Chanting the Kotodama
Last month I was so privileged to teach Reiki 2 twice, and Reiki 1 three times! It was a busy and beautiful month. On one of the Reiki 2 courses, for the first time in nine years, something told me to record the chants. When we chanted the kotodama (sacred sound or soul of language) for Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen, something just beyond came through the group. This symbol is all about the heart, the True Self, and remembering that we are connected to everything in the Universe - through the roots of our Being, in pure conscious awareness, we encounter the true state of connection within our hearts. Each voice singing its true pitch, at its true rhythm, in its true expression and WOW. So I wanted to share that with you here. Thank you to this gorgeous group for giving me this gift to listen to again and again…
Though famous for their visual elements, Usui did not originally create the Reiki symbols as tools to use on clients - the starting point for them wasn’t visual either. They were created initially as mantras to help his students focus during meditation. It was his naval officer students who came back asking for more, which prompted Usui to create the visual elements. Rather than bringing in these qualities of the Reiki energy, they are really helping us to focus on these qualities within ourselves, and in turn, focus this energy outwardly.
Blending Reiki with the sacred art of calligraphy, the symbols create gestures of mindfulness, carving pathways for the flow of energy while we make a physical gesture and visual representation in one form. As a mantra, they become tools for focus in meditation. The Japanese word for mantra is jumon, which means ‘the sound which invokes a very specific cosmic vibration.’ The kotodama (sacred sounds) help us to harness another level altogether as we chant the symbol’s vibration with our own very sound healing instrument - our voice. Vowels are chanted to create a certain energetic frequency, the distilled mantra in its purest essence. In Japanese, kotodama means ‘the soul of language.’
In our lineage, there are three symbols taught on a Reiki 2 / Okuden Course - Cho Ku Rei, Sei Heki, and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen. The final symbol is shared on the Master/Teacher or Shinpiden Course - Dai Komyo.
The Reiki symbols tell us a story. When we are grounded and fully focused in the present, our mind opens harmoniously to our True Self, we realise we are connected to the entire Universe, and discover that we are The Great Bright Light. And is this journey for the external world - healing and attuning others? It is not - this work is absolutely about our internal journey. These are tools for the inner expansion that brings the overfilling light from our very core outward to share. The Reiki journey always begins with this infinite inner realm, and from our knowing / enlightenment, we overflow to shine a torch for others to help illuminate their own inner path to the living Buddha within.