Usui and Shugendō

My special interest in researching the origins of the Reiki symbols lies in the time before Usui. After working with Reiki for years, it didn't take long before I came across the connections to Shugendō. There are mountain ascetics there called yamabushi who do many things that are connected with Reiki and the Reiki symbols, both directly and indirectly. In this article I'd like to explain what Shugendō is and what it has to do with Usui's practice in the Kurama mountains.

What is Shugendō? 修験道

In Shugendō you can see a characteristic of Japanese culture that I'd like to explain briefly at this point. When something new is introduced in Japan, the old isn't thrown away but lives on alongside the new. After a while old and new are combined so skillfully, and often even improved, that they can hardly be separated anymore. The result is something typically Japanese. Put simply, Shugendō is a form of Japanese magic into which useful elements from many cultures have flowed over the centuries.

The pre-Shintō worship of nature contributed a great deal, and under the influence of esoteric Buddhism and Daoism it developed into a unique set of ideas and practices. In Shugendō, practices of esoteric Buddhism, magical Daoism and Shintō are combined. The term Shugendō itself only became common in the Middle Ages.

The practitioners of Shugendō are called yamabushi 山伏, literally "those who lie down in the mountains". They go into the mountains to practice what can't be practiced in the same way down in the valleys.

The yamabushi 山伏

The yamabushi aren't monks in the classical sense who live behind monastery walls. For them the mountain is the temple. They stand under cold waterfalls, walk along narrow ridges, fast and meditate in caves. That sounds extreme, and it is. But it has its own logic, because some spiritual experiences only become possible when the mind that wants to plan and control everything lets go.

In my book on the Reiki symbols I quote a passage from a sutra about Fudō Myōō, the wrathful manifestation of the Great Sun Buddha Dainichi Nyorai. It says that people who go into quiet and lonely mountains and forests, look for a pure place to practice and read sutras will meet Fudō Myōō and reach the goal of their practice. That fits the practice of the yamabushi very well.

The yamabushi traditionally wear a recognizable outfit, including the small black cap (jap.: tokin) and the conch-shell trumpet (jap.: horagai), whose sound carries far through the mountains. Kuji Kiri, the nine syllables with their hand signs, also plays a role in their practice.

Kuji Kiri and Shugendō 九字切り

Kuji Kiri 九字切り is probably best known today from anime, where the hand signs appear as a ninja technique. The real background is older and more complex. The first sources come from China. Over centuries Kuji Kiri came to Japan in several waves through the exchange with China, and there it developed further over more centuries into a system that only exists in this form in Japan, a combination of Daoism, Japanese folk magic and Shingon Mikkyō. In Shugendō it is used, among other things, for protection.

The pattern of mountain practice 行

According to the memorial stone, Usui went up into the Kurama mountains, gave up food and did hard ascetic practice, and on the 20th or 21st day he suddenly felt a mystical energy above the crown of his head. This kind of practice in the mountains has a long tradition in Japan. In Shugendō, entering the mountains for practice is called nyūbu 入峰, "entering the peaks": withdrawing from everyday life, practicing more and more intensively, and going to the limits of body and mind.

There are different sources on what exactly Usui practiced in the Kurama mountains, and none of them is completely certain. Since Kurama is closely connected with the Tendai school and the yamabushi of Shugendō, it is assumed that his ascetic practice was connected with these traditions. I think it's very likely that Usui also learned from the yamabushi before his meditation in the Kurama mountains, because they often climbed Kurama for their practice, and because many methods and applications of the symbols, such as the Cho Ku Rei symbol, are very similar to theirs and go back together to the Engi shiki, a ritual text from the 10th century.

Shugendō and the roots of Reiki 源

With the different origins of the individual Reiki symbols and their applications, Reiki, through its skillful combination of Buddhism, Daoism, Shintō and Shugendō, comes very close to Shugendō itself. The roots of Reiki reach into several traditions: Shugendō with its mountain practice and protection rituals, the esoteric Buddhism of Tendai and Shingon with its mantras, mudras and Siddham (Bonji in Japanese), Shintō with its kami and purification rites, and shamanic Daoism with its talismans and energy techniques.

Usui didn't invent any of these traditions. What he did was bring elements from them together into a method that is accessible to many people.

En no Gyōja 役行者

The legendary founder of Shugendō is En no Gyōja 役行者, also known as En no Ozunu, who lived in the late 7th century. According to tradition he had extraordinary powers and could even command spirits. The Nihon ryōiki from about 822 already mentions him. He is honored in Shugendō as a model for the idea that spiritual power is found through direct practice in the mountains.

The mountains as a spiritual landscape 山

In Japan many great mountains are spiritual places, home to kami, visited by ascetics and walked by pilgrims. The worship of mountains is older than Buddhism in Japan.

Kurama is part of this tradition. It isn't very high, only 584 meters, but it has been a place of spiritual practice for more than a thousand years. So Usui didn't choose just any mountain.

What this means for your practice 道

You don't have to go into the mountains and fast to learn something from Shugendō. What I find helpful is the inner attitude of the yamabushi: less "I'll make this happen" and more openness to what wants to come. That attitude also helps Reiki to flow.

In Shingon Reiki the connection to Shugendō is part of the practice, and in Kuji Kiri you meet many of the traditions the yamabushi worked with. Have you ever been to a mountain that felt like a sacred place to you?