by Frans Stiene
In many Reiki courses you learn how to do gassho. Gassho is bringing both hands together, left and right, with palms to touch in front of you. Often people do this before a hands-on healing session or when they do their own meditation or hands on healing practice. But what exactly is it and how can a deeper understanding of gassho help us with our practice?
“To practice gassho is to flow like water. When you gassho, just gassho. In the middle of “just gassho” there is no subject and no object.” – Keep Me in Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri by Dosho Port
The essence of gassho is non-duality, no subject and object, a state of deep interconnectedness. Thus when we perform gassho our mind needs to intellectually understand this non-duality. And then hopefully through lots of practice we can experience this with our whole mind, body and energy. Then we embody gassho.
Thus if we perform gassho before a hands on healing session, then we need to realize no subject and object, non-duality, even if it is first an intellectual understanding only. But if we start the session right after performing the gassho and we see that Reiki is outside of us, that there is a client who needs healing and I am giving them Reiki/healing, then everything is split again: duality. This is thus not in line with the gassho we performed before the hands on healing session. First we say, let’s be in this nondual state and the next moment we say, let’s not be in it; thus there is a huge contradiction in practicing like this.
This is of course the same when a Reiki teacher performs reiju/attunement/initiation; before the ritual we perform gassho – non-duality, no subject and object, But if in the next instant we think we are giving Reiki to someone who before the reiju/attunement/initiation never had it, then we are back to a separate subject and object again. So performing the reiju/attunement/initiation with this dual intention is thus not in line with the true meaning of gassho.
This also means that when we practice meditation practices like joshin kokyu ho and hatsurei ho we also need to see them as nondual practice. Because before we start these practices we place our hands in gassho – nonduality, no subject and object. And therefore if we then see that we are breathing in Reiki so that we can have more Reiki, that is a very dualistic concept and not one of nonduality, interconnectedness, seeing that we are already Reiki in the first place.
“What is gassho? The right hand represents anyone other than yourself. It might be the Buddha or God or perhaps someone around you. The left hand represents you. Gassho signifies bringing these two together to become one.” – The Art of Simple Living by Shunmyo Masuno
So in simple terms, when we do all of these practices within the system of Reiki, and we perform gassho, we need to do them from a state of oneness, interconnectedness, nonduality. No subject and object. Because as soon as we practice these teachings from the viewpoint of a separate subject and object, we have stepped away from the essence of gassho.
“When no solid form appears in your gassho, sitting, walking, or eating, you manifest the form of gassho and also something more—emptiness.” – Each moment is the Universe by Dainin Katagiri
Zen master Dainin Katagiri points out the deeper meaning of gassho: emptiness. Emptiness is nothing other than non-duality or no subject and object. This is also why we can see the word gassho in Mikao Usui’s precepts. Mikao Usui is pointing out that when we truly understand the gassho, emptiness, then automatically there is no anger and worry. Why? Because there is no subject and object. Then what is left? Being grateful, true to your way and your being and compassion.
We can not hold our hands in gassho while living our daily life, but through the physical ritual of gassho we come to understand and directly experience our true nature, a state of mind of emptiness, no subject and object. And we can carry that state of mind with us in all we do today. This is the essence of Mikao Usui’s teachings as pointed out within the precepts and all the other practices he left for us within the system of Reiki.
