By Frans Stiene
I often get asked the question: how long do we have to practice for?
Let’s take for example the practice of jōshin kokyū hō, a Japanese Reiki meditation practice in which we focus on our breath and hara.
Jōshin kokyū hō:
淨 jō means clear, pure, without taint or defilement, lucid.
心 shin means heart, mind, essence, the mind as the principle of the universe, the enlightened mind.
呼吸 kokyū means to exhale and inhale, breathing 法 hō means method, dharma, principle.
We therefore can translate jōshin kokyū hō in this way: The method to rediscover our pure mind through breathing.
Thus we have to keep practicing this meditation until we lay bare our pure mind. If we look honestly at this, then we know that it is not just for one week or a month or one year. In fact, we could say that we need to keep practicing this meditation daily for the rest of our life.
What is this pure mind you might ask? This pure mind is an embodiment of the precepts in all we do, in our daily life. Or as Mikao Usui points out: today.
The precepts are a state of mind of no anger, no worry, being grateful, true to our way and our being and being compassionate to ourselves and others.
We therefore can see that jōshin kokyū hō is interlinked with the precepts. And therefore we also can see how long we need to practice by looking honestly at how we are integrating the precepts in our daily life, right now, today, every day.
Are we still jealous, are we teaching or practicing from a place of competition, are we still often getting angry and worried etc, etc…? Are these things happening a lot? Sometimes? Never? When we ask and answer these questions, are we really being honest with ourselves? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Thus we have to keep practicing these meditation practices until we have embodied the practices in all we do. And again if we look honestly at this, then we realize too that it is not just for one week, or one month, or one year but for many, many years. Or a lifetime, practice to embody them just for today.
Based in Holland, Frans Stiene teaches in North America, Europe, UK, Australia and Asia.
Frans is also the author of Reiki Insights, it is the continuation of his previous book The Inner Heart of Reiki, taking your personal practice and understanding of the system of Reiki yet another step deeper.