress anger or eliminate worry. Anyone who has tried to simply stop feeling something knows how little that works.
What they ask instead is simpler and more honest - to notice. To observe how quickly anger arises, how long it lingers, what feeds it. To see how worry repeats itself when it is given attention. To notice that gratitude and kindness arise naturally when the mind is not crowded with other things.
Over time this noticing changes something. Not because we are trying harder, but because we are feeding different conditions. What we attend to grows.
How They Are Practised
The precepts are chanted often in Japanese - slowly, with presence, allowing the words to be felt rather than just understood. In this way they become less something we think about and more something we enter.
The real practice of the precepts, however, unfolds not during chanting but in ordinary life. In traffic. Late at night. In a difficult conversation. Each moment of returning is the practice.
If you feel drawn to explore Reiki, I offer Shoden - the first level - several times a year in Coomba Park on the NSW Mid North Coast.
