Some people call it a "ritual". Others call it an "attunement". In a lot of Western Reiki it sounds like someone flipping a switch. But what really happens in a Reiki initiation? And where does the practice actually come from?
A Reiki initiation is a direct transmission of spiritual power from master to practitioner — a ritual handing-on of the connection to Reiki, rooted in the Buddhist Kanjō ceremony of esoteric Buddhism. It is not a piece of information. It is a relationship, opened in a moment, carried for a lifetime.
The trail leads far back. Through Japan. Through China. Into ancient India. And it does not begin with Reiki — it begins with a ceremony older than any of us: the Kanjō.
Kanjō — anointed with light 灌頂
Kanjō is the oldest known form of spiritual initiation in esoteric Buddhism. It was developed in India, travelled through China to Japan, and still sits at the heart of the Shingon tradition. Kūkai himself — the founder of Japanese Shingon — received his Kanjō from Master Huiguo in China in the year 805. He carried the practice home, and it has been transmitted in an unbroken lineage in Japan for more than 1,200 years.
In a Kanjō, something very precise takes place. The master enters into connection with a specific spiritual force — a Buddha, a Bodhisattva, a guardian deity — and transmits that connection to the practitioner. This is not symbolic. It is a direct transmission of energy. From that moment on, the practitioner carries the connection within them.
Abhiṣeka — the Indian root 阿毘遮迦
The Sanskrit word for this ceremony is Abhiṣeka. It means "sprinkling" or "anointing", and it began as a royal coronation rite. The king was washed with water from sacred rivers — a rite that placed him under divine authority.
The Buddhist masters took this structure and transformed it. In place of the water, spiritual power. In place of worldly rule, the bond with the Awakened. The principle stayed the same: something flows from above, downward. From the source to the practitioner. From master to practitioner. Through the crown.
An initiation is not a teaching. No knowledge is being transferred. A connection is being made — between the practitioner and a spiritual force that was here before them and will continue after them. This is the difference between knowing something and carrying something.
What happens in an initiation 伝法
In the Shingon tradition, an initiation is built from three elements that act at the same time. They are called Sanmitsu 三密 — the three secrets, or three mysteries:
Shin-Mitsu 身密 — the secret of the body
The hands of the master form specific mudras — ritual hand gestures, each one carrying a particular force. The body of the practitioner is touched at specific points: crown, forehead, throat, heart. Each touch activates a connection.
Ku-Mitsu 口密 — the secret of speech
Mantras are spoken aloud, or recited inwardly. They are not prayers in the Western sense — they are vessels of sound, carrying a specific frequency. The Sanskrit word mantra means "protection of the mind". In Japanese, the word is Shingon 真言 — true word.
I-Mitsu 意密 — the secret of mind
The master visualises the spiritual force being transmitted. Siddham characters — the sacred script of esoteric Buddhism — appear in inner vision. Light flows. The connection is seen before it is felt.
When all three layers are active at once — body, speech, and mind — what arises in the Shingon tradition is called Kaji 加持: the mutual interpenetration of Buddha-power and human awareness. The master becomes a channel. The practitioner becomes a vessel.
Reiju — Usui's form of initiation 靈授
Usui knew the Kanjō tradition. He had studied Buddhist practice. He knew the rituals of esoteric Buddhism, and he had his own profound spiritual experience on Mount Kurama. His form of initiation — Reiju — is a streamlined Kanjō, adapted to his own method.
The structure is the same. The master touches specific points on the body of the practitioner. Symbols are activated — characters drawn from the Siddham script and the wider Buddhist tradition. And a connection is made that the practitioner carries from that moment on.
What changed in the West 変化
When Reiki travelled to the West after the Second World War, the practice of initiation shifted. The structure was kept. The context was lost. Many Western practitioners do not know that the hand gestures used in their initiations come from the mudra tradition. That the symbols they draw are simplified Siddham characters. That the points they touch correspond to the Kanjō points.
This is also where the word attunement comes from — a useful shorthand, but a narrower frame. In Western Reiki, "attunement" tends to describe a one-time activation of the energetic body, sometimes treated as the entire initiation. In the Japanese sources we are working from, the same act is something larger: a relational moment within a long lineage, repeated again and again, deepening over time.
Western practice
The initiation is often understood as a one-off "attunement" — a switch flipped. Afterwards, you "have" Reiki. The symbols are treated as abstract tools whose origin stays unclear.
Shingon Reiki
The initiation is the beginning of a relationship. The symbols are living presences with their own history and force. Each initiation deepens the connection — it is not a one-time event, but a step in a growing path.
In the Japanese tradition, Reiju was not received once. It was received again and again. Each repetition deepened the connection. It was like learning an instrument: the capacity does not arrive in a single touch, but through repeated meeting with the source.
The symbols inside the initiation 符号
The Reiki symbols are not Usui's invention. They come from the Siddham script — a sacred writing that arrived in Japan from India in the 7th century and became the ritual ground of esoteric Buddhism. Each Siddham character carries a Buddha, a mantra, a force.
In a Shingon Reiki initiation, these characters are not only drawn — they are activated. The master enters into the force the character carries and transmits it to the practitioner. The character is not a symbol in the Western sense. It is not a placeholder for something else. It is the thing itself. The character is the force.
In the Shingon tradition there is no gap between the character and what it embodies. The Siddham character of a Buddha is that Buddha. When it is activated in an initiation, the Buddha is present. This is the deepest reason initiations work.
The levels — a path, not a staircase 段階
Reiki is passed on in levels. Each level brings new initiations, new symbols, new practice. But the levels are not a hierarchy in the Western sense. They are deepenings. Each level opens a new layer of what was already present.
Level 1 — Shoden 初伝
The first initiation opens the channel. The hands are activated. People feel energy — sometimes for the first time consciously. The practice begins on the practitioner's own body. The connection to the Reiki force is made.
Level 2 — Okuden 奥伝
The symbols enter. Each one carries its own force: amplification, harmonisation, connection across space and time. The initiation links the practitioner to these forces. The practice becomes more differentiated, more focused, deeper.
Advanced practice — Shinpiden 神秘伝
The connection to the master symbol. The capacity to give initiations oneself. A deeper grasp of how the energetic threads weave together. Practice becomes a way of being.
In Shingon Reiki the path keeps going. The advanced practice includes meditations with Buddhist guardian deities, mantra recitation, mudra practice, and deeper work with the Siddham characters. Each stage brings new initiations — and each initiation deepens what is already there.
What you may experience in an initiation 体験
Every person experiences an initiation differently. Some feel warmth — in the hands, around the crown, through the whole body. Others see colours or light behind closed eyes. Others sink into a deep stillness, a clarity that was not there before. Some cry — not from sorrow, but because something long held finally gives way.
There is no "correct" experience. The initiation works regardless of what you consciously notice during the ceremony. What shifts often shows itself only in the days and weeks afterwards: in how you feel energy, how your hands feel when you place them on your own body, how your subtle perception starts to refine.
Why an initiation cannot come from a book 直伝
Some things you can take in on your own. You can read books on meditation and begin meditating. You can study anatomy and understand the body. But an initiation is something else. It needs a person who already carries the connection — and can hand it on.
This is the principle of the lineage. The power Kūkai received from Huiguo in 805 was passed from master to practitioner, again and again. Across centuries. Across continents. Until today. An initiation is not a single event — it is one link in a chain that reaches all the way back to the source. That is what makes it different from anything you can take from a book or a video.
The Japanese term is Jikiden 直伝 — direct transmission. No recording, no intermediate step. From person to person. From heart to heart. This is the principle that sets a Reiki initiation apart from every other form of knowledge transfer.
That is why a Reiki initiation is always a personal moment. It needs a room, a preparation, an encounter. And it needs a person who carries the lineage and can pass the force on — not as a technique, but as a living experience.
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