Freedom from Emotions

Some emotions feel like weather. They roll in, they roll past. Other emotions feel like geology — layers built up over years, so deep you take them for part of yourself. Anger that has been there so long it feels like personality. Grief that has settled into the shoulders. Shame that flattens the breath without your knowing why.

The Shingon tradition — and with it Shingon Reiki — knows a different way with these layers. Not one that suppresses emotions. Not one that lets them out unfiltered. One that sees through them. Recognises their nature. And in doing so opens a space in which transformation becomes possible.

Kleshas — the veils that cloud the view 煩悩

In Buddhist understanding, the underlying emotional patterns are called Kleshas 煩悩 — literally: defilements, obscurations, veils. The three main Kleshas are greed (Rāga), hatred (Dvesha), and delusion (Moha). Not as moral judgements — but as descriptions of states that obscure the clear view of reality.

Imagine looking through a window. The window is dirty — not because someone did something wrong, but because wind and rain and time have left their traces. The Kleshas are this dirt on the window. The world behind it is clear. But you see it distorted.

The decisive point of the Shingon tradition: these veils are not fought. They are not pushed away, not meditated away, not analysed away. They are seen through. And in the moment you recognise the nature of a veil — in that moment it loses its power. Not because you are stronger than it. Because you recognise that it was never what you took it to be. In the esoteric Buddhism of the Shingon school it goes one step further: the Kleshas themselves contain the potential for awakening. Bonnō soku bodai 煩悩即菩提 — the defilements are immediately awakening. Not in spite of the emotions, but right through them.

Forgiveness and the spine — old letting go, new space 許

In Shingon Reiki practice there is a forgiveness meditation that goes deeper than what is often called forgiveness in the West. It is not about forgiving someone because you "should." It is about letting go of something bound in your own body — energy held in old stories, often for years.

This practice is closely linked to the spinal work in Shingon Reiki. The spine is far more than a bone in the Japanese tradition — it is an energy channel along which blocks can manifest. Old emotions, unprocessed experiences, held patterns — much of this shows up as tension, as stiffness, as a sense of "I cannot get through here."

In the forgiveness meditation, this channel is consciously addressed. Not with force. Not with analysis. With an attitude the tradition calls Jihi 慈悲 — compassion. Compassion with yourself. With what was. With what is still held. The experience of many practitioners is this: when this space opens, emotions can rise that lay below the surface for a long time. Not because they are forced — because there is finally room.

Reiki as space — when emotions are allowed to show 靈氣

Many people experiencing their first Reiki session report something unexpected: tears that come without a sad thought. A trembling in the hands. A laugh out of nowhere. Or simply a stillness that feels like arrival.

This is no accident. A Reiki session can open a space in which the body feels safe enough to let go. Not because "something is done" — but because a quality of presence arises that signals to the nervous system: here you may be as you are. Emotions that find no place in daily life — because the day is too full, the control too strong, the fear of feeling too great — can appear in this space. Many experience this as deeply freeing.

Eileen Wiesmann accompanies Shingon Reiki sessions with a particular sensitivity for exactly these processes. As a highly sensitive practitioner with seven years of experience in the Shingon tradition, she knows that emotional processes do not need pressure — they need space, patience, and the quiet certainty that whatever appears has its place. Her approach combines the precision of Shingon practice with a warmth that helps many find access to their own emotional layers.

The Goma fire ritual — given to the fire 護摩

There is one moment in Shingon practice that stands like no other for emotional transformation: the Goma fire ritual 護摩. A ritual practised for over a thousand years in the temples of the Shingon and Tendai schools — and passed on in Shingon Reiki as a living practice.

In the Goma ritual, a sacred fire is lit. Wooden sticks (Gomagi), inscribed with wishes, obstacles, or old patterns, are given to the fire. The fire stands for Fudo Myoo 不動明王 — the immovable Wisdom King who cuts through with his flaming sword everything that binds the mind.

What happens here is more than symbolism. Anyone who has taken part in a Goma knows the experience: the heat of the fire, the smoke, the mantras chanted rhythmically — together they create a state in which something can release that words alone could not reach. Old anger, old guilt, old fear — in the fire they are given a form. And this form is given to the fire. Not as a magical act, but as a ritual experience that touches body and mind alike.

The Goma ritual shows exemplarily what the Shingon tradition understands by transformation: not the pushing away of emotions, not their intellectual analysis — but their conversion through a practice that engages body, voice, and mind together. The three secrets — Mudra, Mantra, and Mandala — work together to create a space in which the old may go and the new finds room.

It is an experience many describe as deeply purifying. Not because the fire burns something external — because it lets you let go inwardly. What comes after is different for everyone. Some report an unfamiliar lightness. Others a clarity they have not felt in a long time. Others, simply stillness.

All of this is individual experience. It cannot be promised, not predicted, not forced. But it can be made possible — through a practice that has been there for exactly this purpose for over a thousand years.